An Earthquake, A Hurricane, A Project

It has been quite the week in Baltimore. First of all, on Tuesday, we had an earthquake. The worst one in 100 years! Now, for people who are accustomed to this sort of thing, I'm sure it wasn't too big of a deal. But earthquakes are not common here. And we were pretty stunned. I think the earthquake was over before I realized what had happened. I thought that there was an explosion or something. This is an old city and most of the buildings are 100+ years old. They are not built to sustain earthquakes. But we were lucky, the damage was minor.

Then came a hurricane! Her name was Irene. Like most things in life, the anticipation of the hurricane was worst than the actual event. We were not sure what Irene would really bring. I do live just blocks from the harbor. We were a teensy bit worried about flooding. I had my storm windows installed, purchased non perishable foods, bottled water, batteries, matches. I gathered every flashlight I own (5, is this a disproportionally large quantity of flashlights for a girl that lives in a one bedroom apartment to have? Ummm, yes.). I set up a bunch of candles and enjoyed the seance like effect. And then I waited. The worst part of the storm happened between 11pm and 2am. It is not easy to sleep with heavy, heavy rain and 80 mph winds pelting your windows. I went out to survey the damage this morning and other than downed trees, we seem to be unscathed in these parts. Thank goodness. Not to say that all is good in this state. There are thousands of people that still don't have power this morning and it could be a few days before it is restored.

As I awaited for Hurricane Irene, I had some time to kill. So I worked on this little embroidery project. The inspiration for this one came from a couple of different places. On Under the Sycamore, last week, I saw a project that was made from a free print, printed on a piece of canvas, then adding a little hand embroidery to the whole thing. She called it a "Stitched Rolled Canvas." The print itself came from Sara Jane Studios and is a great reminder about life. "Live your life on purpose." I took the free print, transferred it onto some canvas with transfer paper, and started in on embroidering it. I used similiar colors used in the original print. I might even leave it in the embroidery hoop.