Wow! Here we are a week into August already! Time flies so I must be having fun! Right?

At the coast we participated in the Coos Tribe's Salmon Ceremony. DH is Coos Indian. It's like a family reunion. Lots of cousins and shirt-tail relatives. It's hard to believe that my generation are the tribal elders now.

We brought our eldest grandson, Alex (8) home with us from the coast. He's been having a ball meeting the few neighbor kids we have and playing on the computer. It's a bit strange for G'pa and I to have someone here. We're so used to being alone and so quiet. Papa and brother, Tyler (4) are arriving today. I have to admit that I'll sure be relieved when they're all gone home!

Have made a pact with myself that I'm going to get my sewing room cleared up this next week. It's been neglected for waaay too long now and with all the added stash it's getting to look like a rats nest. I can't even make a space to work and that's really frustrating to me.

I haven't been getting much stitching done lately. This piece, Red, White & Blue by Cross-Eyed Cricket, I'm doing for the American Heros project. I haven't chosen a name to stitch on it yet, there are so many.

And more Stash!

I received this in the mail last week from Lee at Uniquelee Yours of Grant's Pass, Oregon. It's the Just Nan "Over The Top and In The Tin" (third in the series) called "Boo". She also sent some Lovely orange fabric to go with this. I have all three tin sets now and still haven't started on the first one. Shame on me!
Lee also sent some Gloriana Threads I had ordered.

More Stash!

I purchased several things on eBay, and of course, I did visit Acorns & Threads when I passed through Portland last week.

The Truth Comes Out!

Well, here I am again, trying to catch up! Why am I always running behind? I think I've figured it out.
1) I spend far too much time on the computer. (I belong to waaay tooo many on-line groups that generate far too much e-mail)
2) I spend far too much time gathering stash. (I have self control issues here)

Soooo, looks like I need to make some life style changes.
1) Less time on the 'puter even if it means I have to cut back on POGO and eBay.
2) Stop, stop, stop purchasing and start saving. After all, Christmas is coming!

More Stash!

Yesterday I got a package from Silver Needle in Tulsa. They had an offer in their newsletter readers to help clean out their shelves of leftover bits & bobs.
This was my in my goodie bag. Some of it will be easy to use and others no so much. But it will be fun trying out some different fibers. I mean, there's cotton, wool, leather, ribbon, silk, sparkly stuff and more.

Yea! My new scissors arrived!

Don't remember if I mentioned before that my lovely Stork Scissors were confiscated at the Vancouver, B.C. airport. I was soooo angry. They were soooo rude! I had even called TSA before my trip to see if my scissors were OK to take. Guess the Canadian rules are different. Anyhoo..... I've been cruising eBay looking for replacement scissors. Have you ever looked at what NTSB has for sale that has been confiscated? Amazing! But I found this lovely set at a reasonable price and won them. The arrived in today's mail. I'm so impressed with them. Nice quality and great weight. I did good!

Stash Enhancement

OK... the stitching shop we found was "Loving Stitch" in Surrey, B.C.. The ladies there treated us royally. I bought only one pattern, a Sue Coleman, pictured here. I've admired her work for so long and it was very difficult to decide which one to stitch. I chose the Eagle to do for DH.

I chose quite a few large pieces of fabric (most are 21" X 24"). Let's see... Rue Green Quaker Cloth 28 ct., Almond Jazlyn 28 ct., Antique White Belfast 32 ct. (for the Eagle), and 16 ct. Aida in Sage Green, Twilight Blue, Lavender Mist and Confederate Blue. I also got a remnant (7" X 25") of a lovely heather green linen.

I bought a real pretty 3" set of bell pull hangers in walnut and some white linen band fabric for it. Also a locally made mini scroller frame (up to 5") that will be perfect for band fabrics.

You don't want to know what all this cost me! And the exchange rate is pretty much at par now. But a girl has to do what a girl has to do when she finally gets into a bricks and mortar stitching shop. I wanted to go wild! I think I was very conservative. Jim's opinion may vary!

Retail Therapy!

Oh, oh, oh! One of the packages I received was my Floor Stitching Stand by K's Creations. I've just put up my Red Thread piece hoping to get caught up on it.

Also I did a bit of retail therapy while in town. I bought an OTT Light! I found them at Tuesday Morning for $49.99. I didn't make a rush purchase. I had seen these but couldn't believe my eyes, so I went home to check the OTT website. It's the older "black" one, and the only difference I could find was the color. It has the magnifier, etc. I'm so pleased with myself!

Catching up

Goodness, I feel so disorganized! I do wish I could be more faithful about blogging!

This morning while catching up with my e-mail I found Gaby's blog in the BBI postings. Here I learned about PIF (pay it forward) in the stitching world. This is a concept I firmly believe in but wasn't aware it was happening in the stitching world. How wonderful! I do hope I'm chosen. As she is on vacation until August 9th I will have to wait patiently (something I'm getting pretty good at).

DH must think I'm spending our fortune on stitching supplies! I've been receiving so many packages lately. The truth is, I've been trading stash. I posted some "extras" and things I knew I would never get stitched in the SMO Marketplace. I've also been lucky to win a contest there also. In return I've granted several wishes from that board. Unfortunately, I didn't think to take photos of the goodies I've received. Shame on me!

More New Stash

Sandy & Big T at San-Man Originals are offering some of their charts to their board members. This is a great opportunity to pick up some older charts I hadn't seen before. My order arrived this week and I can't wait to stitch them. Sandy does such lovely designing!

I couldn't believe their unique packaging! The cute little green fabric envelope held all the charts ordered. So sweet. Thank you both for all you do.

More Stash

Received these threads from Six Strand Sweets. They're gorgeous! Tonya has such beautiful thread, I want them all!! I ordered them to do the two SAL's on http://joans-so-be-it-xstitching.spaces.live.com/?lc=1033 . Joan is generously offering these for free. I met her in the board at wXSw but have seen her in several of the groups I belong to. She's a much more active member than I. Wish Ihad her energy!

And More Stash

CROSS MY HEART is going out of business! Oh no, I love thier charts! So I made a quick run through their site and picked out what I thought I couldn't live without. It was really hard to do. I'm forcing myself not to go back there and order more. Such a shame! They will be missed. Here's a pic of my goodies that arrived this past week.

More Goodies

I received all of these Raspberry Patch charts from my stitching pal, Twig. She was posting them for sale in the San-Man Market Place. Wow,I'm so thrilled! She gave them all to me. I love these little snowmen. There are also several birdhouses that are too cute. Thanks Twig!

Catching Up & Stash

OMG! I never realized how long I'd been ignoring this blog until I started taking photos to post here. Guess I'll just start in no particular order. I hit some wonderful closeout deals. Charts and two kits. The Santa pillow I plan to make for my DIL. She fell in love with this.