The Rock is ready

Yes, The Rock is ready for the Super Bowl. And did you know that he's a Steeler fan?

Seriously. He is. Just look into his eyes.

Genius Time!**

I took the advice of my very very ingenious friends here (Valerie and AnnaVS), and turned the plaid fabric at an angle, instead of trying to square everything up. I decided to forgo the twisted cording, too. It was too much to look at. And as I was working and cutting and gluing, I realized that the entire thing was pretty darn close to 8X10, so I decided to put it in a simple wood frame, rather than create an easel. And I'm super happy with the results!


Such a week! Horrible weather. Or as Dave would say: "A cocktail of winter misery". A court hearing yesterday for a complaint that I filed against a customer for giving us a bad check. Wow, now that's fun. And today the sun is out, but if you step out my front door, the wind will blow the hair off your head.

Ah, but here's a bright spot! This came from Barb, who has a new-ish blog called Stitching Again.

I am to list 5 of my addictions and then pass this award on to 5 other bloggers.

My addictions, in no particular order:
1. Good coffee. I'm a disaster if I don't have my two cups a day.
2. Wine, but in a good way! I wouldn't die without it, but I do love a glass of wine several times a week.
3. Hello? Stitching.
4. The Internet. Mostly blog reading, but I goof around a lot more than I should when I need to be doing something else.
5. Running. Even if I'm not doing it, I'm thinking about it.

Now, all of you have blogs that I think are just fabulous, so please play along if you'd like.

***Back in the early 90's, this house was Thomas the Tank Engine Fan Central. Does anyone remember the older show with Ringo Starr as Mr. Conductor? And there was a character called Schemer, who always said,"Genius Time!" whenever he had a hairbrained idea. (I loved Schemer...)

Done but not finished

I think only another stitcher would understand that title!

I've finished the stitching on the Irish House Blessing, and I'm showing it to you now when it's almost completely finished. In other words, I have most of the materials to finish-finish it, but not quite. So here is a "not quite finished" photo.I did decide to add something under "the fire". The original chart had that area blank, but my eye kept wandering there and feeling like it was missing something. So I did a little bargello stitching. You can't see it in the photo, but the uppermost row is white.

I'm thinking I'll finish it as an easel, and I love that plaid fabric, but I also know that it won't be very easy to work with. The design is kind of primitive, which gives me a little forgiveness if everything isn't completely straight, but the plaid may make it scream CROOKED!

It was a busy weekend. Saturday Dave got it into his head to rearrange the bedroom, and it turned into a big project. On Sunday Colleen and I left for one of her overnight college visits. It was an overnight that lasted till Monday, and we arrived home again Monday evening. She stayed in the dorms, and I stayed at a local B&B. Those visits are fun, but exhausting, too.

Yikes - another week of terrible weather. C'mon Springtime!

Now that I've turned 50, I'm being a good patient

Suddenly I'm faced with all of these "recommended" medical exams. This week I've been to the dermatologist for my yearly once-over, and he found an unusual spot on my back. So he took a sample and told me to keep it clean and use an antibiotic ointment and bandage. Except it's in the dead center of my back, so unless there's someone home when I come out of the shower, I'm S.O.L.

And because I was such a conscientious patient, I thought I should buy myself a scroll frame and since JoAnn's was just down the road, I stopped in and bought a very inexpensive frame to try out.**

Two days later I visited my gynecologist, who I absolutely adore. I wish my family doctor was half as wonderful. So I had that yearly exam, got my prescriptions renewed, and zipped down the road for my mammogram. And since I was behaving like such an adult, I rewarded myself with a little side trip to a new-to-me shop, called Needle Point Breeze. It's a small needlepoint store in a part of Pittsburgh called Point Breeze, and I only just found it while I was fooling around online. I could not believe how close it was to my doctor's office. They had a really nice selection of threads, and a big basket of discontinued and therefore discounted Needle Necessities threads, so I treated myself to a few threads that were yelling "Buy me. You know you want me. You know you'll use me. Just buy me!"
I wish I had had a specific project in mind, because I could have bought much, much more. But my mind went totally blank as I went from rack to rack. Next time I'll be more focused. Right. Also right handy there is a pharmacy called Schillers Cosmetique and Pharmacy and they have the greatest selection of soaps and creams and other wonderful things. Including this most fabulous hand cream.

