Closing the Mega Minis for October, Other Stuff, and Wistful Vacation Moments pt.1

Hi there and a Happy Halloween to you and yours.  I have never been much of a Halloween girl -- costume parades in school sure, but never house decor.  I think it's because I come from a long line of Christmas decorators so there is not room in the house for the storing of Halloween decorations.  No, seriously.  No room.  We probably had two boxes of Thanksgiving decor (one for the cornucopia and Indian corn and one for the character candles--- Pilgrims, turkeys, etc) and one box of Easter (candles and those fluff bunnies and chicks, you know the ones I mean-- all fluff no substance with little wire frames).    Now Christmas --- let's just use my sister as exemplary for us----  every year we hang at least 700 ornaments on her tree.  Seven hundred.  In case you were wondering, that's a heck of a lot of holiday commitment, and it does not even count the ancillary decor all over the house.

Anyway, I wish you a Happy Halloween, but I will just pull up a chair and giggle when those of you crazies have to take a weekend and pull all your decorations down.  You can pull up a chair and laugh at me around New Years when we box up the decor at my sister's.

So, on to the "decorating" that really matters (lol) the stitching not that my pics get to qualify as decorative.  I remember taking this first one of my most recent Mega Mini (thanks to Pull the Other Thread for getting this going and inspiring me to get something done this year!!!!!) finish and thinking "yeah, that's good."  Umm, no, Ruth.  It is not good. Sigh.  I owe you one of my little peach house---

I actually finished the backstitching on my first Mega Mini piece last week--

I think I'd like to live there -- looks like it has good light for reading and stitching and room for stash!

The Mega Mini has been great for me in terms of making me think small in the midst of all my giant projects.  If you have been having fun with this challenge in October, come on over to Justine's -- she has happily volunteered to keep it rolling in November.  You can sign-in with her at Justine's Cross Stitch.  See you there I hope!

Last night I could not control the urge to start a new mini (yeah-- something for November!), so welcome my goose.  You can't really tell too well, but he's on a light blue overdyed jobelan

When the Mega Mini started I discovered a problem.  Well, in truth I knew I had this problem, but I decided to avoid it, But the MM challenge would not let me do that any longer.  You see, my boxes of bobbined floss were depleted---   not because I was out, mind you.  They were sadly empty because I'd stuffed bobbin after bobbin in various projects and never returned them when I finished the project (read: shoved the undone WIP in a box to deal with later).  Soooooo, when I went to kit up enough minis to choke the Mega challenge I had a distinct problem finding colors or even replacements for colors.

All that led me to my latest "stitching" time sink--- bobbin winding.   My shop had a pack of these beauties (anyone else HATE the plastic ones that don't actually hold the thread ends????).

And over several nights created piles like this--

And you may not believe this, but I actually put them all away in the floss boxes!  Yes.  Honest!  Ok, ok, it is probably a miracle.

On other fronts I put some stitches in my flag needlepoint--  though not many I will admit, but needle-ing did happen!

 And I thought I would close with some more shots of San Francisco and my adventures there (I am hoping to bring you the joys of Carmel next week... cross your fingers!)

This is the wall of marathon participant names outside the Nike store.... always a highlight of race weekend.

The beautiful peppers of the farmer's market--

Of which I took home this little darling:

I mean it is a purple pepper.  How could I resist?

Brunch as always is my tradition was at the fish stall ....   yes I know I posted a pic of this earlier, but this is a better one off the "big camera" and I love these so much that I could not resist showing them again.

Some big beets.... nope, didn't bring one home

Some AWESOME tomatoes -- and I ate plenty of those.  Love them!!!!  I even managed to bring some home for snackage (I was supposed to eat them on the plane but I think I napped instead.)

Also joining me on the trip home was my new suitcase.......

You see, as a rule my small suitcase does not get much exercise.  I take totes or trips requiring The Big Suitcase.  So the little one sits under the kitchen table holding finished needlework that has no display space.  I hauled it out of its repose and dragged it off to SF only to discover a problem.  By the time I got to the airport, my hands smelled like crayons.  Apparently as the handled aged the plastic broke down and what I ended up with when I applied the heat of my hands was, well, something that smelled like crayons. I swear -- no lie. By the time I got to the Hilton in SF they REALLY smelled like crayon.  I scrubbed.  I lotioned with scented product.  My hands still smelled like crayons.  Now, I like crayons as much as the next kid-at-heart, but I don't want to spend a day smelling like them nor do I want a suitcase to smell like them.  So my sister and I swerved into Ross on our way back to the hotel from the TNT Inspiration Dinner and picked out a new travel buddy for me.

Also making the trip home from SF is another "problem" of mine.  I have an earring addiction which I indulged at the art part of the farmers market.  I mean look at these -- they had to come home with me right?

I also visited Needlepoint Inc., the downtown SF mecca of needlepoint goodness.  Somewhere there's a pic of that that I will track down, but I cannot show you what I bought as it comprises a fair amount of presents.   Sorry!

Go enjoy your day and your weekend -- may both be pleasantly peaceful and productive.