Waiting for the plumber

And waiting.  And waiting.  I could be here all day.  The hard part about the waiting is wanting to fill my time with something productive, but feeling so distracted that I can't wrap my head around anything.  The good thing is that he has promised to arrive today and that means I may get my kitchen sink back again!  One of the hardest parts about this kitchen remodel has been washing dishes in the basement.  And not being able to strain pasta or noodles near the stove.  Ah, little sink.  How I miss you!

This catch-as-you-can food situation has been killing my healthy diet, too.  My WW weigh-in was not exactly a cause for celebration last week.

I'm blaming it on the plumber.  Works for me.

Anywho...Today starts National Blog Posting Month, when we join a group and promise to write a blog post every day.  You can read more about it here.  BlogHer offers us a daily writing prompt - a nice jump start when your writing battery is dead - and I liked today's prompt, so I'm going to run with it.

What is your favourite part about writing?


Well, I'll tell you.  My favorite part about writing is expressing what I really mean.  When I write, I don't just type away and hit "publish" or "send".  I write, I backspace, I cut, I paste.  And when it's all done, I like to think that what I've just produced for someone to read is pretty darn close to what I intended.


I wish I could tell you that my conversational skills were as well thought out.  I say the wrong things all the time.  Oh no...I don't just screw up words.  That would probably be kind of funny in a self-deprecating humor kind of way.  I just say stupid, inappropriate stuff.  I say things that make me wish there was a three second delay as a part of my conversation, just so I could suck back whatever dumb thing I've just said.  There's nothing like saying something that you think is a joke and watching someone's blank face just stare back at you.  Or telling a story that you know you never should have been let up for air.  Or rambling.  You know, when you realize you've just rambled on way past your original point and you see your conversational partner's eyes are totally glazed over. 


Then there are all the things that go unsaid.  The responses that form in my head that never make it to my mouth, and I know I'm thinking them and I should say them, but then I weenie out.  Or the times I go totally blank.  I'm saying nothing because I have nothing and I really wish I had something!


It seems like I can't strike a balance between saying too much or saying not enough. Seriously, sometimes I think I'm a walking social disaster.  But I don't feel that way when I write and that's my favorite part about writing.

Some running about

I feel as if this fall has passed by me like a speeding train and that would be ok except I'm not moving as fast as the rest of my world seems to be.

My kitchen is still torn apart and that means the dishes are in the living room, miscellaneous everyday food (like cereal and coffee) and the microwave are in the dining room and all of the pots, pans and pantry foods are in a bedroom.  Dishes are washed in the basement laundry sink.  

I can't stand it.  The clutter is driving me bananas!  It's also probably why I'm not stitching much.  I can't settle down.  I need outer order so that I can have inner calm.  I'll bet many of us are like that.

I do have some stitching photos to share with you, though.  A couple weeks ago I went to the Ohio County Country Fair in Wheeling, WV.  Some of my Friday stitching friends had entered pieces in the fair, both for judging and for display, and I was excited to see them all. Here are a few photos that I took with my iPhone.  The pictures I took are rather blurry and dark, but you get the idea.  And you can see many more photos (and they are much more clear) on this Facebook page

Mirabella's bride, stitched on aida by our friend, Beth

An AMAZING blanket or throw, stitched by a woman from the Wheeling EGA.  That's all surface embroidery.  The detail is fabulous.

You might recognize a bunch of my samplers.  Or maybe not, because they are from long, long ago.  One of the oldest samplers I entered, from 1987, won a blue ribbon.  And do you see the little gingerbread house and the smalls by it?  Those were stitched by our friend, Tammy.  The framed Lego piece was stitched by a young boy, and he won a blue ribbon and best of show in the children's category.

I wish I had a better picture of this.  Our friend Colleen entered this in the stamped embroidery category and it was beautifully done.  We had to step in extra close and we still couldn't tell it was stamped, except that the fabric was obviously not an evenweave.  Her stitches were gorgeous.  Some might even say "exquisite".

Best in Show

This pillow won a blue ribbon (although I don't know its category?) And it won Best in Show in the entire needlework category.  The fabric is hand-dyed somehow - it had a pile like velvet, but I don't know for sure without having touched it.  All of the stitches are running stitches - exactly like you would see in a quilt.  I'm not quite sure why this wasn't entered with the quilts.

