Some yummy threads and another finish!

I had seen on the Nordic Needle newsletter that DMC had some new overdyes available...well, I LOVE overdyes, so I needed to check them out. I went to all the craft stores in town that carry DMC, and none of them had stocked them yet, so I decided to see what I could find on the internet. I googled the overdyes, and ended up at Stitching Bits and Bobs, and decided to go ahead and order them. This was on a Friday afternoon. By dinner time I had an email in my box that the order had been shipped!! Talk about quick service!!! and they were in my mailbox by Monday afternoon! I was so pleased, I plan on using Stitching Bits and Bobs ALOT! I even signed up for their monthly Bits club, receiving 3 skeins of Caron Waterlillies every month.

Anyway, back to the overdyes...I would liken them to Weeks, with perhaps a bit of a softer feel. The colors are definitely in the line of Weeks, not the variation drama of Caron. I plan on trying them out on Lizzie Kate's Life's a Stitch this weekend. Here are some pictures of the threads. I'll post a picture of Life's a Stitch when I get it finished.

I also finished up a tiny project that I started on the plane coming home from Disneyland last month..I am very pleased with it, sorry for the blurry picture.

So far, we have not heard anything from the neurologist regarding Alana's EEG. I am hoping we will soon. Thanks for continuing to remember her in prayer.

quite a productive weekend....

I am so proud of myself! I finished a project, Alana's Birth sampler. AND....ta da! I pulled out every single one of the pieces that I had ever stitched and never done anything with, except to sit in a drawer, and finished EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM!!!! They have all been framed, stuffed, boxed or made into a bell pull. Here is a picture of all them except for one bell pull I forgot to pull off the wall. So lets see, 26 pieces in all. Now I just have to figure out where to put them all!!! Lots of them will hang in my stitching room, a couple in the living room, and a couple are for Christmas, so will go back in the drawer for a few months. Believe it or not, this is part of many years worth of work...the pillow in the background was stitched in 1988!!! The whole weekend I kept asking myself, why didn't I do this sooner. Because I hate to finish items, that's why. But except for a couple of pieces I have designed and am not sure what to do with yet, I am all caught up in the finishing department.
Here are some closeups:

Here is a bit of an update on Alana from Amy's blog...

Thank you all so much for your prayers, both now and when she was not yet born! The EEG showed no urgent spikes in electrical activity, so far so good. We have to wait to find out if she has too many brain waves for her size though. We'll see... if her EEG comes back normal it probably means more tests. Also, I have another request, my husband's cousin, who he grew up with, just had a brain aneurism, it looks like he will pull through though! The hits just keep coming..

Thank you everyone for your concern and prayers!

This is Memorial Day in the USA today...John worked a side job, but we were both off of our normal jobs. The weather all weekend was lousy, rainy and cool, so I'm glad we stayed home. I have a chicken on the rotisserie and a macaroni salad in the frig, so dinner will be little like a picnic, even if we eat it inside!!!

Prayer Request, please!

My dearest grandaughter has been having seizures this week! Here is the post from Amy's blog, for all the details. I would also ask for your prayers, this has been very hard on all of us....

Alana started having seizures on Monday. I came home from work and took her to the doctors, and he said it's going to have to be an elimination process to figure out why she is having them. She was supposed to have her EEG today, but their machine broke, so we have to Seattle tomorrow. I am so thankful my company lets me use sick leave for things like this! This is really hard on us. Unfortunately my husband's brother has a brain tumor, and he had to go through all the testing when he was little. We also have a family history of epilepsy. Please pray that we will have the strength to get through this, and that everything will turn out okay for Alana. Thank you.

Gemini Gift Received!!!

