On life, stitching & critters

SAL Complete

2010-04-11T15:45:00.001-07:00

I finished the SAL that I had started with my DSIL. I really love this piece and cannot wait to make him into a little flat fold. I've got some fabbie with little peppermints all over it that I think will work great for the backing. I haven't put them next to each other yet, but in my mind's eye I think it will work. I still need a little peppermint button to put in the middle of one of the presents too.

I went ahead and started quietness and confidence last week. I haven't made a ton of progress yet, because I've been rather worn after coming home from work. I forgot how stressful starting a new job can be and how exhausting it is to have everything thrown at you at once. That being said, work is going as well as can be expected. I'm dying to start doing a little bit of "doing". At this point, I'm in a lot of design meetings. It's good so I can learn their business, but it doesn't make me feel like I've accomplished a whole lot. This phase should be completed by the end of the month, then it will be on to the real work! I sure hate that I started this just when the weather is starting to turn nice. I really like being outside when it is warm and the birdies are tweeting.

Enjoy your week,

Camp, SAL progress, and stash

2010-03-27T07:12:00.000-07:00

My DSIL and I just got back from Stitches N Things Camp Stitchalot. We both made good progress on our SAL. Not only that, but for once it wasn't a virtual SAL!
I almost finished it off, but there is still a bit to go. So without further adeiu, here's the picture.
I didn't think real hard when I was picking the fabric. I figured that I wanted a white so the reds would pop without carefully noticing how much white is actually in this image. I'm hoping that once things are finished off in a flatfold that things look good. I'm playing right now whether to use bright white or the overdyed white for the red and white border around the lettering at the bottom. I still have to take some velcro to his beard to puff it up a bit.
On our way to camp, DSIL and I always do a round of stashing. First we went to Rocking Horse and were awed by their models. I ended up falling in love with the Lavendar and Lace Angel of Light. I've seen it there before, but for some reason it just called to me that day. I've always admired Age of Innocence, however, I've held myself back because a) it is a large project and b) it really screams to be done on black. I oogled it, but didn't feel compelled to buy. We then wandered over to the Stitches N Things brick and mortar store. I ended up getting the fabric and all of the floss needed for the Angel of Light. I knew that I wouldn't start it at camp, just because it is too big. Besides, I really had to stitch along on my SAL project ;). At SNT, I was looking at a Leaves piece done up on the wall. I held back and didn't get it. There would always be time to make another run back to the store during the weekend. A lot of the stitches will bring "unwanted stash" and leave them out for others to go through and grab as desired. Would you believe that I found the Leaves pattern and Age of Innocence in that pile!!! Most years I really don't see much that interests me; this year I hit the jackpot. I also found a picture of the Last Supper in a magazine that I picked up. I guess I must just be inspired, because I really don't know where I'm going to find the time for these large projects.

I got my Palm picture back from the framer right before camp. I am so thrilled with it. When I first got it, I couldn't wait to start it. It was a kit and contained aida. I really wanted linen, but I really wanted to start it too. So, I went ahead and started on the aida. I cannot tell you how many times, I kicked myself muttering about how it would look so much better on linen and that I wouldn't be happy. Well, let me tell you, I'm thrilled. I'm glad I stuck it out and didn't let it fall to the UFO pile.

I've ended up getting a job, so I'm not sure how much time I will be having to stitch, but we will see. I know I will need to be diligent about making the time, just to keep myself sane.

Cheers,

Look "Hoos" Been to Visit

2010-03-05T13:42:00.000-08:00

I haven't really done much on my SAL so I'm not going to be posting a picture today. I've been concentrating on the Palms and I'm about 1 sitting away from finishing it up. I've been in a bit of a funk lately and haven't felt like doing much. Sure wish I could snap out of this. I'm not sure if it is just the Winter Blahs or what.

Here's a picture of a little beastie that came to visit the other week. I think he's a barn owl, but I'm not confident of it. He showed up around 3 and stayed until after dinner sometime. He sure is patient. The next morning he was out there as well! I was so thrilled that I've been able to get a good picture of him! He's been back a few times since always around 3 or so in the afternoon. This kind of surprises me since I thought that they were night hunters. The kids now make fun of me because I'm always looking for "my owl". The squirrels seem to make themselves quite scarce when this little fellow is out and about. I sure hope that he continues to come by for many years to come.

On the sewing front, I've made another purse and an OSU pillow for one of my dear sons. The OSU pillow allowed me to try machine applique. I still need to finish off the Valentine's gift for DH. I think I finally have a cross that I like so I just need to combine it with the text and do a test stitch out.
I've been making it to the gym rather regularly, however, I don't seem to be losing any weight. Of course, working out makes me hungry and you can see where that is leading. I've been doing some work on this wave machine which sort of simulates skating. I'm not sure if this has caused it but I've had the worst pain in my back since. Last week I went to a yoga class and this really seemed to help. Unfortunately I couldn't get myself moving quickly enough this AM to get back to yoga today.

I'm planning on finishing off the Palms this weekend and should have a post quickly following.

Cheers,

Greetings from Chaos

2010-02-14T13:47:00.000-08:00

Life has been a flurry of activity in my household over the last 2 weeks. Josh's asthma has shown back up after a hiatus of 7 years. I was really hoping that after getting out of Atlanta that it would be gone for good, however, that was not to be. We found out that he's allergic to dust and cats and a plethora of grasses. We have 3 cats and dust is a common household guest here. Our cats really don't seem to bother him, so I'm not facing the problem of getting rid of any family members. I'd love to get rid of the dust except everytime I seem to get rid of it, it comes back again, LOL. Not my most favorite of chores!

I didn't get the admin job that I'd interviewed for. I really had my doubts when most of the interview was spent with them telling me how bored I'd be rather than discussing the particulars of the job. Oh well, a note from a head hunter just came through looking for a QA analyst. This is really more along the lines of work that I'm used to doing, so I'll go for that. I just really don't want to go back to being a DBA with all of the on call work. I figure when a door shuts there is probably a good reason.

I finally took my new owners class for the sewing maching that I got for Christmas. Boy, did it get me inspired. I went ahead and bought a pattern for a purse that I thought was real cute and sewed it up this week. Here are side, inside, and frontal views. I'm almost beginning to feel like I can actually sew! I promised my husband that I would machine embroider the church logo on a polo for him for Valentine's day(he's a pastor). I think I have the design complete on the software side of things, however, I still need to test it to make sure it is exactly the size I want etc. I'll put up pics once that is complete.

I have 2 friends who are having babies soon. I ended up making this little picture frame for one of the gals. This is her first so she needs everything. I got a practical gift for the shower, but I just had to do something crafty as well. I know, I should xstitch a birth announcement. The problem there is that I stitch slowly and she and her husband are still negotiating on the name.

Sue and I started on our next SAL. We decided to do something from Lizzie Kate. I chose Wanted! I'm finding that I really want to pick this up rather than Palms. I'm forcing myself to work on Palms at least one night a week, since it is so so close to being complete. I probably won't post a picture until it is.

I guess it would be prudent of me to start thinking about what to cook for dinner, since I will have a few hungry folks starting to ask about it soon.

Cheers,

First FAL Complete

2010-01-29T08:51:00.000-08:00

This past Tuesday, my DSIL and I decided to do a FAL (finish along) for the SAL we recently completed. We finished these as flat folds. They turned out real cute. Sue found the best fabric in her stash for her backing. I forgot to photograph my backing, but it is a simple orange fabric with dark purplish/blackish swirly things that kinda look like dragon flies. We had a great time and I think we need to do finishing days a lot more often. Our next SAL will be Lizzie Kate pieces. I'm going to do Wanted - Jolly Old Man and Sue is doing Up on the Woof tops. These pieces should be fun and go rather quickly.

We've decided that our vacation this year will be to Yosemite National park. We are going to be pulling the camper and camping our way over there. There are a few things that I've decided that I really, really need to do before this vacation. The first is to get in better shape. (dropping a few pounds would be welcome as well 8) ) The areas where we will be are over 5000 ft. and a body will tire out more quickly. The second is to learn how to use the manual aspects to my camera so that I can get some great pictures. I really like my animal pictures to be up close, however, I think I will have a problem getting up that close to a Grizzly! So, if anybody has any suggestions on a good photography course, let me know. We've signed up for a few "adventures" while we will be there - a horseback ride and a white water rafting trip down the Yellowstone River. These aren't in the park, but are in beautiful areas quite close. This will be the first time I've taken the boys white water rafting. They should enjoy it. The horses are for me. I love to ride and don't get to that often since I no longer have horses.

Well, time to get on with my chores so I can make some stitching time.

Cheers,

Reading Disease & Ground Hogs

2010-01-12T16:54:00.000-08:00

Don't you just hate when it is too cold to stick any part of your skin from beneath a blanket? It seems we've had temperatures like that lately so I've just been curling up with a few good books. I joined our library's winter reading club. You read and make entries on a bingo card. The first bingo puts you in for the monthly prize drawing of $20 certificate to area businesses. The second bingo gets you an ice scraper and another entry for the monthly prize drawing. Fill the whole card and you are in the drawing for $50 certificate to an area restaurant. I will say that this has made me read things that I normally would not even pick up. Some good and some not so good. Herein lies my problem - I somehow feel that I must finish a book if I start it. I always continue hoping that it will get better. Sigh! I just lost half a day doing that. (but I got my bingo space for an award winner filled :P ) Most of the books though have been page turners which is why I haven't gotten any stitching done.

I have a mother who is a ground hog nut! Don't ask me why, she just is and she is quite adamant that Boureguard Lee is the only and best prognosticator there is. Personally, like weathermen there is one suited for every region. I decided to surprise my mom with a groundhog cookie cutter this year. I found the exact recipe that those folks in Philadelphia use and have laminated a copy of it to use with her new cookie cutter. I wanted to give it a little flair, but since my region doesn't have a notorious mammalian prognosticator I decided to make what we shall call the
Rockford groundhog cookie special. I got this idea from the Gourmet Mom on the Go. Now my big dilemma is how to get these little buggers packaged on up and delivered safely through the ole US mail. I know I'm going to give the package a litte "foofing" from the Foof Queens.
Back to figuring out how to package these little cuties. I was planning on making a few for my family closer to the day, however, my son has discovered the thin mints and is constantly asking if he can have 'just one'. My next hurdle to overcome will be to sit tight until they arrive. I'll be dying to know how she reacts and will probably be calling every day. Hopefully, I can sit tight and not give anything away!!

Cheers,

SAL Complete

2009-12-31T12:40:00.001-08:00

It has been a great Christmas. For some reason it is always a bit of a let down when it's over. I generally leave everything up until after January 1st. I figure that will help to mitigate the feelings of it only being one day. Of course, there is the fact that it will take me a while to get everything boxed up and packed away.
Santa got me a new sewing machine with an embroidery unit this year. I made a few reversible bags for me and my DSIL to keep our Q Snaps in. I wanted to do a nice embroidery with our name on them, however, the software for my machine has been backordered and I'm still waiting on it.

I also finished up the SAL that me and my DSIL were working on. The pattern is Be Scary by Just Nan. I've always loved this piece and I did it a few years ago for my mom, who is a Halloween nut. Once the boys go back to school, Sue and I will get together for a finishing day and make flatfolds out of the pieces. I just need to figure out what to do next. Hmm, it seems that every time I go stash diving I find a few "must do now" type projects. I really need to get the ancient Butterfly Garden out of my 8 inch Q's so I can have them for some new projects. I'm picking away at the Palms and should have that finished soon. Unfortunately, not before the end of the year, but soon.

Well, I cannot ramble on for too long today as I'm having a house full of company tonight and I need to pick up, dust, and attend to all the other domestic drudgery.
I hope you all have a safe and happy New Year.

Cheers,

Be Scary SAL

2009-12-16T17:06:00.000-08:00

Well, Ole Man Winter held off for quite a while, but when he came he really left a dumper. It's pretty though and I really do like a white Christmas. I'd much rather have it be cold and get real snow that the wintry mix that comes with warmer temps.
Of course, the shoveling does get old . . .

This past Thanksgiving, my DSIL and I started our Be Scary SAL. We both made great progress in that short time we had. I failed to post right away so here's what I have now after a few more weeks of working on it. I really enjoy this pattern and plan on making it into a flat fold. It seems to be going fast, which is good because I'm really not feeling into Halloween at the moment.

In between shopping, playing referee, and just keeping up with normal life, I've gotten a few stitches into the Palms. I really need to concentrate on this and finish it off. Sorry if this post seems disjointed, but I've got two hooligans breathing down my neck - literally! It seems they just do NOT know how to entertain themselves if they've been restricted from electronics. Getting up every other sentence to yell, doesn't allow for much cohesive thought. Sorry for the vent.

I hope you all enjoy your holidays with friends and family. Hopefully, I should post again before Christmas, but you never can tell.

Cheers,

Happy Halloweenie!

2009-10-31T13:45:00.000-07:00

Mr. Dracula presents my latest finish - I turned the Halloween freebie by San Man into a pillow. I'm not totally thrilled with how it turned out, but I have to realize that I am finishing challenged and it will take lots of practice to get better. If I had it to do over again, I'd make the purple strips a bit wider and leave a bit less of the green showing. I might even add in a third type of fabbie. Oh well, I had to pull this one out so many times the fabric was starting to fray badly so I just left it. I even got it done in time for Halloween - not by much, but hey it's done before the first Trick or Treater came to the door!

I imagine trying to stitch this evening is going to be less than relaxing with having to get up and open the door constantly. Hmm, maybe I can find a good scary movie. Happy Halloween!

Cheers,

Another Halloween finish!

2009-10-27T13:28:00.000-07:00

I finished this little freebie from San Man Designs this week. I just love the monster green linen that it is on! I ended up starting it and then deciding that I liked the look of the "wrong" side of the linen better. Knowing that it would bother me forever, I went ahead and frogged and turned the linen over. For as simple a piece as this is, I ended up doing a bit more frogging because I forgot one of the border pieces. Since I count how many spaces off the border, the bat is in
the wrong place. I wasn't going to frog him so if some of the stars look a bit crowded on that end you know why.

I'm planning on finishing this little piece into a pillow. I'm a bit unsure as to which fabrics to use, which is why you see fabbie pieces all around it in the picture. I definitely want the orange with the purple confetti for a ruffle which will go around it. I was thinking of using the purple with black lines for the back.
I usually like to frame a stitched piece with fabric on the front for a bit more stabilization, however, I'm not real sure what fabric I should use. I really love the orange with confetti for the ruffle because it helps the orange to just pop. I don't think I like the purple for the front because the wavy lines will drive me nuts thinking things aren't straight. I've looked for some Halloween fabbies but they seem too busy. I really don't want to compete with the stitched design. I want
to really notice the green because it is such a fun color. I've thrown some of the fabbies that I'm considering around the piece. Please weigh in with your opinions.

Cheers,

A bit of Halloween and a bit o winter

2009-10-15T08:49:00.001-07:00

Scary as it seems they are talking about the S word tonight. I am certainly not ready for it and feel like I've been deprived of a Fall. Of course, complaints don't get me anywhere ;) It's been a while since I posted, but I've been keeping my needles busy between soccer games and practices. My first finish is the Salem Witch from Primitive Needle. It is over one on 32 ct mocha linen that I had left over from the Red Thread project. It was so nice to get a project started and completed so quickly. I finished her off in the tin neclace holder. Rather than where her around I just set it in a little tin easel. What I have isn't great though as the trough of the easel covers her feet. I had to stuff a bit of fabbie down in the trough to have her sit up higher. I'll have to figure out something better for future display purposes. This was a quick, fun stitch even for an over one.

My next finish is the Winter 9 patch that I kept in the car and worked on when I was waiting for appointments, practices etc. It didn't get a lot of attention when the weather was good because I often spent the time chatting with others that were waiting. Now that we seem to have a bit of nip in the air, I finished it off. It was a Pine Mountain kit so finishing was a breeze.