I mean, it was cool and all, but not what I'd call needlework?  So I'd be very interested to know the thought process of the judge.  Was it because it was an original design?  All of the other entries were from kits or stitched from charts - with our own spins, of course.  Honestly, I'm not dissing the entry.  I'm only curious.

Anyway, we had a fun afternoon at the fair.  Stitched a bit, talked a lot and enjoyed seeing some wonderful stitching and quilting.

My other travels have been to watch my daughter's cross country meets.  She's having a wonderful season, including a great finish at the All Ohio Meet a couple weeks ago.  Despite strong, knock-you-over wind and driving rain, she still finished her 5K in 19:06.  Now the women are running 6K's, in preparation for the conference and regional meets. 

And thanks to the generosity and mad camera skills of other Wooster Cross Country parents, I'm able to share a couple pictures of my daughter with you. If I had to rely on my own abilities, you'd see pictures that look like this:

Miscellaneous girls running.  Who are these people?  Not my daughter.  Not even any Wooster girls.  I am one terrible photographer.

Instead, because someone else arrived (who could actually operate a camera), I can share these pictures from their recent home meet in Wooster:

Almost smiling?  Really?

Phew.  She makes me tired just to look at her.

I'm getting ready for a fun stitching girls' trip to Erie next weekend. Last year we all prepared an exchange gift bag with things in in that reflected our hometowns. This year we decided to do an exchange from the JCS ornament issue. Since we all were going to buy the issue anyway, we each chose one ornament from the magazine and we're creating 5 kits to exchange with each other. Doesn't that sound exciting? We had the option of kitting it as charted or giving it our own spin.  I'm super interested to see our kits!  I've stitched up my ornament, but I can't show it to you until after we've done our exchange.  It's killing me to have a finish that I can't show you!  Especially since it's my only one in almost forever...

Mystery solved

 Or as Inspector Clouseau used to say, "Mystery Solve Ed."

Well my dears, your wait is over.  There were many guesses, and some of you were quite close, but eight of you hit the answer right on the nose.  Or some other body part...

Eight of you correctly guessed that this:

Is actually an old suppository mold.  Way back when, pharmacists did a lot more compounding.  Pills, ointments, salves and syrups.  And obviously, suppositories.  I remember that Dave's uncle made his own diaper rash cream and that stuff was miraculous.  He called it Binns Ointment.  A few pharmacies are still compounding, but very few.  Ahhh. The good old days. When the pharmacist didn't have to spend 7 of his or her 8 hours a day on the phone with insurance companies.

Anyway, this morning I popped eight names into this pretty little bowl.  It was also one of the few bowls I could find this morning.  Have I mentioned the words "kitchen remodel" lately?  Anyway -

And the winner was:

When did my hands get so wrinkly? 

So Astrid, I'll drop you a line soon and you'll be getting a small gifty from me in the near future! 

I'm also going to send a little something to Barb, because she was the very first correct guess. 

Thanks everybody, and I hope you had some fun!

Big happenings

YAY!  My kitchen remodeling will begin this Tuesday!

UGH.  I have to empty my kitchen and prepare for this.  I've already started by moving my decorative things and some of the kitchen furniture.  Today I'll be emptying the cabinets, starting with the one under the sink.  Ho Boy....it's scary under there.

So if you don't hear from me tomorrow, please send an ambulance.

And a HazMat crew.

A most unusual scissor frog

Here's a bit of fun!

My husband brought this thingy home from work about a month ago, so it's been sitting around my office for a while.  The  other day I was looking at the many flower frogs that are holding my blogging friends' scissor collections and I thought of this and then a light bulb went on.  Hey - scissors!  I think it's interesting in a funky, antique-y sort of way.

So here's the bit of fun...Dave said, "Do you know what that is?"  Nope.  I didn't.  Then he told me and I was quite surprised.  Well, I thought it might be fun to have you all guess about this, too.  Send me your guess by Monday, Oct 10 and someone will win a little prize from me!  If more than one person guesses correctly, I'll draw a name from the correct guesses.  If no one guesses correctly, I'll draw a name from the whole shebang.

