Cheesecake today, diet tomorrow

Boy, this past week was a really long one. One of those weeks that just drags on and on and on. We had the best time out with our friends on New Year's Eve! Sadly, I did not stay up and watched the ball drop in NYC. I stayed up late stitching and then Cassie & I hit the hay around 11. We tried to stay up but just couldn't do it. We DVR'd it and she watched it the next morning. We sprung out of bed early New Year's Day and headed for D.C. You know how I said New Year's Day was the best day to go? No tourists, we got right in last year, got a parking place right in front of the museums, got tickets to go right up in to the Washington Monument, ect. Well, I'm gonna have to go ahead and take that back...apparently, it's not the best day to go and we just got lucky last year because everyone and I mean EVERYONE was in D.C. at museums this year. We still had a lot of fun. We went back to the National Museum of American History. I wanted to see the Star Spangled Banner again but the line was WAY too long. We headed over to the First Ladies of the US exhibit instead. I really loved that exhibit! It amazes me to no end that someone has been able to keep up with gowns that belonged to Martha Washington, Dolly Madison, ect....It amazes me, I tell ya! Great fun.




Joshua managed to catch a horrible stomach thing last Saturday night so I didn't get to bed until 7:30 Sunday morning :o. Poor thing was hurling at least once an hour all night long. I didn't think it was ever going to end. He was sick all day Sunday, Monday, and then he went to school Tuesday but they called me about 30 minutes after I dropped him off. Personally, I think they read my note and decided quickly they didn't want what he had so sent him back home. It was fine with me. I like having them around.




I went down to Richmond to see my friend Laura today. It's the first time I've been to her house and we had the best time! She has tons of cross stitch pieces framed and hanging on her walls, a lot of them samplers. I had the best time roaming through her house looking at all of them. Such pretties!! It made me realize that I really need to spend this next year stitching things for my walls. Most of what I stitch, I give away. I'll still be stitching gifts this year but I'll be cutting back on the exchanges a tad. After I finished browsing through all of her goodies we went to the mall and had lunch at The Cheesecake Factory. YUMMY! This is the third time I've been to a Cheesecake Factory, each time with a different friend. It's such a fun place to go with a friend. Pricey it is but so yummy and such fun. Next time I go down we're going to try some other places that she has that I don't for lunch. One of our stitching friends from Utah is going to Newport News for a conference in March. We're both going to meet her in Williamsburg when she's finished with her conference and we're SO excited!! we've already booked our hotel room and are planning lots of fun things for our trip. Williamsburg is only an hour and a half from me.





I've been a bad picture taker lately so I really don't have anything to share. I love Pandas though so will leave you with these super cute Panda pics I saw recently. They're so cute!

I need some rocks!

To put in my pockets so I don't blow away! It's SO windy out there! We've been under a wind advisory all day. We even had a few snow flurries earlier. We're having dinner with some friends tonight and I have the curling iron plugged in but I'm thinking it'll be useless. As soon as I step outside the wind will just blow the curls right out.



We had a really great Christmas at my parent's house! I was really holding out hope for a white Christmas since they get so much snow up there, but nothing. It waited until we left town to start snowing. That happened every single time we went last year. I'm also holding out hope that we'll have a really good snow here this year. We have the snow suits & the sled. We just need the fluffy white stuff. We all came back with loads and loads of Christmas goodies. I must've been a really good girl this year because I made out like a bandit! I came back with loads of things but a few of my favorite things was a new set of stainless steal flatware (a service for 12! YAY!), a bottle of Diamonds from Georgio Armani...have you ever gotten a whiff of that?! It smells SO good! I also got a huge makeup set from Estee Lauder and a set of 4 Estee Lauder perfume minis. My brother gave me a gift card for this little primitive outlet village close to my parents house that I like to shop at. I spent it on some things for my little sewing/crafting room.



One of the gifts I gave my mom was a fairy I stitched for her. I made it in to a wall hanging. I think it turned out really well!



















So as for me, I've been feverishly stitching on a project that I hope to enter in a needlework exhibition in March. The entry dates are mid February so that leaves me about a month and a half to have it completed and framed. Perfectly do-able, I think. I started it about a week and a half ago and have gotten a very nice start on it. My plan is to have to finished by about the 20th of January and then see about getting it framed. I'll know in about the next week if I'll be able to have it done. I think I will! The finished size of the piece is about 11x14, I think. I'll show you a picture when I'm done :). I should have started something far before now but I kept busy stitching other things for gifts. I had actually planned on stitching something else and bought the fabric and everything for it the beginning of last Summer. There's no way I'd get it done if I started now. It's rather large. Maybe next year.





