It's back to work for me...........

Hopefully, everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday filled with family, friends and great things to eat.  I know I did.  I had 2 Thanksgiving dinners, first with Sara's family on Thursday (Mary and her family were in Baltimore with Brian's family), and then we repeated the dinner on Saturday with Mary and her family.  So needless to say, I've been stuffed all weekend.  And of course, Friday marked my return to the working world.  It was beautiful weather here in O.C., sunny skies and temperatures in the high to mid-'40s.  So plenty of visitors in town and we got a share of those in the shop.  Saturday we got a visit from our Stacy Stinson who stopped by to pick up a couple of models she lets us use every year and then picks them up to display at her house for Christmas and then brings them back after Christmas.  Thanks, Stacy, we appreciate it.  She was also picking up supplies for some new pieces, and I got a sneak peek.  So that was exciting as I love to see what people have done, are doing, or thinking about doing.  She picked up a sled at Hobby Lobby last year that is going to be so cute with a Heart in Hand Santa on it.  Got me thinking I've got to get a sled as well.  A great display piece.  She came at a good time as I needed a bit of inspiration.  Because I spent 2 days cooking for Thanksgiving and then the exhaustion from 2 days of cooking, I barely touched my stitching.  But now I think it's the piece I'm working on that is causing the delay.  It's my final Year of Celebration piece-December, which should have been an easy 2-day stitch and it's still not done 5 days after first starting it.  I didn't have one of the colors so I substituted, which I do a lot with no problem, but when I got in the shop on Friday I pulled the missing color, liked it better than the color I used, so of course, I ripped out the old color and put in the new.  That's sort of how this piece is going.  It's really frustrating because it should be in the shop today, but it's not done.  However, because it's raining Sara told me to stay home so today is the day I'm going to finish the stitching and finishing so I can take it with me tomorrow when I go to work.  Then I can move forward with something new.  The one problem I've dealt with all weekend was my cell phone died, and I do mean died Friday morning.  I've had issues with the battery for some months, but as long as it was plugged in it was fine, so I just made sure it was always plugged in.  I was due for an upgrade 2 years ago and didn't do it, so I knew it was on borrowed time so I figured I'd get one the next time I was in Salisbury.  I didn't make it to Salisbury in time.  This had me panicking starting Friday over my lack of phone since I don't have a landline. And to be honest, while I hate phones generally, I use mine to keep notes, to let me know the time, weather, etc., to say nothing of communication with family and friends, so losing the use of it was distracting.  Plus it disconnected me from the girls...which I panic over.  In fact, Mary came down and checked to see if the phone was backed up in the cloud and I ordered a new phone while she was here and it will be delivered on Monday....so one more day and I'm back to being connected...Thank God!  I'll be thankful for that.  Anyway, aside from my phone issue, we had a great weekend in the shop.  I did my usual work on the website between customers and in adding product to the web site I was able to snatch a couple of charts without Sara realizing I was doing it...yea!!!  Always fun to add stash to an already exploding at home stash.  I know no bounds when it comes to that.  So I feel good about my working, as I didn't just sit there like a lump.  I would take my stitching out each day and it would just sit there until I put it back in the tote to take it home each day.  It was also good to get back in the stores, even though they have moved everything around so I can't find a thing which makes me feel and look uninformed but I'm starting to get use to that feeling already.  Thankfully I'm usually in Sea Trader so that makes it easier on me.  My opening line after Hello, is "I normally don't work in this shop so you'll have to excuse me if I have to go find an answer to your question."  Fair warning is always a good thing.  Well, I'm going to get back to my stitching and hopefully have a finish to show you tomorrow.  Have a great night and I hope you have managed to put your needle into action.  Talk to you tomorrow with a finished project...fingers crossed.