#1 Visit Alaska or Hawaii.

Visiting Alaska has been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember, and now I've finally been.  It is quite the amazing state, incredible beauty wherever you go (at least from Homer to Talkeetna which is where we were) and as much wildlife as you could hope for.  We went for 9 days, but with 20 hours of daylight it felt like 18.  I can honestly say it was one of the best vacations of my life and I'm looking forward to the next time I return.

#12 complete an embroidery project

The summer has been a blur and September will be here soon.  I've checked a few things off of my '26 before 27' list but have fallen drastically behind on my goal to read 52 books this year.  C'est la vie.  Today I am happy to cross #12 off my list, complete an embroidery project!  There are many embroidery samplers to help you learn such as this adorable Princess and the Pea Sampler.  My frugal self decided to go for the more basic (and free) approach of practicing stitches that I found on the web in lines.

What did I learn?  I'm really bad at french knots, I can't make them stick, they'll have to wait for a rainy day and with fall in Seattle approaching I predict a short wait.

I decided to move on to some doodle embroidery with back stitches so I interpreted  'B is for Basil' from Edward Gorey's Gashlygrumb Tinies into a hoop,

then I moved on and free handed this cute pin,

but my favorite is my pillow.  The pillow case was sewn from linen, then I drew a whale on with a water soluble pencil and proceeded to stitch.

I am satisfied that I have completed my goal . . . for now.  I'll continue to work on my embroidery and master the french knot, stay tuned.