Over the past several weeks I have been experiencing the urge to cross-stitch again. This past weekend, I finally acted on it. Of course I did not choose the logical route and pick back up some of my multitude of Works in Progress — oh now– that’s too boring.
Instead, I decided to go to Barnes & Noble, browse their cross-stitch magazines, and see if anything appealed to me. Leave it up to my favorite stitching magazine, Cross Stitch Gold, to delight. It was the first magazine I picked up and lo and behold, what was on the cover? A geisha!
In case you didn’t know, I love geishas. This design is called Dance of the Butterflies and is created by Lesley Teare. The stitch count is 140w x 166h and the finished design size will be 10 x 12 inches. I was originally going for something smaller, but I could not pass this up. Too much geisha love in my heart.
So.. after working it over the weekend, here is my 1st progress picture.
Instead of black fabric, I elected to do mine on Tea colored fabric. I am not a fan of stitching on black and I wanted something other than white. The Monaco is one of my 2nd-favorite fabric to stitch on (Lugana is first choice) , but it was all Hobby Lobby had in stock.
I’ll try to remember to post another update in a month. The plan is to work on this only for awhile, at least until I feel I am back in the swing of it. Of course, I’ll have to fit it in between my genealogy time, but this is such a great pasttime when watching television. Show of choice this weekend was the BBC Poirot series. I am a fan of the Hercule Poirot stories and have never seen them. Season 1 is free on-demand for Amazon Prime members and I took full advantage of that!
This weekend we’ve had some fun as a family – but not too much. There’s something said about just relaxing and enjoying peace and quiet at home.
On Saturday we went to a friend’s house for her annual holiday party for the families of kids she has kept over the years. She was Kaleya’s care provider for three years until Kaleya started school.
I have to say, she had the most awesome GingerBread House ever – they decorated up their TV cabinet
the most awesome Ginger Bread House
Kaleya & friend inside the Ginger Bread House
Orange candles we made before the party - that was fun!
with all her kiddos!
Then, today, we took a visit to the Frist Center for Visual Arts to see their Egyptian Treasures exhibit. The exhibit was well done too – lots of interesting artifacts from Egypt. There were some features I particularly liked – being able to download the audio tour, short movies throughout the gallery, and more — they helped give it a nice touch. The exhibit will be there until January 8th, so if you’re local to the area you still have time to visit.
outside the Frist
beautiful coffin on display
kiddos out back
Kaleya
Now, unfortunately, it’s time to wind down and prepare for the week. At least it is a short one.
Our Kindle Fire arrived a couple of weeks ago soon after it was released and so far, so good! It is such a cute device!
The Kindle Fire launched to much hype and for us it has very much lived up to it’s reputation. As with all things technological, whether or not you like it really depends on personal preference. But, we like it, use it daily, and I predict at least one more in our near future.
What I really like:
the size – it’s smaller than an iPad; bigger than my smartphone. I think this is a perfect in-between size. It can be held with one hand or two, and though a little on the heavy side, I got used to the weight quickly.
access to Amazon digital content – nuff said! We are Amazon Prime members and thus are able to take advantage of the movies and shows provided as part of that membership.
Kindle — of course you can read the Kindle books. Having another device to read them on is handy. I have been reading Kindle books for a couple of years now so now I have a perfect-sized screen to do it on
no fear in letting the kids play with it – it’s right up their alley too. Can you say Angry Birds?
And, of course I can access most of the Android apps I am used to – making it easy to keep up with my social media accounts and such.
What I don’t like?
not having a native app for gmail. But, you know what? I have that on my phone anyway, so I can deal.
We traveled with it over the Thanksgiving holiday and it is great for on-the-go. The Kindle Fire is just too handy to pass up! I’m so glad we have one.
Earlier this summer, I received notification from Verizon that I was eligible for a discount on a phone upgrade. I decided to wait since I was not exactly sure what I wanted. Well, yesterday I went ahead and went in and did the upgrade and life is sweet for I have a Droid again! And not just an “Android” droid, but a Droid droid — I got the brand new Droid Razr.
Sweetness!! There are all kinds of goodies about this phone:
it is the thinnest smartphone on the market. I kid you not, this thing is thin!
a camera on the front of the phone (1.3 megapixel) and on the back (8 megapixel & 1080 HD video)
4G – so I am finally on the 4G network
multitasking! i can be on the phone and on the internet at the same time
4.3 inch screen – nice and big
a dual-core 1.2. GHz processor -stuff runs fast on it
currently runs the Gingerbread OS, but will get upgraded to Ice Cream Sandwich in 2012.
has an HDMI jack so when we do get a new TV next year, I’ll be able to port my phone to it
My 1st smartphone was the original Droid, which I got in November 2009 on the day it came out. In Sept 2010, I got the hubby and I matching Samsung Fascinates. I am so pleased to have another Droid though — there is just something cool about hearing that “Droid” sound play with new notifications; besides, the kids get a kick out of it too
Today the kids are off trunk-or-treating with a family friend. I am loving their outfits this year. Kaleya continues her Monster High obsession and is dressed up like the character Frankie Stein. Jihad is a Night Stalker and a very scary one at that! Their friend is Mario of Super Mario Brothers.
