Yes.....after a year, I am still here. My friend's death and the fire in our house sure knocked me off my stride for the past 12 months. The house is fixed and much furniture and furnishings have been replaced. Most of my stash was lost, but I have been acquiring new items and done some stitching. And now I hope to get back to blogging as well. Time will tell. My dear friend Lee (Lake Stitcher) has a great post about blogging or the lack thereof. Did I write, no. But I was prompted to start writing again by a question I saw on the 123 Stitch Message Board - and it was....What is your best kind of stitchy day? For me, it was Halloween this year. I was fortunate to be at a B & B with 4 internet friends for a 3-day retreat. We had arrived the day before and on Halloween, we had a truly wonderful day. We slept in a little and then had a delicious breakfast and lingered over coffee and tea in a beautiful dining room. And finally we went into the living room and picked up our stitching. It was rainy that day but we were cozy inside in comfy clothes - chatting and stitching and being lazy. We never left the B & B. In the evening, our InnKeeper cooked us a delightful meal with a beautiful table setting and soft music and we felt so pampered. We stitched and talked into the late evening and I remember thinking when I went to sleep that the day had been just perfect and fun and relaxing. With so much junk going on daily around us, I'm glad to remember Halloween 2013 and a special friendship with Lee, Carol, Barb and Pam. And now it's almost Christmas. DS and his wife are spending some time with us before Christmas and he's going to make his chocolate pound cake in my new Kitchen-Aid mixer (an early present from DH) and he wants to make me Shrimp and Grits (I'll let you know). Good times just being together with family. I'll be back with some photos of special ornaments received this holiday season. My resolution is to stitch more, blog a little more and enjoy my friends and family even more. Merry Christmas. Linda