Surprise in the Mail!

I went through my mail last night - I have the habit of just picking it up and throwing it in a basket, then going through it once a week - I got the nicest RAK from Cindy - this cute little "modern biscornu" along with the prettiest Rosewood Manor chart! I didn't take a picture of the chart, but here is the back of the little biscornu!

Thank you sooo much Cindy!!!

On the job front, I got to admit I am pretty bored since more than half of what I normally do all day has been taken away. It' going to get worse after this week because a lot of the reports and analysis I do is going to stop. The plan however is to lay low and stay under the radar. Our Finance department is still here - albeit on the other side - and I've made it my personal goal to see how long I can go before they decide to give me something to do. LOL.

Last night we were at the Cupboard again for the weekly SAL. I brought the Lighthouses of Florida. It is virtually completely backstitched now. I didn't finish it because I noticed that there were 5 cross stitches - two in one lighthoues and three in another that needed to be stitched before continuing and I had not brought those threads. (sigh) Otherwise, I would have another Happy Dance to report.

Instead, I resumed stitching on the Sunshine State Sampler. I stitched all the fruits, save the lime. Between the two pieces, it was not bad progress for only two hours of stitching (with a little shopping in between).

This week, February's Snapper (Bent Creek Red Thread series) came in. The shop wants me to stitch this as a model for them. I also picked up the latest Stoney Creek magazine. But the major purchase of the night was the embroidery book from "Sublime Stitching". I've been eyeing this book for a while, and visiting the website and thought I'd like to try some embroidery out. I embroidered a looooong time ago, back when I was a kid, and I haven't touched it again since. Some of my friends also do punchneedle and there is a class this weekend on it at my LNS, but frankly, I don't get it. Why would I want to make a minituare rug of anything?

While I am on the subject of other crafts, this weekend while I was at Borders or Barnes & Noble (not sure which - yes, I go to two bookstores in one day - lol) I was looking at the craft section, which is full of knitting books nowadays, but I saw something that startled me... a book on, of all things, MACRAME!!! And here I thought it had died with the hippies. The book was called "The New Macrame" and instead of making plant hangers, they are using finer ropes and incorporating macrame into jewelery, beading and home accessories. I will admit to having made a plant hanger and a handbag as a teenager in the late 70s. It was fun to make all those knots, but I think if the knots were smaller you wouldn't really appreciate what went into making them and the point of pursuing this as a "craft" would be moot.