PreK Grad and Fun at the Lake

It's official, we've got a kindergartener in the house!  Nathan had a little pre-k graduation celebration - they sang songs and showed a slideshow of the year, it was really cute.  The little girl he's standing next to is who he's going to marry... or so they say this week!  He's quite the charmer with the girls, he has several on back up in case this doesn't work out!  

Last Friday, we headed to the lake for the Memorial weekend.  Beautiful weather, but a little too hot at night.  We could hear the thunder in the distance one day, but we never got any rain.

We went to this really cool place near the house, the Shawnee Trading Post.  I had seen it before, but never got around to checking it out.  It sells all kinds of goodies for your home, garden or business - I'm thinking restaurants.  These are just a few of the things we saw, Nathan loved the knights since his school is the Knights.  Of course, I loved the dragon!  

 

We did find my Mom her belated Mother's Day present, this cute little girl sitting on a bench.  I was hoping to find something for her here, so that's why it was late.  Mom loved her!  We even planted some ivy in her basket.  She's sitting next to Mom's chapel and she can see her while in her sitting room in the house.

Even the kitties enjoyed themselves playing with the "butterfly" in the jar.  There's also a firefly one they like to play with. 

On the way home, we stopped by my parents for a couple of days - enjoying the pool and doing the Mexican hat sleep dance!

And here we have my Trick or Treat Fairy, she's coming along very S.L.O.W.L.Y!  Now comes the little bits of stitching and beads, kind of a pain.  Any secrets I should know about when doing it?

May TUSAL and Hermitting - late again

That should come as no surprise, seems to be my norm!  

 First let me just say thank you for the anniversary wishes, we really had a good one!  Next to the TUSAL glass is the gift the Paul's Mom gave us for our anniversary.  The picture isn't the best, it was a quick pic with the camera phone.

 

As for my IHSW, I didn't get much time done.  I did work on my MUSIC piece for the boys band teacher.  Originally, I didn't have the correct thread, so I thought I would use a Kreinik metallic - it looked terrible!  So a frogging I went and a quick trip to The Stitching Post got me the correct thread... so much better.  I have actually finished it, but just need to add the charms and was thinking of including specific school related events along the top and bottom border.

Trick or Treat Fairy update- next time!

17 Years and Never a Cross Word Spoken...

...and if you believe that, I've got something to sell you!

So here we are just after getting hitched, standing outside the chapel.

And here we stood this morning, 17 years later, outside the chapel just after church.  Wow, time sure flies and I think we've had fun, with more to come!

 

We went out to dinner on Friday night to celebrate our anniversary since Saturday and Sunday night wasn't going to work.  I was told to be ready by 6:45pm, not a problem.  Paul gets home before that and I'm still getting ready, not a problem.  The "dinger" goes off at the top of the driveway, letting us know someone is here.  The boys come tell me to see who's here and I'm thinking, Paul's planned for another couple to come with us.  Or maybe it's my gf, Cori, dropping by on her way home to say hello.  So I went to get my shoes from the garage and didn't recognize the car, just that it was nice.  Come to find out, the car was for us!  Paul had arranged it so we wouldn't have to drive after celebrating.  Absolutely no problem!!!  Such a sweetheart, what was a wonderful surprise!

We went to The Melting Pot, one of my favourite special occasion places.  For those of you who don't know what it is, it's a fondue restaurant - cheese fondue, meat/shrimp fondue, and the most important... chocolate fondue.  I enjoyed a Berry Bourbon cocktail which was so good, I had to have another!  

After dinner, we had enough time to make a stop for another drink before heading home.  What a fantastic evening and such a treat to be chauffeured!

Today, on our actual anniversary, we headed to Washington, DC to the Nationals Stadium for some baseball.  The Baltimore Orioles vs The Washington Nationals - we live closer to Baltimore, but between the two, we root for the Nats.  Shhh, don't tell our Baltimore O's friends!

Nathan and I took a walk before the game started and took the escalator up and then the walkway down.  Pausing to take a picture of him "next" to the Washington Monument and then his brothers sitting down below.

And look who met us there, DJ & family!  We finally got to sit next to each other, otherwise we wouldn't have been able to have our chit chat session.  We were also able to sneak away to get some water and I'm pretty sure it was her who suggested ice cream! ; )

 

Fun and games at the President's Race, I think Abe won.  Poor Teddy never wins!  George is below tossing t-shirts.

Jason Chimera, from the Washington Capitols, threw out the first pitch at the game - the crowd went wild!

Sorry, no stitchy stuff today, something to work on tomorrow since I've been too busy celebrating!

May WIPocalypse, late once again!

Still working on my fairy - she was easy, the pumpkins are giving me a hard time!
I have also seen two finished pieces, both had such wonderful fabric I'm thinking I should have picked something else.  But, too late for that, I'm sure she'll be just fine.

  Has anyone ever tried to colour or stain the fabric after it was stitched?  I thought about tea staining around her, but not sure I really want to mess it up.

Nothing else too exciting going on, except we had a meeting with an architect/designer this week and need to find out a couple things with the county before going forward with the house.  Still playing with the building blog and not sure I'm doing it quite right so I need to work on it some more.

WIPocalypse Full Moon dates for 2012:

January 9, February 7, March 8, April 6, May 5, June 4, July 3, August 1, August 31, September 29, October 29, November 28, December 28

Wedding FUN!

