Day Two

On our second day, we drove to Bass Lake and then to North Fork to pick up John. We saw lots and lots of windmills
And how about this for temporary housing? This was taken on the deck of John's house, where he lives with 6 other workers. It's kind of rough on the inside, but the deck is spectacular.
We had dinner at a very nice restaurant in Bass Lake, overlooking the water. And it was this guy's birthday, to boot. This is his "I'm too hungry to stop eating to smile for the camera" look. And here's John. The kid looks pretty good, doesn't he?

Tomorrow? Yosemite!

Our first day in San Francisco

So...we took a ridiculously early flight from Pittsburgh, but that meant that we got to San Francisco around lunchtime and gave us some time to settle in and start to explore the city a little.

We didn't stay in SF exactly. Our hotel was in Pacifica, and it was pretty darn great to be so close to the city, and have the ocean on our doorstep, too. Did I mention the balcony? It was not exactly what we expected to find, but we had a party out there anyway.Ahhh, the togetherness!Across from the hotel there was a place called Nick's, and it was kind of cool. One of those truly older (as in not retro) places that has held onto a 60's-ish style. As if someone from Mad Men might step in the door at any moment. Coffee was still served in a cup and saucer. Drinks were served in small glassware. Like an 8oz glass with a "wrapper" under it, rather than a giant tumbler of pop. Service was wonderful. And the food was good, although I thought it was rather expensive. All of our meals were expensive, though. I'd have to say that this was our most expensive dining vacation ever.

After lunch and a nap, we headed into San Francisco with minimal maps and no destination in mind. We ended up in at the Golden Gate bridge and spent some wonderful time the Presidio.



Then back to Pacifica for dinner, to a place called Barolo's. The hotel clerk had recommended it as a good place for Italian food. No. No. No. I'll spare you the details, but just remember the name if you're in Pacifica and remember my emphatic NO'S.

Next day - off to Bass Lake and to pick up John!

Back from Vacation

Well! That was some kind of trip! San Francisco, Bass Lake, Yosemite, Oakland, then back to San Francisco. Visiting with John was the highlight of the trip. I'm a worrier...I can't help it. So it was good to see him happy and working hard and to meet his coworkers. Nice kids, all of them. (When do you stop calling them "kids"?)

Of course, I have lots of photos to sort through and post. I promise I won't go overboard, though.

But today I'll show you a couple that don't have much to do with where we went, but that fit a stitchy blog very well.

First of all, you might remember that a while back I won a wonderful gift from Anna. It was a wristlet pincushion, and I thought it would be perfect for airplane stitching. And because of the way that she made it, not only was it a perfect compact way to anchor your needles, it also had a sleeve in the back that exactly suited my scissors! Look:

This was absolutely the ideal thing for stitching on a plane. Or in any situation where you have positively no room to put anything down. So, I'm saying Thank You to dear Anna all over again!

Now a scene that completely and totally amazed me. On our last day in SF, Colleen and I were at Alamo Square and amid all of the signs screaming for attention we saw a sign for Needlepoint, Inc. It was shortly after 5PM, but we thought, what the heck - as long as we're here. They were open, but closing in minutes, and I don't think they particularly appreciated our browsing, but they didn't rush us off too quickly. At least they let me buy a couple of skeins and take a photo or two. So here's the amazing sight of that day - The Wall of Silk:

I'll have some family/scenery type photos later this week!

Mostly done

I've been working on this small project for a Quaker exchange. I still need to complete the other half and then finish-finish it by June 30. It's a motif from a Long Dog sampler. Luuuurve the thread - Indian Jewelry (#389) by Soy Luster. It's brighter in real life, but it's a cloudy day and my photo editing software disappeared with my recent computer meltdown.
I hope to get this finished during our vacation. It's coming up really fast, but let me tell you...I need this vacation. We're headed to San Francisco for a day or two, then to Bass Lake to see John (!), then back to SF for a couple more days. He sounds very excited about our visit, and we're excited to get there. It's going to be an adventure!

