Came home sick from the retreat...

...ugh!! While I was driving home on the 28th I felt a little off but thought I might just be tired; by Monday I could tell I was actually sick and by Thursday it was pretty bad. I'm feeling better now but am still coughing quite a bit while it clears out. I had a bad feeling when I was in the elevator of the hotel and a little girl sneezed--I could picture those germs just going everywhere and wreaking havoc!

The retreat itself was a fun time; the stitching room was open from 10a-11p Thursday, 8a-11p Friday and Saturday and 8a-12p Sunday, which was a lot of stitching time to enjoy. I didn't do any stitching on Sunday, though, because I just wanted to get the drive over with at a reasonable time, get home and get my laundry done. I stopped at Stitchville on my way into town and found it was probably the best shop I've ever visited; it's a shame that it's closing, as I'm sure local stitchers will feel pretty bereft without it.

I wasn't particularly thrilled with the hotel that the retreat was held at, as it's right by the airport and there was no way to walk to any restaurants, or even any close drive-thru places. It was also too warm in the personal rooms; the AC hadn't been turned on yet, so the lowest temperature I could get my room to was 72F, and it wouldn't even stay at that, so I didn't sleep very well because I was just too warm. They're going to hold the retreat again next year, in May, so maybe the AC will be turned on by then--I'm not sure if I'll go again or not at this point, I'll have to think about it for a while.

I think my gift bags were well received; I ended up with an extra one because we only had five people at our table. Then Saturday morning a woman staying at the hotel came into the room to look at all of the stitching and really liked it, so I ended up giving her the extra bag and a needle so she would have everything she needed to try cross stitching for the first time--perhaps she's a convert by now!

I did get a lot of stitching done on Silver Moon Tea; this was about where she was when I left for the retreat:

And this is how she looked when I got home:

I stitched a couple of small models last week for the upcoming Friendstitch event in September, and then I went back to SMT, so as of last night she looks like this:

My dog Murphy is having a medical issue right now, so I'm not sure how much stitching time I'll have in the near future as the vet figures out what further tests are needed. I'm trying not to get ahead of myself and worry too much, but it's always hard when a pet is ailing. At this point in my life, I'm really feeling like I don't want dogs anymore because I'm just kind of tired of being needed too much from too many sides, so it's a difficult time.

The day I left for the retreat I got an email from Faye Riggsbee that my Tiny Towns were finished; these are the photos she attached:

Didn't she do an amazing job on these? The fabrics and the embellishments are perfect; I especially love the shell and starfish on the top of Seaside Tiny Town--so cute!

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!