Coal Craft

Isn't this a cool necklace Gretchen gave me? It's a piece of coal about 1-3/4" in diameter, hand carved by a young man in Colombia.

The Colombian government established a workshop for boys to learn this craft so hopefully they won't have to work in unsafe mines. You can read more about on the One World Projects website.

You can see why Gretchen thought of me immediately when she saw the design. :-)

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Steve and I went on a bike ride this morning, our first in a long time. How long? Well besides being a few chins and pounds ago, it was clearly before I wore bifocals. I had to take off my sunglasses (which are prescription but not bifocal) and wear my glasses so I could see the numbers on the gear shifts and cyclocomputer. So yeah, it's been a while.

And the resulting endorphin rush was high enough to get me to put the finishing touches on the garage clean up that Simon started a few days ago. All good stuff.

Otherwise, I've caught up on a bunch of paperwork and even created a few new designs to stitch. Here's a sneak preview:

My designs keep getting stitchier & stitchier. The more stitching, the more fun to make - and less embellishment is needed so they assemble more quickly.