Plugging Away

Weekend is over! My oldest daughter had another cheer competition out-of-town, in the big metropolis of Utica NY. Not so big, not so beautiful. The forecast was for heavy snow on Friday night so we all packed quickly and took a run for Utica. Of course, no sooner did we hit the highway when the snow started. So the drive was slow.

When we arrived at hotel check-in, I was told that there were 5 hockey teams staying at the hotel (it's winter in the northeast, ya know) and she was going to give us an upgrade on our room at no additional cost so that we could be faaar away from the hockey players. While at the front desk, the hotel employee got a call from a guest complaining about the noise. So I guess I was glad she upgraded our room. I had visions of loud, beer drinking, partying males in the halls all night (but at breakfast the next morning, I realized the hockey players were little kids!! LOL). Anyway, not a bad room...

a suite. We slept a little late. Hubby took my oldest over to meet her team while I watched the younger ones at the pool (a bonus in the winter!).
This time, I got smart and brought some hand work to do while at the competition. I am almost finished my first needle punch! The competition was done by 1 PM for their team and they placed first in their level and age group.

I spent the rest of the weekend working on this shirt ... the practice run. And boy, am I glad I practiced. It is really a simple pattern to follow and to sew, BUT the size I had sewed turned out to be slighlty too small at the shoulder and across the back (must be all that pumping I do at 5:30 AM). I tried it on after sewing on one of the sleeves and could feel that it was a little snug.
Luckily, Joann's has Simplicity patterns at $1.99 this week.

I forgot that there was a little pin holding the two center pieces in place (buttons go there eventually) when I took the shirt back off. The pin knicked my nose and the darn thing must have bled for 15 minutes from this minute scratch. (Note to self: watch for pins in clothing!)

Got snow? YUP! 9 more inches fell the night we had left for Utica.

One of our kind neighbors snowblowed us out.

This morning, my youngest asked me to take a photo of a couple of her Webkinz pals on their way to school to put on my blog. So here they are (they don't talk back).