First Down

Good morning, my friends. This being Super Bowl Sunday, you might think that "first down" crack has something to do with football. Actually, it means I've finished the first block for the Snowmen & Reindeer project. Ta-Da!

Stitching this first block was my goal for February's

and so I'll link up to the finishing party at the end of the month. And this early in February, I'm well ahead of the game.

We spent most of yesterday running all around Henderson. We stopped at a hardware store for some "man stuff," and then we headed to the pharmacy for some medicine and personal care stuff, and then we headed to a Carl's, Jr., for some hamburgers and stuff, and then we headed to the grocery store for some stuff to stuff in our mouths. You can see it was a day for stuff, and not much else.

When we were back at the RV, I went straight to work tracing out a new stitchery. It's important to avoid a stitching emergency on the road, and so I was prepared. Thankfully, this one has some snowmen.

Now here, I want to warn you off of some pens I tried recently. I've always used the Pigma Micron pens (size 01) to trace my embroidery (the top pen in the image below). Occasionally, I use Sticky Fabri-Solvy, but there's always a special reason to do that over tracing with the Micron pen. My preferred method of transfer is tracing with the pens. So, the last time I went to purchase a supply of these pens, they were listed as "out of stock," or else "discontinued." I can't really remember now, but whatever it said led me to believe that the Micron pens were no longer available. There was a pen that looked almost identical (see the image below).

So I did some reading and looked at the reviews, and eventually concluded that the company had changed its name and that, in fact, the pens were identical. Actually...not. When I touch those lower pens to the fabric, they bleed and make a little spot, and that is completely unacceptable. Fortunately, I have some of the original Pigma Micron pens along with me, and I can use those. It caused me to look again on Amazon, though, and now, it seems the original is available again. I have no ideas about what's going on with these pens, but I'm offering this up as a warning. Do not settle for substitutes.

Okay, so my second block is traced and hooped.

And I spent some time yesterday afternoon taking the first stitches.

When I'd run out of time, I moved the hoop up, hoping to capture the rest of it. There's just smidge at the top that I probably can't reach, but that will be easy enough to manage when I get that far.

The only other picture I took yesterday is this shrub seen outside the Carl's, Jr. My phone tells me this is Silver Senna. These were bushes trimmed to a round shape. The flowers are small...about nickel sized...and they were fragrant.

We've already had our Sunday morning pancakes, and I've started a load of wash. I'm hoping to get a couple of loads done today. We're also going to drive south from Boulder City about 40 minutes to the Keyhole Canyon. I've been using this book to plan our hikes.

The book tells us this is a "Moderate" hike that could take as little as 15 minutes. The draw (according to the book) are petroglyphs and pictograms, some of which are as much as 1,000 years old. There's also a waterfall. No problem, right? But when I look at the same hike online, people are talking about "canyoneering," and "rappelling" and the like, and gosh darn it if we didn't leave our mountain climbing equipment behind. (That's a joke, in case you were wondering.) So...anyway...I'm trusting the book. Maybe there is an opportunity for more adventurous hikers, but not us. We'll enjoy the petroglyphs and call it good. And we'll see what we'll see, keeping both feet firmly on the ground.

All right. So that's all I have for you today. If you don't hear from me again, you'll know I fell to my death rappelling down a waterfall. Don't worry, though. I have every intention of living to see another day and I almost always get my way.

Oh yes, and GO SEAHAWKS!!