"Forest Goddess" ready for beads and backstitching!!

I'm very pleased with myself. I sat down this morning and made myself sit and work on FG until I was ready for backstitching and beading and I got it accomplished. It helped that the boys were back at school today so it was quiet in the house and I was able to get it done. Now to figure out the backstitching instructions(I hate them sometimes) and get to work on that. That is my goal for tomorrow, there isn't a lot so I think it's possible. Then it's on to the beads. I looked them over again and while my choices aren't "exact" matches to the Mill Hill's, I think I did pretty good. The only hitch is the bugle beads I bought, which I *love* the color of, are too small. I knew I would have to do some fidling with the pebble and bugle bead since I am doing it on 28ct fabric and the recommended fabric is 32 count but even factoring in that they are too small. I will have to try to find a way to the bead store to see if they have a similar color in slightly larger beads. I sure hope so cause the color is beautiful!!

The weekend was good. No hockey so it was nice to have DH here all weekend long. G had his birthday party on Saturday. He was so looking forward to it and I worried if it would live up to his expectations but it did for him. It was a bowling party and he is really good at bowling. He won both games. It was nice to see him interact with other kids and he seems to be pretty well liked. Now he wants a bowling party for his birthday. Thankfully that is a few months away.

On Sunday I went with my MIL to Costco to help her with some of her purchases. Why she goes and buys such large quantities of stuff when it's just her and my FIL I don't know but she loves the store so I went.

Monday was MLK day so the boys were home. That was a good thing because we got the tail end of the ice storm and I was really thankful not to have to go anywhere. The roads weren't that bad but it was a lot nicer to sit and look at the ice then to be out in it. We were lucky and barely got hit. Some places were without power and there were several stories on the news of tree's hitting cars in driveways but it could have been much, much worse. Today was cold, clear, and sunny and I have to say the trees look so pretty with the sun shinning through them and the dusting of snow clinging to the ice. It was like a picture!

Dh spent part of the weekend puttering with our dryer. I don't know if I mentioned it here by my MIL gave us her older(and I use the term loosely) high efficiency washer/dryer before Christmas. She moved her laundry room from her basement to an upstairs bedroom that she converted to a laundry/pantry room(for all her Costco purchases...LOL). Even though the appliances were not that old she bought new and she had her older ones delivered and installed here. The washer worked great from the get go but the dryer has taken some fiddling. For one it was not put in well. They didn't put it in the right spot, they put a kink in the dryer vent hose, didn't level it and broke the handle on the gas valve(it still works but you need a pair of pliers). I also had trouble figuring out how to load it...I know I sound stupid but at first all it did was twist the clothes around and things weren't drying in the middle. Then it seemed like it was drying well at all. Dh moved it, leveled it, put a new hose on and now it seems to be working much better and dries super fast.

Tomorrow I'll have pictures of FG, I just didn't feel like playing with the camera tonight. I'll also have to post a recent picture of Isis. She is getting to be so big. I weighed her today, she cooperated and sat on the scale, and she is 8 pounds and so long. When she stretches out completely it's amazing to see how long she is!! She has grown into such a gorgeous cat and what a great companion. I'm truly blessed that she "chose" us to come live with.