Eleven-Eleven-Eleven

I was tagged by Shelley at Shelley’s Artsy Fartsy Life and Eva at Stitching the Night Away.

1. Post the rules.
2. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post.
3. Come up with 11 new questions.
4. Tag 11 people and link them to your post.
5. Let them know you tagged them so they can answer the questions.

So here are Shelley's questions: 

1.       If you were stranded on an island with one other person, who would you choose...Oprah Winfrey or Ellen DeGeneres?  Ms. O

2.      Which fabric do you prefer to stitch on...Aida or Evenweave?  Evenweave

3.      What is your favorite genre of movie and why?  Romantic Comedies.  I’m a romantic at heart and I like happy endings.

4.      Who is your favorite cross stitch designer?  I have so many!  Joan Elliott asian designs, Lizzie Kate, Lorrie Birmingham elegant designs, Plum Pudding Needlearts

5.      What kind of flooring do you like in your home...shag carpet, hard wood or stone?  Hardwood

6.      What kind of illumination do you use when stitching?  I have a generic daylight floor lamp that I got at Shopko for $20.  It sits behind my sofa and shines over my shoulders.

7.      What is the farthest you have traveled from home?  Caribbean

8.      What is your favorite brand of specialty thread?  Glorianna

9.      How many languages do you speak? (Note: Klingon is a language!) One… English. I know some words in Spanish and Japanese, but not enough to be able to talk to anyone, lol.

10.   Do you stitch in hand or with the aide of a hoop, qsnap, stand, etc?  In Hand, Qsnaps, Lapstand, and Scroll Rods

11.  Do you believe in ghosts?  No.

And here are Eva's questions: 

1.      Where is your favorite place to stitch? I usually stitch on my sofa.

2.      What is your favorite shop (brick and mortar or on-line) to purchase your supplies? 123stitch, Needle in a Haystack

3.      What is your favorite specialty stitch? I’m not a fan of specialty stitches!

4.      Which specialty stitch do you least enjoy? Of the ones I’ve done, I’d have to say Queen Stitch

5.      French knot, colonial knot or Mill Hill knot? I don’t mind French Knots. They’re quicker than digging out beads and sewing them on.

6.      How much stitching time to do get per day or week or month? Probably 5-10 hours a week.

7.      Do you keep a stitching journal and if so, what do you include? Currently, I keep a pictorial journal with details of the project along with a photo.  I have an online album and an actual photo album.

8.      Besides counted cross stitch, what other forms of needlework do you do? I know how to crochet and knit, but haven’t done them in a long time.

9.       When did you start stitching? and why? I was in my mid-teens. I saw some motifs in my mom’s magazine (Family Circle or Ladies Home Journal) so I untangled some thread she had in her sewing basket to create a birth sampler for myself.

10.   Do you rotate your stitching projects or are you a 'one-at-a time' stitcher? I rotate projects.

11.   How many UFOs, and WIPs do you have? I have 5 projects going right now.

Now, for my questions: 

1.      Do you have a SABLE (stash acquisition beyond life expectancy) situation?

2.      What is the most favorite vacation you’ve been on?

3.      Have you ever entered your stitching in a competition?

4.      Cat or Dog?

5.      Have you taught anyone how to stitch?

6.      What is/are your favorite TV show(s)?

7.      What is your favorite stitching tool?

8.      What brands of floss have you used?

9.      Are you adventurous when it comes to trying new foods?

10.  Do you like kits or do you like kitting up your own?

11.  If you could do anything for a day, what would it be?

 

Here are the people I tagged: 

Kay of Kay’s Corner

Akila of Mostly Cross Stitch and More

Carol of Stitching Dreams

Chris of Tot Hill Farm Stitches

Julie of I’ll Cross That Leg

Valerie of Fog City Dweller

Chris of Fugue

Lesli of Fabulous Frogger

Vickie of Reading and Stitching

Anne of Doll’s Musings

Cathy of Crafty Cat

Marvelous Monday Update 7/2/12

Welcome to July!

WEATHER

Over 16 states are currently under a heat advisory.  My area isn't as hot as others, but we're going into our second week of steady 90-100F temps.  Normally, I'm not one to use my AC but it is just so darn HOT! 

