Checking in!

My vacation is almost over. I have had a blast! We spent the last couple days in Franklin, North Carolina, attending a gem show and going gem hunting. I bought a pair of London Blue Topaz in pear shape to have ex's ugly-ass earrings remelted and set into. And also bought a cushion cut London Blue to be made into a ring--I can use the diamonds from the earrings on it. And we found a CRUDLOAD of rocks at the mine we went to. It was the Mason Mountain mine, and for $115 for the 4 buckets of dirt we bought, it was a lot of fun. The buckets are salted, meaning they have stones that are not native to North Carolina--"Gee, how did God make them stones look like arrowheads?"--but it was more fun than the 2-cent slots, which were, before now, my defining moment of cheap fun. I even found my aquamarine! Woo hoo. I don't know if I can make them into earrings, but I will save that crafting for when we go to the aquamarine mine. I have even bought my parents a gem mining kit, which has to be mailed to me, because I have a honking big thing of stones to take home--I just know that I will be pulled aside and have to explain to security that they are ROCKS. I told my father he would go gem hunting under supervision, because I know old people, they will lose everything. Anyway if they like it, I can see purchasing them some gem-bearing dirt for holidays. Because that really is the ultimate gift for someone who has everything--they aren't making any more dirt!

And I did manage to get some stitching business done! As you remember, I was going to work on Summer Row. Well, I didn't get much stitching done either before the flight or on the plane. It's graduation down here, and we were wodged together pretty tight. I did read. But I have been working on Summer Row. I have it a little more than halfway done. It's a pretty easy stitch, I must say. I am doing it on Lambswool linen, which looks like sand. So I am happy about that. I did check out Hobby Lobby and was SERIOUSLY disappointed. Except for their fabric. Brea is going to send me some later. But we did go to Stitching Post, which you will find at http://www.stitchinpostnashville.com/, and hit the sale room. OMG. I got so many charts for SO CHEAP. Stuff I have never seen, stuff I saw on Ebay go really high. I got a couple Halloween perforated paper leaflets that give me reason to want a Halloween bush, some cat charts, several bunny charts, one that is French Farmyard animals--the opportunity to purchase a chart of a goat in a beret is not one I pass up, and a really cute fall chart by My Mark, also some other ones. That is such a nice store! Beautiful, and so tempting. I didn't even look at the Christmas ones, I figured it was best for all involved.

Anyway, gotta run for now. We were going to go karaokeing, but I just want to do laundry and veg right now. Will post pix when I get home