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!

Stitching bloggers Best of 2008

1. Did you discover any new (or new-to-you) designers in 2008? And your favorite was?

2. Same question - New Fabrics?

3. Same question - New fibres?

4. Same question - New finishing techniques?

5. Did you have a favorite "theme" in 2008?

6. Did you try any new gadgets?

7. Did you discover any new (or new-to-you) LNS in 2008? And your favorite was?

8. Same question: new or new-to-you online stores?

9. Same question: new or new-to-you bloggers?
a) stitching bloggers
b) bloggers in general

10. Same question: communities/forums

11. Whose blog in 2008 was the Most inspirational for keeping you stitching?

12. Whose blog was funniest in 2008?

13. Which blog's posts did you "star" the most in your reader in 2008?

If you play along, leave a comment so we can check out your favorites!

Dave and I have a very quiet New Years Eve planned. The kids will be off with their friends, so it'll be just the two of us. We'll watch the Fiesta Bowl this afternoon, (Go Pitt!) I'll make a nice dinner for us, I think we'll go to an early movie, then home to watch some basketball (Pitt and Rutgers). If we make it to midnight, it'll be a miracle.

I'll miss having the kids here for New Years Eve, but I try not to whine too much about it. After all, it's kind of the natural order of things, right?

Happy New Year, gang! See you tomorrow.

This and that

I finished Jennifer's scissor pocket today, but I'll wait until she receives it before I post any pictures. It was nothing complicated or fancy, but it was so much fun to stitch, and I'm excited about getting it in the mail.

Just some general, this and that kind of stuff:

**I ordered some Belle Soie silks from Stitching Bits and Bobs during their December sale, and hold on to your hats readers because I've actually received them already! Is it too much to hope that this is a new trend and that their shipping time is improving??

**I should never, never plan to start a new project for the new year, because I'm driving myself crazy trying to limit myself to only one. And pushing my guilt (about my current UFOs) into its own little dark space isn't working.

**Gawd...I have to work tomorrow. Can you hear me sighing heavily? I worked Friday, but almost every other office on the planet was closed Friday, so it wasn't a very productive day, and now I can look forward to getting slammed tomorrow.

**Downloading movies from Netflix to my TV is awesome.

See you tomorrow!

Favorites of 2008

I've been listening to the radio this morning. As usual, this is the weekend when everyone is doing their year-end list of favorites or noteworthys or whatever. Movies, books, foods, cars...you get the picture. So I was thinking that we stitchers really needed to add our two cents.

How about if we develop our own list: Best of 2008 for Stitchers?

I'll start...

1. Did you discover any new (or new-to-you) designers in 2008? And your favorite was ?

2. Same question - New Fabrics?

3. Same question - New fibres?

4. Same question - New finishing techniques?

5. Did you have a favorite "theme" in 2008?

6. Did you try any new gadgets?

Now, I'm going to stop there and think on those questions, and see if we can come up with more questions by Dec. 30. SO....if you are thinking along with me and have any 2008 questions to add, leave them as a comment. Then I'll publish a list by Dec 31 and we can answer on January 1.

Come on. You know you want to.

The Day After

I hope that all of you enjoyed your holiday, whether it was with a crazy number of people or just celebrated quietly. Our Christmas had a combination of both, and it was nice because too much quiet makes me feel lonely, but too much commotion makes me aggravated. So this was perfect.

Christmas Eve was spent with friends and then in church. We were home by late evening and relaxed with just the four of us.

We had a very gadget-y Christmas Day, including a couple of Chumbys for the kids, (loved them!), an immersion blender for me, and a golf bag organizer for Dave. OK, Dave's doesn't plug in, but he also bought a Roku receiver for "us" to be able to stream Netflix movies, and that's certainly a gadget. So he's included, too.

My mother-in-law came for dinner. She's a nice person, and I really should invite her here more often.

I had thought that more people would stop by Christmas Day, but the kids' friends were working at the local resort, so it was kind of quiet after dinner. But we can always count on our very special guest...

Today I fit in a morning walk/run (it's about time...) and worked on some year end payroll stuff, and then Round Two of kitchen cleaning. Holiday dishes never seem to end....

Yawn. I'm even boring myself here. Let's hope tomorrow is more exciting.

