My Stitchalong

That Time Of Year

2011-12-08T05:31:00.000-08:00

This is a very busy time of year for alot of us. We're trying to get the house decorated for Christmas, we have baking to do, and finishing to accomplish. With that in mind, I thought that I would start this post off with a quite moment. We could all use one, right? So, stop what you're doing, take a deep breath, and look at the colors of nature for a minute.

Pretty sunset, right? I took that the day after Thanksgiving while I was on the back deck grilling. I thought that the colors were so vivid that I could not pass up taking pictures of it so that I can take a look at them and slow down every now and then. Sometimes, that just the thing that we need.

The weekend after Thanksgiving weekend was spent getting our house decorated for the Christmas season. The tree is up, the lights are on the porch outside, my Christmas wall hangings are on the wall, and my ornament tree is showing off my bounty of finished beauties.

Actually, I told MJ that I needed a bigger tree because this one is not big enough for all of the stitched ornaments that I have. I wound up putting some of them on the big tree in the living room. Maybe next year.

Eve since M was about 3 years old I have done some sort of gingerbread thing with him. Either a house, or gingerbread men, or even a gingerbread Christmas tree. Then Z came along and as he got older he wanted to help with the decorating, too, which, as any parent can understand, leads to sibling arguments. One doesn't like how the other wants to decorate it. The quarreling over which candy decorations should go where. It can get tedious. I was wondering what I was going to do this year to try to alleviate that, when I walked into Michael's and the answer was staring right at me! A gingerbread kit with five little houses! And another kit with two mini gingerbread Christmas trees! The answer to my Christmas prayers! M and Z each got two houses and one tree to decorate any way they wanted. I got the fifth house so that no one could argue that one got more to decorate than the other. Brilliant!!

M trying to master the art of using a piping bag. He did not like that part at all!

Z and me with his finished products:

The last of the quilt squares for the baby quilt was finished last weekend, and since I have the material I wanted to make the quilt with I decided to start trying to put it together. I never use a pattern when I make these things. I lay it out in my head and get a pretty good idea of what I want it to look like, then I try to recreate that image on the actual quilt. Much easier said than done, I might add, but this one came out just how I wanted it to.

I just have to add the batting and the back and it will be all done and ready for Maggie Lorraine Yin Luo to come home to us sometime in early 2012.

Lots Of Finishing Going On

2011-11-10T13:01:00.001-08:00

I'm like alot of stitchers out there. I stitch on project after project. There is a never ending supply of things for me to work on. But, I have heard from alot of stitchers who say that their finished pieces end up in a big Rubbermaid tub or something like that, waiting to be framed or finished in some way. That is where I differ. I can't finish stitching something, and then just store it away until I decide what to do with it. There has been alot of finishing going on here lately, so if your ready for yet another picture heavy post, please follow me and read on!!

I finished stitching and beading the Halloween quadrielle with two days to go until the finishing class at the Lazy Daisy. Of all of the people who were at the class, I would say that roughly half of them were still stitching it while they were at the finishing class. I got it put together with the help of the staff at the Daisy, and it was not as hard as I thought it would be!!

The view of the cat side of the project:

And from the pumpkin side:

I had to hang it up high, or else Tiger the Wonder Kitty would just love to get his little paws on all those ribbons and munch on them for a tasty snack.

The Minnie Mouse square for the baby quilt is done:

She was supposed to be bordered in this garish orange, and it just looked weird. I didn't like it at all, so I picked a pretty lavender that I thought would go nicely. It came out much nicer.

This afternoon I was rooting around in my stash closet and I remembered that I still had to finished the Mickey and Minnie ornaments that I made, so I grabbed the supplies for those and plopped myself down in the middle of the floor in my den and tried to figure out how to finish these off.

I had a rough idea what I wanted them to look like, but getting what I wanted actually out of my head is a totally different thing. They are actually not that far off from what I was thinking of.

The best finish of the last few few weeks was one that I didn't even actually do the finishing on! My Nativity table runner came home to me!

I sent it off to Sarah, my cousin's wife, to do the finishing work on this one. I could probably have done it myself, but not nearly as good as Sarah could, and I wanted this future family heirloom done right! I am so thrilled with it! She did a fantastic job on and it I can't wait to have it grace my Christmas table this year!

And, along the way, I created a new stitcher. Sarah became intrigued with stitching after seeing my table runner, and she called me for advice. She went to the craft store and bought herself one of those small Christmas ornament kits. She got it done in a couple of nights, and has already made a trip to the LNS that she has in her area.

Bwaaaahahahahahaha!!!! My evil plan of populating the world with stitchers is coming together!!

What I Did With My Sunday Afternoon

2011-10-17T06:07:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday!! The kids are in school, the husband is at work, and the house is quiet. It's not a bad way to start the week.

I was working on the Halloween quadrielle the other day and realized that I messed it up. You would think that as a 40-something year old mother I would be able to count. Really, what is so hard about counting? Apparently, I need to go back to school because my counting is off on the third square. There is supposed to be a spider web in the corner, like the one in the first square, but it's not going to fit because the pumpkin is over to the right two stitches too many. I'm not quite sure how I managed that, but I did.

In disgust I put the project aside because I have to figure out how I am going to adapt the web to fit. Adaptation is not my strong point. I have to get back to it, though, because the finishing class is in less that two weeks and I have to get the stitching done before then. Sigh.

Is anyone out there thinking about Christmas? I have to start making my list of who I have to buy for and what I want to get them, plus the kids are telling me every other day, "For Christmas I want this," or "For Christmas I want that." I tell them every time they tell me something new that they need to write it down and make a list because if they tell me in passing conversation they have about as much of a chance of me remembering what they want as a snowball has...well, you know the saying.

I (finally) sent the table runner off to my cousin's wife for finishing. Sarah let me know on Saturday that it got there and that she is going to start working in it. When I asked her if she would help me I offered to pay her for her time, but she flat out refused that, saying that we are family and you don't charge family. Well, I wanted to do something to thank her for the help she is giving me, so I thought that I would make her this:

Sarah is an AWESOME baker and around the holidays she bakes and bakes and bakes like there is no tomorrow. When her brother was in Iraq she used to package up Christmas cookies and ship them off to him so that he could enjoy a taste of home while he was overseas. As a thank you I thought I would make her this ornament. Actually, I think I'm going to make it twice: once for Sarah and once for me. Well, that's the plan, anyway. We'll see what I actually get accomplished, but this one will be for her. I have fabric for this with gingerbread men on it that will be perfect for the finishing!

What did I do with my Sunday, besides watch the New York Giants? I pulled out my sewing machine and did a little finishing.

Both of these are LHN ornaments from last year that I stitched, and never finished off. I have one more that I stitched this year that needs to be finished, but when I looked through my scrap box of fabric nothing seemed to go with it. Looks like I will have to make a trip to the fabric store!

As I said in my last post, I am going to be an aunt again, which means that it's time to pull out the baby quilt squares. These are the ones that I finished:

I think that I'm going to re-do Mickey, though. Originally, his border was supposed to be stitched in pink, but at the time I was not sure if I was making this quilt for a boy or a girl, and I was not crazy about the pink, so I changed it to blue. Now that I know that this will be for a niece, and not a nephew, I'm not crazy about the blue. I'm still not crazy about the pink that was supposed to be used, so I'm thinking about purple.

I started the next square, which will be Minnie Mouse.

She's getting there.

I can never seen to the leave the pandas alone for too long lately. I enjoy working on them. I'm on page 16. Only 53 more to go!!

There is a spot on the fabric. Somehow I got orange highlighter on it and I swear that the spot is staring up at me. Laughing! I know that I will eventually stitch over it (that's the great thing about HAED patterns), but I'm still thinking about dabbing it with a little bleach so I don't have to look at it. Or rather, have it looking up at me!

It's time to get started with my week. Have a good one!

I Have Lots Of Obessions

2011-10-11T07:10:00.001-07:00

I'm sure that I'm like alot of people out there that go through phases about things. I am like that with my nails. I've always been blessed with nice fingernails. Even when I was a teenager (many many moons ago!) I had nice nails. Now that I'm older with two kids, I go through phases about taking care of them. I can go for months without thinking twice about them, and then I can suddenly decide that I need to take care of them, almost obsessively. And I LOVE fun colors. Don't get me wrong, I have plenty of reds, pinks, and peaches, and I love them, but then there are what I like to call the "my mother would turn over in her grave if she saw me wearing this polish" colors. I guess since I feel like I am a mother with two kids about the only adventure I get is a wild nail polish color! I bought this at Target the other day.

It's called Texture Polish and this one is made by Nicole by OPI. It's silver over a cobalt blue polish. It's really cool because when you put the silver on it goes on smooth, but as it dries it separates and gives that crackle effect. Last night I was not so sure about it, but I have to say that it's growing on me this morning. It's definitely different.

In my last post I was questioning whether or not I'm actually getting anything accomplished. I felt like I had too many things going at once to get anything done. Well, it turns out that I actually am getting things accomplished:

These are the initials for the treasure boxes for my nieces' birthdays:

J for Juliet:

R for Rebecca:

I think it actually took me longer to chart out the letters that it did to stitch then. Each one was finished in about two hours. I like those kinds of projects!!

You know how when you are so close to finishing something that it's all that you work on so that you can get it done? That was what I was doing this past week in an attempt to get Minnie Mouse finished.

Don't they make a cute couple?

Now I just have to finish them off. I bought Mickey Christmas fabric at Joanne Fabrics a while ago, so it's time to dig it out.

Now that I got these projects done and out of the way it's time to go back to the other things that I've started. The candy cane ornaments have to be worked on and the LHN ornament has to be worked on. So do the pandas and the sampler letter.

Soon I will also have to dig the quilt squares for the baby quilt back out. I found out last week that I am going to be an aunt again! My brother-in-law and sister-in-law, John and Amy, have been working on adopting again from China (they have two biological boys and one daughter that was adopted from China in 2005) and called last week to let me know that they have been placed with a baby. They are still talking about names, but she is coming home to us in the next 6 to 8 months. I had actually started the quilt squares for my other sister-in-law, but there is no sign of a baby yet and Amy saw them and said that she really like them so, the ones that I have finished will go to John and Amy's new daughter (I can't really call her a "baby" because she's going to be two years old in January) and when my other sister-in-law is expecting I will re-do them for her.

I love happy endings!

Am I Getting Anything Accomplished?

2011-10-03T08:05:00.001-07:00

I have a friend who rejoices in reminding me on the 25th of evey month exactly how many months there are until Christmas is actually upon us. And on that day every month I take stock on what Christmas stitching I have actually accomplished this year. While I am WAY ahead of what I did last Christmas, which was very little, I have not gotten much done.

I think that a bigt part of my problem is that I have too many things started at once. I'm not like alot of stitchers out there who can have many WIPs going at once. For me, that is overwhelming. I feel like I have too many things to work on and I can't decide what to pick up, so I end up stitching on nothing at all. Not good, I know. That's why I try to keep my WIP load to three or four, at the most, one of which is usually a big project. That way when I get tired of the big one, I can work on one or two of the small ones and I feel like I am actually working on things and finishing them.

Let's take stock. What do I have going at the moment?

The HAED Pandas;
The HAED Sampler Letter;
A Minnie Mouse ornament;
An LHN ornament;
The candy cane ornaments;
and the Halloween Quadrielle.

Somewhere along the line my stitching rotation grew.

Maybe the new television shows will be of some help. I like to stitch at night while I watch t.v. and have found Pan Am, Terra Nova, and A Person Of Interest are great stitching shows!

I love this little box! The inside is line with velvet and the top has an open space for whatever you want to add to it.
This was the panda that was supposed to be on the baby quilt before I changed directions on that project, and I have been wondering how I was going to use it. This one is mine, but then I had a great idea. I have two nieces with birthdays right around Christmas, and I thought that this would make a great birthday gift for a little girl! I am going to stitch their initial in their favorite color and put that in the top. What could be better than your own, personalized treasure box? I would have loved that as a kid!

From my ever increasing list of works in progress is Minnie:

She's getting there, but she's taking a while, or so it seems to me.

Last year LHN put out a Christmas ornament a month and I bought all of them. And they sat in my stash and did nothing. I'm trying to rectify that this year. This is one of the new ones from this year, but I loved it! When I think of Christmas, not only do I think about the family and friends that we share the day with, but I think about the food and, more importantly, the desserts!

I might actually make this one twice. I think that I am going to send this one to my cousin who is going to help me finishe the Nativity table runner. She does not want me to pay her for her time, and she is a magnificent baker. I thought that this would make a nice thank you for her help.

Can you see the outline of the pegasus wing on the Sampler Letter?

This piece is really strange. While I'm working on it I never really see what I'm stitching. Well, obviously, I can see what I'm stitching, but I don't see the big picture, if you will. It's usually after I stop working on it, take it out of the hoop and take a good, long look at what I've stitched that I can see it in its entirety. And I am usually pretty excited about what I see!

I think for me, that is one of the best parts of stitching. Seeing the whole project take shape from day to day. I love that. Being, not only to make something, but to appreciate the steps that it took to make it all along the way.

It's Monday, the start of another week. Hopefully, I will get something accomplished. Have a good week and I hope you get some stitching time in!

The Holidays Are Coming!

2011-09-22T05:11:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy two weeks here since I last posted, with lots to show. If you're ready for a picture heavy post, read on!!

For those of you who do not know it, I am a foodie. I like lots of different foods and I love to try new recipes. Now that you know this fact about me, I have to admit that I have an absolute favorite food. Ice cream!! I will by pass cookies, cakes, brownies, pretty much any other dessert in order to have some ice cream. Growing up there was always ice cream in the house, and when we were little going to Carvel or Baskin Robbins for a frozen treat was a big family outing. So, when I was browsing a stitching group that I belong to on Facebook and someone posted that she was working on a HAED called "Sundae Delight" I have to admit that I my interest was piqued. Sundae, with that spelling? That means ice cream!

Once I took one look, it was all over. I had to have it! It came in the mail the other day, but I will be strong and will not start it yet. I am thinking that I will wait until I get my holiday stitching done.

Speaking of holiday stitching, there seems to be alot of that going on around here lately. Shall we start with Halloween, since it's the closest?

The Halloween quadrielle that I started at the LNS almost two weeks ago is half way done.

I am enjoying this one alot, but I have a major complaint about it. It's a kit that uses DMC floss. Great, right? Ummmm...no, not really. There are three shades of orange and three shades of green, all of which are only a shade or two apart from each other, and all of which had to be separated. There was no indication how many strands of each color we were supposed to have. To be honest, when we started the project at the shop we spent more time trying to separate the floss colors than we stitched that morning. This is the BIG reason I don't do alot of kits.

Once we got the flosses separated into the right colors (at least we think we did) the stitching has moved along pretty quickly and it's really a cute design. I can't wait to finish the stitching and put it together.

Anyone out there working on Christmas things? This seems to be the time of year that I start ornaments. I got very few done last year and I want to change that this year. So far, I seem to be off to a good start.

I saw these cute little candy cane ornaments in The Stitchery catalogue and I thought they were just what I wanted to work on this year.

I think that I am going to make one for M and one for Z and add their names to it so they each have their own candy cane from Mom. Yes, this was a kit, but at least it was easy to separate the floss colors!

Last year I bought all of the LHN ornaments that they put out. And did I stitch any? Well, I stitched two, but did nothing with them. So that left 10 sitting in my stash, doing absolutely nothing. I pulled out this little snowman to work on.

I got it almost done in a short amount of time. The Christmas tree needs some beads, but I don't have enough of them, so when I head out to the LNS tonight I will pick them up and get this one finished.

The Mickey Mouse ornament is finished! I just love it! Well, I love pretty much anything Mickey, so should we be surprised that I love this?

The red beads were actually supposed to be French knots, but, as we all know, French knots are just not my specialty, so I added the red beads. Much easier for me, and they add a little bit of something pretty to it. I bought adorable Disney Christmas fabric to finish it with, so once I start the Minnie ornament I will finish them both.

Yesterday I had to clear my whole day for the oil burner repair man. They gave me a window when the guy would be here to fix the burner: between 8 and 6! Really? The whole day is my window? So, since I had to plan to be home I decided to spend my time becoming reacquainted with my sewing machine.

Last year I managed to stitch these Christmas trees, but like the ornaments, I did nothing with them. When I was struggling last year these were good for me to stitch because they were one color and required very little deep thought. I had even bought the fabric to make the wall hanging, and it sat there on top of my sewing table, doing nothing. That changed yesterday.

I forgot how much I love using my sewing machine. It was nice to be reminded.

September Is A Beautiful Month!

2011-09-10T15:08:00.000-07:00

Well, for the most part it is, anyway. September brings the start of school. Both M and Z made it through the first week and now it's time to get down to the nitty gritty of the new school year. M came home on the first day and told me that other kids said that his science teacher is supposed to be really mean, but he said to me that he didn't thing that she was. I told him, "It's only the first day of school. She hasn't had anything to get mean about yet!"

This morning my friend, Christine, and I went to Lazy Daisy for a class that the owner was running. The project is called a "quadrielle". I've seem them, but I've never done one before, mostly because I take one look at it and get intimidated about putting it together. When she offered the class we jumped in.

The one for the class is by The Sweetheart Tree and it's a Halloween quadrielle. We started working on the stitching in the shop today and we have to have the stitching finished by October 29, which is when we take it back to the shop for assembly. Whip stitch? How the heck to I do that?

This is the first square. It still needs backstitching and some beading. We'll have to see how this comes out. Maybe if someone walks me through it I will be able to do it successfully!

The HAEDs are never out of my mind for long, either. Sampler Letter is really starting to look like a P!

Page 15 of the pandas with lots more blues:

Think someday I might actually finish this?

Tomorrow is the 1oth anniversary of September 11. M has been talking about this in his social studies class and he came home the other day and asked me what I remember about that day. I told him, "Everything." I told him that he saw all of it unfold right along with me because I was not working on that day and we were together with lots of errands to run that day. I remember being in my car listening to ABC news being simulcast on the radio and a reporter telling Peter Jennings that the South Tower was gone and I remember him asking the reporter, "What do you mean it's gone? What happened?" I had a hair appointment that day, and I remember sitting in the hair dresser's chair when the North Tower fell. The man who cuts my hair was devastated because he had just lost his father and his father was one of the many electricians that did the wiring for the towers when they were being built. He felt like he was losing a piece of his father all over again.

I remember hearing that a plane crashed in the Pentagon and that a fourth plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. I could not believe what I was seeing and hearing. I could not comprehend what was happening to us. When my alarm went off the next morning I remember thinking to myself, "Maybe it was all a very bad dream," but as soon as I heard the DJ's on the radio talking I knew that it had not been a dream. It was real and we had alot of work ahead of us if we were going to get through it.

The people who attacked us that day had very dark souls. While they succeeded in bringing down the towers and in ending the lives of thousands of innocents on that day, I am proud to say that they did not crush us. Our spirit was bruised, but we are recovering. Today there are memorials to the deceased in the footprints of the fallen towers, and New York is building a new tower in lower Manhattan. It will be the tallest building in the United States when it's completed.

I am proud to be an American. No terrorist can ever take that away from me.

We Survived Hurricane Irene!

2011-08-30T05:03:00.001-07:00

Good morning to everyone out there in the blog-o-sphere! It's nice to be here with you. This is a picture heavy blog entry, so if you're ready for all the news that's fit to blog, read on!

I am more than grateful to report that we are back online as the power was turned back on yesterday afternoon. We lost power on Sunday morning around 6:15 and got it back at 4:15pm Monday. That's pretty good as there are more than 300,000 people on Long Island who are still in the dark! There were work crews in the neighborhood yesterday from as far away as Kansas, and new utility poles were flown in from Missouri.

After the storm passed Sunday afternoon we ventured out to see what Irene left in her wake. Our street was relatively untouched and we had no damage to our house, but on the street around the corner it was a completely different story.

Power lines were pulled down

Trees were down

Homes were damaged

I didn't get a picture of it, but there was also a car that was damaged. A very LARGE tree limb fell on it and crushed a VW Bug.

Some people out there might say that the media over hyped this storm, but I can tell you that it was scary. There were tornado warnings on Saturday night as the storm was slowly making its way up the east coast and after it moved through New York, it has caused havoc in some of the New England states, like Vermont. Personally, I would rather have the warnings, evacuation orders, and constant coverage so that I can know what is going on out there.

Hurricane Irene is a memory (although not a distant one, yet) and we now have to worry about Tropical Storm Katia that is making it's way across the Atlantic. Hopefully it will just head out to sea and stay there. I've had enough of storms for quite a while!

School starts here one week from today and it can not come a moment too soon! I'm sure that anyone out there with kids knows what it's like. It's the end of the summer and they SOOOOOO bored. Of course, the beginning of school has its own issues, like getting the kids out the door on time and getting homework finished in a reasonable amount of time. M is good about homework, but sometimes Z gives me a hassle about doing it. We'll have to wait and see what this school year holds for them (and me).

I recently ordered something new from one of the needlework catalogues:

I have wondered about this many times myself. Am I just hooked on a hobby? Or have I crossed the line into insanity? Hmmmmm...something to think about!

Just because there was a hurricane barreling down on Long Island, does not mean that I did not get some stitching accomplished. After all, I needed something to keep my nerves from getting the best of me!

The Mickey ornament is close to finished.

That space on the top of the wreath is for a big, red bow. Maybe someone out there can answer a question for me. This chart called for red French knots for the holly berries by the leaves, but as I have discussed many times here, I am French knot challenged (to put it mildly), so I decided that I would use red seed beads in their place. When I add the beads do I use floss that is the color of the beads, or the color of the background? People seem split on this. Some have said it should be the color of the beads, other say the background. Anyone know?

