Ahhhh Friday :)

We are having very typical Washington spring weather this week ... it rains, it's sunny, it rains and thunders, and then sunny again. Gotta love Mother Nature! Speaking of Mother Nature ... how awesome was the Grand Canyon. The pictures just don't tell you the entire story. It's more awesome that I ever imagined. If you've never been, go! and if you have been, go again! lol .. here's just a view pictures .. I know you've been bored to tears hearing out our trip! lol .. there's a lot more in my webshots album if you want to see ...

The clouds were so fluffy ...

still snow hanging around ...

I love this view of the Colorado River through the trees ...

and yes, they do wash their hands! lol .. I couldn't resist a picture in the bathroom ...

my GCGC GF's .. love you all!

and here's the bears that greeted us at the cabin .. what a great place to say goodbye :)

Of course we all bought little gifts for each other. Chris brought us each a new scissor fob .. she knows I love Halloween ...

here's some goodies from Karen ...

and this little sweetie is from Ruth .. love the flamingos :)

We had a grab bag exchange the first time at the cabin .. I received Ruth's grab bag. Her grab bag had a theme ... California ... She had re-names all the Belle Soie silks with California things and the fabrics had names too! We were all in hysterics reading all of them!

When we were planning our Arizona trip we were talking about some stitching things we would like to do or to learn. Karen's gotta to be such an expert with coffee dyeing fabric and making floss tags we decided to do both. The first night we arrived at the cabin (Friday) was grab bag exchange and floss tag construction. We were supposed to stitch our tags before getting to AZ and then put them together with Karen. Ruth, Chris and Karen got theirs done .. mine wasn't working out so well so Karen said she'd finish it for me. I was outlining with only one thread instead of two. I couldn't pick up a stitch! I will be making more though .. very fun relaxing finish! Saturday night, late, we decided to try coffee dyeing. We all had a blast! I think I want to get this a little darker, but I'm going to stitch Coffin Buzz by Plum Street Samplers. I think it'll be really nice .. don't you?!

and this is a piece of VERY orange fabric that was in my stash .. I thought the coffee would tone it down a bit and would be perfect for a Halloween design .. I just love how it turned out!

I do have stitching to show but I'll leave that for another post .. this one got kinda big in a hurry! lol

Thank you all for your fun comments ... I really enjoy hearing from everyone. Hope you have a great weekend .. looks like we are having sun all weekend! woo hoo!

I hope you find your joy in your stitches ...

I'm grateful for spring days ...

Arizona ... Day 2

I forgot to include a picture in yesterdays post .. a very important picture of our dear sweet Sharon with needle in hand. See, Sharon is the mom of a delightful 18 month old little boy, Josh. Like so many of us when our kids were young, a needle and thread and floss in hand was a rare occassion. This picture is proof that Sharon does stitch .. in fact she was the first of us to finish the piece Karen designed for us ... Cheers Sharon!

Day 2 was our road trip to Karen's LNS, The Attic. Here we are ready to head out ...

it was a beautiful day ...

Looking back at my pictures, looks like I didn't take any once we actually were at The Attic, but both Karen and Ruth have pictures of our visit. I don't have a LNS close to me and I have to admit I went a bit overboard with my stash purchases ... but I had a blast doing it! I get a giddy when I can actually touch fabrics and flosses, ooh and goo over models hanging all over. I know I bought a couple of charts that I never would have if I hadn't seen it stitched up. Pictures of stash will be coming soon. I'm not entirely unpacked yet .. I started getting a head cold on the way home from AZ, well now it's a full blown cold, another one .. grrrrr!

This is one of my favorite pictures of the 5 of us .. the V is for VACATION! and we spent a lot of time throwing up the V and yelling WOO HOO WE'RE ON VACATION!! lol

I won't give away secrets about how much we all spent at The Attic .. but I know the ladies there were happy to see us :) and I was the winner that day .. followed closely by Chris, Sharon, Ruth and Karen.

More tomorrow .. I'm off to take my drugs and head to bed.

I hope you find your joy in your stitches ...

I'm grateful for hot tea ...