Goodbye, Old Friend

Hi, stitching friends!

I just finished erasing the hard drive on my old buddy so I can send it off for recycling. I'm sad. It's still so pretty, and we've spent a lot of fun hours together.

Part of me wants to keep it around, just in case it really isn't failing. But there are definite perks of the new iMac:

• The retina display is a-MA-zing.
• It's sooo fast.
• My favorite game loads and runs really fast (but since that distracts me from housework and stitching, that may not be a good thing).
• It doesn't randomly put itself to sleep while I'm working.
• It looks just like the old iMac, unless you look at it from the side. It's so... thin.

But there is one HUGE drawback:

• Photoshop won't work.

I found out (too late) that Photoshop CS5 is not compatible with the latest Apple operating system. I've tried the fixes, but it still won't load anything without crashing. I can pay $10 a month to use the new Photoshop online, but before I go that route, I'm trying out a new graphics program for Mac called Acorn. I've used Photoshop for about 20 years, so learning something different feels like learning to cross stitch with my left hand. While walking AND chewing gum.

Fellow bloggers, what photo- and graphics-editing software do you use?

Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow update

Block 2 of Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow

Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow is going great! I want to have it stitched and framed before Halloween, and since I started in mid- to late January, I need to stitch three blocks (of the 12) every two months. I'm ahead of schedule!

Block 3 of Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow

I finished block three late last week.

Blocks 2 and 3

Block 4 of Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow
with my Charlotte's Web needle minder from Mad for Minders on Etsy

I started block four last Friday. I had the border, words and lightning finished when we left town to spend the weekend with friends at their cabin in Crouch, Idaho. Do you remember a few weeks ago when I posted that we were going to the cabin? We ended up cancelling then because of snow, and then our friend Rob got a nasty cold.

We went this past weekend instead. We arrived to find three feet of snow on the ground! It snowed all weekend, and when we left Sunday morning, there was a fresh foot of snow on Rob's truck. (Thank goodness for friends with four-wheel-drive!) As we pulled into Boise, it was raining, and I'm sure people were wondering where we brought all that snow from.

Image from With Thy Needle and Thread blog

Stitching Friends Forever SAL

I'm gearing up to start the "Summer Schoolhouse" SAL with RJ and Mary from Stitching Friends Forever next month. A reader was very generous and sent me the first three patterns in the series, with the fourth to come later, and I have my fabric and floss ready to go. Just waiting to hear the ready, set... go! If you want to read the story behind this series, you can on Brenda Gervais' blog here.

Until next time, friends. I hope that wherever you are, you are warm and safe with promises of spring peeking up here and there. Thanks for taking the time to stop by!