I went shopping at Scarlet Thread yesterday. They were having a 15% off sale. So, here's what I got. The fibers are all for St. Petersburg White Nights by Chatelaine. Don't know when I'll start, but it doesn't hit the pocketbook as hard to spread out the aquiring of the fibers. I've been wanting to pick up Nora's new Couture Fairies for a while now. Also, I just saw the new Jim Shore patterns on another website last week and fell in love with the kitties. I had a limited amount to spend. My oldest sister bought a fairy I had stitched (I was going to just let her have it, but she insisted on paying) so I used that for my stash. I had about $90.00 cash on me for this. I had the lady do a subtotal when I got to the counter. This little kitty was sitting there, and once she gave me the amount I threw him in too. Ah, I love stash shopping!

FoS

The parental units left this morning and I have my house back! I love my mom and dad, but at the age of 84 they can drive me batty. My dad has no short term memory (triple by pass ruined it) so he tells me the same thing 3 0r 4 times and you just have to act like it's the first time you heard it. My DH Sam is really good at listening to my dad. That's why he has the favorite son-in-law spot right now (out of 3 son- in-laws). So I was doing a little stitching in between cleaning my house before the arrived on Thursday, and then I stitched a whole bunch today. I'm about half way thru page 4. I went shopping to Michaels for floss today. I had a 25% off my total order coupon, so I picked up floss for another HAED piece. When you're buying more than 90 flosses, it really saves to use the coupon. I got over $9.00 off. Not bad. Tomorrow Scarlet Thread is having a 15% off sale, so I'm going shopping there. Oh, and I bought a new TV Friday when I was out shopping with my mom and sister. The old one blinks in and out every few seconds. It's very irritating. So we went to BestBuy and I got a Samsung 37 inch LCD HDTV. The picture is beautiful. It is being delivered Wednesday. I can't wait! I had a coupon for that also. My DH is a Reward Zone member, so I got 12% off. That put the price below $1000. I'm having it delivered because they have this recycling deal where they will take away the old one (which weighs a ton). All in all not a bad deal.

Air Show

No stitching this weekend. We went to the air show at Andrews Air Force Base on Saturday. I took all these photos with my Canon D10 with the 70-300mm lens. I also have a Tamron 1.4 teleconverter on. The first jet is an F-4E Phantom II (my DH is a walking airplane encylopedia)

The next plane is my DH's favorite. One of the main reasons we went. It is the F22. It is really loud when it goes by :-) Beautiful jet though and the things the pilot did with this was amazing. At one point he had it hovering still in one spot at a 45 degree angle. It was so cool!

Yet another of DH's faves. The Starfighters. These are the coolest little jets around! They don't use them any more because of the heavy exhaust and they make this wicked howling noise. They were one of the best at the show.

Of course, you'll recognize the next plane. It is the B2 Spirit Stealth Bomber. My DH says it looks like it was made from alien tech.This last picture is of the Heritage Flyby. It consists of planes from different generations. They made a nice formation.

All in all it was a great day. The only drawback was when we first got the the parking at FedEx field, we had to go through inspection stations. That took 45 minutes. Luckily, there was a good breeze blowing. It was a beautiful day; clear, sunny, and cool.

New Stash!

I received my Mystic Stitch order today. Boy were they fast. I ordered last week on the 9th. Merylina is my favorite. I was looking at it and I think I can stitch it without the background. I will use a black fabric. I will do the same thing with Night Shade.


Cinderella is my next favorite. It is just so pretty!

HAED SAL for May

I finished page 3 and got around 1000 stitches on page 4 done. I'm going to keep working on this for the next week. I signed up on the 2008 goal to get the first 6 pages done. Right now I have some super spring cleaning that I have to do. My parents are coming down next week to stay for a few days and you can't even see the top of the guest bed. You know how it is, you straighten up the living room by moving the stuff into the other room!
I was really bad this weekend. I bought 4 patterns in the Mystic Stitch 40% sale. I'll post a picture when they get here. I also bought 3 patterns during the HAED sale. I bought SPML Cats, Fenech's Dragon Skies, and Wall's Alternative Reality. It's a good thing I'm getting my own paycheck now.

Jan

Mini Mandala Mystery

Here is part 1 of MMM01. Since I have MXI all caught up I figured I would catch up on this one. I am stitching it on cream 32ct Belfast linen. I'm using all DMCs except for two of the variegated that are SNCs. I was also going to use Mill Hill beads and I had worked out the conversion, but when I started to put them on I didn't like how they lay on the 32ct. I really think MHs are better used on 28ct. So I contacted Cindy at ECC and asked her if I could order just the Delicas from her as I already have the Swarovski crystals. She emailed my back and said yes. I have to say if you ever need anything for Chatelaine patterns, this is the place. She answered me in less than a day. I've heard others talk about the customer service there and I have to agree. She is really great. Well, I'm off to work on part 2 now.

Jan

What I Learned Today

This is what I learned to make today. I took a class on Viking Knit. I had seen this last year on one of the bead artists pages and thought "wow, I want to do that". I bought a kit from a website but the instructions didn't make sense. Now that I have had hands on training I know it's really simple, it just takes a lot of practice. Our teacher was saying it is believed that this was the precursor to knitting with knitting needles. It would be interesting to do some history on this. I'm planning on combining this with my lampworked beads. Just what I need. Another hobby!

MXI

Finished part 5 tonight. I started it on Wednesday. I didn't finish as quick as Margit (she finished it in one night!), but it went fast. Now I have to decide what to work on next. I have part 1 & 2 for the Mini Mandala Mystery 01, all the fibers and beads, but I haven't picked out my fabric yet. I was thinking of straight Antique white on 32 count since I want to do all four of the minis. That way they will all go together.
I'm taking a class tomorrow at a bead store. I won't tell what it is now, it's going to be a surprise. I'll post any finishes I make in the class when I get home. Well, off to watch BG.

Jan