The fat lady sings in 2 weeks...

Yes, it's all over but the shouting down here.  But what  gorgeous weekends we've had.  The sun was shining all weekend during Sunfest, biker's weekend which was beautiful during the day, rained one night and so the weekend was a success, and then last weekend for Winefest it couldn't have been more beautiful....so I'd say the fall has started off beautifully.    The temperatures were comfortable in the 70's...not too hot, so you could go on the beach if you wanted and at night you might want a sweatshirt, although many of us don't need one.   Starting tomorrow however, it's suppose to go back up into the 80's...whew I don't do well in heat...I'd like to refer to myself as a delicate flower....however, if you have seen me you would know I was anything but delicate.  Anyway, I'm thrilled that the Delaware Sampler Guild coming down next weekend and having their retreat at the hotel will be able to sit in the rockers on the porch and view the ocean as they stitch.  Our retreaters have been coming down and we have Judy's crew here for Pat Podziomek's birthday...Happy Birthday girl, a  week or so ago and Syd Serson was here from  Pa. for a few days.  It's always so strange to see these ladies here when we're not having an event, as they are always here for events...it's like an early event but Sara doesn't have to do the cooking and I don't have to have a goodie bag ready.  But it's fun to hear about their stitching, and connect with people that know what DMC floss is.    The picture above is the Winter Box from Victoria's Sampler, and beautifully stitched and finished by Carolyn Newman who entered it in the Delaware Fair and of course won with it.  We also have a few other pieces that Carolyn is letting us display so I'll get the others up soon, hopefully.  I'm having my usual issues with getting pictures up.  But I won't give up.  I love this box and also have it in my stash to stitch along with the 2 other boxes from Victoria Sampler.  At the rate I'm going, Sara will inherit all 3 charts (not the finished boxes), but I always have hope I'll get to everything stitched before I go (well if I live to be 300 that might happen, but since I'm 65 and circling the drain...not holding out much hope.    Anyway, Carolyn was gracious enough to let us have this to display in the shop so you can see it up close when you are here.  With the events right around the corner,   Sara has been like a demon ordering supplies and of course I've found some neat things for the goodie bags.  These goodie bags drive me nuts because I'm trying to find new things we haven't  used before and since we've been doing this for a while it's become a lot harder, but I'm ever vigilant and always on the lookout.  Thankfully Ruth at Nordic Needle knows I'll be calling her at the last minute and she can usually help us with the quantities we need or she has excellent suggestions for us...and this year was no different...although it wasn't quite the last minute since we ordered over a week ago.  Now let's keep our fingers crossed that the weather cooperates.    The Sherri Jones kits are in so you know what that means...more pre-stitch for me.  Barbara Nunez and I were trying to get the mermaid purse done by Jamboree as we had taken this class in Hilton Head, several years ago,  so we will be way ahead of others who don't have their kits, but I'm struggling with this.  I can't believe it, but I am.  I'm not sure I'll have it done for Jamboree, but I'm plugging along and hopefully I'll get there.  I'm one of those stitchers who will tear out if I've miscounted, but....I don't have time and for some reason no matter how  careful I've been this piece it has several miss counted placement issues, but I've plugged along anyway.  It still is a beautiful piece and I love it.  I've actually managed to stitch the back in a couple of days so I'm almost home....one more piece to do before Jamboree.  However, I had a tragedy with my ornament exchange.  I stitched an over one santa...it was so cute....and I did back and front and I was thrilled to have it done so early.  Only one problem...it was too small to put together properly, it was star shaped,  so I've had to chunk it and now I've got to start over...damn, I thought I did so well and was ahead of the game.  I can't seem to catch a break sometimes.  Debbie Liming was down for a week and got here last Monday in time to watch Hotel Impossible where The Lankford was featured.  While Sara, Mary and I were a red hot mess (thank you Anthony for showing that!) everyone felt we did just fine.  Sara, Debbie, Mary, Brian, and Vernon held the viewing in the lobby with some of the hotel staff.  I chose to sit at home by myself but called Sara every commercial to bitch and whine about parts of it (O.K. all of it)...because while they mis-represented things a little (like going into Sara's shops and saying while the town was filled (with high school seniors) her shops were empty.  