Saturday's news

WOW! I really impressed myself today! I got the entire house cleaned before noon. And then I was free for a few hours to do whatever I wanted, so I dragged out my laptop and proceeded to do an inventory of my stash. I am up to almost 700(!)patterns..YIKES! I am officially calling it a *Collection*. I thought I would try to sell some of it off, but I can't bring myself to part with much cause I feel like I am parting with old friends. It's weird, but looking through them brought back a ton of memories...where I was when I bought them and how old I was and what was going on in my life when I bought them. Plus, it made me want to stitch everything I laid hands on. I may have to start another rotation. (NO, NO, NO, don't even think about it...) I told myself that I would only begin one when I finished one. I am close on a few...maybe this will be an incentive to get busy! I would like to begin a Fall piece, a Halloween piece, a box, a Chester County school girl sampler. And some little things to make into smalls. Not too ambitious! LOL!

Tomorrow, I am free too, so I will post some pictures. It's going to be another nice day so I can get some good shots. I need to post some of my completed works, I am proud of what I've stitched and I would like to share them. :-)

Mike had a couple of friends from TaeKwonDo come out for the day. It was a lovely day. They are so nice. I am going to miss having a group of kids here over the weekend! Mike leaves in 29 days for RIT. I thought that I was ok with it, but now I am not so sure. I know this is what we worked hard the last 18 years to accomplish, he is a fine young man. The adult in me is applauding but the Mom is screaming, NO DON'T GO!!! You can't go!
He is joining the AirForce ROTC and will be studying Electrical Engineering. I told him today that I was proud of him and that I would support him with the ROTC if this is what he wants to do. He got on the ROTC floor at school. I am very proud of him.

Stitching Questions

Got this off of the PrairieSchooler website:
1) What is your favorite cross stitch fabric? 32ct Vintage Lakeside Linen
2) Other than the good, ole DMC, what is your favorite floss/fibre? Vicki Clayton Silk
3) How many pairs of needlework scissors do you own? At least 3 pair if not more
4) What type of needles do you prefer? Lance 26
5) Do you use a hoop/frame/Q-snap or stitch in hand? Frame or hoop, depending on the fabric size.

Wahoo! Weight Watchers

I lost a pound and a half this week! I am back on track! YES!!!!! This has been the hardest thing I have ever done but it's so worth it. 30 pounds!!!! I gained 5 of it back and finally, it's gone again and it's not coming back. That's a promise!

My WW pals and I have vowed to continue this trend, we all lost this week. It's nice to have friends who are working toward the same goals.

The kid and the DH went to RIT today. The ROTC is not actively pursuing candidates, Mike will have the opportunity to try it out for 2 years before he commits. That's a good thing. David talked to the financial aid folks too, I am still not happy that we are going to strap ourselves to a 100K loan after 5 years. It makes me very tired to think that I will not be able to retire until I die. I am also afraid of losing my house. I believe that Mike should foot most of this load. Like that's going to happen.

Well, it's not the time or the place to discuss this so I will stop it.

I have to go to bed. I am very tired.

More stitching musings

Today, I contemplated how to finish my Sampler House exchange piece. I think I am going to go with the handstitched stitching pouch. I don't think it will be difficult to stitch together, just time consuming. I am going to make it into a bifold piece with double pockets and a scissor pouch. I wish I had more time, I would stitch a fob to go with the pouch. Running out of time...

I wish I had more energy in the evenings. Auditing takes a ton of energy. And this audit is not that aggressive. I know that I should write more nonconformances. Many of those that I interviewed had no idea of how to tell that the training provided was effective and had measurements to prove it. I got really lame answers, observation, no customer complaints, profitability...eh...not really great responses. Looks like I will be consulting with Thomas over my results. Blech, another opportunity to feel *less than*.

I heard from Tim today. He is sick! He thought he was having a heart attack at work and they took him out on a stretcher. He is on leave for 2 weeks now, but I know he will work from home. Work is his total identity. I miss Tim. I can't believe that it's been 5 years already since I met him in Poughkeepsie. He is incredibly intelligent and I am in awe of his brainpower. He's had a row of bad luck. Neck surgery and now this. It's not fair.

Well, it's that time of the night...off to beddy-bye.
Oh, and I promise pictures of my stitching! Afterall, wasn't that what this blog was supposed to be about?

I am so sleepy - stitching is suffering!

