Time flies when you are having fun!

I received many comments that it was time to update my blog! ;-) I guess they were right.....4 months is a long time. But as they say time flies when you are having fun!

We went on a cruise to Jamaica and Grand Cayman and spend some time in Florida. Then Katrina and her husband visited us in Illinois.

Then of course the highlight in those non-blogging months was my trip to Utah in September for the Shepherd's Bush Retreat. A long time dream when I was still living in Europe and now it became reality since going there wasn't too much planning now I live in the Midwest!!! So Katrina and I met at the airport of Salt Lake City where my flight came in about 45 minutes earlier than hers so I already picked up the rental car. First we drove to the shop in Ogden and I was in heaven!! The shop was like I thought it would be and more! There was so much to see and I did some serious damage there. We also met up with our blogging friend Valeri and Danya, Vicky, Deb, Terri, Loraine and many more. Then it was off to Jill Rensel's Studio just a few blocks away. She is so nice and we were in total awe seeing all her framed work on display. Katrina and I left some pieces for her to frame. Actually I left more than a few.....9 to be precise. To my defense I had done a lot of small pieces :-)

Then it was time to drive up to Park City!

A beautiful view in Park City, UT
The resort we were staying in and were the retreat was held.
We made a button with our initial...
for this beautiful project bag we all got as a gift!
Some of the finishes I took to Jill Rensel to frame. Gilded Cage by Carriage House Samplings
Quaker Heart by SB
Her Tulip Garden and his :) by The Goode Huswife. I changed the dates on these to my mom and dad's year of birth. Unfortunately they are both not alive anymore but these designs are so sweet and as them both being Dutch it represents them as well with the tulips.

The days in Park City went by way too fast but it was an amazing time! The classes were lots of fun, to location amazing, Teri and Tina were fantastic hosts! The work they put into this with the help of their friendly staff and volunteers is outstanding! Most of all the friendship and camaraderie is the best memory! It was so wonderful to spend time with my stitching friends: of course my BFF Katrina (can you believe it...it has been 10 years already since we met in Belgium!!), Valerie, Natalia, Sara, Danya, Vicky, Judy and many many more! Thank you all so much for making my dream to go to this retreat even better!!

Karin

Finally a stitching update!!

I finally have finished some things! First you see Plum Street Sampler's Free Bird. I stitched the date 2008 because that is the year we moved to the US.
Such a fun project and only 3 colors!

The other one I got last week at my LNS Inspired Needle and chose to stitch it on 40ct Summer Khaki. I stitched french knots instead of the beads.

It is the Merry Skater by Little House Needleworks and as you can see it turned out to be very small on the 40ct.

Lastly a photo of some of the stash I got lately. :-)

Karin

A little update on life!

It has been a while (what is new?) but also this post without any stitching photo's. I haven't done much stitching and before I went to my stitching night at Inspired Needle last Tuesday I hadn't picked up a needle in weeks! Again a lot happened in our house. We had a major flooding in th house (twice!!) which resulted in a lot of damage and we had machines everywhere for 2 weeks to dry the place. The second time they discovered it was a major pipe in our front yard causing the problem so this has been repaired! It resulted in moving out last week for a couple of nights while my sister and niece were visiting us from the Netherlands. We went to downtown Chicago. The top photo is real!! We are standing on a glass balcony on top of the Willis Tower (formerly known as Sears Tower). It was v e r y scary but we did it!!!

Being a 'Factory Worker' for Hersey chocolate is still fun, even if you are a teenager :-)))

view from the Skydeck at the Willis Tower on Chicago

my niece, DD, DH and sister in the hotel!

it was soooo tough for us moving out the house for a few days due to the flooding. DH arranged for us a room at the Hilton Chicago and they gave us the Penthouse Suite!!! :-)))) Sometimes it is very convenient to have DH working for the Hilton! Katrina....do you see what we are playing???? We just had to get Mexican Train after playing it at your house. Guess what? My sister had to buy it as well!

Dutchie, our puppy is now 6 months!

DD holding the puppy and my niece on the trampoline.

Hopefully I will have some stitching pics soon, if not I will make one of all the stash I got recently. At least that makes progress LOL

Karin