Don't guess in the comments. Instead, send your guess to me by email at lakestitcher@gmail.com.  And remember to do it by Monday.

Here are two hints:  1) It came from one of our old pharmacies, and 2) It's solid brass.

Good luck!

The boyfriend and his bike

Thank you, everybody for the prayers and kindnesses you've offered up for my friends.  I hesitated before I wrote about that...I guess I'm glad that I did. 

You know, all through my high school and college years, I don't remember losing any friends to accidents.  And I went to a big high school (1000 in my graduating class) and then a big university.  But my children have lost three young friends to car or motorcycle accidents, and one young woman has extensive brain damage as a result of a quad accident.  It really puzzles me.  These were normal, average, everyday nice kids.  I know bad things happen...but its frequency among these young people has been frightening.

Switching direction here...

Do you all remember the contest that I asked you all to vote in back in the spring, so that my daughter's boyfriend, Montana, could win a contest to pay his entry fee for a mountain bike race in Asheville, NC?  And then the news that he eventually won the contest?  Yes, the swing votes in that contest between crazy mountain bikers seemed to have come from the most unusual source - Stitching bloggers!  Isn't that kind of neat?

So a week or so ago he went  to the Pisgah Stage Race in Asheville and you may be happy to know that he won his part in the bike race. (I know I'm not saying that correctly, but I'm a stitcher, not a mountain biker after all.)  So we're happy for him and proud of him.

If you take a look at his blog - he's been writing about the race - you'll see a couple videos in which he's being interviewed.  The blog and interview language can get a little salty - just to give you fair warning. 

But here's what I was hearing in my head when I watched the video:

Talk, talk, talk, Sweet this, Sweet that.  Talk, talk more.  Single speed, rocks, gravel.  Talk, talk, talk, turning head slightly.  Then...............

WAIT!  Hold on a minute.  Haircut?  Really??  Talk, talk, talk - I'm not hearing any of this anymore.  Just staring at the screen and willing him to turn his head again.  Talk, talk, blah, blah, talk.  Then:  Yes.  Yes.  Absolutely a hair cut.  Well I'll be darned. 

Talk, talk, talk.  Good job.  Congratulations.  Hair cut.  The end.

And they say I'm not a good listener.

Good habits and bad habits

Like most people, I have some of both. But what I'd love to know is:  Why are the good habits so hard to keep and the bad habits so hard to give up?

One of my good habits over the past several years has been keeping my blog somewhat current and up to date.  But lately?  Not so much.  And the longer I stay away, that harder it is to write.  So I keep waiting for that epiphany-like moment.  You know, like a spark of brilliance during your real life that practically yells, "Blog about this!"  Well, calling it brilliance may be taking it a bit too far, but you get my point.

So it looks like you're going to be forced to read about my nonbrilliant moments. 

I've had some highs and some lows this month.  One of the highs has been shopping for campers with my husband.  Yes.  Campers.  Perhaps you've been reading here for a while, and so you're thinking, "Hmmm, she's never mentioned camping before...".  Well, except maybe for Stitch Camp, which isn't camping at all except that sometimes there are lots of S'mores involved.  And I know it sounds crazy, that two people who have never, ever gone camping have been shopping for a camper, but that's been part of the fun. It's like we're on a special assignment together and we're having a ball.

I don't know what it is that we're finding appealing about living in 200 square feet of space for a few weeks at a time, but the appeal is certainly there, so we're just going with it.  There's probably some deeper psychological meaning to it all...But I'm certainly not going to over think it.  That'd be one of my bad habits.

One of the lows has been that our friends lost their young son in a car accident two weeks ago.  It hit us and our neighborhood pretty hard - so, so sad.  It really shook us up.

Stitching has been kind of hit or miss, but I did manage a small finish.  This was a nice little fall project.

From Crows and Pumpkins, by Annie Beez.  DMC floss and some kind of blue linen

And I'm still working on my Antiqued Sampler.  My goal for my last French Knot Friends stitch night was to finish one area of over-one lettering, and yes, yes I did!

This part was easy to finish.  In fact, it was delightful!