So anyway, I think I rewarded myself nicely. And just wait till you see what I buy myself after my recommended colonoscopy...

I'm almost finished with the Sampler Girl freebie. There's just the simple border to stitch, but I'm thinking that I need something in the space under "the fire". Hm. This needs more thought.

**Thanks to everyone who has advised me and written about their scroll frame preferences. I'm leaning towards a lap frame holder with a universal type clamp, but I want to give this cheapy frame a try first. There are some real beauties out there!

2.4

That was my weight loss for my first week back to Weight Watchers. I'm cautiously happy...I know from past experiences that the first week back always shows a bigger loss than subsequent weeks. But it's a loss and I'll take it! I feel very lucky, what with having Meat Week suddenly thrown in there, and after our party Sunday night with lots of goodies and Sangria. We had 16 for dinner, and I still have pork leftover!

How about those Steelers?! So now we're all looking forward to the Super Bowl and more parties and carrying on. Even if you're not a football fan, you have to love the parties!

Friends, I've been a total slug and have hardly stitched anything for the past 5 days. Will I ever finish anything? Somebody kick me.

But before I end this lame-o post, could any of you give me advice about buying scroll rods? I've come into a little extra money (sold some antique candy molds on ebay), and I'm thinking about scroll rods for my larger samplers. It's so difficult to decide without having the actual product in front of me to try it and see if it's comfortable. And advice will be appreciated. And read again - and again - and again, as I try to make up my mind.

Seriously - this money is burning a hole in my pocket. So help a girl out?

I love this little design

As you can see, I've recharged the batteries. Now I'm going to find an impenetrable hiding place for my camera...


I've had fun with this round of Interview Me, courtesy of Anna. She's asked some good questions, don't you think? So I've answered, and if you want to play, leave a comment and your email address and I'll send you my five questions. Other rules are listed below. And now I must go think of 5 questions...

1. The local news media shows up on your doorstep. It turns out your neighbor is a serial killer. You cannot say, "He was so quiet. This is such a shock. This kind of thing doesn't happen here." What do you say? (You can choose the neighbor.) That's an interesting question, considering that we've just finished watching Season 1 and 2 of "Dexter", who struggles mightily to appear normal. Honestly, I've always believed that you can never exactly know what goes on behind closed doors...but if it's the neighbor to my right, well, I guess I'd say I was not surprised. They are very reclusive. They have "improved" their home with 100% scavenged and stolen materials. He doesn't work and she doesn't drive. When I say hello to them on the road, they almost jump out of their skins. Most of the time, we find them vaguely amusing, but really - they are very odd.

2. What's the greatest invention created in your lifetime? Without a doubt, I think it's the small, affordable home computer. It totally changed my life, and the Internet was just an added bonus.

3. What was your best job? My best job was being a stay-at-home mom after Colleen was born. Nobody paid me, but the rewards were priceless. It was a great gig for 14 years, and I'd do it all again in a heartbeat.

4. Over the next 18 months, we're all likely going to have to cut back. Where will you make these cuts? What luxury will fight to save? Will you actually come to blows? (That last one is a joke.) This is particularly painful for me, because not only are my IRA savings disappearing, but I'll be getting two college tuition bills this fall. I've faithfully saved for college over the years, but let's face it...unless you're pretty darn wealthy, there's always a shortfall. Back when gas was crazy expensive, I was driving much less and I'm still thinking hard about my car trips. I've been working at keeping a frugal kitchen, so I've been using up leftovers like nobodies business. Eating out less. And we've cancelled one vacation. I'd fight to keep my stitching and sewing shopping, but I know it wouldn't come to that. I'm not insane when it comes to buying stash, and I work hard and contribute all of my money towards our savings (college and retirement), so if I budget $25 or $30 a month towards fabric, floss, and designs, it's no big deal to any of us.

5. Are you a good speller? I'm the most dangerous kind of speller - The type who thinks she's a good speller, but really isn't that great, so I convince other people that I'm right, thereby spreading my bad spelling throughout the land.

