The Year of Dates

I just started working on the lighthouse that's on this month's to do list. So I turned to my magic list of blogging questions and found: What's something you're thinking about now? Planning this month's date.

I showed you the birthday present I got for the dude, but I don't think that I shared what I made him for Christmas. I created a little accordian file of dates for us to do throughout the year. I got tickets or set aside cash and planned something for us to do each month.

So far we've done five dates. (C'mon, this is us we're talking about here!)

January Movie Marathon: Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Before Midnight. We chose a wintry weekend and ran around getting the movies out of the library (our library only had two). That night it snowed, but we didn't care, we were watching movies! With popcorn. And Greek pizza. (We tipped the delivery guy bigtime.)
February Play, The Cherry Orchard Unfortunately for us, we got snowed out! We had to make the call whether to go out in the (anticipated) snow or change the date. We ended up going on a Wednesday in March (and lucky thing too because the snow really came down). The play was fantastic, but we didn't get to use the dining certificate since we had to rush to the show after work. Hmmm. Haven't used the dining certificate...
March Get Your Art On (local painting place) When we finally found a painting we wanted to do, it was sold out! We've been keeping an eye on the offerings, but so far...
April Facts on Philly: Philadelphia History Museum This one was fun. We ended up doing it fourth of July weekend, but whatever. (That photo of the dude on the map of Philadelphia shows him standing on the spot where his office is.) We were supposed to go for lunch at a Burmese restaurant but we went for dim sum instead. Yum. Dim sum.
May Tourists in our own Town: Mural Arts Tour Unfortunately, we haven't taken this one yet.

June Picnic at Chanticleer I bought some sandwiches and we debated whether we should bring alcohol or not; we weren't sure it was legal. (We didn't, but you can and everyone else did.) Since our picnic was small, we were able to walk a distance from the other picnickers and had a lot of privacy. (And the dude was able to use the annual passes I bought to take his mother there as well. It's her favorite garden.)

July Blobfest Every July (check the calendar in the Sheriff's office) Phoenixville hosts Blobfest. The town features in the movie--heck, the movie theater features in the movie! This was a lot of fun and something we never would have done otherwise. The double-feature was Creature from the Black Lagoon in 3-D. The 3-D was terrible but I have found memories of watching Creature with my mom on Creature Double Feature. Remember that?

And the rest of the dates
August Floating Down the Brandywine
September Night Skies at the Observatory at the Franklin Institute
October Fondue for Two
November Volunteering at Philabundance
December Build a Fort

I know people think of me as creative, but I used a lot of googling to put this together. The overall idea came from Friday We're in Love who I think got it here. But I also gleaned some ideas from Dating Divas.

And look what I just found: Philly Dates! I smell a Christmas present...

Happy Birthday, Dude

Don't let anybody tell you that being able to visualize on a grid--a skill I learned in the obvious place--isn't a useful, transferable skill.

Clear Path

Yes, we still have to get rid of the quarter ton of stone on the lawn and the leftover pavers, but the path itself is complete! The dude put in another long day on Saturday. (I couldn't get good photos until the sun came out on Monday.)

Look at those fine curved edges!
(Ignore the gravel and the pavers all over the lawn. In fact, ignore the lawn all together...and the rose bushes...)

This part is the path from the driveway; it used to be cement. Yay for young men with sledgehammers.

Making the path curve out to the width of the step was my neighbor's idea. Now the path, she has a girlish figure.

And I am so damn happy every time I walk on it! That dude, he is something special.

As are you all. Thanks so much for your encouraging comments on my finishing. It is indeed a relief to have them done, though the finishing pile runs deep.

SBQ: All You Need is Love

 month, Lee asks, "We like to stitch things for people we love. Show us and tell us about one (or more) of your favorite needlework projects that expresses your love for someone."

You may know that every year since our third anniversary, I have stitched a little something for the dude. (I skipped the first, because it was paper, and got him something appropriately papery. For the second anniversary, I started a stitched piece--it is the cotton anniversary--but tragically, I lost the piece I was working on. So even though we will have been married ten years this July, we only have seven pieces. Let's review, shall we?

2004: Chessie and Me

2005: Ewe and I

2006: La D Da

2007: SamSarah

2008, the year of the skin graft: Heart in Hand

2009: Monsterbubbles

2010: Erica Michaels. Oops.

Of all of these, my favorite is probably the Monsterbubbles. I just love that quote. We're movie quote people. So what will I stitch this year (and why wasn't it in the Crazy January starts, hmmmm?)

Framed

I got a call yesterday from the Strawberry Sampler! When I walked in they greeted me by name. I have apparently crossed a threshold, which is nice but a touch embarrassing. Without further ado, I give you My Needle and Floss. I went with the same frame I used on Tall Flowers.

Pop over to Sue's blog because the traveling pattern is getting ready to go again!

Next is La D Da's A to Z and in Between. I thought this deserved a plain dark wood frame to go with the letters. I made changes in the floss, you can find those recorded here.

Finally, Moon Garden by Birds of a Feather. I love how this came out!!!

And a close-up of the frame because I.Am.In.Love!

The dude was pleased with my cooking yesterday as well. We started out with eggs in a basket for breakfast. He had a midmorning cold brewed coffee. For lunch I was making zucchini/summer squash fritters, when the dude suggested tomato and cheese sandwiches. Since I had the cast iron skillet out, I grilled green and red tomato and cheese sandwiches to go with the fritters. For dinner, I popped a pork loin into the slow cooker with 2/3 of a bottle of LC's barbecue sauce (our favorite from the KCMO trip), roasted some CSA green beans and made sweet and sour red cabbage from the head that has been languishing in the vegetable bin. He told me I could have charged $20 per plate. I love that he loves my cooking so much. Not that it shows. Skinny fucker.

To Market! To Market!

Hillside Samplings, "Autumn Willow" You know about the pumpkin obsession, but there's a willow obsession too. Camp is in three weeks and I have three gift certificates to spend.
Workbasket, "Bunny Attitude "Loyal readers will recognize my dedication to spirals. Love it!
Plum Street Samplers, "Dead Man's Chess" The dude (chess rating 1665) took one look at it and said, "Do you know what's wrong with the chess board?" Since I have been subjected to that question a hundred times, I knew right away, the board is set up wrong. The square in the lower left corner should be white. I have been with him in a variety of places where he has told people their chess boards are set up incorrectly (stores, showhouses). In one showhouse there was a "no touching" rule that they broke so he could reset the board--in that case, it wasn't just the right hand corner, but also some of the pieces were in the wrong place. And don't get him started on that ad for some sleeping pill with Abe Lincoln. He goes nuts, e v e r y t i m e he sees it.