Nice Surprise

As we are suffering the scourge of dial-up speed for the next few days, today's post will only have a few photos.  Bloody Windows and its giant updates, it sucked out the last of our usage quietly, oh well, three days til the turnover.

I had a rather nice surprise last week, Albany Show week.  I put  couple of entries into the Embroidery section of Craft, "First Time Exhibitor", and blow me down, I won first and second!  

I finally finished my little garden/cottage embroidery and then made a tote bag, using the embroidery as a pocket.  As well as a swish rosette and a certificate, I also won $35!  That was also a huge surprise and I had fun spending it at the fabric shop the other day.  :-)

Second place was my Particularly Posh Potholder.  Some of the ladies at embroidery were horrified that I was going to use this as a potholder, but I explained that I had planned it carefully, the two embroideries are the right distance apart for my hand if I fold the potholder over to get a hot dish out of the oven, and I stitched it on denim (from an old pair of Steve's jeans) and padded it so it would be nice and thick and heat-proof.

This time of year there are flowering trees everywhere, all beautiful, but we are especially loving our peppermints, which seem to have masses more blossom this year than before, and they look like they have been snowed on.  Lovely.