If you're reading this from West Virginia, Western PA or Ohio, you may be interested in seeing the Ohio County Country Fair this coming weekend.  One of my stitching friends is a member of the Wheeling WV EGA, and they've been instrumental in gathering needlework for judging and/or display for this fair.  So Deb convinced some of us to enter our stitching in the fair and I've entered a piece or two.  If you go, my pieces should be easy to spot, what with my tendency to plaster my name all over everything the way samplers usually have space to add your name or initials.  Even better, there will be an ice cream tent!  And I'm going to bet there will be Kettle Corn (sigh...yet another bad habit of mine)

Fields, forests and flowers

Where have I been lately? Well, it's cross country season...

So I've been cheering in fields.

Cheering in the forest.

And cheering in the flowers.

But mostly I've been driving the little red station wagon around Ohio.  And working.  I'm in the middle of a very busy time for work.  (Pooh...) Sadly, I haven't been stitching.  And that really bums me out because I have so many great autumn designs kitted up and ready to go!  Maybe once things settle down a bit, I'll find some time to sit in my stitching chair.

This sampler may outlive me

Since the Life Expectancy quiz has put a period at the end of my life at age 95, I'm starting to question if I'll ever finish this monster. This large round motif ate up a significant part of last weekend.

That was the last round motif. All of the rest are more straightforward. Oh...do you think I'm implying that I'll finish it quickly? Well get that thought right out of your heads. Unless I suddenly become a deposed queen who gets to sit in a dreary tower with her attending ladies all day and nothing else to do but say "woe is me" and work on my needlework, I think we're looking at several more months before I can put this in the FINISHED pile.

Stitch night was a good night for working on Antiqued Sampler. All of the silliness didn't make for accurate counting, though, so I only finished the plant on the left.

The plant on the right was counted and ripped, counted and ripped. And so on. But its little base is finally in the right place and it's ready to rock.

See that cute pinkeep?  It's from Colleen, one of my Friday stitchers.  She brought them back for us when she went to the Celebrations show in Nashua this past spring and it's so darn cute.  It's mostly paper crafted, in case you paper-crafting readers were wondering.  That makes it very lightweight and I take it everywhere.  Also, you'll see that Colleen's name up there has a link associated with it.  So if you click on her name, you'll see that it leads to her blog!  Yes!  Another stitcher enters the blog world!  And a Pittsburgh stitcher at that!  So please pop over there and say hello and admire her stitching.  Especially the two SB stockings that she's just recently finished.  They're beautifully done and bless her for finishing eight of them.  Yes.  Eight.  With minimal cussing.

I'm so looking forward to our Labor Day weekend.  Dave and I plan to go where the wind blows us all weekend.  Even if it just blows us to our own front porch, that'll be just fine by me. 

I hope the wind blows all of you to pleasant places this weekend, too.

What are you, Amish?

Odd title, I know.  Read on.

Friday night's stitch group was loaded with over-the-top silliness and I haven't laughed that hard or that much in a long time.  When I'm laughing really hard, I'm not a big "Har-Har-Har" laugher.  I'm a body-shaking, tear-producing, silent laugher.  It's like the giggles start and then I can't stop and it just comes on me in waves. 

And there wasn't even any wine...

Anyway, because I had a long drive home, I thought about our conversations and our stitching for at least a solid hour and I went over again in my head everything that was said and all of the beautiful pieces being stitched.

Is this a trait unique to women?  It seems to me that after men leave each other, it's as if a door shuts in their head and whatever conversations they had are completely over.  Women, on the other hand, (or at least the women I know), will still be thinking about and replaying those conversations, sometimes for days. 

But that's a discussion for a whole 'nother day.

Getting back to last night... what I was going over in my head as I drove home, was the way that all of my stitching friends seem to get along.  Large groups or small groups, or even just two people sitting in a cafe with their stitching...we are so darn congenial.  Of course, every now and then - actually, very rarely - I run into a stitching person who makes me want to stab myself with a dull needle.  But honestly, in the past five years or so, since I've discovered the fun of stitching in groups, I've only met one person at a retreat who drove me crazy, and that's because I was spending the whole weekend with her and she never shut up.  Not even once.  It was five years ago and I can still remember every detail of her life.  Because she told us all, loudly and repeatedly. Over the course of the entire weekend. 