I did some work on the HAED sampler letter

I love this piece and I love working on it! It's so exciting to see the Pegasus's' wing taking shape with each stitch that I put in. I guess I can say that about any piece that I stitch, but this one seems to be have captured my attention for some reason. It's a joy to work on. Well, maybe all that sparkly floss is not a joy, but certainly looks nice!

Now that the power is back on, I have some catching up to do. Laundry piled up and I have to re-stock the freezer that melted. I had to throw out everything that was in the freezer in the kitchen because, for some reason, it did not stay cold. Ugh!! Throwing out all that food made me want to cry! So, now I have to re-stock so that I can feed my hungry boys. Off to the grocery store I go!

An Early Start On Christmas

2011-08-22T09:11:00.001-07:00

I have my worker bee energy this morning. I made all the beds, took Zach to sports camp this morning, did the grocery shopping, made dinner for tonight and parked it in the fridge, prepared dinner for tomorrow and have that marinating in the fridge, washed the dishes, loaded the dishwasher, and did two loads of laundry. I'm tired and the day isn't even half over yet! I think that I earned my stitching time today.

I think that I am a lucky girl. I am very lucky that I have a craft closet. I know that there are alot of people out there who have sewing and stitching rooms (something I am hoping for after my boys have flown the coop), but I have a large closet all to myself. All of my flosses, fabrics, paints, paint brushes, kits, charts, books, magazines, all of my craft supplies are in that one space, so at least I know where to look for something when I need it. Or I have some place to put things that I'm not quite sure what to do with

Once again, I think that I need to look through the closet more often, or at least remember what I threw in there. I was sitting on the couch yesterday afternoon and suddenly a thought popped into my head (a scary thought, I know): What ever did I do with those little Santas that I started all those years ago? My intention was to stitch these Santas and attach them to a wreath for the Christmas.

As you can see, I never that. When I pulled them out two of the Santas were completely finished. The third just needed the back stitching. So why, exactly, did I just throw them in the craft closet and forget about them? I don't really know what my train of thought was, but I decided that it was time for these Santas to see the light of day again. In less than an hour I had the backstitching on the last Santa done. I added the ribbon hangers and backed them with felt (no one needs to see the messy backs, do they?) and voila! Three more ornaments!! That brings the total of new ornaments to eight, five of which were "found" in the closet. Imagine what I would lose if I had a whole room? Scary thought. Oh, and in case anyone is interested, I started these LONG before Z was even a thought in my mind, and he's 7 now! That's a long time ago!

So what was I working on that got me to thinking about those Santas? Obviously, it was something Christmas. It combines two of my favorite things. Anyone want to take a guess? And believe it or not, it has nothing to do with pandas!

It's Disney and stitching!

Mickey Mouse sitting in the middle of a Christmas wreath, or at least he will be when I get done with him. There is a Minnie Mouse design, too. I started this a few weeks ago, but I decided to spend some time on it this weekend. I did something dangerous last week. I looked through my stash to see what ornaments I have to work on. Going through my stash is sort of like stash shopping all over again, and this got me in the Christmas ornament spirit.

As I said in my last post, I have made the HAED pandas a priority and I did really well, too. I stitched pages 13 and 14 on Friday night.

I decided to take a break from it for a week or so and work on the Mickey ornament and the sampler letter, and then get back to it.

A quick update on my father-in-law! After being in and out of the hospital for three weeks since the end of July, he is finally home!! I'm hoping that the third time is the charm and that this time he is home to stay. My in-laws stopped by yesterday afternoon and he looks better than he has since he went in for the initial kidney surgery. I'm so grateful that he's home. Thank you to anyone who said a prayer or had a good thought for him. I appreciate them all!

A Week Of HAED Stitching

2011-08-10T06:44:00.001-07:00

The middle of another week. August is starting to roll on at a good pace. There are only about 7 more weeks left in the 2011 baseball season and the soon, thankfully, there will be football. I'm getting more than a little annoyed with my Yankees lately. We're 2 - 10 against the Red Sox and our closer, usually Mr. Reliable, has blown two saves in a row. Not good. These are the games where I need to eat chocolate. Lots and lots of chocolate.

Speaking of chocolate, I think that I'm in trouble. M discovered one of my hiding places for my secret supply of sweets. The conversation went something like this:"

M: What are these? (holding a plastic container of previously hidden chocolate)

Me: Chocolate covered caramels.

M: Why are you hiding them?

Me: I'm not hiding them. I just didn't tell you that I had them.

Hmmmm... me thinks it's time to find a new hiding place! It's not like the kids don't have their own junk food to eat. But sometimes, and I'm sure that I'm not the only one out there who does this, there are things that are purchased that are not meant for little people to eat. Yep! Time to find a new spot.

As for stitching, it's been the week of the HAED projects. The first page of the Sampler Letter was finished last night.

See all that white? That's done with sparkly thread and I think that it's going to be the death of me. The chart originally called for white Krenick, which I'm really not a huge fan of. I'll use it if I have nothing to substitute for it, but there is alot of it that I need to use for this project. So, a trip to my trusty LNS was in order. Diana had something called Nordic Gold. It came in all colors. I think that it's easier to use than the Krenick, but it's still difficult. Anyone have any tips for stitching with metallic or sparkly floss?

The pandas also received some attention this past weekend. Still stitching blues. Lots and lots of blues, but I an almost done with this row of pages. I am determined that this project is not going to take me six years to finish!

I am really excited because I have been able to enlist someone to help me with the finishing of the Nativity table runner. My cousin's wife, Sarah, is a fabulous quilter. I can sew. Sarah can quilt. Because this project is so big I have been leery about trying to finish it off. I asked Sarah if she would be wiling to help me and she said that she would! Yippee!!!!! Now, at least, I know it will be done right! This, of course, means a trip to the fabric store to look for fabric for the border, back, and binding. Maybe I can do that this weekend. Ooooo!! Stash shopping!

Something Just Occured To Me

2011-08-08T10:46:00.000-07:00

I was posting a picture of the HAED pandas on the Facebook Group called Serial Started and Disciplined Divas and someone commented that I've made really good progress on this project and that it's working up pretty quickly. I responded that it's not going that quick when you realized that it's taken me more than 24 months to finish 12 pages. And that there are 57 more pages to go before completion. Then I realized that if I continued to work on this project at the same pace (6 pages per year) this project will take me more than 4 more years to finish! YIKES!! That's a long time!

So, I have ramped up my efforts to get stitching on the HAED. The thought of a project taking 6 years to complete is not something that sits well with me for some reason.

So, here is the latest picture of it:

Like I said, 12 pages down, 57 more to go. I've actually made some progress on the next page when I sat and stitched on it Sunday afternoon.

Today my kids and I completed a yearly task: the purchasing of the back to school supplies. I did pretty well, too, and I was able to get almost everything that was on their lists, even the specific brand and model of the scientific calculator that M needed. What could I not find? A red five subject notebook and dividers M's binders. Really? They didn't have red five subject notebooks? I really would have thought that particular item would have been no problem. Oh, well. I guess I will have to go to another store to find those two items.

My FIL underwent his surgery a couple of weeks ago and is home resting. MIL says that he feels okay, but he's having a tough time getting back onto his feet. The doctors told him that it could be as long as three weeks before he really starts to feel better. I'm just relieved that he is home and starting to feel a little like his old self. And the good news is that the tumor that was removed was not cancerous! Talk about a relief! So, there is no need for further treatment for him. He can just concentrate on regaining his strength. Thank goodness for small things!

Happiness Is...

2011-08-04T17:58:00.001-07:00

A finished table runner...

Need I say more?

Disciplined I Am Not

2011-07-31T09:43:00.001-07:00

Long ago, when I was a young stitcher, I was a one project at a time kind of girl. I would start one project, work on that one only, finish it, and move on to the next one. It seemed so simple. Then, as I got older and met other stitchers who were serial starters, I would have two projects started. Then it became three. Do you see where I'm going with this? Lately, it's has not been just that I'm starting new projects. I've been kitting them up like mad and have them stacked on the floor by my stitching spot.

Yesterday I went to Lazy Daisy. This was the conversation between me and my husband:

Me: I'm going to take a ride into Lazy Daisy this afternoon. I want to get some more of those projects bags that I like.

DH: What happened to all of the project bags that you already have?

Me: They have projects in them and I need more to put other projects in.

DH: Why don't you finish the projects that you have in the project bags that you already have and then you would not need to buy more.

Silly husband!! He just does not understand the ways of a stitcher. Kitting up and starting are the best part of a new project!

The reason I bring this up is because the new HAED chart arrived in the mail on Friday. It's a good thing, too, because I was getting ready to stalk the mail carrier looking for it. Like I said, I have a stack of project bags sitting on the floor next to my stitching spot. All of them are ready and waiting to go, but what do I do? I HAVE to start the new HAED. I just have to! It's like the stitching world as I know it will not be able to go on unless I started the HAED. Please, someone out there tell me that I am not the only one like this!

So here it is, in all it's glory. It's pretty isn't it? And, believe it or not, this is a HAED I might actually be to finish in this life time. It's only 6 pages long, and that is with it being printed in the large type. 6 pages!! Compare that to the 69 pages that the pandas are and you can see why I say I might actually finish this one.

Speaking of pandas, I did some of them this week, too. No, not the HAED, but the little Christmas ornaments that I found in the closet last week. I just love these guys!

So, I can say that I have started my Christmas stitching for this year. Christmas in July? This is the earliest that I ever started. Hmmmm...I think I see more kitting up of projects in my near future!!

And on a side note, I want to take a moment to brag about by niece, B. She's is my sister's daughter. My sister, Vicki, is a crocheter, not a stitcher, but she called me a few weeks ago and told me that she and B had been in Hobby Lobby and they came home with a stitching kit for B to try. Could I help her? Just in case you don't know, Vicki lives in Texas and I live in New York. Helping someone with their stitching over the phone is not the easiest thing to do, but I managed to help her get things started and I've asked her over the last few weeks how it's coming along. She's almost done with it! Oh, and my beautiful niece started a second project before the first one was finished. It's nice to know that I have left my mark on the future generation!

Too Early For Christmas?

2011-07-24T16:28:00.001-07:00

Is everyone melting yet? On the east coast, as well as the most of the rest of country, it's been HOT! We've had record high temperatures and humidity. For me, great weather to stay in doors and stitch! And to look for new stash acquisitions. I was over on the 123 Stitch message board last week and someone over there posted pictures of these letters that she was making for her grand kids that were by Heaven and Earth Designs. I thought the ones that she was working on were really pretty, so I surfed over to the HAED site. Not only did I like the letter P that they designed, but they were having a sale!
Did I really need any other excuse to buy something new? I've been waiting for it, rather impatiently I might add, for it to arrive so that I can do a floss toss and decide what color fabric to do it on. I have an orange that I dyed that I think would rock, but I want to see the floss colors that it calls for.

As if I needed any more stash, I recently got The Stitchery catalog in the mail, which I have leafed through several times and have several pages with folded corners. While I was looking through it I was remembered that I several years ago I bought these little kits that were panda bear Christmas ornaments. I knew I had made all of them, except for three of them. They are supposed to spell out the word "joy" and I thought that they would be something easy to pull out and maybe work on. So, through the stash closet I looked for this bag with the panda kits in the. Not only did I find the ones that I had not started, but I found two ornaments that were completely done!

The only thing they needed was their ribbon hangers and they are ready to hang on my ornament tree this Christmas season. Maybe I should go thought the closet more often!

Since I pulled out the bag I decided to start the final three ornaments. They are small so they will work up quickly, and these are great take along projects.

You can even start to see his little body sitting on the J, and that is only after about an hour of stitching time.

That light at the end of the tunnel is growing brighter and brighter with every stitch of the table runner.

All of the lettering on the top and bottom and the top border is done. Now I just have to finish the bottom border and work on the left side and it will be ready for the iron!

A close up picture of what remains to be stitched. I'm getting there. It may be little by little, but I am getting there.

As we head into the new week my thoughts turn to my father-in-law. On Wednesday he will undergo surgery to remove a cancerous tumor that was found on his kidney. According to the doctor, it is very slow growing and once it is removed he will not have to undergo any further treatment, like radiation or chemotherapy. That was a relief for the rest of us to hear. He's nervous, although he really does not want to show that to us, but we know he is. We can tell. Any extra good thoughts that anyone has this week would be greatly appreciated. My parents have been deceased for almost 11 years, so my in-laws are the only parental figures that I have, and they have always been very good to me. In some ways, my in-laws were better to me than my own parents were.

We are just about half way through the summer vacation. Aside from a few 100 degree days, it has not been that bad. It's starting to get darker just a little bit earlier in the evenings, and there is a part of me that is thinking, "Can summer really be halfway over already?" Soon I will be starting to think about buying school supplies and helping M and Z get their backpacks organized for their first day of school.

In my last post I told you that I had been stuck in the house for a few days with no car. It was at the dealership for 4 days waiting to get looked at. The good news was that there was nothing wrong with it. The bad news was that it took them four days to look at it and let me know that. At least I got it back. Then, the next day I was so happy to have a car that Z and I took a ride over to Trader Joe's for a few things. And then I got caught in a speed trap on the way home. It was the first time since I first got my driver's license that I have been pulled over by a cop for anything! It's a good thing that my brother-in-law is an NYC police officer and that he gives me a new PBA card every year Christmas because I am sure that the ticket for going 48 mph in a 30 mph zone would have been a heck of a ticket!

While school supplies and fall weather are in my future, right now it's hot and there is chocolate ice cream in the freezer that is calling my name. Have a good week!

Not Having My Car IS No Fun

2011-07-19T09:30:00.000-07:00

I am the proud owner of 2010 Jeep Grand Cherokee. I had a Grand Cherokee before this one that I loved, so when that one was totaled in an accident in February, 2010 it only made sense that I look at a new one. On Saturday my beloved car stopped running. I was running some errands and it started to run really badly, so I turned around and came home and I had it towed to the dealership. It's Tuesday as I write this and I am STILL waiting for them to look at it!! Oh, and the dealership tells me that they have no loaner cars available. Can you imagine how much fun I'm having being stuck home with two boys during summer vacation? Sit and stitch is this Thursday at the Lazy Daisy and I need to go!!

The result of me being stuck home is that I've been doing things that I have been trying to avoid, but now have no excuse not to do. I promised M that we would make brownies after lunch and I have cinnamon almond bread in the bread machine. At least I managed a little domesticity!

And stitching. I've managed some stitching. Quilt square number four is almost done:

My father-in-law's favorite Disney character, Donald!! Quack! Only two more squares after this one, and then I can put them away until the person I am making them for actually announces that she is expecting. I know, I know. I jumped the gun a little. Okay, I jumped the gun alot, but I figured that it was better to be start them and get them done early rather than have to rush to finish them in time for a baby shower.

The light at the end of tunnel is getting brighter and brighter in terms of the Nativity table runner. Again, at least it will be done early enough so that I can actually use it for this coming Christmas.

I have to finish the border, the wording, and the stars on the last page, and then it will be ready for finishing and my Christmas table.

Stitching Right Along

2011-07-05T16:22:00.000-07:00

It's July 5, the day after Independence Day and I have to say that yesterday was probably the most enjoyable 4th of July that I have had in years. MJ's cousin, S's, birthday is July 2 and every year since MJ and I have been together (17 years) we have had to spend the 4th with his cousin for his birthday. It was okay when S was married and lived in a house with a yard. After he split from his wife and he moved into a small apartment the whole family was expected to go there on July 4th, and be happy about it. Apparently, everyone was..except me. Now, I have two boys. When boys feel like they are cooped up they tend to get a bit...rambunctious. MJ's aunt would get angry when the kids would get loud, and it has not been enjoyable for a very long time. This year, for whatever reason, S decided to keep his birthday "small" and only my in-laws were invited to go. Which meant that we were free to do anything we wanted. So, since MJ's brother and his wife, J and A, and their kids were in town we invited them and MJ's other brother and wife, T and T, over for a barbecue. The kids (my two boys, two nephews and one niece) spent hours in the back yard having war gun wars, eating good burgers and hot dogs, and making gooey smores. It was a great 4th of July!!

I got very little stitching done on the 4th, but I have been working steadily since my last post. Miribillia's Cinderella is kitted up and ready to go and it's calling me from the closet, so I thought that I should work on something that I have a decent chance of finishing sooner rather than later. Since I only have one more page to go on the table runner I thought that I should pick that up again and try to get that done so that I can add Cinderella to the rotation.

This is getting to be a VERY big project. I never realize exactly how big is really is until I take the hoop off and take a look at the whole thing. Its size never fails to amaze me.

This is the start of the last page. I've got the lettering on the bottom border done, a few buildings, and a palm tree. I guess I should really think about how I am going to finish it when it's done because I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and with every stitch I put in that light gets a little brighter.

I have been doing alot of work on the HAED recently (more on that later), but last week I felt the need to work on something easy. Sometimes I just need that, and I think that I am not the only stitcher out there to feel that way. I want to stitch, but I don't want to have to think really hard about it, so I finished the next square for the baby quilt:

Daisy Duck fit the "easy" part that I was looking for. The nice thing about these squares is that I can finish one in about a week and feel like I managed to get something done. Mickey, Goofy, and Daisy are finished. That just leaves Pluto, Minnie, and Donald. Then I can put the squares away until I need to actually put the quilt together.

I have a request for another baby quilt with the Disney gang on it. J and A are in the process of adopting their second baby from China. They have two biological boys and one girl who has already been adopted from China. A asked to see the squares that I finished and what the others will look like and really liked them, and said that she did not know if I was planning on making a quilt for their baby when she comes home from China, but if I was could she have that. Since I have made a blanket or a quilt for all of her kids, of course I was planning on making one for the new baby. So, in the future, I will be working on these again. At least they're easy.

And last, but never least, is the HAED. That has received alot of attention lately. 11 pages down, only 58 more to go!!

More blue skies. Lots and lots of blue skies!

Now that the 4th of July festivities are over with, it's a quiet night. I have my stitching and a good ball game on the television to carry me through the rest of the night. Stay cool, everyone, and happy stitching.

My Angel Came Home

2011-06-20T06:10:00.001-07:00

I know that I've told this story before, but if you can just bear with me? Several years ago MJ's Aunt J gave me all of her stitching things. She was having trouble with her hands and her eyes were not as good as they used to be, all effects from the diabetes that she suffered from. When she gave me this big Rubbermaid container filled with stuff I started going through it immediately. I found in there a kit by Dimensions that she said was the one thing in the whole box she wished she had been able to finish.

I made it for her birthday in June, 2009 and she was very happy to have it. Sadly, Aunt J passed away last August. Aunt J had three sons, none of whom were very nice to her while she was alive, which made the ones who loved her angry. After her funeral I asked her oldest son if I could have the angel back. Truthfully, I didn't want her sons to have it. I know that's mean, but they would not have appreciated it anyway and I doubt that it would have brought them any comfort. This past weekend my MIL and FIL were away and they stopped at the son's house to pick up a box that they had for her. It was stuff from Aunt J's house that they wanted our family to have. In the box was my angel. I'm so glad that she came home to me and will now hang in my house as a reminder of Aunt J and all that she meant to us.

I think that we can move on to happier topics now, don't you? Stitching for the baby quilt goes on. I finished the second square yesterday:

I have Minnie, Donald, Daisy, and Pluto left to do. They are easy things to work on when I get tired of the HAED or the table runner.

Speaking if the HAED, that got a bit of attention, too, this week:

That big area that I'm working on all gets filled in with one color, that at least I'm doing an easy part that does not require a tremendous amount of concentration. One color easy. Love it!

This page is almost done, then there is one full page of sky and and another 1/3 of a page, and then I will be done with this row of pages. Slowly but surely, it's coming along. Blue skies smiling at me! Nothing but blue skies do I see! At least until I get to the bottom part where I'll be stitching nothing but green forest!

This is the last week of school here. M has a final today and tomorrow and then he's finished for the year. I was told by his school guidance counselor that he will be in all honors classes next year. While I know that school has never been M's problem, MJ and I are extremely proud of him. He worked very hard and he has something to show for it. Z's last day is not until Thursday. He's not happy that he will have to go to school for two days while his brother gets to stay home, but I told him that this is what happens when you get into middle school. He'll get his turn. He also did really well this year, as well. He was placed in the reading support group in the spring and the change in him is amazing. He also worked really hard and everyone can see great improvement both in his reading skills and his other school work as well. It made homework so much easier. It was becoming a battle because he was having trouble reading the work, but that has become much easier for him. Guess what Z gets to do this summer? Read, read, read!

I hope that everyone has a good week ahead of them. Happy stitching!

Mickey & Minnie Are Home

2011-06-11T10:20:00.000-07:00

AC Moore called me late yesterday afternoon to tell me that my custom framing was in and ready for pick up:

I love when I get framed pieces home. They make me so happy.

A Date With My Little Man

2011-06-10T16:33:00.000-07:00

I know that in many parts of the country school is already out for the year, but here on Long Island we have two weeks of school left. Obviously, the kids are ready for the beginning of summer and just trying to get them to pay attention can be pretty difficult. As this is M's first year in middle school it is also the first year that he has final exams his subjects to deal with. While he's looking forward to summer vacation, I think he wishes he could skip right to the vacation part without having to do the whole finals thing. However, he is a straight A student I have no doubt that the finals will be as easy for him as all of the other tests he taken this year.

For Z, today was one of the things that the kids look forward to all year: field day! They scheduled in on a half day, although why the kids need to have a half day of school this late in the school year is beyond me. Since he was going to be home, we made special mom and Z plans for the afternoon. We had an ice cream date. He got off the school bus, babbling a mile a minute about how much fun field day was, ate lunch, and then we went to get an icy, cool treat. When M starts finals next week he will have half days, so I promised him that I would take him for ice cream on one of his finals days, so I get to have another ice cream date, but I can't say that it will be with my "little" man. M is anything but little anymore, especially since he's almost as tall as me! Now that's scary!