Well, I don't know what is going on with me but I could fall asleep right now. I worked a little on my Sampler House exchange. I don't know what I want to do with it yet. I want to make a pouch or a stitching case, but I am a little scared of messing it up. I don't have a sewing machine right now, it's broken, so I would be handstitching all of it. I probably will just create the cube that I originally planned. Blech. At least I have a little bit of time to work on it. It's almost done, I have to stitch the sunflower and the crows. Then add a bottom band to finish it off. 12 beads to stitch.

I did work on Moira Blackburn's Time & Seasons sampler. Sh-h-h...I should have worked on the obligation stitching. But I had fun with it and it's so pretty and the colors are so soft. It's going to look wonderful in my kitchen on those robin egg colored walls. It was a nice diversion. I have to get pictures!

The audit is going ok. I haven't found anything wrong. I don't know what Tom has found, he always comes up with really interesting observations. I have a lot to learn. He is actively looking for a new job. That's scary. I am concerned about handling this entire program if he bails. I hope that he comes to his senses and realizes that living out of a suitcase 4 days out of the week gets old very fast. Plus, he is a musclehead. He goes to the gym 4 days a week. It will kill him if doesn't get his workouts in.

I think I am tired because I am under a ton of stress. The kid leaves for college in 6 weeks, I don't know how we are going to pay for this. He is talking ROTC. We are always scrapping the barrel for $$$ and it's only going to get worse. I have a ton of things that I should do around here and I think that's holding me back. I need to go through my stash and sell a lot of it off. Especially some of the things that I know I will not do. Work is stressful enough without the added weight of wondering when Tom walks out for the last time.

Anyway, what does any of this have to do with stitching? HA! Not anything, but it feels good to write it down. Seeing it helps to make it less scary.

I did walk tonight. It's the first time in a while since I walked. I didn't go fast, it's too hot, I walked 1.5 miles in 30 minutes approximately. A lot slower than my normal pace. That's ok, at least I was out.

OK, enough, it's time to go and shower.

Sunday Musings

Wow! I got to stitch most of the weekend! I made significant progress on the Quaker RR and the Sampler House exchange. I need to get some pictures and put them here. Both need to be finished this week. YIKES!!!

It's going to be a semi-busy week at work too. Tomorrow, we begin an internal audit of the *training* process.

I should go to bed...I am tired and 5:30AM will be here before I know it.
It was a nice weekend, I did a ton of laundry and some light housework. I should have done more, but housework has never been a high priority (much to my Mom's dismay). A lick and a promise. I didn't paint the foyer either, it was way too hot and humid. I need to make a list, especially for things that I need to do but aren't high on the priority list.

I gotta go to bed.

It's Wednesday - I CAN STITCH TONIGHT!!!

It's Wednesday and it's very hot. I will be able to stitch tonight! YEAH!!!! I have to really get busy. I am so close to finishing the Sampler House exchange piece, so that's what I am going to work on. I want to make it into a box, but that might not be feasible in the amount of time that I have to finish it. Looks like it may end up as a cube. Hope that the reciepient will like it. The gals on Legacy are really in to this, someone is making a box and there are needlebooks and fobs...I hope that what I stitch will live up to expectations.

This weekend, I will stitch the Quaker RR. We have no plans, so it should be a good weekend to finish it and mail it off to Mercedes.

I have to really go through my stash and sell some of it off. There are things in there that I will not ever stitch. They should find a new home with someone who will. I do enjoy collecting patterns though, and it's going to be hard to part with them. It's like parting with friends.

I am reading other stitcher's blogs. They are so much fun and it's fun to see what everyone is stitching. I wish that I knew more about HTML and how to customize this page. I might have to ask the Computer Genius (aka, my darlin' son, Mike) to help me. He thinks that I am lame to have one of these cause my life is BORING. Bah! I say! I shall blog!

Last night I went to a Lia Sophia jewelry party. Nice stuff, but pricey. I got a pair of earrings that will be nice with casual clothes. They are somewhat Southwestern in style. And 2 bracelets, one that's very crystally and dainty and the other chunky with big square blue stones set in silver. The sale was buy one at full price and get the other 2 at 1/2 price. The hook was that the pieces that are the most expensive were the 1/2 price items. Made you want to buy. I spent $93. YIKES!!!!

Good Lord, I am so bored

Here I sit, with about 40 minutes to go before I can leave here and be free for the evening. I have to go to a jewelry party. I really want to go home and stitch. I have to finish up my exchange pieces. They are crying loudly.