Sorry...I've veered way off my intended course.  Again.

SO - This has been on my mind for a long time, I've been thinking about WHY our stitching groups, large or small, work so well. Why do I treasure all of these interactions with stitchers?  They are all so diverse.  Some I see one at a time.  Some I see thirty at a time.  Some I see regularly.  Others I get to see once every couple of years.  Others I've never seen at all, except photos on their blogs. 

What is it about having a needle in our hands and knowing that others around us have needles in their hands that helps us get along so easily?  At first I was thinking that any group that gets together on a regular basis will develop this sort of congeniality, but I'm in other sorts of groups and if I really think about those relationships - well, it's just not as easy with them.

This is what I've come up with so far:

1.  One of the first things that stitchers do when they get together is admire one another's work.  Once the basics are out of the way - your name, where you live, etc - the next revelation is always that we want to know what you're working on.  So we all pull out our work and everyone comments graciously and generously.  It's easy to feel comfortable in a group when you've just been complimented.  It makes you feel important and worthwhile and makes your spirit feel generous, too.  I think that this activity - this mutual sharing and admiration - sets the stage for the entire interaction.

2.  In a casual stitching group, no one is made to feel responsible for the happiness of anyone else.  We just bring our own stitching and then your work is your work.  How else can I say this?  We have nothing to prove.  The pressure is off.  Among other groups, sometimes there's an unspoken undercurrent that makes us feel like we have to "do our part" or live up to a certain expectation.  Not so in a casual stitching group.  If you're not moving along quickly on a project, or even if you're blazing through your stash...well, we've all been there.  We may sympathize.  Or we may tease the heck out of you (good natured teasing, of course!)  But still, your work is your work and you don't need to worry about making any of us happy. 

3.  Having those needles in our hands seems to take the pressure off of us to generate conversation if we're not prone to talking a lot or if we just don't have anything to say at the moment.  Silences are a normal, healthy part of the get together.  How many groups can we say that about? 

4.  And when we're not silent, I've found that the sharing level of stitching conversation can be quite deep.  I used to think it was that we weren't looking each other in the eye and so people were more likely to say things that they wouldn't ordinarily say.  But now I think it's that Numbers 1,2 and 3 set the stage for stitchers to really speak from their heart.  I think it's all about developing that level of comfort so quickly.

So I think that's it, in a very large nutshell.  I'd also be curious to know what the rest of you think.  What dynamics make your group work?  And I use the term "group" loosely.  Define it however you'd like..an online group, a big organization or a buddy or two that you see occasionally.

And as for my title?  Ahhh.  It's just what happens in such a diverse group.  Sometimes someone will tell a story from their background and it's a little foreign to all of us, like the story one of the stitchers was telling us about a situation on her family farm.  So the group listened and nodded politely and we tried to understand it, because we genuinely like this woman and she's very sweet and interesting.  But just like the saying goes, "there's one in every crowd" who will speak up and say something that we were probably all thinking, but she put it out there in a funny way. 

"What are you?  Amish?"

And I dissolved into pee-my-pants laughter.  

I'm sorry...I simply can't do that story justice.  But it was hilarious.

One of those online tests

I get a Kim Komando newsletter every day, and a few days ago she had a link for calculating your lifespan.

It says I'll live to be 95.  Well, then.  I should have 40 years left.  So I had better get stitching.

More stitches in Antiqued Sampler

Finished the cute little row of crowns.

Added a bird

And renewed my love of bargello stitch!

Well, I sent my daughter off to her college this past Saturday.  Now the Great Fall Room Cleaning begins. 

You know, I never wanted to be one of those moms who said "no" all the time.  But I always felt like I was.  I'd be out with friends and maybe we'd be shopping and their kids would want this, that or the other thing.  Clothes, souvenirs, toys.  You know the stuff kids want.   And I was all, "No.  No.  Maybe later.  That's too expensive.  Not now.  No."  I spent years feeling like the bad mom.  And now that they are moving out, taking what they want and leaving me to deal with the rest, it's quite clear to me that my children have had way more than they ever needed.  How else can I explain the mountains of stuff I pull from their rooms and donate to St. Vincent DePaul every year?  Stuff that was oh-so important back then, but is only so much clutter now? 