After M got home from school this afternoon the house was quiet. I'm not sure why it was so quiet, but it was and I decided to take full advantage of the situation by working on the next square of the baby quilt:

Gawsh! It's Goofy!! I think I said that Donald Duck would be up next, but I went to Goofy instead. Considering that I only started it last night I got pretty far. That is the great thing about small pieces like this. The instant gratification of it. I can get a square done in a few days and feel like I got something accomplished.

I set a goal for myself today, and that was to finish the page of the Nativity table runner that I was on. I am very happy to report that I can say, "Mission accomplished!"

To be perfectly honest I only had a little bit of the top border left to do, so I knew my goal really could be reached with very little effort. The other night I went to visit a friend for a stitch night and at the end of the night I realized that I messed up the lettering on the top and had to rip some of them out. I hate frogging (don't we all?) but I suppose I should be glad that I realized after only two letters that they were not lining up correctly rather than stitching the rest of the letters on the page. Two is better than ten.

I managed to get a little work in on the pandas, too.

Not much, mostly because I wanted to work on the table runner. Now that my goal of finishing the table runner page has been met I think that my stitching plan will be to work on the quilt squares and the pandas for a while and see how far I can get.

It's a Friday night and that means baseball!! The Yankees, fresh from getting swept by the Boston Red Sox, are trying to light a fire under themselves against the Cleveland Indians. I think something got lit because both of the benched just cleared after Mark Teixeira just got hit by a nasty pitch (for the second time in a week) and was clearly not pleased. Hopefully, we can manage to win a game and not fall any further in the standings that we have fallen in the last three days. I hope so, anyway.

Progress On A Beautiful Sunday Afternoon

2011-06-05T10:08:00.000-07:00

MJ's birthday was last week. Unfortunately, on his actual birthday we had lots of running around with the kids to do, so there was no birthday celebration on that day, but this weekend I had his parents, brother and sister-in-law over for a birthday barbecue.

One of the projects that I have undertaken in the last few months is to teach M how to cook. For the most part, it's been simple things so far: tacos, pasta, chili. Yesterday I had him helping me man the grill.

He looks pretty good standing there. He was happy to get to learn how to use the grill and to spend some time with me while we cooked his dad's birthday dinner. Luckily, it was a nice day for grilling! Hopefully, somewhere in my future a daughter-in-law will be happy with the lessons that I gave him all those years ago!

Other projects are getting some attention, too. I finished the first of the Disney squares for the baby quilt:

Mickey was supposed to have a pink border all around, but when I started it, I just was not happy with it, so I changed it to blue. Next up? Donald Duck!

From the quilt square I went to an oldie, but a goodie. The Nativity table runner got some attention, too.

I finished the shepard that I was working on and he now has a head. Very important if he wants to see what he travelled all that way for. I'm on the second to last page. I have to do the stars, the lettering at the top, and a sheep that is laying near him. At least I think it's a sheep.

A close up of the shepard:

I made some progress on the pandas, but I forgot to take a picture of it. I'll post that the next time.

I'm off to enjoy the beautiful Sunday weather that we have here today. Maybe I'll even get some stitching in.

Lot of Things to Talk About

2011-05-29T16:47:00.000-07:00

I think that I can officially say that I have gotten back into my stitching groove. I know that I've said this before, but this time I really mean it. I have gotten back into the groove.

One of the stitching projects that I have decided to start is a baby quilt. I know that there is will be a new baby niece or nephew in our future, so I thought I would get an early start and get moving on it. And I had the whole thing planned out in my head, too. I was going to do squares with animals and then put them together into a baby sized quilt. The first animal up? You guessed it! A panda:

The problem was that when I finished the first square, the rest of the animals that I had picked from the book...well, I just was not jazzed about the project anymore. That is the best way that I can describe it. Just not jazzed. And I knew that was why I stopped after the first square. What's a stitcher to do? Some projects do get left my the wayside, but I knew that I didn't want that to happen to this one. Then I heard the call from the stash closet. Again, I'm hearing voices. Other stitchers tell me this is normal. MJ is not so sure about that and thinks that I'm a little crazy, but I have reassured him that other stitchers tell me they hear the same voices. Anyway, I started going through my stash because I was getting restless and felt the need to start something, but I was not sure what I wanted to start. I found this Disney book by Leisure Arts that I bought a long time ago and started leafing through it. I found this:

Little squares with Disney characters and I thought that would be perfect for a baby. So I put away the flosses that I pulled for the animals and pulled the floss for Mickey and his friends and started the first square:

He's coming along quite nicely, don't you think? They are quick to stitch and I really love the bright colors. Perfect for a little one.

I have been very lucky to meet and become friends with stitchers from all over. One of them was looking to reduce her stash and had something that I have been looking for:

Monopoly is one of M's favorite games and we have several versions of it in the game closet: regular Monopoly, Star Wars Monopoly (we actually have two different versions of Star Wars Monopoly), Electronic Banking Monopoly. As you can see, we like the game of Monopoly. M saw the leaflet sitting by my table and was very excited. All I've heard for most of the day is "Are you really going to stitch me a Monopoly board? Can we play on it?" Ummm...I think I see a stitched Monopoly board in my future.

More work has been accomplished on the Nativity table runner as well, too:

I have about half of the page that I'm working on left to do and then one more page left. It's been a fairly quick and easy piece to work on and I have enjoyed it. This is the piece that got me back into the stitching groove and I think that because of that it this piece will always hold a special place in my heart.

I said at the beginning that I know that I have gotten back into the stitching groove, which makes me happy. And just how do I know that my groove is back? Because the HAED pandas have re-emerged from the stitching bag!

I picked up the HAED this week for the first time in months. It's strange that I can gauge how I am feeling by what, if anything, I am working on. As I have gotten better and felt more and more like my old self the harder projects have come out. First I started the table runner. One color, easy stitching. Even though it's big, it's not hard to work on. Then I took out the Disney kit and finished that off (and I took that to get framed the other day. I'm so excited!). And now I have returned to the HAED pandas. I remember how much I loved this piece, but I have to say that all of those little confetti stitches are going to drive me batty! I actually have gotten a little farther on it since I took this picture, although I didn't quite finish the page I was working on before I moved onto the next one. Like I said, all those confetti stitched were grating on me, so I started the next page, which large blocks of blue sky. I can go back to the confetti stitches later, right? They're not going anywhere.

So here we are in May. the school year is almost over and the summer is approaching. We had a long and snowy winter here on Long Island and I am so glad to finally have warm weather and open windows.

Have a happy Memorial Day!

From A UFO To A F...

2011-04-14T05:03:00.000-07:00

as in FINISHED!! Puppy Love, the Disney kit that sat for so long that Mickey and Minnie thought I had forgotten about them, is done! I put the last of the backstitching in last night and I am very happy to be able to say that I finished it!

Now I just can't wait to get them framed and hung on the wall.

It must be the week for finishes becuase I finished the French Country Heart as well:

I'm still not quite sure what I am going to do with it. My stitching friend said that she would help me frame it, but I can't find a square frame at the craft stores. Heck, I can't find any frame that I think would be a good color for it! I may have to order one from the my LNS, even though I was hoping not to have to go that route.

So, now I guess it's back to the table runner, which is a little more than half finished, and then I think that the HAED will have to make an re-appearance in my life. Sigh. I know I am almost finished with the page that I had been working on, but the part that I am up to is all confetti stitches. I'm not really looking forward to it. But, as one of my friends wrote on Facebook this morning, the word of the day is "persevere." If I'm going to get this done in my lifetime, I have to persevere.

Anyone out there ever finish a HEAD? How long did it take you?

It's Never Quiet With Kids Around, Is It?

2011-04-06T04:49:00.000-07:00

As a stay at home mom, I have to say that sometimes the weekends just make me crazy. Everyone is home and the house is LOUD!! I enjoy MJ and the kids when we are all home together and we are running here, there, and everywhere, but I have to admit that on some of the crazier and busier weekend, I look forward to Monday. Everyone goes back to work and school and I get to decompress a little before starting my chores and errands for the week. Or, at least, it's supposed to work that way. First, let me start with Z, who is now a big 7 year old!! I think he had way too much birthday fun at his laser tag party because Sunday night he was sick to his stomach. Yuck!! So, on Monday he got to stay home in the warmth of his bed and recuperate. Then, there is M. Monday night was his first little league practice. I made arrangements with my in-laws to come and stay with Z so I didn't have to take him out in the cold, and M and I bundled up and left for practice. I don't how the weather is where you are, but here it's still quite chilly. We're starting to wonder is spring is ever really going to spring this year. The first thing I noticed when we got there is that none of the other mothers were staying for the practice. They dropped their sons off and left, so I was thinking to myself, "Should I stay?" I didn't want the other boys to think that he was a baby and that his mommy had to stay at the practice with him, but something told me to stay. I had a good book and my Ipod to keep me company while M worked out with his team. I am so glad I made that decision because we weren't even there ten minutes when M got hurt. The kids were tossing the ball around and the boy that M was paired up with threw the ball. Nothing strange; just a regular throw, but for some reason M just didn't react quick enough and he got hit right in the face. The coach ran over to him and then turned toward me and I see my poor son was covered in blood!! I grabbed what few tissues I had in my purse and was able to stop the bleeding, but I could see his nose starting to swell. To M's credit, he wanted to stay and practice. He gave it a good try, but a few minutes later he came over to me and said that it hurt too much and he wanted to go home. We went home, and then I took him to see his doctor that night. They sent me for x-rays, but said that it could wait until morning. Tuesday morning as soon as I got Z on the school bus I took M for x-rays to make sure his nose was not broken. Luckily, it was not and he only has to sit out of baseball and gym for a week. I sent him back to school this morning, although he was trying to weasel another day of staying home out of this. No chance. So, here it is. Wednesday morning and I still have not had a quiet start to my week. I'm hoping for some quiet today. Did I get any stitching done, you ask? Actually, I did! JBW's French Country Love is something that I can take with me, usually when Z has dek hockey practice. Z has taken after his dad and started playing dek hockey this winter. Dek hockey is hockey, but they run instead of skate. The coach likes them to get there about 45 minutes before the games for some practice time, so I take along my heart to work on. If I have to sit there, I might as well accomplish something with my time. In case you don't know it, purple is my favorite color. I chose Crescent Colors Morning Glory on a gray linen.. I'm not quite sure how I am going to finish it. I'm thinking that I will make it so that I can hang it over a door knob, but I have to see what kind of fabric I can find. Maybe I will try to frame it myself. It would be pretty hung up a wall somewhere, don't you think? Mickey and Minnie are moving right along, too, and the light at the end of the tunnel is becoming brighter and brighter with each stitch I put into it: Pluto has a body! There is a fishing pole that it lying next to Pluto that I have to stitch, and Minnie is supposed to be holding some flowers in her hand. Then it's just the backstitching, of which there is alot of. I stated this so long ago and I really want to finish it. That has been the crazy beginning to my week. I'm hoping that the rest of the weeks is quieter and less eventful. I may have a boring life sometimes, but at least then I know that all is calm and right in my world.

Meanwhile, Back At The Ranch...

2011-03-20T16:02:00.001-07:00

Fearing that they would become a UFO and live the rest of their days in the dark, Mickey and Minnie broke out of the stitching bag and insisted that they see the light of day.

When last we saw them they looked like this:

Pluto was a large blob of yellow at the bottom of the fabric.

After a few days of some love and attention:

Pluto still looks like a blob of yellow at the bottom of the fabric, but he also has an ear and a collar.

While I'm on the subject of Pluto, I just have to say something. I know that using several shades of color give the finished piece fo great look. The shading really brings out alot. But really? Eight shades of yellow? Do we really need that many?

I think that's why I left if to sit in the dark for so long. I took a look at Pluto's chart and said, "Ummmm...no." But, knowing that there really is not that much more to stitch is really what brought it out of the stitching bag. I have to finish Pluto, stitch the fishing pole that is supposed to be laying next to him, and then it's on to the backstitching! I started this in February 2009. I think it's about time I finish it, don't you?

As I said I always keep small and easy pieces at the ready so that I can take them with me when I have to take the kids somewhere and wait for them. "Singing the Blues" by LHN was just what this stitcher needed:

I don't think that this little blue bird is really singin' the blues, but he is quite cute. I picked it up from Lazy Daisy Thursday night when I went to sit and stitch.

Sit and stitch night at the Lazy Daisy is my favorite night of the month. Some of the ladies that I have met there are so incredibly funny. It's amazing that we manage to get any stitching done at all! I'm not sure what the best part of going is. The fun that we have, or the enabling that goes on there!

The Right Side Of The Table Runner

2011-03-16T07:56:00.000-07:00

So, now that I am back to my stitching, I am moving right along with the table runner. The right side of the project is done:

Two more pages and it will be finished. Then I just have to figure out how to finish it. The chart gives directions for finishing it, but I'm one of those people who actually needs to see it done rather than just reading how to do it. I guess you could say that I'm more of a "visual learner". I'm hoping that however I finish it, the finishing will do the stitching justice.

I keep telling myself that there are other projects I need to get back to. Mickey and Minnie come to mind, and then there are the pandas of HAED fame. Maybe this week I'll pull one of the other projects out, but I am really loving this one. I've come to really enjoy the monochrome things. I find them so easy without having to look at symbols for color changes. I have a few small ones always kitted up and ready to take with me. MJ laughs at me and M always asks, "Do you take your stitching everywhere?" I think I embarress him. But, if I have to sit somewhere I might as well make good use of my time!

It's a rainy day here on Long Island. With the kids in school and the house quiet it's a good day for stitching. Ingredients are in the bread machine for fresh bread and in a few hours the house will smell delicious!

I love days like this!

It's Been A LOOOOONNNNGGGG Time

2011-02-28T07:47:00.001-08:00

Wow! Has it really been since September since I posted to my blog?

We have been having a tremendous amount of trouble with M. I know that he's a pre-teen and that trouble tends to come with that age group, but this was way beyond normal pre-teen issues. It's been a long, hard five months since my last post and along the way I have questioned many, many times how in heaven's name the good Lord could have thought that I could actually parent this child successfully. My sister-in-law says that he was given to me because he's almost reached the age of 12 and he's still breathing, despite all of the troubles that we have gone through. It's been a really long and tough road with him, but he is doing better (finally) and I believe that I have assembled a great team to work with me and with him. It's so nice to finally see that light at the end of tunnel and to know that all of the choices that MJ and I have made since last summer, really, have been the right ones and that we are all headed in the right direction.

As you can imagine, alot of things fell by the wayside, including stitching and my blog. Work on the HAED has pretty much come to a halt because it was just too big and overwhelming to think about, let alone work on. On Christmas Day, for the first time in months, I had the stitching itch again, but I needed something easier to work on. So, I pulled out this:

The Nativity, by Blackberry Lanes designs. I thought it was a great piece to start on Christmas Day. It's 28 count tea dyed fabric with floss that is called Swamp Water. I know that I've said this before, but I have to say again that I love that name. You would never think that something with the name of Swamp Water could be pretty, but this is. I keep telling myself that I need to get back to the HAED, but I love working in this piece. I can't seem to put it down. It's actually a little over half way done already, so it's working up pretty quickly.

Now that I have gotten myself back into my stitching groove I hope that I will continue with my blogging groove as well. I enjoy having this forum to show off my talents.

Smokin' Needles

2010-09-15T13:11:00.000-07:00

I think that the fall weather agrees with me. The cool, crisp air. The fall breezes through the open windows. The start of FOOTBALL season!! It's pretty apparent that I love baseball, although I have to say that my beloved Yankees have been giving me fits for the last few days, but I digress. Back to the start of football season. Sunday was my day to sit on the couch, watch football, and stitch! It reminded me of the Sunday afternoons before MJ and I had kids! LOL!!

I have been busy and I can say that this feeling of accomplishment that I have right now is so very satisfying! My needles have been smoking, be it my embroidery needle, or the needle on my sewing machine. So, if you ready to join me on this latest leg of my stitching journey, follow me through this picture heavy post!

In the last week my sewing machine and I have become very close, although it has had its moments where I'm not really sure that it likes me very much. I managed to make two fall pillows, just in time for the season:

Alphabet Pumpkin,

and Oak Leaf and Pumpkin

Those little dots on the Oak Leaf and Pumpkin pillow are little oak leaf buttons that I had from another project. The pictures are clickable if you want to see it up close.

All you need is LOVE, right? Say hello to my newest wall hanging to grace the walls of the master bedroom!

It's not my best finish, by any means. I actually tried to take it apart at one point because I was not happy with how it was turning out, but the linen was starting to unravel, so I finished putting it together and just decided that I would learn to live with it and do better next time.

It's over the armoir which has my wedding pandas (my mom made those for me), my bride and groom Mickey and Minnie, and our little family wall plaque.

It's September!! Anyone know what that means?? It's time to start stitching Christmas ornaments!! Last year I made 19, and gave ALOT of them away. I don't think I will make that many this year, but I have a good start:

They stitched on plain ol' white evenweave with with Razzelberry floss by GAST. Easy to stitch with and so nice to look at.

HAED progress is still rolling along:

Look at that little guy!! He actually almost has a whole face! Does anyone else get excited when they see the picture that you are stitching come alive on the fabric? I LOVE that!! I think that is why I spent so much time this weekend stitching on it (when I was not watching football!). With every stitch I saw more and more of my favorite little creature and it made me want to keep go on and on! I say that now, while I'm working on the bear. When I get to the part of the design where it's large blocks of 19 different shades of blue and nothing but sky, maybe I'll feel differently!

It's that time of day here. The kids are starting ask, "When are you going to start making dinner?" Guess I have to go and feed the hungry masses! Goodness, you would think that these kids haven't eaten in days. I guess they are growing boys, always willing to eat me out of house and home! Off to the kitchen! Leave a comment for me! I love to read them!

See You In September!

2010-09-04T15:26:00.001-07:00

The weather here on Long Island is beautiful today!! Much better than yesterday, when all of the weathermen were doing their best to frighten us about the approaching Hurricane Earl. MJ and I spent part of Thursday night going around the yard picking up things that could become projectiles if the wind took them and putting them away, and making sure that things that could not be moved were close to the house so that we would not have to worry about them. You know what happened? NOTHING!! We got some rain, but that was about it! The eastern end of the island got a little bit more of the storm that we did, but no one got anything like what they were predicting. So, now that Earl is behind us, or rather, to the northwest of us, it's time to focus on the other things in life that are important like...

BASEBALL!! MJ and I went to Yankee Stadium a few weeks ago with some friends, and it was a great day!! The Yankees won, which always makes it a good day. The new stadium has a Yankees museum with all kinds of great memorabilia. When they won the World Series last October I was in heaven and I got to have my picture taken with the World Series trophy:

Pretty cool, huh? They also had the trophies from when they won in 1996, 1998, 1999, and 2000. I never noticed before that all of the trophies are a little different. I always thought they were the same every year. My mom always used to say that you learn something new every day, and that was what I learned that day.

Now that the Labor Day weekend is upon us those of us here in New York have our minds on something else: the beginning of school!! M and Z both start this coming Tuesday. They may not be too happy about it, but I can tell you that I am thrilled that the new school year is finally upon us. It seems like this has been a long, hot summer. Z has been assigned one of the better teacher in his grade and M seems to be very excited about the beginning of middle school, along with a little bit nervous. He also seems to be getting that "middle school attitude." The other day I was trying to help him organize his school supplies and I was told, "You don't know anything." I know my mom is looking down from heaven and laughing at me. And what do I plan on doing with my quiet mornings and early afternoons? Well, I plan on creating my next wall hanging masterpiece! I found fabric that I liked to go with the LOVE piece, so stay tuned. I see myself spending some quality time with my rotary cutter and sewing machine next week.

Now for stitching updates! I needed something small the work on last week when I was taking the kids to the library. M goes down to the teen room and after I read to Z for a while he usually wants to play on the computers, so I needed something small and portable. Enter this JDW design called Alphabet Pumpkin:

Stitched on a 28 count evenweave that I picked up at the LNS with a floss by Weeks called Fiesta. At first the colors seems a little loud to me, but they also seem to scream "FALL!!!" to me, so I thought I would try it. So far, I think I'm liking it. What do you think?

The HAED is moving right along as well.

Those large blocks of a single color make it an easy stitch at the moment, but I have to say that the little confetti stitches of 19 different shades of blue can really grate on a person's nerves! Even so, I am really enjoying this stitch. When I started it I remember feeling so overwhelmed, but now it's just like any other project - one stitch at a time!

As I sit here and write my update I'm wondering if anyone out there is reading me. I don't seem to get alot of comments here. Is anyone out there? Anyone?

The Dog Days of August...

2010-08-24T12:21:00.001-07:00

At the moment they are really not all that bad. A few posts ago I was complaining about the oppressive heat and that my poor fingernails were sweating. Right now, it's cool and rainy. Hopefully at some point today I will get some stitching done.

As I type there are workers in the basement putting that area of the house back together from when the cesspool backed up. Finally!! The longer I had to look at the carpeting all torn up the more upset I was getting about it, however it seems that I will be able to close that chapter of our exciting summer adventures and move on to the next thing that will inevitably come along. After all, something always does, doesn't it?

The last two weeks my kitchen has been turned into a culinary school. M wants to learn how to cook, so it's been Cooking 101 in my house. So far we've made roasted chicken with noodles, gravy, and steamed broccoli, tacos, pot roast, and chicken and rice. He's been a good student so far. I keep telling myself that my future daughter-in-law will thank me later!

At the beginning of the summer I was not getting alot of stitching done. Too many things going on here and the thought of stitching was overwhelming, especially on something as big as the HAED pandas. I seem to have pulled myself out of that great big slump, which was a relief and the pandas were calling to me. The poor things were missing seeing the light of day!