I will be starting a SAL with my DSIL in November. I think we are going to do either a Shepherds Bush piece or Be Scary by Just Nan. I cannot wait to start. Since I've got such a bug to start something Halloweenish, I pulled out Halloween freebie pattern from San Man Originals. I will end up changing colors/flosses on this and I'm still deciding on what I want. I am doing it on a lovely lime green piece of fabric - just perfect for Halloween.

The freshman boys soccer team finished there season last night. They did very well. I certainly enjoyed the season, but I'm kinda glad its over with too. I'm sure you all know the feeling, LOL!

Cheers,

Back from the framer

2009-09-19T12:47:00.001-07:00

I got the Red Thread piece back from the framer yesterday. I love it; they did such a good job. It is now proudly hanging on my living room wall.

I guess getting that piece back gave me a bit of motivation to sit down and work on some of my other pieces. Last night I sat down and finished off Lizzie Kate's Hugs & Kisses piece. The kit was missing two tiny yellow buttons that go in the middle of the flowers so I just put a cross stitch there. I'm not sure that I like it so I guess I'll be on a quest for some tiny buttons next time I'm prowling around a craft type shop. That was quite annoying. The boxer kit was sealed with a round sticker type thing yet the kit was missing a needle and those two buttons. If the shop where I got it was closer, I'd have taken it back. Of course, I did start on the piece before I noticed that the buttons were missing. Ugh! Now I just need to finish off the winter 9 patch before it really becomes winter. I take this piece to soccer practices and places where I'm going to be sitting and waiting so it doesn't get concentrated attention.

When we got a cold snap a few weeks back, I had started in on the Fall cleaning. I haven't gotten very far and we are now having an Indian summer. Oh well, cleaning really isn't my cup of tea any way. I sure hope all those green tomatoes I have my vines ripen up before a frost hits. I'm enjoying the warmth as I'm not ready for the colder weather yet. I'm also out a lot watching my boys play soccer. It sure is nice not to be doing this in the cold and rain! I stumbled upon Vonna's recipe blog the other day and found a recipe up for Chicken Gnocchi soup that sounds great. I guess I know one of the first things I'll be making when the cooler weather hits!

Cheers,

A very big happy dance

2009-09-12T14:48:00.001-07:00

I've been doing quite a happy dance this week. Not only have I finished the Red Thread piece I've been working on, but I got an email from Michael's that they were having a 60% off custome framing sale. I did manage to take a few snaps of the piece before I ran up to the store. They didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped but I didn't want to view them on the computer before running up to the store. I'll get another one when I get it back from the framer. I ended up just getting a frame rather than the mat. I found the person at the framing desk to be a little less than helpful. She seems to know what she's doing with framing, but it is like pulling teeth to get her to suggest anything. I wish I knew a framer with an artist's eye that wasn't half way across the state. It would be nice to find one that was cheap too, but most of the time you get what you pay for ;)

Since I only posted a few of the pictures from Ireland, I figured that I need to put up a few from England. I also really need to get about putting them in the photo album as well. Here are the houses of Parliament with the photo being taken from the London Eye.

Here's Stonehenge. As you can see, it was a rainy rather darkly overcast day. I guess that is the only reason that I was able to get a picture of it without people. (ignore that elbow on the left)
Stitching is going rather slow at the moment. Not only has school started, but soccer as well. The freshman have quite a schedule, so I've been an active parent travelling to games these past few evenings. I'm working on a rather small LK at the moment - Hugs & Kisses. I'll put up a picture next post.

Cheers,

Bye Bye Summer

2009-09-03T08:46:00.001-07:00

Summer seems to be one of those seasons that always passes way too fast for me. Maybe it's the unstructured days, but whatever it is I don't seem to blog regularly. I've written a number of posts in my head whilst gardening, mowing the lawn, fighting with the watermelons etc., but for some reason they never seem to make it to the computer. This summer I we took a trip to Ireland and the UK. The trip started out as a nightmare, but the people and pace of life (and a good shower) quickly put me back to good spirits. You see we missed our connection in Atlanta and therefore were delayed by a day, the airlines lost our bags (for days!!)) and the underwear that I picked up (in a box) were thongs. I am not a thong kid of girl!!The people, though, always urged us just to stop and get a coffee and to relax. Once we all got a good shower and a change of clothes our attitudes improved and we could take in the breathtaking scenery and appreciate the slower way of life. I think I could love being a sheep farmer; on the other hand, I don't like alot of rain. I figured that I would share a few snaps of our journey. The first is a scene from our trip around the Ring of Kerry. You can see the Derrynane Bay and the Kenmare estuary in the background. I cannot give enough of a thumbs up for the trip. It is about a full day to drive around the thing, but the scenery you take in along the way is well worth it. The little towns are neat too.

The next scene is the Cliffs of Moher. They range anywhere from 294 ft above the Atlantic to over 700 ft. tall. These were really neat to see.

Another scene from the Cliffs of Moher showing the O'Brien tower at one end.

Stitching has been rather slow this summer, however, I have made progress on the Red Thread piece. I'm hoping for a happy dance within the next week!

Cheers,

Finally, an update

2009-07-08T11:31:00.001-07:00

I finally have an update. It seems like I lost my stitching mojo for a while. Summer is here, but it isn't like I've really been doing anything fun like lounging by a pool. At any rate, my DSIL came over and we had a sit n stitch. She made good headway on her Six Bats and I on my Red Thread piece. I think we both got the stitching bug back again, so hopefully there will be more frequent updates. We also made a quick run to Stitching Bits & Bobs. This shop is only about an hour from the house, but I'd never made it over there. It didn't take much to entice Sue to go with me. Of course, shopping with a fellow stitcher is quite enabling. I ended up picking up the Lizzie Kate Hugs & Kisses boxer kit, the flosses to go with it, and the Lizzie Kate Tiny Tidings X with the embellishment pack. Now I cannot wait to start Hugs & Kisses, but I told myself that I really need to finish off Red Thread.

On the summer vacation front, I'm getting ready to go to Ireland and the UK. I'm doing Ireland with a tour group and then taking the ferry over to England. We intend to rent a car in England and wander as we wish. This way we can get off the beaten path if we want to. I'm sure the time will fly. I should have some great pictures to post once we're back.

Cheers,

Time for a Happy Dance

2009-05-26T10:00:00.000-07:00

Letters, Leprechauns, and Luck is finally done. I actually finished it a week or so ago, but couldn't get into blogger to make a post. It seems that when I locked my computer down after getting a trojan, I was a bit too aggressive and took away some functions that blogger needs in order to log in. I'm afraid that this is all I have to show as I've not been doing much stitching lately.

I hope you cyberfriends had a good Memorial Day weekend. I spent my weekend at a soccer tournament in Canton, MI. My oldest son's team played well, but didn't win. The youngest, however, made it all the way to the finals. They didn't come home with the cup, but they all got a big boost to their egos. I'm really proud of them! My baby boy did end up with a pretty severe bruising to his instep, but seems to be walking fine as I sent him out the door to school today. Whew! I'm sure glad, as we're still getting bills for his brother's broken wrists earlier this year.

Hopefully, I'll have my stitching groove back soon and can post some more pictures. I really want to finish the Red Thread piece before December. (the sooner, the better)

Cheers,

Keeping busy

2009-04-20T16:00:00.001-07:00

I've been keeping busy lately, although not a lot of stitching has been going on. I finally finished the curtains that I was making for my sewing room. I also finished the painting of the room. I was taking the room from a navy blue to a sunny yellow. So I had to first prime the room and then paint it my desired color. I sure do hate it when I'm doing something that doesn't give me instant gratification. Fortunately, my DH helped edge as that is a chore that I hate and am extremely slow at.

Here's a before picture of the old color. I forgot to get a picture of the room before we started on the makeover.

Here's the picture of it afterward. I've done some rearranging of the room and gotten most of my stuff organized, but I haven't yet started putting my pieces back on the wall. I sure hope they look good against the yellow. The navy was a rather easy backdrop for most anything that I wanted to hang. It did turn out a bit brighter than I was really thinking, but I'm not up to redoing the room again so I'll live with it. It is much lighter in there on gray rainy days like today. I may actually be able to sew in there now after dark.

Enjoy your evening. I'm so far behind on everything it isn't funny. When I start painting or some project like that that has everything torn up, I'm kinda rabid to get it done, so everything else just sits. So, I now need to tend to the laundry and some housework.

Cheers,

Where did time go?

2009-04-11T15:55:00.001-07:00

Since I was lazy and didn't take a picture from my stashing run after camp, I went ahead and took one this week. The positive note to waiting on the picture is that some of the things that I'd ordered but weren't in my hot little hand are now here and able to be included in the picture. It seems like I've been overrun by Shepherd's Bush! I had been collecting their monthly series (from back in 2003, I think) at Rocking Horse because they had these nice little hand painted frames to go with them. After my last stashing run, I found a shop online that was going out of business and had the charts and buttons for sale at a price less than what the chart would cost - so I picked up March, April, August, September, and December. I won't have a hand painted frame, but since the frames are so simple I can pick one up rather cheaply at Framing For Yourself and hand paint it myself. Now, I only need the months of January, October, and November. My Wandering Shepherd kit that I'd ordered while at camp arrived. I think that is what I will be doing as my next SAL. I also picked up Quietness and Confidence along with the silks to do it. The silks are so much more vibrant than they show in the picture. Of course, it always seems like I wait until the sun is going down to try to get a picture of anything. The stash is laid out on the quilt that I did in my quilt class that finished up right before camp. Missing from the picture is the Lizzie Kate Wanted Jolly Old Man bearing gifts.

Have you ever asked yourself where the day went? I seem to be doing that a lot lately. I cannot say that I haven't been getting anything done, but I sure haven't been getting much done in the cross stitch realm. I've gotten sucked into a few different kind of projects lately. I went ahead and quilted the 911 quilt top that I finished last year. Boy, what a difference a walking foot makes! I guess it pays to have the right tools for the job. I also got enamoured with fabric bowls. I put a hold on the book which tells how to make them at the library. Of course, it came in so I just had to make one of those before the book is due. Somehow, I lost my picture of it, so I'll have to post a pic next time. They really are kind of neat and super easy to do! Ever since we moved into this house, the sewing/craft room is a dark navy blue. I wanted to paint the room yellow and get some baby blue/yellow curtains for the room. This was supposed to be my winter project. I'm not a shopaholic, but I did look for these blue/yellow curtains and have been unable to find them. Finally, Friday I went on the hunt again figuring that I could at least get some fabric and make some if I cannot find exactly what I want. I hesitated at this because I'm not a domestic goddess and sewing doesn't seem to like me, however, when I found the bolts of yellow and blue fabric at less than 50% of what they normally are, I figured it was a sign. Since I had the fabbie in hand, I also stopped at the paint store to find that perfect yellow to go with them. So, for the better part of today, I've been making a curtain (just a valance). I'm not really using a pattern so I kind of drew out what I wanted it to look like. It's super easy so I shouldn't have issues, right? Well, my first problem was that my yellow wasn't cut wide enough. Oh well, I figure that I can just use some of the blue on the sides and not have the yellow go all of the way to the edges. I've place this silly thing on top of the blue and placed my cording. Everyhing looks fantastic. I go and sew on the cording and then place the yellow piece back on top of the blue only to find out that one side (it comes down to a V in the middle) is a bit longer than the other. So, I will need to rip out the cording. . . ugh! It is going away for the night!! Maybe tomorrow afternoon I can finish it off. I'll definitely get a picture once I get it done.

I have done a bit on my SAL piece, so without further ado here it is.

Have a Happy Easter,

Back from camp update

2009-03-29T10:42:00.000-07:00

I haven't done much stitching as of late as I've had a 2 and 5 yr old to chase around. A friend of mine who usually watches them had a masectomy so I said that I'd watch them for her while she recuperated. What was I thinking? I think I'm getting a bit too old to be chasing a two yr. old. At that age they just don't have the attention span to do much of anything. Or remember anything for that matter - get that out of your mouth! Thankfully, I had camp Stitchalot between the weeks of watching them to get a little R & R. I didn't get as much stitching done as I'd expected, but I did turn in a bit earlier and sleep in a bit later than I normally do. My DSIL and I did get a chance to make several stashing runs. We always hit Rocking Horse on the way into camp. They have got so many models on the walls, it is like dying and going to cross stitch heaven. I picked up a Shepherd's Bush piece kitted with one of their hand painted frames. The Year in Stitches series is older but I love the hand painted frames they do for all of them. Each year I've been trying to pick up one. We then make a run to Stitches N Things for another stash enhancing experience as well. I ended up with a few projects from Debs - Quietness & Confidence and this little witchy. Since Deb also brings part of her store up to the hotel, there is always a room full of stitchy goodies that you can go peruse anytime you need to stretch your legs. It is always so fun to see what pieces everybody else is working on. There is nothing that can sell a pattern faster than seeing it done up or in the process of being done. They always look so much better in person.

On Saturday, I spent a bit of time with the Red Thread series. I've almost completed the Ocean Voyage square. Mr. Black is graciously holding the edge of the fabric down so it didn't roll up when I was taking the picture.

Most of the weekend, though, I worked on Letters, Leprechauns, and Luck. I ended up pulling out the celtic cross because I felt it was too light. I then did it in 415, but that appeared too light as well, so it is now in there with a strand of 413 and a strand of 647. I was hoping for a hint of gray to make it stand out a bit, but I still wanted the greenish tint. This isn't exactly what I was looking for, but I'm done ripping it out for now. Saturday night was the big raffle. Deb had 61 different items donated by the designers that we could put in raffle tickets for. I so wanted the complete set of dinky dyes, but I didn't get them. I did, however, win a tote from the Gentle Art with some limited edition sampler threads. The tote also had the Blue Ribbon designs, Small Tokens of Affection pattern. I'm thrilled that I won something as usually I don't have much luck with those sorts of things.

Life should be back to normal Monday, so I should be able to get in a good rhythm with the amount of stitching time I'm getting in. I really want to rotate my palm piece back in so it gets some time and will hopefully get finished this year. My psyche though needs a smaller finish so I can get another happy dance.

Hopefully you aren't getting hit by this gigantic Spring storm. Weird, that a spring storm would bring snow, but at least it isn't sticking.

Cheers,

More finishing and a lingering bother coming to light

2009-03-09T09:36:00.001-07:00

Since I've been taking this quilting class, I've caught the sewing bug. I found a simple pattern for a tissue cover and I decided that it didn't look too hard. I was actually amazed at how easy it was. So after a practice piece, I went out and got some Laurel Birch fabric to make one for my DMIL. She loves Laurel Birch and had a birthday on the 4th. I know it is late. We've been trying to get together, but somebody in my family has been sick for the past month. Since she is getting her present late anyway, she'll never know that I made this goodie to go with it late too. 8)

Another plus to getting bitten by the sewing bug is that I've been making progress on finishing off some of my stitching pieces that just need to be finished. I did this little tuck pillow to hold a preface piece that I did in a Betsy Stinner class ages ago. I love the pastels and for some reason it took me forever to find a fabric that I liked for it. Of course, I don't haunt the fabric stores the way I do stitching shops!

Because I've been doing more sewing this week, I haven't gotten in as much stitching as I would have liked. I did finish off the picnic square in Red Thread and made a bit more progress on my BRD piece. I've been doing a bit of frogging on the BRD and I'm afraid that I have a bit more to do. I've always loved the flag because the red in it just seemed to pop. However, the flag has always bothered me. I was worried that the colors just weren't right. Well, I kept surpressing this thought because that red really did make the piece pop. I finally looked up the flag of Ireland and it is green, white, and ORANGE. Ugh, now that I knew this I just couldn't leave the red in. Fortunately, it was a small spot that was easily frogged. I miss the pop of the red, but I feel so much better that it is correct. The orange does pop a bit too. My next little insecurity is that the celtic cross doesn't show up enough. I'm thinking of frogging it and coming back with a strand of the current color plus a strand of grey (413, 414, 415 range). I may try a stitch or two on some other fabric to see if I like it before I totally tear out the cross.