The Rules:
1. If you want to participate, leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.” (And your e-mail address if I don't already have it, please.)
2. I will respond by e-mailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Wish I had more

Well, I had hoped to have more progress pictures to show you, except that a certain husband, (you know, the stereo equipment fellow), used my camera to take and upload pictures of - guess what - his stereo equipment, and as usual when he had finished uploading the pictures he left the camera plugged into the computer and turned on, so my batteries are dead.

I forgot to mention that the audio-mania involved selling as well as buying stuff. So we must take pictures at all times.

Sigh. Why can't he be perfect, like me?

It's a good thing that he took me to a marvelous concert last night, so I was still in a pretty good mood and able to forgive him. We saw Bruce Hornsby and Ricky Skaggs in concert at WVU and they were fantastic. Serious musical genius. Bruce Hornsby revisited several of his older songs, but completely reworked them as bluegrass and it was magical. Ricky Skaggs revisited some of his music as jazz. There was a surprise around every corner, and it made for a great evening of music. If you're a fan of either or both musicians and they are performing near you, GO!

And now I have to go. I'm getting ready for the Meat Bonanza AFC Championship party, and I'm making penalty flags and challenge flags. Nobody cares if I clean the bathroom, but we can't be without our props. Or at least that's what I'm telling myself.

Near Catastrophe

For the past few years, Dave has renewed his interest in anything audio. He's been fooling around with old and used speakers, receivers, amplifiers, and he's accumulated quite a collection. So just before Christmas, he decided that our partially finished basement was going to become his audio room, and last weekend he finally had some time off, so he hauled all of that stuff down there.

He had a fun weekend testing things and some pretty crazy sounds were coming out of that basement, but what the heck, it's all in good fun, right?

Except that my house is old, and like most houses in this neighborhood, it was built as a summer home, so there are many things that it's short on. Insulation is one thing, and the other? Electrical outlets.

So, in order to make his stuff work, Dave had to unplug a few things.

One of them was my upright freezer.

Last night he went down to the freezer to get a loaf of bread, and discovered that he had never plugged it back in. We threw away a lot of non-rescue-able things, but most of the meats were only partially defrosted. Two turkeys. A gigantic pork loin, loads of chops, some steaks, and about a half dozen whole chicken breasts.

Can you guess what I'll be doing all day?

I'll be cooking like a mad woman, and I should be able to save lots of it for our football party this Sunday. But would anyone like to come to dinner tonight? We'll be having meat. Not much else. Just meat.

Irish house blessing

Here's my progress from the weekend:

I had a completely unremarkable Friday and Saturday. I cooked John's favorite meal on Saturday night. Well, one of his favorites, anyway - - - Swedish meatballs over rice. Now that he's in his second year of college, he seems to love everything that I cook. And that puzzles me a little, because with the amount that I pay for housing and meals, the food at college should be fabulous.

I took him back to school on Sunday, and Meadville had SO much more snow than we did. But the roads were clear and travel was easy.

Then I hurried back home to our friends' house to watch the Steelers crush the Chargers. And now we're excited for Sunday's AFC Championship game! We'll have a bunch of our friends here for dinner and the game and win or lose, I know we'll have a good time.


I usually don't write about this kind of thing, but Dani has inspired me, so here goes! About 3 years ago, I joined Weight Watchers, and in about a year and some months I lost over 40 pounds. I felt fantastic, I started running, I was practicing and loving yoga, and I was looking forward to my 50th birthday.

Well, I don't know why, but by this past summer, I started to lose my focus. Running became a chore, and I kept hurting my feet. I had been going to yoga sporadically, and then dropped it all together. I started to lose control of my eating, and returned to making really bad food choices. I've gained 18 pounds since this time last year, and although I beat myself up for it all through December, I continued to eat and eat and eat, even though I could see where it was taking me.

OK...Yesterday I went back to my first WW meeting in two years. I'm desperately trying to take these initial weeks one day at a time. I remember that after a while, the decisions became easier and the eating worries diminished as the good habits replaced my bad habits. So Come On Easier Days!

Remember summer camp...