I received my birthday gift in the mail this weekend from Barbara in the Netherlands!!! What fun to receive a package from so far away!!! She sent me a Just Nan pattern with charm called My Fair Ladybug, a large piece of Silk Weaver hand dyed 28ct Jobelan (light blue), a lucious piece of burnt rust colored silk that has a watermark type design in it...I think it will be lovely on the outside cover of a small book...and some overdyed silks such as I have never seen before...two skeins of Vickie Clayton's silks, one in pink, one in light blue, and two cards of silk from The Natural Dye Studio, one called Green Rainbow and one called Indigo...so Barb, how did you know I was partial to blue!! LOL! Thank you so much for everything! I can hardly wait to try these silks!!!

A lovely Mother's Day

It was really a lovely day today...the weather was absolutely perfect, 75 degrees, not a cloud in the sky, the family together, lots of love and laughter. After church we all met up at my parent's house for turkey dinner and celebrated Mother's Day AND Alli's (DD#2) birthday. We had a great time...

We took a four generation picture, which I have posted here....My mother is a first born daughter, I am a first born daughter, Amy (DD#1) is my first born daughter, and Alana is Amy's first born...4 generations of first born daughters....quite incredible if you ask me!

My family showered me with gifts this year...John got me a beautiful heart necklace with three diamonds inset (for my 3 daughters); Alli and Chris got me a little book and a wonderful teapot, Lizzie and Amy and Max all brought me flowers...I feel quite spoiled! This evening after we came home, John mowed the lawn and I sat and stitched on Alana's birth sampler while watching a movie on TV, Must Love Dogs. Very cute movie! It was a wonderful day!

Saturday Musings..

Amy brought Alana over last night dressed up in the bishops dress I had smocked for her. It looks so sweet on her, I am glad I didn't wait any longer to get it finished, or it would not have fit!!! Here is a picture of my grandbaby in her dress.

I'm glad it is Saturday. I am planning on working on my birth sampler design and getting my nails done, zapping some weeds in the yard with Roundup, and little else. My office co-workers have recommended a movie called Office Space that they say is a must see, so I think I will run by the video store while I am out...which brings up the question...as "videos" are being phased out, do you suppose we will keep calling it the video store, or start calling it the DVD store??? LOL!!

Happy Saturday all...

A Sweet Finish

I finished smocking a dress for my granddaughter last night!! I can hardly wait to see her in it!

We're Home!

Home from Disneyland...with very sore feet and a much leaner wallet, we did have a good time. We spent 4 days at Disneyland/California Adventure, a day at Universal Studios, a day in San Diego and Sea World and a day looking around Hollywood and Beverly Hills. I took hardly any
still pictures but did about 5 hours worth of movies. The weather was not great, overcast and cool and some rain the whole week. We wore long pants and sweaters everyday. And of course, we heard the weather here in Western Washington was beautiful and sunny and warm. Figures!!! It's a gorgeous day here today in Lacey. I can hardly believe how much the plants and grass have grown in the week we were gone...the apple trees are fully in bloom, the irises are starting to bloom (a week ago there were not even any buds) and the wisteria is ready to pop open!!

I had a delightful two hours spent in Needlepoints in Garden Grove. I found several patterns that I had never seen before, and I was able to get 4 of the charms for the Shepherd's Bush Christmas ornaments Von and I are working on. (Von, they were $9.00 each! But so pretty!) I picked up a couple of Just Nan patterns and embellishments, Jingle Bell Tree Farm by Victoria Sampler, a Hardanger angel, and a pattern called Secret Garden...it's a needlebook by Forget-Me-Nots in Stitches...I think that there was a stitch along for this somewhere at one time, I need to do some research and try to find the notes.

It's back to work tomorrow, I am in the middle of unpacking, doing laundry and getting the house back in order. Amy and Alana should be over soon...I missed the baby so much!!!

Stash Report, Part 3

Well, I am a little slow in getting the rest of my stash report posted. It's almost old business now, after three weeks! LOL! These are my last two pictures to share. I picked up an Emie Bishop leaflet that is a reprint of four of her Christmas Hearts patterns, two pieces of 18 ct. Mono canvas (light blue and white); and three books, A-Z of Embroidery stitches, Gifts of Love (Cross stitch patterns by Kooler Design Studio) and a book on Ruskin Lace, a technique I have been wanting to learn for quite a while.



