Friday, March 30, 2012

Theme-a-licious March Madness Recap



March Madness, she is finished!

And I'm exhausted!

I'm glad I put Amazon April as a follow-up to the epic context-switching that is March Madness. Since the check-in post, where I cataloged 12 WIPs, I've done two recap posts:
And since that post, the Sparkly Compote of Decree continued to cough up WIPocalypse projects. Think it's trying to tell me something? (In a completely inanimate way, of course.)

Sunday was Keep a Little Secret.
It's so much easier to stitch on this in daylight, but even though it's light so late, I still failed to stitch while it was still light! Kind of a pleasant surprise to see what the colors actually look like the next day, though! =D

Monday it was the Urban Necessity Gloves:
Done with the cuffs and starting on the thumb gusset (hence the stitch markers).

Tuesday was Blackwork Band Sampler, which I did not take a picture of. Since I only stitched on the cream-on-cream satin-stitched border, it still looks remarkably like it did at the end of Fangirl February (only not so yellow).

and Wednesday gave me Hemlock Ring Throw (NOT a WIPocalypse project), which is lace on size 10 needles!

Thursday, it was back to WIPocalypse projects with Eight-Pointed Star.
I thought I'd finished all the kloster blocks, but I missed a little section there. Oh, well. Soon I'll be on to the fun stuff.

Total: 27 projects! I'll have to show you Friday and Saturday later. That'll bring my total up to 29. WOW! I only missed two days (I was too tired to stitch at all)...that's pretty darn good for me!!

Thanks to all of you that indulged in the madness with me, no matter how you chose to embrace it! Hopefully those of you that were scared away will rejoin us in April. I promise it's much more sedate...

Amazon April
Dip your needle into the vast swath of fabric dedicated to your BIGGEST projects!

Now this theme will work great for all of your that joined the BAP Challenge! In April I'm going to work on
  • Grandmother Star Temari...I know it's not a HUGE project per-se, but it's the biggest temari I've ever made, so I'm counting it! I'm going to try and finish all the green.
  • Peacock Tapestry...my original giant project
  • Random Thoughts...again, not the hugest of huge, but by golly it's close enough for Theme-a-licious! I'm just making this stuff up as I go along anyway, people. ;)
  • Les Rubans...I'd like to finish ribbon 1 (not a problem) and make a good start on ribbon 2
  • And maybe my Origami Turtle...'cause wouldn't it be awesome if it was done in a year??



I'm so proud of those of you that shook up your routine with some form of March Madness. Your creativity continues to inspire me! =) So what was the final damage outcome? How are you going to calm things back down for Amazon April? Please add your link below (to your wrap-up post), and visit some other Themers if you can. Our next post will be on April 15th, when we'll check in for Amazon April! And don't worry if you haven't posted before...just jump in whenever.





This linky list is now closed.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Award!

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I've been given the Liebster award!

First of all, Jo at Serendipitous Stitching gave me this award back at the beginning of FEBRUARY!! *blushing* I am very remiss in thanking her for this award!! Thank you, Jo!! You really should go visit her blog...it's lovely and Jo runs the cleverest blog hops around the holidays! She has an Easter Treasure Hunt coming up that's going to be a lot of fun. Wish her "Happy Blogoversary," too!

Next, Stitchin' Kat and Ziggyeor gave me this award in the same week (and it was actually this one, so I'm not quite as slack-tastic here!) Thank you both, ladies!!

So what is the Liebster award??
Liebster is a German word meaning favourite, dearest or beloved. The Liebster is awarded by bloggers to other new bloggers who have fewer than 200 followers, to help spread the word about their blogs and to help them gain wider recognition.

The Liebster award comes with four conditions that each recipient must satisfy when accepting.

1. Choose 5 up-and-coming blogs with less than 200 followers to award the Liebster to

2. Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.

3. Post the award on your blog. List the bloggers you are giving the award to with links to their sites. Leave comments on their blog so they know about the award.

4. Share 5 random facts about yourself that people don't know about you.

OK, first, the five random facts. Hmm, it's a little difficult to come up with things I know NO ONE knows about me (that I'm willing to reveal!!)

