Still catching up

The older I get, the longer it seems to take me to get back in the swing of things after being away for even a few days.  I told a friend the other day that I was so far behind I was about to lap myself and she thought that was the funniest thing she'd ever heard. 

I'm glad she got a kick out of it...it makes me want to cry!

While I was away 'on holiday', my office experienced a 33% turnover (a resignation, a retirement, a promotion, etc.) and my boss was promoted to another office.  We are were a two-manager office, so you do the math.  I'm down a third of my staff and my 'better half' left me (former boss, not husband), so work has been nuts since the moment I walked back in the door.  In an effort to just get my head above water I worked about 9 hours Saturday (which I thankfully haven't had to do in about 10 years!).  It's going to be rough for the next three to six months, but I'm feeling very strongly about not giving work every second of every day.  I want to STITCH something!  ANYTHING!

One thing about being so far out of any kind of normal routine, I feel totally free to jump back in anywhere I want.  I have a mound of WIPs I could use to warm-up with (don't want to pull a hammy).  But I also have a couple of extra special PIGs (projects in grocery sack) that are calling my name.  So, we'll see what happens after church today.  I'm feeling very 'stitchy'.  :-)

I'll leave you with a couple of vacation shots (until there are stitching updates to share...)

The window shopping in Venice was out of this world!

velvets to die for

and silks...

There were several of these Venetia Studium (click link to visit their website) stores throughout Venice and each featured a different color scheme in the window.  And they changed the windows very frequently.  I was mesmerized by each!

 in every imaginable color...

I'm pretty sure those aqua crocodiles were made for Elton!

You know how I have kind of 'a thing' for paint chips?  Well, the vibrant colors and orderly display of these silk scarves and shawls were almost more than my heart could bear.  I wanted so badly to pluck about 40 of them off the shelf and stuff in my purse, but since Italian prison is not my idea of a good vacation, I admired them from afar... 

silk shawls ($200 and up, each)