Well, it is off to do Monday chores and to check the job boards to see if there is anything worth applying to. Take care and enjoy the sun.

Cheers,

On a finishing roll

2009-03-01T11:40:00.001-08:00

The other day I was looking at my pile of finished projects that only need finishing and decided that I needed to make a dent there. So, I took my Wee Three Birdhouses piece and decided to make a bell pull from it. It has lain in the pile for a while because I was looking for that special bellpull hardware. I finally picked up a piece I liked sometime last year. Ditto with the fabric for the back. The piece finished up quickly and easily. I'm thrilled with everything but the cording that is holding it up. I had some of this cording left over from something else I had finished some time ago. I'll let it sit for a while and if I still don't like it I can always change out the cording. Now, I just need to find a place for it to hang. My laundry room has a bird border going around the top, so I was thinking of making it's home there. Next on my finishing pile is a to make a little tuck pillow to put a preface piece that I created from a Betsy Stinner class ages ago. I do have the fabric, so no excuses. I'm going to probably change how I do the corners so the fabric cannot slide open larger on sides if the pillow is filled quite full. We'll see how it goes.

My BRD piece is really moving along. I'm a bit over half way at this point. I don't think it will make it in time for St. Patty's day, but it won't be too far behind. Even though we aren't physically sewing together, my DSIL and I have been keeping pretty close. it will be fun to see each other's pieces live when we get together for Camp Stitchalot later this month. As you can see Gabby cannot imagine a camera present without trying to get a picture of her beautiful face. I guess I'm lucky she didn't come sit down in front of the piece, LOL!

Cheers,

A finish and some progress

2009-02-22T11:16:00.001-08:00

Well, it has been a while since I posted a picture on Red Thread. The main reason is that I haven't gotten much done on it. I intended to work a rotation with the BRD piece, however, the little leprechauns have been calling to me. I guess there is something addicting about those little green squares. I'm almost finished with Picnic, but not quite. I was getting these done about 1 every two weeks when I was working on it consistently. I do love the way it is turning out and I really like the linen that it is on.

I've made some progress on Leprechauns, et al. I find that this is a really addicting piece to stitch, but I'm at the point where I'm trying to stitch rather close to the Q snaps. This is causing me to get hand cramps when I work on it. This, however, has caused me to put in some time on the Red Thread piece. I'm debating on whether I want to switch to a larger pair of Qs or just finish the piece in hand. After doing the LK piece and now Red Thread in hand, I'm not as averse to it as I once was.

Since my sons have decided to share their cold with me I've found myself lying around alot. I don't feel like doing anything yet I cannot stand lying around and doing nothing. So, I decided it was time to do some finishing. I finished FaLaLa earlier in January and decided to make it into a little ornament. I'm not real pleased with the tassle, but I figure if I continue to avoid them, I'll never get better at them. I'm real pleased that I found a better way to make the cording that gives me a clean end (ie. no knots) I don't know if I can explain it well, but you fold the cords in half and loop the two colors through each other. This way when they twist on themselves you get one end which is real clean. I think I went gun ho on making cording so hopefully I'll have enough to trim the second one of these ornies that I plan on making.

Cheers,

Irish update and clickable pics

2009-02-17T11:54:00.001-08:00

Has it ever driven anybody else nuts that sometimes your pictures are clickable and sometimes they are not? I finally delved into the cause of this and found that for some reason when you move your pictures in the compose window, you lose the href tag. Why? I haven't a clue. Now that I understand what's causing it and what to check for before I publish, I will hopefully always have clickable pictures. There is a major happy dance going on now, because this has frustrated me for a while and I've always been too busy to look into it!

I'm doing a second big happy dance because I finished the first page of the BRD pattern that I'm working on(except for the border). I need to take it off the Q snaps because I want to move it up so that I can get the last few rows done on the left side. Hopefully, I'll get it on straight this time so the little squares won't look skewed like the one in the upper right hand side. I've really only put in time on this piece this week as I was doing a few sewing projects - a tuck pillow and some simple (i.e. not quilted ) placemats for me. I sure do enjoy cross stitch so much better than sewing. I cannot seem to sew a straight line for the life of me. I'm fully prepared to be the dunce of the quilting class that starts next Monday. They say things will get better with practice.

Today is a virtual Friday as the boys are now out for mid winter break. So, it is time for me to go figure out what we're going to do.

A Quick update

2009-02-11T15:59:00.000-08:00

I haven't been doing a whole lot of cross stitching lately as I became rather fixated on making a set of quilted placemats. Now sewing isn't my thing and I'm trying to teach myself to quilt. I really do not have the 1/4" seam thing down at all. I went ahead and signed up for a class which should teach rotary cutting, piecing and quilting all on a machine.

I don't intend on becoming obsessed with quilting, but I'd like to be able to do it well when I want something. If I can master the sewing thing, I'll also have a wider variety of ways to finish off my cross stitch pieces.

Here is the update on Leprechauns and Luck. I'm finding that I really enjoy doing the border. I figured that I'd get bored with it. Of course, I'm trying to do a little bit of it at a time as I do the inside squares so that I'm not left with it all for the end. I've done a bit more on Red Thread, but I probably won't take another picture until I finish off the square that I'm working on.

A friend recently invited me to join Facebook. I'm amazed at the number of folks from my past that are on it. I've really enjoyed touching base with a few of the folks from my past. I'm amazed at how many of my friends now have grandchildren. Funny, but I never thought of myself as being that old, LOL. Hopefully, it will be a while for me since my boys are only 13 and 11. I guess it just took me a while to find that right person and get started. I guess the down side of this is that as a grandmother, I won't have as much time to enjoy the grand kids.

Cheers,

The kitchen sink, Spring, and blue screen of death

2009-02-04T16:12:00.000-08:00

First off, I apologize that this is late. I'm aiming to post at least once a week. However, the blue screen of death had gotten me and I was unable to boot my machine. I finally have gotten it back and last night could turn it off and on without ever seeing it again. However, today when trying to turn it on the grab a recipe for dinner, it's back. So, hopefully, I'll be able to keep up my weekly postings. If it goes on too much longer, I may just have to reformat and reload, but I really really do not want to do that. Is it Spring yet? . . .

According to the groundhog, not anytime soon. By the looks of the snow on the ground, I tend to agree with him, although I would rather not. My Christmas cacti knew I needed some cheering and is producing some beautiful flowers! This is the first time that I have ever had one bloom. I really need to put it in a larger pot, but then it won't fit nicely behind my kitchen sink. Something else to add to my to do list . . .

I didn't get out in time to take a picture, but I got quite a chuckle the other day when I looked out my kitchen window and saw an ear of corn sticking out from a tree branch! It had the husks pulled down just like it was ready for eating. The guy behind me leaves buckets of corn out for the squirrels. Once it gets filled they are bounding through the snow with ears in their mouths. I guess one of the little guys wanted to make sure that his latest prize didn't get buried in the snow that was falling. It's gone now, so I guess the (not so little ) fella came back to claim his prize.

It has been a rough week so I haven't gotten much stitching in. I ended up putting a number of stitches in on Monday and then frogging them all on Tuesday. At least it is a net gain from what I had last week. I've been making a little progress on the place mats, but I won't post a picture until I get a top done. I figure I'll make all of the blocks for the four of them before I start putting them together.

I ran my son back to the doctor today since his right wrist is feeling better, but his left is not. It hurts when he even moves his thumb. Sure enough when they redid the Xrays today they found a fracture along the thumb that they didn't catch during the original visit. At least this doesn't mean any additional healing time as the fingers should heal up more quickly than the wrists and the splinting would be the same. I'm really becoming more and more convinced that if you feel something isn't right, take it back to the doctor. You know your body and what is "normal".
Stay warm, grab some tea, and stitch happy!

Random trivia and SAL Update #3

2009-01-25T13:30:00.000-08:00

The event of the week was a visit to the orthopedist with my DS. (I really need to get a life, huh?) He was happy that things hadn't moved since he was splinted in the ER and opted to just continue my son in the splints that they gave them. This is good news, from my point of view, as it allows him to remove them for showering dressing etc. Of course, DS, thinks a cast would be better. I think the subliminal thought is that he will get more attention that way. Of course, if you asked, he'd never admit to it. The bad thing about keeping him in these particular splints is that he didn't really require a set which would immobilize the thumb, however, that is what they issued. The doc cannot give out new ones as the insurance company will balk and most likely dispute payment on the second set. There is a metal rod that he can remove from the thumb area that will not jeopardize the rest of the splint. DS wants to keep the metal in just to be on the safe side. He obviously is feeling better as he hasn't been asking for Tylenol and is starting to annoy his brother a bit more. So, things are getting back to normal on that front.
I've gotten a bit of time in on the SAL that I'm doing with Sue. I would like to see more squares filled in, however, I'm anxious to get to the edges. Anal as I am, I'm wanting to fill in the stitching according to what is on pattern page 1, then page 2 etc. This has definitely been a fun stitch, although, there are times when I want to see some color other than a variant of green. Thankfully, I have my Red Thread piece to pick up when that happens. I don't have a progress picture of that, but I'll post one next time. I've been making progress with my teach myself to quilt project and now have 4 of the blocks done. It takes 6 blocks for each placemat. I figure I'll finish the 24 blocks and then start piecing together the placemat tops. I'll post a picture of these once I get the placemats pieced.

Well, it is cold outside and I think I need to go sit in my corner and stitch. Stay warm and enjoy your endeavors this week.

Cheers,

SAL Update

2009-01-18T16:22:00.000-08:00

Did you ever notice that emergencies don't tend to happen 9 - 5 on normal business days? So, far we're batting 100 on having them hit on weekends and holidays this year. As you probably guessed, I got to spend Friday night in the emergency room. My oldest son fell at his soccer game and managed to fracture the radius in both of his arms. Tomorrow (hopefully), I'll be able to get him into an orthopedist. I just hope that they are open on MLK day. I'm hoping they will be, but you never can tell since it is now a national holiday. School is in, so I'm guessing that it will mostly be federal offices that are closed.

On the stitching front, I haven't gotten much done. My week kinda got away from me when I started to read 'Undead and Unwed'. I'm not a romance reader and definitely not a vampire fan, but I'd say that this book is really neither a typical vamp story nor a typical romance. The newly created vampire is rather cheeky and entertaining to read. Since I was so entertained, I just had to pick up the second book in the series and devour that one as well. Of course, I had a bit of time on my hands on Friday night and I just so happened to have it with me. I also decided that I needed to sew up a few simple projects on my sewing machine to make sure it's in good order. My embroidery software for it no longer works since I upgraded to XP. As is typical I get several different answers from different sewing shops as to what is exactly needed and of course, if I open the product and try it, I can no longer return it because it has been opened. I kinda understand this for software, but if it is a new hardware dongle that is needed, I think this policy is ridiculous. My ultimate goal is to be able to put custom embroidery patterns on a disk for my machine to read. So at any rate, I decided to quilt some placemats since they would be small and quick. This would also allow me to experiment with quilting on my machine with a much smaller piece. I didn't find any great fabrics to make a set for myself, but I found colors that would go great with my mom's kitchen. I hate to experiment on things I'm giving away, but those are the colors I found. If it doesn't turn out decent, I'll just keep them for myself. I've got the fabric cut out and the first 96 squares made. Whew, I should have chosen something a bit easier to learn with! Back to the cross stitch front, I did manage to get my squares done for my SAL with Sue. This really is moving along faster than I expected it to. The little outlines are perfect for TV watching as I really don't have to count too much. I did do a bit on the Red Thread piece, however, it really isn't enough to justify a picture.

Cheers,

A productive week

2009-01-11T10:00:00.001-08:00

It has been a great week for me as far as stitching progress goes. I've been putting in some time with Red Thread as I didn't want it to get lost like it did when I did the LK SAL. This is really seeming to move along quickly and I love the fabric so I'm always anxious to work on it. I've gotten through June so I'm half way there!

I put in some time on the BRD SAL that I'm doing with my DSIL. We'd said that we'd do about 2 blocks a week. I'm trying to keep pace with that, but I'm finding that it seems to be going rather quickly. This is okay as it allows me to put in time on other projects like the Red Thread. I've been eyeing some of the other BRD pieces and I may have to break down and pick them up.

Last picture from the stitching front, is Fa La La. I haven't finished it into an ornament yet, but I finished the stitching. I ended up doing the year 2009 on a piece that I will use for the backing. Normally, I'd use sewing fabric for a backing, but I really wanted to have the year on it and I didn't fit it in when I did the front. I want to do another one of these on the blue fabric for myself (this one is for my mom), however, I'm holding off as the white floss didn't show real well against the blue; since it is a hand dyed there were stretches of white in the fabric which made it difficult for me to see these stitches over 1. After a break, I intend to do another. This year I do want to include some ornaments among my finishes.

On the home front, Gabby and Grace seem to have made peace with one another. Yesterday, I had a comforter thrown over a chair to continue to dry and one cat was on one side and one the other. They were taking turns jumping at where they thought the other was. It was rather cute. I actually found them rump to rump during the night on my bed. I still hear an occasional hiss, but that is not uncommon among siblings. Have a great week and bundle up if your out east as it is supposed to be a cold one.

Cheers,

New Year, new starts, & Goodbye to old friends

2009-01-04T07:42:00.000-08:00

I hope everybody had a safe and happy New Year. Hopefully, this new year will bring many good things your way. New Years was a mixed blessing for me. My son awoke that morning to find that Savannah had a prolapesed anus. Of course, this is a thing you need your vet for right away and of course, it is a holiday. We cleaned the area up and put a dressing of saturated sugar solution on it. I was hoping that this would shrink it up some and make it easier to put back in and keep it moist until she could get to the vet. Since my vet wasn't going to be back until Tuesday, I got a referal to another one. Boy, I wish I knew him when Georgia was sick! He found that Savannah had a tumor which probably contributed to the prolapse. If he operated and put it back in, she would still probably die. So, we had to make that painful call to put her down. It was a bit of a shock since we walked in expecting emergency surgery and walked out with a dead pet. My last picture of her is with her dressing, so it looks like she's wearing a large diaper.
I managed to get a start on my SAL with my DSIL. The piece is Letters, Leprechauns, and Luck by Blue Ribbon Designs. My SIL isn't doing the exact same piece, but she's doing 6 Bats and a Witches Hat which is the same size. We're aiming to do two blocks a week. I know this isn't much, but it allows us to work on other pieces as well. I'm doing this on 32 ct. Tundra linen by Lakeside Linens.

I'm also working on a Christmas ornament for next year. It is a complimentary chart by Plum Pudding Needlearts. I'm doing this over one on a piece of overdyed
Lugana. The white contrasts real well when I put the whole skein on the fabric, but boy trying to work on it with one strand, I'm going blind!! I'm continuing to work on Red Thread. I'm a bit further on the Maypole, however, I had two mistakes that I needed to frog so I'm not much further than the last image. So, no pictures today. May your jump back into the reality of life on Monday be easy.
Cheers,

Courtesy of Jennie's World

2008-12-27T14:13:00.000-08:00

I just did a quick update to the template using a graphics from Jennie's World. Thanks to people like her, people like me can get a decent looking blog for free. You should check out her site to see if there is something you'd like to use. Be sure to back up your current template first.

Snowbound without Kudzu

2008-12-26T14:13:00.000-08:00

I received this beautiful needlebook in the mail the other day from the CSF group. I had done a summer exchange piece with them and my partner, due to unfortunate circumstances, could not reciprocate. The moderator of the group filled in and sent me this piece quite unexpectedly. Thank you RoseAnn! My picture does not due this piece justice at all.

