HOE ornament has landed in Australia

I have heard that Tessa has rec'd her ornament from me from the HOE ornament exchange. I really liked stitching this one, one color and finished with the whip stitch to make the ornament. It is a Plum Pudding design but do not remember the name right now. i used Belle Soie Sister Scarlet. I did steal Tessa's pic from the exchange blog, since it is on her tree already it looked much better than my pic.

Here are a couple pics from our softball christmas party this past Sunday night. The big guy was there again this year. I believe this is our 11th softball christmas party with almost all the same families. Lots of food, fun, food, martinis (yum), Santa and our annual ornament exchange. We play the "dirty santa" game for our ornament exchange. the kids are now joining in the fun as well. These pics are of Doug & I with Santa, Santa playing jingle bells on his flute and TOny got to sit on Santa's lap as well as all the kids. Santa brought a special gift for Tony. It is a license plate thingy, with a turtle that says "I am Running". Tony and I are the slowest on the team and I guess Santa thought it would be funny (not sure who on the team did it, but it was pretty funny)



I also went to my LNS, The Attic on Saturday afternoon for the Kris Kringle party and ornament exchange. THere were a bunch of us there and 13 of us participated in the ornament exchange. I haven't taken an individual picture of the ornament i rec'd or brought but they are in the pics here. I rec'd from Angelica this really cute snowman button tree ornament beautifully finished (it's on the left of one of the pics) and to the right of it is the ornament i brought. It is the maroon reindeer with maroon cording. I believe it is from last year's JCS issue. Here are a few pics i took of the ladies stitching and talking. This first picture has Paula from Kelmscott Designs (in the black/white shirt, she is a winter visitor to AZ from Canada) and Sharon from Crescent Colours (next to Paula, looks like Sharon was describing something :)) who lives here in AZ and Jean the owner of The Attic (sorry Jean, you got cutoff a little bit, on the far right).

AZ get together week

Well, a few friends, Michele, Ruth, Chris and Sharon and I decided to have a little get together here in Arizona. We spent a couple days here in the city and then ventured (it was an adventure) up north just south of Flagstaff to stay at a friends cabin for the weekend.

The girls all came into Phoenix on Wednesday April 1st. I met them at the hotel and we came to my house for dinner and dessert. There was bbq pulled pork sandwiches, potato salad and baked beans and Aunt Cathy made a delicious dessert. We hung around with my family for a little while then ventured back to the hotel for more chatting, laughing and some stitching.

Thursday, we met up for breakfast then went to one of my LNS's here in the valley, The Attic in Mesa. We were hoping to get to the Needler's Nest too, but didn't get to that side of town until it was too late, next time. Here are some pics of the girls shopping at The Attic. We spent a couple hours there then headed to In & Out for burgers.

Ruthann named us the GCGC (Grand Canyon Girls Club). LOL We did make a trip to the Grand Canyon but pics will be in another post. I was so excited the girls were coming here that i actually designed a small piece for us all to stitch in honor of our little retreat. I used my coffee dyed fabric and belle soie and kitted it up for the girls. Thinking of stealing Sharon's idea of framing the piece with our pic from the GC. hmmmmmmmmm



Well here are some of the pics promised above from shopping at the Attic. Notice Chris at the counter with her credit card, it's smoking. LOL
GCGC at The Attic, from left: Sharon, Ruth, Chris, Karen Michele

Chris with smoking credit card. LOL

Sharon

Michele

Ruth