1. In high school, everyone had to take a gun safety class (yes, I went to high school in Mississippi, and yes, we had a larger membership in FFA--Future Farmers of America--than Beta Club. Hmm. Could've made that my fact and stopped there...). At the end of the class, we each took 10 shots at a 6x8" paper target. Can you believe I can't remember what kind of gun we used?? Some kind of rifle, I'm sure...but I have absolutely no memory of firing the gun or anything. What I DO remember, is that unlike many of the boys in my class who often went hunting, I not only got all 10 shots on the card, but all 10 on the target. Unfortunately, my real-life gun skillz did not translate very well to Halo.

2. A lot of people know this one, but those of you who are recent followers don't...when I was in the fifth grade, I was on "Family Feud" with Richard Dawson. My family wasn't on; I was the cute kid from the audience...I got a kiss from Richard, a bundle of Tootsie Pops (that was his "thing" to give out on the show) and TEN BUCKS CASH!! There's actually a whole story of why I got the $10, but I'll save that for another day. =) I often wonder if that hapless stage hand that Richard grabbed the ten bucks from ever got repaid....

3. If you know me IRL, you probably know this one, too, but the hubby and I met at Georgia Tech when we were both cast in a musical. What?? Musical theater at an engineering school?? You betcha.

4. I work with a guy who used to work at Pixar, but even though I LOVE Pixar, I've never asked him about it. I'm too scared I'd go all fan-girl on him.

5. I did not have a job in high school. I was a cheerleader, on the quiz bowl team, math club, chorus, etc., etc...who had the time to work? And even though I could have gotten my learner's permit (for driving) at age 14 (!!!) and my license at 15 (!!!!!), I didn't "have time" until I was 17.

Now for the awardees!! This is the part that's always the most difficult for me...I read so many blogs and enjoy them all! It did help that they needed to have fewer than 200 followers, but it was still a tough decision! There have been a lot of these awards going around, and I tried to check and see if my awardees had already gotten this award, so if you've already gotten it, just think of it as an extra hug. =)

One Stitch Closer to Nirvana - Jenny has lots of fun stories about her menagerie, and she actually finishes things! You sure don't get that around here, LOL!
Tenar's Cave - a lot of you participate in TAST...well, you need to visit this blog for some great think-out-of-the-box inspiration!
Garden Grumbles and Cross Stitch Fumbles - Beth always has beautiful pictures of the furry and feathered friends that visit her yard. She finishes a lot of things, too! And she always has a great monthly blog header.
Rip It Good - Isn't this a great blog name? For creations of the yarny variety, head to Calophi's blog. Also the home of Squee Sundays. =)
Moonraker Lampwerks - Melanie makes pretty, shiny beads and pretty, wooly things. And she stitches. Where does she find the time?? Also possibly the only person who could drink me under the table...WITH TEA, people. What kind of blog do you think this is??

JiffNotes
Thank you for the blog love!!

Epic Madness Catchup

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*wanders out of a cloud of pollen*
SooooOOooo...where were we?

Ah, yes, March Madness! That thing where I work on a different project each day, and then, like, immediately blog about it.

BWAHAHAHA!!!

Ahem.

I left off, what, over a week ago? I had swapped this project for a wildcard, and ended up not making that much progress...these are Elfine's Socks.
 
Have you ever read Cold Comfort Farm? It's a parody of Gothic novels, written in 1933. If you're prepared for it to be firmly tongue in cheek, it's hilarious. Elfine is a character from that book. I started these socks long before I read the book, but now I think they're extra awesome. =)

The next pull was ANOTHER MAGIC WILDCARD. I really dithered about what to pick...I did want to work on Les Rubans, or Sapphire Star, but I didn't know what I'd do if I pulled those later on. So I picked a totally random project that I ran across while searching for something, that I realized hadn't made it into the Sparkly Compote of Decree!
 
This blob is Annabelle, and I really meant to get the chart picture in there, but, POLLEN BRAIN. What was I saying? Oh yeah, click that link to see what the fuzzy bunny will look like. I'm doing the stand-up version, in case you couldn't tell, so I'm stitching with lovely soft alpaca fibers. I got some fuzz and most of that flower done...pretty good for one night for me!

The next day, in a fit of irony, the SCOD coughed up...Les Rubans!!
 
I worked on ribbon one (the pink one), which is ALMOST done. I know you can't really see it from this picture, but I hadn't taken a recent overall picture for my WIPocalypse page. If you want to see closeups of what that ribbon looks like, take a look here. Ribbon one is in two pieces ('cause it's "woven" over and under other ribbons); I'm done with the large piece and almost finished the little one.

