California Update

Have been in California for a little over a week and it has been so busy.  I am STILL unpacking from the painting last year and am making donations to charity.  I decided I no longer need most of the cook books and cooking magazines I have accumulated.  I never open them anymore and everything seems to be on line.  So, off to the used book store they go.

We also discovered that the RV will not fit in our driveway nor in the driveway that Robert had made up the hill.  It is too steep. (laughing uncontrollably).  Guess being in finance and not engineering is showing itself.  Right now the RV is parked in DIL's driveway up the hill, which is somewhat inconvenient, as I always seem to find something else that is in the RV.

I have also been working to consolidate my stitching stash.  What I brought from Texas and what was here in California.  It is overwhelming.  I have enough kits, enough fabric and enough patterns to last me until I am well over 200 years old at my current stitching rate.  And it took me an entire 8 hours to organize and log all the floss (just the DMC).   Crazy.

I am putting myself on a stitching stuff diet.  Well, sort of.  I am determined not to get any more patterns and/or kits until I get some finishes under my belt.  All this organizing and such has left me little stitching time so I have not made much progress for the past couple of weeks. 

I did start organizing the Books Reading Books HAED project and cannot wait to start it.  I am intimidated by the fabric, so I ordered some 18 count aida in case I cannot get the hang of the fabric that came with the kit.  Daunting!  I also had to order two new scrolls because my max length was 20 inches and I need at least 22.  And I put the first 16 colors on bobbins.   This will probably take me several years to finish.

I also kitted up the Welcome Friends in Celtic that I want to do for my nephew and his wife.  I decided to change the  colors over to DMC and some of them are not even close!  So, I may delay starting this project as I need to get some threads for it.  I will post a photo of it once I start it.

I made some progress on Woodland Enchantress.  This project has been my focus this week.  It is kind of slow going although I am liking how it is coming out.  I am using the System 44 stand (I think that is what it is called) to see how it is going to work for me.  Since I had to put the project side ways on the scroll frame, it is a little awkward to stitch.  The floor standing is helping some, but it is still not so comfortable.  Another reason I ordered the longer scroll bars.  This is the second project I have had to put sideways on the frame. It is about 1/4 done at this point. 

 

I put the Santa and Mouse HAED project I am doing on my American Dream lap frame that was here in California and it is going OK.  Still slow progress.  It has not dampened my enthusiasm for the large project from HAED that I will start soon.

 

And Bay Dunes was the project I worked on during the trip.  It is coming along nicely.  I did some of the back stitching while I was listening to Grandgirl nap the other day.  The babysitting is PERFECT as I can stitch without guilt.  Nothing else to do but listen to the little gal sleep!  Loving it.

I have found that my magnifying light that I love is just not working for me here.  It works like a charm in Texas, but the chair I use here in California is wider.  So, I ordered a new light.  Just what I need, right?   It came in yesterday and is still in the box so the jury is out on how well it is going to work.

That is it for now.  I will do another update in November (only 2 days away, yikes) sometime.  Hopefully I will have a finish or two before that.  I wanted to finish Bay Dunes by the end of October, but that isn't going to happen.

Am really enjoying time with the Grand Girls, but I miss the river more than I thought.  It seems there are many more demands on my time here in CA.  The pace if definitely faster and everyone is in a hurry.  We have a lot more going on so perhaps it is my imagination.

More as it happens

Thanks for visiting.