It's all over

I must say thanks to all of you for congratulating Colleen and for sending such nice thoughts her way. She's been a wonderful daughter and to say that we're proud of her is an understatement. Here's the best thing - She's done the work, and we've just sat back and enjoyed the ride.

The only thing missing was John, who couldn't make it back from California. Our celebrating just didn't feel complete, and Colleen missed him and we were so sad that he wasn't here. What can you do, though? Working and moving is a part of life.

Well, when it came time for her party this Sunday, I really wanted Colleen to kick back and enjoy her friends and let us do all the work. As luck would have it, the weather was gorgeous. Sunny, breezy, and not too hot, so we had people all over the place. Inside, outside, front yard, side yard, deck, living room, kitchen...We had well over 75 people here, and if it had been all inside, it would have been nuts.

Do you know how lucky I've been for the past three big parties we've had? Three years, three parties, three beautiful days? Unheard of. But we think we know why our luck has held. Because besides being awesome, our special party-guest-of-honor controls the weather, also. Don't you dare rain on his party.Bet you never knew he was so smart, too.

Graduation!

Here are some pictures from last night.
The weather was stormy, so commencement was inside, and was it hot?? I can't even begin to tell you.Mercifully, all of the speeches were brief and we were able to get some outside photos before the storms started.
The BoyfriendDave and Me
Colleen and me
Party Sunday!

Much better

My eye is much better, thank you very much! Last night I was able to watch some TV and stitch on a Quaker project for a swap.

PLEASE STOP reading here if you are offended by graphic language.

I was watching an HBO DVD, Rome. Phew. Lotsa blood, guts, and bare butts (among other bare things...)

Needless to say, I miscounted several times.

One, two, three, four, five....penis??.....four, five, six, seven.....

Ugh. No stitching this weekend

I had only a little time to stitch on Saturday night, but we went to a friend's house to watch the Penguins game and although I took stitching with me, the lighting wasn't good and the eye strain was too much.

Then on Sunday - healthy me, I go out to run in the morning and get stuck running through swarms and swarms of gnats. Later that afternoon, my eye was really bothering me, so I tried eye wash and artificial tears. I couldn't see anything in my eye, but it just got worse and worse. I was in bed really early last night. You know how when your eyes hurt, everything hurts? Ugh.

So I went to the eye docs this morning and sure enough, I had a gnat stuck on my cornea. She numbed it, used her little tool to remove it, and all I can say is Thank God. My eye is still a little swollen, but it's worlds better than last night.

It's always something, isn't it?

Mary Thomas

So yesterday I was reading Anna's blog where she was reviewing a craft encyclopedia by Martha Stewart. And I was thinking about how most encyclopedias are usually so limited and unable to really delve deeply into any of the subjects inside, because they have so many subjects to cover. And they're usually so dry.

Well, then I remembered one of my favorite books, Mary Thomas's Dictionary of Embroidery Stitches. I had borrowed the 1935 edition from our local library and it was absolutely charming. So I bought one online (from Powells Books, I think) NOT the newer one. Sure, the newest one has good color photography and color drawings of stitching methods, but dry? Yeah. If you want one of these, it's worth the hunt to find the 1935 edition. The stitch illustrations are different, but the little drawings in the margins and near the text? Adorableness!

Here's one of my favorites. Can a Lazy Daisy be any cuter?
Unless of course, you're wondering how to chain stitch with a daisy stitch.

Or is this a cute caterpillar stitch illustration or what?

I've taken a few more photos to show you, too, so this probably isn't the last time you'll see these little drawings! Also, click on the pictures to enlarge them and open them in a different window. Blogger reduces them so much...it's hard to see some of the detail of these simple little things.

Lucky me!

Here's what I received as part of the BBD Exchange. It's from the lovely Anna S., who lives in Poland. A sweet needlecase!