Today is Kaleya’s 7th birthday and we’ve had an incredible day of it. We are so thankful for our friends that came out today to help us celebrate and I know Kaleya thoroughly enjoyed it. The weather was absolutely beautiful and could not have been more perfect.
Kaleya has been into Monster High recently, so we had a Monster High themed bday party. Monster High is a collection of dolls with characters depicted as the children of famous monsters (e.g. Dracula, Frankenstein, etc.).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monster_High
We let the kids play outside for about an hour before having food and cake. They blew bubbles, played jump rope, chased each other — all the things that kids do.
After playing, the kids came inside for some snacks and then cake & ice cream.
The cake itself was a Monster High cake and Kaleya specifically wanted the piece that had Frankie’s face. (Frankie is the daughter of Frankenstein and Kaleya is going to dress like her for Halloween this year).
We also had a piñata to open. Jihad was nice enough to stand on a chair and hold it while the kids took turn pulling one of the strings to see if they would get the one string that would open it. Kaleya went first, but she didn’t get the right string. Several kids later – it was found and boy did they scramble to get their treats.
Awesome does not even describe how much fun it was to watch them. Shortly after, the kids begin to leave. Thank you all so much for coming to spend the time with us and Kaleya. What a great birthday!
Of course I have even more pictures than what I’ve shared in this post. You can find them here.
I’m visiting Augusta, GA this weekend for the conference of the Southern Chapter of the Medical Library Association. I came to deliver a presentation on one of our projects at work and I’m glad to say that it went well!
Despite the name, the food was delicious! But you know what was even better than the food? THE CAKE! omg. we split up three different types of cakes between us and they all tasted good. We were told even Paula Dean has given her stamp of approval so you know it must be good (and must be really bad for you – have you seen how much butter she adds to her food???!) LOL
After dinner, one of my colleagues and I decided to walk around historic Downtown Augusta. The first Friday of each month they do an Art Walk and so we knew there would be stuff to see. Augusta’s Art Walk was quite different than Nashville’s. As one of my coworkers pointed it, it has an almost Nawlins feel to it – just how there are so many people hanging out in the streets. I was not expecting however to encounter zombies.
We had a nice time walking around and just people watching. We passed members of the local roller girls team, the Soul City Sirens. They have an upcoming bout so even though I won’t be here I’ll root for them since they’re not playing against Nashville.
We wandered in and out of stores and saw a neat honeycomb structure made of rolled up book pages at the Book Tavern.
On the streets we went by a local music group that was being showcased by the Augusta Public Library. Props to the library for interesting programming.
The best part of the evening was at Club Tropicabana though. As we were walking by earlier in the evening they told us about free Salsa lessons at 9. Apparently, they do this every Friday. So, we went, and it was so much fun! Towards the end the steps/moves started to get a little tricky, but maybe next time I’ll pick it up better. Now, I must find some place in Nashville to do it.
Do you think I’d be good enough one day to do Salsa like this?
Today, my sister and I took Kaleya on a trip to visit Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art. We had a wonderful time! Neither of us had ever been there before so I can now check that off of my list of Nashville places to go. Of course, now that I have been there, I will keep my eye out for new exhibits and events.
We started off by seeing some of the scarecrows they have around the gardens. They were scattered about everywhere, so I tried to take a picture of them all. One of my favorites was not a scarecrow at all, but a scareowl.
Penny Joy the Scare Owl
The Train Exhibit was fun to look at and all the kids loved it. Shoot – this adult loved it too! The structures erected were taller than we were, and the trains weaved in and out of the setup.
random train pic
There was even a Thomas the Train one! I of course had to stalk it down until I captured a good pic. My nephew Keon loves Thomas the Train, so this one’s for you Keon
Thomas the Train
Throughout the train exhibit, there were miniature reproductions of several historical Tennessee landmarks. The genealogist in me loved that! They had Union Station, the Alex Haley House, John Sevier’s cabin and many more, including Cheekwood itself.
Miniature of the Cheekwood House. Cute one car Ladybug train stopped in front of it.
In two places (that we saw) there were picture frames set up so you could take a picture against the beautiful backdrop. Of course we had to do that.
aren't Kaleya and I cool?
We then made our way up to the house which serves as a museum. We learned the history of the house and it’s family and were able to see the current art exhibits. The house is beautiful and the outside gardens next to it were gorgeous too with beautiful scenery. I could live here.
Kelli on the veranda
Me, Kaleya & Kelli
Kaleya and Kelli are oh so happy!
Thank you Cheekwood for a wonderful visit!
Of course, I took many more pictures than those in this post. See below for a slideshow:
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