Spring Break

We are driving to Florida (just under 1,100 miles) this morning for spring break. My sister-in-law owns a cottage outside of Orlando, so we're going for some fun in the sun.

Since we're driving, I've convinced Mr R. to stay overnight tonight in Seaside, Florida, one of my favorite places in the whole world. I hope the weather cooperates, as I would like to take some pictures on the beach.

We should arrive at our destination tomorrow night.  We'll be heading back next Saturday, with a plan to spend Saturday night in New Orleans - I've never been, but have always wanted to see what it's like.

I'm hoping to just spend the week relaxing, reading, and not much else!

Little House Needleworks - Home of a Needleworker, Too! Framed

I think I've gotten more pieces framed in the last six months than I had in the previous six years - here is my latest framing:

Home of a Needleworker, Too! ©  Little House Needleworks

close up of the frame - I used one of my favorite mouldings - I have a number of pieces framed in this moulding.

see the little "house" peeking out from the letter "H" in "Home"?  - love it!

another view of the moulding

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Today, I'm linking this post to:

Also linking up to:
Ivy & Elephants' "What's It Wednesdays"

Guess who's going to Australia?

Last December, my parents asked me if E. would be interested in travelling to Australia for a month this summer. E. is eleven years old, and has never flown by himself, but after assuring him that he would be looked after, that I would take him to the airport, and his grandparents would pick him up at the airport at the other end, he was game.

So, we applied for a new passport (children's passports only last five years, so the passport he got for his trip with me to England when he was in kindergarten had expired.

With the newly minted passport in hand, I made a copy of that, my husband and my driver's licenses, and wrote a permission letter, and my mum went ahead and booked his trip to Australia.

He leaves Dallas on June 9, arriving in Brisbane on June 11. On the return trip, he will leave Sydney on July 7, and get home the same day.

I know he's going to have a blast. I wish I was jetting to Australia for four weeks!

images courtesy of QANTAS website

Little House Needleworks - Nature's Beauty Finished

 This is Little House Needlework's "Nature's Beauty". It's March already, but this is my first official finish of 2012 - the other stitching I've shown you so far this year has been stuff I finished a while ago.

 I started this piece in January of last year, when I was participating in the "Crazy January Challenge"

This one is too pretty to relegate straight to the "ready to be framed" box - I think I might have to get this one framed sooner rather than later.

Dutch Sampler

A number of years ago (before I started this blog!), I was in a small online group called "Birthday Buddies". There were 30 members, and we were each assigned a fellow stitcher; we were expected to buy or stitch something cross-stitch related for our birthday buddy.

 I received this gorgeous sampler from my buddy that year. Her name was Roberta, and she lived in Melbourne, Australia.

 I don't know if Roberta has a blog...

 I can't recall the name of this beautiful sampler, but I believe it was pubvlished in "Sampler & Antique Needlework Quarterly".

 I was so lucky to receive this beautiful sampler!

 I need to get it framed!

Thanks for visiting!

Stitching Party #4

Oops! A day late with this week's stitching party. A bout of the flu and an early morning (1:30am) at work yesterday does that to a girl!

Before we get on to this this week's party, which will run through until Wednesday, rather than Monday night, let me show you some of the lovely submissions to last week's party:

Cheryl shared her progress on Chatelaine's "Egyptian Garden" - a lot of my stitching friends are stitching Chatelaine's designs - I don't know how they have the patience!

Patty shared her Silk Thimble finish - isn't this so cute?

Linda showed us the cute Valentines she trimmed with a crocheted edge.

Thank you to all the participants in last week's party!

Come on ladies, join in the party! If you've never participated before, I have created a page with step by step instructions. It's really easy. The only thing that I will ask of you is that you make sure that you include a link back to my blog on your own blog, within the actual post that you are featuring.

Good Company - The Heart's Content

As you can see by the date, this one was stitched nine years ago.

Every time I post a picture of one of my Maureen Appleton pieces, I remind myself that if I want to work on some of her other pieces (I have *a lot* of her pieces in my stash), I need to get working on them soon.

My eyesight is not as good now as it was ten plus years ago, when I bought most of these charts, and sooner or later, I'm not going to be able to stitch "over one", so the time is now.

Thanks for visiting - have a wonderful day!