Day One ...

The first couple of days in Myrtle Beach, this was the view from my room ...

Yep, the Atlantic Ocean was right outside my door! Gotta love it :) I arrived in MB on Saturday morning .. note to self, NEVER take the redeye flight again, NEVER! It wouldn't have been so bad if I could have checked into my room shortly after I arrived, unfortunately my room wasn't ready until about 3:00pm. Thank goodness for Starbucks and WiFi (yea, silly me took my laptop, not sure I'll do that again either! lol) I was able to kill a couple of hours, when grocery shopping and then my room was ready .. and I was ready for it! lol Got in my room, unpacked, walked on the beach a bit and then crashed for a couple of hours. Spent the rest of the evening stitching and watching the Nascar race ... here's my home away from home ...

Sunday morning Karen from Arizona arrived, she won't do the redeye again either! lol .. we spent Sunday walking on the beach, catching up with each other, stitching and just relaxing. Monday was pretty much the same, beach walking, stitching, chatting and eating .. god is was heaven! Monday night our friend Fiona arrived from Scotland, yep Scotland! I think this was Fiona's 8th or 9th Pals Fall Fling. Another trip to the airport to pick Fiona up (good think the airport is only 7 minutes away! lol) and then back to our room to stitch and gab and to complain about stitching over one! lol

Tuesday Karen had planned an outting for us. We headed to Charleston with Sharon and her husband Jim and sweet baby Josh. Here's the bridge going into Charleston .. I fell in love with this bridge .. there's a lot more pictures in my webshots album

We were all starving by the time we got to Charleston .. here's the girls outside the restaurant .. from left to right, Sharon (PA), Karen (AZ) and Fiona (Scotland).

We walked all over Charleston .. ended up down by the Rainbow Houses, they were incredible! Huge homes, just dripping southern charm .. you can see a few in my webshots album. Here's another picture of the crew ... Karen, Fiona, Sharon and her DH Jim and Josh, who's about 13 months and stole all our hearts over the week. There's some really sweet pictures of him in my album too ...

On our way in Charleston, there's a stretch of highway where you'll find these basketstands and women selling the most amazing Seagrass baskets. OMG they are lovely! I bought two, one for

Monica and one for myself. I found this link that tells the history of the baskets ... This is the one I bought for Monica ...

And this one is mine ... I really wanted a couple more, especially the bigger baskets .. but wow, the prices were quite high!

Well this brings us to Wednesday and the arrival of more and more friends ... more later from me .. but I have seen a few bloggers already updating with their stories ... here's a few ... enjoy!

Amy, Karen, Ruth

I'm grateful for time with my stitching friends ...

Honey, I'm home ...

What a great week in South Carolina .. lots of beach time, girl time, stitching time, and oh sooo much laughing. I have so much to blog about from the Pals Fall Fling, over 300 pictures to share and a few stories .. but I need to get more organized .. so instead I will show off some finishes that Vonna did for me. I "borrowed" these pictures from Vonna's finishing blog ...

Quite an elegant reindeer, don't ya think??


Vonna made Rosie into a pinkeep ...


perfect backing fabric for Rosie ...


This is a oversized tuck type pillow. I wanted a big opening because my plan is that every New Year's Eve, I'll add another year ... I love the happy party colors Vonna used ...


DH really liked the backing fabric on this one


Heart in Hand's Thanksgiving Bird was made into a flatfold ...

the backing fabric is cute cute cute!

another very elegant reindeer ...

love the backing fabric on this one .. so did DH :)

This has to be my favorite ... the box finishing was definately the right thing to do ...

and the inside of the box .. now what to use the box for?!

Ok .. one little bit about the Fall Fling before I close. Last year's theme was the beach .. here's a picture of the table decorations ...

At some point in the evening my table got silly with the table decorations .. we eneded up hanging flipflops from our glasses ...

Before this years Fall Fling, I was trying to think of something to stitch for my friends/roommates as a little gift .. I decided to stitch the flip flops from Lizzie Kate's Summer Crazy chart, then I sent them off to Vonna to finish into scissor fobs .. I think they turned out sooo cute and the girls loved them!

more pictures later ...

I'm grateful for pretty finishes ...

Just a quick check in ...