Page 8 is coming along quite nicely and that poor little panda head is finally starting to get a body!

The swirlies are finished!!

And so are my fantasies about Tudor England, I suppose. LOL!! Now, to decide how to finish it. I am thinking about a wall hanging, mostly because I really don't want to spend a fortune to get another piece framed. I will have to go to the fabric store and see if I can find anything that speaks to me, as they say. If so, then time at my sewing machine will be in my future and a new decoration will be on the wall in the bedroom.

It's hard to believe that the summer is almost over. Monday is orientation for M for middle school and Z is anxiously awaiting the letter that will tell him who his new teacher will be for the coming school year. All of the school supplies have been purchased, new shoes are on their feet, and new clothes are in the drawers. September is almost here! The kids may not be pleased, but I sure am!

I'm Not Perfect

2010-08-15T08:39:00.000-07:00

There! I said it. I am not afraid to admit it. I'll even shout it from the rafters so that everyone in blog land can here me: I'M NOT PERFECT!! They say that when the Amish make quilts they intentionally put a mistake somewhere in it to remind themselves that only God is perfect. Well, let me tell you something: I don't have to add them intentionally. They just seems to happen to me! I think they lay in wait for me and then jump into my stitching while I'm not looking. After I spent all that time ripping stitches out of the LOVE piece I re-stitched the section that had a mistake, only to discover that I made the SAME MISTAKE in almost the exact same place!! That's right! I'm off by one thread AGAIN!! This time, however, I had already stitched alot of the design around the letter L. So, it's staying like that, mistakes and all! The L section finally got finished and I can move onto the E.

It's pretty, isn't it? I've been reading alot of books and novels about Tudor England and the design reminds me of that time period. Maybe it's the swirlies. When I work on this I imagine the ladies of the Tudor court and wonder what embroidery they worked on. It hasn't been my favorite piece to work on, but I love the look of it, so I am looking forward to finishing it for many reasons.

My friend, Christine, came over for stitch night during the week and she e-mailed me to tell me that she had a present for me. A present?? FOR ME?? My curiosity was peaked! What could she have bought for me? Hmmmmm....

Isn't she cute? She is a Jim Shore fairy and she is sitting atop a spool of thread. I love her! I put her on the the little shelf that I have in the den, which is where I do all of my stitching. Hopefully, with her watching over me, I won't have to be doing a whole lot of ripping out anymore!

I got one of my favorite call this week: my framing is done! Don't you just love hearing that? Then I get all excited thinking about where I'm going to hang the new things. I knew where Welcome To the Home Of A Stitcher was going to go, so that was a no brainer:

I took a close up of the center of the piece so that you could see the charms that it came with. Aren't they cute?

Finally, the ladies of the needlework guild have eyes. Have I mentioned that I can't make a French knot to save my life? You would think that after all of the years that I have been stitching I would have figured this out by now. Nope. Not so!

When I was picking a frame for this I really liked this one and the owner of the LNS said to me, "Oh, that's the frame that the model is framed in." Guess it's a good match for the design.

I am so excited!! MJ called me from work the other day to tell me that someone that he knows has four tickets for a Yankees game and did I want to go? YES!!! The Yankees opened a beautiful, brand new stadium at the start of the 2009 season and I have yet to get there! Well, I'm going on the 21st! The kids are staying with my in-laws (which is a treat for the kids, for the grandparents, well, maybe not so much of a treat!) and MJ and some friends and I are heading to the stadium! They better win!

What I Get For Being Proud Of My Work

2010-08-06T07:24:00.000-07:00

So, Wednesday night was my weekly stitch night with my friend, Christine. I stitched for two hours and got the whole L done on the Love piece that I'm working on. Ver proud of my accimplishments, I ate the yummy dessert that she made, packed myself up, and went home.

Fast forward to Thursday night. The kids are upstairs and quiet (which can be rare). There is a good James Bond movie on television. MJ went to go see how his mom was doing since he had not seen her since we found out that Aunt Janet passed away. I had the house all to myself and lots of stitching time ahead of me, right? WRONG!! Apparently, while I was so confidently stitching away at Christine's house on Wednesday night I made a mistake and was off my one thread. So, everything that I spent two hours stitching on Wednesday has to be ripped out on Thursday. Ugh!!

I thought stitching was supposed to be fun??!!!

2010-08-05T10:55:00.000-07:00

Now that summer vacation is half way over it's time to start to think about the new school year - at least I think it is. My kids? Well, they would prefer not to have to think about it at all. For some kids a new school year mean a whole new look. For M, this new school year not only means a whole new school but a new set of eyes:

M is now sporting glasses! Please excuse that mop top hair do. He is in need of a hair cut in a bad way. Personally, I think they make him look quite scholarly, and little grown up, too. At least now when he heads off the middle school he will be confident that he will be able to see the boards clearly.

A few weeks ago I made an effort to clean out my stitching bags. Seems like whenever I wasn't sure what to do with something I wound up in one of my bags. They were a mess. It took me the better part of an hour to go through my two bags. What I finally wound up doing was putting the projects that I had already started in one bag, and the things that I had kitted up, but not yet started, in another bag.

I've never been good with having too many projects started at once. When there is too much for me to pick from to work on I can't seem to decide which one to choose, so I wind up working on nothing. I decided that I would try to finish, or at least make some decent progress on, the things I have started, which include the HAED, the Disney kit, and Love:

I took this out of my bag so it could see the light of day since it has not been worked on for a while. I liked the look of this one when I bought it, but it just has not been my favorite to work on. I'm not sure why. But I am going to try to get some stitching done on it, and hopefully, I will have it finished before long.

While we're on the topic of finishing I have one to show off:

The Handblessings piece was a quick stitch. Excuse the bad picture. I took it in to the LNS to get it framed when I remembered that I had no picture of it so I took this one on my phone and the lighting wasn't very good, nor was my angle. I'll get a better one when I get it back from the framers.

On a very sad note, some of you may remember the angel that I stitched for MJ's Aunt Janet. She used to stitch, but she was getting older and suffered from diabetes and neuropathy, so between her eyes and her hands she had to stop stitching. Anyway, since she knew no one else who stitched she gave me all of her stitching supplies and in the box was this one kit by Dimensions. She had said that of all the things in the box that was the one that she wished she could have finished. So I made it for her and gave it to her for her birthday. She had been in the hospital for the last three weeks, and at one point it looked like she was going to get better. But, then last week she took a turn for the worse. My MIL called me this morning to let us know that Aunt Janet passed away last night. It's a sad day for our family.

Stitching Again!

2010-07-25T16:55:00.001-07:00

Has it been hot enough for you? I don't know how it's been in the rest of the world, but here on the east coast we've been having a bit of a heat wave. How hot has it been, you ask? Well, this afternoon MJ was putting together Z's new bicycle and he needed my help at one point, so I went out to give him a hand. It was so hot I think my fingernails were sweating! Now that's hot. As if the heat were not bad enough, the humidity is enough to make my hair curl, and I have straight hair that even the curling iron won't curl! LOL!! I know. I know. It's the summer, and it's supposed to be hot. But seriously, it's been brutal lately.

I am happy to be able to report that I seem to be climbing out of my stitching slump. Now I've been through slumps before. I think we all can honestly say that we have been thought them. This one was different for me. It lasted for a long time. Nearly two months, which for me is long. And it wasn't that I was just being lazy, or tired. I just had no interest in picking up my needle. But things seem to be looking up. I have a new start by Handblessings:

Welcome To The Home Of A Stitcher was a new start this past week. In trying to climb out of this slump I wanted to work on something that was fairly easy. So, the HAED will have to wait for a little while longer. I need instant gratification right now! After I started it I realized that I made a mistake almost immediately in the trees (I HATE when that happens), but by the time I found it I had already stitched things around it and decided that I would leave it rather than frog it out. I hate frogging!

Speaking of an easy stitch, Oak Leaf and Pumpkin is finished:

Didn't that come out so pretty? I just love the color. Perfect for a fall project! I'm not quite sure how to finish it, though. Anyone have any suggestions?

I think that my next start is going to be The Library by LHN. I have all of the overdyed floss for it all kitted up with the fabric that I bought, but I have to pull out the DMC floss that it needs and get that together. It's been sitting in my stitching bag for a while and I would like to get going on it. I wanted to start it earlier, but I was in the slump and pulling out the floss just seemed like way too much work because there is alot of floss that needs to be pulled. Now it seems to be more manageable.

Summer vacation is almost half way over for M and Z. Soon it will be time to start gathering school supplies together and getting them ready for the first day of school. M starts middle school in September. I don't know when he got to be old enough to start middle school, but somewhere along the line he got old enough! I can't believe it. I think that he's nervous about starting, but I know that he'll adjust to it well. It may take some getting used to, especially having different teachers for each subject, but he's always been a good student and I know that he will be able to do it.

I think that it's time to go lay down. All this humidity has given me a killer of a headache. So, I think that I will go and watch Sunday Night Baseball. Feel free to leave a comment. I love reading them!

When It Rains, It Pours

2010-07-08T13:01:00.000-07:00

In my last post I told of the experience of being attacked by a Pitt bull. All in all, it's been a experience that I would prefer to forget. Today is the day that the dog in question is supposed to be shipped to his owner in Arizona. Did I mention that the dog's owner moved there three months ago and left his dog here in the care of this mother? I called the town to see if the dog would be put down, but apparently because the town has no other record of him biting anyone else (he has) and because he has not been labeled as a "dangerous animal", (which I think he is) there is nothing that they can or will do about it. I could start the proceedings to get the dog classified as dangerous, but by the time the proceedings were finished the dog would be long gone. So, the best that I can do is file a report with the town about the dog bite and hope that he never bites anyone after he gets to his owner in Arizona.

As I said, when it rains, it pours. While the latest leg of my journey through life has nothing to do with rain, there was ALOT of water involved. And all of it wound up in our finished basement when the cesspool over flowed. Can anyone say YUCK!!!!! There was water everywhere. It was so bad that we had to call in a restoration company to come and clean up the water and dry out the basement. Luckily, the damage was pretty much confined to the carpet and some of the toys that the kids had in the basement. So, after reviewing what my homeowners insurance would cover we decided that the best thing to do it pull back the wet carpeting to the points where is was not effected by the water, rip out the wet padding, clean the floor underneath the carpet and then clean the carpet itself. Then the restoration company left these two HUGE de-humidifiers and three fans to dry out the basement. They've been running for three days. I hope they come tomorrow to get them beause they had to unplug my washer to run their equipment and the laundry pile is starting to get pretty tall. Ugh! Talk about a mess. At least I had no stash down there! My sister asked me today how my summer was going. I told her that other than being attacked by a Pitt bull and my basement getting flooded, it's been a pretty quiet summer!

Stitching is still a slow go at this point. The crush injury to my arm is still very sore where the dog bit me, but I am starting to get my mojo back a little bit. I've managed to get a little bit of stitching done in the last two days, so I'm hoping that I will have some progress to show soon.

My lack of stitching desire has not effected my desire to buy new stash, however! Lazy Daisy Stitchery had it's 4th of July sale this past weekend and, being as I missed sit and stitch in June because I was in the hospital, I knew I had to go. The best thing I got was a piece by Lizzie Kate that says "All you need is love...and chocolate!" That is right up my chocolate loving alley!

Speaking of chocolate, since it's the summer what is the best thing to eat and keep cool? Why, ice cream of course! The kids decided that it was time to pull out the ice cream machine and make some of the good, home made stuff. They decided on chocolate crunchie chip. That would be chocolate ice cream, with chocolate crunchies and mini chocolate chips. The combination was M's idea and it is so good! Next Z wants to make vanilla with crunchies and maraschino cherries.

I hope that everyone who is being affected by this heat wave is staying cool. Stay inside with a nice cool drink and some stitching!

Summer Time!

2010-06-30T06:50:00.000-07:00

Once again, I have let far too much time go by between postings. And once again, there has not been alot of stitching progress made, but it certainly has been an exciting few weeks. Shall I start with the news of the Pitt bull attack?

I was walking over to my neighbor's house two weeks ago to bring her something and as I walked up her walkway her very large dog, which I found out later is a Pitt bull-boxer mixed breed and belongs to her son who moved to Arizona three months ago, starting jumping and barking. Not realizing that he was dangerous, I kept walking. Then the dog jumped on the door and it opened, and this very large dog jumped out at me, knocked me down, and bit my arm! Considering that it was Pitt bull I think that I'm lucky that was all he got. The last thing I remember was the door opening and the next thing I remember was sitting on the lawn looking at my arm and just screaming because I knew I was hurt. Thank goodness neither of the kids were with me! From there I went to the emergency room for treatment. 36 hours after I left the emergency room I was sent straight back there by my primary care physician because my whole arm was infected. I spent five days in the hospital on IV antibiotics and some very powerful pain killers. The bit is healing nicely now and I have what is called a "crush injury". When the dog bit me he got the top of my arm and when he bit he crushed all of the muscles and tendons together that were within the bit area. I was told yesterday by a doctor that that could take weeks, or even months, to work itself out and that more I use my arm, the longer it's going to take. I'm ambidextrous, so while I don't to everything with my right arm, I do use it quite a bit for alot of things - like stitching! I can stitch for short periods of time and then it starts to ache a bit. Once again, I don't see alot of stitching in my future!

It's the start of summer vacation here and the kids are happily being lazy during their care free days. M graduated from elementary school and is ready to head off to the middle school in the fall. Z had a great year in kindergarten and is looking forward to first grade, along with the reading and beginning math that goes along with it.

So what else would a stitcher work on during the early days of summer? Why, a pumpkin and oak leaf design, of course!! My fall stitching is moving along slowly, but there is progress:

I am loving the color of this. It's called Sassy Brass by Crescent Colors.

I finished page 7 of the HAED at the end of May, but I just took a picture of it this morning to share with people. This is the whole first row of pages of the design, so this is as wide as the design is going to be:

I have the next page all ready to stitch, but I seem to be a big stitching slump and I haven't touched it since I finished the last page. Now it's hard to work on it because of the injury to my arm, but I'm hoping that soon I will get back my stitching mojo and start moving on all of these projects that are in my stitching bag. There is so much to work on.

Not Much Stitching Going On

2010-06-13T09:46:00.001-07:00

Hello, faithful blog readers. Is anyone still with me out there in blog-land? I don't think I've ever gone this long between blog posts, but there really has not been any stitching to talk about. I did manage to finish page 7 of the HAED, but that was over two weeks ago and I have not picked up a needle since, except for the night my friend came over for stitch night, and even then I didn't get a whole lot done on the pumpkin and oak leaf design.

Things here have been a little...difficult, I guess would be the correct word. Aside from that, it's the end of the school year here and there are lots of activities planned for M and the 5th grade class over the next two weeks. I'm hoping to get myself back on track soon.

Moving Right Along

2010-05-17T07:29:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday, everyone! Here on Long Island it's a beautiful start to the week, after a weekend of beautiful weather. Both of the boys has little league games that were a pleasure to go to. We've had some cool weather here and some of the games have been so cold to sit through, but not this past weekend.

Saturday afternoon M and Z asked if they could get ice cream from the ice cream man. They had been good and were playing together really nicely (for a change!) so I told them yes they could, but they had to pay for it. They even said that they would buy ice cream for MJ and myself, which I thought was sweet. I never turn down ice cream! Anyway, all of a sudden the two of them are fighting with each other about who would pay for the ice cream, but not in the way that you would think. This was what I heard:

M: I'll pay for the ice cream.
Z: No! You paid last time! It's my turn to pay!
M: No, Z! YOU paid last time. I'm paying!

Honestly, I couldn't stop laughing listening to them argue about spending their own money to buy the family one ice cream. Does anyone else think this is funny? Finally, I suggested to them that they compromise and each pay half of the cost of the ice cream. They must have found that to be an acceptable compromise because that seemed to put an end to the bickering and everyone got something cool and creamy to eat. Yum! Ice cream! That is definitely one of my major weaknesses.

I go back to the doctor's for more blood work in relation to the Lyme's Disease diagnosis in the next few weeks. I am definitely feeling better. Because it was found early I had a mild case of it, but it was still causing me all kinds of problems. I'm not sure how people who have more severe cases cope with it. Anyway, since I have been feeling better, the pandas started calling me from the stitching bag. They must have sensed that I'm better and they didn't want to be ignored any longer.

I think I'm on page 6 right now, and page 7 is the last page in the row. Once page 7 is done I will have an idea of how wide the design area will be. It's coming along, though, but it's a slow go. This is one of those projects that I think will be with me for years to come. Anyone out there finish a HAED? How long did it take?

I started working on Pumpkin and Oak Leaves. The pumpkin part is done. Now I am moving on to the oak leaf border.

I got good news from Lazy Daisy last week! The fabric for the Christmas table runner was in, along with the additional skeins of Swamp Water floss that I ordered! You know I just had to say the name of that floss color again, right? Swamp Water! I was excited that the fabric was in because that meant that I had another new piece of linen to bring home and tea dye. I like this piece of fabric better than the first one because I like when dyed fabric has that marbley look to it and the first piece did not have that. It was a pretty color, but it was solid. Like I said, nice, but not really what I was looking for. I'm not sure if it comes through in this picture, but when you see it in person you can see that marbley look that I like so much.

We have Music and Books back from the framers! I picked it up when I went to Lazy Daisy. I told MJ that we needed to hang it up this past weekend and his reaction to me was, "We're running out of room to hang stuff. You're going to have to start taking things down." Umm...I don't think so!

Last night MJ and I went out to dinner to celebrate our 13th anniversary. Since our anniversary fell on Mother's Day we didn't get a chance to go out last weekend. We went to see "Robin Hood" and had dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. The food was good, but the desserts!! YUM!!

Busy Mother's Day

2010-05-10T10:15:00.000-07:00

Did everyone have a good Mother's Day? My day was pretty busy. First of all, this year Mother's Day was not just Mother's Day in my house. It was also MJ's and my 13th wedding anniversary. 13 years?? Where did the time go?

I started out the day laying in bed, trying to get rid of the migraine that I woke up with. Can I tell you all that Maxxalt is a great medicine? After about half an hour I got up showered and felt much better, to my relief. My BIL, T, and his new wife had us, my in-laws, and her mom over to their place for a Mother's Day luncheon. It was very nice. After that we came home and my in-laws came here and we ordered dinner. That is something that we have been doing since the year Z was born and it always has worked out well, until this year. Because we ordered dinner later than we normally do it took forever for it to be ready when MJ and his dad went to go pick it up. It was around 7:30 pm before we finally sat down to eat. By then the natives were starting to get restless and we were all pretty hungry. It ended well, though. Everyone left with full tummies and happy hearts.

Startitis

2010-05-06T08:38:00.000-07:00

It's been a while. With two boys playing little league this spring there are days when I'm really not sure if I'm coming or going. Between practices and games it's been very busy here. Tonight both boys have games at the same time at fields on opposite ends of the school district. Thank God I have in-laws who like me, love my boys, and are more than willing to lend a hand when my choice is either figure out how to use a time turner like Hermione Granger got to use in one of the Harry Potter books, or split myself in half. Needless to say, my stitching time this spring has been cut, but I am making progress.

Mickey and Minnie now both have shoes and a completed bench to sit on:

Can you guess what, or more accurately who, the yellow blob on the bottom is supposed to be? Anyone? It's Mickey's best friend, Pluto! Actually, in the picture of the finished project Pluto is looking a little put out that Mickey is spending his time in the sun with Minnie rather than fishing with him, but it's a dog's life, right?

With all of this running around that I've been doing I find it hard to believe that I've been feeling startitis coming on again. I want to start something small, with one color, that I can take with me and is easy to work on when the kids have practice. Looking through my stash I found this:

Harvest Blessings by Waxing Moon Designs. Actually, Harvest Blessings is the name of the leaflet. The design is called Pumpkin and Oak. Remember that 32 count evenweave that I lovingly tea dyed for that table runner, only to realize later that it was not big enough? I knew it would come in handy!! I'm using that fabric with Sassy Brass floss by Crescent Colors. I think they just shout "Fall!!" Fall? We haven't even started summer yet. Heck, we've barely had spring weather, but I'm working on on a project for the fall. At least I won't feel rushed when October rolls around!

The Trial And Tribulations of Stitching

2010-04-23T10:08:00.000-07:00

Last week was sit and stitch at the Lazy Daisy. I love sit and stitch night. It's my favorite night of the month. My friend, Sheri, was working on this beautiful Christmas table topper by Blackberry Lane Designs. Then I was told that they had the same design, but in a table runner. Much better for my house:

While I was at the shop I bought 32 count fabric that I ran home and tea dyed the next day because I was very excited about it. Two days ago I went to buy floss that would go with this fabric that I dyed. After trying out lots of colors against the fabric color I found this floss with the greatest name I have ever heard. Ready for it? Swamp Water! That is the name of the floss. Swamp Water! It sounds vile, but really, it goes great with the fabric.

Yesterday I pulled out the chart for the table runner and I began to look through it because I was getting startitis, when I noticed something. You know how when you look at a chart and it gives you the approximate finished size of the design, and then you add three inches per side and you have the size of the fabric that you need? Well, in the little print way at the bottom of the page it says that the finished sizes are based on stitching the table topper OVER ONE, which was something that I was definitely not planning on doing. So, remember that 32 count fabric that I lovingly tea dyed because I was so excited about this project? It is not big enough in any way, shape, or form! This morning, back to the LNS I went, which by the way is not so local, so that I could buy 36 count fabric, which was the recommended fabric for stitching this project over two. It has to be ordered, so when it comes in I will bring it home and lovingly tea dye this new fabric all over again. I thought stitching was supposed to be easy?

