Taking a blogging break

I'm waving the white flag.  I surrender!  I can't seem to put two coherent sentences together lately, let alone blog regularly.  Don't worry - everything is fine, but maybe a short little break from anything verbal will do the trick.

So - Till next time!

I'm officially...

A lurker.  All week long I've been a person who reads all of your blogs and doesn't post to her own.  My brain just isn't working lately.  Too many interruptions.  Like right now.

Gotta go.

Souvenir of Paris

I've been wanting to stitch this little BBD stocking for a long time and this year I finally got to it! The colors are a bit off.  It's a typical dark and cloudy December morning here.

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Is anyone else as sick as I am of all the sweet and vomit-y Christmas commercials?  On the one hand, I'm probably watching way too much television these days, but on the other hand, even a moderate amount of TV watching will give you more than your fill.  It seems like if you're a man, you will be a Christmas failure if you don't cough up some fabulous and expensive jewelry.  And if you're a woman, well, the only real gift that will be successful is a car.

I'm going to bet that most of you are like me and you don't let yourself get sucked into that kind of thinking.  But I find myself getting so mad at the advertisers. 

Fa-La-freakin' La.

Tips for an efficient and organized sewing space

This very interesting article was in my email on Friday.

The timing was perfect for me.  I know that most of us are knee-deep in projects as we try to finish our Christmas stitching, but folks, you should see my stitching area.  When I get to the point of having several projects to finish-finish at one time, (like right now) that usually means some sewing.  Then I make the world's biggest mess.  Then I get overwhelmed by it and it stays a disaster area until I can work up the nerve to jump in there and reorganize.

Anyway, before we know it, Christmas will be over and January will be here and we'll all catch that cleaning and organizing bug.  So even though you probably can't even think about it right now, bookmark this page for later, when your mood is right!

Christmastime running around

We had a really busy (but very pleasant) day yesterday.  Dave and I like to pick one day during the Christmas season to finish up our Christmas shopping and to have a nice dinner out somewhere.  So yesterday we left the house at 9AM and got back at 9PM, and I know that sounds long, but it was so much fun that we hardly noticed.

I hope to have some pictures of our trees and of the train layout soon, but I'm not quite finished with all of the inside decorating yet. 

I've been stitching a small BBD stocking for my sister.  I'm not ready for photos of that yet either. 

But I can tell you go to here to see a couple cute little Christmas designs.  Who doesn't love a nice freebie?

Live Love Laugh as of December 8

This is such a fun stitch! Even though I'm only working on this on Tuesdays, I feel like it's going quickly.

I'm becoming obsessed with Lori Markovic.

Have I mentioned before that I've been watching the HBO series, Deadwood?  I'm torturing myself, because I'm enjoying the series (and learning lots of new and useful variations of the f-word), but I know it's going to end abruptly without tying up any loose ends and I'm going to be really bummed out.  The show never ended....the season ended and then it just never came back.  Ian McShane is marvelous in it.  I also loved him in Pillars of the Earth.  Now I'm off to imdb.com to find more of his work!

Framing

Things you do when you don't have a phone or internet:  Fourth and final installment

You get off your butt and make the 45 minute drive to pick up your framing.

I had one of those 60% off coupons at Joann Fabrics in my hot little hands a couple of weeks ago, so I picked through the mess of things in my cupboard that were waiting to be framed.   They had called me just before the phones went out to tell me it was ready, so off we went!

I loved stitching La D Da's Quaker Alphabet.  I wish I had time to whip through all of the Quaker designs in my stash! 

I actually finished this in May, 2009.

Fabric: 28ct. Lugana that I coffee and tea dyed, using Vonna's Bake and Baste Method.

Lettering: DMC 535

Dark green: About half is stitched with Vicki Clayton Premium Hand dyed silk named Ceibo. The other half is DMC 520. If you want to use all silk, you'd need at least 10 yards. I only had 5 on hand. Personally, I loved the Ceibo and the DMC 520 wasn't a perfect match (a little too much yellow in the green), but it was the best I could do. Really - spring for the 10 yards of VC hand dyeds. I would have if I had planned to kit this up from the beginning, but this project was more about experimenting with fabric dying and using up some existing thread stash.