I think I missed a day in here, because I can't figure out what I worked on on Wednesday. I did work awfully late that night.... Hmmm, why can't I remember? OH YEAH, POLLEN BRAIN.

Thursday I drew YET ANOTHER WILDCARD!! Are you serious, SCOD??? To avoid having to make a decision about which of my WIPs to stitch, I just started something new. DILEMMA SOLVED, LOL! Actually, in past Marches, I have started new things for wildcard picks as a matter of course. Plus, there is a serious lack of squirrel WIPs up in this place.
 
This pattern was a gift from DF Teresa, and I got the linen and fibers for it at The Attic when I went for the Chocolat weekend. I had bought the blue on the right before, but then I found the one on the left at the Attic and immediately decided to stitch with that! What's crazy is they are THE SAME COLOR (yes, really this time). I was thinking I'd be able to do one strand over two on the 32-count, but I didn't like the coverage. Now I'm slightly worried that I'll run out, but I am forming a plan in the back of my mind to incorporate the lighter blue if need be. I'm also a little freaked out by how close to the edge I'm getting. I knew it would be tight, but...!! I stitched really late that night because I needed there to be at least one squirrel on the linen!!

The next day I worked on Peacock Tapestry.
 
Why isn't this on my WIPocalypse list? OH YEAH, because I will NEVER finish this. This year, anyway.

Aaaand, speaking of the WIPocalypse list, the next day my Origami Turtle popped out of the SCOD (no, really, I drew it out...it's OK, the SCOD still has not spontaneously come to life despite my literary personification.)
 
Starting to look something like something that might be a sweater! I already worked on this this month, but those were days I did a few rows before working on the Decreed project for the day. Totally fits with my totally arbitrary rules.

JiffNotes
For more WIPs (WHAT, you need MORE??)...or at least a higher proportion of yarny WIPs, visit Tami's Amis!

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Blogoversary!

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My blogoversary's today!! AND THAT MEANS PRIZES!!

I have been putting off doing a few giveaways. I wanted to do one right after Jardin January was over, so I'm going to do it now! This one is going to one of the six people who linked in their posts for ALL THREE Jardin January check-ins...the inaugural Theme-a-licious post, the first check-in post, and the wrap-up post. The winner will receive some garden-related goodies.

And the winner is...Sherry!!! Please send me your snail-mail address and I'll get these into the mail for you! I may do another of these for March Madness...or other upcoming themes, you never know. =)

Next, I bought the awesome earrings on the left for myself for my birthday.
Aren't they cool?? The gears actually turn! They are made of some incredibly light wood, so even though they are nice and big, they don't weight much at all. Well, the company sent me the earrings on the right as a "sample", so I want to pass them on to one of you. These are even lighter than the gears! I think they'd be awesome with a little extra bead embellishment. I will include some other girly things with this giveaway. =)

Finally, inspired by Edgar's recent San Francisco giveaway, I'd like to do an Atlanta-based giveaway. I'm not sure what exactly will be in it, but it should be fun to put together. One thing you should tell me for sure...what kind of tea do you like?

So the rules...just leave a comment, that's it. Oh, and tell me if you'd like to be entered for the earring giveaway, the Atlanta giveaway, or both. I'll leave comments open until Easter and then draw a name for each.

ETA: Comments are now closed! I'll post the winner soon (in a new post). Thanks for playing!

JiffNotes
I still think this should be spelled "blogiversary". Does anyone know why it's spelled with an "o"? Makes no sense to me.

Monday, March 26, 2012

The Geekend That Was, 3/25

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I'm slowly recovering from the pollen haze! Last week I had to go to a two-day conference in addition to keeping up with work, so I worked a lot of extra hours and was exhausted by the weekend...Friday I slept 'til almost 11!!!! Saturday we got up "early" and saw The Hunger Games. It was fantastic. The only real criticism I have is with the cinematography. They employed the "unsteady steady cam," which I really hate. I hoped it would get a little better once we got into the Games, and it did...except for action sequences. In addition to being unsteady, they were close-cropped and quick-cut. That's pretty much the three strikes of action scenes for me. The only saving grace was that these weren't epic action sequences with well-choreographed martial artists dueling...these were short, bloody incidents of preteens slashing at each other like animals. In other words...quick and unclear was actually preferable in this case! So that aside, I thought the script was great, the acting was great, set dressing and costumes were phenomenal.... After the movie and a quick lunch, we went to the annual ADAC sample sale. There are always some outrageous items there...and occasionally we get great bargains, like a $30 dupioni silk duvet cover with shams or our leather recliner. This year, though, there was nothing for us.