Since I couldn't start the new project of choice, I opted to pull out an old one. MJ was asking me the other day, "Where is that Disney project you were working on?" I guess I will be working on this one for a while, which is fine because it's a fun project to work on. Yesterday I managed to get some work done on Minnie's shoes:

For anyone looking for a project update, I am happy to report that the ladies of the embroidery guild are done:

Well, all except for the French knot eyes. I may have said this before, but it is worth repeating: I am French knot impaired. There! I am not ashamed to admit it! I couldn't make a French knot if my life depended on it! So, it's a good thing that I am a stitcher with stitching friends who know how to make a French knot, because there have been many times when I have asked others to do what I can not. My friend, Chrissy, will finish the eyes so my ladies will be able to see, and then they will be taken to the framers.

Since I had to take a second trip into Lazy Daisy I decided to take Music and Books into the shop to get framed. Pictures of that one will be coming soon!

Thanks for visiting my blog. Please leave a comment because I love to read them!

Progress In More Ways Than One

2010-04-12T11:13:00.000-07:00

Last week my goal was to get my leaflets organized. Thanks to everyone who gave me suggestions as to how you organize the leaflets that you have. I don't have a craft room where I have all of my stitching supplies. I have a closet. MJ and I renovated our house about 7 years ago and the room that was the master bedroom is now a family room/den type of room. There are two decent sized closets in that room and I took one over, added shelves, and moved my stash to it's new home. What I needed was something that would fit into the closet and keep everything together, and keep it neat and easy to access at the same time. If anyone who reads my blog also does scrap booking, you may be familiar with the solution that I came up with:

I found these in the scrap book section of AC Moore. They are designed to hold 12 x 12 sheets of scrap book paper, but the more I looked at them the more I thought that they would serve my purpose, so I thought I would give it a try.

The containers have sections with tabs on the top of each one, so I am able to clearly mark what is in each section:

After I tried the first one and decided that it would work I went back to the store to get the second one. I was able to fit everything into both of them and since they are expandable I should be able to use them for a while. One job down!!

The ladies of the embroidery guild are taking shape as well:

I love the colors!!

That's all for now. Thanks again to everyone for their suggestions.

A New Day, A New Start, A New Finish, and Some Help, Please

2010-04-06T06:56:00.000-07:00

I'm about two weeks into the three week course of antibiotics for the Lyme's Disease, and I guess I'm feeling a little better. Not quite so sleepy and definitely not so achy. Which, for my stitching at least, is a good thing. I haven't felt like stitching much lately. I had to put the HAED pandas away for awhile because it was just too much to work on and too hard to concentrate on right now. But my stitching bag contains several projects, much easier to work on than the HAED, that are all kitted up and ready to go.

The new start is another Little House Needleworks design called "Embroidery Guild". I saw this at the LNS one day as I was walking out the door, having already spent the money that I had gone there to spend. I picked it up the next week because I had to have it.

I started it yesterday, so I have not gotten very far with it, but like all Little House Needleworks projects that I have stitched, I am enjoying it. I should be getting some good stitching time in the next few days as spring break is over and the kids are back in school, so I should be able to show decent progress on this.

At least you can start to see that I'm working on a red dress of an embroidery guild member.

As for the finish part of this blog entry, I am happy to say that "Music and Books" is finished!

Books and music are two of my favorite things, after stitching and chocolate, and are so important to me. I love to read, and my kids think that it's hysterically funny that I vacuum and clean the house while I have my iPod stuck in my ears, so this was a fun piece for me to work on. Now I just have to decide how to finish it off and where to put it.

Is anyone else running out of room to put things that you have stitched? Every time I start something new I have family members who ask, "Where are you going to put that?" Hmmmm! Well, actually, I haven't thought about where to put it once I'm done with it. I really just wanted to enjoy working on it.

Now we are moving onto the "help" portion of this entry. Stitchers out there, I need your suggestions! I have my leaflets in a large plastic magazine holder, however, since the opening of The Lazy Daisy almost three years ago my purchasing of new and exciting leaflets, fabric, and flosses have increased dramatically. At the moment, my magazine holder is over stuffed and I can't fit anything else into it. How do you all store your leaflets? Where do you keep them and what do you keep them in? Any ideas are welcome because I have to figure something out.

Slow Stitching

2010-04-01T07:53:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I posted to my blog, but I have not had alot to work to show. I went to the doctor for a routine physical a few weeks ago. I had not been feeling great, but everything that I was feeling was not things that I had never dealt with before, so I didn't think anything of it. Turns out I have been diagnosed as having Lyme's Disease! So, I am now on a three week course of antibiotics, then when that is done I have to go back to the doctor for more blood work. I'm going to be a pin cushion by the time this is over.

Since one of the symptoms of Lyme's Disease is extreme fatigue, I have not gotten alot of stitching done because I have been falling asleep on the couch as soon as I get the kids into bed. Or, on some nights, before they get into bed! LOL!! That's not good.

Now that I have been on the medication for about a week and a half I am starting to feel bit better and I did manage to get some stitching done in the last few days:

I was not loving this project when I first started it. The finished project looks great, but I was not enjoying working on it. As I have worked on it for the last few days, though, I have found that I have been enjoying it more and more. So, now all I need is an L and an E, and I will have LOVE!

The kids are on spring break this week and this is the first day that the sun has been out. Monday and Tuesday were like monsoon season here, and even though the rain had let up a lot by Wednesday, it was still very gray and damp. This morning I was blue sky and the sun shining. It was a nice thing to see.

A Sunny Sunday Morning

2010-03-21T06:18:00.000-07:00

Good Sunday morning to everyone!! I found what gets two kids (three, if you count my husband) up and moving on Sunday morning: Dunkin Donuts! I never saw three people so excited about a breakfast food in my life. Something to remember in the future, I think.

This past Thursday was Sit and Stitch at the Lazy Daisy, my favorite night of the month! That date is always written into my calendar in ink and I try very hard to schedule everything else around Lazy Daisy night. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but this month I went and had quite a bit of fun. There were not as many people there as there sometimes is, but it was a fun night, nonetheless. I picked up my $15.00 gift certificate to the shop, and promptly spent it. I forgot to take pictures of the new stash, but I picked up Hooked On Ice Cream by Handblessings (the same designer that did the Hooked On Chocolate piece that I did) and a Christmas tree design that I don't remember the particulars of. I will try to remember to get pictures of them so I can show them off. Once again, a big thank you to Kathy for the gift certificate!

On to the stitching news!! Music and Books is almost done!! I finished the back stitching on this last night and now all that is left is the border. That should get done in the next day or two:

Does anyone else do this? I am almost done with this project, so that will be the only thing that I work on until I put the final stitch in. It's like I'm possessed or in a trance or something. I sit there and think, "Must finish this! Must finish this!" Please, someone out there in blog land tell me that I am not the only one who does this.

The next page of the HAED is done:

This page went really quickly. I think that's because it was big blocks of colors, and not alot of confetti stitches and jumping here and there with lots of different colors. There is one more full page to do, and then a partial page of stitching and I will have completed the whole top row. Then I will be able to see exactly how wide this project will end of being. Something about that excites me. It gives me a sense of accomplishment.

I Won Something!

2010-03-12T10:05:00.001-08:00

I won a giveaway!! This is a rarity for me, so you can understand my excitement when I shout from the rooftops that I won something! Kathy (http://kathystitchcomments.blogspot.com/) was doing a giveaway on her blog to celebrate the birthday of her puppy, Rory, and the prize was a gift certificate to your favorite ONS. I entered, thinking that so many people had already entered that there was no way I was going to win. Then the other day MJ was on the computer and he saw an e-mail titled "You Won Second Prize" and he says to me, "You don't know this sender, right?" He wanted to delete it thinking it was junk e-mail. I asked him to open it and when I started reading it I was stunned to see that I actually won something. A $15 gift certificate to Lazy Daisy! Now that was a great way to start the week, don't you think? Thank you, Kathy!! Sit and stich is next week and I'm sure I will find something to spend it on!

I realize that two posts within one week s rare for me, but there were things that I wanted to show off. When MJ and I were in Williamsburg, VA and we went to Haus Tirol I bought this fabric to do this piece on. The fabric us Dried Thyme and the piece is called "Love" by Turquoise Designs (I think that the name of designer, anyway):

My love affair with Little House Needleworks continues!! This one shows off my two loves, other than stitching: books and music. I would never have gotten though high school without books and music!

I am trying very hard to pass my love of reading on to M, but as of yet, he does not seem to share my enthusiasm. I have found a couple of books that I've read, and then gave to him, thinking that he would like them, too, and he usually does. He just does not find reading the enjoyable pass time that I do. I'm working on him, though. I have not given up!

Chocolate Box is finished! Instead of going with a pink cording to go around the stitched piece I chose a pretty chocolaty brown. The pink was just way too overpowering. When I looked at it, all I saw was pink and I put it back. The brown works much better:

I'm not quite sure what I'm going to use the box for, but I was really happy with the outcome. This was something that I had never tried before, and while it's not perfect, I think that it came out pretty good. I love to find new ways to finish stitching. I know that framing some things is just the way to go, but I love when inspiration grips me and I come up with something else.

What other finishing do you do? If anyone has any ideas I would love to hear them. Like I said, I'm always looking for something new and exciting!

Back In The Swing Of Things

2010-03-07T12:58:00.000-08:00

It has been a while since I posted to my blog, but this week I finally got back into the swing of things around here. The stress of the accident and thinking of what could have been, well, to be perfectly honest, it threw me for a loop much worse that I ever thought it would. The whole first week we were back from vacation I laid on the couch and basically did nothing. The stress of everything that happened must have finally caught up with me because I wound up at the doctor's office with another sinus infection. It was hard to stitch for a few days because I felt pretty yucky, but that has passed and this past week I got myself up and moving, and I actually have things to show for it.

First thing is that we got a new car to replace the one that was totalled. I was sad to hear while I was on vacation that my 2002 Jeep, which I loved more that any car I ever owned, was no longer going to be part of my life. She was the best and I was sorry to hear that she had been totalled, but I picked up a shiny new blue 2010 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo. She is just like the old one, only shinier and with a few more bells and whistles, most of which I am still trying to figure out how to use. LOL!! M thinks the fact that this new car has a back up camera is the coolest thing that he has ever seen. I am just glad to have a car again.

In the stitching department I got Chocolate Box finished. Then I was trying to decide how to finish it. Since it was called Chocolate Box, I really wanted to somewho finish it as a box . Off to AC Moore I went to see what I could find. I bough this:

A simple pine box. After some sanding and staining, which took me longer than I thought it would, it looked like this:

When I showed it to MJ he said to me, "Who stained it?" When I told him that I had done it his reply was, "Wow! I'm surprised. You did a good job." That's my husband! The eternal support system! I love that man!!

Anyway, this is the general idea of what I want to end up with:

I have not attached the stitching to the box top yet as I want to go to the fabric store and see if I can find some cording in a pink color to add to the edges. I know that the stitching is not straight on the board. No matter how hard I try or how long I take to place it on the sticky board right, it never ends up straight. I must have crooked eyes! LOL!!

There is progress on the HAED to report as well. Woo hoo!! Page 4 is now history (only 65 more pages to go!) and part of page 5 is under way. I see lots of blues in my future!

There are two other projects that I started that I forgot to take pictures of. Hopefully I will get to that this week and get them up on the web for everyone to see. Now that Chocolate Box is completed I needed another small project to work on. These blues are going to drive me batty!

Not Much Stitching Going On

2010-02-22T11:23:00.000-08:00

Did you know that if your little car (or in my case, a bog ol' Jeep) gets into an altercation with a VERY LARGE semi-truck that is flying down the highway you will most likely come out the loser of said altercation? And that the only thing worse than totaling your car is totaling your car while you are out of state? As you can see, it's been a trying week here in my world. We were in an accident with both of the kids in the car. Luckily, no one was hurt and we all walked away from the crash. That was how our vacation began.

So, after we returned home from our trip we spent the weekend car shopping. There is a bright, shiny, new, blue Jeep in my future! Hopefully, after all of this excitement dies down and everything gets back to normal I will be able to get some stitching done and have something to show off. I did get a little bit of stitching done while I was away and Chocolate Box is almost done. Pictures will be coming soon.

New Stash Acquisitions

2010-02-06T07:26:00.000-08:00

I am incredibly lucky to have many generous people in my life. Yesterday I went out to get the mail from the mail box and sitting on my porch was a package from my cousin and his family. Unfortunately, they were unable to come down last weekend for my birthday party because one of the kids got sick (haven't we all had that happen to us at one point or another?), so my cousin's wife mailed my gift to me. Sarah is a very crafty person in her own right and she is an excellent quilter. I opened the package to find this:

A box full of stitching stuff!! Two leaflets, two kits, a cool not pad, and a needle minder with my initial on it. She lives near a needlework shop and she told me that the man in the store helped her pick out the stuff for me. Honestly, it was one of the most thoughtful presents I think I have ever gotten! Now really, who wouldn't like getting something like that in the mail?

This weekend Lazy Daisy is having a Superbowl Sale. I was supposed to ride in there with some friends this afternoon to pick some stuff up with the birthday money and gift certificate that I had. As I said in my last post, the problem was that the weatherman was predicting a large snow storm coming our way to arrive Friday night into Saturday. What was a girl to do? Change her plans!! My friend and I went in last night instead. Needless to say, I completely blew thought my birthday money. That didn't last long, did it?

Little House Needleworks is doing an ornament a month and Diana puts one aside for me each month. These are the two that I picked up:

I think my favorite thing to do, other than stitch, is read. I love getting lost in a good book. This says "An open book is a window to the world" and when my friend pointed it out to me I had to have it, plus the fabric and the threads to go with it. If I'm going to buy it, I might as well buy everything that goes with it, right?

Anyone know that song by The Who that goes, "Who are you? Who? Who? Who? Who?" Well, when my kids were little I changed the words to say "Who loves you?" To this day I always say to them, "Who loves you?" and they always answer, "You, mom." When I saw this little tuck pillow at the shop I just fell in love with it.

I want to make one for each of the boys, so I was hoping to be able to buy a second tuck pillow, but Diana told me that the designer won't sell just the tuck. So, I think what I am going to do is make one fore the tuck pillow and stitch a second one and make it into a pillow.

I picked this up a few weeks ago, but forgot to post it. Again, it's an LHN called Necessities Sampler. Is anyone seeing an LHN pattern here?

And the latest addition to the chocolate wall is back!

I am really happy with the way this turned out. I think that the charms make the piece.

As I type this, I am listening to my husband and the kids playing "monster" upstairs. The big kid (that would be the husband) jumps out and makes monster sounds and the little kids pretend to shoot him. I love that sound, especially when they laugh.

And The Cake Was...

2010-02-04T08:13:00.001-08:00

I guess I'm really predictable because someone guessed that my birthday cake was a panda. Hmmm! How did you ever figure that out??

This must be a guy thing because my husband, my oldest son, and my friend's husband all asked me the same thing: are you going to cut the head off first? That poor bear. But he was really tasty!

Me, next to the cake:

This is my uncle (my later dad's brother) and I was really happy that he, his wife, Debbie, and my Aunt Rosalie (who I did not get a picture of!) were there for the party. They live about 4 hours away, so it was a hike for them to get here, but they came to see me and I was thrilled!

This weekend Lazy Daisy is having a Superbowl Sale on Saturday and I was supposed to get together with three of my friends and go shopping there. I have a gift certificate and some birthday money that are just dying to be used. Guess what? We're supposed to get MORE SNOW!!!!! Because we haven't had almost three feet of snow already this winter! Like we need more! So, I am trying to see if I can get to the Superbowl Sale on Friday night instead, which will involve seeing what time the husband will be able to get home from work and, maybe, some child care issues. Wish me luck!

Milestones

2010-01-31T11:45:00.000-08:00

Last week I made it to a milestone that some women, including myself, look forward to with dread: I turned 40 year old. Ack!! How did I get to be 40 years old? I feel like I just had my kids and I was young when I had them. But then again, my oldest is going to turn 11 this year, so to say that I just had them is a bit of a stretch. I was 30 when my parents passed away, so that idea that I have been without them for 10 years is a little mind boggling. I'll be married for 13 years this year and you don't get to be married for that long unless the years fly by.

Ahh, well. 40 it is. For my birthday MJ and I took a quiet three days away and went to Williamsburg, VA. I have always wanted to go there and see the colonial restoration. We have been talking about going for years. I remember talking about it before we were even married, but for some reason we just never got there. So, when we started talking about taking a few days for my birthday I thought about going there. The good thing about going at this time of year is that it is the off season and there were not alot of people there. Alot of times we were the only people on the tours of the various houses. We could walk into all of exhibits and talk to the people about what they were doing for as long as we wanted. You can't spend a half an hour talking to the shoe maker in the middle of the summer when there are 20 people waiting to get in to see the shoe maker's shop. The bad part about going at this time of year is that it's the off season and everything closed very early and once the exhibits were closed there was nothing to do in the restoration area. Even the shops in Williamsburg closed by 6:00 pm. Even with all of that, we had a great time. We want to bring the kids down there at some point as M is really starting to love history (he takes after his mother, bless his little heart!) and when we described it to him he looked like he really wanted to go.

While we were there I took pictures of some of the exhibits. This room is in the Wythe house. Mr. Wythe was a tutor to one of our founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson. This was Mrs. Wythe's sitting room. Notice the needlework in the embroidery hoop? It's nice to know that some things never change!

This is the courthouse:

This is the Governor's Palace, which was the home of the royal governors of the Virginia colony.

While we were in Virginia, I got to meet my friend, Cynthia. I met her on the Sanman message board and while there we discovered that we are birthday twins. Our wonderful mothers gave birth on the exact same day, which means this was a milestone year for Cynthia, too! We met at Haus Tirol, a needlework shop in Williamsburg. I had bought this pattern that last time I was at Lazy Daisy, but forgot fabric. So, while I was at the shop in Virginia I bought this hand dyed thyme fabric to go with it.

I was sick last week (nothing like being sick for your birthday!) and I needed something simpler to work on. Those pandas are beautiful, but not when you are struggling through a nasty sinus infection and are having a hard time concentrating. So, I pulled this out of the stitching bag and started working on it before I left. This is Chocolate Box by LHN:

You can't go wrong with chocolate, now can you?

And of course, my pandas! I was hoping to have the next page totally done before I posted another picture of them, but since I was taking pictures I took one of them as well.

We are totally into blue sky area and I have about three more pages of blue to work on before I finish this row of pages! Yikes!! I like blue, but I can see this getting to be a bit tedious!

Hopefully, next time I post I will have pictures from the birthday party that MJ gave me last night. And wait until you see what my cake was!! Anyone want to take a guess?

HAED Update

2010-01-16T08:13:00.001-08:00

I know that alot of people make stitching resolutions at the beginning of each year. I always say that I don't do that, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I really do make them. This year the resolution is to make some genuine progress on the HAED. I finished page 3 last Sunday and have gotten almost half way through page 4. This is the picture taken earlier this week:

My little black and white friend is starting to look pretty good, I think!! As I said, I'm about half way through the next page, but it's a slow go. I feel like it takes sooooo long to make any noticeable progress. I'm not sure if it's because at the moment I'm stitching a large section of sky that is nothing but blue, blue and more blue, or if it's because I'm stitching over 1. Either way, while I really do enjoy working on this piece, it only holds my attention for only so long, and then I'm looking for something else to work on.

Which leads me to another problem: I'M BORED!!!!! Who ever thought I would say that?? Seriously, I have two projects that I have kitted up in my stitching bag and are ready to go, but I just don't feel like working on them. I pulled all of my leaflets out of my stitching closet yesterday (BIG mistake!! More on that later,) and there was nothing that really called to me. Well, there was, but most of them were LHN charts that call for overdyed floss, none of which I happen to have in the house. Not quite sure what I am going to do about this. I will be at the LHN this week for sit and stitch, so I will have to take the charts with me so I can get all of the floss that I need.

Now, onto the stitching closet, a.k.a The Big Black Hole. Whenever I don't know what to do with something, I toss it into the closet. If I'm having company and need to clean up my stitching area, I toss everything into the stitching closet. As you can imagine, the closet is a MESS!! So, yesterday while I was searching in vain for something to work on, I decided that I needed to clean up the closet. This probably would have been a great idea had I not started it about 10 minutes before I had to get M and Z off of the school bus!! What can I say?? Timing was never my strong point!! After the kids got home from school I did eventually get some things put away and the closet straightened out a little bit. At some point I really have to pull everything out of there and really give it a good sorting. The thought of actually doing it just overwhelms me!

Have a good weekend!

First Finish Of The Year

2010-01-07T10:44:00.001-08:00

I finished Home Of A Needleworker the other day and since I knew that I was going to finish it as a wall hanging I had to make a trip to Joanne Fabrics in the hope of finding something that I thought would work. I don't know about you, but sometimes I got to look for fabric for a certain project, and I have something in my mind, but I can never seem to find what I see in my mind's eye. I end up roaming around the store, endlessly looking for something that apparently does not exist. For this one, though, I really didn't have any idea what kind of fabric that I wanted. The color green kept leaping to mind, but I was not really sure about it. So, I took the finished stitched piece with me so I could hold it up against any fabric that I thought might catch my eye. I was in the store all of five minutes when I came across this brown and blue fabric and I just could not believe my eyes! It was perfect!!

Two hours were spent sitting at my sewing machine this morning, with this as the final result:

I am not a sewer by nature. I took a quilting class about six years ago, where I learned the basics, but I'm not the best finisher in the world, but I honestly think that this is one of the best finishes that I've ever done and I'm quite excited about it. My plan was to hang it in the living room, but it came out a little bigger that I thought it would, so I'm not sure if it will work in the space that I have in mind for it.

I took the HAED pandas out last night and gave those little guys a little of my attention. Now that it is the new year, I am hoping to make so good progress on this project. I have a couple of other small projects kitted up and ready to go also, so I'm sure that they will be making an appearance soon, too.

