Hi ho, Hi ho

....it's off on a trip we go!

We heading off into the great blue sky and

flying out to visit our #2 son and d-i-l 

for a couple of weeks!

My hubby has never flown, so he's quite apprehensive about the whole experience and it's been over thirty years since I've been in a plane, so  I'm sure it's going to be rather nerve-wracking for both of us, but the fact that we will be seeing our kids when the plane lands AND we'll also get to see the Canadian Rocky mountains for the first time will certainly help with the pre-flight jitters. 

Right now we're suffering from the lists/piles syndrome and scurrying about trying to remember everything we need to take (and do!) before we leave.  All this packing and such is definitely foreign to our nature!

AND - on a whole other subject altogether I've been (in my spare moments) putzing about with doing a bunch of zentangling.  Irene (CQTeers group member) was first bitten by the bug and she has subsequently passed it onto Sue and from there to me.  I took a little longer than the other two to succumb fully to the fun.  At our last meeting Sue had a brilliant idea and had a book she was devoting to different zentangle patterns so I am using her idea and have started one of my own.  Who knew this could be so much fun??  The only problem is that I've 'tangled' so much that my arthritis is flaring up...oops.  

Here's a page from my new pattern book....

And now, my friends, I leave you to play amongst yourselves.  See you when I get back!

TUSAL for this month

I'm a couple of days late with this, but here is my pile of ORTS for the past month...

and my TUSAL jar to date for this year...

and, this is one of the pictures Jack has taken with his

'new' (to him) camera...

Try embiggening it to see the details!

Short mumble

Nothing has been happening on the stitching front here at Chez Magpie - too busy being social to have time to pick up the needle. 

Playing catch up

Today's post will be a bit of a hodge-podge because I'm somewhat behind on several things I had wanted to show you.

Another long-awaited treasure arrived in my mailbox last week too - my copy of 'Elegant Cross Stitch Sentiments For Crazy Quilting' by Pam Kellogg (Kitty and Me Designs).  There are over 50 cross stitch patterns she has designed in the book.  All are suitable for many different applications, but you already KNOW I'll be using some of them in my crazy quilting!  

Last week was our monthly CQTeers meeting and our 'theme' was Zentangles.  Below is a picture of the art works (atc sized) that we exchanged...

The card on the upper left was made by moi last month during a class that Irene gave.  The middle card (top row) was made by Sue, as was the one in the lower row middle.  Irene created the zentangle on black on the upper right, as well as playing with fabric crayons on the one bottom left.  The three in the middle were my work.

Each month we try to have a 'program' whereby the hostess for that month teaches some sort of project or technique.  It was my turn this time and I had been wanting to try something I had discovered on the internet (but unfortunately I am unable to credit the source...if it happens to be you, please let me know so I can give proper credit!). Anyway, it's a watercolor painting (and yes, it's supposed to be birch trees!!)...

Needless to say, I don't foresee any sort of 

career in painting in my future (even after I'm dead and buried!!).

And finally, I have to show you my yard sale score.  I probably paid too much for this ($10) but I HAD to bring it home.  I think it's made of oak and is old, but I don't think it's an 'antique'.  It had legs on it, but I had Jack take them off because I think it looks far better without them.  It measures approx. 20" from top to bottom and I don't know if you can tell from the picture but the glass is curved....