So much fun!

Had another great weekend with the stitchers from the Delaware Valley Sampler Guild and the weather was wonderful.  At times a little too hot and humid, after the promise of cooler temps, but we all made it through.  So thanks ladies for a great fun weekend.  And I finished something.  I have so many things, at this point, that are near finished or finished and just not put together.  So I made a plan to get some of the pieces finished and I am on a roll.  If you remember the Chessie and Me Club tote I put together earlier, this is a take off of that piece using Shepherds Bush, Halloween Trifles leaflet.  All three pieces used here are on the one chart...(have you ever used every chart on a leaflet?)  Anyway, this was a lot of fun and really easy to stitch since they were stitched over two (except the scissor fob, which I stitched over one, but you could stitch it as shown over 2).  If I were to do it again, I would add some pumpkins or something on each side of the piece attached to the front of the tote just to make it a little longer,  but I still think it looks good without adding the pumpkins.  I've had a few suggestions from the ladies at DVSG....if you don't attached the design permanently to the tote you can change designs for the seasons....fabulous suggestion....that way you can use it all year without anyone questioning your having Halloween out at Christmas time.  I'm already looking at designs for a Christmas set!  I then turned my attention to Shepherds Bush and The Fold.  I actually finished the fob a few weeks ago, but was still dragging my feet on the main design for the top of the box.  I did do a bit of redesign, but was still looking for a verse to put in the place of "My Full Heart."  As everyone knows, Shepherds Bush is one of my all time favorite designers...love them.  So to redesign anything they present is not in my wheel house, but I had no choice.  My brain just couldn't get beyond the flower basket so I made a decision earlier in the summer to drop the basket of flowers off the top and that allowed me to start the stitch.    So I removed that one element (however I'm still adding it to the project  by stitching it on a piece of linen and using it on the inside lid).  So I was able to stitch the design except I had another brain freeze on the words on the original, "My Full Heart".  Since this box is to hold our Shepherds Bush smalls that are designed for the box, I couldn't figure out what the words had to do with it.    So I was looking for a verse or something which would explain that this was a box for my stitching tools.  While I was pondering this, I was also stitching a case designed by Merry Cox that I think was probably one of her first charts.  As I'm stitching thinking "What the heck am I going to put on the Shepherds Bush box...I've got to get it done," I'm stitching a verse from Merry's chart and realized if I changed one word I could use her verse...thank you Merry on my Shepherds Bush piece.  Anyway, I'm done with the top now, it was easy once I found the words I needed, and I'll post that picture in a day or two as soon as I get it put together with the box.  But it's so exciting because now I've finished 2 of the 3 pieces for that project so I'm almost up to date on it.  I started the pin cushion last night so I'm planning to have the entire set on display in the shop for Jamboree. (feels great to finally be catching up on some of these projects, although I'm now 4 designs down on the R & R pieces..drat!)   These events get me stitching like a crazy person.  It has been a great week for me personally, getting projects finished and assembled and thank God, I got my new Speed Queen washer and dryer finally....it only took 4 weeks from start to finish (ridiculous) and almost 2 weeks to get here from New York.  I'm not sure why it took that long since I could have driven to N.Y. in 7 or 8 hours myself, however, the point is the laundry room is back in business and I'm in wash heaven.  They are wonderful machines, in fact I swear the tub in the washer feels likes it's bigger than the old machine, but it is fabulous to have clothes washed and cleaned once again, and I've finally been able to put away the clothes drying rack.    School is also going well, although Thursday I started experiencing a glitch in the software for the school and was unable to access my parts but Michael could still get in his program so we were still good to go.  He seems to be doing well (me...I'm spending hours each day trying to practice portions to make sure I stay ahead of him) but we seem to be making it through.  I have to admit, I've forgotten more than I remembered, but it's even exciting for me as the light comes on as I remember each portion of math I see.  I'm sure glad I always loved school, or I'm not sure I could get through this.  I guess I'm also lucky he's only in 8th grade, plus the wealth of information on the internet is amazing.  I've always been amazed at the fabulousness (new word) of the internet but never more so than now.  I was struggling with something, went to google and typed in the question and the answer popped up.  I swear if I had these capabilities when I was in school I would have had straight A's.  And the different web sites out there for you....it is fascinating and wonderful.  It's like they are tutors for us.  I'm really impressed with the help that's on the net.  While I'm sure we will run into problems we will struggle with, so far we've been able to get help with anything we had a question about.  Anyway, we're still   on track and I'm feeling really good about what we're learning, especially when I spoke to his best friend and when asked where they were in History, was told they were on the American Revolution.  Since Michael and I have just finished with the French Exploration, we have finished European, Portugal, Spanish and French explorers and will be starting with early colonization in the United States this week I thought we were behind them, but Max informed me that they didn't do European History as it wasn't important and they wouldn't have time.  WHAT?  Not important to know where we come from?  What the H.....!  Sara reminded me that Max is 13 and probably wasn't giving me the correct information.  But he does know what he's studying and if he hasn't been taught about the Middle Ages and the explorers who got us here then they are certainly aren't teaching it.  Plus I know what pace we've got and they couldn't get ahead of us at the rate we are moving.  So I think we've pulled Michael at the right time.  Our middle schools seem to be a waste land.  I know the Elementary School is wonderful here and I'm told the High School is still good, but the middle schools are definitely the problem.  You can't just drop this type of information.  Just another example of poor decision making by the people who are running our school system.  So I feel even better about Sara's decision to homeschool.  But I'm really looking forward to some days off....one more month until our first break, Thanksgiving.   Someone asked if I was going to take any of the teacher's service days off, but I always made so much fun of those I wouldn't dare.  But I will be taking snow days which means we probably won't have a snow day all winter.  You can thank me in the spring!  Anyway, it's time for me to prepare for the day ahead.  Michael will be here in about 2 hours so I've got to get studying.  Have a great day!