Vacation's Over

June just flew right by it seemed! Probably due to the kids being out of school, us having company for a week, and then heading out a few days later on vacation.

Thankfully we were able to head out a few days early to see my husband's sister, her husband, and their kids! It'd been a couple of years since we'd seen them and 3 since we saw her husband. We had a wonderful time. DH's two older sisters were there with their families and they all came down and spent the night. It was one full house Saturday night! DH's twin brother wasn't there though. He lives in CA and it's a bit of a drive for him. Heck, it's about 16-17 hours for us and we're in SD!

I did get to stitch more on my Grimm, Glum, and Gloom while there, but I haven't yet finished it. The thing that drove me nuts though was that I had spent the week before leaving trying to get all my orders done and then when it came to packing, I was furious throwing stuff in bags. I'm surprised I had a complete outfit when I got there! So, yeah, uhhhhhm, don't pack your cross stitching gear quickly. My lesson learned. I left one skein of a Caron thread I needed at home. I was able to finish up the haunted house and backstitch it and then I went to stitch the clouds and....NOTHING! I couldn't find that damn thread! I was so upset with myself!

After spending a week with my husband's family, we drove a couple hours south to visit my family. While there, I was asked to make an appearance at a cross stitching retreat that was going on in Indianapolis. I agreed to go and had made up little sample fabrics for everyone to have and brought some little charts too. I was a little nervous because I didn't really know anyone, though I had emailed with one lady who is a customer of mine several times. I had told my husband that I'd probably only be an hour or two not knowing people. Ok, I'll admit it. I'm shy. No, no, I know it's hard to believe, but really I am! Once I get to know you, you can't shut me up, but until then, I'm a little shy. So I got there, and met people and met the lady I'd emailed with and sat down to stitch and then a couple of the gals asked me to go with them to one of the local LNS' there and show off my fabrics. So I did that and then they said we were kind of halfway between another one if I wanted to go there too. (Who are they kidding?! I have NO LNS, of course I want to go to ALL of them!!!) I was able to leave some samples at one shop where the owner had left for the day and I was able to speak to the owners of the other shop and purchase a few things! We were called while there because, the designer of Rosewood Manor had come to the retreat and they wanted me to come back to meet her. So we hustled back to the hotel and it was just lovely meeting her! I left 5 hours after getting there! I couldn't believe it! I had such a great time though :)

I did learn something there too. They were having a pinkeep class going on and I watched and took mental notes. To me, it looked so complicated when I'd seen them finished, but when I got home, I got all the pieces together and did one myself! Here is the front side:



Here is the back side:



It was so fun to make and I can't wait to do another small design to make into one of those!

Well, I'd better get back to work. I'll snap a picture of my GGG later this weekend. Hopefully it'll be done!