We are leaving tomorrow (Friday) morning for Disneyland!!! We are so excited! We have 4 day passes for Disneyland, one day at Universal Studios, one day at Sea World, and then a day to do some other little fun things we have been wanting to do!! I'll post a report when we return on the 30th! Hope you all have a great week!

Joys of being a Grandma

My Dad took this picture of me with my grandaughter, Alana last week. I will post a longer stash update this afternoon, but thought I would share this with you all....

Stash Report, Part 2

I realized this afternoon it was time for another installment of my stash report from the Northwest Stitcher's gathering a couple weeks ago...so here we go!!!



In the first picture I have a nifty little thing called a Tacky Bob (Box fOr Beads). It is an acrylic box with a tacky surface on the inside that you can pour beads onto, and it holds them in place until you pick them up with your needle...very cool. It shuts tight so it can travel, and even has a magnetic needle holder inside. Then I got a couple of snow flake glass treasures by Mill Hill, and two Caron Waterlilies, one called Fir, and one called Slate. I also found some metal snowflakes at the paper store that are intended for scrapbooking, but I plan on using them in stitching!!! In the second picture are my Victoria Sampler goodies, Summer Garden Sampler, Spring Garden Sampler, with Acc Pac, and the Washington Heart of America...

I stil have several more pictures to share, so I will upload those in a day or two...We are leaving Friday morning for Disneyland (Horray!), and will be in California for 8 days, so I won't be able to post anything for over a week...I'll try and have the stash report done before we leave!

We have nasty yucky weather today in Western Washington, rainy, windy and cold..I am sure that it has put the real kabosh on all the planned community Easter Egg hunts today. But I remember it did the same thing last year the day before Easter. My whole extended family will be meeting at my mom and dad's house for dinner and birthday celebrations for all the winter and spring birthdays in the family. 9 of them I think. Then the next two weeks I am on vacation from work...I am taking a 2 day college course in using Microsoft Access on Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday is the annual doctor visits (body and eyes) and then Thursday we pack to leave early Friday! Even tho it's vacation, it will still be a busy week!

Happy Resurrection Day everyone!

Stash Report, part 1

Well, it's time to give a stash report on everything that I found while on my Northwest Stitcher's Get Away last week. I have lots of pictures, so thought I would just do a couple each post. I can draw out the suspense that way!! HA!

So my first picture is my Lizzie Kate findings. I am not normally a huge Lizzie Kate fan, but I found these Snippet designs to be very cute and small, in other words, quick to stitch!!! They include Bless the Baby, Cross Stitcher in Residence, Follow Your Heart, First Christmas, Life's a Stitch, and a pattern pack called Tiny Tidings VI (Christmas designs). I thought these were sweet, and I am looking forward especially stitching Life's a Stitch, and Cross Stitcher in Residence for my stitching corner!!!

Then I found some small Just Nan pieces...Heartfelt (for Whimsey Frames), Garden Maze, Porcelain Nosegay, and Snow Faces, Ice Garden and Small Delights. I also picked up a Whimsey Frame to go with the Snow Faces pattern. I plan to do that one for my niece for Christmas, as she collects snowmen.


















So that is all this time...I have much more to share! I have also finally gotten some of my unframed projects framed, so I will get pictures of those posted soon too!

My corner of the world...

After many hours of work and organizing, I have a finished corner of the world that is all mine for stitching. I am pleased with the way this temporary solution to needing my space has turned out, and I think it will be very condusive to many happy hours of designing and stitching.....

In all my organizing I even framed 5 pieces that have been sitting in my closet for years....Ill post pix soon. We are babysitting Alana overnight tonight, Amy's birthday is tomorrow, so we are keeping the baby so she can have a good night's sleep!

Friday...

No pictures today, and no fancy title, but I wanted to get a post up anyway. I still intend on taking pictures of my stash enhancement from last weekend, but have been so busy that it has been the last thing on my list to do. Hopefully this weekend.