GARDENING

My poor garden is hanging in there with my diligent use of the water hose.  I've got baby green tomatoes and peppers. The squashes have flowers galore.  And, I can now see my onions after a tremendous amount of weeding.

If you remember a while back, I mentioned I started a compost bin.  I'm happy to say it's coming along nicely!  The shredded newspaper and food scraps are actually breaking down into dirt-like compost.  To answer people's questions:  It doesn't smell and there are no flies.  Some spiders have taken up residence in the corners, though. LOL  I figure by fall, I should have a nice pile of compost to add to my garden for next year!

NEIGHBORS

I have mentioned my backyard dog breeding neighbors a time or two.  Their entire backyard (which isn't that big) comprises of dog kennels.  This year, the two females had 13 puppies between them.  Add in the two males and you have 17 dogs less than 20 feet from my house.  Over the course of the summer I have called the police numerous times because of whining puppies.  Other times because one mama would get too close to the other mamas babies.  I couldn't even take a nap in my living room because of dog noise! 

There is no ordinance in the city that prohibits dog breeding.  There's a limit to the number of dogs over the age of four months that a person can have... and that's four.  Since puppies are under four months, it's perfectly legal to have 13 of them!  Oh, did I mention they are Siberian Huskies??!?

This is the kennel minus the "temporary" puppy kennel that took up one car size of their driveway. In addition to the noise, it's an eyesore!  I came out one day to find remnants of plywood and wood planks leaning up against MY garage!

THEATRE

Over the weekend, one of the local community theaters put on To Kill A Mockingbird.  Having read the book and seen the movie several times, I was really looking forward to the play version.

The director took liberties I really didn't care for, but overall the play was really good.

GIVEAWAY

Shelley from Shelley's Artsy-Fartsy Life is hosting a Britty Kitty giveaway on her blog.  She recently finished them all and has shown them on her blog as well. Go check out her recent finishes!  They are so adorable.

STITCHY STUFF

It took almost a week for me to get back into the groove of life after getting back from the Colorado retreat.  I managed to get unpacked, restock on groceries, and do some stitching.

Sampler aux Bouquets

I did some stashing right before the retreat.  This kit is called Woodland Friends.  I think it's so adorable.  I will probably switch out the aida for an evenweave, though.

I found this afghan fabric at a thrift store for $3.99.  When I got to the counter, I found out certain colored housewares tags were 50% off that day!  What a deal!!

RAK'd

I received a recent edition of a magazine called Oriental Cross Stitch Favorites from Sue.  She is so generous!  She had emailed me that it was coming, so I politely stalked the post office waiting.  There are so many awesome designs in it :)

Debi sent me one of the 6 Fat Men charts from Lizzie Kate.  It's so cute!

A big THANK YOU to Sue and Debi!!

Until next time,

Retreat Highlights

Seven stitchers from all over the U.S. decended upon Colorado Springs last week.  Unfortunately, the current fire raging in Waldo Canyon hampered some of our plans as it started early Saturday afternoon.

Highlights (some tongue-in-cheek, others not so):

•  Frantically rushing back to airport security because my cell phone had fallen out of my pocket right before I went through security.  Luckily, someone turned it into the information desk.  Info clerk: "What's Mom & Dad's area code?" Me: (blank look) "Uhhh, 815" and then I start to describe the phone.  She held it up and I said, "That's it!  Thank you."  And off I ran to go back through security.

•  Pulling my pants up in the airport restroom as I hear my name being announced over the speaker system, “Meari… Your flight has boarded. Please come to the boarding gate.”  I didn’t know the plane started boarding 20-30 minutes before hand.  It’s a good thing the restroom was just around the corner from the boarding area!

•  Visiting a wolf sanctuary and as a group were able to get the wolves to howl back at us.  Very cool!

•  Exposing Karin and Penny to my stellar driving skills by turning down a one-way street going the wrong way.  Instead of backing up, what did I do?  I continued to the end so I could turn around!  Hey, there was no traffic coming… that’s my defense.  Luckily, no one was traumatized by this event.

•  Watching the retreat ladies diligently working on their ornaments for the class I taught.  Such concentration on their faces!  Unfortunately, we ran out of time and didn’t get to finish the ornaments.

•  Having “tea” with the retreat ladies who all wore Victorian hats.  I was brave and tried the soup of the day… a cold cucumber zucchini soup.  Wasn’t quite what I expected!