Now that the month of January is here, I must face a sad fact: in all of three weeks I will turn the big 4-0! The thought is so depressing! But, I convinced MJ that a big party would make my getting older a little more bearable. I am so excited because, barring any bad weather, my uncle and his wife, and my cousin and his family are going to come down here for it! It's always nice to be surprised and know that family will be able to make it here.

This is going to be a good stitching year. I can feel in my almost 40 year old bones!

Family Visit and Last Finish of 2009 (Well, Almost)

2010-01-01T11:05:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!! I hope that 2010 brings all of you much love and happiness.

The day after Christmas my family and I flew to Houston, TX to visit my sister and her family. V moved to Texas a little more than five years ago and this is the first time that we have been able to go down there. It was good to see her. They were here in New York visiting my BIL's family over the summer and we decided to go down there for a visit a short time later. This is us in front of their Christmas tree:

That's me in the purple.

M, Z, and my niece, B, also in front of the Christmas tree:

While I was away I almost got Home Of A Needleworker done. I actually got alot of stitching done on the airplane going down to Houston and coming back to New York. I think that it's going to be finished as a wall hanging and hung in the living room.

Happy New Year to all!

The Weather Outside Is Frightful!

2009-12-20T12:26:00.000-08:00

Winter does not officially start until tomorrow, but here on Long Island we have been buried under a blizzard! We were forecast to get 12 - 18 inches of snow, but boy, was the weatherman wrong! We got 27 inches! Have you ever seen what 27 inches of snow looks like? This was the view of the driveway from the front door. The front of MJ's car was almost completely buried by the white stuff! Shoveling all that snow was not fun, but were lucky that a neighbor with a snow blower took pity on us and came over to lend us a hand. One thing that we are blessed with is nice neighbors.

After MJ got the front walkway shoveled the kids got all bundled up in their snow gear and headed out to have some fun! As you can see, the snow that MJ had shoveled is almost as tall as Z! When he walks through the snow on the grass in the yard it comes up to his waist and he has such a hard time walking because the snow is so high.

They tried to be dad's helpers before they had fun by doing a little bit of shoveling, too.

M saw all that snow this morning and was just dumbfound. There has never been a storm like this that dumped so much snow on us in his short lifetime, so this was a totally new experience for both of them. Of course, they are both hoping and praying for a snow day tomorrow and an extended weekend.

I know I said that I was done with Christmas ornaments, but I have one more. This is called The Cross of Christmas and is by My Big Toe:

It was done with floss from Weekes in Dolphin and Gunmetal. You know what I like about this one? The design calls for the two colors of blue that I used, but it's one of those designs that you can make in any color. Those types of designs appeal to me.

We have a finish, too! Chocolate is done!

I attached the charms last week, and now it's just has to be framed and added to the chocolate wall.

As we head into the last few days before Christmas, I don't know if I will get another post before the holidays. I hope that everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Ornaments, More Ornaments and A Work In Progress

2009-12-14T11:24:00.000-08:00

I don't know about any of you, but the two weeks leading up to Christmas are just crazy here. Between doctor appointments, running around to get those last minute gifts and stocking stuffers, and activities for the kids, half the time I'm not sure if I'm coming or going. All I can say is thank goodness for my favorite chair and my stitching. I need to do something to keep me from going holiday crazy! Hang on though, because I have lots to share and lots of pictures for you to look at.

Lat week at Sit and Stitch at the Lazy Daisy we had a little holiday party, and one of the new parts to this year's party was an ornament exchange. I think that we had 9 people participate and everyone got something nice. The ornament I received was made my Janet:

The little Christmas tree front:

And the back:

Isn't it cute?

This year, for the first time, I participated in ornament exchanges on two message boards that I belong to. I got this ornament from Sue (along with some yummy chocolates that the kids tried to abscond away with):

And I got these from Delores:

First of all, this is a woman who knows what I like! Check out the panda on the front:

And more of them on the back:

I love it so much and was very excited to put all of these beauties on my ornament tree.

Last week I finally finished stitching the last of this year's ornaments, and all that remained to do on them was the finishing. Well, after doing my running around this morning, finishing was today's task. All of the ones that I finished were repeats of ones that I had already done, except for this one, which is going to my sister when we go to visit her after Christmas:

It's a surprise for her. We have not been as close as we used to be, but she called one night and told me that she and her husband had ordered furniture for their guest room and did we want to come and visit? So, MJ and I decided that we would go, and to be honest I'm looking forward to going. It will be nice to see her and her family.

Now that the ornaments are done I decided that I would start one of the pieces that I kitted up a few weeks ago. Hooked on Chocolate by Handblessings was started last week and it's a very quick stitch. It's almost done!

I'm not sure of the name of the color of the fabric that I'm using. It was something that I won in a giveaway and when I saw it I thought that it would go perfectly with this design. The design call for Threadworx floss, but I could not get that at my LNS, so I chose colors that seemed close and I think they look great. I'm using Dark Chocolate by GAST, Sassy Brassy by Crescent Colors, and Sky by Weekes Dye Works (which is the next and last color that I have to stitch). When it is done I think that it will be a handsome additional to the chocolate wall in the dining room.

Well, now that I've had my day to myself, it's almost time to collect the kiddies from the bus stop. M had his orchestra concert in school and was very nervous about it this morning, so I'm looking forward to hearing from him how he did, and hearing from Z how he liked listening to the orchestra.

Until next time, friends!

O, Christmas Tree

2009-12-09T09:56:00.001-08:00

This past weekend was Christmas tree day! As you can see, we have an artificial tree and the boys absolutely love to help their dad put it together:

Here it is with all of the lights and ornaments:

See that panda next to the tree? My mother-in-law bought that for me for my first Christmas that MJ and I were married (she knew the way to my heart) and it moves! The head and arms move when it's plugged in and turned on, and every year he sits right next to our tree. I love that little guy!

This is my ornament tree:

It's fiber optic, so it lights up and looks so nice. This belonged to my parents and I got it after they passed away. For the longest time I didn't use it because it's so small and I was not quite sure where to put it or what to do with it. Then, a few years ago, I decided to take all of my stitched ornaments off of the big Christmas tree and put them on that little tree. I had not really made alot of ornaments at that time, so that first year it looked pretty bare and pitiful, but since then I have made several ornaments each year so that my little tree does not look quite so empty. If I keep making ornaments I will need to get a bigger tree at some point, but for now this little one is just the right size.

Speaking of ornaments, I am VERY happy to say that I have put the last stitch in my last ornament of the season. All in all, I stitched 18 this year, which is alot for me, but I guess that is what happens when you start your Christmas stitching in September! Out of that 18, five of them will find a home on my little ornament tree, plus I am expecting three more from exchanges that I participated in. Now that all of the stitching is done, I have to do the finishing on the last six. I hope to get to that either by the end of this week or early next week. Christmas is coming and I am running out of time.

So I'm Not The Sharpest Needle In The Needlecase

2009-11-29T17:00:00.001-08:00

I've been happily working along on Home of A Needleworker for the last week and I made some good progress:

I have noticed, however, that my fabric seems to be a bit small and I could not, for the life of me, figure out how I screwed it up. I checked my calculations for the size of the finished design. I had measured the material three times before I cut it. That's a little OCD, I know, but I've saved myself from mistakes by checking just one last time. Where did I go wrong?

Then, last night while I was watching a James Bond marathon, it came to me. I know that I need to have three inches on each side to allow for framing for a total of an additional six inches for the lenght and six inches for the width. I was thinking three inches, not six. So, instead of adding six inches to the size of the fabric, I only added three, half as much as I needed. And as I was thinking about it, I realized that I had done the same thing to the blue fabric that I'm planning on using for the Hooked on Chocolate design that I kitted up last week. At least for that project I have not started it yet, and I have more of that fabric, so I will go back to see if I have enough of it to cut a larger piece.

As for the LHN, I'm going to finish it and see how much fabric I have on each side. I may have to sew some muslin to the edges to give the framers some extra fabric to work with.

I really need to remember SIX inches!

New Starts And A WIP

2009-11-22T07:59:00.000-08:00

Last time I posted I asked for your opinions on which is better: making clear progress on a WIP, or the thrill of starting something new. Well, I decided that I needed to have my cake and eat it too, so I did both! I guess I'm just one of those girls who wants it all.

The first panda from HAED is becoming along and he almost has a head, which is really exciting:

Lots of blues in the top of this design and the bottom has lots of greens, but it's nice to see progress being made on something so big.

Now, on to the new starts and things that I've kitted up. The new start is from Little House Needleworks and is called Home Of A Needleworker:

It's being stitched on 28 count off white evenweave with the Crescent Colors that are called for in the design. I love LHN designs because they are usually quick to stitch, and with two big projects on the the stitching bag it's nice to have something that is smaller to work on.

The next piece that I've kitted up is by Handblessings:

Mmmmm!! Chocolate! And this piece says it all, at least for me! The design calls for Threadworx floss, but my LNS does not carry that, so Diana (the owner of Lazy Daisy ) and I decided to go through and pick three colors that we thought were close to what the design called for that looked nice on the blue fabric. Oh! That fabric came from Doris (http://apauseinthejourney.blogspot.com). She did a giveaway on her blog a while ago and I got two large Ziplock bags filled with fabric, and this pretty blue was one of them. Doris, it's coming in handy!!!

Another Handblessings design has made it's way into the stitching bag as well:

Welcome To the Home Of A Stitcher! I love this one and I think I know exactly where I want it to go, too. Again, I'm using the thread called for in the design by Weekes Dye Works, but I'm not sure of the name of the color of the linen that I bought. I picked it up at Lazy Daisy on Thursday night and there was no name on it. I know it's 30 count, though, which is smaller that I usually work on, but when I asked for opinions at the shop everyone thought that the floss colors really popped on this fabric.

Is everyone getting ready for Thanksgiving? I am cooking this year, but it is going to be a much smaller crowd that usual, which actually I think is kind of nice. Both of the kids have decided that they want to help me do the cooking, which I think is nice, until they get bored and decided that something else is more fun, like their video games. Since I do almost all of the side dishes the day or two before Thanksgiving, I think I have decided that they can help me make a couple of simple desserts that they picked out from one of my cook books. This way they feel like they have helped me with the dinner and made a contribution, and I know that desserts will keep their interest long enough for them to see through from start to finish.

I hope that all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and that you have friends and family to spend the holiday with.

Which Is Better?

2009-11-16T09:46:00.001-08:00

In my last post I said that I was getting tired of the ornaments, but had no desire to stitch on the two projects in my stitching bag, which left me with the option of rooting through my stash looking for something new to work on. Something that shouts to me that it needs to be taken out of the closet and worked on. I got alot of comments from people telling me that starting something new is great fun, which I agree with, and how much fun it is to look through stash to see what could be the next project of the day.

But then, while I was cleaning up the den I took out the HAED piece and looked at where I was on that and somehow, that piece was the one that started calling the loudest. I spent Friday afternoon while the kids were at school and all day Saturday stitching on those pandas. I haven't had a day like that in a long time. With young kids it is hard to be able to do that, but somehow on Saturday all of the stars were in alignment and I got in a good stitching day. Or maybe it's just that my kids are getting bigger and more self sufficient.

This change in my decision got me to thinking which do you think is better: starting something new, or making some great progress in a WIP that has been sitting in your stitching bag? All opinions are welcome, so please leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Pink Floss Comes In Handy

2009-11-13T06:39:00.000-08:00

Each week Z's class focuses on a color of the week. They learn to spell that word, sound it out, and do class work that includes that particular color. On Friday each child is to bring in a secret object in a bag, stand in front of the class and describe what they brought and the other kids have to try to guess what the secret object is. So far, it's been easy finding something that Z has that is the color of the week. Blue week was a blue Power Ranger. Red week was a Lightning McQueen car. Brown week was a brown Matchbox car. Easy, right? The color of the week this week? PINK!! Now, if I was the mother of girls pink would be no problem. I'm sure we would have a My Little Pony, or something belonging to some type of doll that was pink, but the good Lord chose to blessed me with boys and, to the perfectly honest, this house is sorely lacking in pink. There really was not anything that he had that could be considered pink. This morning we were still trying to find something when I decided to check my craft closet, where there is a big bag to extra floss. I asked Z if he wanted to take pink floss and he could tell the kids that his mom used it for her sewing. So, Z went to school with his homework completed and my pink floss saved the day. See why having extra stash comes in handy? You never know when you might need something.

On the stitching front, I am starting to get ornamented out, I think. I finished stitching three more, and am almost done with another one. There are two more that I want to make and then I think that I will be finished with ornaments for this year. That would bring my grand total of ornaments made to 14, which for me is pretty impressive. I'm amazed that I've stuck with stitching them for so long.

Which leads to me a problem. I have two other projects in my bag, the HAED panda and the Mickey and Minnie, but I really don't feel like working in them right now. What is a stitcher to do? Start something else!! I'm not sure what I want to work on, so I think I will be taking a look through my stash to see what's there and what jumps out at me, or screams the loudest at me, begging to be worked on.

I also want to welcome the new followers that I have here. Welcome! I hope you enjoy your time here, and please feel free to leave comments. I love reading them.

And The Winner Is...

2009-11-09T16:48:00.000-08:00

We have a winner of the Noel Christmas ornament!!

Here are all of the names, written on paper and mixed up in my pretty crystal bowl:

MJ was reading a bed time story to Z, so we had a substitute name chooser: M!

And the winner is (drum roll please).....

More drum roll please.....

Renee G!!!!!

Congratulations, Renee. I have already sent you an e-mail asking for your mailing address. Once I get that from you, I will be able to send you your ornament in the mail this week.

We were upstate this weekend visiting M's brother and his family. They have two boys who have birthdays in the beginning of November, ages 6 and 1, so we were there celebrating two special birthdays. We had a good visit and were making great time getting home. We just get over the Tappan Zee bridge when Z tells me, "My chest hurts." Well, I didn't think much about it. The kids were rough housing with their cousins over the weekend and I thought that maybe he got a knee in the chest. Then, about ten minutes later he's throwing up all over himself. Ugh!

I got MJ to pull the car over and get Z out onto the side of the road, but he's covered in ick. So there I am, on the side the Cross Bronx Expressway, opening the back of the Jeep, going though Z's suitcase to find him some dry clothes and get him changed. It's usually M who has trouble with car sickness, but next time it's Dramamine all around for both of them!

I hope everyone has a good week.

A Book, Some Ornaments, and a Giveaway!

2009-10-31T16:34:00.001-07:00

This is my 100th post! To celebrate, I have decided to have a giveaway, but there will be more on that later.

I just finished a GREAT book. I have a neighbor who loves to read like I do, and we have very similar tastes in books. She lent me "Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett. It takes place in 12th century England. In the beginning introduces several groups of characters and as the book goes on, you see how all of these characters and their lives intertwine with each other. It was slow in the beginning, but as I got more into it, it was one of those books that I had a really hard time putting down. The neighbor who lent it to me told me that there is a sequel to it! She is reading that right now, and promised that I could borrow it when she is done with it. Hurray! A new book to read!

I have not gotten a great deal of stitching done this week. A few stitches here, a few stitches there, but not much more than that. The reason? I had four ornaments that I needed to finish and the fact that I was avoiding it kept nagging at me. I even had gone out earlier this week to buy the backing fabric for them, and then conveniently just left the fabric sitting on the dining room table. Well, Friday was finally the day that I sat down to get them done. Four new ornaments, which brings my total so far to nine! That's the most I've ever done for one Christmas, in case that should interest anyone.

Faith, for M's religion teacher:

Love, for the newlyweds:

Home, which I think is staying home with me:

Are you still with me? Good, because if you made it this far, you have gotten to the giveaway part of this post. To celebrate my 100th post in the blog world I am giving - what else? - an ornament! Meet Noel:

If you want to be in the running for this ornament, I need the following:

1. Leave a comment on THIS post with your e-mail address so that I can contact the winner;

2. Tell a friend about my giveaway and my blog.

I will have my DH pick a winner on Monday, November 9 and I will post the name of the winner.

Christmas Ornaments

2009-10-26T13:21:00.001-07:00

I have been so busy. Now that the wedding is over and my kids are healthy again, it's time to get back to stitching. This is the one that I'm working on right now and I think that I will give it to the newlyweds:

What could be nicer than "Love" for your first married Christmas?

This one says "Home", a great thought during the holidays:

I have to get fabric for the backs of these. I was going to use the red and green fabric that I bought for some of the other ornaments, but I was not happy with the way that I looked. I had a different fabric for these in my hand when I bought the other fabrics, but I put it back. I'll head over to Joanne's this week and see if the fabric that I originally saw is still there. I'm hoping that it will be.

These are my little gingerbread men. M saw these and thought that they were "so cute" and was I really going to give them away? So, when I went to Lazy Daisy last week after he went back to school I bought more of the Crescent Colors floss that I needed and I see several more of these little guys in my future:

I love the fabric that I found for the backing. It's little gingerbread men!

While M was sick last week I decided to make some good use of my time and start some finishing. I know I have been talking about that for quite a while, but I finally got around to getting out my sewing machine and getting it set up.

The gingerbread man, the snow man and the lamb:

The fabric for the back these three:

I have several more to make, but this is what I've done so far. Thankfully the Yankess made it into the World Series and baseball games are great for stitching!

The kids are looking forward to fajitas for dinner tonight, so I need to get cracking and get some vegetables chopped. Have a good week, everyone.

The Wedding of Thomas and Theresa

2009-10-21T08:54:00.001-07:00

Stitching took a back seat this past week as our family prepared for MJ's brother to get married. The weather was not quite as nice as we had hoped it would be. It got very rainy and cold the day before the wedding. The rain held out, the sun even came out at one point, but it was really cold for the middle of October. Since there are no stitching pictures this week to share, I have LOTS of wedding pictures to show off.

MJ and me dancing at the reception:

M with his favorite thing: FOOD!

Z looking quite dapper in his little tuxedo:

The happy bride and groom:

It really was a nice wedding and I was so happy to be a part of it and share in their special day. I actually have become very good friends with my new sister-in-law and my kids just love their new aunt.

I had so many things on my list of things to do this week, but apparently M had other plans. We just got back from the pediatrician's office and turns out that he has strep throat. So, he'll be home with me until Friday. At least the medicine that they gave him tastes decent. He's a terrible medicine taker, so if it tastes okay it's easier for him to take. Right now he's up in his room resting, so I am hoping to get a little stitching done this afternoon. I am making progress on the third page of the HAED and I want to start finishing some of the ornaments that I stitched.

Grandma's Sewing Table

2009-10-12T14:09:00.000-07:00

My kids think I'm the strongest person in the world. If I'm so strong, why does one little HAED project send me a quivering? The thought of making another mistake and having to frog out all that work sends shivers up and down my stitching spine! Well, I quiver no more!!! Sheri was over a few Saturdays ago and talked me into picking up my poor panda bears and I am happy to report that page 2 is done! Only 67 more pages to go! Now if that is not a daunting thought, then I'm not sure what it.

After finished page 2 of the HAED, not much stitching got done last week. It was just one of those weeks where the needle never seemed to make it into my hand. Hopefully, this week will be a little better in the stitching department. I did manage to start another ornament, and it's not far from being done. Once I get it this one stitching I want to start some of the finishing work on them and figure out which ones are going to be given to whom. Then I can figure out if I need, or want, to make more of them.

And how about them Yankees? Walked right into the American League Division Series and swept those Minnesota Twins! The first game against the Angels will be this Friday, and I will be unable to watch it. Ugh!! My BIL's wedding is that night and I will be occupied that evening. I think I will be calling some friends from the reception to find out how the game is going. I remember my father doing that once. He and my mom were at a wedding and he kept calling to find out how the NY Knicks were doing. I guess just runs in the blood, huh? Funny how I just remembered that as I was sitting here typing.

Speaking of family, I got something this weekend that made me SO happy! My cousin and his family came to see us over the weekend and brought me my Grandma's sewing table:

All opened up with her sewing machine:

This means so much to me to have it. My cousin said that the machine still works, too.

It's just about time to make dinner. M had to get two teeth pulled this morning, so he wants something soft to eat. We're having breakfast for dinner. Pancakes are on the menu! I guess he would have thought of better ways to spend his day off from school, but it had to get done and today was the day. He did pretty well, and even managed to feel well enough for a trip to the toy store to spend some allowance money.

Oh, and I got something, too! A new Toy Story game for the Wii! we all played it this afternoon and it was so much fun. I told MJ that he had to play it with me tonight. We'll see if he wants to do that. The Jets are on Monday Night Football, so I think my evening will be taken up with that! I love Toy Story and I can't wait for the third movie to come out!

Back From the Framers!

2009-10-04T07:22:00.000-07:00

I took my sampler to Michael's to get framed two weeks ago. They are usually really fast, so I was waiting patiently for that phone call from the framing center telling me that my custom framing order is ready to be picked up at any time. A week goes by. A week and a half. Two weeks!! No phone call. Finally, yesterday afternoon I called to check on the status of the order and lo and behold - it was ready! I was out the door so fast poor MJ didn't have time to ask me where I was going. Ready to see my masterpiece? Drum roll please!

MJ came out to help me carry it into the house when I got home and the first thing he said to me was, "Oh my God, this is HUGE!!" Good thing I had a wall large enough for it.

A close up of the fame:

The sampler on the dining room wall with the butterflies:

When that sampler made it's way back into my house, it was a very happy day in my stitching life.

This morning I came downstairs to start my day when I see this scene in my den:

Tiger the Wonder Kitty, sitting on my project bag, looking like he's protecting my ornaments and fabric at all cost. Don't mess with the Wonder Kitty!

