Megan Left!

One of my good friends, Megan, left post while we were on home leave.  She just got to Moscow last week.  Before she left we had lunch and she gave me these cute earrings from her favorite jewelry designer.  Thank you Megan, and I hope we cross paths again soon!

Crazy January Start Twenty-Two - Ornate Butterfly

Just brown at the moment, but the piece has a bunch of jewel toned colors and the floss is separated!  It's also somewhat small, so there's a chance of finishing it in some kind of normal time.

Crazy January Start Twenty-One - Dumitriti

This is a local kit, and like all local kits, came with aida.  I changed it out for linen.  The piece is a bouquet of gerbera daisies, called dumitriti (pronounced doo-meh-tree-tz) in Romanian. Obviouly, I've only got part of a leaf done.  Into the pile it goes to get pulled out to work on later.

Wine And Dine

 We went to Lisina Restaurant at Mandola winery a couple of days after Christmas.  It's about an hour outside of Fredericksburg, but it's got a really beautiful atmosphere.  Andreas took photos of the wine bottle because it had a local label but was made in Italy, so was a true chianti.  I had forgotten how much I'd liked chiantis.  It'd been a long time.  

Both Andreas and I had pizza.  Mine's the one with the green on top.  We also had a meat and cheese tray between the three of us, and I had pumpkin soup, the small size.  Mom had scallops again.  Everything tasted very good.  It was also, as you can see, gorgeously presented.  The last two photos are of the interior and exterior, showing how the place fits into its location.

You Know It's A Bad Day When...

the fire department comes ambling into the lobby of your hotel in full gear with three trucks outside.  It was just another misadventure on the trip.

Crazy January Start Twenty - Chagall

I've done a lot of these little octagon ornaments, but there are still several in my stash.  Getting another done!

Crazy January Start Nineteen - Knightmare

I had this kitted up for quite  while - since I bought it five? years ago in Virginia.  Time to get it started!