Shorts & Barefootin'

Dear friends,

     I know that we're all talking about it, but how great is this weather?  I took my stitching out on the back patio last night and stitched after work in shorts and 

Bare feet!  BARE FEET!  WoW!

We even ate dinner on the patio. 

Unheard of in March in Michigan!  

This has been the best "winter" EVER!!!  

I LOVE MICHIGAN - especially this year!!!

Speaking of Michigan, if you're ever in the Detroit area, and you love the Motown sound  (and who doesn't?), you must check out the Motown Museum.  The last time we were there, this picture of Marvin Gaye was on the side of the house:

This is a Youtube video of Marvin performing one of my favorite songs of his.  He wrote this after his brother came back from Viet Nam and the world was in such turmoil; anger over the war, race riots and poverty.  

Marvin wondered what in the world was going on.  This song speaks very eloquently to that and to the fact that we really do have to find a way.... a way to get along, a way to have peace and understanding.  Still, more than 40 years later, this song is still appropriate.

Ooooh, I LOVE Marvin Gaye!

Miss BeckySC had a giveaway on her blog not too long ago.  She was going to give away a sweet needle book she had made and if we were interested, we should leave a comment.  Well, I thought it was darling and left her a note that as cute as I thought it was, I thought my DF Sally would really appreciate it.  Sally has been fighting breast cancer and has returned to work for a short time until her next surgery.  I thought this would cheer her up.  It did!  Sally received it on a Saturday but waited till Monday to open it in my office so I could enjoy it with her.  Becky had wrapped it beautifully and had included a note so Sal would know what was going on.

Thank you so much Becky for gifting Sally such a sweet needlebook.  I know she will use and enjoy it and be forever reminded that there are very special people out there in the world.
Marvin would be proud!

Thank you so much!

For all you non-stitching readers (you know who you are), there is some fun stuff at the end that you might enjoy but first, a stitching update.

I am continuing to work on Mary Gibson (order at the hyperlink).  I really am enjoying working on this one but the houses at the bottom are taking me longer than I thought.  I think I get bored and get up and down more than I normally do while doing fill-in work so it takes me a long time.

  

Here's a sneaky peak of where I am today:

You didn't think I'd show you the almost whole thing, did you?  I still have to finish the red house and then there's another blue house and oh, some more border and then,

it'll look like this:

Sort of....

I changed some of the colors from the way it was charted so it would look more like the original you see above.  

I hope I've done it justice.  We'll see.

The sampler my Mary Gibson WIP is laying on is Marianne Wenn.   

(click on hyperlink to order)

I think they're very similar stylistically.

3 major sections, a great border and similarly styled houses in red!  

I think they're going to look great hanging near each other.

I wonder... should I use the same frame on Mary Gibson?

I'll have to give that some thought.  What do you think?

We had our Guild Auction this month and it was a lot of fun.

Attendance and participation were down a bit this year but it was still a great time.

I was in charge of running it this year and had a lot of fun putting it together and incorporating a lot of great suggestions (bake sale, alternating the live and silent auctions etc).  But, because I was so busy, I forgot to take pictures.  D'oh!

This is what I came home with:

My friend Pat made this!  The shells for the pinkeep are from Nantucket and the threadkeep, her DH made from a beautiful piece of wood all resting on a beautiful shaker tray.

There were many gorgeous things and I'm so sorry I didn't have time to take pictures.  Some of the hand made pieces were just stunning and fetched quite a lot of money.  I hope everyone will participate next year and those that didn't come this year will come back.  Our guild has some amazingly talented women in it and I really missed those of you that didn't come.

Now for some fun, non-stitching related stuff.

I am blessed to work with some amazing people.  My best friends are women I met at work that I have known now for more than 25 years!  I celebrated my 25th anniversary in January.  I am also very lucky to call some young people we work with friends.

Two of them in particular, have become very dear friends.  

Todd and Josh.

They are both great kids, funny, kind, smart and so cute we can hardly stand it!

One day, Todd, Sheila and I decided it would be a great idea to play a little prank on Josh.

We three, along with Sheila's daughter Meghan, met at work on Saturday.

We thought Josh deserved an office rather than a pod and began to build him one out of cardboard.  It sort of morphed into an office/home:

That's Josh's dog, TC sitting outside.

Crazy flowers, and flower box.  The curtains were made out of duck tape.

We covered every picture, every chart, every piece of equipment on his desk:

Don'tcha love the mouse and his little droppings?

A peak thru the front door window:

a 3-d tree (maybe that's 2-D) and flowers ready for cutting:

See the fairy door?

We even took a picture of ourselves to hang on his front door:

And finally, dear Meghan giving TC a pat:

We had such fun doing this for Josh and he really got a kick out of it.  He was able to keep it up for a few days and then someone complained (why????) and he had to take it down.  Nope, we didn't help with that!

Work is great when you love what you do and the people you work with!

Have you had fun at work lately!?

BTW, I was thrilled to learn from all your comments on my last post that I am not alone in not giving away very many framed, stitched pieces. I am not the only one that is 

being a little VERY selective about whom I give framed pieces to.  

If you've ever gotten one, you know I must love you dearly!

Finally, let me leave you with a picture of Sophie and Gracie:

This was a while back, they no longer need sweaters but I thought this was a pretty shot.

Blessings to you all.  Thank you so much for stopping by my little bit of the world and most importantly for taking time out of your busy day to leave me a note to let me know you've been here!

Peace,

Terri