Shepherd's Bush Trip - day 3

Day 3 we spent the majority of our time in the host hotel.  We got up and had a quick breakfast.  We were prepared to be in line at 9:00 when the Shepherd's Bush girls opened the Christmas Shop in the hotel next door.  They set up shop with things the teachers bring specifically for the retreat and of course a few extra cute goodies just for good measure!

Well, we got down to the plaza and met a sister stitcher (my new friend Teri from Utah) who told us there was a sign on the door that said they weren't opening until noon!  What?!  So we marched ourselves, a little degected, back up to the room and stitched until 11:30.

When we finally did get to the Christmas Shop the line had already formed!  So we decided to hop in the hotel restaurant for some lunch and then we'd try our luck again.  Lucky we were indeed too!  I found several things that had been on my wishlist that I didn't find the days before so I was a happy girl.

From the Christmas Shop we went downstairs to open our registration packets and get started on our Welcome Projects! Our project this year was a Santa sack!  Well, I don't think that's the official name but that's what I'm calling it.  These are some examples the teacher's made ahead of time. They came in two colorways, red ticking or green ticking.

Of course you know I wanted the red one! I stitched on mine throughout the treateat and on the plane ride home. I've got mine done and am trying to decide if I want to put words on it or not. I'll show a picture of that later.

 

Inside the bag was all the floss you needed and a little handmade booklet with designs from each of the designers. You got to pick how you arranged them and which ones you wanted to use. There were more designs to pick from than there were squares to stitch thanks to Jeannette designing more than one. It was hard to decide which to pick because they were all so darn cute!

Here we are scooting back to our home away from home.  The building you see in the picture is our condo. We stayed on the mountain view side.  We called in a pizza for dinner before heading back for before the evening's group project and festivities.

We got to see a "preview" of Friday night's dessert project with Cece of The Threadgatherer.

Our class project with Linda of Chessie & Me.

R & R's class project.

Jeannette Douglas' class project.

Our evening group project was a "cookie exchange" or at least the idea of one! There were stations in each corner of the room where you went to make your "cookie." We were all given a Christmas themed tin and asked to put our name on stickers on both the bottom and the lid. Then we made our way around to the different stations.

This is the Sandwich Cookie and was hands down my favorite! It's made with two buttons and rounds of wool sandwiched between them held together with a ribbon and embellished with a charm. Is this just too dang cute or what?!  Here are the others.

 Pinwheel Cookie closed.

 Pinwheel open and it's a tape measure!

 A Truffle ornament.

 And finally, counting pin sprinkles!  So cute!

Here's our whole group!  The girls on the right side of the table are my peeps from the Russellville Retreat.  They came up from New Mexico and Texas!  It was so much fun having them there.  I miss them already!

Well folks, that's day 3!  I hope you've enjoyed our trip so far.  There's even more to come. So stay tuned!


More to come,

The Inspired Stitcher

Shepherd's Bush Trip - day 2

Day two we decided to make a trip down the mountain to visit Antelope Island State Park.  It's located in the Salt Lake.  It's the largest of the 10 islands located in the Great Salt Lake.  You reach the island by driving across a causeway and are greeted by this sign at the intersection.

We couldn't have asked for a better day to visit the island.  There was a gentle breeze and the weather was perfect!

We drove up to a lookout point up on the mountain and this was the view from there!  Isn't it amazing?  We definitely don't have views like that here!  The lake is to the left in the picture.  The water table was way down from the drought this summer.

I absolutely fell in love with these flowers on the island.  They remind me of sunflowers but I'm fairly sure they aren't sunflowers.  They may be related but I'll call them sunflowers anyway.

They grow pretty tall since I'm a shade under 5'9" and they are almost as tall as I am!  I just love the contrast of the yellow flowers and that blue sky!  On of my traveling peeps picked a couple dried blossoms in hopes of starting some from seed.

You might be wondering if we saw any antelope while on the island.  Well we did but they were too far away to get a good picture.  However, we did see this herd of buffalo!

And this guy! He was standing right by the road just watching us.  I still can't believe he was just standing there.  It was almost like he was posing!

This time we drove all the way to the end of the road and visited the Fielding Garr Ranch.  The ranch  is located at Garr Springs, one of the strongest and most consistent of the 40 springs on Antelope Island.  The Mormon Church operated the ranch until the mid-1870s.  I'm sitting on the back porch of the ranch house in this picture.

The park ranger advised us to pay special attention to the curtains in the kitchen and this is what we saw!  I think I may have to do this in my own kitchen.  Love it!

This is something else that grabbed my attention in the ranch house.  It's a Starr phonograph!  Now you might say well big deal a record player and your point is?

This is what blew my hair back!  It was made by the Starr Piano Company in Richmond, Indiana!  Who would have imagined I would travel all those miles to find something that was made in a place near and dear to my heart.  It made this transplanted Hoosier smile.  Amazing!

On our way back to the causeway this fellow crossed right in front of us!  I kid you not, I didn't even use the zoom on my camera.  I just opened the window and clicked!  He was a very impressive fella to see up close like that!  That's what I love about visiting the island, you never know what's going to cross the road right in front of you.  We definitely don't have these at home!

After leaving Antelope Island, we headed back to Ogden to visit Jill Rensel's shop for her open house.  That's Jill in the middle!  She is just the sweetest lady ever.  She's very soft spoken and makes you feel like part of her family the minute you walk in her door.