Here's my latest update on Red Thread piece. I could not finish off the Smell the Flowers square due to a lack of Kudzu floss. It was then that I realized I'd only bought the flosses for the first three squares. Of course, the snow was flying and I now needed floss. Ugh! I went ahead and started the Maypole square, but of course there was parts that I couldn't do due to the lack of floss. Fortunately, my friends at Stitches N'Things are always available. They were even having a sale on GAST and WDW fibers. The sale is good through the end of December, so if you're in need, I'd highly recommend them. I went ahead and bought the rest of the flosses that I'd need to finish this piece. I want to make a lot more headway on this in the next week since I'll be starting a SAL at the beginning of the year.

I stitched this little frog floss tag for my DSIL for Christmas. She loves frogs and I've been making her a series of things with frogs in them for birthdays/Christmas. This was a freebie pattern from Barbara Anna Designs. The picture looks awful, but it was the only one I took before I gave it away. I'm sure Sue will have a better picture on her blog. I filled this ring with the flosses that she would need for our SAL this January. This was the first floss tag that I've tried to do and the finishing wasn't too hard. I used the tutorial from Snippets and Stash.

This last little item was a frog biscornu that I also gave to my DSIL this Christmas. This was a Casey Buonaugurio freebie pattern.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. I plan on sitting inside and getting to work on my Red Thread piece. Stay warm.

A crochet finish

2008-12-16T18:54:00.000-08:00

I just finished my second item of crochet. It looks so much better than the first! Since the stitches look rather consistent, I'm donating it to our local service center for distribution to those less fortunate. Hopefully, whoever gets this will find that it keeps them warm and cozy. The picture looks like an edge randomnly gets larger. This is just because the scarf is doubled over on itself and I didn't line up the edges properly for the picture. I know something out of whack will keep you just as warm as something straight, but I did want it to look nice if I was giving it away.

On the home front, Grace and Gaby seem to be getting along. I even caught them sleeping up on the bed together this afternoon. Grace probably would have been happy to live her life in the closet, but I finally pulled her out and closed all the bedroom doors. This forced her to be out and social. I guess she decided that it wasn't too bad. I'm glad that this has been a smooth transition for everybody or I would have really kicked myself for doing it. She is even behaving well with the claws. I was really worried about this because I agreed that since she was older that I wouldn't have her declawed (they okayed laser declawing which is a bit more expensive). I bought some soft paws, but the size I got is a bit big for her. Hopefully, she'll grow into them soon.

Introducing Gaby

2008-12-12T08:39:00.000-08:00

We were able to get Gaby Tuesday night. She's moved in and acts like she's lived here for 10 years. Mr. Black enjoys having somebody energetic to play with. Grace, well, it would be safe to say that she's not real pleased. She's been hissing at her when she sees her and then she goes and hides in the closet. Today, she is finally coming out and sitting in the same room, however, when Gaby approaches her she growls. Mr. Black, ever the diplomat, will come sit by Grace to reassure her. Hopefully, they will settle into a happy routine soon.

Red Thread progress and the hope of a new fur baby

2008-12-08T16:43:00.001-08:00

I finally have a picture to post of the Red Thread piece. Now that I am working on it, it is coming along rather quickly. I'm hoping to get a lot more of it done before January as I will be starting a SAL with my DSIL then. Since she seems to have electric fingers, it seems that I will be stitching only on the SAL piece just to keep up with her. Our SAL pieces will be two different ones from Blue Ribbon Designs. She will be doing Six Bats and a Witches Hat while I'll be doing
Letters, Leprechauns, and Luck. They will be sizable projects (at least for us) so I imagine this SAL will last for at least 6 months. I'm sure that I will rotate in a few smaller pieces just to keep from getting bored.

I woke up the other morning feeling like Mr. Black really needed a playmate. Gracie is sweet and kind, but just won't play with him. I'm not sure if it is just that a girl's idea of play doesn't quite jive with a boy's idea of play or what. At any rate, Mr. Black likes to chase and wrestle. Gracie does not. She's content to curl up with him in a sunbeam, but she won't play with him. She won't even play chase with her little mousies if he is also going after them. In short, he intimidates her. To make a short story long, I ended up seeing this sweet white kitty at my local Chow Hound. She is already a little over a year old, however, she is very playful and enjoys being carried around on a shoulder. This won her big brownie points when I pulled her out of her cage and discovered that. I put in an application with the Humane Society as they are who owns the animals displayed out in the stores. Hopefully, I will find out tomorrow if we will be adding another fur baby to our collection. Her hair is a bit longer so I will need to vacuum much more often. The humane folks named her Gaby because she talks alot. Now my Gracie talks all of the time, especially if you get on the phone or turn off all of the lights to go to sleep. I hope the two of them together isn't a bad idea.

Good luck to everyone on their holiday preparations,

Tagged

2008-11-22T13:51:00.000-08:00

I've been tagged by Penny.
The rules are as follows:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post.
5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know your entry is up.

Now the 6 random things about myself:
1. I love it warm (80 degrees is my sweet spot), yet I live in Michigan and want to go visit Alaska and Finland.
2. Before I die, I would love to go to Australia.
3. I love Celtic music and would love to learn Irish step dance.
4. I cry at the drop of a hat. I really hate this about myself as it is terribly embarrassing.
5. I just got some microfleece sheets - not only are they soft but warm. I loved them so much I got some for each of my kids.
6. I like to geocache.

I tag the following:
Sue
Bonnie
Pirjo
Hannah
Cathey
Chiasmata

So long Georgia and Needle Snobbery

2008-11-13T16:28:00.000-08:00

Our little Georgia finally succumbed to whatever illness she had yesterday. Josh didn't want to have anything to do with the burial so I took care of it while he was at school. It's funny she was a gecko. She wasn't warm and cuddley and not particulary anxious to get out of the cage and spend time with us. In fact, she was a little spaz case, every time we took her out. Somehow, though she got a bit of our hearts and we were sad to see her go. Thankfully, Savannah is healthy and happy and is quite curious as to why she can no longer see a cage next to hers.

Have you ever lost a needle that you just loved? I had that happen to me a few years ago when I lost a golden needle that I won as a door prize. I figured that a needle is a needle and it is ridiculous to get hung up on a particular one. Well, shortly before finishing off Lizzie Kate, I lost my last petite. Finishing off that project and the few little gifties I was working on has been a pain. My "normal" needles all feel so huge (except for the eye, LOL). I didn't want to work on the Red Thread piece again until I had another John James petite. I finally got one, and let me tell you, it just glides through the fabric. I'm enjoying stitching again so much more! I cannot believe how out of sorts I felt with those other needles. Funny, when I first tried the petites, I thought that they were rather small. Now that I've got my groove back, I should soon have some pictures of progress on the Red Thread piece. I think I'm going to have to set up a rotation so some of these WIPS will start to show some progress.

Speaking of LK, has anyone heard that she is doing another Double Flip series with a Halloween theme for 2009. I've checked her site and don't see it, but it sound intriguing. I know a few Halloween buffs.

Chiloe is having a drawing for her 600th post. You can go here to enter.

Cheers,

LK back from the framer!

2008-11-09T17:46:00.000-08:00

I am doing a great big happy dance at the moment as I just picked up my double flips from the framer. As usual, I don't have the best picture. It's dark here already and my lighting isn't the best. This really isn't the frame that I'd envisioned when I thought about getting a frame, but it works (maybe not the best on this dark wall). Since dust happens in my house, I wanted the piece covered with glass. With the charms this required a deeper inset in whatever frame I chose. I thought about having it matted, but I decided against it since the piece had a border stitched around it, not to mention the fact that I could already hear the ka ching ka ching of the cost as we were measuring for the frame. Even with a 50% off coupon, the price tag was much more than I really wanted to pay. The dark frame contrasts well with the stitched border, much more so than the one I'd originally envisioned the piece with.

It has been a super busy week, so I've not gotten a lot of stitch time in. What I have finished, I really cannot show as they will be gifties. I decided against starting the Halloween piece that I spoke of a few posts back. It ended up being way too close to Halloween for me to even dream that I'd get it done. I'm trying to decide what to start next. I'd like to do something smaller so I can get another happy dance or two in before the end of the year.

Cheers,

LK is complete

2008-10-26T14:09:00.000-07:00

As I sit to write this, I'm hearing hail hit the deck. It does nothing to warm my soul. I am so NOT ready for winter. I am so an 80 degree girl. Luckily, I only had to sit through a horrid amount of wind this afternoon for my oldest son's last soccer game. I think we get a whole week and a half off before winter training starts. At least it will be held indoors and only training which isn't real exciting to watch. One of the parent's on my youngest son's team recruited me for a coed parental team this winter. I'm hoping this will help me lose some weight. I really cannot run, so I think it will be more of an excercise in humility. At least the other players will also be 40 somethings.

Last week I had a real productive week and finished off the Lizzie Kate that I was doing as a SAL with my DSIL. I even have my charms on. It will probably sit in my finished piece pile until somebody has a framing sale or I get a real good framing coupon. I've also been doing a bit of work on a biscournu for a biscournu group that I joined. I'm nearly done, but I cannot add a picture until the recipient receives it. I've ironed some monster green fabric up to start a Halloween freebie that was on the San-Man Originals site. Hopefully, I can get this pretty far along before Halloween. I also was taking advantage of the nice weather last week to get in a bit of geocaching. I'm also hoping that the hiking involved here will help me with weight maintenance. As you can probably guess, working on the eating end is not an option. I have NO willpower. I've digressed again. I also found a good tutorial on floss tags, so I went out and picked up some eyelets and book rings to make a few. I still haven't a clue as to what patterns, I want to stitch, but I've got the stuff to do it, LOL. I'm hoping that these will go fast and I figured that they'd make good stocking stuffers.

On the critter front, Georgia is not doing real well. She is continuing to lose weight and has no desire to eat. I've been feeding her via a syringe for the past three weeks. I'm thinking that I would ease her suffering if I just stopped feeding her. Of course, then her death would be my fault because I never fed her. If she were a cat or dog, I think it would be time to make that painful call. My son seems resigned to the fact that she will never get better. I'm glad that he's come to accept this.

Stay warm,

LK Progress

2008-10-07T10:57:00.001-07:00

Here's the latest progress on my LK SAL. I'm finally on the last card!! Hopefully, I can finish this off so I can move on to something a bit more Halloweenie. My mom just pulled out a Just Nan Halloween piece that I did for her last year. I bought fabbie, charms etc. to make one for me and I haven't even started it. I've really got the itch now. I don't want to move this piece into some sort of rotation because it is so close to getting finished. I don't know how girls that do large pieces routinely do it.
Georgia, the gecko, still seems to be ill. I think her biggest problem right now is that she is blind. She doesn't feed out of my hand but will get excited when I move a meal worm next to her. Of course, it then takes forever for her to catch it. I've given up and bought a jar of baby food. I've been putting a bit of it on her nose and letting her lick it off. She doesn't seem to like having gunk put on her face, but I don't know of another way to feed her.
I managed to get the family to indulge me and take a drive this weekend to see some of the covered bridges in the area. I wanted to get some pictures of them and hopefully grab a family picture with some fall foliage. The trees really haven't started to turn yet, but I figure I better take the chance and get out while I had the opportunity. There was one tree above the bridge that had some nice orange color. I now have a family picture with all of the seasons in the background. I've been having these printed on a ceramic tile and then mounting them in a wooden frame to make a set for my mud room.

Well, it is time to go pull out the Halloween decorations before school lets out and the bomb goes off in my house.

Happy Stitching,

Blog Update

2008-10-03T14:07:00.000-07:00

This is just a test post so that I can test the new layout that I got from Jennie's World. She has a few freebies there that are adorable. My only complaint is that I lost all of my widgets and had to recreate them. This shouldn't be too time consuming, however, it is more work to do. So, if you see your blog missing from the sidebar, don't worry, at some point I will get it back. I've been experimenting with making changes to my blog and eventually will come up with something that I want to be my background, header, etc. all the time. Right now, though, I'm having fun changing with the seasons.
I'm making progress on my LK Double Flips and will post a picture on my next post. I may take a break from this piece and sneak in some Halloween stitching. There are so many cute patterns out there!
I'm convinced that Georgia is blind at this point. I tried to reintroduce her to Savannah, but Savannah attacked her. Ugh! I cannot leave a poor blind gecko in a habitat with somebody that attacks her. So, for now I have her in a plastic under the bed tub without the top. I had to give the poor girl more room as that cage she was in for quarantine barely had room for her to move about. Right now, the challenge is to keep my son's bedroom door shut as we have two cats. The geckos are the cats form of TV. They get a little too curious once the geckos or crickets start to move about.

Until the next time,

More Progress

2008-09-24T11:14:00.000-07:00

It has been quite a while since I've posted, so I guess you would expect progress. The sad thing is that most of that time has not been consumed with stitching. I've been able to devote an hour or so a night and catch up with my DSIL. While I've enjoyed this project, I am anxious for it to end. I have a cute Halloween freebie that I would like to start on soon.

Soccer is in full swing and my weekends have been spent running around to the games. I'm managing my younger son's team, so I really need to be at all of his games. Team management is a bit more of a time soak than I originally thought. So far, my oldest son's team is in first place and my youngest is in second. I'm so happy for this as last year my oldest lost every game. It really makes for a rotten ride home when you drive 2 hours to get there and then lose.

Georgia, our leopard gecko with a peach complexion, started throwing up as well as refusing to eat. I did some research and finally found a few vets that see such critters. I should have had this information before I needed it, but I never ever envisioned having to take her to the vet. At any rate, she is now on some antibiotics and is in quarantine. She's primarily quarantined so that I can tell her poop from Savannah's poop. The vet would like to examine it to make sure she doesn't have parasites. She's now got an appetite, but I swear she seems like she cannot see well. Earlier in the week it was if she was totally blind. I could pass my hand in front of her face and there was no acknowledgement that I was there. She seems to be much more responsive now, but still not 100% with her vision. So, I'm feeding her mealworms and placing them right in front of her after wafting them close to her nose. She does seem to track them as they start to crawl around so I'm feeling a bit of relief. The thought of needing to hand feed her for the rest of her life is a time consumer that I really don't need. I'd do it, but I'd rather not. ;) She gets a spa bath every night too. This warm water will warm her stimulating her metabolism. The quicker her metabolism runs, the quicker the antiobiotics can take effect. I cannot wait for her to come out of quarantine because she sure misses her little humidity hut.

BTW, a few folks asked what a humidity hut is. A humid area will really help a gecko when it needs to shed its skin. So, what I did is take one of those little Gladlock "tupperware" bowls and put peat moss in it. The peat will hold a lot of moisture. After cutting an entrance hole and dulling the sharp edges with a flame, I put it in the warm end of her cage. Her cage has an under the tank heater on the bottom running half of its length. With the humidity chamber in the warm end of the tank, the moisture will collect in the air inside this little chamber. It even sometimes "rains" in there. I have a hard time finding it empty to add more water to the peat. Poor little Georgia's cage is not large enough to have one.

Cheers,

Half way there

2008-08-29T11:46:00.000-07:00

I've finally gotten half way through the double flips. I'm still dragging behind my DSIL, however, I'm hoping that once school starts I will be in a better routine to have stitch time. Although I sat every evening watching the Olympics, I mostly watched. There are just some things that you don't get to see unless you catch them during the Olympics.

Georgia, the youngest of my son's geckos hasn't been looking real good lately. She lays around alot. They always do, but she just has had a bit of a peaked appearance. Her tail is skinnier than it was earlier and she isn't as hyper when I put crickets in the cage. She didn't even get real excited when I put wax worms in her cage (think chocolate - lots of fat and taste but not much nutrition). I set about to totally redoing her cage since the cricket poo is too small to scoop up. I then set up a humidity chamber for her. Both Savannah and her have been inhabiting it constantly since I put it in the cage. Her tail seems to have plumped a bit and her eyes are now a bit more lively. Hopefully, this will put her back on track as I really don't want to go to the vet. First off, I'd need to find one that handled reptiles and secondly, it would probably cost more than the gecko. Of course, I don't want a little boy with a broken heart either.

