Belated Flat-Fold Reveal

It's been how long since I posted?  And how many posts do I have floating around in my head?  All I can say is life is crazy busy, and when I get home, the computer usually stays off.

Anyway, back at the end of September, the other stitching Karen gathered a few of the local stitchers together for a flat-fold class.  What is a flat fold?  It's a way of framing cross stitch.  By the way, the piece I framed was lovingly stitched for me by HistoryDiva a few years back.

All of the pieces waiting to be assembled

A line-up of flat-folds from our class

The Knit Wit is temporarily at home on the mantle, next to a stack of
almost finished knit projects I need to keep out of reach of kitty paws...

The Countdown Returns

The Tomato Cafe & Tea Room

Dave and I just got back from a week-long beach vacation in Florida. Using the wonderful TeaMap Directory, I located a tea shop in Havana, about an hour north of our final destination.  We made a late afternoon stop at The Tomato Cafe & Tea Room on the drive down.  Dave tried a Gingerbread Creme black tea, and I ordered the Snickerdoodle black tea.

The verdict: Dave liked his tea, and I really wanted to like mine, too.  It smelled wonderful, but it tasted funny.  I realized the next day that the problem was the Florida tap water when I brewed one of my regular teas for breakfast and couldn't force myself to finish it.  Unfortunately, the Tomato Cafe didn't seem to have tea for sale loose-leaf or in teabags.  This probably won't be a stop on future road trips unless I bring bottled water for them to use for my tea, and sadly this has confirmed that I am a tap water snob...

Summer Stitching

Finishing the Sewing Room has allowed me to start a new
cross stitch project.  What is it?  Wait and see...

Using a double-strand of red chenille yarn makes a nice winter scarf

Finished in August: A fuchsia chenille scarf and a
child's fringed scarf in some purple remnants from previous projects

Knitting patterns: Crushed-Velvet Scarf from Simple 1-2-3 Knitting Scarves (red scarf), Easy Scarf in Faggot Stitch (fuchsia scarf), and I honestly don't remember the pattern for the purple remnant scarf because I frogged it so many times--I was trying to make a full-sized scarf from the remnant yarn, but I finally gave up, added a fringe, and dubbed it a "princess scarf" for some lucky little girl...

Pinspiration at Work

Surprise task of the day at work: Goodie bags!  Seriously, I spent half of my day creating goodie bags for the faculty and staff members who participated in the Georgia GOAL Scholarship Program.  This program also happens to be one of my pet projects at work... check out the GOAL website for more info on this awesome tax credit program that provides scholarship funds for private schools in Georgia!

And back to the project of the day...

I started with a Pinterest search for ideas.  I've been fascinated with the idea of a gift bag topper since I pinned a Thanksgiving cookie bag topper last fall.  Coworker Sheryl used her mad computer skills to create our own "Thank you for participating!" topper, and I went shopping at lunch for the goodies and the baggies.  Add some temporary tattoos for school spirit and a some fluff for decoration (seriously, I felt like Rowan Atkinson in the gift wrapping scene from Love Actually for that last bit), and they were ready to be topped off and put on display!

Nom noms for the goodie bags and the pre-cut toppers

Now I know why I stockpile empty file folder boxes!

Scavenged items from around the workplace to complete the bags...

After bonding with the paper cutter, it's the stapler's turn

Coworker Mary decorated the baskets for displaying the finished baggies

A Little Help

Skeeter was very curious about my stash of buttons when I pulled it out last weekend to choose buttons to finish off a couple bibs I knit a while back.

I like this one... no, this one... wait...

Comfy!  How about all of these buttons are mine?

Seriously, don't you have friends with real children who can model?

The Roswell Teahouse

Earlier this month, I discovered TeaMap, an online tea room directory (with an app to match!)  Taking advantage of this new resource, I located The Roswell Teahouse en route to the restaurant where we were meeting Dave's family for dinner.  We arrived shortly before closing, and while I opted to try the iced Vanilla Peach tea, Dave ordered a pot of the Scottish Carmel Puerh.  We both liked his tea, and mine would have been more wonderful if it had been sweetened prior to being iced (unsweet tea, bleh).

The verdict: The price tag for hot brewed teas are a bit steep (around $5 for a one-person pot) compared to other tea shops I've visited, and Dave found the Scottish Carmel Puerh at ZenTea last weekend.  While I would not object to going back to Roswell to sample some of the other teas from their menu, I'm not going to go out of my way for a special trip.