It's the Weekend -- finally!

Oh what a week it has been! 

Between family drama, witnessing an altercation between two employees in my office and a health scare with my daughter, I am a stressed out wreck.

How do you handle stress?  What helps you when you feel overwhelmed?  I just feel like running away or hiding under the covers and staying in bed.  I generally handle stress pretty well, but this week it's been an overload.

I've been working on a large piece for a client.  I don't grid my fabric very often, however, due to the size of this piece, I decided to do a little gridding.  Normally, I use a fine red fishing line, but I ran out.  Instead, I used a black filament thread that I had in my sewing basket.  

The black thread is working well -- except for one thing.

I leave tails so removal will be easier.

The black thread tails made me think I had a spider on my fabric!  
It startled me so much that I tossed the fabric across the room.
Hubby laughed and laughed and laughed at me, lol.

I finally purchased a new laptop.  It has Windows 8.1, but I'm finding it to be really slow.  I'm talking about super slow.  Slow on the internet, slow opening or saving files, slow opening and running programs.  It's so frustrating!  Anyone else running Windows 8.1 and having the same issues?  

Have a great, relaxing weekend!

   

Happy Monday!

Wow, the last day of March already.  Our weather is supposed to be spring-like until tomorrow and then it's back to winter with rain/snow/ice for the rest of the week. 

I've been working on several consignment pieces, an exchange piece and gifts, 

so no stitching to show yet.  

How about a few pics from my backyard instead?

 I've really enjoyed watching the birds in the birdbath.  

That heater really worked great all winter.

 This woodpecker has been visiting the suet feeder regularly.  

Can you guess what stands out the most about this photo?

The background.  

Notice it isn't totally white and it looks like the grass is starting to green up.

"Taco" the pesky squirrel is headed to the feeder again.

I was surprised when I looked at this on my computer and saw 

the shot had been photo-bombed by the Cardinal.  

The Resurrection Lilies are coming up, proving spring must be on the way!

I'd like to ask for prayers for my friend B.  She has been diagnosed with cancer that has spread to her liver.  B has decided not to have treatment.  Please pray for her and her family as they go through this difficult time.

Have a great week!

Spring IS Coming

The calendar indicates that spring IS coming.  I wish someone would let Old Man Winter and Mother Nature know.  We got up to blowing and drifting snow this morning.  While we only had about an inch of snow over night, all the blowing created drifts that were over a foot deep, which meant more shoveling. 

Despite the winter weather still hanging around, I was excited to see

the first robin of the season!

Notice that the snow still surrounds that small patch of grass.  This was taken last Tuesday.  We had heavy rain with hail Tuesday evening that then turned to freezing snow.  Most all the schools were either closed or on late start on Wednesday.  Everything had a thick covering of frozen snow and ice just like the frozen stuff in the freezer when it needs defrosting.  It made cleaning off the car very difficult and was nearly impossible to shovel.

Another sign of spring -- I'm getting pollen alerts again.

Have a great week!