It's Wednesday...It's June...

Happy June 1st. With the weather we are having the local tv station nicknamed this month "Jun-uary". It has been cold, gray, rainy here with snow up in the Tahoe/Sierra Mountains. Well, just so that the weather doesn't get me or anyone else down, I did get to snap a few shots of our beautiful roses which are blooming:

We do have other colors of roses - red, pink, yellow, white and purple...but this one, which I think is called Candy or Cotton Candy, is my favorite. When they bloom there are shades of pink, purple and yellow. They are spectacular. As you see I was playing with the camera and took one in sepia tones.

How was your Memorial Day weekend? My parents, from Minnesota, were in town. It was nice to have them here for a few days. They got to spend a lot of time with their grandsons as I was busy working in *The Store* and DH was busy working in the *New Store* in order for it to be ready for it's opening mid-June. But grandma and grandpa didn't have anyproblems hanging out with their grandsons, especially since they don't get that opportunity very often. It was "Golfing with Grandpa" on Saturday followed by a shopping trip to the Hockey store on Sunday (both boys received some new hockey equiptment from the grandparents - very nice indeed!). We also enjoyed a wonderful meal on Saturday night - grilled steaks & chicken outdoors...in the rain...and all sat down around the table: DH, me, the boys and my parents. Good food, good wine...lots of laughter and love!

Monday - Memorial Day - mom and dad left in the early afternoon while DH and I were working in *The Store*. We gave our employees the holiday off and we came in for 1/2 day to make several arrangements and get them delivered before closing the store and heading home for an afternoon nap. Here is one of the special Memorial Day arrangements I made for a customer for their holiday picnic:

Strawberries dipped in white chocolate and then in blue sprinkles, White chocolate covered strawberries and then strawberries "naked"...white & dark covered bananas (many times the white/dark chocolate covered bananas get mistaken for marshmallows in the photographs)...melons, pineapple daisies and stars...YUMMY!

The customer was definitely WOWed when she picked it up!

Between visitors, working in the store and finding opportunities to get in a good jog or a bike ride, I did make some time for stitching. First of all I did put the finishing touches on the ornament for Angela for the Ornament Swap...and will drop it off at the post office today! In addition, I have been working on the pineapple some more and this is what it looks like now:

Definitely looking like a pineapple, don't you think? I am just down to the "confetti" stitches within the pineapple, which are very tedious to try and figure out which color is which right now, but I figure I will be done with this part within a day or two. Below the pineapple is more greenery. I do have a deadline for this project - June 13, the day one of our employees gets back in town from her month long vacation visiting family. She likes square pillows, so I will probably finish it off as one...just need to find some fun fabric for the backing. MMmmmm, I think I have some ideas.

Well, friends it is time for me to wrap this off. I was so excited that I was able to get my a$$ out of bed and on the stationary bike as well as update my blog! Good start to the Wednesday morning, good start to June!

Hope all is well with you...until next time, remember:

Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch often!

Lisa

Happy June!

Can you believe that it is June already...the 6th month of the year...the year is 1/2 over...the holidays will be hear in less than 6 months - Yikes. This month brings the last days of school for the boys and graduation for each one: Robert will finish 8th grade/middle school - graduate and will start high school next year; Matthew will finish 5th grade/elementary school - graduate and will start middle school next year. They have this week to "suffer" through (meaning finals and any last minute papers or projects) and next week it is "just fun with school friends" (meaning they have end of the year activities - Robert goes to an amusement park and Matthew goes bowling) - then it all concludes with separate graduation ceremonies on Friday, June 11...I am sure that I will have stories and photos to share after this event.

Stitching News....

I saw on the Ornament Swap 2010 Blog that Lori received the ornament I stitched for her. I stitched an ornament from the Christmas Ornament edition of Just CrossStitch (I think that it was the 2007 edition...don't have that information right in front of me right now). It is a SamSarah design - I used 28ct evenweave fabric and used DMC thread called for. Lori received some beautiful ornaments...you will have to go to the post she wrote yesterday on the Ornament Swap blog to see her photos. 

I did make some time to put some stitches in MW over the long weekend, but the motif I am working on has been a little tedious for me...and my focus has been on:

1 - Preparing for the upcoming Garage Sale

Over the last several weeks, DH and I have been going through our closet and the garage - taking needed time to "weed" through all the stuff we have accumulated since we moved here over 6 years ago. Boy! The stuff certainly grew over the years. Now that we have determined which stuff we wanted to keep...which stuff was garage sale material...which stuff was donatable...and which stuff was just plain trash...it seems that our closet has grown in size and our garage can actually fit 2 cars :) The garage sale is Saturday, June 5...so yesterday I spent some time organizing it and pricing it. Friday DH said that he was going to get some tables to put up and I will put the finishing touches on it...before the garage door is thrown open to the public.

2 - Finishing the Garden

With all the weeding and pruning complete, it was time to check all the sprinklers and attack the flower bed...which was our duty on Sunday. DH got all the sprinkler heads tested and determined that we only needed to replace 2 this year - not too bad. So during our trip to Lowes, he got his sprinkler supplies and I went over to the gardening section and picked out 2 nice tomato plants, as well as 2 strawberry plants to add to our strawberry bed. In the afternoon, I had those 4 plants in the garden and the drippers all arranged. We don't plant a lot of produce in the backyard...just enough to feel like we do :) The last task of summer preparation of our garden, is cleaning out the humming bird feeder and putting out fresh nectar. I have a recipe (1 cup of sugar to 4 cups of water) that I use and our local hummingbird residents seem to enjoy it.

3 - Homework Task Master

That is right...over the weekend homework was being done in our house. It seems that weekend homework has been a part of Robert's schedule since he started 8th grade. But that is coming to an end, as mentioned above. He had to prepare for 3 finals, which he is taking today, and start writing a 5 paragraph paper which isn't due until a week from today (so I guess he will have homework next weekend as well).

Lastly, my mind seem to be preoccupied at some points about DH being at home now that he is finished with his previous job and is looking for the next endeavor. It is going to be very strange...odd...weird...going off to my part-time job in the morning and leaving him in the house...and then coming back home around 1pm to find him in the house. It is not a bad thing necessarily - having him at home - but it will be something that I will have to get use to until he finds the next job.

Well - still hard to believe that it is June. I hope that you all enter into the month with much happiness and health...and remember to:

Love, Live, Laugh and Stitch Often! Lisa