After a long talk with my friend and mentor, Thea, last weekend, we came to the conclusion that I really needed a corner, place, chair, that was mine and mine alone in this house of ours. It seems that I always share my stitching place, and it has hindered my getting any designing and stitching done, because it was too much emotional work to chase away the person occupying the space I wanted to use, or there was too much "stuff" from other people that would need to be cleaned up before I could even sit down. When I am tired, that "work" was more than I was able to handle, so I would just drift off to find something where I could be alone, usually the bathtub!!! I spent some time talking to John and Lizzie about it, and then last night began cleaning up a corner of the computer room, clearing the clutter, moving furniture a bit and trying to make it a comfortable and inviting place for ME! I'm not finished yet, things in the rest of the room are still in disarray, and since I am such a visual person, I know I will never be able to work if the space I am in is messy. This may take a few more hours, LOL! I will keep you posted with my progress and some pix when I am done!!!

Happy weekend everyone!!

We had waaaay too much fun!

I have been home for only about an hour, but wanted to post and let everyone know what a wonderful time we had at our Northwest Stitcher's get together in Bellevue, Washington, this weekend. I joined Von, Thea, Nancy, Jo-Celle and Kathryn for a weekend of stash shopping, eating, talking, shopping, visiting, eating, shopping, oh, and did I mention talking???? I have come home with three new friends, (having already known Von and Thea for many years), and an empty wallet, but boy did we have fun!!! Here is a picture of us having dinner at the Red Robin in downtown Bellevue.... left to right is Nancy, Von, me, Thea, Jo-Celle, and Kathryn. We are all cyberstitchers from Thea's cyberclasses, which is where most of us (except for Von and I and Thea) met. What a special time we had sharing each other's lives and truly becoming friends. We have already decided we need to do it again, soon!!!

I drove up to Bellevue on Friday evening after work. Von had arrived earlier in the day from Kennewick, so was able to pick up Thea at the Victoria Clipper pier in downtown Seattle. We met up at the motel, and since Thea needed some food, we headed out for a grocery store..and found the biggest organic food store I have ever seen. It was huge! We spent a long time wandering the aisles looking at all the new brands and prepared foods!!! It was incredible!!! We then headed back to the motel, and Von and I stayed up very late visiting and catching up with our lives!!! Saturday morning Thea and I got up very early and at 7 AM headed out for breakfast at the Marriot Courtyard, a yummy breakfast buffet, and visited for over two hours. When we got back to the motel, Von was up and dressed and waiting for us, and we headed over to Cross Stitch Corner, the LNS, where we met up with Jo-Celle, Nancy and Kathryn, who had all arrived in town that morning. After a round of hellos and hugs, we got down to some serious stash shopping, having a wonderful time. I think we spent over an hour shopping there. We then all loaded into Von's Expedition and headed out to Issaquah for more shopping at Thread Needle Street. Another hour of serious stash shopping!!! By then we were all famished, so we had a wonderful lunch at a local seafood restaurant. We visited a fabric store and a chocolate factory before heading back to Bellevue and the motel. We all landed in Von's and my room for more visiting. After several hours, we realized we were hungry again, so once again we loaded into Von's car and headed for the mall to eat. We ended up at Red Robin, picture above. After dinner, we all headed for our own rooms and bed. I don't know about the others, but Von and I stayed up until nearly midnight again talking! Then this morning I was up early again, and had the pleasure of driving Thea back down to catch the 7:30 AM clipper back to Victoria! And then I came back to the room, and the 5 remaining of us went to breakfast at the Marriott again. Then Jo-Celle, Kathryn and Nancy headed for home, and Von and I went back to near the mall for more shopping!!! We found a couple of incredible stores and spent a very pleasurable 3 hours shopping and visiting. Then it was time for me to head for the airport to pick up my parents, who were flying home from Arizona. Whew, busy weekend, but what a great time we had!!! Tomorrow I will try and get a couple pictures together of some of the treasures I found...like all the yards of silk ribbon I found at the paper store!!!!