Light green: VC Premium silks, but I've lost the color tag. It's almost an exact match to DMC 3816. Five yards was enough.

I have some progress to post on my Live Love Laugh Stitchalong, but I'm going to wait for the sun to come out a bit before I take a photo.  In the meantime, run on over to Karen's blog to see her progress.   She changed up the color palette a bit and I'm loving her choices! 

Big Santa

Things you do when you don't have the phone or internet for a weekend: Part Three

You finish a big Santa.  He's still waiting for me to make him into a pillow, though.

I'm starting to feel that Christmas panicky feeling.  Maybe once I get my baking started, it'll go away.  There's nothing like a warm snickerdoodle to calm me down.

I received some bad news yesterday.  My hairdresser is moving.  To freakin' North Carolina.  How can he do this to me?  After all of these years of having me sit in his chair, he should know that I don't adapt to change well at all.  And that means that despite all of his coaching, he's not going to be here to see the final phase of my gray hair experiment. 

My daughter's hairdresser has moved recently, too.   Not quite as far (Ohio) but far enough.  So now both of the women in my house are faced with having really bad hair for quite a while.  We'll probably mourn for six weeks, then seek out other hairdressers (who won't do our hair nearly as well).  So we'll bounce from salon to salon until we just land somewhere and stay because we'll be tired of the hunt.

It's a sad day.

Things you do when you don't have a phone or internet: Part Two

You dig through your stash and uncover an adorable ornament chart that you bought during the summer.

I should tell you that my phone and internet came back on late Monday evening. Those poor fellows were out there, high up on the pole, working in the wind and blowing snow. Even though they had fashioned a plastic tarp to make a tent at the top pole, it had to be bitterly cold.

Anyways...Robin has a freebie to share.  Looks cute and quick.  So run over!

Things that you do when you don't have a phone or internet: Part One

Copper-stealing vandals destroyed a phone junction box in our area, so all of my neighbors and I woke up Saturday morning to dead telephones.  And because our only options for the internet rely on the telephone (Verizon DSL or dial-up), we lost that, too.

This whole copper theft crap is getting out of control.  This is the second time in a month that an entire town in our area has lost phone service for several days because of thieves stealing copper from the telephone poles.  I just don't get how someone can do that sort of thing without giving any thought to the welfare of other people.  

You know, for Dave and me it was only an inconvenience, because we have our cell phones. But how many of my older neighbors don't have cell phones?  Or have a phone but can't get a signal? With the hills and valleys, that is relatively common here.  And if there had been an emergency? It could have been tragic.

And I'll tell you what else - if scrap dealers would stop buying the stolen copper, the problem would be solved.

But anyway, without the magnet of the internet drawing me in every few hours (Who am I kidding? Every 5 minutes), I was able to zip through a few finishes.  To be fair, I was kind of at the place where I had several projects that were close to completion anyway - they just all came together over the weekend.

So, what do you do when you don't have a phone or the internet?

You finish an ornament.

My walking buddy adopted a stray black cat this fall, so you know exactly where my mind went when I saw this design.  I love these sweet little Brittercup kitties. 

Tomorrow - Part Two

The December SBQ

Many stitchers really kick it up a notch over the winter holidays.  Christmas, Hanukah,  the New Year, Kwanza - whatever holiday you choose to celebrate usually means that we’re stitching something gift or holiday-related.   Tell us your best story about some holiday stitching.

Another SAL update

Here's where I left off after a bit of stitching on Tuesday.

I'm finally at the end of a busy work week!  This weekend will see me shopping for window coverings.  (It's only taken me 10 years)  And I'll probably pull out the rest of the holiday decorations, except for the things that go on the big tree. 

That means I'll be digging around in the dormers.  After my summer adventures, I really hope that I don't find any little mouse friends.

Remember, I post the monthly SBQ on the first Monday of the month, which will be this coming Monday, Dec. 6.  I didn't want you to think I forgot aboutcha...