There are no signs of Christmas left here. Every year I look forward to putting my Christmas decorations out but the second Christmas is over, everything comes down. I'm funny that way. I'm really looking forward to this next year! I have lots of things planned! Part of this past year was still really hard since we had moved here the end of 2007. I totally feel like this is home now and really couldn't imagine being somewhere else. 2008 was good and I know 2009 will be even better. I'm hoping to go on some of Mike's business trips with him this year. He's already asked me if I want to go somewhere with him in Feb, but I'm still thinking on it. I'll probably definately go on his trips with him next Summer. He's mentioned one place but I'm holding out home for Hawaii, California, Florida, New York, or Chicago. I know I said last year I didn't like NYC but I need to give it another chance. Going with a 10 year old in mid December wasn't the best of circumstances, I don't think.




Tomorrow we're spending the day in D.C. We're going to some of the Smithsonian Museums. We went early on the first last year and it was great! We got right in to the city, got a parking spot right on the National Mall, and got in and out of the museums with no problem. I presume everyone else was still in bed. Our first stop is the Museum of American History. I wanna have another peak at that Star Spangled Banner. I wanna see all of those gowns the First Ladies of the US wore too...

I'm off to finish getting ready for our night out!



Happy New Year!!

Merry Christmas!

We're loading up and getting ready to head to my parent's house! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday!

Popping In

To catch my breath! I can't believe how busy I've been the past few weeks! Most of it seems like a blur, it's gone by so fast. Let me try to catch up....

I had a nice visit with my BFF. Time seemed to fly by. We didn't get to do nearly as much as I had planned. Maybe next time. We did go on a quick tour of Fredericksburg and spent one day in Washington. Since we went on a work day, we parked in Springfield and took the metro in. That's always one of Joshua's favorite things to do. And chew gum. Big big wads of it.

When we went to the White House we got to see them building the platform for the Presidential Inauguration. I have to wonder how much that costs. You would think they could use an existing structure for that.

On Sunday evening I went on the Fredericksburg Candlelight Tour with another friend of mine. She goes every year and asked me to go with her. I'm so glad I went, we had the best time! I was on a natural high the rest of the night from walking through those houses. Not only did I love walking through those gorgeous historic homes, I LOVED LOVED LOVED hearing the stories the guides had to tell. Some of those houses were there before the Civil War and many contained Civil War items that were found on the land. Not only that, a lot of the houses had the original flooring. One that really intrigued me had bullet holes in the floor. Another had a piece of the original roof that had Civil War bullets in it. Pictures weren't allowed on the inside of the homes but I did snap some outside pics of a few of my favorite ones. This first house wasn't on tour but I took a pic anyway because it beautiful. These houses are in downtown Fredericksburg right down the street from the needlework shop and all of those other little shops I like to go to. These houses might not seem that large from looking at the front but they're all quite huge. The Rappahannock River sits right behind them. You can see George Washington's boyhood home from the back of these houses. They said that light green house is almost 15,000 SQ. Ft.!

I especially loved this house! It's a historic home called The Sentry Box and you can read a little bit about it here.

I'll definately be making this a yearly event, I had such a good time!

I've spent the first few days of this week finishing up Christmas shopping, filling out Christmas cards, and getting Christmas packages ready to be mailed. I'm planning to find time this week to cook/bake up some Christmas yummies.

I went to my stitching guild's little Christmas party yesterday and had a really good time. I found a new free chart online a few days ago and kitted it up for everyone with the fabric, thread, and needle. The chart only called for 3 colors of DMC and I already had the fabric so putting them together was a piece of cake and everyone loved them. Most of them stitch on aida you see, so I put linen in there in hopes that they'd at least try it...lol.

I did the finishing on 3 ornaments I stitched for my friends at HE for Christmas and will be packing them up and delivering them tomorrow. The piece is called Candy Cane Heart from the Sweetheart Tree. It calls for a sterling silver candy cane charm but I was so not down with paying $10 x 3 for a candy cane charm. Instead I used Mill Hill heart glass treasures....1 red and 2 white. I think they turned out really pretty. I did wish though after they were finished that I would have made the cording red instead of green.

Away I go. I need to wrap some more gifts and get my load ready to haul to the post office.

Cookies & Presents

I didn't think I'd be posting again for another week or so but I've managed to find about 2 free minutes to hop on here. I've spent most of the day getting ready for my best friend's visit. I'm so darn excited!! Not as much though to be driving to Baltimore. Only because I've never been to Baltimore. I've heard it's pretty easy to get to the airport there. Here's to hoping my GPS gets me there the easiest way and doesn't send me on a wild goose chase. She's done that a time or two, you see.

