A Weekend Full of Slow Stitching

 

 

Even though I’m retired, I still find myself looking forward to and enjoying my weekends … and I’m especially enjoying this weekend. 

 

Yesterday morning, it was “warm” enough to walk outside with my neighbor Lois, although I did have to put my hood up, wear 3 pairs of gloves, wear my flannel-lined pants, wool socks, and 2 layers under my jacket (which Lands End touted as suitable for temperatures 5-10 below 0 … although I beg to differ!).  We both prefer walking outside whenever possible, so it was nice that we could get our walk in outdoors. 

 

After I got home, DH and I started some preliminary planning for our May trip to Hilton Head.  In the past, we’ve always been able to book a 4-star beachfront hotel for under $100/night … sometimes as low as $60-70/night.  Of course, it helps that we travel in May and in September … while that’s not off-season, it’s certainly not the prime season so lodging rates are lower (and the weather is still quite delightful).  And we take advantage of the savings offered through Last Minute Travel Club, a free online “club” that offers low, low prices … unlike Hotwire, it allows you to see what hotel you’re booking and it allows cancellations up to 3 days ahead of time with no penalty.  We checked Last Minute Travel Club for the dates we’d like to travel (between Mothers’ Day and Memorial Day) … the cheapest 4-star hotel is over $180!!!    While we wouldn’t have been too surprised to see the rates up a little, that’s over double what we paid last September!  That’s just CRAZY!!!  We decided that our travel budget couldn’t take that kind of hit … not if we’d like to return to Hilton Head this fall … so we did some preliminary investigation into condos.  In the past, we’d talked about renting a condo, but with LMT Club, we could stay at a 4-star hotel and eat all our meals at restaurants for less than we could rent a condo. We found a few in our favorite part of Hilton Head, including one with an ocean view!    Naturally that’s the one I’m leaning towards, although DH is leaning towards another one that’s equally close to the beach but without the ocean view and that comes in 25% less per week.  We’ll have to see if my power of persuasion is strong enough to convince him that it will be worth the additional money to be able to see the ocean and the sunrises from our private balcony.   

 

After lunch, I spent my afternoon working on my Storm at Sea while watching my Blues win their game vs the Islanders (yes, they were lucky with an Islanders’ OT game-winning goal being disallowed).  I didn’t get as much done as I would have liked because I had to unstitch/restitch a 5” row of stitches not once but twice!! I’d show you a picture of the blocks I’m currently quilting … but they look like all the other blocks I’ve shown you.  If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all.  ha!  After dinner, we watching Captain Phillips.  Wow … that was intense … but worth seeing. 

 

This morning on the way home from church, we saw this hawk.  I know you can’t tell from this picture, but this bird is huge … about as big as a good-sized adult cat.  Lois and I saw it on one of our walks, sitting in an empty lot no more than 8-10 feet away from us as we walked by.  It wasn’t the least bit fazed by our being so close … and we didn’t push our luck … and kept on walking.

 

I’m planning on spending this afternoon getting in some more hand work on my Storm at Sea, so I’m going to link up with Slow Stitching Sunday at Kathy’s Quilts.  It won’t take long before I’ll be ready to move my hoop again (provided I don’t have to unstitch and restitch again today – ha!).  I hope to find a good movie on TV … something to provide a little background noise … if there’s nothing worth watching on TV, I’ll pop in a DVD. 

 

Before I close, I thought I’d share this picture I found on Facebook yesterday.

And this thought:

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.  ~  Matthew 6:25-33

 

Have a blessed Sunday, you all!