These pictures are from Beth and Christian's wedding in March. Beth's Mom, Nina, and I went to jr high and high school together many moons ago. Thanks to facebook, we have gotten back in touch with each other and get together with our families - definitely the plus side of fb!

Nina made this pillow for the wedding - the fabric is from her wedding gown, the lace from her grandmother, and the silver ribbon was from her Mother.  Unfortunately, her Mother died last year - see this post.  She was a very special lady and has been greatly missed by her friends and family.

Now this was no traditional wedding, what fun it was!  Not that weddings aren't fun, but this one was unique!  Beth and Christian had their second date at the ballpark so that's what made this so special for them.  They had the wedding ceremony and reception at Camden Yards, home to the Baltimore Orioles.  The room was overlooking the field, how cool!  This was just before the season started, so it was quiet down there - can't say that about the wedding!

There was baseball fare food, popcorn, cotton candy, cracker jacks, hotdogs, hamburgers, and other wonderful goodies - what a feast!  Fun facts - the guys wore black Converse Chuck Taylor shoes with pink shoelaces, Christian had a lego guy on his lapel and Beth had a lego girl tucked in her bouquet, the wedding cake top was a baseball cake with Mario and Princess Peach on it, and the tables all had a team pennant with flowers as a centerpiece.  It was a memorable afternoon and quite the doubleheader wedding and reception!

At the rehearsal, overlooking the ballpark

Nathan and his cohort, Ryan - the "ring bears"

Fun on the field!

Kiss me quick! 
Watch out, you'll have a couple of these guys soon enough!

Robbie, Steve, Beth, Nina and Taylor

Beth dancing with Robbie

Such a beautiful couple, wishing them all the best for a wonderful life together!

The honeymooners at Disney - love those ears!

 



We had the family over this past weekend and Beth got a snuggle from Nathan - he still loves her even though she married somebody else!

I finished these cute little wedding bells for the newlyweds, but haven't decided if I'm adding their names or initials or something else.  Any thoughts?

April TUSAL and Hermitting

Finally, some April showers!  We have the flowers, but really did need the rain.  My glass has been Fairy filled, too bad you can't see the "glitter" in there.

For my IHSW, I wish I could have spent more time on her - but she's coming along and I can't wait to add the beads at the end!    

 I didn't get to hermit as much as I would have liked... DH and the gmen went camping for the weekend and my nieces came over on Saturday afternoon to spend the night with Nathan and I.  Here are the four of them playing Trouble - good game for them!

So I got to see my sister-in-law on Sunday when she and my brother picked up the girls.  She was finally able to see the mermaids I made her and take them home, she loved them!  You can see why I made them all blondes - must be nice to have that natural look!

Birthdays and Easter Fun!

 

When did these precious babies turn into these handsome young men?!  14 years in the making.  I took them in for their yearly checkup and both boys are 5'10" and over 150lbs - way bigger than me!

  
 So this is where Garrett chose to go for dinner since Griffin chose last year.

Wow, that was hot!  Nathan got just a little scared.

After dinner, we headed over to Nana's to visit the cousins and have birthday dessert.  Nana just had a birthday on the 10th - can you believe she's 89 years young?  She's already planning her 90th birthday bash!

 Meghan and Nathan supplied us with music for the evening and had fun doing it.  Nana has so many records, we could have been there all week.

After church on Easter, the boys and I headed to my parents for part of their spring break.  They chose to dye eggs and have their Easter egg hunt there.  

 

 

Oma was watching from the window, not sure if you can see the dog on the right hand side.

While shopping in Cumberland, I went into the book shop and found these in the used section.  I have never seen any Welsh lovespoon patterns and was thinking about making one for our wedding sampler, so I was thrilled to find it!  This was in a Cross Stitch Collection book and only $2.  I'm "hopping" to get around to making the bunny in time for next Easter.  Oh, that was bad... I'll think DJ's rubbing off on me!  ; )

Imagine... a belated WIPocalypse for April

I am so behind on my blogging - too much to post (wedding, birthdays, family and friends) but it will be coming...

I'm also very behind on commmenting on other blogs.  I really should comment straight away - otherwise I just forget!

Anyone interested in following a house building blog?  Hopefully sooner than later.

  Max thinks he's helping me by pulling on the floss... not!!!  I think she's coming along nicely and can't wait to finish her up, do a few little things, them start my mermaid.

WIPocalypse Full Moon dates for 2012:

January 9, February 7, March 8, April 6, May 5, June 4, July 3, August 1, August 31, September 29, October 29, November 28, December 28

Loving Phoenix

We got to watch my friend's "baby" this past weekend, her name is Phoenix and she's precious.  She's a rescue from Hurricane Katrina and she is a spoiled little princess!

Here's Nathan giving her a snuggle before he went to bed.  She would sleep under his bed until it was time for her to get in her crate for the night.  He cried last night when she left to go home.
Next to Phoenix you can see I have been working on my Halloween Fairy, still a ways to go!

Even though she would growl and chase the cats, I know they were all just having fun... I think!  This was the closest Max ever got to her, he's also the one who runs when the vacuum starts - big baby.

So another BIF, Alice, told me about a mermaid pattern she saw and when I looked online, I saw that 123Stitch was having a sale on mermaids.  I got this one because of the underwater dragon with the mermaid = double plus!  I did buy another one, but it's on back order - just as well, I need to get busy with what I've got.