Last night when I came home from work, I took a 2 hour nap. Very unusual for me. I couldn't keep my eyes open. Then we put in about a 150 bales of hay. I got the job of loading it on the elevator, but it wasn't too bad since David was getting 25 bales at a time. The first batch I loaded was over 75 bales cause he had a head start while I was napping. Mike and I caught that up while he was getting the next truckload. It was pretty easy. Then Dave and I put the horses out to the pasture and cleaned the barn. We got in about 9:15. I nuked lasagna for them and found that a bottle of horse shampoo that was under the sink had spilled. I spent about an hour cleaning under the sink. We have mice too...yuck. Once that was done, I ended up dropping a pitcher of kool-aid on the floor. That meant mopping. And now it was after 10PM. I had enough! Any hope of putting needle to thread was going to have to wait. So I went to bed and looked at some new books I got from Amazon France. Can't read 'em but the stitching is beautiful. Makes me want to start more projects!

Hmm...I probably shouldn't be concerned

But I decided to remove the pics of the Paintball gang from this blog. My instincts told me to do it and usually they are more than correct. Just with all the things that go on in the world, I don't want them to get downloaded onto some ugly site. I know, I know, I am probably just paranoid. Maybe the bombings in London did it for me. I have to say that I had the same emotion that I did during 9/11. It was an ugly emotion too. I was mad all over again. Not to mention sad too, at the senselessness of the entire situation. Innocence people, off to work, just doing what they normally do everyday. But it just wasn't an *everyday*. I had this thought after I watched some of the coverage on CNN, about the people that died in those bombings, I wondered what they were thinking about as they got ready to go to whereever that morning. Were they thinking about their day? What they would have for dinner? About being in such a hurry and regretting that they didn't tell someone that they loved them? If they were having a bad hair day?

One time, my DH got exasperated at me cause I never leave home without telling him that I love him. He said, I know you do, why do you always tell me that before you leave, even if it's only for a few hours? And my reply to him was, I tell you that I love you because I do and this might be my last chance to say those words to you or hear you say them back to me. After that, he never asked me about it again, and he always tells me that he loves me, even if he is only going to the neighbors. Silly, I know.

The boys are back from Paintball now, and my home is filled again with guy stuff and camping gear and paintball paraphanellia. Ah, home. It's just what it should be.

This is taking forever

I am still stitching on the Sampler House exchange!!! I am at least 3/4 of the way done, I need to finish the big sunflower (oh, I am stitching the house from the Drawn Thread's Sunflower bellpull) and a lower border to frame it. I bought a box from AC Moore, picked out fabric to line the box and I guess that's my project for the week. I am now very behind on the Quaker RR. I started stitching on it last week but didn't get far. I need to work on that really soon as I have a full motif, as well as, a 1/2 motif to stitch. I am feeling the pressure! Now, my eye is twitching. Blech.

I just got off the phone with my Dad who is 87 and extremely opinionated. I love him though, but he doesn't relate real well with *today*. I wonder what I will be like when I am his age. Will Mike just roll his eyes and tune me out like I sometimes do to my Dad? (And no, I am not proud of the fact that I do tune him out sometime). He was here 2 weeks ago for Mike's graduation. My friends loved him. Mike wanted him to stay and go swing dancing with him but his girlfriend (she's 84!) wanted to get home.

He told me that my brother and his family are going to NYC for the week to visit his wife's sister. That's great, they couldn't make it here for the weekend for the graduation, but they will spend a week 3 hours from here and never stop. Oh well, what can you do. I don't think I will be getting home before the Fall or possibly next Spring. So, it'll be a while before I see them unless I can get them to come here for Thanksgiving. Although, I probably won't have a long weekend either for Thanksgiving. I gotta figure out my vacation time when I go back to work. I don't think I have enough time to take a full 2 weeks at Christmas like I normally do because of this shutdown. Next year, I guess I will just plan for it cause it seems to be a trend.

I think I need a nap.

Wow! Was I bad today

I went shoppin'...heeheehee...at the Local Needlework store. And AC Moore. Although I didn't buy a lot, I did liberate some items that the shop owner, Kim, had stashed away for me. I bought a bunch of DMC, even though I have gobs of it in my stash. It's OLD. Like 25 years old. Wound on bobbins, with permanent kinks. So, I bought some new to stitch Prairie Schooler's Prairie Birds (you didn't think I wouldn't now, did you?!!). Plus, a cut of Natural Belfast 32ct linen for the Birds. And a cute Halloweenie chart from Twisted Threads called Boo. The stuff that I liberated was a Pine Mountain pillow kit of a snowman (I'll ditch the Aida), a Quaker pattern, an acrylic ruler, and a Quaker pattern for the ruler. At AC Moore, I went for framing supplies, they had NONE. I was looking for one of those thingies that you push glazier points in the back of the frame. I did buy a small box (sh-h-h, it's for the Sampler House exchange), some tacky glue, spray adhesive, double faced tape, a small piece of white mat board and a package of poster board. I want to frame Drawn Thread's, A Woodland Walk, for my friend MaryEllen who has a small cottage in Arkansas. She catered Mike's graduation party for practically nothing. I stitched this for her in 2003 but couldn't afford the framing. I took a class a a few months ago, found a frame that I thought it would look nice in and decided today to stretch it. I have to get some mat board and I will be all set. Yeah!

