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Sunday, April 20, 2008

Military Ball and Stitching News

On Friday night, David and I attended the AirForce ROTC Military Ball. It was a dinner/dance/awards ceremony for the Cadets. We were all dolled up in our evening attire:


Mike really cleans up good, don't you think?
Dinner was scrumptious and Mike was awarded 2 certificates for leadership. We are very proud of him. There was a dance following the awards ceremony, but of course, we didn't stay long. We didn't want to embarrass the kids with our dancing...LOL!!!

On Saturday, we took Mike's motorcycle to the repair shop (what an adventure that was!), made the rounds of the stores in the Mall because Mike needed some things for when he goes to Combative School at the end of May. Did I tell you that he's going to learn the fine art of hand-to-hand combat? I can't wrap my head around that at all.

We met Jenna's parents at one of the local steakhouses for lunch. Jenna's parents are so nice and we felt very comfortable with them. I have to say that I was sorta nervous about the whole thing, I am not a good conversationalist and Mike made me promise not to embarrass him too much. I think I kept that to a minimum and I think Jenna's parents thought we were ok too.
We got home in the early evening. All in all, we had a wonderful time with our son, his girlfriend and her parents!

On the stitching front, I finished Blackbird Designs, Their Song.

I want to get it framed right away and the week I put the last stitches in it, Michaels had a 60% off coupon for framing. Against my better judgement, I decided to give it a go. Well, I won't be going back there to have anything framed. The puppy behind the counter was pretty condescending. I asked him a 100 questions and he insisted that I put a mat on the piece because he told me that they wouldn't be able to stretch it evenly and the mat would hide it. Are you kidding, I thought? If it's stretched crooked, how will putting a mat on it straighten it out? I sorta raised my eyebrow at him and he stammered, "You know something about framing, don't you?" Yeah, I do and I told him I knew he was bullsh*tting me. He turned crimson and said, "Well the average person doesn't know anything about framing". So I politely said to him that I would stretch the piece myself and when the materials come in they can call me to bring the piece in to finish framing it. I only brought it to Michaels because I knew it would cost me less than $50 to have it framed. But never again. It's worth it to take my needlework to the real framer, even though it costs much more than the local arts and crafts store. I guess trying to pinch pennies doesn't mean much when compared to the amount of time I spent stitching it. I've learned my lesson!!

Next is my progress on Nellie's Garden Revisited and 2 new acquisitions to my ever growing stash. I love Stacy Nash! The left photo is her 1802 Biscornu Pinkeep and the right is Emma & her Pony needleroll. Sorry for the blurry pictures, the camera is refusing to focus if I zoom in.

I haven't worked on Nellie since last week. I am not in the mood for big pieces so I am concentrating on stitching smalls. They are giving me instant gratification so there's instant satisfaction. But I am surprised how long it's taking me to stitch them up too!


Right now, I am in the mood for quick finishes. I have the attention span of a gnat right now so large projects aren't holding my attention. Soon, I will have a new mattress style pincushion and 2 pillow type pincushions. I am piecing together the Mary Garry's, Raining Pins and Needles right now. I hope I haven't ruined it though cause I got the bright idea to angle the corners instead of making it a rectangle. The corners are coming out rounded. We will see how it comes together. I took a picture of it but true to my crappy camera, the photo was so blurred you couldn't make it out. Now the camera refuses to come on...grr-rr so I can't take another picture of it.

The weekend is beautiful, it's like summer here. We planted (or I should say, the David) planted 4 forsythia and 2 lilac bushes for me this morning. I know how he hates digging holes for me cause he thinks it's going to be more work for him. I bought these plants at the Christmas Tree Store and didn't pay more than $3.99 - $4.99 for them so if they don't make it, I'm not out much money at all.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and I am so thankful that you stopped by to say hi!

5 comments:

Aussie Stitcher said...

You all look lovely in the photo.

Vonna Pfeiffer said...

You all just look great in the picture! Jenna makes a nice addition....do you think she'll be a permanent addition someday? Meeting the parents, that was always a serious thing when I had boyfriends, my parents only met "the" other parents when I was engaged to my husband....of course I had other boyfriends, but they were from my town...so they "knew" each other anyway...guess my experience isn't an indicator after all! LOL!

LOVE "THEIR SONG" I have this going and need to get it out and work on it some more...yours is beautiful! Sorry about the fiasco at Michael's thats why I just do it myself....

Karoline said...

Lovely photos from the ball :) Congratulations on finishing Their Song

Juanita said...

What a great photo! You must be so proud of your son.

I absolutely love the Blackbird Designs piece. I garden, and that verse sums up my attitude perfectly. We chuckle every morning watching the blackbirds trying to squeeze their big bodies onto the feeders. I think I'm going to have to order that pattern!!

Anonymous said...

I love your finished Their Song Joanie :) I stitched this one last year and it's one of my favourite pieces!