Sunday after church and grocery shopping we walked around a bit on campus to enjoy the gorgeous Spring flowers.
Cherry Street on campus is not named that for nothing, and it is beautiful in the Spring. There are also azaleas EVERYWHERE, but unfortunately, all those pictures were TERRIBLE. This one was the only good one of the bunch (NOTE: Neither a cherry blossom nor an azalea. UPDATE: This actually IS a cherry tree! It's just a Kwanzan cherry rather than the more common snowy-white sakura--or Yoshino--cherries.) I did learn something about the camera, though...if I dial up the exposure compensation, it STAYS that way even if I change shooting modes.... I want a do-over!

I'm going to have to do an epic March Madness catch-up post!!! Also, tomorrow is my blogiversary, so I'll have to come up with a good giveaway!!

JiffNotes
Way too many chores this weekend!

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Late TUSAL

(What's a TUSAL?)

Special guest photographer!
Although I'm late posting, this was taken on the 22nd.

Thank you for all the well wishes with my allergies. Things are a little better now; the pollen count was only about 1100 today. ;)

I have a few posts queued up...unfortunately, they are only in my mind at this point! I do want to say thank you to Stitchin' Kat and Ziggyeor, who both gave me the Liebster award. That's one of the posts in the queue!

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

The Pollenclysm Continues...

Today's pollen count is 9,369.

STOP TRYING TO SET RECORDS, NATURE!!!

Monday, March 19, 2012

The Geekend That Was, 3/18 (Madness and Idiocy Edition)

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It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. No wait...it was just the worst of times. That was last week at work. I could write a book on it, but let's just say that, convinced someone else was not doing their job, I made everyone's life miserable when, really, my stuff was creating problems. I also spent almost the whole week on this, while everything else slipped further and further behind. I am now so far behind, and my knowledge gap is so wide, it just looks undoable. Plus, for some reason the pollen is making me crazy this year. Not miserable, CRAZY. Like Sunday morning I wasn't sure if I wanted to sob or kill someone.

Anyway! You came here to see pretty pictures! I love tulips and I was so miserable the hubby brought these home when I made him go get dinner for, like, the eleventy-fifth time.
 

You also want to hear about how the hermitting went, yes? For International Hermit and Stitch Weekend?
Um...stitch? I feel like some of that happened, but not much. Let's talk about how March Madness is going, instead!!

We left off with Wednesday, when I teased a partridge. Sorry...teased about a partridge. I did not actually mock some poor bird.
 
Isn't he GREAT?? I love his crazy colors. This is a JABC design and was a kit that Drema at Needlecraft Corner did.

Thursday I pulled this needlepoint Santa from the Sparkly Compote of Decree.
 
I got his face done, and some more on the hat band. Not too shabby.

We interrupt this weekend report with breaking news...the pollen count today is 8461. EIGHT THOUSAND, four hundred and sixty-one!!!

Well, that's just WRONG. Especially when the scale only goes up to, what...150 or something? I've talked about this before. Yup, this is a record, but this is NOT one of the categories where you want to be a record-setter.

Friday, there was a lot of drama with the hubby's plane flight back from Arkansas (business). The plane's oversold--they're asking for volunteers to get off the plane but he won't get home until tomorrow--if they kick him off, he gets $1300!!! Eventually, he "volunteered". He really got kicked off, but by volunteering, they bumped someone off a later flight and he got home only 2 hours late and $600 in vouchers richer. Not bad for 2 hours work. ;) So I didn't get much stitching done on Peacock Cypher.
 
I got some of those letters done, but I'M NOT TELLING HOW MANY. (Hint: it was not "all".)