I've been putting many hours into the digital scrapbook for our Disney cruise. It is turning out cute, but takes me forever. I spent 6 hours yesterday on a graphic to put on just one of the pages. I definitely have more hobbies than time. I figure that I'm about half way there so hopefully, I will have more time to dedicate to stitching.

Enjoy your holiday weekend. Hopefully, everyone can get away just one last time before the routine of fall settles upon us.

Christmas in July

2008-08-12T09:09:00.000-07:00

I haven't gotten enough stitching done to warrant a picture, but I did win the Christmas in July contest held by Angela. She sent me this wonderful trio of snowmen patterns. I cannot wait to do them although I will resist the temptation at least until the weather gets a bit colder.

I haven't gotten much stitching done because the past few weeks have been a flurry of activity. We had a canoe trip down the Rogue River, a trip with the kids to Michigan's Adventures, and most recently a camping trip to Ludington State Park. The park was wonderful and it seems we were busy every minute. It seems that I remember camping in my youth with a bit of downtime for reading, stitching, etc. I guess times have changed. I got in quite a bit of hiking and a float down the Little Sable River. In spite of all the walking and activity, I came back a bit heavier {sigh}. I'm not quite ready to wear purple and say that I don't care a bit.

For some reason the Olympics always compels me to sit in front of the tube for 2 weeks. I've gotten some border work and other mindless forms of stitching done. I cannot do anything requiring a lot of counting because chances are that I'll make a mistake and need to frog. I've seen enough of the frog this summer. At least this will give me an opportunity to do some of this on my Double Flips so it won't seem so tedious when I'm ready to get down to some serious stitching.

I've recently joined the foray into digital scrapbooking. I want to make an album of the cruise we took this summer for my DMIL and DFIL. The cruise was in honor of their anniversary, but the actual anniversary date isn't until December. So, I figure I can make this album and give it to them as an anniversary present. I didn't realize how much time this can suck up. You don't know how often I've wished for more hours in my day. I end up kicking myself for spending hours in the basement when the sun is out shining and the weather is good, but at the rate I'm going I need to keep at it. So, to say that I've had things competing for my stitching time is an understatement.

Enjoy your summer and relish your stitching moments,

LK and back to Red Thread

2008-07-25T14:04:00.000-07:00

I have a few pictures tonight. As usual, I was too lazy to iron before taking the pictures. Of course, I probably saved myself frustration as Mr. Black was being quite a pest. If I was going to utilize his sunbeam to put my stitching in, he felt it was his perogative to walk on it, lay on it, or in general make his presence known. As you will see in the LK photo, he had to get his paw in the picture lest I forget who is boss. I managed to get GIVE done last weekend while visiting my DSIL last weekend. Too bad we don't get together more often - I'd get more done, LOL!

We are doing this as a SAL so I've been primarily concentrating on this piece. I have put it down recently since she is working on the travelling pattern. I've picked up Red Thread by Bent Creek. Part of me wonders what was I thinking to have several large pieces going at the same time. I fell in love with LK and decided to do it then saw the Red Thread piece completed and knew that I had to have it. Of course, what good is having it if you don't start it! 8) I'm enjoying this piece and love the fabric much more that the Lambswool that I'm using for LK. I usually don't work in hand so both of these go a bit slower.

My partner for the summer exchange has gotten the package! I'm so happy that my last post wasn't premature. I was beginning to get a bit concerned because I hadn't seen her online and I wasn't sure if she had gotten caught up in some of the flooding in the midwest. Can you imagine the heartache of losing some of your completed pieces? or your stash? My heart really goes out to those folks.

Last but not least, I have to leave you with a picture of Mr. Black. He is such a fun guy that truly thinks he should be the center of our attention no matter what we're doing. I've got him rather trained to sit next to my leg (on my bags of flosses though) when I'm stitching. Reading a book though is a different story! We recently got a little laser pointer for him and he sure does like chasing it down. The look of bewilderment on his face when he opens those little paws and finds his prize is not there is somewhat sad. However, when the dot decides to "climb up the wall" boy does he get energized!

Cheers,

LK SAL Progress

2008-07-18T10:58:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update on my SAL progress. This is a fun stitch and not taking nearly as long as I thought it was going to. (if I put the time in, that is LOL) I'm doing this piece in hand as I don't have Q snaps large enough and I didn't like working with my rachet frame. I know that I could do Q's smaller, but I haven't gotten brave enough to clamp over stitching which is already complete. Stitching in hand causes my hand to cramp up after a few hours so I cannot do any marathon stitching here. I'm doing this piece all in DMC which has caused me some consternation. I've never felt like the border shows up well enough. A few weekends ago I was stitching with my DSIL and saw her WDW border and loved it. Of course, I put off stitching a few days until I could pick up some of that guacamole. Luckily, I had the forsight to not frog right away but to start next to remember with the guacamole. I loved the darker aspect of that fiber, but when it "faded out", it was actually lighter than the DMC. So, since I'd flip flopped on this several times already I went to ask the DH what he thought. He picked the DMC. So, I frogged out the guacamole that I'd put in and continued with the DMC again. It will be interesting to see if I flip flop on this again now that a bit more has gotten done.

I've recently joined in a summer exchange. I haven't participated in many because my stitching time is so unpredictable and I don't want to keep people waiting. I got my summer exchange done early and mailed it out July 1st. I still haven't heard weather my partner has received it. Since I don't believe that she reads my blog, here's a picture of what I sent. I sure hope that she enjoys it. The pattern is Down By the Sea from Pine Mountain. I ordered a button from M&J trims since I couldn't find one that looked like the original in the kit. I actually like this button better than the one that is in my tuck pillow. I'm eagerly waiting to see what my partner has made me. I shouldn't do these things because I don't have the patience to wait, LOL!

I'm heading out to my MIL so that I can drop my boy's off for a little visit with her. I will be seeing my DSIL tonight and tomorrow we are having a little stitchfest. Tonight she will finally get her belated birthday present. She will like it as it is something blue . . .

Cheers,

Creativity and LK SAL Progress

2008-06-29T10:54:00.001-07:00

I can finally display a picture of Creativity as it has been given to its recipients. My DSIL and I decided to do this piece for her parent's 50th wedding anniversary. We did this as a round robin. Not wanting to send it through the mail and because we lived quite a distance apart, this piece has taken quite a while to complete. It turned out to be a real special piece as each of the grandchildren sewed on a charm and my husband also did a row; so the piece has a contribution from all of their progeny. I'm thrilled with how it turned out and even more so when the framing was complete. The gals over at Rocking Horse really do a nice job.

I'm still working on getting the goodies to put with my summer exchange piece. Once I get those and get it mailed out and received, I will post a picture of that piece. It was a real fun, quick stitch although I noticed once the finishing was complete that I forgot to add the seagulls. It looks empty without the gulls, but I'll let you decide when I finally post it.

My DSIL and I have also been working on the LK Double Flips. I finally picked it up again and finished off most of the Love part. I'm sorry about the picture. It has been glum outside so I took the picture in the basement and the lighting isn't the best. This is much more yellowy that it is in real life. For cost savings I've been doing this piece in DMC. So far, I've been happy with all of the colors except for the border. It seemed a bit too light to me. Now that I have that big ole green heart in though, it is looking better. I did end up frogging out the L and part of the heart since I started it down a row. Ugh! Hopefully, that will be the last issue I have with this piece. I'm sorry for the delay in posting, but I haven't had much to show since I've been frogging and the boys have kept me hopping. (maybe that attracted the frog, LOL!) Well, it's time to get some lunch and see if I can get the lawn mowed before the rain drops come again.

Cheers,

Sailing back to reality!

2008-06-16T17:34:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy week since school let out. I've been gone on a Disney cruise for my DMIL and DFIL's 50th anniversary. They opted to take the family on a memorable vacation rather than have a party. I'm sure that my boys will remember it their entire lives. We took a 4 day cruise that went to Castaway Cay, Nassau, and then back to Castaway Cay. There was so much to do that we didn't get to do half of the things we would have liked. The food was plentiful and oh so delicious. Low cal too, LOL! We had the chance to do some deep sea fishing and of course everyone in the family caught something except me. For whatever reason, the fish that seemed to hit on my line usually broke the line before I could land them. Our guide caught a shark and boy did that take some time to reel in. We didn't pull him in the boat - just close enough for pictures and then cut him loose.

We had a great time snorkling, bike riding, touring Nassau, and of course eating. We ran into "Captain Jack Sparrow" and the Flying Dutchman while at Casatway Cay. It wasn't Johnny Depp but boy did this guy have the speech and mannerisms down. The ship we were on was the Disney Wonder. This picture doesn't really capture the enormity of it all, but will give you the idea.

Once we got back, my DSIL and I gave our parents Creativity by Just Nan that we had round robined for their 50th. My DSIL, my husband, myself and each of the 3 grand children did something on this piece. Unfortunately, I do not have a picture of it framed. I'm going to have to get one the next time I visit. I haven't gotten anything done on my normal rotation of the larger pieces that I've got going at the moment, but I have completed the stitching for a summer exchange on the Cross Stitch Friends board. I should be able to get the finishing done sometime this week and I'll post a picture when my partner receives it.

Cheers,

Summer Vacation!

2008-06-03T06:54:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

I've not done much stitching lately as it seems I've been in a bit of a funk. I think it has to do with the loong winter and rather cool Spring. Hopefully, vacation next week will perk me up a bit. I have gotten a bit more done than my last update, but I don't have pictures. I'm trying to clean and do laundry like a crazy woman so we can go on vacation. I know it sounds crazy to clean when you won't even be here, but I will be having someone come into the house every day to feed my furbabies. So I won't die of mortal embarrasment, I need to clean. I also like to come home to a clean house after vacation. It already seems bonkers when you first come back needing to unpack and then clean up all the laundry again. Tomorrow I will be helping my sons class make no sew blankets for a mission trip that one of the teachers is going on this summer. This should be fun. I ended up making a few for my sons so they'd have something to wrap up in during the chilly soccer games.

One other thing contributing to the funk is that my youngest wants to play football this fall. Unfortunately, it looks like every game is going to overlap soccer for the fall. So, I'm in a bit of a funk that he's not willing to commit to soccer. The commitment is for a year, so although he can try out again in the Spring there is no guarantee that there will be slots available. Ugh!! IMHO he is too small to play football. He has dreams of playing HS football one day. (he's in 6th grade) The coaches here like them big. In fact, one of the seniors this year sat on the bench the entire season because the coach felt he was too small. He would win awards at practice etc. but they still wouldn't put him in. Can you imagine during your senior year how heartbreaking that would be? I'm trying to save my son from the same fate. On the other hand if he keeps up with soccer, he may have a shot at playing in HS. He is one that learns more by experience rather than advice, LOL! I just need to let go and let him make his choices and live with the consequences. Have a great day!

Cheers,

A big case of startitis!

2008-04-16T10:14:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been going on about starting the LK Double Flip series as well as the Red Thread Snapper series. I couldn't decide which piece to start so I went ahead and started both of them. I'm usually the kind of stitcher that generally concentrates on one project (unless it is large) at a time with a few in the background for travel, nights when I have sore eyes etc. Seeing as both of these are rather large projects, I think I will have to go on a rotation to keep them both moving along. Here's my progress thus far --

The Red Thread Snapper by Bent Creek

First up is the Red Thread Snapper. Looking at the individual patterns, I really wasn't taken with this pattern. However, once I saw the complete series done up, I was blown away. I really liked the saying and I think that and the border adds a lot to it. You can see what it will look like when almost complete here. I've been working this piece "in hand" even though that is not my preferred method of stitching. I just don't have any free Q's that will fit this at the moment.

Lizzie Kate Double Flip Series

Next up, the LK Double Flip piece. It is on one of those ratchet frames. I really don't like these because my hand is cramping while holding on to it. I like the fact that the fabric will roll so that it is not getting dirty etc., but boy is this killing me to work on . I'm doing this as a SAL with my DSIL. We both are rather slow stitchers so we figured doing it together would be fun. I'm not sure if this green border is showing up as well as I would like. I know that in the end, I want the border to be subtle. I'll continue on with it for a bit and see how I like it once I get a word or two done. Any opinions/suggestions from others out there that have done this piece?

Irish Table topper by Dutch Treat

Last up is one of my lonely WIPS - the Irish Tabletopper by Dutch Treat. I've been taking this one to soccer practice to work on when the boys aren't scrimmaging. Since the snow has decided to let up and let us have a season, I expect this one will start having progress made on it. I've already found an error, but have decided against frogging it. At this point, I know that my medallion doesn't quite seem to be in the middle, however, I cannot find where I am off. That would be a necessity if I wish to frog, which I don't really want as it seems like I've done a lot of that lately!

Zac's OM state meet is this Saturday. Yay! The kids have decided to totally redo the set as well as add one more scene and redo two of the costumes. I think the additions/redo's will definitely get them a much better score in this meet, but I do not expect them to make it to World. At least I hope not! (is that bad for a mom to not want a team to go on?) Both boys have a soccer tournament the weekend the world meet occurs. Because the OM team is a play, Zac could not really back out if they advanced. I know he would be disappointed to miss his soccer tournament as well. Soccer season opens this weekend and I'm excited to watch the boys play again. Zac will miss his game due to OM, but Josh will be playing. I sure hate to miss Josh's game but my DH will fill me in. Next weekend, Josh and dad get to go on a fishing retreat. My son is totally hyped and raring to go. I hope the weather is nice for them.

Cheers,

A finish and a start

2008-04-08T07:37:00.000-07:00

I'm one of the unlucky few that have not escaped to someplace warm for Spring Break. I can manage to do this with a smile and without being grumpy as long as I see some sun. This weekend was gorgeous (not quite warm enough, but gorgeous ). Of course that means lots of outdoor chores to do. Even so, I've managed to get in a bit of stitching. I finished off the Shepherd's Bush piece that I took to camp Stitchalot.
I will finish this piece off in this cute hand painted frame. I'll be putting this on my finishing pile for a while though since I'm eager to really get going on the LK Double Flip piece. Speaking of which, I did get part of the border started. The green looks rather light so I'm wondering if I need to make a run to a LNS and see if there is something else out there which would look better. At this point, there isn't enough done to warrant a picture. Today is going to be rather busy with OM practice and a sleep over. I cannot wait for OM practice as it means that my older one will be out of the house. If he's gone, the younger one shouldn't have anything to yell about (well maybe)! They really are good boys, but there are days where they are really trying.

Enjoy your day and stitch happy!

Indigo Rose Project Complete!

2008-04-04T11:22:00.000-07:00

I actually finished the Indigo Rose piece about a week ago. I'm not overwhelmed with my finishing job so I've been procrastinating about putting this up. Here are some pictures from the front, back, and the side. I put a picture of the piece opened on the last post although that was not my piece specifically. This was a frustrating piece to stitch due to Mr. Frog visiting me the entire time I was working it. I'm not sure why but my borders just never seemed to line up. I'm rather embarrassed to admit that as they are not that difficult. My only guess is that there was several different lengths on the vines and instead of counting each one on the pattern, I relied on the old memory. Of course, I can see that the old memory is now old and not as reliable as it had once been. My piece does not stand up as nicely as the class model did.

Front

Back

Side view - closed

We've been starting to see a bit of sun, so I've had a desire to clean my nest. The sun as well as the date for the church yard sale has inspired me to clean out closets etc. So, as a result I haven't gotten as much stitching done as I would like. I've put a night in on the Shepherd's Bush piece, but found that it doesn't excite me that much since it is no longer February. I'm planning on getting my fabric ironed and marked to start a LK SAL with my DSIL. I also want to start the Red Thread piece. Maybe since this coming week is Spring break, I can make some progress. I sure wish we were going somewhere warm, but we're not. So, I can make a good thing out of it by getting some larger pieces started.

