Report from a long weekend

Well, DH's family is gone. They left early Monday morning, which was nice because it gave DH and I at least a little bit of the weekend to ourselves....

I did get some stitching done, mostly after the folks went to bed. It was nice to have a bit of "unwind time" in the evenings! "Stitching the Standard" is coming along really nicely -- now if I could just muster the patience to do more of the over-one parts. It is so frustrating when you get all set to stitch and can't find a color that has more than 3 or 4 stitches in any one place! But it looks so nice when it is done....that's what I have to keep telling myself.
I also finished an ornament yesterday. I'm not sure if I can count it toward my monthly goal list, since it was an old fully-stitched thing that I found in a drawer and I just padded it and glued it together, and edged it with some ribbon. It is another one of those cheap "stitch 'n hang" kits - a rather ugly stocking and a poinsettia. I'm sure it was something I stitched when we traveled somewhere, and didn't like it much once it was done... I hate that I spent valuable stitching time on it, you know? But it is totally assembled now, so I could give it away or even list it on eBay (I probably wouldn't get much for it there, but it is kind of neat to know that 1-someone will pay a bit for my stitching and 2-it will go out into the great big world!).

The ongoing tragedy on the US gulf coast makes my heart hurt. After seeing a little diabetic girl almost die on the news for lack of insulin, my husband practically had to hold me back from buying out our local pharmacy and heading for New Orleans... (I am a juvenile diabetic - not sure if I've mentioned that here before.) I think I'm going to put together a box of personal supplies and send it to the ladies at Silkweaver, who are delivering stuff to shelters in their area. I know the Red Cross and other big agencies don't have the warehouses and transportation to handle such donations, but I feel confident that the folks at Silkweaver will handle such things appropriately. *sigh* I've also thought about buying one or 2 of the "relief" designs...I especially like Martina Weber's pattern. I've never stitched a Chatelaine design before, though...are they really complicated and/or expensive to do? (Dani, I know you do a lot of her things...)