Front:

Inside:

More inside!
You can see that she's used some of the BBD quilting fabric. Love it!

Well, I put John on the plane to California yesterday and he's arrived safely, although his luggage was destroyed. (Again. It happened on his way home from San Diego in the spring, too) What should I use for luggage for this kid? I know...I'm going to use the bags that come inside the cereal boxes. Those are impossible to open.

And I ask you - is there any drive more stressful than the drive to the airport? I don't care how early I leave, I'm always a nervous wreck on the way there. In normal traffic, we're about 2 hours from the Pittsburgh airport and those are always two of the longest hours of my life. Luckily, yesterday wasn't too bad - but then again, we left at 4:30AM and the light traffic was moving really fast, so I made it there in 90 minutes. Phew.

Time to work. Blech.
Have a great day, everybody!

La-D-Done!

I spent most of the day helping at a golf scramble, but knew that when I came home I only had a few more stitches to put into Quaker Alphabet. And even though I wanted to come home and take a long nap, I knew that I wanted to finish this even more:
Yay!
If you want to know...(and I think Melissa asked?), here are my fabric and thread choices:

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.

Finally, if you want a terrific giggle, head over to read The Tale of the SAL. Tell me that's not a great post!

Ta-dah!

Stitched and finished, and in only a week. I hope my partner likes it.This was BBD's My Gift to You. I used 28 ct. linen that I had on hand. Probably ivory, and the recommended threads (mostly GAST, but one WDW).

The bow isn't attached very well. I liked the idea of putting a bow on top, but I only attached it with a straight pin, just in case my giftee doesn't want it there. It's all about personal taste, you know? If she doesn't like it, it's outta there. If she likes it, she can glue it down and make it permanent.

So - the high school awards ceremony? Happy night, let me tell you! Colleen received several scholarships and awards and we were very proud of her. Actually we were very proud of all of her friends who received scholarships and awards that night, too. We've known lots of these kids for-almost-ever, and even if your child didn't get this or that particular scholarship or award, you were happy for the child that did get it. So what did she get? Financially, I'll tell you that these scholarships should be enough to pay for books for 4 years. She's very happy about that.

But emotionally, there was one scholarship that Colleen really, really wanted, and it wasn't about the money, but because its message meant a lot to her. It was the Lauren Madison Scholarship, which has a lot of history and meaning to any Uniontown high school girl runner, and she got it. The award was presented by her cross country coach and we were all crying at the end. Happy crying though.

So, is there a chance that I'll finish Quaker Alphabet this weekend? I seem to be on a roll....I guess we'll see!

May TUSAL

I'm SO surprised that I managed to almost fill this little jelly jar this month! To be fair, I'm not a squisher. I just drop them in and let them lay. Even orts need air to breathe.

There's some red from Tree of Life, there's lots of green silk from Quaker Alphabet, and lots of tan from the BBD exchange project.

I'll probably have no time for stitching today or tonight. Boatloads of pharmacy bills have just been dropped on my desk and they all needed to be paid yesterday.

And the annual high school awards ceremony is tonight. This will be the night that Colleen finds out if she's been chosen for any of the eleventy thousand local scholarships that she applied for through the year. She's already been notified of a couple awards, but the bulk of them will be announced tonight.

I think that there should be a scholarship for Prettiest Girl in a Purple Dress Worn to Prom, but that's just me.

Anyways, tonight I'll struggle to just be quiet and wish her luck and keep all of my jangling nerves to myself. As if that's possible.

I want another weekend...

Just like the last one! The weather was very nearly perfect. I always work on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, and there were the usual household things to do, but for the most part, I relaxed. And I had some time both on Sunday and Monday afternoons to just sit on the porch, listen to the kids playing in the lake, and feel a warm breeze on my face. Oh - and I loved having time to work on this:
I may be jinxing myself by saying this, but I think I'll be finished by June 1, as long as I don't ruminate too long over how I'm going to finish-finish it.