Cheers

Indigo Rose Progress

2008-03-19T12:55:00.001-07:00

Sorry, it has been so long since my last post. When I've had a chance to stitch, I've worked on my project from camp. I ran out of Kelp and had to do quite a bit of frogging. As you can see the border on the cover is only half there. I ended up having to snip, pick, snip, pick to frog the rest of that border out. It was quite time consuming as well as frustrating. I didn't have enough floss so I couldn't get it replaced right away. Thankfully, yesterday I got new skeins of both Olive and Kelp so I can get started again. Tonight is DH birthday so most of my evening will probably be spent out with him. Heaven forbid, I ask to stay home and stitch instead of going out to dinner, LOL! I think he's going to pick BD's Mongolian BBQ, so I'm quite anxious to go. I'm imagining it already, so if he doesn't choose to go there I will be disappointed.

I'm sorry that this picture isn't more clear. I'll definitely get a better picture before I start the finishing. The fabbie will be ironed too! (I am iron challenged if you hadn't guessed). The small pocket will hold a tin for my needles. The larger one will hold a bone laying tool and my scissors.

The long piece you see is going to be the front and the back of the "book". Here is a picture of what it will look like once it is finished. I'm not a finishing guru, but I cannot wait to finish mine.

Now I just need to find some classes to go to . . .

Off to state we go!

2008-03-09T10:19:00.000-07:00

The OM team placed third yesterday and therefore on going on to state. While this is great for the kids, it does mean that I will have a little less time to stitch and a lot more housework and cleanup to do! ( I have a giant cheese grater living in the basement - complete with cheese that can easily be "shredded" with each performance!)

Last weekend I was at a stitcher's retreat and absolutely fell in love with the Bent Creek Red Thread piece. So, I did a bit of stashing and picked up the patterns and the linen for it. I intend on doing them together in a single piece. While at retreat I also took a class from Catherine Strickler of Indigo Rose. The piece she taught was Kate's necessarie. The piece is a needlework necessities book with pockets to hold your laying tool, scissors, and a little box for your needles. I can not wait to get this piece finished as it will be a great to only have to carry this one piece with all my supplies for class. I also picked up a large piece of linen and all of the current double flips. I intend on doing this as a single piece as well. Now I just need to find the time, LOL! My SIL got a Just Nan piece back from the framer that is just gorgeous. We round robined it for a special someone so will not be posting pictures until the gift is given.

I hope the sun is starting to show its face where you live. It is starting to show its face around here and is doing a lot to lift the winter time blahs. Enjoy your stitching!

Summer Nine Patch finish

2008-02-25T14:12:00.000-08:00

Life has gotten in the way of much stitching lately, but I have managed to finish the Summer Nine Patch. I'm doing a happy dance about the finish, but I need my next project to be on linen!! I generally prefer linen, but these little tuck pillows come with Aida so I generally use what comes with the kit. The palm kit came with Aida and I was so anxious to start it I went ahead and did it on the Aida instead of waiting to get out to my LNS and pick up the linen. I'm kicking myself now, because I have so much done I don't want to start over yet I'm loathe to pick it up at the moment because I don't enjoy the feel of the cloth. I picked up the Irish tabletopper by Dutch treat to work on. This has been in my WIP pile for about a year now. I like working on the table toppers and it seems appropriate for the upcoming season.
I'm getting excited as this weekend is the first SNT retreat weekend. I need to decide what to bring to work on. Although I want to get Palms done by June, I don't think I'll bring it. (See rant above if you're wondering why) I've gotten an older Shepherd's Bush pattern for February that I'm contemplating along with the Lizzie Kate double flip piece. Summer Nine Patch

Pine Mountain

Well life is calling so I'd better get back to it. Happy stitching!

A little progress

2008-02-12T12:44:00.001-08:00

Time has a way of escaping from me, so I'm not blogging as often as I'd hoped. So much for New Year's resolutions. I sure wish I could lose weight and gain time, LOL! I also have not been stitching as much as I would have liked. The OM team has a little less than a month to get all of their props done and polish their play so there has been many hours spent at my house. Ugh! On top of that I've been volunteered for a few things by my DH and they are taking up more time than I would like. Here's a picture of what I've been up to lately - picking away at the palm piece. I would really like to backstitch it as I go but I've found that I really need to put in the "wallpaper" around the window. So, you may not be able to see it because it really blends in with the background but here it is. I've been working a bit on Summer Nine patch as a small project to keep in my car. It is so small I haven't taken a picture and probably won't until I finish it.

It is snowing yet again. I sure hope it clears up by the weekend as my DSIL and I are planning a trip to the Rocking Horse in Detroit. They are having a framing sale and we are going to take the piece we made for a fiftieth wedding gift in. They do such a nice job on framing. We also are going to be able to take a look at what she brought back from Nashville - woo hoo!

Stay warm and enjoy your stitching ventures!

Ancient WIP Finished!

2008-02-02T16:27:00.000-08:00

I'm doing a happy dance tonight as I've finished an ancient WIP. I decided when doing the goals for the year that I'd get out those pieces that I put in the list, get them pressed and mounted in Qs so they would be easily accessible when the urge hit. I put down the Palm tree the other night because it is so large I don't feel like I'm making much progress. Time for a little instant gratification so I picked up this WIP that was almost done. The piece is Duality, a collabrative piece by Betsy Stinner and Sue Stehle. After teaching at one of the stitchers retreats one year, they decided to design a pattern together and presented it at camp the next year. This piece was fun to work on with the chunky texture motifs designed by Sue and the more intricate linen work designed by Betsy. I've been plodding along on the Palm and need to get an updated progress picture of it up, but I cannot say that I've been making real headway. I should be making more headway with the cabin fever that I have. I want Spring in a major way. The next best thing to a warm weather fix would be a stash run. I won't be able to go out tomorrow for the Super Bowl sale, but I can order from home and still get the discount. Enjoy the game, shoppping or whatever this weekend gives you.

Spring Complete

2008-01-20T11:43:00.000-08:00

The Spring Nine Patch is done and since it came with the tuck pillow, my finishing is complete! This was a fun stitch although it took a bit for me to stitch it as is designed. You see I am a symmetry freak and seeing the little borders outside some of the squares but not others really bothered me. I went ahead and stitched it as designed and I like it. I wouldn't have designed it that way, but I like it.
The weather is way cold here so I spent yesterday curled up on the couch with my stitching. I've been putting in the hours on Palms. I have been working it on those roller stretcher bars but have hated working on it for long periods of time because the frame hurts to hold it. I decided to play around with a few of my Q Snaps and Q Snap extenders and managed to make a frame to hold the Palm. Once I get beyond the tree and onto the bamboo looking stuff on the top and bottom I may have to consider other options. But at least for now my fabric is taut and my hand won't be hurting. My kitty will be much happier as well. You see he often sits next to my leg while I'm stitching. With the long stretcher bars, I usually ended up hitting him in the head when I went to bury a tail. I should post a picture of this soon.

First crafty finish of the year

2008-01-12T09:46:00.000-08:00

Well my first finish of the year turned out to be a crocheted scarf. I had picked up this kit which supposedly teaches you how to crochet, supports breast cancer, and makes a beautiful scarf. I obviously supported breast cancer and ended up with a scarf. I'm not real confident that I know how to crochet. I remember learning in home ec class eons ago and this was similar but I found the directions lacking. The scarf did turn out great although it has its flaws, which I won't point out BTW. I'm happy because I've had this kit for over 2 years and every time I pulled it out, I was frustrated because things weren't working well. So, I'd pull things out and put it away until the next time I felt inspired.
Back in the crazy month of December, I managed to finish Kisses from Heaven. I love the pattern although I couldn't get the wording to look right in the turquoise color that they suggested. After many frustrating evenings, I began to wonder if it was just the color or if the fabric was playing into my issue. I tried it with white and although it isn't as smooth looking as I would like it, it seemed to work and was readable. I think it would have looked better if it could have been done over 4 threads rather than 2, however, some of the letters would not really let me do that. I tried it in "mixed mode" but I wasn't happy with it. At any rate, I found some batik fabric that I think will look great with this. I plan on making it into a flat fold. I've even picked out the colors for the cording. This is opposed to the Shepherd's Bush nativity that I finished into a flatfold this past November that still doesn't have cording because I cannot find any colors that I'm happy with! Aaargh! Hopefully, I will get that one completed sometime soon.
Happy stitching!

Happy New Year

2008-01-02T17:22:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everybody! I apologize for not blogging recently. I've been quite busy Christmas shopping, preparing for guests over Christmas, preparing to take a mini vacation right after Christmas, have a sledding party and then have a New Year's Eve bash. Ugh, I'm glad it is all over - sorta. In a way there is such a big build up to Christmas and then it seems gone in a flash. It is a bit of a let down once every thing is all over. I spent the vast majority of today taking down the Christmas decorations. I haven't done stitching goals in the past, mainly because I didn't want to be "forced" into stitching on project X so it would be done by date Y. It seems to work for so many out in the blogosphere that I figured that I'd try it. If it starts to make stitching not fun, then I will can it. So, on to the goals for 2008
* stitch at least 12 pieces (I'm not real fast so this could be a challenge)
* finish the set of 3 ornies that were started before I was married
* finish up the Palms before June
* do at least one project for charity
* complete the finishing on at least 10 projects
* do the finishing for Wee Three Birdhouses!
I guess that is enough for now as I want to learn to knit and crochet and also to get my quilt quilted this year. I'll be posting a few pictures the next post.

More Pictures

2007-11-10T12:19:00.000-08:00

I decided that this little freebie was just too cute not to do. So after rummaging through my stash I found some lavendar fabric to do it on. I debated about adding a tassel to the bottom but the one that I made seemed too thick and overwhelming for the project. So, instead of putting one on which would not only detract from the piece but make the piece far more interesting to my kitties I opted not to include it. After putting my name and date on the back piece, I noticed that it was not on the diagonal like my pattern. I fiddled around trying to get the letters to look good on the diagonal and was not at all pleased, so I opted to keep them as they were.

I finally got a picture of the finished Be Scary from my mother. I finished it off as a flatfold with a tricolor cording. I'm really pleased with how it turned out. I'm sorry that I don't have a picture showing the backing fabric, but I had to wait a month to get this one, LOL. I'm now working on finishing a freebie pattern from Shepherd's Bush into a flatfold. It was the nativity pattern. Although the pattern was free, the buttons cost $18, yikes! I did this one on foglifter colored fabric. Although it looks nice with the pattern, I'm finding it difficult to pick a fabric to finish off the back. The Christmas reds and greens just didn't look right, so I've chosen a mottled gray fabric. The next little dilema is what colored cording to use. I found a black cording with some silver beading in it. I'm not quite sure though. I was wondering about maybe a bit of a charm up top but there is already the star and and angel made out of beads. I may just have to stick with a simple cording. I had originally intended to frame this with a creche shaped frame made from old barn wood. I haven't obtained any barnwood and I found that I really didn't have a lot of fabric on the bottom end, so I'm going with the flat fold idea. I'll post a picture when I get it done. Have a great weekend!

Quilt top done

2007-11-03T11:00:00.000-07:00

I was browsing through my stash looking for some lavendar fabric to do up that Halloween freebie and I found this ornament. It had all of the stitching done and just needed to be finished.
So, I pulled it out and got it finished off!

Although I haven't gotten much xstitching done, I have gotten inspired to finish off this quilt top that I started back in 2001. I'm a quilter wannabe and this is the first top that I've pieced. Now, I just need to figure out how to put the layers together and actually quilt the thing. The more I've read on machine quilting the more I realize that I don't know. I may end up just asking my neighbor for help. My next obstacle is finding fabric for the backing. I've been looking for some fabric to match the tea dyed muslin on front. So far, no such luck. I dread the thought of tea dying a piece large enough for the back.

Have a great day!

First pinkeep finish

2007-10-25T12:24:00.001-07:00

I promised myself that this year I would be better about doing the finishing of my cross stitch pieces. I recently finished this pinkeep. I'm not too sure that I like the bow, but it seemed unfinished looking without it. I had originally intended a bow with very thin ribbon with multiple ribbons - pink, white, and red. It just looked like a blob up there so I scratched that idea. Of course, I've never been known as a bow maker. If I had it to do over again, I'd leave a bit more room around the design. I'm sorry that these photos are coming out so fuzzy. I think the batteries in my camera must be running low. I'd really like to thank those wonderful ladies out in cyberspace who do tutorials on the finishing. Without them I'd be paralyzed by the fear that I might mess up my piece. With the security of a tutorial, I'm not afraid to try. Now the finishing may not come out great on some of these early pieces, but it should only get better with time. I'm now beginning to enjoy finishing rather than seeing it as a necessary evil.

Well, I'm off to get a bit of work in on a quilt that I started back in 2001. If I get this finished, it will be my first one! Well, I did a rag quilt a while back, but I really don't count that because there really isn't any quilting to it. Hopefully, my neighbor will be available to show me how to do the basting and the binding as I've never seen those done before.

Date Night or Fright Night?

2007-10-21T09:16:00.000-07:00

Well the other night my DH and I wanted to go out to eat. Due to the Zumba class, we only had an hour. Of course my dear sons didn't want to go. Instead they wanted to play football with the neighbors. I explained that that would mean that I would do a quickie pizza for them once we got home. They thought that was great; we should just go on and they would be fine. Well,
I get home and the first thing I find is two boys at home (football game didn't last real long, huh) with a pizza box on the counter. Note: They didn't ask if I would leave them home and let them cook without an adult present. I was a bit taken aback because these are the same boys that won't leave the couch to get themselves a bowl of ice cream, never mind cook anything. The first thing my youngest tells me is that Zumba is cancelled, then he asks if you are supposed to take the cardboard thing from underneath the pizza before it goes in the oven. A bit alarmed, I say yes and immediately head to the oven to see what I have in there. As I'm checking the youngest also asks if the plastic is supposed to come off as well. I gaze into the oven. The pizza is there without plastic or cardboard, and also without the pizza pan underneath. I tried to move it but it had gotten to the point where it wasn't frozen and didn't want to move very well.
I let it cook to completion and then went to clean up the oven. As I'm cleaning off the grates, I find plastic that had melted onto the grate. They apparently had decided that it wasn't a good idea to keep it on there when they saw it melting. I don't ever remember learning to cook to be this painful; of course, I cannot recall ever learning how to cook, lol! Now I will need to think twice when running out. They may be old enough to stay for short stints by themselves, but they are obviously old enough to get into even more interesting trouble.
To top off a night of laughs, I saw this little fellow along the side of the road on the way home. I don't think he scares many crows, but I bet he's brought many a smile to passers by.

The Palm

2007-10-18T13:11:00.000-07:00

My DSIL and I were scheduled to go to Camp Stitchalot a few weekends ago. Due to items of higher priority we had to back out. Since she had Friday off of work and since we didn't have other commitments for that day, we got together and had our own stitchy day. It wasn't a weekend, but hey it was a full day! She inspired me to get back to work on this WIP. I've made good progress and I'm now psyched for this piece again. (sorry about the fuzziness of the picture ) This pattern is across two different sheets of paper. It's hard to believe that I'm not even half way done on one of them.
My neighbor told me about this quilt shop the next town over. I went by and the owner is super nice. She even had bright red pins for my pinkeep! Now just to get started on the finishing. . . I'm feeling excited about quilting again and hopefully will sign up the next time she has a class. She had a class starting today, but I'm not sure my sewing machine is up to par. Unfortunately I hit a pin once and the head broke off. I've had it in for service once, but the machine still goes squirrelly on me now and again. I'm not a sewer so I'm not sure if this means the pin head is still in there or if this is some other issue.
I survived Zumba and it was a ball! I feel very uncoordinated doing it, but thats okay. It's just important that I keep moving. Hopefully, at the end of this class I will have lost a bit of weight.
I'm only asking for a pound - 10 would be nice, but I'm just asking for 1. Anything to get me off of this plateau that I'm currently on.
Well, I have to get dinner eaten before class. Happy stitching!