Spring!

Oh I love spring! This incredible flowering cherry tree is a block away from my office, and my co-workers and I have been commenting on how gorgeous the tree is. So today, I took my camera at lunch and shot some photos....isn't this gorgeous?

Out like a lamb....

I was gently reminded by Von yesterday that I haven't made a new post here in too many days. She is right. She also gently reminded me that I have been missed in blogland. Ahh, thank you. That made me feel good....it's good for the soul to have good friends!!!

It's been two weeks since my last post mainly because I had not made any great progress on any of my projects that I could talk about, and life has been relatively bland the last two weeks. What does one talk about when life is good, but routine? So, I offer up this picture of the sunrise outside my kitchen window last week...March came in like a lion (with bitter wind and snow) and is now behaving very lamblike!!!

Good things coming in my life:
*This Friday I meet up with Von, Thea and 3 other Victoria Sampler cyberstitchers in Bellevue for a weekend of fun, visiting and stitching!
*My parents will be home from snowbirding in Arizona on Sunday.
*Amy's 24th birthday is the Sunday after that.
*I start a two week vacation from work on the next Friday.
*The next Sunday is Easter, Resurrection Day, and our family get-together.
*We leave for 8 days at Disneyland/California the Friday after that.

So maybe this next month I will actually have something interesting to talk about!! LOL!

Another Finish!

I have finished stitching the 2002 Shepherd's Bush ornament!!! Actually, I finished it on Sunday evening, but haven't been home long enough before tonight to get it scanned and posted. AND, I have actually started the 2003 ornament too. Not much progress yet, but at least I have started! I have really enjoyed doing several small projects and having the satisfaction of getting them done!!!

I have also discovered an online stitching magazine called The Gift of Stitching, you might want to check it out!!! I am enjoying the articles, and even better, I don't have to go to the store to pick it up!! Click on the link on the sidebar if you are interested in checking it out!

I am looking forward to receiving some smocking patterns that I ordered online. I can hardly wait to start smocking on the little dresses I got for Alana. I hope that they come soon! I really need to pull out my practice swatch and do a few smocking stitches before I start! It's been 22 years since I have done any smocking, when my oldest daughter (Alana's Mom) was a toddler! It's been a long time!!!

I always have the best intentions...

but Saturdays always seem to get away from me. I was going to stay home and stitch all day, but as you can guess, I have yet to pick up my needle and it is time to fix dinner!! I feel like I got lots accomplished, just not what I had planned!! We got our tickets bought and hotel paid for to go to Disneyland on April 21st!!! Now we are really getting excited!

This week's weather was really awful. One of the young men at work reminded us of the nursery rhyme for March, "in like a lion, out like a lamb" We have certainly had our share of Lion's weather this week. It even snowed a couple days...very unusual for March. This is the first time since 1995 that it has snowed in March!

I have made some small progress on the Shepherd's Bush ornament, I was able to put in some stitches on Thursday evening. I think I may have caught up with Von unless she has stitched today!!! I picked up the newest issue of Sew Beautiful at Barnes and Noble last night as it has some darling smocking patterns in it. I think I will actually use these patterns, so it qualified as a legitimate magazine purchase!!! (see entry from last week regarding magazines).

Well, we get to keep Alana overnight tonight, that will be lots of fun! It's her daddy's (Max) birthday today, so we will watch her while the older "kids" go out and celebrate!! Happy Birthday Max!

Wet and Wild Wednesday

We have had a wild day weather wise today. Buckets of rain and a hard wind. Winter's last gasp, I suppose, just to make sure we know that spring officially is still 2 weeks away. Amazingly, the flowering plums held onto most of their lovely pink blossoms, so the storm didn't totally chase away spring! I mentioned in my last entry that I would post a picture of my yard after the fine landscapers had finished their work. It looks bare with no leaves on anything, but oh so neat and pretty.