Does anyone else have a difficult time making those decisions? I think myself into a circle, then procrastinate, then wonder why I find it laying in a drawer six month later. I'm over 50 years old now, and I've been stitching for well over half of those years, so for crying out loud, you'd think I'd have learned not to do that anymore.

As long as I'm delving into true confessions, I might as well tell you this. Now, I know I come off as being ultra-sophisticated and that you see me as one who only loves the finer things in life. So this confession almost pains me.

I love the Real Housewives series. Can't. Get. Enough. If it's on, I'll watch it. I don't care what city is involved, (although the New York ladies are my BFFs right now). I don't care if I've seen it before - I'll watch it again. It gives me great pleasure to sit in my poofy, cheap chair, wearing my pajamas that are actually old road race t-shirts and sweatpants, and maybe a cardigan if it's cold, with my bedtime bowl of cereal, and listen to their silliness. So now you know.

Finally, go over to my left sidebar and listen to Mat Kearney's "All I Have". Great stuff. I was listening to this the other day and John came into the room with his head tilted and walked up behind me and said, "Hey...I have this on my computer. That's good music."

So maybe I'm kind of cool after all. Or at least I have potential for coolness. But don't ask me to give up the Housewives.

Tantalizingly close

I am SO close to finishing this!

But I'm so crazy-busy right now. I run, work, run all day and then stare at TV for a little while at night and then I'm zonked and asleep. I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to Memorial Day this Monday. The extra holiday Monday always gets me relaxed and rejuvenated.

And while I'd like to finish the Q. Alphabet, I'm going to need to spend Monday working on this for a BBD exchange that's due on....June 1!
It's "My Gift to You", and I love the colors, but I'm just a teensy bit anxious about finishing it on time. It needs to be completely finished, and I haven't figured that part out yet. Nothing like waiting till the last minute...

Well, our household will be buzzing for the next couple weeks. We've been going to lots of banquets, what with the school year winding down for Colleen and all of the end of the year awards and things. It can make for a long night, but at least I don't have to cook!

Thank you everybody for all of the sweet things you wrote about her prom pictures and for understanding my weepiness. I don't know what it was about last Friday and Saturday....It was as if I had turned a corner and understood for the first time that it was time for her to leave home. Isn't that crazy?? You prepare and plan and coach your kids through their lives to make this shift, and then it begins to happen and you want to pull back on the reins and shout STOP! I'M not ready!

Sigh...Why can't the world revolve around me?

As for the other O'Neil youngster, John leaves us on June 1. His time here at home has flown by, and we'll miss him, but I know how much he's looking forward to this experience. Did I mention that Dave and I are hoping to go visit him later in June? We've never been to California, either, so it's going to be an exciting trip for us. Definitely different...

Well, I'm going to take advantage of this cool and lovely morning and head out for a walk and maybe a run. Have a great day everybody!

Can't write a thing

Sorry. Just too weepy today. I can't even look at these without getting all choked up. I'm so proud of this kid.

Wish I had time to post more today...

but I'll be back tomorrow with some pictures of....PROM! Meanwhile, I'll pick up Colleen at 11, then we'll have a girls' lunch. Then the hairdo, then time to dress, pics at Grandma's, pics at boyfriend's, pics at school, then off to the dance.

Better check those camera batteries!

You've gotta be kidding me

I don't have much to write about today. I've been working on a motif on Quaker Alphabet and yikes, it's taking me a long time. How can something that appears to be so simple take so long? So no stitching photos will be here today.

But I came across this ridiculous bit of info on a blog by Chloe Findlay-Harder. If I have it right - she's the author of Tangled Thread, which is a treasure trove of craft and needleart tips.

So anyway, she was fashion surfing and found this little brooch.

So we're all thinking, Awwww. Cuteness! What a great crafty-gifty project for the Brownies or Girl Guides or any school aged kid. Only that she found that this "brooch" was for sale. For $188.00. Yes girls, it's actually part of a designer's spring collection.

