Spoiled Rotten!

Hi all and thanks so much for all your comments and for all the congratulations on my birthday! Today I realized that I have another reason to celebrate - I have 75 followers! I can not believe it!!! I am so humbled and so glad that so many old and new friends have chosen to stay in touch through this blog.
I have said it it in the past, but I'd like to say it again; if you are a follower on my blog and you have a blog that I have yet to become a follower of, please let me know and I will sign up ASAP! It is so much more fun to have a two-sided blogship going, don't you think?

Since my last post, I have gotten spoiled about 100 times over. The girls at work took me out for lunch on Tuesday and one of them, The Barbarian, even took a break in her vacation to come over and eat, talk and laugh with the rest of us.
These ladies are such a wonderful group. I know that I have written about them before; many of them are now converted to "the dark side:" and we try to meet and have stitch-lunches a few times per week. Hip*Hip gave me a wonderful stained glass frame and she had the really cool idea to take a photo of the lunch group, so that I can have a framed memento. Love it! She also made me a super-sweet birthday card that spelled out "Happy Bird-day" - how cute is that!?
The Barbarian gave me Dreamworks' How to Train Your Dragon, a super-size Hershey chocolate bar (that did not make it back home in one piece), and a funny card that made me laugh out loud. I am really looking forward to watch the movie in peace and quiet next weekend.
P.Snickety spoiled me with a gift-card for Starbucks that I already managed to use up! I bought my favorite drink and a really nice mermaid tumbler, which I am thrilled about! I mean, gold and brown mermaids and coffee, who can say no to taht combination?
Here are a couple of shots showing the goodies:

When I came home after work, DH was already up and waiting for me. I almost passed out when I saw the display that he had set up for me. He is pretty incredible! (I feel very intimidated right now. The pressure is on; his birthday is on the 25th and I am already worried about what to get him... any tips out there? Please - sniffle!? LOL) The flower arrangement still looks fabulous and the scent is so strong in the late evenings that I almost have to open the windows!
Here are a couple of photos showing the "spoiling-the-wife-rotten" arrangement:
As you can see, plenty of chocolate, candy, tea and other goodies together with the purse and wallet from one of the latest Vera Bradley collection, "Happy Snails". And - sweetest of all - a nice cozy fabric basket for Bubba! Bubba seems to really like this one, so we all got spoiled... (Believe me, the birds have had more almonds and sunflower-seeds than they have in months! A bit hard to flap off the couch after all that feasting on assorted seeds and nuts... LOL)

I am proud to say that I have yet to touch the candy. Normally that would be gone in a week or so, but I have been pretty good (I guess that the gigantic Hershey bar took care of some of the more urgent chocolate needs....)
Here is Bubba letting me know that he would like to get out of jail so that he can snuggle with his bunny-basket.

Henny rubs it in by eating some of Bubba's hay rioght in fromt of him:

Don't feel too sorry for him, though; right now he is down here in the basement with me and a big plate of fresh lettuce and carrots. He eats a bit and then he hides for a while, and then he does the "crazy racing and jumping" thing. He looks pretty content with life right about now!

So, on Wednesday I come home and find a slip from the Post Office in the mail-box telling me to come on by and pick up a package from Littlest Sis in Sweden. Wow, oh wow - was I excited! I am almost embarrassed to show you all this stuff, since there is not a chance that I deserve half of everything that I already got. I had to pick my jaw up from the floor many times while unwrapping all the gifts - yes, most of them were actually meticulously wrapped in a pretty orange flower paper, can you believe it!?
I got an enamel pot and saucer with a modern take on the 70:s patterns that I love! It is just too cool for words! Littlest Sis really have my taste down to a T. A bunch of Swedish goodies were cleverly hidden in the little saucer - almost all of it is salt liquorice, so I am in heaven (a couple of the candy bars didn't even make the photo - DH laughed at me when I was sitting on the bed, eating salty liquorice ropes and singing to myself. i know that he thinks I am goofy, but that's all right - salty liquorice, yeah!!!)
She also sent me three books that I am very excited about! Especially the Norwegian criminal novels will be a treat to read! Scandinavian thriller, criminal, and mystery novel writers are quite talented and this author is new to me. I have read a lot of reviews that sings her praises, so it will be great to read over the winter months. Note that she also sent me the little "birds on a string" display, so not I have two. Awesome! That opens up an endless amount of combinations, so the pressure is on!

But best of all was this little purse, which I am sure that she made for me. The ribbons are too cute with one of the most well-known Swedish symbols; dalahäst. (DH can't stand them, but I think that they are really neat. Fore more info, check out Wikipedia here.)

Thank you so much LS - love you and miss you every day! Puss, puss!

