"Royal Holiday"

Well, here she is.

Before:

 After:

I have spent some time with her and she is progressing nicely. I don't really want to leave her aside and work on something else but she is on scroll frames and won't fit in my luggage too well.

We are off on our cruise early tomorrow morning. Keep stitching one and all and I will check in on you when I get back.

Hugs

The loves of my life!

are my children and grandchildren and my husband. We miss our family when we don't see them for an extended period of time.
Our son Adam, his wife Cindy and our two grandson's Jackson (5) and Hunter (3) arrived in Los Angeles last Wednesday.
We spent four wonderful, crazy, fun, busy days with them in Los Angeles.

Day 1 - Disneyland. The grandson's loved it. They liked meeting Mickey Mouse

 but the big hit was meeting Winnie the Pooh!!

Day 2 - Disney's California Adventure. They loved the rides and we did "Soaring Over California" twice - Hunter says we were flying. Here's a family shot with Lightning McQueen and TowMater.

 Day 3 - Adam and Cindy toured LA and Leo and I took the grandsons to Legoland. What a great day we had. We had our grandson's to ourselves and I think we went on every ride that they could go on. Hunter and I agreed the Dragon roller coaster was "a little bit scary".
The boys are being silly for gramma's camera.

Day 4 - Universal Studios - this may not have been the wisest decision. Being Canadian we did not realize that it was a long weekend - President's Day. The park was a zoo. It took us 1 1/2 hours just to get inside the park. The kids loved meeting Spongebob. I just don't get him! I find him rude and abrasive but the kids seem to get a kick out of him.

We did the studio tour - great! We did the 4D Shrek movie- lots of laughs, had lunch and then left. The lineups were getting progressively longer and I think we were all exhausted. We agreed that 4 days of touristing all out was too much.
We packed up our stuff and drove back to Yuma. Can you tell the boys are tired?

Yesterday we spent  doing laundry and generally enjoying doing nothing. Today was a trip to the park, a little shopping, dinner with friends and a whole lot of relaxing. The family will be here until Friday when we take them to San Diego to fly home. We are hoping to make lots more memories by then.

On the stitching front, I did do some work on my Mirabilia but will save the photo until the next time. I'm sure you are getting tired of that red dress. I know I am.

I did some stitching on my Fairies in the Garden too. I did all the green leaves on the left, the two little flowers, the almost butterfly and the writing. The writing is done with a #8 braid and what a pain! I also had to pull out one letter and I can still see the shadows in the background. I don't know if it is fixable and it annoys me.

When I came back from our family trip there were over 500 posts in my google reader. I read them all, every one but I did not comment. I'm sorry but that was just too many to comment. I did admire everyone's beautiful work. What an amazing group of stitchers you all are. I'm sending out pats on the back all around.

On Tuesday, the 23rd, Leo and I are heading out on a 8 night Mexican cruise to Acapulco, Puerto Vallerta and Mazatlan. I am so looking forward to no cooking, no doing dishes, no having to plan a meal and just relaxing. I don't even have to pick my towel up off the floor if I don't want to. I don't care if I get off the ship. I'm just looking forward to being pampered. And my stitching will be going with me.

Our son's surgery has been rescheduled to March 16th. Would you believe the surgeon overbooked. They told our son that he could show up on the 9th but would probably get bumped.  So, we have had to change our flights, hotel reservations etc. Am I a little annoyed - YOU BET!!!
I will try and update my blog before I leave for the cruise but if I run out of time you now know why!

 Until next time, keep on stitching!!

Busy little bee I have been

  Gotta a lot of ground to cover today.

First off, here are my beautiful new kitchen cupboards. I love all the white and the brushed nickel handles. I painted the kitchen walls and the counter tops a couple of years ago. The cupboards were covered with a thin veneer that looked like wood and over the years they had started to show their age. 4 coats of paint and several days later and I love them! Reminds me of a French country kitchen. Leo and I painted together - he did all the doors. We painted the bathroom cupboards the same white. It looks great too.
Please excuse the messy kitchen. I should have made sure everything was back in it's place before I shared this photo.

I have been very fortunate lately and some lovely gifts have made their way to my mailbox.
I won a blogaversary prize from Anne S. back in November. She sent me this beautiful black, white and pink scissor fob. The black center bead has a tiny pink rose inside it.

As I was browsing blogs one evening, I saw these beautiful hand made project bags. Lo and behold, sweet Myra sent me one of my own. She obviously read my blog first because she included some cute buttons that say "I love quilting". Very appropriate. This is the first time I had met Myra and I think I have a new stitchy, blogging friend. Stop by and say hi when you can. She is having a giveaway for one of her lovely bags!!!

Gaby and I worked out a trade. She sent me some lovely old Antique Sampler magazines and I added to her supply of DMC threads.

 I have worked my 4 day rotation and I'm still sticking with it. I have made some wonderful progress on Royal Holiday. I have been working on the bottom of her dress.

I finished up the handwork part of my first exchange - sorry no photos.

I worked my rotation days on Desert Mandala and really enjoyed how it's working up. The silk threads were a joy to work with - the black Marlitt was not!!

All of the blocks are finished for my Mystery Quilt. Tomorrow I get the last set of directions to start putting it together. This has been quite the challenge. My quilting skills are still just above beginner and this quilt has been difficult and frustrating at times. I hope that it will all be worthwhile once it is together.

As a side note, my friend Ann from Knowledge and Needles has a request for threads and needles for a lovely teacher who is teaching cross stitching. You will find the full story on Ann's blog.  I filled a padded envelope with some that I had and it is going in the mail tomorrow. If anyone is interested in helping out - please email me at drewsgrands@hotmail.com and I will give you the address to send off any donated threads or needles. Hey, we need future cross stitchers and what a great way to help them get started.

Leo and I are very excited. Our youngest son, his wife and our two grandsons are arriving on Wednesday. We will be going to Los Angeles - Disneyland, Legoland and Universal Studios. We are looking forward to seeing them and spending some quality time together. Will post some pictures when I can.

Thank you all for being patient and popping by my blog to see if I had posted lately. The cupboards caused an unplanned delay in posting. At the end of each day, vegging on the couch was all I was capable off - and a few stitches.

My google reader says 345 posts. I will do my best to catch up on all your wonderful stitching and comment where I can.

Until next time, take care everyone!

Why my arms are longer

Just popped in to tell you that I will be back to you asap. Leo and I are in the midst of painting our kitchen and bathroom cupboards.