Stitching,Reading & Moving Up

Those 3 words above sum up what I've been up to since I last posted.
 First I want to show you the exchange piece I made for Alison in the Seasonal Exchange Blog Spring Round.
 I stitched April Quaker by The Workbasket using evenweave and a purple floss from ThreadWorx. That was the first time I used Threadworx Floss and I really liked it! I changed up the design a bit by stitching the word Spring instead of April. I also used a butterfly spacer bead that they use in making jewelry for the middle of the piece. I was in Jo-Ann's and just wanted to find a butterfly charm. Well they had none. So this nice lady was looking for supplies for her jewelry making and we started talking. She suggested the spacer bead and I cannot Thank her enough as it was perfect for what I needed it for.

Jen was my partner in the Seasonal Exchange Spring round  She  stitched a design from LK  called "Garden Patch" and made this adorable pillow for me! I love the backing fabric she used and I adore the little bow and where she placed it. Jen also recently stitched for me in the Stitched With Love Exchange Easter round (see the post below)
Thank you so very much for this wonderful treasure Jen!

As for stitching I am working on exchanges which I can't show right now. I haven't worked on my LHN neighborhood either but will once the exchanges are finished.

Reading..
  I use to be an avid reader. When I was around 12 a friend and I use to go to the Library once a week and take out a bunch of Nancy Drew Mysteries. Once we read what we took out we would switch and would read what the other took out. And then go back to the Library and take out a bunch more. I think we read all of the books in that series! As I got older I didn't read as much but every once in awhile when I found something interesting to me I would read.
 I am sure most of you have heard all of the commotion about the book "Fifty Shades Of Grey". I was reading in the local newspaper how 4 counties here in Florida had banned it from the Public Library. So I wondered what could be so bad that a library would ban a book? I remember reading a few years back that a few books that were required reading when I was in school were also banned. I never could understand why. So I was discussing it with my MIL and my DD (who is 27) and we all said we wanted to read it just to see what all the hoopla was about.
 I have to say that is the first book in a long ,long time that truly captured my interest!  I couldn't put it down and honestly was sad when I finished all 3 books in the series(within 1 week) as I really enjoyed reading them. There really wasn't anything in them that was new to me nor that I found offensive. My MIL on the other hand found one part "disturbing" (that was the word she used lol) and quit reading it. But she is 72 and did not understand a few things. I won't go into detail here but I did discuss it with her. She also had wanted to know how the rest of the story went so I told her. My DD loved it as much as I did and we had a discussion about it yesterday morning.
Should this book have been banned?? In my opinion NO. I feel everyone has the right to read or do what they choose. Just because I would choose not to do something doesn't make it wrong or should take away from those who like it.
Just my 2 cents :)

 Tomorrow my DS is having his moving up ceremony from 5th grade to 6th grade. I cannot believe "my baby" is going into middle school!

 I am looking forward to tomorrow as his teacher told him he will be getting a few awards. One I know for sure he is getting is for Perfect Attendance. His goal at the beginning of the year was to not miss any school and he did it! I was happy as he wasn't sick at all this past school year :) And I am very proud he made his goal!

Today I joined him at an orientation at his new school. It is in walking distance from our house where as his elementary school was clear across town. So I am happy about that. He seemed excited about the electives he has to choose from.

Well if you read this far I Thank You!
Thanks so much for stopping by! I truly appreciate it :)