I fell in love with this sweet Blackbird Designs' piece!  It was so t-i-n-y!  It's stitched over one and I dearly love it!  I actually bought that chart the day before at The Craft Center.  Hmm...I think I see some over one stitching in my future.

Here it is with another sweet over one piece.  I don't know who designed it but I like it.  If you know, tell me in the comments.  Love that crow and jack o'lantern.

Speaking of sweet, just look at this sweetness right here!  These are Jill's babies.  Two of the cutest Yorkies ever.  They greeted us when we walked in the door.

After we left Jill's we headed back over to Shepherd's Bush shop for one more round of stash enhancement!  Yep, we didn't get enough the first time around and had to go back for some things we couldn't live without.  Oh darn!

On our way back up the mountain to Park City to find some dinner this is what we saw!  I had never seen a rainbow shoot straight up with no curve before.  It was raining in the distance and the sun was setting behind us and the mountain.  It was simply beautiful!

Here we are toasting a wonderful day at  Robert Redford's restaurant, Zoom!  It was a really nice restaurant and our waiter was from Pennsylvania of all places.  He got a kick out of chatting with us.

This is what I had, the tomato basil soup with goat cheese swirled in and their famous mac and cheese.  Everyone we talked to said we must try the mac and cheese!  It lived up to the hype and then some.  It was very cheesy with a slight peppery taste and a crunchy crumb topping.  I washed it down with a nice glass of bubbly too.  Yum!

After all that we went home thoroughly stuffed and happy!  It was a great second day in Utah and the next day promised even more good times.  Stay tuned!


More to come,

The Inspired Stitcher

Shepherd's Bush Trip - day 1

Well, let's get started on the recap.  I know you want to hear all about it.  We started our day at o'dark hundred with a trip to the airport before the sun even thought about coming up.  Those who know me know I'm not fully functional until at least 10:00am and a least one cup of tea.  LOL!  The trip through security and the flight were both uneventful.  Thank heaven for small miracles!

 

When we landed in Salt Lake City it was overcast and spitting rain but it didn't dampen our spirits because we were on our grand adventure!  Our first stop...

 

To see Jamie at the Craftcenter of Fine Stitchery!  We visited her shop last time and we wanted to make sure to visit again.  She is such a sweetie and her shop is full of good stuff!

 

You'd think I would have taken a lot of pictures but I was too busy shopping. LOL!  I did manage to take a couple.  This one is of a Drawn Thread freebie.  Why is it designs always look better stitched up?

Sorry for this craptastic picture.  This is part of a set Jamie designed for the shop.  I fell in love with the beaded cherries and that luscious red silk ribbon.  Of course this one came home with me.  Along with a lot of other things.  :o)

After thoroughly stimulating the economy we were all ready for some sustenance.  So on Jamie's recommendation we headed across the street to try out the Blue Lemon!

What a lunch it was too!  We had butternut squash soup that tasted like pumpkin pie in a bowl, pear and gorgonzola spinach salad with toasted candied pecans and lavender frozen lemonade!  Makes me want some more just looking at that picture.  Delish!

From there we headed over to the holy grail to be with our people!  Yep, the Shepherd's Bush birthday party!  Just look at that line and we were a half hour early too.

There's Teri hanging up the celebration banner!  She's the happiest person on earth.  I never saw her without that smile the whole weekend.

Here's a peek inside.  It was elbow to elbow in there!  Everyone stash enhancing to their little heart's content.

Check out that wall of fabric and those wonderful stockings.  It was awesomeness as from floor to ceiling.  Swoon!

Here we all are, happy shoppers with our bags of loot stash!  We did some serious damage to the pocket books at this stop and believe me this wasn't to be our only trip to the shop.  LOL!

From here we ventured up the mountain to our condo and settled in for our week's stay.  All of us a bit tired but very very happy!  Stay tuned, more to come later!  Thanks for stopping by today.


More to come,

The Inspired Stitcher

 

I'm back...

Did you miss me?  I'm finally collecting my thoughts after the Shepherd's Bush Retreat.  Wow, what a week it was too!  I have so many things I want to share.  It was an amazing week and I had so much fun.  It was hard to come back to reality!

Speaking of coming back, here's what was waiting for me from across the pond. It's a gift from Mouse over at Tales of a Stitching Mouse!  A while back Mouse posted a picture and I was the first one to correctly guess what it was. You have to go see.

She was so sweet to send me this lovely package complete with a huge hunk of beautiful Victorian Motto floss, some yummy herbal tea and the most perfectly stitched pin cushion I've ever seen!  Oh yes, Bentley sent Shelby some biscuits to try too.

Just check this little cutie out!  It is just so very me!  She said the design came from a British cross stitch magazine and I dearly love it!  It is just so perfectly stitched and stuffed firmly just like I like them.  I simply can't quit admiring it.  Thank you so much, Mouse!  I will treasure this precious gift always!

 

Look at that lovely tea color.  Mouse said if I didn't like it I could use it to dye fabric.  Hmmm...I don't think any fabric is going to get to touch this tea.  It's way too yummy!  Excuse the dusty keyboard.  I see the cleaning fairy didn't come while I was away.  LOL!

Here's Miss Shelby patiently waiting for her cookie from Bentley.  I missed my girl while I was gone.

Yep, she likes her cookie as much as I liked my tea!

Thank you again, Mouse!  I love everything you sent and Shelby says thank you to Bentley too.  It was a nice surprise to open when I got home.

***

Thanks for stopping by today!  I'll be back later to tell you all about the retreat.  It's going to take several posts to catch you all up.  I don't think you'll mind though!

More later,

The Inspired Stitcher