Getting Lots Accomplished

2009-09-29T08:05:00.000-07:00

Wow! Fall has started to arrive here in my little corner of the world. Football season is in full swing and there is nothing I like better than sitting in my chair, stitching in hand, and a football game on on the television. When my kids were small I missed being able to do that, but now that they are bigger, Sundays mean football and stitching. I love it! Fall also means post season time for baseball, and my beloved Yankees are back in the postseason, baby!! Woo hoo! I am a happy girl!

Stitching, you ask? Of course I've gotten some stitching done. I fit that in right along side getting the house cleaned up. Well, maybe the cleaning takes a back seat to stitching sometimes, but don't tell MJ! I have worked very hard convincing him that I am SO busy during the day while the kids are at school that I don't have time for myself. I don't think he believes me, though. I can't imagine why. Could it be the dust bunnies that tend to collect in some of the corners? If the bunnies are there long enough, can they be classified as pets?

Anyway, do I have stitching to show! Just a warning, this post is pretty picture heavy:

Mickey and Minnie have returned from the bottom of the stitching bag and Minnie finally has a full dress, and the beginnings of a bench for the happy couple to sit on. Right now I seem to be at a stand still because for some reason stitching that bench is really not making me happy. I keep telling myself that once it's done I can get to their shoes and then to Pluto, but it seems to be a slow go at this point. MJ was happy to see that I am a bit more than halfway done with it because this was the kit that he picked out. I even have a place in out bedroom where I want to put it. Now I just have to finish it!

Now, I can't take credit for this idea. It was actually my friend, Christine (no blog) who did this first and I thought it was a great idea. This is a chip clip. It's one of those ones with a magnet on the back. It case you are wondering that it's hanging from, that would be the pole for my Ott light.

It perfectly holds my chart or my color key!

In the mood for some Christmas stitching to get you in the holiday spirit? Two more Christmas ornament have made it to the "finished" pile:

Noel:

And a snowman:

Actually, I also finished another gingerbread man, but he's really the same as the first one that I did. I was in Joanne Fabrics this morning and I found the PERFECT fabric to finish the back of the gingerbread men ones. I can't wait to get out the sewing machine! I am in three ornament exchanges this year so I need to get a few more ornies done if I want to keep some for myself.

Last, but not least, is my M. His teacher had the class do this "getting to know you" kind of project. It was called "M In The Box" M had to pick 10 things there were important to him and write about why he felt that way about them. Among other things that he picked, he wanted the Buzz and Woody wall hanging that I made him, but it was too big for the box. So, we took a picture of him holding it and added that to the box. I have to admit that my little heart went all aflutter when he told me that we had "to find a way" to get that wall hanging into the box. That is the smile that could melt my heart!

And I thought that it didn't matter to him? Sniff! I have to go wipe away my mommy tears. Have a good day!

This And That

2009-09-25T13:48:00.000-07:00

It's been a week, let me tell you. It started out with Z still having a very hard time about going to school. He told me earlier in the week that he didn't want to go because he was afraid of his teacher. So, I decided that I am going to nip this in the bud RIGHT NOW and call the school. The teacher called me back in the afternoon and she was very nice, and seemed quite shocked that Z said he was afraid of her. He did have a few days in school when he started to cry and told that he missed me and wanted to go home. She had him sit by her during the lesson that they were working on, and by the time the lesson was over he was fine. He even called her over one afternoon during play time so she could see what he and some other boys had built with the blocks. Does that sound like a frightened to you? He did seem to get better as the week went on, though. While I don't think that he's thrilled with going to school, he's at least not going in tears, which just kills me to see.

On a good note, the school district FINALLY approved speech services for him. I've only been trying to get him speech since he was 2! They admitted that he needed speech help. but it was not bad enough that they felt the need to help him. Then when he went for his kindergarten evaluation they suddenly has concerns about his speech and articulation! YIKES!!! Talk about frustrating! When open school night rolled around I made sure that I found my way down to the speech teacher's classroom to voice my concerns and make sure they knew his history. Looks like my persistence finally paid off. Thank goodness!

You would think that with two kids in school I would be getting a ton of stitching done, right? Wrong!! Don't get me wrong. I do get stitching time, but not as much as I thought I would and the day seems to go so fast! Before I know it it's two o'clock and they're coming home in an hour! Anyway, I have gotten six ornaments stitched and I joined two ornament exchanges, and I think that Lazy Daisy is going to be doing one, so that would be a third. This are a first for me as I've never done an ornament exchange before. I hope that my trading partner will be happy with what I come up with. I think that next week I'll head over to the fabric store and see if the Christmas fabrics are out yet. There is seriously something wrong with me when I'm thinking Christmas fabric and it's not even October yet. Also, the WIP's in the stitching bag were calling me and crying for attention, so I picked up Minnie and Mickey and decided to let them see the light of day for awhile.

I know, I know. What about the HAED?? I'll get back to it. Actually, it's kind of intimidating me all of a sudden. That large frogging job that I had to do on gave me the willies about working on it. Frogging over one is such a pain in the - well you know where it's a pain. This is one of those times when I have to look my fears right in the face and scream right back at them, right? Jump back into the pool? Get back on the horse? Get back to the HAED? I'll get there - eventually! I would hate to think that the money for the fabric and floss that I spent would go to waste!

Next time I post I hope to have pictures of the ornaments and the progress on the Disney kit. Heck, maybe I'll even pick the HAED up again.

Yeah, right!

A Hard Morning

2009-09-17T08:19:00.001-07:00

School has been in session for just over a week here, and so far everything has been going well. Until this morning. I don't know what happened. Everyone got up and did everything that they were supposed to do before they can play until it's time to head over to the bus stop. Z was playing with the boys at the bus stop and seemed fine. When they went to go line up for the bus, all of a sudden I saw that he looked sad. I went over to him and asked what was wrong and he started crying and saying that he wanted to go home. I'm not sure if something happened when he was playing with the older kids, or if something happened yesterday at school, but he was clearly not happy about having to go to school.

My MIL and I were walking after the bus left and our walking route takes us past the school, so I went over the door by the kindergarten wing and told the aide at the door that he got on the bus and was very upset so that his teacher would know what he was like when he left, in case he was still unhappy when he arrived there. I hate when I have to leave then crying like that.

It's been one of those weeks where my two loves are competing for my attention. Do I stitch? Do I read? Do I read? Do I stitch? Decisions! Decisions! It's so hard. My neighbor, another big reader, lent me "Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follet. So far, it's pretty good, but I'm only about 50 pages into it. Then, on Tuesday, Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol" came out, which made a trip to Borders a necessity. So far, I'm loving it! Is anyone else reading it?

I did manage to finish another ornament last night at my friend's house. Then I pulled out the HAED that I started. I haven't picked that up since I had major frogging to do on it at the beginning of August, but it's been calling me from my stitching bag, so I thought it would be nice if it saw the light of day again. Hopefully, I won't have frogging like that to do again. I'll have to be more careful when I'm looking at the symbols on the color key.

Tonight is Lazy Daisy night. And I can't go! It's open school night for M's grade, so DH and I will be heading over the school to meet his teacher. I've heard only good things about her, and M seems to really like her. I'm not that crazy about Z's teacher, though. I'll have to see how things go as the school year progresses, but she's terrible with boys. It's going to be an interesting year. Ahh! The joys of motherhood!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like....

2009-09-14T05:08:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy week here at Casa Pam. First and foremost was the beginning of school, and of course, the obligatory pictures that accompany such an auspicious occasion. This is the first year that Z is going to school, so it was doubly exciting here.

Z waiting at the bus stop:

I think he was nervous about going, but he refused to tell me so. So far he's happy about going. He likes riding the school bus and he got to buy lunch at school once last week. That was a very big deal to him. He has heard about his brother buying lunch at school and he has always wanted to do that, too. I think that was the most exciting part of his week, actually.

M at the bus stop:

This is my "baby's" last year in the elementary school. Next year it's on to the middle school. Yikes! When did he get old enough for that? He, too, is liking school so far, at least as much as a kid his age actually likes school, but that's another story. M has always been lucky when it comes to teachers, and this year is no exception. I have heard nothing but good things about his teacher so I am looking forward to a great school year with both of my boys.

Now that the school year has begun, I find myself home along all day with no one here but Tiger the Wonder Kitty. What am I going to do with myself? Well, first thing is I started walking. As soon as the kids get on that bus, I grab my iPod and head off for about a mile. I want to gradually go farther than that, but I figure it's a pretty good start.

Then, of course, there is always stitching? I bet you thought I was going to say cleaning, right? Well, I get to that when I have the time. But I can get so much stitching done when there is no one here to interrupt me! And as you can probably tell from the title of my post, Christmas stitching has been the in thing this past week. I managed to finish three ornaments, and start a fourth:

These are by Blue Ribbon Designs and are called Green Letter Ornaments and Red Letter Ornaments. Each one has, I think, twelve different ornaments so there is alot to choose from. I think I bought enough fabric at Lazy Daisy to do twelve of these and I'm kind of picking and choosing as I go along. There is one in the red designs that says "Love" and I think I may do that one for my BIL/future SIL as this Christmas will be there first married one.

This one is by Plum Pudding Needleworks:

There are three designs in this leaflet. This adorable sheep, a snowman, and a gingerbread man.

I just love this little guy: He is one of the gingerbread men from LHN's "Gingerbread Trio". I thought he would make a great ornament, and he was so fast to stitch up!

To be honest, I am having more fun stitching up these ornaments that I thought I would. They go so fast that I never have time to get bored of them. I'm sure eventually I will tired of Christmas in September, but the fact that I started them at all makes me so happy because it' a start on my gift list. I usually make something for the religion teacher, and I'll make one for my sister that I'm visiting in Texas the day after Christmas. Now I can join an ornament exchange or two. My organization skills are starting to frighten me!

That is pretty much all of the exciting news to be heard from my end of the world. We're off the bus stop in 15 minutes, so I need to get my shoes on and find my keys and get ready to start my day of solitude.

Another One Off My List

2009-09-07T10:33:00.001-07:00

After I finished the sampler last week I sat down and made a stitching plan, which is actually a pretty big deal for me because I usually just fly by the seat of my pants when it comes to stitching and work on whatever my minds wants to work on at any given point. I decided that I wanted to start some Christmas ornaments, but that I had a few too many starts sitting in the stitching bag. So, if I wanted to get moving on some ornaments, a WIP would have to finished.

The project that was closest to being completed was the LHN piece that I started, so that was the projects of the week. Last night I put in the final stitches on it:

Again, it's not washed or ironed, but it's done. This is "Necessities Sampler" and it is stitched with DMC floss on 28 count Monaco fabric that I tea dyed.

Now, on to Christmas stitching!!!!! I headed into Lazy Daisy on Saturday to get some floss, and wound up with that, as well as fabric for the ornaments and a whole new set of ornaments that I want to do by Blue Ribbon Designs. Like I really needed those? I dind't have enough ornament ideas sitting here at the house? I needed more?

This is the first year that I've had the desire to start stitching for the holidays this early. I'm usually a late starter when it comes the Christmas stitching and I'm always working at the last minute to get things finished in time. Maybe I'm turning over a new leaf? If it's a trend that continues into next year then I would say so. But for this year, I'll just call it some kind of quirk in my stitching mojo and move on.

Today is the last day of summer vacation for the kids. At this time tomorrow I will be listening to the sounds of quiet. No video games. No television blasting. No kids calling, "Mom!! We're hungry!!" No kids eating me out of house and home! Both M and Z seem to be ready for school. I think that they are both having a case of nerves setting in, but they both will be okay. M has always been a great student and his teachers have always said what a pleasure he is to have in their class, and while this is Z's first year in the school system, his pre-school teachers have also said that his is a good student who is a joy to teach. This is a transition year for M as this is his last year in elementary school. Next year it's the big move to middle school, which, as I am told from other mothers, is a whole different animal. But, he still has this one year in his old school and I'm looking forward to a positive year for both of them. And ALOT of stitching time for me!

Happy Dance of Sampler Joy!!

2009-09-01T13:01:00.000-07:00

Anyone want to put on their happy dance shoes and join me? I finished my sampler this afternoon:

It's not washed or ironed yet, and it will be awhile until I get it framed because it's so big. I know exactly where I want to put it, too. There is a perfect spot in the dining room where everyone will be able to see it.

Talk about excited!! I am so happy to finally finishe this piece. I remember when I started it, thinking that 20 pages seemed so long. I still does, to be honest, but I guess when you compare it to the 69 page HAED, the 20 page sampler was a cake walk! When you first start something like this I guess you feel like you will never get to the end, or at least that is how I felt about it. But look at me now? One HUGE project done and out of my stitching bag! Now I plan on finished the LHN piece that I have started and then I think I will start some Christmas ornaments. I'm moving right along.

We are down to the last week of summer vacation here. Both if the kids finally got their teacher assignments in the mail. M got his yesterday, but nothing for Z, so I figured that it would come today. No, nothing in the mail addressed to the parents of Z. So, I called the school and they told me that it came back to them marked, "No such address." Umm...could that be because they have him living in the wrong town? So, we walked up to the school, which is not that far away, to pick up his envelope. Tomorrow we are heading out for one more beach day before the end of the summer, which everyone is looking forward to. Then the lazy days of summer will be behind us and it will be back to school bed times, and schedules, and routines. While it's nice to have the summer days where I usually don't have to go anywhere at specific times, I do look forward to getting back into the school routine. As much as I hate to admit it, I like the routine of getting ready for the day and everyone knowing exactly what it expected of them in the morning before they can play and head out to the bus stop. But, then again, we still have a week!

Have a good night!

And The Mystery Motif Is...

2009-08-28T06:41:00.001-07:00

In my last post I asked if anyone could guess what the motif would be that goes above my initials in the sampler. I had a few guesses, most of which were a panda. While that was a really good guess, it's not correct. The mystery motif is (drum roll, please)....

Dart Vader!!!!!

When I ordered my sampler Z was going through his Star Wars phase (he takes after his mother, after all!) and we would watch a Star Wars movie at least once a day, so when I was going through the process of picking what I absolutely had to have on my sampler Star Wars was right up there at the top of my list right next to my furry black and white friend. I saw the R2D2 and Vader motifs on another sampler that Nouveau Encore Designs did and asked for them to be put into mine as well. I am happy to report that I am about two thirds of the way done with page 19. I'm getting my dancing shoes ready for the big happy dance of joy I will be doing when this baby is done. I wanted to take a picture, but my camera battery died after I took the Vader motif picture, so an updated photo will have to wait until next time.

I have not gotten a whole lot of stitching done in the last few days, though, because I discovered that the new book by Phillipa Gregory, called "The White Queen", was out, which made a trip to the local book store a really important thing to do. Once I get really into a book I can finish it in a few days, so now that the book has been read and lent to my neighbor I can get back to my stitching.

Less than two weeks until school starts here, and today is a rainy, lazy day. I told the kids that they could be "pajama boys" today, which is something that they love to do, and something we really have not done alot of this summer. M asked if we could get back to the beach one more time before the summer ends, so I may try to do that with them next week.

I guess I need to get back to the laundry, although I would really much rather stay here on the computer and get sucked into a few games of Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook. I have just discovered this game and I am totally addicted. M likes to play it, too. Maybe I'll just play one game.

See ya!

Sampler Update

2009-08-22T08:15:00.000-07:00

Thank you to everyone who commented last night about my sampler worries. I looked at it again last night and I have decided to just plow through to the last page and see what happens when I get there. I finally got pictures of it, so even thought I don't usually post two days in a row I thought that I would show off my handy work.

This is page 16 and 17, along with a little bit of page 18 that I started yesterday:

Can anyone guess what type of motif will go above my initials? I'll give you a hint: it's the same theme as another motif on the sampler, and it's one of Z's favorite things.

The whole sampler so far:

I took a nice bike ride this morning, although I wasn't really out for that long because it's so hot and very humid here. MJ is taking the boys this afternoon so everyone can get measured for tuxedos for BIL's upcoming wedding. I'm going for a dress fitting next week. That sure came up fast. The wedding is less than two months away now and the bride is trying to get as many things done over the summer as she can.

I also wanted to say that we have some new followers here with us! Thanks for pulling up a chair and spending some time here with me. Also, feel free to leave a comment. I love to see them.

Have a grerat weekend!

I Need Reassurance

2009-08-21T16:19:00.000-07:00

I have no pictures yet, but pages 16 and 17 of the sampler are done. YAY!! That leave three to go and the light at the end of the tunnel is getting bigger and brighter with every stitch that I put in. That is actually why I need reassurance.

I usually do the border on each page last, mostly because it is my least favorite part of the sampler to work on. For the last two pages, however, I have noticed that the border on each page is not ending where the chart says that it should. I'm usually at least two squares over. Now, the reason for this could be very simple. The letters may off by two squares, which would account for the border not lining up properly. Or, and this is my worst fear, somewhere along the line I messed up the border. YIKES!! The thought is enough to make me cry.

Now, as I have been stitching this project I have made mistakes on the border along the way, but the mistakes always made themselves known to me because the border did not line up. The loops on the Celtic knots would not meet and if that happened I knew something was wrong. Right now, nothing looks wrong.

I'm being paranoid, right? Please, someone tell me that I did this right. The last thing that I want is to get to the bottom corner of the project only to find that the Celtic knot border is not right.

I'll take pictures in the next few days so that I can post them.

Okay, now that I've gotten that off my chest, I need to go pick the sampler up and get some more stitching done while I'm watching the Yankee game. It's the first inning and already Johnny Damon had to come out of the game because he fouled a ball off his knee. That's not a great way to start the game.

Have a good weekend.

Stash In The Mail and Other Thoughs

2009-08-19T17:44:00.000-07:00

Don't you love getting stash in the mail? Especially when the package is bigger than you think it's going to be? Doris (http://apauseinthejourney.blogspot.com/) has been doing some cleaning out of some stash that she knew she would never use and had some fabric to give away. I told her that I would be interested in the fabric and I was told last week that it would be winging its way over to my house. Well, today the package arrived, and boy was there alot of fabric!

These are the browns/earth tones that I got:

These were the cooler shades:

At the moment my personal favorites are the blue and the pink and my mind is already running trying to think which projects to use those colors on. I'm giddy with excitement. Thank you so much Doris, for your generosity. I am so grateful!

Tomorrow is Lazy Daisy night, my favorite night of the month. Getting together with the people at the shop is always such a fun night and one that I look forward to. It's nice to get out, although there have been nights when the kids whine, "Can't we come with you???" Umm, no. Call me mean mommy, but stitch night and Lazy Daisy night are my nights without my boys.

School starts here in three weeks and I spent alot of time getting both of the kids ready for the start of it. Yesterday we did some shopping for new school clothes, or we tried to at least. All of the stores still have short sleeved shirts out and I am trying to find thing for the fall. I'll have to try other stores. Then I spent two and half hours going through drawers, taking out the old . clothes that will no longer fit them, putting into the drawers the new things that we bought. Then there is always the task of going thought the clothes that M has outgrown, but that we kept figuring that Z would be able to wear them. And there were alot of those. But, I finally got all of the clothes much more organized and easy to get to.

Today was hair cut day. I realize that by the time school starts they will be almost half way to needing to have them again, but M's hair is quite thick and it grows like a weed. He was starting to look pretty shaggy and I was not waiting any longer. Hair cuts were needed NOW.

Next week I can pick up their school supplies and back packs, and then it's all over. Both of my boys will be "school aged". Wow. That seems to strange to me. I have to admit that I am looking forward to it and I'm hoping that I will use my days productively and not get sucked into the television. Oh, I'm a sucker for History Channel. Hopefully, I will put my time to good use while my little ones are learning. Well, I guess M is not that little anymore, but that's another post for another day.

I have gotten quite a bit done on the sampler this week. Page 16 is done and I only have the border to work on for page 17. It is moving right along. I had hoped to have page 17 done by sit and stitch tomorrow night, but I never had a chance to sit and work on it today, so I don't think that is going to happen. I guess I'll just have to work on it at the shop tomorrow night. I can't wait until it's done.

That's pretty much the story from here. Again, I really want to thank Doris for her tremendous generosity.

Green Gingham Bag of Love

2009-08-12T15:24:00.001-07:00

For the first time in a few weeks, it's quiet. All of the summer programs and camps are over, and now it's the calm before the start of the new school year. At least I don't have to make myself crazy buying school supplies this year, which is so nice. Our school's PTA does a fundraiser where you can purchase a "School Tool Box", which has all of the required supplies that my kids will need for their specific grade level. Last year was the first year that I took advantage of this program and it was so much easier than taking my lists and running around from store to store looking for the specific items: one blue folder, one red folder, four composition notebooks, 12 No. 2 pencils, sharpened...you get the idea. I can even buy the their book bags, too. This year both boys saw a back pack that they wanted, and they both come with lunch kits. Two more things off my list! I just have to buy some clothes and everyone is ready for back to school. Or at least I'm ready to send them back to school. I don't think the kids are ever "ready" to go back! LOL!

So, since this week was the first quiet one in a while I decided that a trip into Lazy Daisy was in order. I don't have a picture of them, but the bags that Diana has at Lazy Daisy are green gingham paper, hence the title of today's post. Michelle coined the phrase "green gingham bag of love" and now I use it often. Thanks, Michelle!!

Ah, new stash! It's stitcher's joy! These little cuties are called Doodles. They are small and come with a button of some type. The beauty of these is that they are for "leftovers." No, not the leftover chicken from last night's dinner. Left over supplies from other projects. They say that you need a 7 x 7 piece of fabric, and it gives you the color recommendation for floss. Not specific color numbers. Just colors: blue, red, pink, etc. Basically, they are "do whatever you want" kind of projects. I've been looking at them for ages and just never really saw ones that I liked, but then I saw these two. Who can resist a little rubber ducky and a chocolate chip cookie? Certainly not me!