Saturday I drew a knitting project, but I wasn't feeling it, so I drew again. AND THERE IT WAS...the Golden Ticket of the SCOD...the WILDCARD SLIP. That meant I could work on whatever I wanted. I could even start something!!! I think I'd said before that I wanted to start the shawl that I got the pattern and yarn for in Asheville when I drew my first wildcard. Well, there was one small problem with that, which I noticed when I wound the yarn (this would be the second part of the "idiocy" I mentioned):
 
I GOT TWO DIFFERENT COLORS. OF YARN. Not two different dye lots, people, TWO DIFFERENT COLORS. But didn't they look like the same color in skein form (scroll to the bottom)? Just, you know, a little different, but we all know how wacky Malabrigo colors/dye lots are, right? I'M NOT ON THE CRAZY KNITTER TRAIN ALONE, AM I?? I seem to recall the shop lady saying something about this (something helpful that a normal, sane person would have heeded, like, "these are two different colors"), but I just thought one dye lot looked a little darker. I can't make this shawl work like this...I thought about knitting the edge in the darker color, but I think I will run out of yarn that way. My hope is I'll be able to find another skein of the right-hand one at Stitches that's not too crazy different of a dye lot. IT CAN'T BE WORSE THAN AN ENTIRE DIFFERENT COLOR! (I hope those aren't famous "last words.")

So instead, I decided to complement my "wearin' o' the green" with some "stitchin' o' the green" and picked up my neglected temari:
 
Sadly, most of the time was spent cutting out those !@#$% little circles. Actually, it wasn't that bad, and they will save 5-6 measurements each. But it did mean I only got 1/2 of one path done...the pink pins are for the second half of the path, but the written instructions aren't doing it for me. So, I'll watch the video that our fabulous teacher provided, and based on other vids, I'm sure that will clear it right up for me.

I'll leave you with a teaser shot of Spring Blooms at the Botanical Gardens, where we went Saturday afternoon:
 
This might explain why I was wacked out on pollen Sunday morning....

This morning I drew ANOTHER WILDCARD!! That's what I get for complaining that none had shown up thus far. =) What should I stitch on tonight?? Suggestions??

JiffNotes
See how I bookended the post with tulips? This is some quality blogging right here, people. Quality.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Theme-a-licious March Madness Check-in



Hey, guess what, everybody?? I got Coke to put up a billboard just a block from my loft for us! See?

OK, not really.

I mean, that billboard really is a block from our place, but it's not JUST for us. It occurred to me, as I was reading your fabulous ideas for March Madness, that it's possible most of my overseas blogging buddies have no idea what this phrase means in the States. In fact, as I consulted Wikipedia, I found that my European friends may have even thought I was talking about tough female hares fighting off males! Although, I must admit that I loved Topcho's report with her picture of the mad March Hare from Alice in Wonderland. =)

Well, in the US, March Madness means basketball. Now don't be too disappointed; when DF Teresa and I did our first private theme-along, we said, "Well, March is March Madness. How can we change that to be stitching-related?" We quickly eliminated a project slam-dunk contest as an option. ;)

Enough talking! On to the stitching!

The Sparkly Compote of Decree has been good to me this month!
Here are links to the reports I did, followed by the highlight reel. =)
And a partridge in a pear tree! No, seriously, that's today's pick. ;)

Highlights...

Snow Catchers by Fanci That.
 

Call of the Sea by With My Needle (Ellen Chester).
 
Aren't these silk colors gorgeous??

And since the last post, I've worked on She Maketh Fine Linen by Moss Creek Designs:
No, I didn't get all that done in one night. ;) From left to right, we have two sides of a scissors sheath, a pincushion wrap, and a thimble cage.

"Wavy" scarf:
This is probably the second scarf I ever started, but I quickly got bored...it's a great one-night project. ;)

Aaaannnd Castles by the Sea by Teresa Wentzler:
I want to put a different verse here than what was charted. I'm thinking about basing it on Psalm 104:25-26:
Here is the sea, great and wide
where Your teeming creations hide.
Above, the ships sail to and fro
and Leviathan doth sport below.

I made it rhyme. I like "sport" better than "play" in other translations. This dragon definitely looks like he's "sporting" to me. =) Of course, that kind of leaves out the castle.... Anyone have any other suggestions?

I did a swap on Wavy and Castles. I pulled Castles for Monday originally, but I knew I would not have much time to stitch and I wanted more time with this one. So I crossed my fingers and picked again. Out came Wavy, which I could make visible progress on in the small amount of time I had.



So how is March Madness treating you? Please add your link below (to your wrap-up post). Our next post will be on the 31st, when we'll wrap up the Madness and talk about Amazon April! And don't worry if you haven't posted before...just jump in whenever.


Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Mountain High

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I think this will be shorter than the epic Asheville post! We were hoping to drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway to Highlands, but unfortunately it was closed for the Winter (despite our mild temperatures). So we took the boring but slightly faster route to Highlands.

