Someone needs a nap...

The last couple of weeks have been insanely, crazy busy and I'm having trouble keeping up.  Obviously some things are falling by the wayside (including blogging and getting enough sleep).  It started went I traveled to visit my family to celebrate Easter and my niece's birthday.  I always have a wonderful time visiting them, but this time, one of them followed me back.  This week is Spring Break for my niece Gracie and she came to stay for a few days.

Gracie and Sam

This is the first time she's stayed over and the pets didn't know what to make of it.  The cats weren't quite sure if they liked it, while our dog Gabriel loved having her own 'kid' around.  Unfortunately, Gracie is very allergic to cats and we weren't sure how she would do around 4 of them.  Especially when one of them climbed on top of her luggage within minutes of her arriving...

Sam on Gracie's luggage

I was very careful to keep all of her stuff in a plastic bag for the rest of her visit and she didn't have a single issue with her allergies.  Praise God!

I had SO MUCH FUN while she was visiting.  We ate, worked out, sewed, played, ran errands and basically did everything except sleep.  Having no children of my own, I also learned 2 very important lessons: (1) kids are very expensive, and (2) kids are exhausting!  I now have a much greater sympathy/empathy for her mom.  (I'm also hoping she'll let her come back and play for another week during the summer.)

Gracie is just now interested in learning to sew and has finished her very first embroidery block.  It's from one of the Nancy Halvorsen books although I can't recall which right now.

Gracie's First Embroidery Block

She's working on her second one and has told me that I need to send her another one once she's finished with it.  While she worked on hers, I managed to finish my 3rd Snowman A to ZZZZ block...

Block 3 - C is for Candy Canes

The Candy Canes took a little while to stitch up, but otherwise this block finished pretty quickly.

Block 3 - Closeup

I was planning on putting these aside and finishing my Baltimore Halloween quilt now, but I'm going on a quilt retreat next week and this will be great to work on in the evenings.  Once I return though, I really, really have to finish the Halloween quilt - after I catch up on all the missed sleep that is!

Until later...

"But these things I plan won’t happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow, do not despair, for these things will surely come to pass. Just be patient! They will not be overdue a single day!" 

Habakkuk 2:3 (LB)