I came home for lunch today, and Alli was giving Alana a bath in the sink. The look on her face as she was lowered into the water was hilarious! I wish my camera had been turned on. A mixture of pure disbelief and "what are you doing". So I grabbed my camera and took a few pix. She even got her hair blow dried when she was done!


So this evening I get to stitch. Von has actually gotten ahead of me in the Shepherd's Bush stitch along we are doing, but I hope to get caught up tonight. Wishful thinking? Probably!!!

A very productive day!

After sleeping in this morning till 8 AM, I was up and out of the house by 10 and travelled up to Puyallup for the Sewing and Stitching Expo!! Me and about every other lady who lives in a 50 mile radius. Goodness there were a LOT of people there. I just browsed through the vendors, with my eyes searching for stitching things! There were only about 4 booths with stitching items, but I found some real treasures. In Martha Pullen's booth, they had a large selection of children's clothes already sewed, with banding for smocking already pleated. I was so delighted! I had been wanting to do some smocking for Alana, but didn't want to do it all from scratch. So now I just need to find a couple patterns I like. I found a very sweet bishops dress in blue, and a darling white dress.

I also picked up a Flower Frame Kit ( Stoney Creek), Surf and Sand b y Northern Pine Designs, and several patterns by a lady I had never heard of before, Mary Vandenberg of Elegant Needle Designs. The pictures on the patterns do not do them justice, they had them all made up, and they are gorgeous. I chose 6 that I liked the best. The shop owner said this was a friend of hers, very talented, but she had had a stroke and is no longer able to design. It's very sad, because she is very talented! Regretfully, Lorri Birmingham was not in attendance this year. I had looked forward to snagging some of her kits.

I also framed up Honeysuckle Rose into my clock. I am very pleased with it!

Then I came home and worked in the yard for several hours. We hired a couple guys to come do the winter clean up and spread bark on all the beds, so I did some fine tuning, and John mowed the lawn. It sure looks nice, hopefully the bark will keep the weeds down!

Then this evening, I struggled for a few hours getting my son-in-law's laptop hooked up to the router so that I could use it for email in other rooms of the house when the family was playing games. What a chore, but after several calls to the internet support people, I finally had success.

I will try and get some pictures of the yard tomorrow to post.

SPRING is in the air! It was shirt sleeve weather today!

An Early Spring!

The flowering plum trees have bloomed! I am so thrilled...its a whole 2 weeks early this year. It is always a wonderful promise that spring is actually on its way. I love spring, it is my favorite time of year! This picture is just outside my office at the credit union, so I really can enjoy looking at all that pink most of the day!!!

I am almost finished with Honeysuckle Rose (Again, thank you Anne!). I had planned on finishing it up before I posted a picture, but decided to go ahead and post it now since it is nearly done. I just have some of the light green to finish up and some gold in the center of the flowers. It calls for gold beads, but since it is for a clock center, I am afraid the beads might get in the way of the hands. I also need to figure out some sort of "Buttonhole" in the center of the design for the clock works to come through the fabric. I probably will just end up with some sort of Kloster block square in the same color thread as the fabric. I can hardly wait to get it all together!

I have decided not to make a goal list for March, as I cannot count on how much stitching time I will really end up with in any given month. But I hope to design some more on "My Child's Heart" and get at least one more of the Shepherd's Bush Christmas ornaments finished. So, is two items a list? LOL! I really should put a few more stitches into Victoria Sampler's A is for Angel, since I joined the support group that Thea has set up for the Alphabet Samplers! That little list will be more than plenty for me to do!!!

Every week I read the SBQ question, but never have the time to go back and forth to copy and paste and make a note, etc. But I think I will try it this week.

Today's SBQ was suggested by Cheryl and is:What cross-stitch magazines or other publications (as opposed to blogs) do you read on a regular basis? What do you like about them?What do you not like? What would your perfect publication include?