•  Finding out via the local news flash on the hotel lobby TV that fires were started in the canyon I had been near just two hours prior.  Not only that, my tour to Pikes Peak was canceled due to the fires.  Boo, it was the one thing I really looked forward to as far as site seeing went.

•  Winning the First Frogger prize because I was the first one to announce I needed to frog.

•  Standing in line to board the plane to come home, I overheard the guy ahead of me tell his buddy:  “I don’t know what you’re going to do about a boarding pass when we get to the next stop, but they’ll figure it out.”  Whaat?  I didn’t have a boarding pass either!  When I printed them at the hotel, I thought one was a duplicate and threw it away, lol.  The nice lady at the KS City airport printed me a duplicate, so it was all good.

•  Trying to set my Coke down on the plane tray only to spill it… onto half my tray –and– into the lid of my floss box.  Yes, I was stitching at the time.  No, it didn’t get onto the floss bobbins or my stitching.  The flight attendant went to get me some paper towels, but meanwhile the Coke had a mind of its own.  I could feel it dripping onto my sandal and foot!  Sticky feet… nice!

•  Boarding the shuttle bus from the airport to my car only to find the bus is full.  To my surprise, a young man in his 20’s gave up his seat and insisted I take it while he stood during the bus ride.  Apparently, chivalry isn’t quite dead.

Want a more detailed look?  Read on. (We actually did stitch!)

Details, Schmeetails... Part One

Thursday

I rolled into our Colorado Springs hotel parking lot early afternoon.  I met up with Vickie and Karin, both of whom helped haul my three heavy suitcases (two full of stash) up the stairs of our suite.

We had an awesome loft suite with a large bed upstairs and a sleeper sofa downstairs, two bathrooms, two TV's, microwave, Keurig coffee maker, mini fridge, and a nice long conference table.  Vickie has photos of our suite on her blog HERE.

I put together the retreat gift bags and door prizes while we waited for the others to arrive.  After a late dinner, we all met up at a combination stitching/quilting store, Ruth’s Stitchery.  It was a very nice store.  Had I not been so tired, I would've been more "into" shopping.

Friday
In the morning, several of us went to Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center near Divide, Colorado.  It was a very interesting and informative tour.  They are a non-profit organization that has given sanctuary to wolves, wolf dogs, foxes and coyotes from various "farms" that use animals for profit.

After the tour, the guide had the entire group howl in an effort to get the wolves to howl back.  It took a couple of tries, but we finally got them to howl.  It was soft at first and then got louder and louder.  It was pretty cool.  Owwwww.. Ooooooooo!

In the afternoon, we all met up for lunch and a tour a Miramont Castle. 

We had lunch in the "Tea Room".  The waitress was dressed in what I think was a victorian maid uniform.  A couple of the retreat ladies ordered the Lite Tea which included tea, finger sandwiches, and a dessert tray.  I ordered a BLT sandwich (very scrumptious!) and soup of the day which was cold cucumber zuchinni.  I'm game for trying almost anything... let's just say the soup wasn't what I expected, and I didn't finish it all.  The "fun" aspect of our tea luncheon was that they had a selection of hats we could wear.  Here's our group:

Photos of the castle tour can be seen HERE.

As part of the castle tour, there was a small Fireman's Museum.  A few of us decided to play "dress up".

Behind us was an antique fire wagon.  It was pretty neat!

Other Firefighter Museum photos can be seen HERE.

In the afternoon, several of us went exploring in Old Colorado City.  I stopped at a pet store and escaped without buying anything, but the store owner tried her darndest to sell me something... anything... stickers, magnets. LOL

After dinner at Texas Roadhouse (Yummo!), we headed back to the hotel to start the flat ornament/cording class I was scheduled to teach.  As I said before, I did get a kick out of watching the ladies diligently work on their ornaments.  We didn't have time to finish them, but I think the class went well.  Here's what mine looked like when I came home:

Do you see what's wrong with that picture??  Yes? No?  At the retreat, I inadvertently glued the ornament hanger on the wrong side of the ornament back!  So I had to very carefully slide a knife in between the two layers and get the cording out.  Then I had to make a new slit and shove the cording down in.  Do you know how hard that is?!?  Here's my finished ornament:

Stitched in Dec 2009 ~ Finished June 2012
Designer: Plum Pudding Needleart
Fabric: Silkweavers Wintergreen 32ct Opalescent Luguna
Fibers: DMC
Embellishments: handmade cording

Back to the retreat:  After the ornament class, we finally got around to doing the Free-For-All Stash Exchange.  Retreat attendees brought stash they no longer wanted, and then we could take home whatever we wanted.  This year there was so much that we each were given a pile to go through, and then passed it to the next person to go through until no one wanted anything else.  It was fun!!   Vickie took the leftovers home to be donated to a local charity.

