I headed down to La Jolla over the weekend with my non-blogging stitchy friend, Lindsay. We had a great time! She’s a fellow IT weenie, so we had lots of fun stories to share with each other during the drive down and back.

When we arrived on Friday night, we immediately drove over to Needle Nook of La Jolla for a bit of shopping before going to the hotel. We got there about a half hour before they were closing, so we didn’t have a whole lot of time to look around that night. The shop is divided into two different storefronts on the same block, and we only made it through the first one. We did go back later in the weekend and did a bit more damage in the second half of the store though. ;)

During the course of the two trips, I ended up with a good selection of neutral over-dyes in my quest to still find the last few I need for my Mary Wigham sampler. I also picked up a Namaste Buddy Case. These things are so cool! Each side is magnetic, so things like scissors and needles are held in place. Now, I wouldn’t recommend turning it upside down or anything as the magnets are that strong, but it is enough to keep things from just randomly falling out. I don’t think anyone would ever realize this case wasn’t actually leather if you didn’t tell them. It’s really nice faux leather!

The main purpose of the trip was to attend the 2009 Stitch In hosted by the San Diego chapter of the American Needlepoint Guild. The project for this year was a frame weight design called Multiplicity taught by my friend & local teacher, Margaret Bendig. Here is my progress as of last night:

As you can see, I opted for a neutral color palette for my frame weight. She did offer it in a variety of different color options. I snapped a photo of several of the finished models with my iPhone, so it’s not the greatest in the world. Here is it though to show how differently this piece looks done in different colorways:

The orange/brown combination wasn’t a option for us at the class. After seeing that version though, it really makes me want to stitch this again in orange & black for Halloween.

In addition to our class kits, Lindsay and I both walked away some goodies, too. Lindsay won a bit basket full of Southwest-inspired canvases & fibers in one of the opportunity ticket drawings. She entered about three different drawings, and actually won the one that she wanted the most, so that was very cool. Sadly, I completely spaced and forgot to take a picture of what she won.

While I didn’t win any of the three opportunity ticket drawings I entered, I did win a door prize. I got a set of three Lizzie Kate Seasonal Boxers. The bundle included Spring, Summer, and Winter. I clearly need to buy the Autumn kit now. ;)

One of the ladies who was taking the class is walking in the San Diego 3-day Cancer Walk in November. Her granddaughter made a bunch of scissor fobs for her to sell to help raise money for her and her teammates for the walk. She was only charging $5 each for them, so Lindsay and I each bought a couple of the fobs. Since it was going to a really good cause and they weren’t that expensive to begin with, I chipped in some extra donation to help out her team.

On Saturday night after class, Lindsay and I headed up to Carlsbad to hit the outlet mall for some shopping. We only went to Crate & Barrel (very disappointing) and the Fossil store. Neither of us bought anything at C&B since it wasn’t very thrilling, but we had no trouble spending money at Fossil. Lindsay picked up a couple of cool watches, and I picked up a watch & a purse. We talked about hitting the Coach and Dooney & Bourke stores, but ended up deciding against it. We figured we’d spent enough money already during the weekend. Here are a couple of pics of what I bought:

After we left Fossil, we decided we would drive over to King’s Fish House for dinner. I started rifling through my purse to get my keys, but I couldn’t find them. I looked into the car and my heart just about sank when I saw them sitting in the seat. No worries I thought, I just use my AAA keycard that I keep in my wallet. It was then that I remembered I pulled it out recently when I went on vacation to help reduce the bulk in my wallet. I meant to put it back in my wallet when I got home from vacation, but completely forgot. So, no keycard. Instead, I had to call AAA and have them send someone out to rescue us. Thankfully, from the time I placed the call until we were driving to the restaurant was only 25 minutes! AAA FTW!!!

Well, this is turning into a novella at this point. I will end by saying we made it safely home and had a great time this weekend!

Until next time …

I haven’t gotten around to uploading and posting pics of my vacation … yet. I will get to it eventually. I promise. In the meantime, until that actually happens, I wanted to share another vacation-related pic.

During the whole Michigan road trip extravaganza, one of the stops we made was in Holland, MI. There was a little fair trade store there called The Bridge that had the cutest stuff. As soon as I saw this little set of whitewashed terra cotta bunnies, I knew I had to have them. Aren’t they just adorable?!!

They are made in Bangladesh and are distributed by Ten Thousand Villages. They came in a little jute bag which I plan to put to use in the future in an exchange or as perhaps a little gift bag. I know it’s difficult to tell what size they are from the photo, so I took another photo which included a US quarter for scale. You can see that photo here if you are interested.

If any of the other bunny lovers out there are interested, the set is available via the TTV website. Here is the direct link to the bunny set.

