Second completion of 2011!

I finished this up late last night. As you can see, I've decided to leave off the border. I wish I could tell you that it was an artistic decision, and I was even trying to justify it by saying that not many Quaker style samplers use outer borders. But a quick trip through my Quaker chart collection make me realize that it's about a 50/50 split. So it really just came down to sheer laziness.

As I was finishing the very last motif - the flower at the bottom right - I realized that I had miscounted its placement by two stitches. Yup. TWO. And the border? It's exactly two stitches away from that last flower. I mean, if the flower had been stitched correctly. So I either had to rip out the flower to accommodate the border, or just skip the border.

I'm not ripping.  Nope. I'm liking it just as it is.

Live Love Laugh, by La D Da

And here are my color choices:
I used two strands of Belle Soie silks in Old Crow, Poison Apple and Herb Garden.  The fabric is PTP's Heritage 28 ct. Cashel linen.

It's been a topsy turvy week.  My MIL came home from the hospital after knee replacement surgery.  We had thought she was going to progressive care and would stay there for at least a couple of weeks, but no - they sent her home.  You know what floors me?  She's 83 (maybe 84?) and they discharged her without one word to Dave or me.  She obviously needs some help every day, and without asking, how did they know what she was going home to?  She's very sharp, but still....I'm kind of shocked.  Most - no, all - of the helping part has fallen to me, but suppose I wasn't around?  Suppose my work wasn't so flexible?  I really can't understand why they didn't talk to Dave or me first.

Long story short - I've been spending a lot of time over at her house. 

DS has just come back from an interview and "recruiting" weekend at a school down south.  I don't see why the call it a recruiting weekend - they made it clear that everyone who had been invited wasn't necessarily admitted to the PhD program.  He had a nice time - made it through eight interviews - and is keeping his fingers crossed.  Me, too.  His grades are good.  Not stellar, but good.  He spent all of his summers working really hard at internships and I know they gave him very good recommendations, so....we'll just wait and see.  And obviously that's been weighing heavily on my mind all week.

I'm getting ready for another stitching weekend - the one that I was supposed to go to last year but didn't because it was canceled  when we got - like - 3 feet of snow.  More on that later in the week. 

So, till next time!

Big Game Day!

At 6:30 today, almost everyone in Southwestern PA will be hunkered down in front of a TV somewhere.  We'll be no exception, and we've invited friends in for dinner and to cheer along with us.  No stitching tonight, but .....Go Steelers!

Almost forgot -

Have you seen Beth Twist's new freebie?  Go look.  Way cute.  I'm really liking her designs. 

And it's her fault that I broke my New Year's resolution about not adding any new stash until April.  But let's just keep that as our little secret.

My lap

I've spent a couple of cozy evenings with LLL in my lap.  My lap likes it. 

Speaking of my lap - it seems to be growing.

No. Not "seems to be". It actually is. 

I stopped exercising completely over the holidays and saying that I enjoyed all of last month's holiday food would be a gross understatement.  I loooooooved it.  I should have married it. 

I hate this out of control feeling.  I've done the Weight Watchers program twice in my life and had success both times.  Then about a year ago I went again for the third time and for some reason, it just didn't click with me that time.  And I continue to grow and expand width-wise. 

If only the losing was as easy as the gaining.  Somebody give me a kick in the pants.

LK 2010 Snowman

First of all, I want to say how much I appreciated all of the comments on my last post. Sometimes I think I'm worrying/thinking/kvetching too much. That most other people are happily skipping through life and what's wrong with me during the moments when I can't skip along with them. And then I toss something out into the blog world and you all respond that sometimes you're not always skipping either. It sure makes a girl feel good.

On to stitching!  I finished the 2010 LK Snowman yesterday. I liked this little snowman as soon as I saw him. And looking at this will always remind me of the really lovely day that Dave and I had in Vermillion, Ohio.

He's stitched in most of the recommended threads, on 32 ct. Natural Belfast.  Finished with the LK's little embellishment kit, but I don't think it was necessary.  Who doesn't have a few Mill Hill beads and a couple of buttons in their basket somewhere?

Last night I dusted off Live, Love, Laugh again. It was missing me.  It was put so far away over the holidays that it was sending me post cards.  Here's where I left off in December:

And here's where I am now.

True confession time:  I'm not too in love with the Belle Soie silks that I'm using.  When I park my thread to begin a length, it's leaving bits of color behind.  It's also a bugger to anchor the threads when I'm finished.  Coverage is only so-so.  I wish I had stitched this with some of Vikki Clayton's premium silks instead.  I think that will be my go-to source for silks from now on.

