Trip to St Louis

I has a lovely evening on Friday with my cousin Elaine, her partner Richard and their son Alex. We had great takeaway pizza (note to self - pepperoni and olives DO go together) in front of Torchwood (great series finale). I left their house early to get to Manchester airport, and sailed through checking in and security (30 mins from getting in the terminal building to buying my coffee beyond security - I was impressed!). It was a long flight to Chicago (8hrs) but felt much longer as 1) I couldn't take a needle and 2) the movie equipment had failed. Luckily my book - winter in Madrid - is excellent so far. I was in Chicago for 2 hours (when I retrieved Dragon's Treasure from my case for stitching on the second flight) then flew to St Louis. Phil met me at the airport, and after a short wait for my bags we came back to his place in St Peter's.

At this point I met Jack for the first time - and he really liked his Pooh Calendar. We had a peaceful evening, just chatting, and I managed to stay awake until 10pm - Which meant I was up for 22.5 hours!


This morning we had a quiet morning at home, watching Jack play - he is the quietest, most content baby I have ever met. I did some more stitching on Dragon's Treasure, but not quite enough to finish my 10 project challenge BEFORE I went shopping, but it should be done by the end of the trip....

We went to St Louis bread co. for lunch, then to St Charles, so I could visit the needlework shop I went to last year. It was the weekend of the St Charles Tartan festival - a celebration of all things Scottish and Irish, with lots of renacters (sp??). Something I find highly amusing, being the wrong side of the pond. But it's a lovely day, and there was a wonderful vibrant spirit walking along the riverside in the sunshine.

Needless to say, Phil and Amanda left me in the needlework shop (stitches etc) - I was there for an hour, picking what to get and making sure I'd seen EVERYTHING. I came home with 4 charts, 2 by Abbey Lane designs (A new beginning and Sonata), Necessities sampler by Little House Needleworks and Wild Fairy Light by !?Who Knew?!. I also got some Belle Joie silk 'Blue lagoon' - for Sonata, and some 'Razzleberry' by Weeks Dye Works for Wild Fairy Light, and a lovely piece of hand dyed fabric - PTP's 'Fresco' 28ct cashel - I pulled it out of the box saying "this looks perfect" - then discovered that the model had been stitched on the same fabric :lol.

We're just sorting out BBQ for tea, so I'd better go and make some tomato salad... bye for now :)