Oh! I'm excited to have ten followers! What's even more exciting is that I thought I had ten, but then discovered that I was actually following my own blog, (Pitiful, I know), so I removed myself and that made nine, but now I'm back to TEN!

Happy Holidays to my blogging friends

I hope your holiday celebrations, whatever they may be, are peaceful and calm and bright.

My last ornament...I think

Back in 2005, my Yahoo group (Stitchers Time Out aka STO) did a freebie kit exchange. I think we each kitted up a free design, some threads, and embellishments and traded them with each other. Well, I stitched it quickly enough, but only just yesterday actually finished it.

Don't ask me why I used purple pins. I was in a purple mood. It's also backed in purple felt.

Here's something cool for those of you who are like me and are still wrapping presents (yes, even on Christmas morning). It's a neat little tutorial on how to make gift bags. Each year I start off by looking through last year's gift bags and wrap, then I buy a little more and think I have enough. But then DD and DS come and raid my stuff and when I'm last-minute wrapping, there's never enough of anything left.

So I'm going to show them (esp DD) this tutorial in the hopes that they'll leave my stuff alone. I'll tell them it's "green". That'll hook them.

Flat fold

This was supposed to be an ornament, but was a bit too big, so it's become a flat fold.




As of today, we'll finally start adding daylight hours! Thank heavens.

Nothing stitchy today

But maybe a little bit bitchy! Oh yes, ladies, the first Prom book has hit my mailbox already! Here's a little pre-Christmas sample:

Just a warning - I get a little raunchy here. If you're offended by that sort of thing...you may want to skip over this.



Seriously. Do any of these girls look like they're having fun? Listen, if you're going to spend that much money on your tickets, your dress, your hair, your nails, and your shoes, then for the love of pete please look like you're having a good time!
These young ladies remind me of a my typical high school romantic relationship life.

So, starting on your left....

Girl 1: Oh kiss me. You know you want to.

Girl 2: Eww. Don't touch me. What kind of girl do you think I am?

Girl 3: Oh no you di-int just try to pull that stunt on me. Just put it away. I don't care how much you say it hurts.

Girl 4: What? You say you want to see other people? Oh. OK. I'll just look injured.

Girl 5: Go ahead you d-ck head. See other people, see if I care.

Girl 6: Now I can continue my search for the perfect man. And for the other half of my body.

Oh how I love prom time! Sadly, this will probably be my last year for prom fashion fun, because my stupid daughter has to go and graduate high school already this year. I only hope I can go out with a bang in 2009.

It's really a miracle...

That John walked away from that accident without a scratch. And that no one else was hurt. Thank you all for all of your good thoughts and wishes.

Here's the chain of events: He drifted into the rumble strips, got startled, tried to pull back into the proper lane and over corrected. Then he lost control of the car and started to spin, went down an embankment and headfirst into a guard rail. Except that the guard rail was higher than his car, so he actually went under the guard rail, shearing off the hood of the car and having the guardrail break and push in the windshield, stopping about six inches from his face.

Like I said - it's a miracle.

He came home with the tow truck, exhausted and starving. I gave him a quick sandwich and told him to go rest and he was hard-as-a-rock asleep in minutes, and slept clear through till this morning.

And Nic, I've managed not to say I told you so. Not even once. Of course, it was made infinitely easier by John immediately saying that he should have listened to me and that he feels really stupid and sorry.

I don't know if I ever mentioned this before, but about 4 years ago, friends of ours lost their son in a single car accident. He was coming home very late at night after a full day of school, soccer practice, playing in the marching band for a football game, and then a party. All in one day! Although no one will ever know, I'll bet it happened pretty much the same. Except that Tyler hit a tree, shearing his car in half.

So believe me when I say I'm thankful. The car is a total loss, and no doubt my insurance rates will go through the roof, but I have a healthy, unhurt, and (now) smarter son.

OK, moving on to lighter subjects!

Here's a freebie from Midnight Stitching that I stitched quite a while ago, but only finished yesterday. I tried to photograph the sides and back, because I had the perfect rick-rack and backing fabric, but my camera batteries were going, going, gone. I may have better pictures tomorrow. But here's the front:

Of course, we are all our own worst critics, but I had a devil of a time centering this, and then I cut the bottom way too close. There's like three little threads holding the point at the bottom of the heart together. I think my brain must have shut off when it saw something that wasn't a square or rectangle.