Finally, I'm going to ask you all for a favor.  My daughter Colleen has decided to start a blog.  She's put up a couple of posts and she's experimenting with Blogger.  I think she has a good beginning.  Could you pop over there, maybe give her some encouragement?

I'm glad that she's started this.  She needs to write, write, write.  But not about her mother.  That's definitely a one-way street.

Nest. Empty. Peculiar.

My two college students have both just ended their month-long Winter break.  In some ways it felt VERY long, and in other ways it felt quite short.

Lately their departures leave me with this odd feeling. It's a peculiar feeling of regret and relief.  Relief because our life settles back into its quiet, normal pace again.  (Tell me I'm not the only one worries all the time that they go out and who doesn't sleep well until everyone is back in the house and settled into their beds) And relief because I have so much less work to do when they're not here.

But there's that feeling of regret, too.  I mean, I love them and I raised them to be independent young people.  But I feel a twinge of regret because, when they're here, there are times that I feel appreciated and needed.  I relished that part of being a mom, and as they get older I feel it less and less.  And regret because there are times during their breaks that I get a little bitchy and I know I could be nicer.  Nobody's perfect, and there were times that they actually deserved smacks in the head, but still....I could let more things roll off my back.  And I feel regret because both of my kids can be so darn entertaining, and I miss the laughs we have when they're not here. 

What sometimes surprises me is that I get that same feeling when I visit with my mother.  That feeling of regret and relief.  I wonder if she feels it, too. 

Enough soul searching.  I'm off to stitch.  That little snowman is still waiting for me!

Snowman and a boring work story

I should be folding clothes, running the sweeper, and loading the dishwasher. But NOOO.  Here I am prowling the internet!  I should also be stitching, because I have this little thing sitting on the table next to me. He really needs to be finished.

I haven't had much luck in my office. If I had my wish, I'd just pull a dump truck up to the window and start tossing things out. Not my stitching things!  Just all of the work -related paper.  Sometimes I think that working as a bookkeeper has more to do with corralling paper than anything else.

Speaking of work, so here's a story.  (Skip this if you'd like.  It's probably only interesting to my fellow bookkeeping and accounting friends) Last week I was working at the auto body shop and I sent a rent check to a fellow who owns one of the buildings.  I thought it was a little unusual that the renter had sent an invoice for rent, but whatever.  So I wrote the check, addressed  the envelope to the renter, (using the address on the invoice), and dropped it in the mail.  (Remember - the bookkeeping system that the body shop was using before my arrival was kind of rough.  They didn't keep vendor addresses in their system.  They hand addressed every bill payment.)

Several days later, the renter still didn't have the check.  So when I went into the office yesterday, I called him.  Told him I had sent the check a week ago and used the address on the invoice, which I read off to him.  He kind of flipped on me.  "I haven't been at that address for 15 months.  And that address is NOT on my invoice. It CAN'T be on my invoice.  I have an excellent bookkeeper.  She's a bookkeeper by trade (whatever the hell that means) and she could never have made the mistake of sending an invoice with the wrong company address."

I was thinking - Dude.  Really?  Do you think I made up this address just to screw with you?  Or are you insinuating that I'm an idiot because your bookkeeper is incapable of errors?  In that case, I'm going to come over there and punch you in the nose. 

But instead I said, "How about if I just fax the invoice over to you so that you can see for yourself?  And I'll call the Post Office in your ex-town and see if I can't track the check down, and if they didn't forward it to your new address, I'll write you another check."  Of course they had returned it because the forwarding order had expired.

So I called him again, to tell him that I'd be sending him a new check and he got all snippy again.  And me - sometimes I really should keep my mouth shut - I said, Hey, it's easy for your bookkeeper to miss something like this.  You think you've changed all of the necessary fields in a customers account and sometimes you just miss something.  And - (here's where I should have shut up) -It's really not a big deal.  Ho boy.  That didn't go over well.

Maybe I need a course in Sensitivity Training for Bookkeepers.

All's well that ends well, though. The body shop owner eventually called him.  They traded bawdy and dirty comments and then everyone was happy.  He came to the body shop to pick up his check and was all smiles.  And because I mentally pictured him with a sore nose, I was happy, too.

One is the loneliest number

This is the real reason that I was cleaning my office. I've been hunting high and low for the other piece of this scroll frame.  To tell the truth, I can't remember the last time I used this size rod.  And it's making me nuts.  It's as if it got up and walked away.