The truth was, she took him into the shops before the shops opened in the morning so no one was in there because it wasn't open yet.  When they filmed in my shop their production person asked people to stay outside until they were done filming.  I'm telling you I was having screaming fits at the T.V. and on the phone with Sara.  But since she and everyone else in the lobby  were partying at the hotel while watching, and booze was flowing freely she just kept saying, "Mom, they have to show somethings wrong so they have a story to tell for t.v.  Calm down and don't worry about it."  I never did calm down and was glad I wasn't in the lobby with them since I seldom drink.  But in the end we all lived through it and we've had a steady stream of people coming in because they saw the show and wanted to see what was  happening here.  I didn't realize how many people saw this until people started coming in and introducing themselves to me and asking all kinds of questions.   It makes it hard to have a discussion with anyone (in this case Debbie) when people are pointing, waving and then just coming up to you and introducing themselves and then chatting us up.  Vernon says he's had  many, many people come in on his shift (he thinks around 300).  I had no idea since I'm never in the lobby unless a stitcher is here.  Who knew.  I was still fielding questions while working in the Shell Shoppe last weekend and also having to go down memory lane with old tenants.  Mercy...it wears me out.  But it's been a lot of positive feed back from the folks who caught the show so it's all good (as Sara would say), but I need to get out of here.....I'm not taking it as well as the girls.  Plus Sara is giving me some serious time off....last week I only worked 2 days....whoppee!!!! It's like snow days in the summer...I don't bath, get out of my P.J's,  although I did brush my teeth....that makes me a better person even if no one else is around.  I also started the annual clean up of my stitching room which after a summer of dumping bags in here resembled a room on hoarders.  I'm even throwing stuff away...oh it's hard sometimes, but I envision the kids having to clean this up when I'm dead and can see the eyeballs rolling and the "what the hell was she going to do with all this stuff".....I just can't let that happen, so I'm going to really start going through this stuff and unload some of it.  I tend to pick up the same charts that have been here forever, think "I'm never going to stitch this now" but then I think, well I'm never going to read all the books on the shelves either but I'm not throwing them out, so I put the chart back in the pile and leave it for another day.  I'm a work in progress.  Anyway, I wanted to thank everyone  for their comments sent to our e-mail, regarding the show...we appreciate your kind comments and I look forward to seeing  several of you over the next couple of weekends.   I will be somewhere on the property, although this weekend I'll be relegated to the Shell Shoppe...I can't figure out if I've been demoted or not, but the events tend to wear me out so being downstairs for me isn't as tiring.  Wait until you see the finish that Debbie and Sara did Sunday.  They had made plans earlier to put their  Sherri Jones Blue Ribbon boxes together during the week  Debbie was here (she's actually here for the nursing convention....but it's only 1 day so she has plenty of stitching time).  Anyway, Debbie got here and discovered she had forgotten to finish it so Sara and I both thought that was the end of the "put together of the box piece".  But Debbie worked all week to get the pieces done that were involved and Sunday during work she and Sara put the boxes together.  They are gorgeous and I've asked Sara to leave it in the shop so stitchers can see it.  Gorgeous!    I did the pre-stitch and decided to put my initials on it in hopes I'd get to keep it at my house for a while.  Since Mary doesn't stitch, all of my stitching will end up with Sara anyway, unless Mary shows an interest later on, so she will get it back and the initials are her's as well....before she got married so we can both take ownership.  When I stitched Hare Pyns for her (the 2nd Sherri Jones class) I put here initals on it so we would each have one.  But Hare Pyns hasn't been finished yet....but at least my piece is done...another whoppee!!!!  Well I've got to go.  I stitched Shepherd's Bush "Fright Night" for Sara to wear and of course, I decided that just putting it in the tin frame and using a black cord wasn't good enough....so after a visit to Michaels for beads, etc., I'm trying to jazz it up, but it's cute as it is so the black cord may end up as the necklace but I'll drive myself crazy tonight trying to make a silk purse out of this .  Wish me luck!