...Where we made all of those tile mosaics? My mother had more ashtrays, trivets, and candy dishes than any one person deserved to have. Not to mention plastic band lanyards, telephone wire art, and gum wrapper chains (which 40 years later would morph into one of these who-woulda-thought?) Heck, if I had five kids, I'd be singing the praises of daycamps and daycamp crafts.

Well, here is a campy type project that is fun to look at and good for your wallet, too. In our world today, who needs all those credit cards, anyway?



Giving credit where credit is due (yuck, yuck...get it, get it?), this is from Craftstylish, and I found it through One Pretty Thing, which I've mentioned here before and which even after the holidays is still chock full of interesting ideas.

They say snow's coming tonight, and we have some TV to watch, and that means stitching will be done!

Fast, fast

This'll be a fast post. I have a lot of work to do today, because I'd like to take tomorrow off and help John get packed and shopped for school. Now that he won't be taking a car with him, we need to make sure he has enough of everything. It won't be so easy for him to run for groceries or toiletries.

So...here are my New Year starts. I began both of these on January 1, but the weather has been too dreary for pictures. Today is marginally better.

LHN's Spot of Coffee

The Sampler Girl's Irish House Blessing (freebie!)

I found it!

This is completely weird, but I found instructions to make that very cool scissor sheath.

Here's how it came about...

As I was doing my usual 7AM blog cruise, I came across Cathy's blog, and she had taken some ornaments for a 2000 JCS ornament issue and reworked them as pinkeep birthday gifts. So, around lunchtime I got to thinking about some of my older ornament issues and decided to revisit them with my 2009 changed eyes and tastes.

So - if not for Cathy and her very creative mind, I would not have stumbled upon this!

And SON of a GUN if there wasn't a Quaker Scissor Sheath designed by Ellen Chester of With My Needle in the 2005 issue! It looks like this, but with a slightly different Quaker design.

Actually, I found it while I was paging through looking for a Workbasket chart, and this chart was on the opposite page. When I couldn't believe my eyes, I flipped back to the photo page and realized that it had escaped my radar because the photo is half hidden by the staples in the spine so I could only see half of it, let alone notice that it was holding scissors.

There it was - chart, list of supplies and materials, and finishing directions. Whoa.

Crazy, huh?

My New Year's Resolution

I will save all of my champagne corks and reuse them as sewing gadgets.
I don't mean to be snarky here. I actually think it's kind of cool. So I had better get started, because you know how much I love gadgetry. Is 8AM too early to pop some champagne? (Photo lifted from PoeticHome.)

Also, is this lovely or what?

It's by Vetty Creations, and I must figure out how to make it!

Getting back to normal

I suppose I'm almost there. John is still here at home - I'll be driving him back to college on Sunday, because we haven't replaced the wrecked car yet. But Colleen is back in school, and Dave's work schedule will be much more normal for the next several weeks, so our routine will become....well, routine again.

Remember my 500th post giveaway? Well, Jennifer has received it, and so now I can show you the scissor pocket that I sent her.

Here's the front: Back: Inside:

But then before I sent it, I switched the ribbon closure to a snap closure. The ribbon was too fussy.

Destiny is not being very fair

I swear, it must be written in the stars that I am never going to get to another "real" needlework shop in the Pittsburgh area again. It's actually easier for me to fly to Tulsa and go to the Silver Needle than to work out a trip to a Pittsburgh shop. I'm. Not. Kidding.

Today I was headed to Beehive Needle Arts, which is not exactly a cross stitch shop but looked like it had some lovely threads to fool around with. But first I had to drop Colleen off at a Track and Field program at Carnegie Mellon. I was going to leave her there, grab some coffee, head to the shop, then find a nice, quiet and warm place at CMU and stitch the day away while she attended this workshop. Except that the workshop turned out to be a program for coaches, not students. And that was weird because her high school coach gave her the registration form, and it had a space for coaches and a space for students. But there were only three kids there, and about 50 coaches, so she asked me to stay. And since I'm such a good mother.....

Well, the program ended for us at lunchtime, and I thought I could still make it to Mt. Lebanon in time... So we went to the car, started it, and it literally started chugging. And it wouldn't stop, and I ended up calling a tow truck to take us 50 miles back home again.