So. I had stayed at The Old Edwards Inn before...like four years ago! And I had completely forgotten how nice it was. (Apparently, my theory that "if I blog it, I will remember it" is EXTREMELY FAULTY.) My excuse is that we stayed in the lodge rather than the inn proper.

Anyway! When we checked in, the first question we were asked was, "Can I get you a complimentary glass of champagne?" Say what?!

We got the full tour of the Inn, then we were shown to our gorgeous room, where we were greeted with this:
 
Omigosh, my taste buds instantly told me that they remembered these cookies from four years ago and to expect imminent deliciousness!

By this time it was freezing cold outside, so we ordered a salad and an amazing soup in the "lounge" (here's a daytime picture):
 
We watched the first part of the Oscars there and then "ran" up to our room during a commercial. We watched the rest from our bed, after snarfing the turn-down snacks that were on our pillows (spiced pecans!).
 

The next day was my birthday! We slept a little late because the rain had woken us up the night before. Michael had booked us a package that got us three meals, so we had breakfast at the Inn.
 
NOM.

Check out our elegant dining location! I think I should always be seated amidst overstuffed pillows when I eat. =)
 

After breakfast, I actually took a bath! I don't do this at home because we only have a shower. I know, I know, that's crazy, but in our last place we had a combo shower/tub, and since we showered most every day, the tub was constantly dirty. Not very relaxing if you have to clean the tub before you soak, is it? There wasn't enough room in our new place for both, either, so I chose shower only. But check out the tub I got to use:
 
Mmmmm...soaky.

After my bath, we walked around town. We took a walking tour offered by the Inn. The walking tour was great; we had a really fun guide...he seemed to know everyone in town! The Inn actually has a number of activities and a full gym (two stories!) If I'd known, I would have brought workout clothes, because they offered a Zumba class that morning. I've always wanted to try Zumba!

That afternoon, I had a pedicure. It seems I only find the time for pedicures when I am on vacation! Post-pedicure, I was relaxing in one of these overstuffed plush chairs...
 
...in a robe, with my feet up, Kindle in one hand, when one of the spa employees came by and said, "I just found out it's your birthday! Can I get you a complimentary glass of wine?" Now I am not really a wine drinker, but I had had a Riesling I liked so I requested one of those. They had three to choose from and he was going to let me try them all, but the first one was good. =) Michael was with me at this point (post sauna and whirlpool, free for all guests) and he got to have his own glass. The perks of travelling with me. ;)

We lazed around until it was time for dinner, which was A. MAY. ZING. We had the most entertaining waiter, who declared that one of the appetizers was "good enough to roll in," in his very understated manner. I guess you have to be understated when you're 6'8" (over 2m!) I need to get better about shooting food with the new camera (the old one was rubbish at it as well), but here's a shot of my spare ribs...
 
...which I said I might need to be alone with for a moment, LOL! They were sooooo good, and were accompanied by veggies grown in their own greenhouse--baby kale, baby beets, parsnips (OMIGOSH, I had no idea I loved parsnips!), and pureed acorn squash. Michael had a fantastic steak, but I only had eyes for my spare ribs. =) This picture makes them look small because it was taken with the wide-angle lens, but I couldn't finish them all!

My dessert came with a candle and "Happy Birthday" written in chocolate...in English this time rather than French. ;)
 

The next morning we got up and had a last cup of tea out on our tiny balcony with a great view!
 
I really didn't want to leave! I had a plan to buy a can of the Instant Snow we saw the day before and take a picture with it on our windowsill and email it to my boss. The concierge was totally willing to back me up. I figured my boss wouldn't buy the freak localized snowstorm. Stupid Internet, with your instant access to weather conditions anywhere in the world!

After leaving the Inn, we hiked up a nearby mountain to "Sunset Peak". And when I say, "hiked," I mean, walked uphill on a gravel road. =) The view at the top was worth it! Here's what it looked like if you were laying on the rocks like the camera:
 
And here's what it looked like for us:
 
New camera does a mean panorama.

As we drove home, we stopped off at a few waterfalls. You used to be able to drive under this one, but a rock fall rendered the road unsafe.
 
Can you see tiny Michael?

We wanted to hike down to this one, because you can walk behind it, but unfortunately the Park Service had closed it due to ice. I'm 100% sure there was no ice on the trail (we could see practically the whole thing from the top), but I didn't want to hop the chain they placed. So, we had to make do with gazing from afar.
 
