Winner!

I'm so excited! I was the winner this week of one of Anna's summer giveaways - a collection of Mill Hill kits, one of my favorites. It continues the good vibes from vacation. We just returned from a week in Florida - our non-Disney Orlando vacation. Instead, we went to Sea World, the Aquatica waterpark, Daytona Beach and we stayed at the Nickelodeon Hotel, which was very fun.

We drove down - about 17-18 hours each way - and I had all of these big stitching plans since we were going to be in the car for so long. I had kitted up a few new designs, basted fabric and even started a few borders so I wouldn't have to do too much counting. And what happened? I didn't stitch a single stitch the entire week! I don't know what I was thinking. The kids were constantly asking me for things - food, a drink, change the movie. And it was so hot, I felt like my hands were sticky all the time. So I just read instead. I finished two books, one of which was Pat Conroy's South of Broad. I had been waiting for vacation to read it and it did not disappoint. I love Southern fiction. And when we came home, I had an e-mail from Amazon telling me that my all-time favorite Southern writer, Anne Rivers Siddons, has a new book coming out next week - Burnt Mountain. I can't wait!

But I need to get back into stitching mode. To help me along, I had a chance to visit Needlecraft Corner today - by myself, without toting one of the kids along. I picked up two pieces of fabric - 28 ct. Flax Cashel linen for some miscellaneous ornaments and 28 ct. Rue Green Quaker cloth, which will hopefully work with Octopus Garden - a cute little needle slide with pumpkins on it and one of the new Mill Hill Festival of Trees ornaments (Old Fashioned Tree).

Still need to post those patriotic finishes! Coming soon...