I'm telling you folks, there's nothing like riding 50 miles in a tow truck. Not exactly comfort and cleanliness. And the fellow smoked, and was trying to be polite by rolling down the windows, but it was freezing. And you know what else was sucky? Other drivers are terribly rude to tow truck drivers. I was shocked by how many people cut him off or pulled out in front of him. And can't they use a freakin' turn signal from time to time? Really, I don't know how the guy survives, doing this 8-12 hours a day. I'd be in the Road Rage Hall of Fame if I drove a tow truck every day.

Oh, and by the way, it turns out that it was just a loose wire somewhere. Just to set the record straight I actually DID open the hood and look inside, which my daughter thought was hilarious. However, when we got home, Dave took it a step further and opened the air filter thing, saw a loose wire, and now all is well.

I'm loving 2009 already...

It might be a good thing...

If I gave my own answers to this little meme that I made up! I meant to do it yesterday, but I was a complete slug, particularly after dinner when I just seemed to crash and wanted to do nothing but watch mindless TV. Seriously. I didn't move from the chair for hours.

I guess I just can't drink wine like I used to.

So, now to answer these questions!

1. Did you discover any new (or new-to-you) designers in 2008? And your favorite was?
I developed a real thing for Blackbird Designs. I've only stitched a couple, but I love their samplers.

2. New Fabrics?
After all this time at stitching, who would have thought that I'd develop a love for 11 count Tula?? I mean, with the right design, like a PS Santa, it's fabulous!

3. Same question - New fibres?
No - nothing new to me this year. I used some interesting stuff in one of my stitch camp projects, but I don't really know what it was. Very Velvet something or other? Does it ring a bell with anyone?

4. Same question - New finishing techniques?
Have I told you lately about my love for scissor pockets?

5. Did you have a favorite "theme" in 2008?
I'm still loving the whole Quaker thing, and I've been kind of crazy about buying them, but maybe it's time for me to actually stitch a few of them...

6. Did you try any new gadgets?
That magnifier thing that goes around your neck and rests on top of your girls? Love it.

7. Did you discover any new (or new-to-you) LNS in 2008? And your favorite was?
Sadly, we've all been saying no to this one. I've tried to get to a shop in Pittsburgh called Beehive Stitchery, but it has such limited hours, it's almost impossible to get there when it's open.

8. Same question: new or new-to-you online stores?
No to this, also. I tend to stick to my tried and trues, especially when I'm online shopping.

9. Same question: new or new-to-you bloggers
a) stitching bloggers
b) bloggers in general?
I think this one deserves its own post. I hope to put something together over the weekend.

10. Same question: communities/forums
Once again - I seem to have my tried and true groups.

11. Whose blog in 2008 was the Most inspirational for keeping you stitching?
This one is so hard to answer, because you all inspire me in one way or another. Even if you only show a few finishes a year, I still love to see what you've done. I've developed new skills and acquired new tastes because of many of you, and in particular I've learned that I really like to "tweek" designs and make them my own. There are so many of you are so good at that.

And now I'm going to say out loud what I've only been thinking to myself but, what the heck, I'm going to say it anyway. There are some bloggers that are such crazy-prolific stitchers (and shoppers) that I tend to stay away from their blogs. They totally intimidate me. So I think that those stitchers may be at the top of everyone else's favorites, but I kind of skip over them. Call me insecure. Go ahead. But I just can't warm up to those blogs.

12. Whose blog was funniest in 2008?
I love to read Crazy Aunt Purl. Her approach to life is priceless!

13. Which blog's posts did you "star" the most in your reader in 2008?
Usually, I starred posts from the Freebie Gallery, because I go back and look for them later. But I also go back and reread Adrienne Martini's posts, just because I love how she writes and thinks.

Well girlies, those are my answers.

Also, I think I'm at the end of The 2008 Holidailies, where we pledged to write 20 posts from December 5th through January 5th. Ta Dah! Done. Thank you all for reading and commenting this month, too. I know how busy everyone is at this time of year.

And did I remember to wish you all a Happy New Year?

I hope you have a year of peace, health and prosperity! Oh! And stitching as much as your heart desires!