(Yup, I also played with shutter speed a bit at this waterfall. =)

We continued to drive along and stop wherever we wanted a nice view.
 
Have I mentioned I love my camera? =)

Finally we were almost off the mountain...but we got stopped because an 18-wheeler had flipped over (this road is only one lane in each direction). We could either sit there in the car for 25-45 minutes, or go exploring! We thought maybe the GPS could find another way off the mountain. It couldn't (road closed), but we did find this lovely waterfall!
 

JiffNotes
Was this a slightly less epic post? Did anyone even read the WHOLE Asheville post? You just scrolled to the bottom for the pretty yarn, didn't you? Admit it.

Monday, March 12, 2012

The Geekend That Was, 3/11

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There was entirely too little stitching this weekend. Friday I had a team lunch (yes, it was my day off, but I wanted to see a former coworker who was coming), followed by a service appointment for the Prius. I had grand plans of getting things done while I was waiting for the Prius, but I forgot my stack of paperwork on the table at home. =( Instead I surfed and read and did a lot of nothing. Meanwhile, my 1-hour service appointment took almost 2 hours! AND when I got the car back, there were dirty smudges on the door fabric and dirt on the floor. Ugh. Add that to the fact that when I pulled in to the service garage, not a single employee even MADE EYE CONTACT with me for a good 5 minutes, and I will NOT be returning to Marietta Toyota!

Oh, yeah, did I mention that when I looked down at the speedometer I FREAKED OUT because I was going 75 in a 45??!? Yeah, they flipped it to kph instead of mph.

After the "service" appointment, I expected to be able to go home, finish tidying, watch Person of Interest while stitching, and maybe play some Mass Effect 3. But actually, the hubby told me he was ready to be picked up, so I drove straight from the car place to his office. *sigh* There went the whole day!

We saw John Carter in 3D IMAX. On my first viewing, I wasn't too enthused about what they did with the plot (I should really never read a book before seeing the movie.) However, after our second viewing (!!!), I'd say that I really enjoyed it. But definitely don't see it in IMAX; the color is off. I was astonished when the movie started on our second viewing at the difference in color. I think they should have opened the movie differently; they should have started on Earth rather than Mars. But I won't say any more...spoilers. =)

So I ended up with not much time Friday to work on my March Madness pick, Random Thoughts. Here's where it stands now:
I put a stake in the ground! Drew a line in the sand! Crossed the point of no return!
IT'S ON NOW, RANDOM THOUGHTS.

Saturday passed in a haze of trying to get everything done that I'd planned to do Friday (FAIL) and watching the hubby play Mass Effect 2. And 3. I didn't even get to exercise since he jumped on at 9am and didn't stop until about 5!! Poor thing; he is wacked out with allergies.

I did get a little time to look at the birthday stash that showed up Thursday. Drema at Needlecraft Corner always sends me my birthday discount letter in plenty of time, and I always delay ordering until it's too late for me to get stuff in time for my birthday! =)
Squirrels! Drema kindly sent me the needles and threader as a nice birthday extra.

Yummy, yummy beads and sparklies for Bluebell!
I actually had the purple ones already. I pulled the DMC, and I'm a little weirded out by the purples that go along with the blues. In the picture it looks like it's all shades of blue. So the age-old dilemma: Stitch it as charted, because the ones I've seen are beautiful, or change colors and try to stitch it as I thought it looked?

Aaaaand, speaking of changing colors, I was not wild about the pinky red and green that came with this kit (bottom two). The green's definitely changing to the top one. But I think I'll keep the red even though I'm not wild about it...it goes with the candy cane button better.

I am wild about every one of these colors, though. Drema made up these kits for the 2011 JCS ornament issue Blackbird Designs ornament. If you had to buy full skeins of the glorious Belle Soie silks, it'd cost you about 70 bucks, so this was a great deal!

Saturday night we met up with DF Teresa, who was in town, along with some others for dinner. Teresa gave me my birthday present, but I'll have to get a picture of it when it's light out. Soooo cute! I was too tired to stitch on anything at all, so one day of madness slipped past. =(

Sunday after church we went to take Michael's parents to see John Carter for his dad's birthday. I did stitch a little on the project I'd pulled on Saturday. Pictures when it's light!

JiffNotes
Grim weekend report. At least there's pretty stash pictures to ogle!

Old Geek-outs