We made it to Dallas!

No pictures on this post, but just a note to say that we made it to Dallas in one piece! We had such an adventure traveling. The day started out lovely, some clouds in the sky then it started to get thicker darker clouds, then the most beautiful dark blue/grey stormy skies. Those dark, dark clouds turned into big rain drops. I was driving and when I turned on the wipers and they streaked across the windshield because of lack of use! We happened to be in a mountainous area, no towns or exits for hundreds of miles around. All it was was just rain, mountains and 18-wheelers.

Cars were pulling off the road to wait out the storm but I kept forging ahead. The storm was so bad that the road wasn't even visible! Honestly, for long periods of time I could only see the white line right in front of the car and knew I was still on the road!

There was an orange 18-wheeler in front of me and I kept my eye on that because I couldn't see the road at all from the fierceness of this storm. There were a few times that I lost sight of the big rig even though it was only about 50 feet in front of me. When I lost sight of the truck, I just kept the steering wheel straight and relied on God to keep us on the road. It was such a scary experience but I knew the road was pretty much straight and there weren't any cliffs so I figured that if we did get off the road, we would just be driving on the ground and not down a ravine.  Once we got through to lighter rain, I relaxed, then realized that I had to pass some other trucks that were spraying water so bad that I couldn't see again! Ah well, by faith, we made it and have a story to tell and are so happy with our survival and our vacation.

When we were able to finally pass that 18-wheeler, my husband rolled down the window and pretended to "text" thank you to the driver and waved. He said the driver was laughing and waving back. He was obviously relieved he made it as well!

Before the storm started I noticed the temperature was dropping quickly, once we emerged from the heavy rains I saw the temp had dropped down to 68 F, that was a 30 degree drop! I don't know what it was during the actual storm itself. When we arrived in Dallas, at night, it was 90 degrees, but completely clear skies. So many lights and businesses and excitement! We are so happy to be here, even for a few days.

BTW, mission accomplished on the binoculars. It is all stitched and I brought the binoculars that we had as kids to give to my brother along with the stitched piece. I will take a picture of them together when I give it to him tomorrow. Happy weekend!!

My mom knits and crochets

My mom knits or crochets many hours a day. She's made so many items for family that finally her sister convinced her to sell her items at craft shows. So now she spends hours a day preparing for 2 really good shows in the fall. The sad thing is that her hands are hurting her more and she says that she has to knit slower and that possibly this could be her last year for the shows. I don't know what she'll do if she didn't have some yarn woven through her fingers every day.

Here's a picture of an afghan she's currently making, it'll be done by the end of this week, then she'll start something new. It is a ripple afghan in brown and shades of variegated brown that looks like fudge marble. This is her favorite pattern and the best seller at the shows.

It's Crunch Time!

At the end of this week, my family and I will be traveling to Dallas to visit alot of family and friends. I will get to see my brother and my sister-in-law at their new home in Plano. I started a little thing for my brother's office (he does alot of free lance work from home) last year and put it aside because I wasn't completely happy with the color conversion from Anchor to DMC. Well, I've decided that I'm not scraping it and time to pull it out and finish it. Here's what it looked like before I started on it tonight:

What's funny is that on my camera, I don't see the shadow, but on the computer it's very present!

Anyway, I have stitched on it while watching the Yankees play Cleveland and got some progress made

but I'll have to work faster on it.

Here's the little Somebunny kit that I completed to be a companion to the Somebunny design

that I finished earlier this week. The colors are similar to each other and this little thing took only

2 nights to finish up. Hope the little grand-baby girl enjoys it too!

And here it is next to the big Somebunny design:

Hope your needles and creativity are flying on these hot summer days. Stay cool!

The puppy did it again, sort of!

Our sweet little doggie has messed up in my son's bedroom again. This time she peed...on the bed!!! My son didn't wake me up to tell me, he just took the sheets off the bed and put them in the bathroom and slept with a blanket on top of him. When I went outside to see the dog, she started to jump on me as always, but I said "Bad dog" and she backed away, knowing what she had done. When I fed her, she stayed away from me and just looked at me. I don't like being mad at her, she's a sweet dog and is a big part of our family now.
We rescued her in March and never have been more happy with a dog than we are with her. She's a Brindle Pug, she's black with gold tiger stripes. Very unusual coloring and a great disposition. In hindsight, I now wish we hadn't had her spayed, she would have had some good looking pups. Ah well, back to forgiving the little thing. The sheets are washed and the comforter was washed at the laundromat and is hanging on the clothesline to dry. Her name is Nicki, and I call her Nickers, not to be confused with knickers.

On the stitching front, I finished the little bunny for the great-grandbaby last night and need to start another project tonight. It will be something I've never stitched before: Art Deco style lady. I'll get a picture posted once I get some stitches done.

Until then, Blessings to you and your needle!

Summer Heat

Boy, oh Boy it's hot these past few days! I've been staying inside and watching alot of baseball, primarily the NY Yankees but I've also started keeping up with Tampa Bay Rays, they have a really good team this year. Lately, I have been stitching a "Somebunny" design for our new little Great-Grandbaby girl. It is about 95% finished, have some backstitching and a few spots to fill in. We will be going to Dallas next week to see her for the first time. When I get back, I'll continue working on Celtic Spring. This has been a UFO for a few years and in June, I started back on it. It's such a beautiful design by Lavender & Lace and I enjoy the colors. It's something I really want to complete before I start the bajillion other designs that I "really want" to stitch. Any one else like that? How many UFO's do you have?

It's funny, because I count projects that I haven't even started yet as UFO's because I "really want" to stitch them and feel that one day I will! Until later, blessings to you and your needle!