Honestly, where does a parent draw the line?  And I'm not blaming the kids.  There are many things in there that I bought for them and have contributed to the clutter.  I guess it's just to say that if you read my blog and you're a parent to young or young-ish children, you don't have to feel guilty when you say "No" sometimes.  Don't worry.  When they go to college, you'll still have lots and lots of boxes to take to charity.

Tis the Gift and Dandy Dreams

Both are back from the framers!  Now I have some major rearranging to do on some walls.  But that's ok...there's nothing as delightful as hanging new needlework.

Tis the Gift - La D Da

Dandy Dreams - Silver Creek Samplers

I can scarcely believe that August is almost over.  And yesterday was so cool, not even making it to 70 degrees, it was as if fall had already arrived. 

To tell the truth, I'm glad to see the backside of August. I'm glad that I had some bright moments filled with needlework and my stitching friends, because otherwise, it was not a good month.  Waaaay too much drama for my tastes, and most of it was caused by my crazy neighbors.  They just have too much time on their hands and like to foment trouble.  Whereas most people avoid drama, they seem to thrive on it.  Lucky me, huh?  But school starts soon, and youth soccer will begin and they'll get busy again and then all of their bulls**t will probably end.  Phew. 

Martini Love

I love Adrienne Martini.  Almost any mom or wife can identify with her blog post today.  I love it. 

Of course, the woman in the drawing should also have eyes all around her head so that she could answer the perpetual question that starts, "Have you seen my....?"

Sometimes my Fridays are way too much fun

As a rule, I try really, really hard not to work on Fridays.  Sometimes it can't be helped.  It's just the nature of holding three part-time jobs and having kids (even though they're not little anymore).  I kind of have to juggle things this way and that.  But if I get it especially right, I can have a whole Friday without working. 

This Friday was one of those days and I got to spend the afternoon with two dear friends that I made as a result of blogging, Linda and Carol.  So, so much fun. Lunch, wonderful conversation and stitching made for a perfect afternoon.

Here's a quick aside and then I'll get back to telling you about my Friday.  If you read here, or any blog for that matter, and you don't have a blog but you're on the fence about starting one...just do it!  I've met so many nice people through blogging and made so many wonderful friends - I know you'll have the same experience.  Don't be shy.  And you don't have to be a genius or a world class writer.  (Clearly.  Have you gone thru my archives?  There's some very non-genius stuff in there.  Even anti-genius)  Writing may feel odd to you at first, but after a while it'll start to flow and you'll find it's very easy.  Like I said, just do it.

OK, back to Friday.  Linda had some great projects to show us, including a Hardanger snowman she received as a Fair and Square exchange.  (it's on her blog, if you click on her name up there).  She had started a neat project for an upcoming retreat, too (lucky girl... wish I was going!).  And Carol?  Well, she's a master-finisher when it comes to smalls.  If you've clicked on her name and browsed through her blog, you'll see her fine, fine work.  She let me take a picture...and there are more that she's recently posted over at Stitching Dreams.

Photo is a bit blurry, but her finishing is exquisite.

Then, oh my....look what tried to sneak its way into her stitching bag!  My poor deformed egg!

Please, please take me with you and adopt me and fix me!  I can't take this woman's ineptitude any more!

Ahhh, we had a good laugh.  One of us (ahem...Linda....ahem) started to sing the Sesame Street song, "One of these things is not like the others.  One of these things just doesn't belong..."  Really now. 

Sadly, the afternoon had to end and I said goodbye to these dear ladies.  But I was reasonably close to Michael's, where I had left off some framing a couple weeks ago, so I thought I'd call and see if by chance it was complete.  Not quite yet, but they told me it would probably be ready before 9PM.  Now, I knew that my Friday night group was meeting nearby, so I decided to hang out with them till 9. 

AND I picked up my framing at 9:00 - but I'm saving that for my next post!  Catch you then!

Life is changing...Again!

