Hello 2008!!!

It has been a long time since I last posted. Almost 4 months. One of my New Year's Resolution's is to keep this blog up weekly.

Kids are settled in their new school and I am became settled also with participating a little bit more through the PTA. Especially anything that needs printing services. Holidays have gone by. A little more sad this year.....BIL passed away at the beginning of December. He was 550 pounds and the doctors kept telling him to loose the weight or else there was no hope for him. I guess he could not bring himself to really diet. Then I find out that my Dad that I haven't seen or spoke to in over 30 years passed away. He never kept in touch. It was like he died when he left us. So I didn't know how to feel about that. Then my MIL had a bad case of pneumonia which she went in to the hospital on Christmas. It was touch and go there for awhile. She is doing way better now. Kids went back to school and things are starting to settle back down to normal...if life could be normal with little boys around.

Brandon's birthday is this Tuesday. He will be 8 yrs. old. WOW. Can't believe that. I can actually have a conversation with him about life. He is such a good boy. So proud of him. Ryan on the other hand is out going and getting into a little more trouble then his brother ever thought about doing. So this is a new one for me too. We are working through his habits....and over all he is a good kid too.

I'm getting ready to go to Minnesota here in March. Merry is teaching at the MN Guild in Minneapolis. I am taking A Beautiful Day in Williamsburg, Flowers in the Fall, and a Shepherd's Sewing Case. I am so excited about this. Then she is teaching in Arkansas in 2009. I am so happy that Kay has become such good friends with her. I was going to take her class in Williamsburg this year...but Kay e-mailed me from W'burg that Merry had announced she was not teaching there this year. She has another new Grandbaby and wants to spend a little bit more time with her too. I was depressed but a neat thing happened and I guess this was meant to be. I have been wanting to stitch a Reproduction Sampler for a long time. I wanted to read about the history of them before I actually picked out one to do....I just haven't had time. In the mean time...I have all the SANQ magazines and have not read one article in them. I have decided that I would start with #1 and continue until I have read them all. In the first one is an article about Joanne Harvey. I had heard of the Loara Standish sampler but never new the history or who actually designed it. Remember I have not really had the time to do the research to decide which one I wanted to stitch. Well after reading this article about the Standish being the oldest known signed American needlework...this is the one I wanted to do. Also what was the neat thing is that when you bought the kit there was a card that if you sent it back in with a picture of the Standish finished Joanne would send it to the Plymouth Hall Museum where this sampler is located and it would be archived with the other that have stitched this sampler. My husband though this was the neatest thing and said once my name is in the archives we should take a trip up there to see the original sampler. I said I'm all game. Anyway....I had looked and at the moment the kit for silk was over $300....which was a little pricey for me right now. (This is all the while Kay is in W'burg and I had been e-mailing her back and forth about this sampler.)
I had asked my good friend Deb if she had this sampler. She said she did. Great. I wanted to borrow this to look it over. In the mean time.....Kay had e-mailed me and said that she about fell out of her chair when this announcement had been made at W'burg at one of the dinners. Joanne Harvey is teaching the Loara Standish this year at W'burg. My jaw dropped on the floor at work and I squealed with joy. My friend Lori was asking what the deal was. I think it was fate that Merry was not going to be there and that I can take this class instead. So I am very excited about this opportunity too. And I'm doing a new project at work that will require some over time. Which is perfect timing for paying for this. Whoopee!!!

Anyway I have posted 2008 goals to the side, and since this is long winded today I will post again next Sunday with WIP's. Hope everyone transitioned well into the new year and hopefully you are writing 2008 now instead of 2007.

Happy Stitching.
Thomasina