What am I Stitching Now?

Thanks, chiloe, for asking. I'm doing traditional embroidery on my "...Spring" quilt (finished the sampler letters and fence, looking forward to flowers) and "Winter Wonderland" snowman blocks.

Not working on cross stitch at the moment although I'm getting things together to do the little Margaret Sherry cat hanging in wreath card from one of the English magazines last year.




Am machine piecing Linda Worland's NativityAdvent quilt for a friend and working on a McKenna Ryan block in a class.

Octavian Nothing

I give extra credit to students who read historical fiction (pre-Columbian to 1900, US geographical areas) for my grade 8 history class. Our school library clerk purchased The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. 1: The Pox Party for the school library and has asked me whether I will give extra credit for it.

I'm intrigued by the book but, to be honest, it appears to be more historical fantasy than historical fiction.

If anyone knows of ANY historical evidence to support the premise of the book (yes, I know there were slaves and a revolution) please direct me to it.

Adorable Art

My blogger and stitcher friend, Chiloe, had an adorable "blinkie" on her site today and I had to follow the link to these delightful Halloween pieces. Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to link them to their home sites so wanted to give credit here:

http://completementblinkies.com/automne/new/automnecb.htm

and

http://completementblinkies.com/Halloween/halloween.htm

and Whoosh...

...and two months are past.

I guess I've been fairly busy. DS1 and DIL moved out in late August (while we were in Utah) and I've been claiming some space in their room. I'm enjoying the closet space and bathroom all to myself (now, that's luxury!) I have until the end of the month to finish sorting and storing the stack of scrapbooking flotsam that is stacked on a table in there, then will start working in the attic on the weekend until it's all cleared out.

I'm having my best year in over a decade at school (knock on wood). The kids are sweet, although they do seem surprised whenever I expect them to - you know- like - DO something. But there are no major behavior problems so far, and I go home with a little energy left.

It's HalloweenTime at Disneyland and California Adventure and I've been doing my family tour guide imitation again. I took my niece on Sunday. She is 29 and ill, but wanted to see California Adventure before her 4-fer runs out at the end of the year. So, I borrowed my mom's wheelchair and pushed her around all day. We had a good time! One of the highlights for me was getting "stuck" watching Block Party Bash. I'd never seen that show (parade?) and it was terrific! Lordy, I remember having that much energy. Where the heck did it go?

DH and I tried for an off-season day this past Thursday, too. We started with breakfast at the Paradise Pier. Great food and lots of fun with my friend, Stitch.

After breakfast we headed over to California Adventure and straight to Soarin' Over California, then to Turtle Talk with Crush. DH had never seen Crush before. "How do they do that?" After a short stop for a picture with Sulley
then over to Tower of Terror. BIG mistake. We have always known that DH suffers from motion sickness on rides that go around (he has serious inner ear issues) but I really thought he would be able to handle ToT because it only goes up and down, right? [Debi hears an obnoxious "you're wrong, stupid" buzzing sound.] He was not as ill as he was after his attempt to ride Space Mountain in 1977 (slept in the first aid room for two hours and took three days to recover), but he was sick enough that we had to cut the day short. Poor guy.

Anyway, we did go over to Candy Corn Acres so we could take some pictures. This is the candy corn corn, of course:

And these are the candy corn carrots




And these are the candy corn pumpkins



And these are the candy corn tomatoes



And these are the candy corn coconuts



Well, you get the idea. Pretty cute, huh?

I'm pretty excited to be able to share that I found a McKenna Ryan Club at a quilt shop in a neighboring town. I'm working on this piece

I've also been working on my "What Color is Spring" embroidered quilt and have finished the letters in the Crabapple Hill sampler (I dislike working on letters so had to finish them, first) that I substituted in the center.

And now I need to get cleaned up to go to crop (scrapbooking get-together) with my mom and sister.

Later.