The swinging door in my house is swinging the other way this month, as both kids have started their treks back to college.  Well, one to college, the other to graduate school at UGA.  And we parents adjust, readjust and adjust again, don't we?

So we helped our son move to Athens, Georgia last weekend.  And when I say I helped, I really mean that I sat in the car and cried a lot of the time.  Oh yeah, I was a big help. "Here...let me help you make up your bed, and soak your pillow with my tears.  But by all means, don't feel guilty about moving away."

OK, I'M KIDDING.  Mostly.  I actually was very weepy.  It felt like such a big move - so far away, and let's face it, when someone spent his entire summer sitting on my couch, doing little else but providing fodder for my blog, he kind of became an household fixture, you know?  Except that John was an endeared and fun fixture.  He's talkative, smart, funny and he's grown into a very pleasant young man.  And did I mention that he can fix things?  Dave and I are hopelessly un-mechanical, so we're not quite sure which gene pool that came from.

Anyway, I'd be foolish to expect him not to go where he has the best opportunities to complete his education and to make his way in the world of work.   (Right?  Tell me I'm right.)  I've always thought that this area and its rural setting made it a nice place to raise children.  And I don't doubt that our schools and teachers and neighbors gave them a great start in life.  It's just a shame that the thing that led us to raise a family here - the rural nature of our county - is the very thing that makes it so difficult for them to remain here.

My daughter moves back to school barely a week from now, too.  This is a move that we're accustomed to though.  And that's not to say that we won't miss her...just that it seems much more normal.  But soon she'll be gone and each time my bare foot lands on some spilled cereal and crushes it into the floor, I'll think of her fondly.  

But what you're really here for is the stitching, right?  And very soon I'll have my stitching chair back in my sole possession again, and I hope to make great progress on every single WIP and UFO in my basket.  (Overly optimistic much?)  Because the only one I'll have to move out of my chair will be Dave and I'm bigger than him, so.....


My framing isn't back yet, but maybe after the weekend?  Meantime, I've stitched a bit on my Eileen Bennett sampler.  So far I've had long-arm crosses, montenegrin stitches and I don't remember what stitches I used in the crown. 

And look what else tried to sneak its way into the photo.  This PS mini card design.  I tried an egg-shaped finish for this PS mini, but did it as a stuffed ornament, rather than using a rigid mat board that was egg shaped.  Yeah....it's not so great.  All I can say is, pity the poor chicken that tried to push out an egg with this odd of a shape.

Chicken:  "Ouch!  What the....?  Why is it so sharp and pointy in places?  That's just not natural.  And what are those strings hanging off of it?  Nurse!  Drugs!  I need drugs!"

Close and Dear

Obviously I don't have one single new stitch of needlework to show you. 

Don't get me wrong - I have a list of projects as long as your arm and they're all staring at me every day as I sit by this computer and do my work.  I just can't get to them.  They're so near, yet so far.

Anyway - we went to the Pirate baseball game last night.  Ordinarily I love going to PNC Park.  It's an awesome ballpark and win or lose, it's usually a fun night.  But last night all I wanted to do was get out of there.  It was nice at first.  Then as the night wore on, it got so doggone hot and the breeze we had felt earlier in the night disappeared.  It felt like all of us in the crowd were just breathing the same air over and over again and I was reminded of my grandmother, who used to say, "Oh my, it's so close in here."

Like people were too close to you.  Like the air in the room was too close to your body.  People just don't use "close" in that way any more.

She also used to call things "dear".  As in expensive.  "Oh no, I can't buy that brand of coffee.  It's too dear."  She would have passed out to see the price of a large Pepsi - $5.75.  Beer?  $8.00.  That's some dear beer. 

So between the dearness and the closeness, we were out of there at the top of the seventh inning.  It also didn't help that the Buccos were losing 10-2...

Who is the mature one here?

Me:  Hey, I bought some of that Dannon greek yogurt you like.

Daughter:  Cool, thanks.

And the next day:

Me:  Did you eat that half container of yogurt I put in the freezer?

Daughter:  Yes...were you saving it?


Me - just barely beginning to whine:  Well, yeah.  I wanted it for my breakfast this morning.