I also picked up this Inspirational Paperweight they had in the store. These are made in India and are also distributed by Ten Thousand Villages. I got the word Strength as a reminder to myself that I AM a strong woman and can do anything to which I set my mind.

They sold them individually at the store, but they are available as a set via the TTV website at this direct link. The set includes stones with the following six words: joy, strength, hope, wisdom, love and peace.

In stitching news, I do have a finish but can’t share the photo yet. It’s for the summer round of the Fair & Square exchange. I still need to stitch the second square with my name before I can mail it off to April. Once that’s done and she receives it, I’ll post a pic.

Lastly, I’m doing pretty well getting myself back on track at Weight Watchers following my vacation. I went several weeks without going to a meeting and it definitely showed when I got back home. I picked myself up, dusted myself off, and got myself back on track though. At my weigh in on Sunday, I was down 4 pounds.

Lastly, as I know many of you are aware based on the emails I’ve received, I’m still having issues with my online photo albums. I did manage to get about 90+% of the photos restored, but there is still clearly some sort of corruption going on with the database. Rather than continuing to try and troubleshoot the problem, I decided this is definitely the time to take advantage of moving everything over to my thedailymel.com domain as I’d been planning to do anyway. It’s definitely going to take some time, so the old albums won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. From this point forward though, all the photos I upload in the future will be going into the new albums. Here is the link for that:

http://www.thedailymel.com/pics

Oh, and this would be the perfect time to remind others to do as I say and not as I do. Back up your files … OFTEN! My last backup of my photo albums was late February of this year. Accordingly, all of the photos I had uploaded since that time had to be recreated. Please don’t make my same mistake. kthx!

I guess that’s it for now. Until next time …

I’m still on vacation (heading home tonight), but wanted to take a minute to post about an awesome stitchy giveaway. This one is definitely worth entering!

The online cross stitch shop Volarium is giving away a copy of “Cross Stitch Letters Bible” by Valerie Lejeune. I recently thumbed through this book at my LNS and drooled over all the various alphabets.

The book has over 700 pages and contains over 800 alphabets! It retails for $52, but this is someone’s chance to win it for free. You have until July 19 to enter. Full details of the giveaway can be found in this post on their blog.

As I mentioned at the start of this post, I’m still on vacation. I’ll try and post again in a few days when I’m back home with pics from the Ellen Chester class I took as well as some vacation photos.

I will close with a couple of teaser photos from my vacation. The first is a close-up shot of cherries growing in an orchard located at the Chateau Chantal winery just north of Traverse City, Michigan on the Old Mission Peninsula. The second photo is of the Old Mission Point Lighthouse found at the end of the peninsula. I’ll share more details about both of these locations in a forthcoming vacation wrap-up post.

Until next time …

Sorry for not posting in a while. I left last Thursday afternoon and was out of town for nearly a week visiting my friend Tracy up in eastern Washington. Even though she was feeling a bit under the weather, we still had a great visit.

On Friday, we headed over to Pasco for the day. I had an appointment with her brother Kevin to get another tattoo. I had him do a piece in memory of my beloved grandmother. She grew beautiful irises and loved hummingbirds, so that was the inspiration for the design. Lastly, I had him add in “Gran” in a nice script since that’s what I always called her. Here’s a pic of the finish product taken immediately after he finished it:

The colors are a bit softer now that it’s healed for a little over a week. I’ll take another photo to post once the healing process is completed. I know you can’t really tell from the pic, but it’s on the side of my right thigh about halfway up. As a size reference, it’s probably about 6″ across at the widest part.

On Saturday we just kind of hung around at Tracy’s house. I got in quite a bit of good stitching time on Moonlit Garden. It’s the Loose Feathers #22 design from Blackbird Designs. Here’s my latest WIP photo of this design:

Design: Moonlit Garden (Loose Feathers #22)
Designer: Blackbird Designs
Fabric: 30-count Broomstick Brown from R&R Reproductions
Fibers: Weeks Dye Works
Progress as of June 23, 2009

On Sunday, we headed over to Seattle. Her dad was riding in the 100-mile Livestrong Challenge, so we went over to be his cheerleaders. Even though he had to ride through some rain and a bit of hail at one point, he still finished the full 100-mile ride and raised nearly $1000, too! WTG Jim!! Here’s a photo I snapped of him right after he finished the ride:

Monday was my last full day in Washington. We just kind of took is easy most of the day. We did head over to Moses Lake mid-afternoon to take in a movie. We went to see “The Proposal” and had a great time. It was a really fun chick-flick to see together. Of course, it didn’t hurt that it starred hunky Ryan Reynolds either. Oh yeah, Sandra Bullock was in it, too. The main cast was rounded out with Craig T. Nelson, Mary Steenburgen, and Betty White (who was hilarious!). In an ironic twist of art imitating life, Reynolds is actually a Canadian married to an American (Scarlett Johansson).

