Happy New Year!

I hope it's a healthy and prosperous year for all my on-line friends!

I had a very relaxing and lazy New Year's Day today. Woke up at 8:30, had breakfast, made coffee for DH, surfed the web for a little while, showered/dressed and went to the gym with DD#1 and DD#2.

After that, we ran a couple of errands and picked up two DVD's. The kids and DH don't have to go back to school/work until Thursday. It will be body shock for them Thursday morning when they have to wake up 4 or 5 hours earlier than what they've become accustomed to the past week and a half. Two weeks for DH because he took a long vacation. The grumbling has begun about going back to work and I don't blame him one bit.

When I got home, I made homemade fried chicken, DD#2 made the homemade mozzarella sticks, and we finished up with a tortellini salad. Quite fatty, and I felt like a slug after eating it. Sure glad we only eat this way on special occasions too. Cleaning the deep fryer is a pain in the a$$ too. It's probably *the* no. 1 reason we don't eat too many fried foods LOL. Dessert was our leftover apricot brownies and church window candy from yesterday.

Tonight I hope to think embroidery thoughts. I have to make a belated Christmas present for a friend of mine that has had a tough personal life the past 18 mos. She's going through a divorce and the soon-to-be DH is not making things easy for her. And that's putting it mildly. He's been dragging it out as long as he can. I'm making her a wall hanging with her name on it and three things that will remind her what a wonderful person she is. She's a loving, devoted mother to a beautiful 4-year old son, a good and loyal friend, and a positive role model for her students. She's a pitching coach for my daughter and 11 other girls throughout the year. She is probably one of the strongest people I know, but certainly has had several low moments the past year and a half, but she always keeps going. I'm continually amazed at her firm resolve, positive attitude, and her dedication to help others despite what she has been through. So I just want to make something for her that she can see every day to remind her of what a wonderful person she is. I have to look through my embroidery designs to see if I can find some special designs for her wall hanging. It's kind of like a mini quilt.

Also, I've been looking at my dress and think maybe some embroidery on the front inset would be nice. (My dress is pictured in my 12/31 post.) It looks so plain, and I think some embroidery would make it more of a special, one-of-a-kind dress. It would have to be a v-shape design, and I'd like to keep it all red on the black fabric. Ideas, anyone? If you have ideas for a design, please let me know. I usually buy my designs from Embroidery Library but am still somewhat new to embroidery. I'm learning as I go, but there's only so much time to spend on it during the week. I did put covered, black buttons at the side of the sleeves below the tuck. This seemed to add to the "something" that was needed.

Well, I've sat here enough at my computer. It's time to do some dishes and get thinking embroidery!