I have a stitchy friend that I meet with a few times per year. Nashville is a good meet up point between us, so we go there, rent a hotel for a night and spend the day before and morning after stitching, shopping at the LNS, eating out, and sometimes going to an event. It's always so much fun and we leave rejuvenated and happy.
This past weekend we met and we were both looking forward to it so much. I had a bit of trouble getting our hotel reservation as it was to be the same night as the country music awards and Bonaroo was also happening. So Nashville was filled to the gills and all the rooms were charged at about 3X their normal rate. Wow. But, we managed to find one Extended Stay America in a bedroom community that was still charging it's normal rate. We got one of the very last rooms. I don't think there was a vacancy anywhere near Nashville that night.
We also had to brave the traffic and crowds of downtown proper. We had tickets to go to the Ryman for an author talk - Steven King! He's making the rounds right now for his new book End of Watch, which is the third in the Bill Hodges series. Everyone got a copy of the book with their ticket price. 400 of them were signed, but neither one of us got one of those. Phooey.
(my son's dog...she likes to pose for the camera)
Mr. King was very entertaining and spoke for about an hour and 15 minutes. He told stories of his life, his writing process, and took a few questions. He had a very calm and laid back demeanor and was quite a bit more soft spoken than I was expecting. It was really fun and he kept us laughing. I'm really glad we got to go.
Of course another high point was shopping at he LNS. The last time I was there some months ago, I had seen this My Big Toe as a model. I think it's a pattern that can't really be appreciated until you see it stitched up. I haven't been able to get it off of my mind since seeing it, so I went ahead and bought it as well as the needed threads.
As you can see, a few more things crept into my basket. I needed another Qsnap and liked this small rectangular size. And I had planned on getting a couple of Mill Hill kits. I've never done one, and was getting the itch. I got two nice, summer ones. Lemonade and Root Beer Float. The brown fabric and orange/green floss was the only spur of the moment purchase. It's Barnwood by Picture This Plus. It's an odd rectangular shape, but I really loved it so I snatched it up. I might use the threads to do some pumpkins on it? Or given the shape of the fabric maybe a welcome sign? Not sure yet.
Saturday night after shopping and attending the event and dealing with the huge crowds downtown ~ we were just done for by the time we got back to our room. It was so nice where we were staying though, because it was **so quiet**. There weren't any other hotels in the area, it was more a business district. So all was calm and no noise and it was so nice to get back to that room and just crash. We took it easy the next morning, staying right up until time to check out.
If you have a stitchy friend you can meet up with a few times a year (or more!), just for the sake of visiting and stitching, I would really recommend it. It's so fun and so nice to just get away for a little bit with someone else who loves to stitch. Comparing projects, seeing each other's progress since the last time you met, a little shopping and eating out ~ it's really a lot of fun.