Come out, come out wherever you are!

Retreat Love

When January rolls around, we start dreaming about getting away.  My husband and I start thinking of places we'd like to go and things we'd like to see.   Let's see...you've got your warm beaches and sparkling sands.  You've got your cruises to exotic destinations and glittering ocean water.  And those are all fabulous.

But I can't wait for this!  In April I'm headed to Rock Springs 4H Camp for three nights of stitching fun with my friend Judy and some of her friends, where we'll work on a project by Belinda of Blue Ribbon Designs. Belinda has just posted a photo of the camp piece.  And now I'm counting the days!

Back to getaways, though.  If I had lots of time and money, I'd grab Dave and head to Palm Springs to see some awesome houses, like the Elvis Honeymoon house, the Elrod House (better photos here), and Sinatra's Twin Palms.

After my stitching retreat, of course.  A girl must have her priorities.

Catching up from back in December

I know that you're all more interested to know about the owner of the underpants than you are to read about my needlework. Sorry to disappoint you, but my daughter has been away for a couple of days, so the mystery will continue for a bit longer.  I thought about asking my son, but then decided that it would be way too creepy.  Evidently my internal creepiness monitor thinks that posting about the underwear is ok, but actually talking face to face about them is somehow much creepier.

Moving on...

I didn't finish-finish any ornaments for my little tree this year, so thank goodness for my good friend Barb!  When we met for lunch in Wooster back in December, she gave me this sweet little ornament.  It's so great because I actually had wanted to stitch this myself, too, but knew I'd never get to it.  A few years ago, I decided that Barb and I were living parallel lives and this just goes to show that it's true.  Thanks again Barb!

While my mom and other various guests were here, I attached the cording to my Santa pillow of the year. I'm not stitching these in any meaningful order.  It's usually the Santa that appeals to me the most at the time.  So here's the front:

And here's the back! Not Christmasy fabric, but instead I had some small sunflower motif fabric leftover from another project.

Finally, a very old seasonal sampler series that I finally mounted and popped into a frame.  I stitched this about 20 years ago.  I'll try to dig up some info about it, but I can tell you now that it's stitched with DMC on Summer Khaki Aida.

Today my project will be to clean this nasty office.  If you looked at my home office right now, you'd never, ever hire me as your bookkeeper.  Dave can't fire me because he's married to me, but anyone else would probably kick my butt to the curb.  It's not even one of those good kind of messes, where I can say to people, "Don't touch anything!  I know where everything is!"  Instead, it's one of those messes that I've created because I can't find anything, so the entire place gets tossed while I look for one sheet of paper. 

So today is the day.  If you don't hear from me for several days, please send the fire department with a ladder and hatchet.

I've been searching my mind

It's what happens when I've been gone from my blog for a while.  Early this week I was thinking that I was going to post again, but I let myself all worried about what I should write.  Sometimes a catch-up post feels too overwhelming.  And to tell the truth, I became very bored with everything.  So then I don't write anything at all.

Well, what happened this morning to change my mind?  A huge inspirational moment.

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Wait for it.
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I found stitchy underwear in my house!

I was in the kids' bathroom this morning.  I shut the door and lo and behold these underpants were behind the door and on the floor.  I blinked a couple of times thinking, "Hey, that looks like something I would stitch.  What the....?  It's underwear!"

Now I don't know who these belong to.  Maybe John's girlfriend, who was here for several days.  Or maybe they belong to Colleen and in that case I'm wondering she if doesn't harbor some secret desire to do some needlework.  Maybe I'll pursue that...tell her that this how I know she secretly wants to stitch and drink tea and watch several episodes of Judge Judy with her mother. 

But more importantly, I thought - Finally!  I have something post-worthy!

(I actually did have second thoughts about posting this, only partly because my daughter seems to be following my blog now and I was thinking that she might get embarrassed.  But then I decided that anything left on the bathroom floor is fair game.  And now maybe my bathroom floor will be less....cluttered.)

Well, in my time away from my blog, I missed posting the January Stitching Bloggers Question and I didn't add a December favorites page.  I can't make any promises about the Question this month, and since I was away so much in December, I probably won't write a favorites page, either. I hope to get back into the swing of that soon, because I enjoyed doing it.  


Off to watch the Pitt game.  Yes - the coachless Pitt football team.  I'm too sad about that.  


Have a nice weekend everyone!

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.

Add caption

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!