Flamingo's Everywhere!!! Retreat 2011

Tuesday, August 9th, was the kick off of our annual retreat. This little stitched piece sums up how we feel about retreat.

Our theme this year was FLAMINGO'S!!!! So I found this sign at JoAnn's and had my DIL personalized the bottom sign. How cute is that. She is such a talented artist.

Couldn't resist this cute door mat, also from JoAnn's.

And here I am in my flamingo shirt--also had pants to match.

This is one of my good stitching buds Chris. She just joins us on our first day of retreat and then heads up to a guild retreat. This year she found the perfect hat while down in Florida. Quite stunning:)

Cathy B from With Needle and Thread joined us on Thursday and Friday because she had to work. But she loved the hat!!!

Every year we try to do a group project. So this year we each stitched a piece from LHN's Dear Diary series. We each had our own color of 32 count fabric and stitched a different word for each of the six of us. Then we assembled each piece into this block. They turned out GREAT!! Here are five of the blocks. Cathy 's block has to be finished but as I mentioned she had to work the day we assembled these.

Jill from The Purple Peacock ordered up this cake for us. It was sooo yummy. What's a retreat without a cake.

My SIL made us wonderful virgin Pina Colada's. And again these cute glasses came from JoAnn's. Look at that cool straw.

Every year we give each other goodies. It seems like we give more and more every year. This is a picture of all the goodie bags before we handed them out. I think we are out of control.

This was what I gave everyone. I made everyone a snap bag and then filled it with the things I made and bought. I stitched a floss tag with everyone's initial on it. I also made a lanyard with a pink stork scissors on it and a matching needle case. The wooden floss holder was a family project. My SIL cut out the shapes, my hubby drilled the holes, I painted them pink and my DIL did the faces and wrote the names. I think they turned out so cute but they were a lot of work for my hubby and SIL. Thanks guys for making such wonderful Flamingo's. I also added a couple of staples such as a pen and small notebook and safety pins in everyone's color. I guess I should explain that we each have a color so our gifts are color coded. My color is green.

I also made these stick pins. They are 5 inches long!! Quite festive I think.

This was our goodie bag from Lori. We got two project bags--a large one and a small one. On these bags the zippers have our color on it. Lori's color is blue. She also included some plates, napkins, straws, a flamingo magnet and towel. A flamingo Christmas ornament, note cards and a pattern holder.

This is Jill's goodie bag to us. Everything was in a cute little bag which is at the top of the picture. She marked out bags with a button in our color. We also got a flamingo pin, a clay baked flamingo thread holder, and magnet board, a magnet and a personalized tape measure, stickers and a pink boa.

Jackie gave us a great Flamingo beach towel, a stitched coaster, a flamingo magnet, stickers, a small bowl for all our snacks and a flamingo pouch.

Last but not least here is Cathy's bag to us. A cute insulated bag filled with a flamingo glass with chocolates in it, a Mill Hill kit--a beaded flamingo, a flamingo key ring, plant poke and hand towel.

Now the following pictures is the stitching I got done these last five days.

First off is a Just Nan Whimzi, Jolly Old Elf. I received this from my stitching buds Lori and Jackie when I was living in Aberdeen and since they were so thoughtful to buy everything for me to stitch and finish it I thought I should get it done. I have the frame and will post this again when it is totally done. Thanks girls.

Next is LHN's ornament Baked Goods. I am now caught up with my 2011 ornaments. At least as far as the stitching goes.

I've been doing the dictionary series by CherryWood Designs. I finished scissors and just received the next one which is "Chart". Now to find a frame and stitch Chart.

My last project was this BBD Loose Feathers #3 Evening Shades the Garden. I really like this piece. Was also fun to stitch.

Well there is the update on our 2011 retreat. Fun times were had. We did a lot of stitching, eating and laughing.
Thanks so much girls for the good times.

Next year's theme is: VEGETABLES. I can't wait to see what we come up with.

If you made it through this whole post--bless you. It has been a very long post.