Hi from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I'm sitting in Starbucks with Karen and just wanted to loggin and say HI! Karen and I are attending the Pal's Fall Fling on Thursday - Sunday. We took a couple of extra days to play on the beach and just relax. Karen says Hi .. we are going back to the motel to work on our class pieces.

Before I left I wanted to post about a couple of wonderful fun blogs ... Stitch Pink is having lots of drawings and a stitch pink contest in support of Breast Cancer Awareness month. You can find the link over on my sidebar (right hand side).

Chris (link to her blog is on my sidebar too) is having her first year bloggiversary .. so over and say hi .. she's having a very nice drawing later this month :)

Ok .. off to the beach and more stitching .. be good and get lots of stitching done *smile*

Saturday Stuff ...

Chris and Monica came over for dinner last night (Friday). It was game night, we don't do this enough .. we had a blast last night. First was a dinner of lasagna, salad and garlic bread. After dinner I gave them the bell pull I made from the Lizzie*Kate double flips. They both loved it. It was fun to watch them read each word, check out the charms and talk about the colors they liked. It really was a perfect anniversary gift! Then it was time to play a game. C&M brought a couple with them and we had a few to consider .. The Farming Game won out. Most of us had never played it .. yet it was a very important part of our family when Chris was growing up. I think he discovered the game when he was about 10 and played it religiously with his close friend Nick, for years. Chris lost track of the game and Nick in high school, but always talked about how much fun they had. A couple of years ago I found it online and bought him a new one. OMGosh after playing it last night for the first time, I can understand why they were addicted to it. If you haven't every played it, and enjoy games like Monopoly and Life, I would high recommend it .. very fun and challenging. We played until midnight! lol .. and I won *smile*

So this morning Lisa arrived so we could work on our Christmas project a bit more before I leave for my stitching retreat. We finished 1 of 16 today! Here's the Fold a Tote bag we are making ...



Here's what it looks like folded out. We wanted to try and go as green with this bag as we could while not spending a huge amount of money on each. Pacific Fabrics close to me has some wonderful organic fabrics that weren't expensive and were really pretty! Here's what the bag looks like folded out ...


I really like the size of this bag ... would be great for taking to a farmers market for all your produce.


I started decorating for Halloween .. here's my mantle .. the black piece is new this year .. I found it at Illuminations and just fell in love with it! There's voltive candle holders behind each of the figures .. looks awesome all lit up at night.

Oh and have you seen these? I think this is adorable! From Val's Stitching ...


And of course I love this one too ... by Waxing Moon ... I think this might be my reindeer for 2008 .. cute eh?!

I received my Halloween Fair and Square exchange .. these were stitched by Sue W. Sue doesn't have a blog .. the design is Shepherd's Bush Scary Jack .. aren't they great! I can see a flat fold or pin keep in their future ...

Thanks for all the lovely comments about my Double Flipits ... I really was pleased with how they turned out :) Hope everyone is having a great productive weekend! Fall came in with a vengence here .. we had quite a wind storm all day today .. I loved it!

I'm grateful for game night ...

A finish!

Woo Hoo I finished L*K's double flipits last night. I'm so pleased with this piece. When I started stitching it, I was going to keep it for myself. After stitching the first 4 or 5 words, I decideed that it would be a nice gift for Chris and Monica and since their 2nd anniversary was coming up I thought it would make a great gift for them. Definately words to live by and a great reminder for a young married couple don't you think? I didn't get it done exactly on time .. their anniversary was the 23rd .. they are coming over for dinner and games this week so that's when I'll give it to them. Here's a couple of pictures ...

I found a perfect hanger .. it's from the same company that made these that I got last year ...

My mailbox was very happy on Saturday .. I received my Fair and Square squares (round 9) from Jenn ... I think she read my blog *smile* The design is Manuela's Sunflower from Chatelaine Designs. She changed the border from green to my favorite color, and look at all the beads she added! DH really liked all the bling :) The sunflower on the signature square is from a breadcloth leaflet .. really cute!

Here's a close up of the sunflower square ...

and the signature square ...

She also made me this really cute scissor fob .. the beads match the design so well! and look, I have earrings that match! lol .. don't you love when it all works :) She also made me a really cute bead angel, but the cats found it and started playing with it, so I moved it and forgot to take a picture .. damm cats! lol

This was Jenn's first exchange with the Fair and Square group and she was a bit worried about stitching for someone else ... well after receiving these lovely squares, I can say that anyone that gets partnered with Jenn will not be disappointed. I had so much fun getting to know Jenn during this round .. thanks for stitching these wonderful squares for me!