My answer: back in the old days I subscribed to nearly every stitching magazine that was made, but rarely stitched much from the magazine. My favorite used to be Cross Stitch and Country Crafts, and I still have every single issue in my collection. These days, I don't subscribe to any stitching magazines, tho I collect and use a lot the Just Cross Stitch Ornament issues. If I happen to be in Barnes and Noble, I will look at all the magazines and only buy one if I happen to see one that has a pattern that I am fairly sure I will stitch someday. But it is still fun to browse!
So my requirements are that it MUST have a pattern I want to stitch, and perhaps some great articles. My perfect publication would be a whole magazine of patterns that are irresistible!

Am I the only one....

who forgets about a WIP (work in progess)??? I was shuffling through my stitching closet today getting ready to pull some out some thread, and stumbled across Toccata on the stretcher bars. Oh, I had forgotten all about it! And then I was sorting through my basket looking for some fabric, and lo and behold there is Victoria Sampler's A is for Angel, totally neglected by little old me. I must somehow get these pieces back into my line of vision so I don't forget them again. I am looking forward to someday having a stitching ROOM, so things won't always get hidden in my dark closet! LOL!

Well, the birthday weekend is over. Huge sigh of relief. And as a bonus, I had the day off from work today because of President's Day. So I was able to take care of things for myself that I didn't get done over the weekend, such as doing my hair and having my nails done. Horray! Now I feel much better! So now I am off to start stitching on Honeysuckle Rose. Thank you Anne! Now I have another WIP to keep track of! LOL!

Does anyone have this?

I am longing to do this freebie Just Nan pattern (called Honeysuckle Rose, copyright 2000) for a clock insert that I have, but I cannot find the pattern anywhere. Does anyone have a copy of this freebie that they would be willing to give/lend/trade? Thanks so much.

Discontent

I wandered around my house last night, in and out of my stitching room/office, wanting to stitch, but way to tired to sit down and work on a project where I had to think (ie designing) or mess around with lots of threads and the mess in my stitching basket. Am I the only one who feels this way? I had a couple of smalls I have really been wanting to work on, but again I was too mind numb and tired to even try and think about pulling fabric and making thread choices. I decided that I need to make up a bunch of small, compact and neat kits to pull out in such a time. So I hope to get around to that sometime this weekend. If I make several and put them into appealing packaging (not sure what that will be yet) then it will be easier to stitch when I am tired.

Lizzie's birthday party with her friends is this afternoon. I really should be out picking up the house and vacuuming. She is 11 this year, and it has been amazing to watch her mature this winter. On her actual birthday on Thursday, we went up and cleaned out ALL the toys and stuffed animals from her bedroom. That would have been unthinkable a few months ago. So now they line the walls of the upstairs den...probably to either go into storage or migrate their way to Alana.

The wind has died down some today, but is still blowing enough to get the wind chill way down. The cars didn't even ice up last night, really weird considering it got down to single digits in Fahrenheit. It still looks like a gorgeous summer morning to look outside.

Here is a bit of the band I added to Alana's birth sampler last Monday. I was pleased with the way it turned out. I had never stitched drawn thread and pulled thread together, it's an interesting band. Even more, Amy liked it too.

Getting blown away

It is bitter cold here in Western Washington. The sun is shining in full glory, so it deceptively inviting to step outside and then....ouch, the wind hits with a wind chill that MUST be close to zero. Not sure it's that low, but it feels like it. The wind has come from the north and caused all kinds of limbs and trees to come down. We were without power for about 4 hours at work this morning due to a tree down. Thank goodness for that large generator that was installed last summer. The members were still able to access their money!!!

More later, But here is another picture of Alana. I'll get some stitching pix up this weekend.

It's Sunday again...

I seem to only find time to post on Sunday afternoons. This has been a very busy week, yet I feel like I have nothing exciting to write about. I had some all day training for work on Friday, and when I came home, my sweet granddaughter was there waiting for me. She spent the night with us while her mommy and daddy took a well-deserved night away in Seattle. It was fun to have her for the whole night. She did really well. I got up at 2 AM and 6 AM to give her a bottle, but she slept from 10 PM till 10 AM for us.

