Eclipse trip

I didn't blog last week, as I was pretty worn out from our trip to St. Louis to see the eclipse. We drove down on Sunday and came home on Monday; even though the trip home actually went faster than the trip there, it felt longer, and over 17 hours of driving in two days tired me out pretty well for a couple of days afterwards! However, I am really glad that we went, and that I was able to experience something so amazing with my son; he just turned 16, and the time I have left with him at home feels so fleeting.

We missed the totality by a few miles, but it was worth it as we found a nice little park in downtown St. Louis to watch it from, near the Gateway Arch:

At the peak of the eclipse the outdoor lights came on and the locusts started whirring and a swelling "oooh" from the crowd made the moment truly magical. I took this picture a bit earlier (the picture I took at the peak is just a tiny dot of light):

The day before we left I was able to finish up my Book of Spells project; I finished the stitching on Friday and mounted it on the box Saturday morning. I always wish my finishing skills were a bit more polished, but I'm happy with the result:

The name is a bit hard to read, but it's Ida Kerstum--try saying it out loud...

The project even got picked as project of the week by The World of Cross Stitching magazine on FB:

Part 5 of The Great Cheshire Pumpkin SAL was released the night before we left for our trip, so this past week I was able to finish as much of it as I'm going to until the next part is released:

It just keeps getting cuter--those naughty kitties have broken a jack'o'lantern!

Now I am back to work on the Rosewood Manor piece, until the next part of the SAL comes out.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!