One can wonder whether the spoil-fest is done for this year... Well, it's not! As I probably have written about recently, we are going out to the Indiana forest to sit in a cabin and stitch for a few days. I am planning to get there around 3 o'clock or so tomorrow. I could drive up earlier, but DH and I have a hot date down at the County Clerk's office to pay our car taxes and I need to renew my drivers license. It'll be nice to get all that jazz over with, so that I can really enjoy the stitching! L-Bug and Big Dog have already e-mailed me to let me know that they have surprises for me too, so I am thrilled about that! I am sure that these surprises are stitch-related, so I am really looking forward to see what they have come up with.
And best of all, the ladies that arrange the entire weekend got a couple of masseuses to come and take care of us on Saturday! Can you believe it!? The timing could not be any better for me. i have had a weird and pretty unpleasant nerve-problem this past week. I have these pains shooting all the way from my neck down to my calf on my right side. I thought that I had maybe slept wrong or something, but finally today it broke out - an eye-infection. I get these a few times per year and they are always announced by nerve-pains a few days ahead. It is not actually an eye-infection as much as an eye-lid infection. Hopefully the nerves will calm down now that my eye is getting bigger. As long as I can see enough to stitch, I'm happy! LOL

So, have I done anything else, besides getting too spoiled for my own good lately? Yes, I have! I got a couple of quickies done for some instant gratifications and I did also diligently stick to my Hare Pyns. I have even told myself that I am only allowed to bring 2 projects to the stitch weekend. Gasp! That will be a new experience for me... I generally haul about 10 WIPs with me "just in case"... (in case of what? That we get stuck in the forest for about 2 years, I guess...)
Here is the progress of Hare Pyns. Note all the "invisible stitching" in the zig-zag border on the pocket panel. Note also that the entire area on that panel will be covered with twill stitch... I am already excited about that, can you tell? Sigh...

The linen is nice and stiff, so I am not even using stretcher-bars for the Bargello section! See, laziness works, if you only put some effort into it! LOL

This is a tiny kit that I picked up at Shepherd's Bush last year: Easter Basket. Super-quick and easy to finish. I did opt to use a lining fabric instead of glue a felt-circle on the back, which was what was instructed.

The other quickie is a freebie from Le Chalet des Perelles blog called Les Temps de Cerises. I have admired this little chart before, but when I saw Serendipitous Stitching Jo's version with the tiny jewelry cherries, here (scroll down), I was in awe. So I copied her idea straight off - shamelessly!
Our closest Michaels is located smack next to the pet store (which we seem to visit quite often, wonder why...?) so I often convince DH that I need to pass through Michaels real quick, since we pretty much are there anyway... We have had a lot of fun looking through all the beads together lately. I usually describe to him what I think that I need and we spit up and start looking as a team. A lot of fun and let me tell you - he is good! It is so much fun to learn new things about the people you love. This hidden talent is completely new to me, and to him too, I expect.
My beads are not as wonderful as Jo's are, but I am still pretty pleased with my light-red cherries, that are flat stone beads. I framed the pic in my second free frame from Jill Rensel's Studio, so I have now completed my home work!
Here are a couple of pics, since I have no idea where to display this baby:

I love the gingham type linens! I have been thinking that I really need to use the small cuts that I have collected from several stores scrap-cut bins more often.

The weather has been pretty dreary since Sunday. Constant rain pretty much, but not anywhere close to as bad as it has been and continues to be in other places around the country. We are thinking of you and hoping that everything will get a lot better for you very soon!
I should have known that it would start raining on Sunday, since I spent a good 30 minutes watering all the withering plants in my front yard. Less than 1 hr after I was finally done, it starts pouring and doesn't end until 6 inches later... I can tell you that the sun-flower garden looks absolutely terrible. I really should be embarrassed about how it looks, but I am too tired to do something about it right now. I guess I'll just leave town tomorrow... LOL

I have another general piece of news, too cool not to share. Not more than 5 minutes from our house, we have a brand new type of intersection. A double crossover diamond interchange! Here are some photos illustrating the concept:

This is seriously the coolest thing I have ever seen! The team that came up with this solution really did some thinking outside the box! You are driving along in peace and quiet and all of the sudden you are driving on the left side of the road!!!! I almost flipped the first time DH took me through (luckily he was driving, or I would have stopped just to drop my jaw and take it all in....) When Pink and I met to stitch yesterday, we decided to go to that side of town just to get to go through the DCDI. This will probably be a place that people will come to, just to drive through, for months. I know that I will.... :-)

Well, it is probably time for Bubba and me to go to bed. I can't wait to see what size my eye is tomorrow...
Talk with you in a bit and hope that you get a lot of stitching in this weekend!