Oh, and I should tell you that PROM FASHIONS are already arriving in my mailbox again! I'm so excited, and I'm hoping for a bumper crop of really affected models in bad dresses to share with you. But in the meantime, I thought you'd like to see a picture of me modeling my new 1971 breasts. I think that they are especially well-showcased in my "skinny knit" top, don't you? I loved that top, and it was completely synthetic and itchy and made me perspire like a cowhand, but I didn't care because I had visible breasts. And those glasses? Good God. I'm thinking that shortly after those I went to....wait for it....wire rimmed aviators. I was such a fashionista.

Thankfulness

I was uploading this photo and my phone rang. John was getting ready to leave school and head home for the semester break. Like many college kids at this time of year, he was glad to be coming home after a long week of very little sleep and taking finals. In fact, his last final was this morning and I knew he had hardly slept, so I told him - lay down and sleep a while and come home later. But he was anxious about the weather and anxious to come home and he assured me he was fine. (Remember that feeling in your early 20's like you were ten feet tall and bulletproof? Right...)

Evidently not. He called about an hour later and he had wrecked the car on the highway. Thank god he's ok. The car? Totalled. But the kid is ok, and no one else was involved.

I'm so thankful that he's not hurt. And I hope that this has taught him a lesson, including the lesson sometimes your mother knows what she's talking about.

OK, switching gears to ornament stitching. This was the first ornament I stitched as part of Jennifer's Brides Tree SAL. I've only stitched the first 6 months worth, and now I can only find 4 of the ornaments, but I was happy to find this one and finish it in time for this Christmas. That's just ordinary green craft felt as backing.


And now I'm going to pace around the house for a couple of hours until go meet John and the tow truck and I know he's home safe and sound.

Stop, stop, stop!

You all have to stop all of this amazing crafting and stitching and finishing and stop it right now! You are making me nuts.

I want to do all of your wonderful projects, too. Every single day I see something that speaks to me. Even shouts to me. Maybe it's a sentiment (Edgar!) or a cool and funky project (Jona!), the playful colors (Katrina!) in a piece. And everyday I tell my self that I should do that or I can finish that or I should have made that.

Do you have any idea how many of your posts I've "starred" in my Google reader?

I can't stop reading your blogs and it's making me stupid-crazy.

I'm off to our neighborhood party, where I'll be putting my ornament (with its gift card) under the tree for the gift exchange. I hope whoever gets it likes it. Most people that live here and go to these things are happy to have anything that says Deer Lake on it, so I think there's a pretty good chance it'll be well received. Now, on the other hand, they will probably eye my store-bought apricot roll askance.

Kitty ornament

I stitched this two years ago, I think, and now it's finally an ornament! Don't even ask my why it took me this long. It's one of my less endearing traits. I work great guns on something, but I don't quite finish it, and then I put it away and it's like pulling teeth to get me to do that one little last task in order to call it complete. Honest. It's such a big part of my behavior that it's kind of embarrassing.

That's my first attempt at making cording. I'd wind it tighter next time.

There's not much going on here at the O'Neil house. This week is party week - we have a handful of invitations from now until next week. John should be home one day this week but who the heck knows when because he never calls. I could be laying dead here and he'd never know. (I'm practicing my motherly litany for later in life. You can never start too soon.)

Faith box

I stitched this a while back, and intended to finish it as a sachet for a friend of mine, but I ran into a roadblock when I was looking for lavender.

Remember, I come from a county with no craft shops. I mean it, girls. None. And when I've had the chance to go to Pittsburgh, the big chains I've visited had potpourri, but it was the big, chunky kind and it just wouldn't work for this little sachet. (WHY didn't I think to look while I was in the Tulsa HobbyLobby??)

So now my friend will get this for Christmas, and I've finished it as a cube. Not quite what I had in mind, but still nice I think.

It's a lovely, lazy Sunday. I've organized my thread and floss collection again. It's kind of crazy the way that it seems to explode all over the place when I'm looking for something.

I've finished another ornament, and I'll show you the photos tomorrow.

And I'm working on Jennifer's scissor pocket and loving it.