After the movie, we headed back over to Tracy’s place and spent the rest of the day just hanging out and watching TV. We both did a bit of stitching, too. Tracy spent some time working on Psalm 145 from Little House Needleworks. Instead of working on Moonlit Garden again, I did a bit of guest stitcher work on her Sistine Chapel project. I’m still amazed she decided to undertake this project, but I must admit that it was kind of cool to put some stitches in it. Here’s a photo of me working on it with the full 2.5 yards of linen sitting in my lap. Following that is a photo showing what I stitched on the piece.

That’s pretty much it for the photos from my trip that I’m going to post to my blog. If you want to see more, you can find them here.

I’m also nearly a week late posting my monthly photo for the Totally Useless SAL. The new moon fell on June 22, but I was still out of town at the time. I actually haven’t had much time for stitching since I got home, so even though it’s nearly a week late, it’s still pretty accurate.

In this photo, I temporarily set my ort bucket on my canvas WIP of Plum Blossom Kimono by Margaret Bendig. This is a class that I’m taking through my LNS, and I’m behind on my stitching right now due to my vacations. Canvas projects just don’t travel as compactly as cross stitching projects. ;) You might also notice the quarter on the canvas. It’s not actually sitting on the canvas. It’s a needle park that was given to me by my friend Cindi. It’s a California state quarter mounted to a rare earth magnet. She gave one to my BSF Darla, too. You can see a better photo of it here.

Now that I’ve rambled on so much, I thought I should finally explain why I used “Updating on the Run” as the subject for this post. Even though I was on vacation last week, I’m heading out again tonight. I have an all-day class with Ellen Chester at the LNS today, but then I’ll be catching the red-eye to Detroit tonight to spend some time with my friend Nick. I’ll be there for nine days, and I’m not sure how much time I’ll have for updating my blog while I’m gone. If you want to know what’s going on with me, the best option would be to follow my Twitter feed (info in the side bar on the right).

Well, that’s it for now. I desperately need to get into bed since I have such a long day tomorrow. I still need to finish packing, too. Eek!

Until next time …

It’s late so I’m not going to take time to write a long post. I had a wonderful time on my weekend cruise. There was lots of socializing, but lots of stitching time, too.

We had an option of two class pieces. One was a cross stitch needlebook and the other was a counted canvas piece. I decided to start the needlebook piece while I was on the ship and do the canvas piece at a future date. I was pretty shocked that I was actually able to get the stitching on the needlebook completely finished by lunch on Sunday. My focus this weekend will be on assembling it. Here’s a photo of the finished stitching:

After I finished stitching on the needlebook, I decided to start another new project that has been calling my name since I picked up the charts a couple of weeks ago. It’s Boo Club from Lizzie Kate. I’m loving it so far!

I do have a lot more photos of the cruise up in my online photo albums. If you’re interested in seeing those, you can find them here:

Ensenada Cruise Photos

That’s it for now. I hope you all had a great weekend and enjoyed my pre-published posts that popped up as I was away.

Well, actually, on the sea again. I’ll be leaving tomorrow for a 3-day weekender Carnival cruise from Long Beach down to Ensenada, Mexico and then back. It’s a stitching cruise put together by my LNS, and I’m really looking for to it! There are about 20 of us going, and I’ll be rooming with my good buddy Darla.

In preparation for the trip, I headed over to Target tonight to pick up a few travel size goods. There was a who aisle full of options, but I finally found everything I needed.

I also found something else I didn’t necessarily need but have been wanting. I picked up a new piece of luggage. The fabric on the side of my largest bag (28″ pullman) in my current set got ripped a few years ago during a flight down to Mazatlan. It recently got torn again back October during my trip to Hawaii.

I’d previously just kept a piece of duct tape over the ripped fabric since the bag itself was still structurally sound. The duct tape actually made it pretty quick to find on the baggage carousel as well. After the latest rip though, it would mean a piece of tape going pretty much the entire height of the bag, so I decided it was probably time to just fork over the money and get a new one.

I ended up with a 24″ upright on four 360 degree spinning wheels. It’s by Swiss Gear from Wenger (the Swiss Army Knife people) My previous bag only had two wheels on one edge which meant tipping it over to wheel it around, so I still had to deal with a good portion of the weight of the bag/contents. With the four wheel system, I don’t have to do that. All I have to do it control the direction of where it’s rolling. Yay!!

There is actually a smaller wheeled duffle bag that matches the pullman. I didn’t get it for this trip, but think I may go back and pick it up at some point. Having those two pieces would pretty much handle all of my luggage needs and I could donate the four pieces, not counting the torn one, from my other set to Goodwill.