To find out about the remainder of the retreat, read on!

Details... Schmeetails... Part Two

Saturday
Some of the other ladies went to Cripple Creek to explore. My intention was to get reservations for the train ride to Pikes Peak, and the do some exploring of other areas on my own. As I mentioned earlier, I did get reservations on the last train at 5:20pm. Cool! On to site seeing...

First stop: Garden of the Gods. I drove to the central parking lot only to drive around and around and around it until another vehicle left so I could take its space. I found out later the lot was so full because a young couple decided to have their wedding there! As beautiful as the park was, it was sooo hot that I could only walk around to see a few of the rock formations.

I was surprised to learn that Garden of the Gods

was donated by the children of Charles Perkins to

fulfill his wish in keeping it forever free to the public.

There were quite a few rock climbers! Not I... nope.

More photos can be seen HERE.

Next stop: Seven Falls. I missed the turn off to go to Seven Falls and ended up driving over two miles up through South Cheyene Canyon. Think... narrow winding roads with blind curves and canyon walls as sky high. Talk about nerve racking! After finally finding a place to turn around, I was lucky enough to get an assigned parking space that was only 5 spaces from the falls.

Upon the advice of Vickie, I took the elevator up through the mountain to get to the first level look out. Both she and and I are afraid of heights. I can't believe she climbed the fire-escape looking stairs to the first level! I thought I'd be OK at the first level, but I got about 3 feet from the railing and started to have anxiety from the height. There was NO WAY I was climbing those stairs to the second level look out.

Top of the Seven Waterfalls

Bottom of the Seven Waterfalls

Since I was expecting to go to Pikes Peak shortly thereafter, I headed back to the hotel to hang out until that time. While Vicky, Mare and I were having lunch when the local news announced a fire had broken out in Waldo Canyon. People literally stopped in the lobby of the hotel to watch the news of the fire. Garden of the Gods and Pikes Peak was evacuated and closed. I was so disappointed that I wasn't able to go to Pikes Peak.

The three of us went back to the suite and stitched while we waited for the others to get back. Yes, we finally stitched. I worked on Sampler aux Bouquets. Here's what it looks like now:

This is the project I was working on when I announced I had to frog. I had to rip out almost three rows that I had messed up. As such, the First Frogger prize came home with me.

Four of the other retreat goers were out in the area where the fire broke out. Sandy was able to get back to the hotel before the mad rush of traffic. Poor Vickie, Penny, and Karin got caught up in the re-routing of traffic and ended up getting back to the hotel two hours later.

After everyone was back at the hotel, we decided to order pizza and played with the stash donations from various designers. They were so generous! I was in charge of contacting designers this year and had to carry all that stuff on the plane with me. It's a good thing Southwest Airlines allows two free bags because I needed them.

Sunday
Five forty-five A.M. comes pretty early when one goes to bed after 1am! I didn't plan on getting up that early, however a migraine that wrapped around the right side of my head decided it was time for me to wake up. I showered with a slight bit of light coming in from the outer room... I just couldn't turn on the light in the shower/toilet area. My head hurt too much. I took some meds and headed to the lobby for a bit to eat.. and didn't want to wake Karin or Vickie.

Finally, it was time for me to head back to the Denver airport so I headed to the car where I found ash from the fire on it. As I started out on the interstate, there were spots that had ash that looked like snow on the side of the road.

From Denver I flew into Kansas City, MO and then to Milwaukee, WI.  After another two hour drive, I pulled into my garage around 9:30pm.  I think Celeste was a bit miffed that I interrupted her sleep, lol.  I sure was tired come Monday morning when I had to be at work...  Zzzzzzz.

I had a great time at the retreat, and it was nice to meet up with old friends and meet new ones!