I leave for Myrtle Beach, SC for the Pals Fall Fling (stitching retreat) in two weeks .. and I'm sooo not ready! I'm off to watch Hero's and work on my Christmas ornaments .. actually I haven't started any ornaments, I need to pull some patterns, fabric and floss and get to stitching!

I hope everyone had a great weekend .. I know there's so much going on that we really don't have any control over. I really hope that those in power take their time and put together a plan that we can all support .. as scary as the outlook seems .. if it's not a well thought out plan I fear we will be right back here in another year.

Thanks for all the comments, it's nice seeing old friends and meeting new friends :)

I'm grateful for wonderful fall weather ...

Happy 2nd Anniversary Chris and Monica ...

Can't believe it's been 2 years already! Seems like just yesterday that Monica became a member of our family. It's been such fun having a daughter in law :)

Aren't they the cutest couple!



Last May they took a trip to visit their friend Jay in London. Here's a picture from their overnight trip to Paris .. what fun!


My hope for you both is that you can always remember how you felt on that very special day ..

An anniversary is a time to celebrate the joys of today, the memories of yesterday, and the hopes of tomorrow (one of my favorite quotes).

Love, Mom

I'm grateful my son found someone that is his equal in every way ...

Lots of Stuff ...

Oh where to start .. it's Sunday night and I had a very nice, busy week and an awesome weekend. Let's start with some stitching .. yep, stitching! I finished two Fair and Square exchanges last week .. only one has arrived at it's new owner, Jennifer. Here's the little bunny I stitched for her ... she had this design on her wish list .. it was a very fun stitch (I stole this picture from Jenn's blog, I mailed off both my exchanges before taking pictures of them ... grrrrrrr lol. This was Jenn's first round in the Fair and Square exchanges. I hope she enjoyed it, I know I enjoyed getting to know her, even if she is a Dallas Cowboy fan! lol .. I seem to be meeting lots of new stitchers that are rival football fans *smile*

I'm making progress on the L*K Double Flipits ... I'm on Laugh now, and then there's only Create and Live left .. my deadline is this coming weekend .. we'll see if that happens! lol

This last weekend I had a great girls weekend with two very dear friends, Lisa and Yvonne. You've heard me talk about Lisa alot. Yvonne, Lisa and I went to high school together. Yvonne and I were roommates after we graduated high school. After high school we lost track of Lisa, and a couple of years later, I lost track of Yvonne. Because we all still lived in the general area .. every once in a while we'd cross paths, but never reconnected. About 7 years after high school, Lisa and I reconnected and have been pretty close ever since .. but we only saw Yvonne at high school reunions .. and after a lot of I miss you and let's get together soon .. well it never seemed to happen, life always got in the way somehow. We graduated in 1972. Our class decided to have a 35th reunion instead of waiting for 40. Again, we really enjoyed seeing Yvonne that evening and swore we would meet for lunch soon. Well, surprise surprise .. this time we did keep in touch and meet for lunch about 3 times in the last year. The last time we met for lunch we talked about how great a long weekend away would be .. just the 3 of us ... and you know what, we actually made it happen! We left on Friday and returned today (Sunday). Ocean Shores is about 3 hours from us. We arrived about 3, checked in and headed to the beach for a nice long walk. Then it was back to our room for margaritas and cribbage .. Lisa kicked out butts! lol Saturday was morning walking on the beach, some shopping, a nap and then off to the casino. The slot machines were very mean to us, but we drank and laugh and hit spin anyway. Of course Sunday had to come and we had to get back to reality .. but I have to say this girls weekend was really fun and relaxing, and it was wonderful to spend time with Yvonne like that. We are definately planning to do it again *smile* Here's a few pictures ... first it's Yvonne and Lisa playing around ...

Here's Lisa and I .. sure was windy! lol

and here's Yvonne and I ... yes, Yvonne is the silly one :) lol

I love finding rocks and shells on the beach. We found a lot of sand dollars this trip .. gotta figure out something to do with them.

Thanks for all your comments on my new red bag .. I can't wait to use it! And welcome to new visitors to my blog .. I really enjoy getting to meet all of you. I'm off to settle in and watch Army Wives and do a little stitching.

I'm grateful for girlfriends and the weekends away ...