Another year older...

How does that song go..."another year older and deeper in debt"? Le sigh. Ah well, stitching keeps me happy and working keeps a roof over my head, so I can't really complain!!

My birthday was pretty uneventful. DH surprised me with tickets to a country music concert later this summer - Martina McBride and Diamond Rio, for those of you who are curious. I'm not a huge country fan, but some of the pop-country "hybrids" are nice from time to time. And back when we were dating, DH called me and sang Diamond Rio's "One More Day" to my answering machine. Such a sentimental goober he is....hehehe!

Oh, and I got an adorable little dragon fob from Carol! I keep meaning to take a picture, but then I get distracted by household chores, TV shows, trips to the gym, and of course, STITCHING, and then it is time for bed and I've not even turned on the camera. Carol does have a nice picture of it over at her blog, though.

As a gift to myself, I went a little crazy over on eBay. ::shuffle:: I'm still looking for more houses for the round robin, and I got a couple that I think could work. I got Brightneedle's "House on Booberry Lane" and "Harvest House Sampler" by Chessie and Me from one seller -- she also had Lizzie*Kate's "Cherish All Living Things", which I think is adorable, and a Charland Designs sampler pack that I wanted. So I justified it all under the banner of combined shipping and clicked away! Sadly, the seller contacted me yesterday saying she couldn't find the Charland sampler, which makes me very sad (I still consider her an excellent seller, though....she is liquidating her brick-and-mortar needlework shop, and created her listings from the inventory list. Sure, she probably *should* have double-checked the physical items, but she has over a 1000 listings right now. And she handled the whole thing so professionally, I just can't hold a grudge!). I also bought Eventide Designs' "Seasons of an Apple Tree," which has 4 small designs -- if the houses are too small, there are still some other elements I might be able to use!

Finally (and as an explanation for the lack of pics in this post!), last night I finally got a start on my own square for the Neighborhood RR! I'm using a piece of 32-ct. Queen Anne's Lace jobelan. At least, it was labelled jobelan, but it handles like linen....whatever. I like it! I cut it, zig-zagged the 2 cut edges, and started stitching my house. And then I frogged the whole thing, tried it in a different color.....and frogged that too. Argh! I was trying to substitute some hand-dyed floss for the main house color, and after a couple rows would discover that it didn't look quite right. Hmmm. Maybe I'll have to go with the pattern-recommended DMC colors after all...