From the website:
With its lines Moschino, Moschino Cheap and Chic and Moschino Jeans, the brand is a perfect example of a creative spirit that manages to blend irony and open-mindedness.

Riiiiight. Irony and open-mindedness. That's worth...what? The $187 mark-up? I'd get all indignant and fussy, but it's just too funny.

So, last week I ordered and received Colleen's graduation announcements! We tried to capture her "story" as much as possible, and I think we succeeded. She likes them, and that's all that matters to me. (By the way, I adore our photographer. Besides doing both of my kids' senior pictures, he helped me put together announcements for them. After 15 years of school and sport photos, you get a feel for those who are just in it for a quick buck, and those who love what they do, and Torrey Witt obviously loves what he does.)

One-way blogging

I feel very, very guilty.

Over the past few months, I've been a complete one-way blogger. I throw all of my stuff out here - all of my issues, complaints, aggravations, and even triumphs, and then never follow up on anything. You all have been so generous with your comments and suggestions, and I've been all "take, take, take". Even worse, I haven't been a very good commenter on any of your blogs, so there hasn't been much "give, give, give" on my part.

Let me tell you, those sorts of people bug the heck out of me, so now I find that I'm bugging the heck out of myself.

Looks like it's time for a Mid-Year Resolution. More commenting, less whining.

Now that that's out of my system, I wanted to follow up on a couple of things I had been talking about earlier.

First up: Tree of Life and the AVS Silk.
I took a length of that red silk and rinsed it in water, blotting it dry with a white paper towel and it didn't bleed at all. Not the tiniest bit. So I have no idea why the white floss tag in the package was stained red. Whatever - I'm not worried about the red rubbing off or bleeding onto dry fabric anymore. Looks like I made a mountain out of a molehill there.

Also, I've started U-turning my threads when I anchor them. They seem to be holding ok now, and I'll go back and pick out the areas that are coming loose. Shouldn't be too much work. Live and learn, right?

What? You want to see a picture? Well, I've tried to do my best with this, but the weather has been crappy here for days on end, and natural light has been a rare commodity.Last weekend I finished the small alphabet in the middle, the short border to the left of the "Y", and those couple of small motifs on the left.

Then I needed a break, and I know I should be working on an exchange or two, but I lovity, love, love this Quaker Alphabet by La-D-Da. Working on this is super relaxing, and it's just what I need right now. Life is so very hectic and will get even crazier between now and mid-June, so I've been hibernating in my bedroom at night and really zeroing in on this project. It's been great therapy.

Now I have to run about a hundred errands, even though my stitching is calling. Loudly! Ah well. We're all in the same boat, aren't we?

A picture is worth 1000 words

This picture of my new "ort" jar for the Totally Useless SAL, which began a new cycle this Saturday. I could lie and tell you that I'm stitching with invisible thread, then make you a pretty dress with it and make you wear it in a parade. But that would be mean.

Thanks to everyone for all of your help with my red silk problem. This was my first big project with silk, and I've learned a couple valuable lessons.

I'm going to start making U-turns on the back from here on in when I finish the threads. I had started going through a couple of threads, then kind of looping twice around one thread and going through a couple more, but doing the u-turn thing makes more sense.

Also, just to be clear, these aren't hand-dyed silks. It's just Au Ver a Soie (soie d'alger) 7-ply silk, #4624, that I purchased back in August 2006. SO - the comment from Yoyo could be dead on - that maybe humidity got to the bag. After all, I bought it in 2006 and we didn't have air conditioning till 2008, so it's entirely possible that some moisture crept into that little bag.

Sadly, the shop that ordered the thread for me has gone out of business in the past year. I used to shop locally at The Needle Nook in Ligonier PA, and I know they would have helped me with this. They were such wonderful resources and nice people.

Well, I don't mean to kvetch too much over this. It would probably be a big help if I would just stitch a little faster! Or maybe a lot faster.