I'm adding to my Little House Needlework collection. This is "Love One Another" and while I'm usually not crazy about the lion and lamb motif, there was something about this one that I just could not pass up. Maybe it was the fact that LHN designed it? Hmmm....have I drunk the Kool Aide? Either way, I liked it and it jumped into my hands and cried, "Please! Take me home!" And home it where it landed!

These are by Blue Ribbon Designs, which is a new designer for me. I don't think I have anything by them yet. I know others have started their Christmas stitching already, and while I have not really jumped on that band wagon yet, I have begun to think about stitching a few new ornaments for my little tree this year and I thought that it would be nice to have them stitched and on the tree before Christmas Eve. These caught my eye because they are small and look like they are easy stitches. Plus the Christmas Red is a nice color.

Last, but not least, is another homage to my other great love: CHOCOLATE! This is by Handblessings and I think it says it all: Addicted to Chocolate.

It comes with two cute silver charms, too!

And of course, as I'm walking out the door I saw another chart that I liked by LHN. I will be heading back there next week for the shop's monthly sit and stitch, so I will take a closer look at it then.

Now that I can really see the light at the end of the tunnel on the sampler the voices are calling to me to start something new. Or at least pick out and kit something up so that when the sampler is done I have another new project waiting in the wings to take its place. I am trying very hard to resist the urge, though. I keep telling myself that I really need to work on the things that I have started before taking on anything new. Wish me luck with that one!

Finally, Some Stitching

2009-08-10T10:27:00.000-07:00

It's HOT out! For the first time all summer I can honestly say that it's hot. Z and I were just outside planting the Stargazer lillies that I bought yesterday and the sun was beating down on us, and good heavens it was hot out! I was very happy to get back inside, where the air conditioning is on and the house is cool.

After that nasty visit from the frog last week I decided to put down the HAED and pick up my sampler. It's been sitting since I started the HAED. The many motifs and alphabets are easy to work on, it's all one color, and it's just what I need to work on when I need to lower my blood pressure. The frog can do that do you.

I love the measuring spoons and the R2D2:

One of the motifs that I finished from pages 14 and 15. I love my wedding date:

Page 15 is almost done (woo hoo!), which means that there are only 5 more pages left to go. the whole sampler so far:

This is where I left the HAED, after spending an hour and a half ripping out stitches:

So, as you can see there is progress. I just was supposed to have alot more progress by now. I guess I'll get there eventually. At least all of the offending stitches have been pulled out, so now when I do pick it up again the hard part is done and I can just start stitching again.

Yesterday some friends and I went to see "Julie and Julia". The theatre was packed. We were all surprised to see so many people going to see the movie. It was very funny. I read the book by Julie Powell, which deals pretty much only with her cooking from Julia Child's cook book and the writing of her blog, but the movie jumps back and forth between the lives of Julie and Julia and the struggles that they had in their every day lives. I never realized the Julia Child's life was so interesting.

Kermit Came To Visit Me

2009-08-05T13:31:00.000-07:00

Well, it probably really wasn't Kermit the Frog, because I know Kermit would not cause the trouble that this little frog did! Work on the HAED has come to a screeching halt, thanks to the one who says "Ribbit!" The kids were playing this afternoon, so I thought I would take advantage of the momentary quiet to put in a few stitches. I noticed that the color blue that I'm using just doesn't look quite right. The color is not flowing from the previous page like the other colors were flowing. I first noticed it the other day, but just thought I was being paranoid. Today I noticed it again and decided to take a closer look at the color key. Turns out there are two symbols on the key that are quite similar and apparently I was using the color from the wrong symbol. I spent an hour and a half this afternoon ripping out stitching that I had been putting in since Sunday! And along the way I discovered that ripping out stitches when you are stitching over one is a real pain! MJ called me to ask me a question in the middle of the rip out session and questioned my surly answers on the phone. I explained to him what had happened and quietly said, "Now do you understand the bad mood?" For some reason he wanted to get off the phone really quickly after that. Can't imagine why when he's married to me, a giant ray of sunshine! So, I have no updated of the HAED just yet. I was hoping to finished page 2 this week and then show off my progress, but it looks like progress is going to have to wait a bit.

MJ and his brother are Met fans. I know, I know. I'm a BIG Yankees fan and I'm married to a Met fan? It makes for some pretty interesting conversations here at our house during baseball season, especially when one team is doing much better than the other. Anyway, we bought for MJ's brother tickets to see a game at the new stadium over this past weekend. We had such a good time. It was the two of us, my BIL and future SIL. If anyone gets to go there, go get shakes from the Shake Shack. They were really yummy, but go early because the line gets way out of control!

This is MJ and me after the game was over. We had seats right along the right field line. We even had a foul ball come close to us!

My sister is up from Texas this week with her husband and their daughter. Things have not been good between my sister and me since my parents died nine years ago. It has gotten better a little bit, but our relationship is not what it once was. When she told me that she was coming to see her FIL I said to let me know if they had a free night and I would make dinner. They came last night. Now, the last time I saw her was four years ago, so it's been a while. I wasn't sure what to expect. I have to say that we had a great evening. My niece and my boys played great the whole night. I made an easy dinner on the grill that everyone liked. I was really happy at the end of the night that it went so well. I went inside the house to get something and when I came back out MJ and my BIL were talking about taking a vacation to Disney World together. We'll have to see about that part, but it was a great night and in the end I was so glad that I invited them.

Bridal Shower Pictures

2009-07-29T08:15:00.000-07:00

As I said in my last post, my future SIL's bridal shower over this past weekend was a success. We had a nice day, weather-wise. We started setting up the club house the day before and everyone was there early on Saturday to put the finishing touches on the room.

The happy couple after they arrived at the shower:

I think they look lovely together.

This is the wedding sampler that I made for them. I started it right after they got engaged and had it finished in the fall. It's been hanging out in my closet since November, framed and ready to be given to it's new home.

Did I mention the fire alarm? The shower was held in the club house of the co-op where the couple live and the clubhouse shares bathroom facilities with the communityh pool. There were two girls in the ladies shower and somehow the heat and steam from the shower set off the fire alarm. The alarm is hard wired to the fire department, so not long after the fire alarm went off, two very large fire trucks and two emergency vehicles pulled up to make sure there was nothing wrong at the building. It was definitely something that anyone who attended the shower will forget.

A Day At the Beach

2009-07-28T04:21:00.000-07:00

I was sitting at home yesterday morning. Michael was at his summer music program and I had about a half an hour before I had to pick him up when, when my MIL called me and said that she and my FIL were going to the beach in the afternoon and did the kids and I want to come? Sure! M and Z love the beach! So, after everyone had some lunch, we changed into our bathing suits, lathered on the sun block, and headed off to Smith's Point.

When I take the kids to the beach I like to have someone else with me. Smith's Point is an ocean beach, and, at times, the waves and the undertow can be pretty rough. Yesterday was no exception. It's a good thing I was holding onto Z because a few times the waves swept him right off his feet! And he's so adventurous. He didn't care that he almost got swept out to sea. He just kept wanting to go deeper and deeper into the water.

The Atlantic Ocean on the southern shore of Long Island:

Z digging in the sand.

M digging in the sand by the shore:

It was a great few hours. There was no arguing among brothers. Everyone left everyone alone and did their own thing. The sun was shining and the water was cool.

My SIL's bridal shower was this past weekend. It was very nice. There was ALOT of food left. The bride figured out that it was her shower, but she was very happy with it and she go great stuff. She only got one double present to return.

As I was busy at the end of last week with shower details, I have not picked up a needle since last Wednesday. I'm hoping to rectify that situation this afternoon. My thought is that I want to finish the second page of the HAED and then go back to working on the sampler. I would really like to finish that before the end of the year, but if I keep adding projects to the rotation, that is going to be hard to do.

First, though, I have to get some major cleaning done. It's that dreaded time when I finally decide that the mop is just not getting the kitchen floor clean enough and that more it needed if I'm going to be satisfied. It's time to get on my hands and knees and scrub the floor. It's not like I'm not a clean person. But the mop just does not get all of the dirt that gets stuck in the crevices of the tiles. I don't do this alot, mostly because I'm afraid I'll ruin the finish of the floor, but every now and then I just get that "I can't look at this floor another minute" thing going on in my head and I'm off to get the bucket and hot water and I spend an hour or so scrubbing away. Actually, I was supposed to do it yesterday, but then I got the beach call and that was the end of that. Oh well. As a wise woman once said to me, "The dirt will still be there tomorrow." Ain't it the truth?

A Different Type of Finishing

2009-07-22T10:07:00.000-07:00

Wow! Two posts in one week. I must have alot to say right now.

I had my Petite Sampler sitting in the craft closet because I was not sure how I wanted to finish it. I didn't want to take it to get it framed because I didn't want to spend alot of money on framing right now. So, I went to Michael's and walked around, hoping for some type of inspiration.

I thought that if I could find a frame that I liked, I would try to frame it myself. Well, that didn't work out. Nothing that they had really caught my eye. When I looked in the woodworking section I found pieces of unfinished wood, like what you would paint some kind of sign on. I bought that and took it home. The next day, I looked around for some kind of spray paint for the wood. I was thinking gray or silver. I found something by Krylon called Make It Stone. It's spray paint that gives whatever you're painting a textured, stone like look and feel. I bought that, too. (I got that in Sears Hardware, but I know I've seen it in AC Moore as well.)

So, I got busy spray painting, cutting, and wrapping the stitched piece around the foam framing board that I bought. I painted the wood with about five or six coats of the paint so that wood would not show through. Plus, it was rather humid here so it took the paint a little longer to dry.

The end result is:

I know it's not perfect. The sides of the foam were not cut perfectly straight (that's what happens when I'm left along to do the cutting), but I thought the combination of the shades of purple and the gray "stone" look of the base were great. What do you all think?

I Waited 12 Years

2009-07-20T13:12:00.001-07:00

Let's start this story WAY back at the beginning, 12 years ago in another time and place...

MJ and I were newly married. I have always been a big Yankees fan. My sisters are Yankees fans. My father was a Yankees fan...well, you get the idea. Anyway, my all time favorite Yankees player, Don Mattingly, retired after the 1996 season. I was heartbroken. Soon afterwards, the Yankees front office announced that there would be a Don Mattingly Day on Sunday August 31, 1997, which sold out almost immediately. The Friday night before the big day our good friends, Jon and Christine, called and asked what we were doing that Sunday afternoon and if I remember correctly, we were supposed to go to Cooperstown to see the Baseball Hall of Fame because I had never been there (still haven't been there) and wanted to see it. Someone that Jon knew GAVE him six tickets to that game on Sunday and did we want to go?? HOLY COW!!! I think I jumped up and down for the next two days because I was going to go to Don Mattingly Day.

At the game they gave each person a hand out with Don Mattingly's picture on the front, and his lifetime stats during his career on the back. MJ bought me another paper with a different picture of my favorite first baseman. The weather was great. The seats were great. The Yankees retired his number. It was perfect. Well, maybe if they had won the game it would have been really perfect, but that's another story. Anyway, one of the papers that they handed out to us has Mattingly's picture on the front and around his picture are pictures of all of his Topps baseball cards. MJ, who is a baseball card collector, decided that he was going to get all of the cards and arrange them, along with the papers that we got at the game, and our tickets and frame it for me because it was such a special day for me. Young love, right?

At first, we thought that we would be able to put it together ourselves. And we were able to do the arranging part, but when it came to actually putting it in the frame...that was another story. The mat board that we bought was too thick to fit in the frame that we had bought, so it sat in our back room for years. Every now and then MJ would bring it out, try to make it fit, and would bring it back, upstairs in frustration.

Finally, we decided that we needed to take it to get framed. I took it to Michael's while they were having a framing sale and they had a frame that was perfect: white with a little Yankee blue along the edges. Here is my favorite Yankee, all framed up and ready to hang on the wall:

This is the picture that they gave away at the stadium that day it was from the pictures on here that MJ knew how to arrange the baseball cards, from his first year in the majors, until the year he retired.

Our tickets:

The date of Don Mattingly Day:

So what happens when we get it home and go to hang it up? We have no picture hooks in the house! So, Donnie Baseball, as he was affectionately known in New York, will wait a few more days to get hung up. But, he waited 12 years already. What's another few days?

The Wishing Well

2009-07-17T03:59:00.001-07:00

It's amazing what you can make from things that you have in your home! I promised my future SIL's mom that I would make a wishing well for the bridal shower. MJ and I looked in the attic and found a large box, just sitting there, hanging out, empty. My MIL had purple and silver wrapping paper, which just happens to be the colors for the wedding, and lots of lace. The bride's mom had the foam board that we used for the top of the well, and the ribbon and pearls. So, my MIL and I spent two nights this week taking all of the things we found in our houses and made this:

I had a general idea of what I wanted it to look like, and my FIL helped us actually construct it. At first, I was starting to get a little worried. In typical man fashion, the whole thing is put together with duct tape! There was silver tape everywhere and I was concerned that we would not be unable to cover it all up. But, with a little patience, and lots of lace, pearls, and wrapping paper, it magically transformed from a box all taped together into a wishing well.

Last night was the monthly Sit and Stitch at the Lazy Daisy. It was such a nice night. All of the people that go there are to nice and we had alot of laughs. Several of the stitchers were picking up framing so it became a night of show and tell. I didn't have any framing, but I do have progress on the HAED:

I've moved onto the second page and started a panda. This projects is moving right along and I'm almost halfway done with the second page. I think that the other projects in my stitching bag are starting to get jealous because this is the only thing I've worked on since I started it. I am really surprised at how much I'm enjoying it because I was so concerned about the whole "over 1" thing, and I'm just going with it.

Our summer vacation is moving right along, as well. M starts his summer music program next week and then after that, it's science camp. Z is just hanging at home with me. We've been taking lots of bicycle rides down to Gram's house and spending lots of time playing with Grandpa on the airplane computer game. It's so easy when you're young.

Why Do You Stitch?

2009-07-13T04:48:00.000-07:00

It's early on a summer Monday morning. MJ's left for work and I've got two little sleepy heads still in their beds. Ahh...the sound of quiet. That's kind of rare during the summer, so I thought I would enjoy it for a minute and then go about my day.

Recently I was reading one of the message boards that I frequent and one of the other members asked this question: What is stitching for you? I have been asked that questions so many times. We were visiting MJ's brother ands his wife once a few years ago. Our kids were small at the time and still taking naps and while they were sleeping I pulled out my stitching. My SIL was sitting on the couch talking to me and she asked me, "Why do you do this? I mean, what's the point?" MIL keeps asking me why I keep buying stash and that I"ll never live long enough to work on it all.

Oh, that answer can be long and it will be different each time I get asked the question. For me, my stitching is a hobby, or maybe I should call it an obsession. Whenever we take a trip I make sure I pack all of the essentials: my toothbrush, change of undies, and my stitching. Hey, you never know what I may have an hour that I can fill with my stitching. I can't draw or paint. I don't play an instrument. I can sing, but my family is getting a little tired of hearing me doing that while I vacuum the house. Really, I'm not artistic in any way. This is my opportunity to be creative. Sometimes I'll see a color of fabric and I'll know exactly what it's screaming at me for. It could be a leaflet that I bought ages ago and forgot about, but I will remember it when I find exactly what it needs. Michelangelo would search for weeks, even months, to find the perfect piece of marble when he was starting a sculpture. He used to say that the sculpture was alive and breathing in the block of marble and that it was his job to free it for everyone to see. I feel that way sometimes. Obviously not on the scale of Michelangelo, but I know that feeling of knowing what needs to be put on a piece of fabric or of knowing exactly how I envision a finished piece should be finished. Now I can guarantee that my SIL and MIL, who have no hobbies, don't understand this at all. I know that stitchers will.

Some people argue that I'm really not being creative and that I'm just copying what someone else has already designed and perfected. Well, I don't buy that for a minute. For example, look at that little sampler by BBD that so many people worked on for the contest they were running. Yes, the ladies of BBD designed it, but did any of the ones that were stitched look alike? There was such a variety of floss colors and fabric choices. I loved to look at them when they posted them on their blog. Talk about creativity!

On a stitching note, the first page of HAED is done! Woo hoo! Now, instead of a blue blob, it looks like a blue rectangle and I suppose you could call moving from a looking like a blob to a rectangle is progress. The second page, which I started over the weekend, has part of a panda head on it, which is the part that I'm working on now. I have a small part of the head, and part of an ear going. Pictures will follow soon!

The nest two weeks are going to be hectic ones. My future SIL's bridal shower is coming up and there is alot to do. This week's job it make a wishing well for the shower. My MIL and I were brainstorming all weekend and I now have all of the materials sitting in a large box in my bedroom, all ready to put together. We are all hoping that she is going to be surprised. We worked so hard to keep it a secret and I'm hoping that it stays that way until the moment we all yell, "SURPRISE!!" I love that moment!

I have looked back on some of my previous posts and it's looking like everything that I write is all run together. I'm not sure why it's not putting in the spaces between the paragraphs that I'm leaving. If my blog is hard to read, I'm sorry. I'm trying to figure out what to do about it.

Stitching Updates

2009-07-04T06:29:00.000-07:00

I don't usually post so close together, but I finally got around to taking pictures of two of my WIPs and I wanted to share them. This first picture, affectionately being called "the blue blob" is the HAED that I started a week ago. I'm about half way done with stitching the first page and those stitched are tiny!! As I said in my last post yesterday, stitching over one is really not as bad as I thought it would be and, much to my surprise, I am really enjoying stitching this way. This has opened up a whole new stitching world for me!

This is by LHN and is called "Needlework Necessities". It's being worked on 28 count evenweave that I tea dyed:

You know what I love about LHN patterns? They are simple, but so pretty, and they are usually pretty quick stitches.

Does this happen to anyone else? You see a pattern and you just know in your head that it has to be stitched on a specific color? That has happened to me several times, and I am always happy with the results. This LHN was one of those patterns. I bought it and as I was looking at it I just thought in my mind that it needed to be done on fabric that was sort of antiqued. The only way I know of that I can achieve that look is tea dying.

Anyone have any plans for the 4th of July? We were invited to my cousin's for a 4th of July BBQ and I'm pretty excited about going. Hopefully the traffic won't be too terrible with people heading out to the beach. Have a great day, everyone.

Grandma's Sewing Machine

2009-07-03T07:51:00.000-07:00

My cousin sent me before and after pictures of Grandma's sewing machine.

Before the clean up:

After the clean up:

Isn't that amazing? He told me that it works, fifteen year old bobbin and all! My cousin and his wife are going to bring it to me when they come down in the fall for a wedding. MJ and I think we know where we're going to put it. I just have to move something to make room for it.

I have no stitching pics this post, but I can report that I have been working diligently on the HAED pandas. It's still pretty much just a blue blob in the upper left hand corner of the fabric, but at least now it's a bigger blue blob. I'm about halfway done with the first page. It's a slow go, but I'm really enjoying working in it. I'm actually finding the over one thing - I can't believe that I'm saying this - easy. After all that fretting and worrying about whether or not I would be able to do it, I feel like an old pro at it! Guess that's what jumping in with both feet does for you.

Have a very good 4th of July. We are heading out to visit some of my family that I have not seen in a while, so I am really looking forward it.

So Excited!!

2009-06-28T12:35:00.000-07:00

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. How cool is that??

This morning before we left we all met for breakfast at Denny's. We don't have Denny's on Long Island, so whenever we are away and see one, that it where I want to have breakfast. All it all, it was a good weekend. I was so glad that I went.

I have no pictures of it yet, but I started the HAED on Friday. Right now, it's pretty much just a blue blob on the upper left hand corner. I think I'm going to need glasses by the time this one is finished! Stitching over one is not as hard as I thought it would be, either, so I'm happy about that.

Well, I have to get fold that laundry that's been sitting here for a few days, and wash the laundry that has piled up. I hope everyone had a great weekend.

Baby Bunnies, Anyone?

2009-06-25T10:34:00.000-07:00

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 that we came up with was the cat carrier. MJ climbed out the window put a pail over each bunny, put a cover over it so the bunny would not hop out, and then tipped it over into the carrier, where I closed the door on the bunny. After they were all in the carrier we took them out to the back yard and set them free:

We think that the Mama Bunny has her nest under this large plant that is in the back yard because all of the bunnies hopped as fast as they could under that plant. Of course, the kids wanted to keep them, but I squashed that idea right then and there. I told them that these bunnies are wild and not meant to be pets. Every few days or so I see the babies hopping around the yard and a part of me thinks of them as "our" bunnies.

Today is the last day of school for M and he came bounding down the stairs this morning when it was time to leave for the bus stop. He knows that starting tomorrow it's nights where he can stay up late and mornings where we don't have to rush around to get ready to go anywhere. He's already asking when we can go to the beach. I'm wondering if it's going to be a really L O N G summer.

Unless we get some sun and warmth around here I don't think the beach will ever be a viable option. Hopefully, soon it will get warm. I think we're at 21 out of 25 days of rain? I am tired of cool, gray, and cloudy. Anyone with a little extra sun, could you send it my way?

I spent the better part of the afternoon the other day pulling floss for the HAED and Sheri is coming over tonight to help me with stitching over one, which, as I've said, is something that I have never done and never thought I would do. Heck, I never thought I would EVER stitch a HAED, let alone stitch it over one. I've been working on a LHN design called Necessities Sampler. I have no pictures, but I will take them soon. To be honest, I really have not done alot of stitching since getting sick with that nasty stomach bug. Yesterday was the first day of almost two weeks that I picked up a needle, so I was happy to get myself stitching again.

Mmmmm! I'm sitting near an open window and my neighbor is outside smoking a cigar. That smell always reminds me of my dad. He loved them. My mom used to complain about "the stink", but whenever I smell that smell, I think of Dad.

Well, I have some laundry to fold and I had better get to it. Can anyone tell me where all the laundry comes from? The hamper was empty yesterday and it's full already. I think it multiplies during the night!