A squirrely piece just in time for Fall

2007-10-03T10:47:00.000-07:00

The knotwork piece by Teresa Layman Designs is complete - even the finishing, LOL! It actually wasn't hard and went fairly quickly. I'm not sure if I like how it is sitting in the piece though. It seems that when I center this based on the acorn, the squirrel seems to lean forward, and when I center on the squirrel the acorn and leaves look out of place. What do you think? At this point I haven't been able to find a position that I'm happy with.
My mom got Be Scary and I'm waiting on her to send me a picture of it so that I can post it. I cannot believe that I went and mailed it off without taking a picture. So much for having a clear mind after returning from retreat.
After listening to much nagging from DH when I complain about my weight, I've gone a signed up for a Zumba class. I've heard that this is a lot of fun. The class is filling up quickly so I hope that this is a good omen. I hate to give up an evening of stitching time, but dieting alone isn't working for me.
I picked up some fabric and ribbon to make the Chocolate Covered Cherries piece into a pin keep. I haven't been able to find any cute pins for around the edges. Can any of you ladies that regularly make pin keeps tell me where to find these? Once I get these, I'll be ready to go.

Another finish!

2007-09-28T11:16:00.000-07:00

Well, I got the finishing done on Be Scary and got it mailed off to my mom for her birthday. The bad news is that since I was out of town on Mon & Tues, I hurriedly packaged it up on Wednesday neglecting to take a picture of the finishing in the rush. Oh well, I'll ask her to get a picture of it and mail it to me once she receives it.

I finished Chocolate Covered Cherries on my way out of town Sunday afternoon. I've opted to leave out the confetti stitches, although I may end up adding them. I plan to finish this one into a pin keep. I threw a Teresa Layman design into my bag while packing for out of town. It is a cute little knot work piece with a squirrel and an acorn. In my haste, I neglected to pull the flosses, so I didn't have any stitching to work on. Since we were on Mackinac Island, there wasn't a local cross stitch store to run to. Oh well, it was nice just to relax. The knot work is turning out to be rather fun. I've had this kit for ages because it was so cute, but this is the first I've ever tried it. It seems to be finishing up quickly, so I should have a picture to post soon. Since I would go absolutely batty without something to do on the long drive home, I ended up hitting a bookstore and finding a new author. Her name is Cynthia Baxter and she writes a series about a vet with sleuthing tendencies. Hopefully, it will turn out to be enjoyable; I'll let you know. Enjoy the weekend!

A finish!

2007-09-19T10:43:00.000-07:00

Not a cross stitch finish, but a finishing finish. As you may have guessed, finishing isn't my thing! I followed the flatfold tutorial by Vonna. It was very easy to do although I cringe when I think of putting glue anywhere near my needlework. Another down side of glue is that it is a bit more difficult to rearrange in case the centering is off. I'm now in the midst of doing Be Scary the same way, however, I'm lacing rather than gluing. I'll post a picture once that is done. It is a gift for my mom's birthday (10/1) so I should have it up soon. I'm still working on the Chocolate Covered Cherries and will also post a pic of progress there. Hopefully, it will be done within the week. I think I'll do that one as a pinkeep.

Life's been a bit batty

2007-09-11T11:40:00.000-07:00

Life has been a bit hectic lately. As such, I've not gotten much done on the cross stitch front. I'm still working on Chocolate Covered Cherries. I'm almost done with it but I cannot get a picture at the moment because my DH decided to take my camera with him. Aaargh! I realized that October is nearly upon us - well for normal folks maybe not, but I work slowly. I've gotten Be Scary done for my mom's birthday, however, I still have not finished it. Since I've never done a flat fold before, I'm going to finish off Come in for a Bite as practice before doing the piece for my mom. My biggest issue is finding cute fabric. There just doesn't seem to be many fabbie stores where I live.
My DFIL won a pop up camper last week. They will not use it so they gave it to us! We need to drive into Lansing tomorrow to pick it up. Ah, no more sleeping on the hard ground, LOL. No more hanging the tent to dry out from a heavy dew. Of course, I still haven't had the hitch put on my car yet. I may end up just getting it at the RV dealer.
Soccer is in full swing. Both boys are enjoying their teams which is great to see. I head up to Traverse City this weekend with the oldest for a tournament. Hopefully, I can get some stitch time in between games. The company that makes the uniform socks has been bought out so new kids to the team, like my son, only have one pair. Boy is that pair going to be ripe before the end of the weekend. I've found some on the net but I cannot justify paying $20 for a pair of socks. I think I will definitely bring the Febreeze and perhaps a bit of Tide as well.
Hopefully, by tomorrow I will have made some progress on my finishing and will be able to post a picture.

BeScary and Life

2007-08-16T06:22:00.000-07:00

After way too much time, here is the picture of Be Scary by Just Nan. It isn't the best, but I here my boys coming downstairs. It is only a matter of time before they will be down here asking me to use my computer and then hovering around my shoulders until I relent. The owl charm has tilted a bit and normally lies straight up and down. You cannot really see the moon in the tree on the far left. I was having great difficulty getting the Kreinik to lie nicely, so I substituted in a Glissen Gloss fiber. I always think of the moon as more silvery than gold so I got a fiber that was part silver and part gold. I'm much happier with it although you really cannot see it in this post.

There is not anything new on the stitching front as I've been busy with the boys. We had a friend in from out of town last week, so I was chauffer and chaperone for their various outings. This week Joshua has a zoo camp, which shows him how a zoo actually operates. Since the camp is only 2.5 hours and it takes me 30 mins to get there, I just wait on him. There is a beautiful park nearby. I know this would be a great time to stitch, however, I'm one of those crazy Harry Potter fans. Once the fifth movie came out and my family did nothing but talk of things left out (things that did not occur to me BTW!) I decided to start reading the series from the beginning so that I will be able to tie everything together in the 7th book. So, here I am without any stitching to show, but I'm on the 5th book!

Back to the real world

2007-07-24T13:33:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm back from vacation and about caught up from it. It was wonderfully relaxing. The first week we were at family camp. We had a lot of non programmed time that I got some reading done. I didn't want to stitch because it was still camping and I didn't want to get the piece dirty. Although I'm afraid of hieghts, I did the high ropes course. I was shaking like a leaf (especially after I fell), but I made it all of the way through. I did scoot across the one line on my rear for a while. I was determined that if I got up there that I'd make it to the end so I could ride the zip line down, LOL! We had time at the water front each day, but I found it too cold to want to get in. Well, we went from family camp down to Tampa to see my sister, brother, and mother. That was hot, but so much fun. The first day we were out in the gulf a manatee came into the cove. We were able to pet it!!! What an awesome experience. There seemed to be an abundance of sea grass out in the gulf which was constantly getting in the impeller of the jet skis. This meant jumping into the water and going underneath and pulling it out. It's more fun when you don't have to do that. My sis and I were taking a little ride out in a real small boat to look for dolphins. We found them and got a bit carried away looking at them and ran out of gas in the channel. This was not a good thing because all boats need to use this channel to make sure they get through during low tide and we were in a tiny, tiny boat. We had one group of fellas fly by us trying to swamp us. Needless to say, we weren't impressed by their release of testosterone! Fortunately, we had a cell phone on us so we could call for help. Since we were in the channel, we could give an exact channel marker for pickup. My BIL came out on the jet ski to pick us up. As we were tying up to his ski, another boat came flying up the channel. My sister stood up with a bright orange kayak paddle and was trying to wave them off. In the meantime, my BIL starts to take off so we won't capsize. Well, a jet ski works by sucking in a bunch of water. Since my BIL wasn't holding on to the rope (since he was trying to take off quick) it got sucked up into the engine. We now had a jet ski and a very small john boat stuck in the channel. My BIL decides to jump in and see if he can get the rope unstuck. Unfortunately, he had his cell phone on his belt, LOL! We still had ours so we called my nephew to pick us up with the other jet ski. This was the jet ski that was behaving erratically due to a bad alternator (we think). It made it and ended up pulling us all home. In spite of all of the adventures, it was a good time! My youngest son got to fish a lot and was thrilled with the stuff he was catching.

Once home, I finished off this box for my DSIL. This was a belated birthday gift. I ended up using the Dragon Dreams Ruby dragon pattern. I didn't think there was enough contrast with the ruby, so I changed the dragon to blue. My SIL loves blues any way! I was able to give it to her this weekend when I met up with her to see Wicked. Now that was an awesome play! I have just finished up Be Scary and will post a picture in the next few days. Happy stitching!

On Holiday

2007-07-01T09:13:00.001-07:00

I am almost done with Be Scary!! A bit more work on band 1 and it will be complete except for the finishing. I plan on making it into a flat fold and giving it to my mum for her birthday. I've never done a flat fold before so wish me luck! I want to do this pattern again and keep it for myself. I have a few more in the pile that are calling to me so it probably won't be this year. I had a hard time with the moon on this one as the pattern called for some of the Kreinik braid and I just couldn't seem to get it to lay down straight. I mentioned this to Deb at Stiches and Things and she hooked me up with some of the Glissen Gloss fibers. I ended up using one strand of gold and one of silver. This and a bit of Thread Heaven and I'm much happier with it. I think of the moon as being more silvery than gold so the mixing of the fibers helped me feel better too.

Have y'all seen the variety of tins that are really out there? I went into my LNS the other day and she had some Whitmans tins that were long and slender yet still wide enough to put a pair of scissors in. This was exciting to me because my current tin does not hold my scissors. I was hoping that it would be big enough for my boo boo stick but it wasn't. Ugh! I'm debating on picking this up as I would like one that would also hold the Boo Boo stick. Now that I now there are a variety of tins out there, I may do a web search and see if I can find that oh so perfect tin. I figure I don't need a pattern especially made for a tin but can take bits and pieces from the variety of patterns that I currently have.

I've also been working on a special piece, but I cannot post a picture until the recipient receives it. It was a fun and quick stitch.

I'm leaving today on holiday and won't be back for two weeks. I'm looking forward to some down time that I can stitch!. I'll be bringing Be Scary, Chocolate Covered Cherries, and a baby bib that needs to be done by the 13th. No pressure as the recipient does not know I'm working on it, LOL! Have a great 4th everyone and I'll post my finishes when I get back!

Happy Summer!

2007-06-10T18:44:00.000-07:00

Hi Yall! First off, I want to say that I know that I've been very negligent in not only posting to my blog, but in reading others. When the weather is nice, the last thing I want to do is sit at a computer. I was determined that this year I'd have a garden so I had to build one first. I think I've gotten it done and hopefully rabbit proofed (if there is such a thing, LOL) I love to be outside but the Michigan pollens got to me and I ended up going in to the doc to see if I could get on some sort of allergy meds. Thankfully, they seem to be kicking in and working. So, on to the pictures of things that I've been working on (even if it hasn't been much)

First off is Be Scary. Egad, I've got to start getting better pictures! This little one only lacks 3 bands and it will be done. I plan to finish this off as a flat fold. BTW, does anybody have good directions for doing a flat-fold. Overall, I'm fairly pleased with how this is turning out although the next one will be on an evenweave. I plan on making another as I want one and my mom is nuts about Halloween, so I figured I'd make one for her birthday. Conveniently enough, this isn't until October 1. This pattern calls for a full moon between these tree branches, however, it calls for it in a metallic. I started to put it in, but frogged it because I didn't care for the look. Any suggestions on a replacement fiber?

This is the Faith pattern by Erica Michaels. I've had the stitching done for a while, however, I was working on painting the frame and getting the piece blocked up. I was really worried about this piece as the directions indicate that the model had the punch needle attached through the foam core so it wouldn't shift during framing, lacing etc. I figured that I couldn't get it attached great going through foam core so I appliqued it on before lacing it to the foam core. I didn't seem to have any issues. Now the piece is happily hanging in my mud room.

This last piece is the palm piece that I was working on for my bathroom. Unfortunately, it has been a while since I've picked this up. I will get back to it though! It will be next after I finish up Be Scary and before I start to do the finishing on Be Scary. Since finishing isn't my thing I might just hold off until there is a good framing sale going on.

This weekend my DSIL and I will be heading to the Rocking Horse and to Stitches N Things. It's a long road trip, but I can spend hours in the shops and still not take in all of the models. The Rocking Horse had such a unique and elegant way of framing pieces, I may take one of my extra special pieces in and let them do. (Not sure which one that would be at the moment, but if I peruse my stash I'm sure that I could find it! )

Enjoy your summer vacation!

Happy Easter!

2007-04-09T10:53:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone had a great Easter! We had a cookout even though it was snowing. I'm sure glad that DH does the cooking when it is on the grill, LOL! I was able to sit and stitch and visit with my DSIL. It was a relaxing nice day.

On Saturday my SIL and I went to Stitches N Things in Davison as she will be moving her shop at the end of the month to a much smaller space. It was kind of sad to see the walls starting to be stripped bare. Ever on the hunt for another cross stitch shop, my SIL heard about The Rocking Horse in Detroit. OMG, I thought I died and went to heaven. That shop was so filled with models, I'll need another trip just to see them all. I'd seen a lot of them before,but what made these so unique was the fantastic framing and finishing jobs on them!! My SIL and I were saying 'Wow' the entire drive home. I'm still in awe. So, if you are ever in the area, I highly recommend stopping by.

Here's a picture of my progress on the Palm tree. It doesn't show very well, but the entire background is filled in with a half-cross. I'm not even a quarter of the way done which is disappointing, but I am pleased with the progress I've made this weekend. I really want to start a Spring piece that I'd found on our Saturday stash run, but I'm trying to be good and finish at least one of my WIPs before starting something new.

Well, Monday is for grocery shopping, laundry, and other mundania so I have to run.

A finishing finish!!

2007-04-02T19:08:00.000-07:00

Well I made a scarecrow that I'd finished ages ago into a standup. I made several mistakes along the way but it looks okay for me. My cording is a bit thin but after having my kitties help me as much as they did I'm lucky I got any cording at all. From the back my standup looks a bit lumpy too. Any suggestions on how to avoid this? I know there is a finishing book out on weighted standups, but I just cannot part with that much money.

A few folks have asked about the site which does the celtic lettering. Here it is -

http://www.celticxstitch.ie/cgi-bin/stitches.cgi

I haven't done anything else on the stitching front. I got my frame for Faith so now I need to figure out what color to paint or stain it. I got a great deal on the frame from Framing For Yourself. http://www.framing4yourself.com/picture-frames/index.htm

As you've probably figured, I'm trying to hone my skills as a finisher for my projects. This will be a great savings and should be fun. My biggest issue to date is I've been afraid to try things as I don't want to ruin a piece that I spent so my time on. So, if I have a piece that I've spent years on and I don't feel my finishing is up to par, I'll wait for the Michael's 40% off coupons and take it in, but otherwise, my goal is to start doing some of my own finishing. I know I want to finish off Be Scary in a flat fold. I've seen some directions for this on line. I'm so much more c0mfortable with directions!!! Hopefully, next post I'll have some pictures of stitching. I sure want to get some of my current WIPS done, like the Palm. TTFN!

A finish!!

2007-03-28T10:27:00.000-07:00

I have a finish or two actually! I finished the bookmark below for a girl in my son's youth group. Her birthday was celebrated last weekend, but Zac couldn't attend. It is on ribband fabric using Water Lilies eggplant fibers. I found a site on line that would generate a pattern in a celtic type font. This went so quickly I might just have to do a few more of these!
My other finish is Erica Michaels Faith. It is faith in punch needle and the rest of the saying in cross stitch. I've ordered the frame and will applique the punch needle on once I get the stitched background on the foam core. This is the way that the finisher for the sample piece did it. I would love to applique it on before lacing it up for framing, but have been told that it will move and not look right. So, I'll try to applique through the foam core, but this seems like it may be an effort in itself. I'll let you know how it goes once I get there. I'll repost a picture once I get it framed.

