This past year has been a year of taking breaks. Breaks from my blog, breaks from a lot of Nook time . . . and breaks from the guild. I took the entire last year off from guild (our guild year runs from September through August), and all of the 'serving' that goes with it! I tried to take a break from just the serving, but quickly saw that it needed to be an "all or nothing" thing.
That being said, the first meeting of the 2016-2017 guild year was last Thursday, and there was a national guest speaker.
Lisa Bongean came to visit us!! For sure and for certain, I was at the doors promptly at 6:30 with my membership renewal check in hand. It was great to see lots of happy, familiar faces, and some new ones, too. The program was wonderful and I gleaned a few new tips about working with wool that will come in handy. And of course, her trunk show was completely yummy! I took a lot of pics, but I'll just share this one . . .
Because it bears relevance to my *purchases* of the evening:
The book she gifted to each member in attendance -- wasn't that generous??!
I couldn't help but pick up the Christmas in a Jar ornaments kit -- that's three ornaments right there!! And the pattern is the pumpkin table runner.
No surprise there, right?! Gracious, she has tons of fun stuff. The little wool Santa pattern was not hers, but actually a freebie I snagged off our "free to a good home" table:
I thought he'd make a fine ornament to add to the growing collection! Anyway, it was a fun evening and I was glad to be back among quilty friends.
Friday, Todd and I hit the lake. He fished the day away and I read, stitched, colored, studied, read some more and stitched some more. LOL! The color of autumn has just begun to kiss the trees on the shoreline . . .
And the moon coming up as we were coming in was simply glorious!
I got some work done on my Santa (from last week):
The jury is still out on this one. I've lost the yellow star which I'd already stitched, but I wasn't really pleased with it, so I don't mind doing that one over. There is a lot of stitching on the beard, but it's tough to see in photos . . .
In a week I may have given up! But for now I'll persevere; if nothing else, it will give me something ready to stitch on this afternoon.
I spent yesterday at my folk's house. It's SO nice having them close by!! Mom and I baked the cake on the cover of the current Southern Living, while the Alabama vs. Ole Miss game was on. Or rather, Mom baked while I paced and shouted and jumped up and down. Yes. I'm that fan. Not in a bad or ugly way, just a wholly involved way.
But the cake turned out *beautifully*! And she gifted me with half to take home! Wasn't that sweet?! Fall baking with my mom and a Crimson Tide win . . . Saturdays just don't get much better than that!
My stash report remains unchanged from last week . . .
A lot of zeros up there. And can you believe we're 38 weeks into 2016? Do you know there are only FOURTEEN more Saturdays until Christmas?! And one of those is Christmas Eve! Hahaha!! And on that note . . . linking up to Patchwork Times and Kathy's Quilts. Y'all enjoy the day!
:)