Well, it’s time for me to get into bed. I still have some more packing to do in the morning before heading over to the port to get on the ship.

I do have a couple of other photos that I want to share, so I’ll set those to publish while I’m away. Once I get back on Monday, I’ll likely be sharing cruise pics for at least a couple of days next week. ;)

Have a great weekend!

I’m having an AMAZING time with my friends in Hawai’i. So much so that we’ve decided to come back again next year! I’m not going to take the time to post details right now, but I thought I would share a few favorite pics. Mahalo and enjoy!

View from the lanai at our condo:

International Market Place and surrounding area:

Picking out pearl settings at The Pearl Factory with the help of Cousin Grant (left) and Cousin Wayne (right):

Result of our efforts:

Paradise Cove Luau:

Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve: (place we went snorkeling)

Well, that’s it for now. I’ll write up more details after I get back home on Sunday.

in my beautiful, my beautiful …. balloon! I had an AMAZING experience yesterday! My friend who is visiting surprised me with a sunrise hot air balloon ride over wine country in Temecula, CA. It was awesome!! Here are a couple of pics taken during the ride. As always, you can click on each photo for a larger view.

Wilson Creek Winery

If you want to see all of the pics, you can view them here.

I’m not sure if I’ll have a chance to update my blog much over the next week. I’m leaving tomorrow for vacation in Hawaii with Terri and Tracy. I can update my blog from my iPhone, so I might try to at least post a couple of updates, but there probably won’t be anything substantial until after I get back.

So, until next time …

Well, I did it. I broke down and ordered a wetsuit today. I’m already dreading trying it on when it arrives, but I just keep reminding myself that really no one looks good in a wetsuit. Well, ok, so maybe fitness models and elite triathletes look good in wetsuits, but pretty much no one else does.

Since I live in southern California, I opted for a spring suit instead of a full suit. I ordered an O’Neill Reactor suit (part of their multi-sport line) from Becker Surfboards. I pretty much decided on the spring suit for a few different reasons:

1. It should provide plenty of warmth for the waters here.
2. It was more affordable than a full suit.
3. It should fit better since I had to order a men’s suit.

Yeah, that third item was the most depressing. For anyone who cares to know, it’s pretty much impossible to find a women’s triathlon wetsuit if you are a plus size. Even though I’ve lost over 75 pounds, I’m still very much a plus size and there just isn’t much to be found out there in my size as far as tri gear goes.

My friend Nick flew back home yesterday. We had a great time while he was here. The trip to Palm Springs & Joshua Tree was amazing! As feared, when we took the aerial tram up on to Mount San Jacinto, we did face temps around 30°F and falling snow. We didn’t let it deter us though as we still went out and had a nice hike for just over an hour. Here are a couple of pics (click on each for a larger view):

Snow … in May?! WTF?!?!?

Me at the mountain station of the tram (8516′ elevation)

I came from Detroit to southern California for THIS?!

Tram up to the mountain (definitely click this one to see it full size)

After enjoying a day in the snow, the next day we headed into the desert at Joshua Tree National Park. The temperatures there was definitely far below the norm as well. Normal high temperatures for this time of the year is in the low to mid-90’s F. It was in the 60’s most of the day, but did dip down into the upper 50’s at one point when we went up to Keys View (5185′ elevation). Here are a few pics from that day:

Joshua Tree Welcome Center

Beaver Tail Cactus in Bloom

Forest of Joshua Trees

Self-Portrait of Nick Chilling Out

Hiking on the Lost Horse Mine Trail

Well, I guess that’s enough for now. I really need to head off to bed since it’s back to work full-time tomorrow. After working part-time the past couple of weeks while Nick was here, working a full week again is going to be a rude reality check.

Until next time …

My friend Nick and I arrived safely in Palm Springs after driving through a horrific thunderstorm in Moreno Valley. We heard later there was apparently a tornado that went through not long after us, so we’re really thankful we didn’t caught up in that!

Our plan for tomorrow is to take the aerial tram up to the top of Mount San Jacinto. Imagine my surprise when we got out here and found out there’s still SNOW up there and the forecasted high for tomorrow is only 40°F. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr!! I’m not sure I brought warm enough clothing for those conditions!

The hotel we’re staying at doesn’t offer free WiFi, but I managed to locate a signal out on the balcony. So, after having gone to one of my favorite vegan restaurants for dinner, I’m now sitting here on our balcony enjoying all the hub-bub from an English pub on the street below and doing a lot of people watching on a very pleasant spring-like evening. Nick is inside doing a bit of cross-stitching while I finish this post. After that, we’re planning to play a bit of Gin Rummy or Canasta. Life is good.

Until next time …