We've been having gorgeous weather lately so I haven't done much stitching. I plan on rotating off of the table topper and putting a bit more time into the palm tree.

I saw Cherish the Ladies with the Grand Rapids symphony this past weekend. It was great although I was a bit disappointed that the women seemed to be overwhelmed by the orchestra at times. I had seem them in concert without an orchestra down in Ohio. They are really talented musicians. Don't get me wrong the symphony was great and added a lot.

Looking forward to Spring!

Another WIP!

2007-03-12T16:22:00.000-07:00

Well, I've started yet another project - the Irish table topper by Dutch Treat. I'm usually much more disciplined on getting projects completed before starting another. I'm going to have to make a list of WIPs so I can see how many things I have outstanding. This will hopefully motivate me to finish some up before starting another. You see I **had** to start the table topper as this past weekend was regional competition for Odyssey of the Mind. There were many hours just sitting and waiting on my son. The light wasn't the best so I needed a project that didn't require too much good light and eye sight, LOL. The kids ended up in fourth place so they will not be going on to state. They were seven disappointed little kiddos. They did get an OMer award because they ended up having to rework the set because it wouldn't fit through the doorway. I've promised to make a DVD of the performance for the kids before their party so that has been keeping me from stitching. Next time, I'll post some pictures.

Back to the real world

2007-03-07T10:32:00.000-08:00

Well, it is back to the real world after spending the weekend at Camp Stitchalot. I managed to get a lot of stitching done at camp and decided to rotate projects rather than work on one thing the entire weekend. So, I got a bit done on the palm tree, Be Scary by Just Nan, and another piece by Lesa Steele Designs. I took a great finishing class by Charlotte Dudney. Now I'm anxious to do some finishing on that pile of pieces that I have!! I picked up some punch needle patterns and a pattern for a pendant which is all colonial and french knots. I'm wondering if the knots will drive me nuts, but the piece was so cute I figured I had at least give it a try.
I also did a cute little Kiss Me pillow that they hand out to the family members of soldiers being shipped off to war.

I've been doing a fair amount of fighting with my computer this past week and I think I finally have things straightened out now. Of course, I just got the battery backup replacement in the mail today. I think I'll hold off on installing it as I've already spent too many hours today messing with the computer.

Off to work on cleaning up a bedroom to make a craft room!

Palms, blizzards and humidity

2007-02-08T11:43:00.000-08:00

I've been able to sneak in a bit of stitching here and there and have made good headway on the palm tree. When I look at how much of the pattern is left, it looks like I barely have done anything. I think that when it comes to filling in the background this project may be in danger of becoming a UFO. Hopefully, I can convince myself to do a little along the way to not have it be such a burden. This is supposed to be fun after all!! I still haven't started my badge for Camp Stitchalot. I've put down some design ideas on paper, but haven't lifted a needle yet. Every year I swear that I'm going to do a generic one that I can take with me every year in case time is tight before camp.
On the home front, I've posted a picture of the San Simeon structure that he's been working on for school. It turned out very well. It would have been neat to build all of the little gargoyles etc, but he only had a month or so. Now he's on to working on his wild boar costume for a play that he's in. I taught him how to hand dye fabric and tie quilters knots so he could use those in the creation of the boar.

Boy, I never thought that I'd miss the humidity from GA! The air is so dry in my house that we have constantly been shocking things. Yesterday morning, my husband told me that my hair made me look like a medusa because strands were standing on end. Luckily, I didn't take it personally and he redeemed himself by hooking up a humidifier this morning. We'll see how long it takes for the humidifier to kick in and start making things a little less shocking!

Well, the news on my brother is not good. The surgeon will be opening him up today and removing the titanium plates. Hopefully, then the staph infection can clear. Once it is under control, they plan on another surgery to replace those plates with a titanium rod.

New scale baby and stitching weekend

2007-02-03T17:18:00.000-08:00

We are under a blizzard warning right now and boy has it been blowing today. Of course, my two boys have enjoyed it immensly! They've built a snow fort out of the debris left behind by the snow plow. They have a tunnel going through it and everything. They are excitedly telling me of all the other things they want to do to it. I've tried to warn them that the next time the snow plow comes through, the front of the fort may not quite be as sculpted as they have it now.
Last weekend, Josh convinced me that Savannah needed a friend. PetCo had new hatchling geckos for sale so he wanted one. After a bit of research, we concluded that if we got a new friend for Savannah that we'd have to keep them separate until it got a bit bigger. We picked up this little critter and decided to call her Georgia. We don't know that it is a girl yet since it is too young to tell. Josh reserves the right to change the name if necessary, LOL! I'm hoping that she will retain some of her beautiful coloring once she gets older. Of course, my kitties, Mr. Black and Gracie are quite fascinated by her. Of course, the crickets hoping around during feeding time are quite captivating as well.

Last weekend, I went down to Lansing and had a stitch in with my DSIL. I got quite a bit done on the palm tree although I haven't gotten any new photos yet. Boy, to have the luxury of doing that every weekend would be nice! Today would have been a good day to hunker down inside and stitch. Instead, I was helping my son with a project for school. He has to build a significant western hemisphere structure. He chose San Simeon (Hearst castle). You would not believe all of the detail. He's been working on this a little over a month and a half. It's due next week and there is still so many windows and doors to put on it. I think it is looking great though. I'll post a picture once he gets it done.
I just found out that my brother is in the hospital again. He had a work accident and got a spiral fracture of his leg. He ended up with two metal plates in his leg and a prognosis of about 6 months of rehab. Last night he was rushed to ER because there is some sort of infection in the leg. (cellulitis) They are keeping him and I don't see him being released until at least Monday as the wound care specialist does not work on weekends. He is not a happy camper at the moment and is full of anxiety of what is going to happen.
Well, time to get the young 'uns ready for bed. Stay warm!

Palms amidst the tundra

2007-01-23T17:28:00.000-08:00

Well, it feels a bit strange to be sitting out here in the tundra stitching palm trees. Oh well, warm thoughts to keep the chill illicited from those winds at bay. I have to say that I've made fantastic progress on this ( at least for me). The last time I did a piece this size it took me about 7 years. Of course that was TW's castle and I was doing it for my DH. Lately, my hands have been cramping up and my fingers feeling rather arthritic once I'm done. I'll probably try putting this piece on my frame to stitch tonight. Then I need to start planning my badge for camp stitchalot.

I finally have finished painting the frames for my ceramic photos for the mud room. They turned out pretty cute and were a lot less expensive that art. I just need to get a good family photo now for both Spring and Fall.

The pet store has leopard geckos on sale. My son is convinced that Savannah needs some company. I called the store and they told me that since she is now 6 inches and the ones for sale are babies that they would not make a good mix. So, my son is terribly disappointed. On the bright side, he just lost a tooth! I barely touched it and it came out in my hand. Now, the senile old tooth fairy needs to do her duty or there will be more disappointment in the morning! LOL

Snow and palm trees

2007-01-19T16:29:00.000-08:00

Well, we've had snow on the ground for a week and I'm already stir crazy. It's been a busy week so it was Tuesday before the boys finally got to try out those sleds they got for Christmas. Watching them "sled" is somewhat comical. I think they spend more time trying to pull each other off their sled or jumping off onto one another than they really do sledding. It reminds me of watching little lion cubs play. Of course, for the lion there is some real learning that is taking place. Maybe there is some primal instinct in man to wrestle! It seems to be the favorite activity of my two.

I've gotten a good bit done on my palm tree piece. Next update, I will take a picture. This is a dense stitch, but a lot of the background is half cross. I hate doing those with 4 strands of floss because I don't feel it lays as nicely. We'll see as I get more done.

I got my pictures from ImageSnap yesterday. I went to Michael's today and found some simple wood frames for $1 each. I will spray paint these and then adhere the ceramic tiles to them.
Lo and behold, I'll have art for the mud room without spending a fortune! I went ahead and bought 4 frames since my plan is to have a picture of the family for each season. I've gotten
summer and winter done, but will probably have to wait to get Spring and Fall since I haven't found any older photos that I care for. I'll put up a picture of these too once I have the frame painted and the ceramic attached.

Stay warm and stitch happy!

My next project or two. . .

2007-01-12T11:16:00.000-08:00

Well, I started on this pattern last night. My bathroom is all palm trees and I plan on hanging this little beauty over my tub. It would be nice if I ever found the time to sit and soak in my tub, but at least when I finally do I'll have something nice to look at ! 8P This kit came with aida. I'm normally not a fan of aida cloth, but I figured that I'd give it a go. I'll post pictures as I progress. This is a large chart, so no telling how long this will take me to really do. The hummingbirds and flowers is still a WIP, but at the moment this one is calling to me.

Well, the mudroom is now complete, except for the decorations. I had planned to take some family photos and put them on some ceramic tile to hang in there. I saw this on HGTV and it looked easy. Of course, I've called all over and cannot find a print shop that will do a color laser copy on photo transfer paper. What one woman told me is that they found the copier runs so hot that photo transfer paper sticks and then they end up needing to get their copier serviced. Unfortunately, the inks for my copier are not water soluble so I cannot really use my own. So, after a day of researching the process, suppliers, etc, I ended up just ordering one from Image Snap. They use smooth tiles which wasn't the exact look I was going for, but I'm tired of chasing around. I figure the room could use a little curtain on the window, so I suppose I'm not really done, but at least it's functional.

Biscornu finished!!

2007-01-05T14:06:00.000-08:00

Ever since my SIL showed me a picture of these little pincushions, I've been dying to do one. So, I dropped my current project and started on this. It was real fun to do although the pattern was off so it caused me to do some frogging. If you ever start one, make sure that the pattern is really square!! I also found that my variegated thread got close to white at some points and I had a difficult time seeing to sew the two sides together. Of course, I'm getting old so that could be the real issue here.

DH started removing some of the molding in the mudroom and taking measurements for the bench that we plan on putting in. Maybe he will start some actual building tomorrow. I sure hope so as I really want a place for the kids to hang their coats. I'm going nuts with them just throwing them in the bottom of the closet because they cannot reach the hooks. Well, I had better go and start dinner.

Biscornus and mud rooms

2007-01-03T17:04:00.000-08:00

My dear SIL sent me a link to a biscornu and boy I had an unbelievable desire to try one of these for myself. I've gotten the front and back done, but I haven't gotten it together yet. I tried the other night but things were not lining up correctly. So, I have to frog. . . I'll probably start on that tonight. Since I've seen these little pincushions, I've had to put down the hummingbirds and flowers so no work has been done there.

I finally have the ugly wallpaper taken off the walls of the mudroom. I've got it painted too!! I now just have to wait until my DH has time to build the cubbies, hooks for the jackets, and bench. So, I can now reclaim my bathroom and move my cat litter. This puts me in such a good mood that I won't mind the frogging that I'll have to do tonight.

Well, I'm off to stitch

Reflection on the past quarter

2006-12-28T17:07:00.000-08:00

Well, it is now been several months since I've posted. My how time flies. We moved to Michigan in the midst of a snowstorm on October 12th. I was assured by the natives that this was not normal. Considering, there was no snow for Christmas I'm inclined to believe them. I guess the man upstairs figured that I needed a little additional excitement thrown into the mix. . . or maybe it was for my boys, who thoroughly enjoyed it I might add. Once we unloaded the truck, I unpacked the majority of the stuff. Pictures and all the stuff from our old basement were packed into a corner of the basement here. A contractor was hired and renovation on the basement begun! We opted to have me do some of the work to save on expenses. I tell you those little projects aren't as much fun when you have to do them in X days because the next contractor is due and your part must be finished. Several of my projects went back to the contractors just because I couldn't meet the timing deadlines. The carpet and final inspection was on Dec. 18th. We are done before Christmas. Well, almost. . . The washer/dryer have been moved down to their new place, the pinball machine is in place, and the dart board up. We need to install a large counter top for the computers. Once we get that in, I can move the computers and set up a proper office. Then reclaim the bedroom - for a stiching room! Can you believe it, a whole bedroom for crafts and stitchy stuff!! Now that the washer/dryer are in a more reasonably sized area, I can claim their old location for a mud room. As I found when we actually did have snow, a mudroom is real practical up here. So , I guess the short version of all this is that I haven't stitched much, nor have I looked into a school to begin a career change.

Here is a little bit of what I did get done in the last 3 months -

* The Groundhog by Bent Creek. I did this for my mom for Christmas. She is the only person that I know that sends Ground Hog cards and personally stands behind her regional ground hog. This little guy is cute so I did one for myself as well.

* Finished the Bleu de Chine pattern. I plan to finish this off as a pillow. Of course, I now no longer have a nautical room in the house. At this point an addition is out of the question, LOL!

* On Christmas Day I finished The Nativity by Shepherds Bush. This was a freebie pattern tha t I thought was cute. I plan on finishing this with some barn wood shaped into a manger.

I've been tagged by StitcherW, so I need to go contemplate 6 weird things about myself. Actually, it will be difficult to pare the list down to 6! LOL Hopefully, it will not be this long before I post again.

Chaos amidst moving

2006-09-28T11:22:00.000-07:00

Well we will be moving to Michigan. Now I need to pack up the house and get ready for the loaders on the 10th. Bexley is a special place that I will miss. With all of the meetings, notarizations etc. that need to go on when one wants to move I've had little free time for stitching. I decided today to go ahead and take pictures of 2 of my WIPS since I've been promising to put them up for a while. The Faith piece by Erica Michaels will have the punch needle piece appliqued onto the cross stitch background. It should look neat when finished as long as I can get it framed okay. The Bleu de Chine piece is almost done as well. I don't anticipate being able to work on either of these before the 13th. Sigh!! I would certainly like to stitch much more than pack boxes or clean up the now exposed dust bunnies. Aaah normalcy! It may be boring, but I'd trade it for the chaos I'm living in now!!

Are we moving yet?

2006-09-18T08:12:00.000-07:00

Well this was a whirlwind weekend looking at houses. We actually made an offer on one with the contingency that Scott gets the job. The congregation is supposed to vote next Sunday. If everything is positive, he will start October 15. We plan on trying to close on Oct 2 and get moved up to MI the week of the 8th. Boy do I have a lot of work to do in getting things packed and ready to go!! The long ride allowed me to finish up To the Nines. The Evanovich books are such a quick funny read!! I got more done on the Bleu de Chine heart.
I'm having a hard time getting started into the routine this morning. It's gotta be Monday!

Savannah smiles

2006-09-14T08:23:00.000-07:00

The week started out rather somber with all of the rememberances of Sept. 11. That is another incident that I will always remember where I was when I was told. I remember the early reports were that it was a small plane. At any rate, life goes on . . .
I've tried to make some dedicated time each day to stitch a bit. I've been working on the cross stitch portion of Erica Michael's "Faith". I really need good light to do the over 1 stuff so I need time during the day with natural day light. I'll post a picture soon. I'm about half done.
Josh had a breakdown over the fact that we're going to move. Both boys have been asking for another pet and I always told them it would be after we move. To help ease the pain, I went ahead and let them get a leopard gecko early. This really is more the preference of my younger son as the older one wanted a dog. Savannah has been a good distraction from the stresses that we might be leaving soon. I've even found myself in there "petting" her. I went out and got a cricket keeper with cricket food/water gel so that we don't have to go to the store so often. On the one hand there is a lot of setup to maintaining a gecko, but day to day there really isn't much that has to be done. The cage cleaning is so simple. It sure ranks much higher on the chore list than cleaning the cat litter!!

Well the guy is here to give an estimate on moving costs so I'll sign off.

My first blog

2006-09-10T20:38:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my wacky world. It's been one chaotic day as my kids had 6 friends over for a block party. I ate too much but enjoyed myself none the less. The food was good, the company fantastic, and the mess all outside! I'll be experimenting with this in the next few days to see what I can do.