This weekend, the long version

I decided to organize a stitching "retreat" with some of my girlfriends. We went here, and had a wonderful time.

Spent my usual Friday with Widget. I was very over-tired and cranky with her, which puts me in a worse mood, because then I feel bad about screaming at her for little things. It's not as if she even "gets" it. Pack my stuff while Widget sits in her crib refusing to nap, then pack her into the car to take the trip up to Daddy's office. Sit in traffic for 17 hours. Okay, not really. But it DID feel like it. There needs to be a law that states: If your car is more than 15 years old, you are not allowed to drive on I-93 during rush hour. A 45 minute traffic jam, because one car broke down, and our highway has no breakdown lane. Grrrr. Drop Widget off with ehr Daddy, head over to get dchenes and then over to Ina's. Get on the road. Hit more crappy traffic on the Mass Pike, then get off in Sturbridge, loop around the center island looking for somewhere to grab a quick bite 3 times. Get food, get back on road.

At this point, we're on state routes. The directions say, follow "Rt. 131 to 198 S. At the second stop sign, bear right, We're the 4th house on the right. It's about 30 minutes from Sturbridge" Well, we hit Rt. 198 within about 6 minutes. Hmmmm. Either I'm driving too fast, or this is a very far away stop sign. After driving along a tiny curvy state road with lots of trees, we decided it had to be that second one, and we were right. We pulled up to find ourselves greeted by not 1 dog, but three HUGE Malamutes. Lorac, Dory and Arwen had already arrived, and they came out to greet us, along with Lydia and Carl, the owners. We walk inside to find a lovely kitchen and dining area, and a sitting area perfectly laid out for a bunch of stitchers. There's exactly enough seating for the 7 of us, and at least 4 OTT True Color lamps, as well as good bright lamps for overall ambient light. The walls are covered in Lydia's collection of antique samplers, some of which are just absolutely stunning. She has a lovely lay-out of the various products that she sells, charts, fabric, floss, accessories, you name it. She takes us upstairs to our rooms, which are also lovely, decorated with antique furniture and more samplers. Change into comfortable clothes, go back downstairs, and sit and stitch for about 4 hours. Finally go up to bed around 2:30, planning on sleeping in nice and late.

Fail to sleep in. Get up around 9:15 (poop), wander downstairs to find fresh Elephant ears for pastries, and fruit from a local orchard waiting for breakfast, along with coffee and tea. Nibbled some breakfast and settled in for some more stitching. My mom arrived around 10:30 or so. Introduced her around, showed her to our room, and went back to stitching. Stitched all afternoon, stopping only to browse the charts they were out, help the other ladies with their projects, and eat a quick lunch (The B&B was informal enough that they let us pack in our own food for lunches, so we had sandwich and salad fixings to enjoy). Stopped around 5:00, tried to take a qick nap and failed, then got ready to go out to dinner. We had found the Cedar Street Restaurant online and decided to go there for dinner. It was absolutely lovely and the food was beyond delicious. We had a lvoely time, then returned to the B&B for more stitching and talking. Stayed up way too late again, but managed to sleep in a little later Sunday morning.

Got up, had some breakfast, did a little more shopping, and resumed stitching. I helped Dory try to pick out a new project, and got a whole bunch of work done on an old WIP that I've really been wanting to finish. I also finished the primary part of the sachet I am making for Wiley's grandmother for Christmas, which means now I must learn how to do the hemstitch I need to finish them off. I picked up the fabric for the BIG project (Le Printemps) that I want to start soon and a couple of small kits to add to my stash, but I restrained myself admirably considering I was faced with lots of fabulous hand-dyed linens and silk floss, and all kinds of other goodies. We broke up and headed for home at about 3:30, and had a lovely drive home. Dropped dchenes and Ina off, headed home and took over Widget watching so Wiley could go out and play with his friends.

I don't think I could imagine a more restful weekend. Everyone played nicely together, in fact, just about everyone got along fabulously. We had no time pressure to be anywhere or do anything besides our dinner reservation, we just got to sit and stitch and spend time together. It was lovely, and I already want to go back.