Vacation at last! And TUSAL as well. Looooooong

People were wondering why I was wordless last week.  :D  Well, part of the reason was that I wasn't home and didn't want to say I wasn't home.  lol!  We did go up to Boston to visit the boy child for Parents Weekend -- and it was wonderful to see him and clean his apartment for him.  lol!  The cleaning was my idea, not his.

But after that, we went up to this.

That's the view out the window of the cottage we rented up in Boothbay Harbor, Maine.  Right on the ocean.  Love it!

It was our first vacation in 3 years (I'd been saying two, but I was wrong.).  And it was our first empty nest vacation too.  Very odd feeling!

We had lots of fun.  Visited some of our usual haunts.  Like Boothbay.

Which of course included our favorite ice cream joint.

We did a bit of outlet shopping at Freeport.  Which, of course, is dominated by LL Bean.

Ate at the restaurant of one of the Beans.  Yummy Lobster Rolls.  Mmmmmmm.

And found a British Goods store, Bridgham & Cook Ltd.  And went a bit crazy.

Loved it!

This is inside the store.  They even had shelves full of scarves which were the colors of the different colleges of Oxford and Cambridge.  So cool!

These are my purchases.  Couldn't resist.

(Sorry for the sideways pic.)  And we also had to get some of this to try.  Been curious about it ever since I saw some commentators trying it at the Australian Open.  (Yes, it's Australian, not British.)

We also went to Wiscasset.   Finally tried the lobster rolls at the famous Red's Eats.

(That's the father type with his man bag.)

This is the bridge between Boothbay and Wiscasset, which always gets backed up due to the human traffic waiting in lines for Red's Eats.  In the summer, there can be quite a backup -- both human and car.  Which is why we've never tried Red's Eats before this time.  The line was always too long.

We went antiquing in Wiscasset.  Fun things to see.  These pics are from Waterstreet Antiques.  Lots of neat stuff.

The tag said the fabric on the right is from the 19th century.

(A collection of planes.)

I found the most items at the Showcase Antiques Gallery.  Love this display.

My purchases -- the father type found the little coronation jug for me.  I was thrilled!

The jug, darner and little Japanese car are all very small.  And look at the lip of the jug.

Love it!

We also did some of this, of course.

This is at Ocean Point.  So pretty!

Wouldn't you love to live in that house?  Or this one?

Right there on the edge of the rocks with those views!

(Have man bag -- and iPad -- will travel.)

Oh, and we also lazed around the cottage.  Which was quite cozy.

Love this stove.

Ignore all the luggage.  This is when we first arrived.

The cottage actually had quite a few stitched pieces around too, some embroidered, some cross stitch, some in needle point.  This one took me back -- I still have one exactly like it that I think my mom stitched.

Before I forget, here is my TUSAL for the month.

Mia was sooooooooooooo happy to see us when we got home.  This is the longest we've left her since she was a kitten.  She'd probably given up on us.  lol!   She just kept purring and meowing and meowing and rubbing, and being very excited and happy.  Now she's sacked out on the Bridgham & Cook bag.

Sorry no stitchy pics this week.  I was working on my Susan Singleton SAL, which we don't show till December.

Thanks as always for stopping by and saying hi.  I hope everyone has a great week!

Maine!!!! Mia and stitching too.

Sorry I missed posting last week.  We were on vacation up in Maine.  Ah, Maine!  We've been going up for the last 11 years.  I can't believe it's been that long, but when I think that the boy child was 5 when we started, well, it makes sense!

Before we get to the Maine pictures, I thought I'd show you my Family Sampler progress.  This is what I accomplished before we left for vacation.  Mia is actually pretty good at letting me stitch this small piece -- as long as she's sleepy.  lol!

I'm filling in the background of the top portion before I tackle the bottom portion.  Once the fill in is done, you won't be able to see the threads that are carried across the back.  :D  It's on 40ct silk gauze over 1 with Belle Soie silks.

While on vacation, I took advantage of having no curious Mia around to start on Ann Pennsylvania Peacock, by Little by Little.  Here's my progress on that.

I'm stitching it on a mystery 36ct fabric using the called for GAST and DMC threads.

I just love the colors in this piece!

You want to see where I did my stitching while on vacation? 

Nice, huh?  We rented a beautiful little house in Boothbay Harbor that was right on the water, literally.  The views were spectacular.

That's the dock connected to the house.  The kids took advantage of the dock for swimming -- some of the grownups did as well.

And after swimming, one could take advantage of the hot tub by the house.  Luxury!

Here's the view of the house from the dock.

The picture was taken at low tide.  The water at high tide goes right up to the house. 

Anyway, we all had a great time.  We rented the house with my sister's family so their kids and our kids got to hang out.  And the girl child got some cooking lessons from her uncle.

Which was great for me -- usually I help the uncle with the cooking, but I got off this time!  :D  And the uncle is a great cook (that's pound cake in the picture there.)

While we were gone, my friend Kathy (no blog) and her son took care of Mia for us, coming over to the house to feed her and play with her.  When we got home, we were amazed at how much Mia had grown!  Her little kitten face even looks more catlike than before.  It's hard to tell from pictures how much she's grown, but I'll show you anyway.  Here she is right before we left, sleeping with the boy child.

And here she is in a picture taken just a few minutes before.  Yes, she's sleeping on my lap right now while I type this.

That's my laptop behind her, and my huge midriff in the foreground.  See how big she is now?

I'll leave you with one more idyllic picture taken from the house.

I miss it already!

Thanks as always for stopping by and saying hi.  I will be stopping by blogs and visiting on a regular basis now that I'm back!  Have a great week!  Don't forget to watch the US Open!!  Tennis -- yay!