Chocolates for Breakfast; Stitching for Lunch

Dear friends,

So, it’s been a busy couple of weeks.  
I’ve been stitching, I’ve been traveling and I’ve been shopping.  
This first picture combines stitching (not mine) and shopping.  

I saw this sweatshirt in a shop in Traverse City, Michigan last week and picked it up to buy it because, why wouldn’t I, right?  
It is perfect – the stitching is lovely, the design is pretty.
Yeah, the sweatshirt color itself isn’t one of the prettiest shades of gray (LOL) but the colors pop on it and I could live with it.  
Until.  
Wait for it.  
The price.
Can you see the ticket?
 No?

The sweatshirt was $189.00 US$.  Yes, I'm serious.
I mean, it was a SWEATSHIRT.  Not, a sweater. 
A GRAY sweatshirt.  
The cross stitch was pretty, and I can imagine that some poor girl in a horrible environment got less than $10 (that’s being optimistic) to make it but I couldn’t buy it.  
Would you have bought it?

I finished this sweet, little Santa and reindeer from Plum Street Samplers.

The pattern is Merry One.
The fabric is LL Green Pear and it is much more green than the photo is showing.  
The darker fabric means I had to change some of the fiber colors.
Nothing drastic, just a tad darker in shade and randomly pulled from stash.

I don’t fancy myself a finisher but I’ll give it a go this weekend and maybe, I’ll let you see how it turns out.  Maybe.  

Rob and I took a mini vacay and visited Mackinac Island,
Traverse City, Petoskey and several other small towns and wineries.
Lots of wineries and micro breweries.  There are a lot of them in Northern Michigan.
We visited a few.
Mmm hmmm.

Here are a few pics from our trip for you to gander at.

Some antiques from a beautiful store owned by a beautiful woman from France (is there any other kind?).  A little, wooden piano and baby bank (never seen anything like it),  an antique sampler that was very inexpensive but it wasn't the finest work and the colors are a bit bright and an old game.  

At the Grand Traverse Lighthouse. 

In Petoskey and biking around Mackinac Island.

Stone piles all over the island, in town for dinner, a selfie (you can see why I hate them), and our beautiful room.

We had a grand time.

Have you seen Paulette's  THE SUNDAY MYSTERY SAMPLER?
Paulette is doing another Christmas SAL!  
And, guess what?  

It’s free.
Yep, free.  

And, it’s the 12 days of Christmas.
Twelve, TWELVE little ornies, stitched together or separately, 
all free and all designed by Paulette.

What’s not to love?
I'm so excited!
 Clich HERE for all the details.

I can’t wait to do this one and now I have the perfect thing to hang them on!  You see, a last stop store in Petoskey was having a closing for the season sale.  

This was a display item but I just knew I needed it forSOMEthing so I asked if they'd sell it to me.  The gal working in the store called the owner and she said I could buy it.  For $12.  Score!!!
  

Serendipitous, don’t you think?  
There are 14 little hangers on the tree but I’ll do something to make it work.  
Maybe hang a couple of antique ornaments on it, or something.   
Oh, gosh.  
To make this work, I have to stitch AND finish 12 ornaments.  


Finish them.  
That means sewing.
Uh-oh.

Maybe they’ll all be done in time for next year.

Will you stay tuned? 

Pictures of Petoskey borrowed from Google

Most of the stores in the quaint towns in Northern Michigan, like Petoskey, close for the winter but we got there just before they all closed for the season and between those and the wineries and the lovely dinners, I had a blast.

Can you blame them for closing?  Brrrrr….

Finally, since this IS October.  

This is my kitchen table.  

The two cheese graters were found at an estate sale a couple of weeks ago for a quarter a piece.

I love them and how they glow with a candle.

Thanks so much for stopping by and leaving a note, when you can.

Be well,

Peace,

Terri