I participated in a Christmas exchange in my little yahoo group. I sent to Angela and she posted today that she received the package I sent to her so now I can post pics. I made I stitched JBW's Christmas Motif Sampler and made it in to a pretty flat fold for her. I also stitched an ornament for her from Scandinavian Stitches called Norwegian Reindeer. This piece was in this year's JCS Christmas ornament issue I love the way they both turned out! Here are pics of the pieces and a pic of everything I sent together.

I was in a baking mood today, so while I had the laundry going and in between doing my other chores I baked up a bunch of cookies. Aren't they pretty?

I'm off...so much to do, so little time. Wish me luck on that drive to Baltimore tomorrow, would ya?

My Little Space

A couple of posts ago I mentioned painting a little room that I was going to turn in to a little space for me. I had finished painting it and then Mike put a wallpaper border up in there for me yesterday. I told him that I wanted a little table and chair to put in there to put my sewing machine on. I was going to wait until after Christmas to shop for one. Earlier when I was doing some cleaning I stumbled across a little computer desk that was in an extra room we have and wasn't being used. We pulled it out along with a spare little chair I have. Here's a picture of part of my little space. I still have a lot of decorating to do. I want to get a little primitive looking cabinet to put on the wall above my sewing machine. Preferably a darker red like the red in the wallpaper border. I love that border! Isn't it great?! Here's a close up of it and of a hand blown glass bubble that my friend Cheryl sent me for my birthday.

The basket on the right of the table holds most of my treasured little stitching smalls that I've received as gifts. The little basket on the left holds a little pillow that was a gift and all of my stitching scissors. Here's a closer look.

Down the street from us there are some really nice horse stables. I notice often that they hold big equestrian events there. Thursday morning on the way to take the kids to school we noticed the Budweiser Clydesdales out in the field grazing and Joshua also noticed the big Budweiser semis. After I dropped them off at school I had several errands to run. On my way back home I noticed that traffic was stopped and the Budweiser trucks had a police escort (6 motorcycle cops and 3 other cop cars..1 stopping traffic, one in the other lane, and one behind them). I thought they were leaving permanently, but when I took them to school again on Friday, we noticed the Bud horsies out grazing again and the trucks were there again. I had more errands to run but on my way back home I noticed they were still there so I pulled in to the stables. I rolled down the window and asked a very nice man decked out in Bud gear if it would be ok if I brought the kids by after school to see them. He told me they'd be leaving before I picked them up but told me that I was more than welcome to come spend some time with them. Shoot yeah! Ok! So here I give you pictures of the prettiest horses (and biggest!) I've ever seen. There were 10 total but I didn't take pictures of all of them.

I probably won't be blogging again for at least another week. My best friend and her kiddies are coming for a visit, YAY! I'm picking them up at the airport in Baltimore on Tuesday and then taking them back next Saturday. I'm so excited!! On Sunday I've got plans to go on the Fredericksburg Candlelight tour with another friend and her sister. A busy bee, I am :).

Many Thanks to the Oysters

Many many thanks to the oysters who gave up their pearls so they could be my anniversary present! Look at these! Aren't they pretty?! I love pearls and always have. I've wanted real ones for a long time and alas, they're mine! Today's our 15th anniversary, you see. Mike worked from home today and got up earlier than I did. When I went upstairs, I found this on the kitchen table.

Pretty clever wrapping, huh? I know I was impressed. The cake plate was a gift too. I love making double layered round cakes and have wanted one of these forever. The pearls and my card were inside under the tissue. Too sweet. I don't know why but it reminded me of a time about 9 months after we got married. I had gone to Los Angeles for 2 weeks and when I got home he had a bunch of little presents wrapped up and scattered throughout the house. I had to go on a scavenger hunt of sorts to find them. I don't remember everything he gave me...I mean it was over 14 years ago for Pete's sake. I do remember though that during my hunt I found some flowers, a necklace, a bracelet, lingerie, and a purse. I'm pretty sure there must've been some chocolate too. Not that this gift had anything to do with that. The wrapping just somehow reminded me of it. I got him and ipod to keep him entertained on his commutes. He had been wanting one for a while. We also got him a wool topcoat but he got that a little while back when it started getting cold. He didn't have a warm one last year. I made lasagna for dinner and a cheesecake for dessert. Tomorrow night I'm taking the kids over to Cassie's BF house for a few hours so we can go out to dinner. Outback Steakhouse has been calling my name. That's one of the places we only go when we're alone. Too expensive for kids, me thinks. I decided I needed something new to wear for the occasion so picked something up at New York & Co. today. I was in search of a little just over the knee plaid skirt that I could wear with a sweater, tights, and black boots but had no luck in the skirt search so got something else. I like skirts. I always have. I don't do dresses though. I just don't like them.