Olive Garden Again

 We had Olive Garden again during our last week in the US, by Andreas' request.  We had the cheese appetizer first; it was nothing special.  I had the chicken parmesan, and Andreas had his usual ravioli.  We didn't take pictures of the salad and soup.  Food was good and plentiful, and the wait service was good.

Squared Up

Well, Jubilation is getting substantial.  The majority of the pattern is laid out.  Now it's time to fill it all in.

Brighter in Person

Andreas says this whole set of pictures is darker because he processed them on his backup computer.  The other one was mailed off last month for repairs and got back late last week.  Anyway, Gabriella is coming along pretty well.  It's easy to stitch once you get the hang of the chart, and the design is pretty. 

Dinner at a Brew Pub

 When in Virginia, we went to see The Help and stopped in a brew pub afterwards for dinner.  It was on Highway 11 just south of Pentagon City.  I ordered  the beer sampler, but none of them struck me as great.  That doesn't mean anything, though, as I'm not a big beer aficianado.  I also had a bowl of French onion soup, which was good, and a steak.  Andreas had pineapple chicken, which he enjoyed.

First Moldovan Textile Purchases

When we went to the Molovan rugmaking place during our first weekend in country, I bought some textiles!  They did have rugs for sale - beautiful ones - but we didn't have the cash on hand for them.  Anyway, what I did gt was this cute little wheat straw ornament, the embroidered show towel below it, and two meters of fabric woven on their looms.  They were taking the fabric and adding crochet to it to make fantastical tablecloths, but I preferred the fabric on its own.  When the house is put together, the fabric will lay over one of the sideboards in the dining room - yes, sideboards.  We're ending up with three for storage, because there's absolutely no built in storage in the house.

Pink on Purple

Another part of the Christmas rush- temari.  This one's a C8 with interlocking squares and triwings.  Pink was the color I had on hand at the time.

Beginning the Christmas Rush

It's that time of year again - the time to start working frantically on Christmas gifts.  This ornament is from last year's JCS Ornament edition, and I stitched it in other colors then.  This year, it's Florimell Deep Blue Sea.