Daughter - feeling contrite:  I'm sorry, I didn't know you wanted it.  I'll freeze another one for you.

Me - in a full whine:  But I wanted it now.  For my breakfast.  And it's gone.


Daughter:  I'm sorry. 

Me - launching into full martyrdom mode:  And by the way, quit eating all the half containers of yogurt anyhow.  I'm obviously saving them for later.  And stop dropping cereal on the floor.  And if you drop a berry, pick it up or it gets squished into the floor and stains it. 

Daughter - who has had enough:  I'm SORRY Mom.  Sheesh, what will you do if I ever do anything seriously wrong?

Me:  Silently hanging head in shame.

It's a good thing the college summer break is almost over.  Even I can't stand myself anymore.

Little finish

Sunflowers? Gotta love 'em. So when my friend Sue sent me this little card, I knew I had to drop everything and stitch it. Doesn't it remind you of my pysanky eggs? Obviously I switched the fabric color...I've never been fond of working on black.  That's PTP Twilight and DMC floss.

And I just dropped off two finishes to be framed last night.  Between the Micheal's framing sale and the Joann's coupon that I had in my hot little hands, I was pretty happy.  The total price was so reasonable, it was like I was back in the 1980's,! 

Don't you wish we had a time machine that could transport us back to the 80's just for needlework framing purposes?  And then I'd come directly back, because everything else about the 80's I could leave behind there.  The clothes, the hair, the music.  And especially crappy Chevy Citation I was driving back then.

Not my car.  Mine was Moronic Maroon and in much worse shape.  I totally hated that car.

Moronic Maroon.  Should that be a thread color?  Did I tell you that I get a thread monthly from Hand Dyed Fibers?  Vicki uses such unusual names for her threads.  The last batch I received were all dragon themed.  Dragon tears, dragon breath, dragon claw, dragon blood.  I love to open those packages and read all of the names.  Of course, the deep, dark sarcastic side of me loves the dark names....like BeWhined, Bitterness, Primordial Ooze, Rue the Night, and my fave - Acts of Violets.

Oh, and speaking of unusual names, we had a new stitcher at our Friday night group last night.  Here name was Rhodabell May Hogbin and she was just a delight.  She brought us her amazing collection of Shepherds Bush stockings and told us how she loved each and every stitch on each stocking.  They really were quite marvelous.

Evidently, she was quite the comedian, too, because the ladies at her end of the table were laughing like crazy at the end of the night.  Which is also very interesting because they're all so hard of hearing.  So if they were only hearing half of what she said and still laughing that hard?  Well, she must be a regular Sinbad of Stitching.

This could be interesting. 

Time to run the sweeper and wake my son, (aka Sleeping Beauty). 

Finishing Sunday

Well gang, I didn't have a porch day this weekend.  I tried to have a porch night on Friday, but the heat was unbearable, even in the shade.  It's been so hot that I've been putzing around and sitting on my butt doing nothing but staring an awful lot and when Sunday rolled around, I still wasn't in the mood to sit and stitch.  So I spent Sunday doing a little finishing and then a LOT of cleaning.  My sewing area is usually a mess to begin with, but then when I start to pull out fabrics and trims and whatnot, I can make it look like a tornado blew through. Let's just say it was a tornado of creativity...

So this La D Da piece had been sitting in my to-do pile for a little while.  It's going to be a gift for someone in my family, but I don't know who that will be yet.  There are two relatives who would like this...

It's difficult to see the trim in this photo, but it's cute and glittery.

The fabric also has a touch of glitter

A BBD design, stitched with HDF's Mountain Meadow and finished as a very simple little pillow. 

Some cool trim sent to me a long time ago from a friend in Germany.  Finally found the perfect use for it!  Backing is just light blue silk.  Man, that was a bugger to work with.  So wispy! And I'm still experimenting with ways to eliminate some of the puckers.  Silk wasn't a good choice for Sunday's experiment.

I've been playing with one of the new PS freebies and should be finishing that tonight, then I think I'll devote time to my Eileen Bennett sampler and to The Sampler that Never Ends for the rest of the week.  The month of August looks ridiculously busy for us, so I'm going to take this time to stitch and believe me, I'm going to enjoy every minute of it!