My Stitchalong

This weekend MJ, the kids, and I went to visit my cousin, Anthony, his wife, Sarah, and their kids. Sarah and I e-mail back and forth a bit and we follow each others blogs, so I cdonsider her a friend. It was their son's third birthday and we were invited up for the party. I am so glad that I went. I got to see family that I have not seen in a while and it was so nice to sit and catch up with everyone. As we were leaving the party to head back to our hotel Sarah and Anthony said that they had something to show me. In their garage they had these two tables. Sarah told me that they were both sewing machines that had belonged to my grandmother, who passed away a few years ago. Anthony said that neither one of them worked, but that if I wanted one of them, he could tinker with it to make it run, clean it up so it looks nice, and bring it down to me. I was so happy!!!!! I can't wait to get it. I told MJ that we had to find a place to put it because I definitely want it. ...

We have a finished basement in our house and when we had it finished the contractor put a big window in. The idea being that if we were down there and a fire, or something catastrophic happened upstairs and we could not get out by going up, we could get out through the window. The area right outside the window is pretty deep. One night MJ comes upstairs looking for the flashlight and says to me, "I think we have a problem." I hate when he says things like that because I think of all of the worst, and really expensive, things that could go wrong. So, I follow him back down to the basement, and there in the window well are four tiny, baby bunnies. Apparently they hopped under the back deck and right into the window well. The noise MJ was hearing was the little guys trying very hard to hop out. The next morning we had to figure out how to rescue them. We needed a way to carry them through the house and back outside to where we thought the Mama Bunny was. The only solution tha...

It's official. I am now the mother of a kindergartener . Z had his pre -school graduation last Friday and it was so cute. All these little ones, dressed in caps and gowns, singing about moving up to kindergarten. As I was saying good-bye to the teachers at the school it was kind of sad for because I knew I was not going to be going back there. When M graduated from there, Z was a few months old and I knew that I would be back eventually, but this time, well, that part of life is over and now I have school aged kids. Wow! It's a pretty exciting thought. I finished page 13! Seven more to go! The light at the end of the tunnel is brighter than the light at the beginning, if that makes any sense. I was looking at the pages I have left to do and I was thinking to myself, "Is that all?" It's so nice to feel such a sense of accomplishment from my stitching. When I started it I thought I would never finish, and now look at me! Seven pages from immortality! ...

No pictures today. Just the rambling of a stitching addict. I can report that I finished stitching the panda for my cupcake and I'm almost done with page 13 of my sampler. Woo hoo !! This afternoon while Z was at gymnastics I started the new LHN piece that I had kitted up and put together. I tea dyed a piece of material and it came out pretty good, if I do say so myself. As I said in my last post I ordered the HAED panda design that I saw over the weekend. I have been anxiously tracking it ever since I got the e-mail that it was shipped. MJ called me from work this morning to let me know that it would most probably be delivered today. He was right. OMG !!!! It's 69 pages!!!!! And the floss list is two and a half pages long!! And the instructions say to do it on 25 count fabric over 1. I've never done anything over 1 in my life! I took one look the chart and the first thing that came to my mind was, "I'm NEVER going to be able to do this." I...

I belong to several cross stitching message boards and I've made many friends through them. Many of them have come to know my weakness for all things panda. So, this afternoon, after my bicycle ride with M and Z, I'm sitting on the couch, watching the Yankee game, minding my own business, when on one of the boards I see a post for my attention. Hmmm...what could that be about? Well, this was what I found: http://www.heavenandearthdesigns.co...roducts_id=1602 Isn't that beautiful?? After I finished oooing and aaahing over it, the first thing I HAD to do was call Diana at the Lazy Daisy to see if she could get it for me. Something tells that that this is going to make it into my stitching rotation and soon!! What did I say a couple of posts ago? I need a new start like I need hole in the head? My stitching bag is getting heavier and heavier these days. I think I need to get something finished before I get something new started.

Well, it's a rainy Friday here on Long Island. For the last week I have been running around doing all kinds of errands, bringing packages to get delivered, grocery shopping, laundry, cleaning. Ugh!! My version of a homemaker's nightmare. So today, with Z in preschool and the house quiet, I decided to take the time and do nothing but stitch this morning. It was just what my tired soul needed. A glass of iced tea, two "West Wing" re-runs (I REALLY miss that show), my recliner, and my sampler. Not a bad way to spend the morning, especially when there is progress to be shouted about from the roof tops! Page 12 is history!! Woo hoo !! The next part that I'm going to work on is the rest of the big "C" that is in the center. For some reason, this project never seems to get old. I've worked on other things and there are times when I just can't look at it anymore, but this is not one of them. I take breaks from it every few weeks, but I always come back ...

I have finally gotten around to taking pictures of the two new framed pieces that I got back from Lazy Daisy a couple of weeks ago. Actually, we just got around to hanging them on the walls, too. For anyone new to my blog, I will make this confession once again - I'm a chocoholic. There. It's out there in the open for all to read. And I want nothing to cure me. I need my sweet addiction. Someone sent me a gift certificate to 123 Stitch, and this was one of the pieces that I bought: I'm actually thinking of making a chocolate wall in the dining room, much to MJ's chagrin. He just smiles at me, and says "Yes, dear" as he's walking away from me, shaking his head, wondering how he got himself into this mess. This is by Sue Hillis. I loved it because it was a monochrome design and was a pretty quick stitch: It's also on 28 count evenweave called Strawberry Sundae. I think the floss was Bordeaux. This little fellow has been my project to take with...