Surprises, Finds and Finishes

Happy Monday!  I hope that you had a wonderful weekend!  I don't know about your weekend, but mine was full of all kinds of surprises. To boot, our weekend was hot, hot, HOT with temperatures up to 100 degrees and heat indexes of 105 and up.  The temperatures make me think of my Arizona friends.  (HI Karen! HI Sharon!  Miss you guys!!!!!)  It is hot again today, but we should have a cool down to the upper 80's later in the week......

During the week I gathered information on local estate sales and I had a list full of sales to visit on Saturday morning.  The first house was way in the back of a picturesque neighborhood. The master bedroom had a fabulous view of a local inlet.  What a picture to wake up to in the morning!  There were lots of great antique pieces that I couldn't afford.  But, I did find a small glass flower frog and bowl set for $2.00.  The frog has a small chip in it, but I can live with that.  Since the frog sits in the bottom of the bowl I think I'm going to try and raise it with some Styrofoam and then I will hide the Styrofoam with shells or marbles or something of the like.  That way my scissor tips will be protected and I will have a nice dish too.

I went to the second sale only to find that it was really a garage sale and the people were asking outrageous prices for junk!  So, I left that one in a hurry and moved on to number three.  The third one had some really great stuff, but nothing that screamed "Buy Me!".  But, as I was leaving the sale I did get a lovely surprise...............(can you read the sarcasm?????)

She might have been a sweet little old lady, but she still sideswiped my car while it was legally parked on the street.  All I could do was stand there and watch her do it!  What a nightmare!  I seriously wonder if she should be driving!  I know the street had cars on both sides and I know that it was a tight squeeze, but there were Suburbans driving by with no problem and all she had was a 2001 Dodge Stratus.  It's not like she was driving a "boat".  At least her insurance company is going to cover the damages.........that is, if I ever get a call from the adjuster!

After the drama, I did manage to go to two more out of three estate sales.  I didn't find anything that was either worthwhile or affordable or both.  Why is it that some people think the words "estate sale" mean "price things really high"?  There were some great old frames at one of the sales, but I wasn't about to pay $80 for one frame when it was approximately 5x7.  Sheesh!

Anyway, Saturday evening I got to spend time stitching with my BFF.  I love being able to spend time with her on the weekends.  We talk, laugh and eat.  Sometimes we even stitch!  Like this past Saturday, I think that we spent more time in silence because we were both concentrating so hard on what we were stitching.  Actually, we were both working on the same project.  It's called Desert Sunset by Fireside Originals.  It is the piece that I'm going to surprise Hubby with, so I had to really concentrate while I had the chance.  I got a fair amount done on it, but I still have a long way to go.  With the exception of the light fabric peaking through on the cactus, I'm very pleased with my progress.  The light fabric is quite noticeable in the picture, but not so much when you are standing back a little.  I'm just going to say that the light parts are the prickly spines of the cactus!

Sunday we went to a cookout at a friend of Hubby's.  There was so much good food and we made some new friends.  We even played a game of Horseshoes (my first ever) and we fought hard to win.  But, the other team got a ringer in the end and that won it for them.  Let me tell you, even though it seems easy, horseshoes is hard!  And, boy do they hurt when you get hit with them.  I've got a small knot on my shin where I got hit.  OUCH!

Whew.....what a weekend!  Well, I guess I will leave you with one last picture.  I did get a little start and finish on Sunday.  I worked on SamSarah's Heart Tin.  It was a real quick stitch.  Now I will just have to really "finish" it sometime this week.  I've got a boatload of "finishing" now that I have also finished the stitching for my Blackbird Designs Exchange.  Guess I will have to call it an early day at work and stop by the quilt store on the way home.  Fabric, here I come!!!!

Happy Stitching!