I missed the Opening Ceremonies for the Olympic Games, I just plain forgot it was on TV. Oh well. This week is valentines day, and Lizzie's 11th birthday on Thursday. Which reminds me, it is Thea's (Victoria Sampler) birthday on Thursday too. They share a birthday. Saturday Lizzie is having all her friends over for a party, then Sunday is special meetings at church. It looks to be another very busy week!

And I have not been able to pick up a needle all week!!!! So I will share a picture of Alana in her Valentine's outfit!

Where's the Integrity?

WARNING!! I have to rant. Sorry about that, but it's my blog, I guess I can do that. Please skip this post if you don't want to listen.

I just arrived home from taking my daughter to piano lessons and was listening to talk radio in the car. I could not believe my ears. The quarterback from the Pittsburg Steelers (Lizzie calls them the Stealers) admitted on late night TV (I think it was Letterman, I am not sure) that he did NOT cross the goal line in that controversial touchdown in the Super Bowl. He then went and told HIS COACH that he didn't make it across the line. He knew it immediately after the play. His coach knew it immediately after the play. AND THEY SAID NOTHING!!

Does anyone else see anything wrong with this picture? I would have severely reprimanded my child if he/she had done anything like that. And then to take the 6 points like they deserved it. (Shaking my head in disgust). Yesterday I had no respect for the officials. Today, I lay the blame squarely on the shoulders of this quarterback. He should have known better. And they dare to call themselves great. Sheesh. They will never, ever, ever have my respect as a team. Shame on them!!!

So, done with my rant. I hate injustice (refs). I hate lies more (quarterback and coach). The Lord says what you reap you shall sow. The world calls it karma, or what goes around comes around. Today, I am glad I am not in their shoes. Now...I need to go pray about my attitude, LOL!!!!

A TA-DA Moment...

I finished the second Shepherd's Bush Christmas Ornament tonight. I am very pleased with the way it turned out, but it seemed to take me forever to get done. Must have been all the solid stitching on the angel, I'm not sure. So Von, now I am caught up with you!!!

Super Bowl blues

Well, I have watched only 1.5 football games this year. I watched the Seattle Seahawks win the National Championship two weeks ago, and thoroughly enjoyed it. But after two quarters of the Superbowl, I have left the game and walked away. I am thoroughly disgusted with the obviously biased referees, and if that is the way that Pittsburg wants to win, by bad calls and obvious partiality, then they can have it. I can't stand to watch any kind of game (let alone the Super Bowl) in which the refs make mistake after mistake, and there is no justice or restitution for it. I am too much a person of justice when it comes to sports.

So I have said my piece and I won't say anymore. I know that 99% of you reading this have no idea what I am talking about and care even less, so no matter. In the grand scheme of things, in the light of eternity, what is it going to matter?

On a lighter note, I haven't done any stitching all weekend. Boo hoo. But I DID manage to get our taxes done, and we are getting a very decent refund. It was a 6 hour ordeal, but it is done for another year, and I can enjoy the fruits of my labor...money for Disneyland!!! WOOHOO!

I am at a bit of a design blockage in stitching My Child's Heart. I can't make up my mind which kind of band would look best below the name lettering. I have found with such blockages that I usually need to set it aside for a few days and come back to it. The top half of the design is pretty heavy with lots of hardanger and ribbon flowers, so I need to make sure it doesn't get top heavy and overpower any thing I do below. It will come to me. I'm feeling a little drained tonight after the fiasco of the football game. I think I will work on something already designed and easy to stitch. Probably my Shepherd's Bush ornaments. I am still plugging away on #2. Von how far along are you these days? Probably WAAAAY ahead of me!!!

Here's a scan of the name on the sampler. I love the way it turned out with the Weeks Dye works thread (Sweetheart Rose). Isn't that an appropriate color name for my sweetheart grand daughter?