Friday Stitching

Well, back to stitching news. Tonight, I worked on the Sampler House exchange. I am 3/4 done stitching it. I thought that I would stitch the evening away but after my rodeo, I didn't really want to stitch. I worked on the exchange piece for a couple of hours but didn't make much headway. I wanted to finish stitching it tonight so I could take it with me to AC Moore or Michaels to look for a box to mount it on. I guess I will guestimate the size. I'll figure out the stitch count and that will give me an estimate of how big the finish stitched piece will be.

I watched Legally Blonde on TBS while I was working on the piece. It was cute, but silly. I think that my working vacation is catching up with me...I am just rambling on now.

Oh, and I did pull the Prairie Schooler, Prairie Bird pattern and am planning on stitching them all together. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, not another start. LOL!!!! (Like that's not going to happen!)

It was a rodeo

Silly me. This evening when I was cleaning the barn,I put out our grey mare, Peaches, in the round pen. I then decided to put Maggie out with her, cause none of the horses have been out of the barn for about a week. It's been buggy, hot and humid during the day and raining in the evenings. What a BIG MISTAKE!!! I forgot that Peaches is the dominate mare. I thought it was odd that Maggie wouldn't lead into the pen. THEN I REALIZED WHY!!! Peaches decided to charge us. Oh! They got into a kicking match and I was between them. Well, I felt the wind rush by my head and realized that I was way close to being kicked. So Maggie and I high tailed it out the gate. Maggie then decided that it was time to go after Peaches (she is so brave outside the pen) but since I was holding on to her, she decided to rear up. Bad thing to happen! Maggie was snorting and Peaches was tossing her head and snorting back. So, I decided to put Maggie back into the barn. She was not a happy horse and all we did was spin in circles. Finally, back in the barn. I wasn't scared, just mad at my stupidity. Because they get a long I didn't think that it mattered WHO went out first. So I had 2 unhappy horses and upset the natural balance of their universe by forgetting that the grey mare is the Queen of Everything.

And the hay saga continues....

Yesterday, the rain stopped mid-morning and since this hay was in the sellers barn we decided to put it in. Which meant that David had to unstack their wagons, restack onto a truck that we rented, (a moving van, yes, our hay travels first class...)and then unload it in our barn. I got the job of unloading it in our barn. Actually, I unloaded the hay from the moving van onto the hay elevator and David stacked it in the hay mow. Like I said, buying hay this way is pricey and labor intensive. I moved 215 bales yesterday, that translated into 3 moving van loads. We have to purchase another 150 bale and then we will be done. Yeah. The ponies won't starve this winter.

I have the weekend to myself. My husband is joining the son to play paintball in PA for the weekend. It's the annual weekend of playing *Hide & Seek with guns*. Great, have at it.

Me? I am going to sit and stitch. After all, I have a screaming sampler, a wimpering exchange piece and a mumbling Quaker sampler begging for my attention. What more could a girl ask for? I plan on taking care of the critters and then cozying up with needle and said needlework for a glorious 12-14 hours tomorrow into Sunday. That's if the foyer doesn't beg me to paint it. I did buy the paint to do that this weekend, didn't I? Ugh....La-la-la...I have my fingers in my ears and I can't hear the foyer or the paint. Hey, this was my unplanned vacation week, I cleaned the basement, put in hay and cleaned the barn all this week...sh-h-h-h! Haven't I earned a little fun? Next weekend, I will paint.

This picture thing is kinda cool!

Oh no, I am now a picture monster. Uploading pictures was easy. These photos are from Christmas, we have a shelf in our kitchen that I decorate throughout the year. At Christmas, I put up some of my snowmen collection (I have like 100 of the snowguys!).

Another Horse Photo

This is a picture of my woobie, Joey. He is a blanketed apaloosa. He's 18 years young and is just a happy camper.

I never should do this...

I went browsing in other stitcher's albums. I am spending an inordinate amount of time on the internet looking at other stitcher's work. SO now, I have come up with at least 2 new projects for myself. I should make a list of these things cause I'll never remember them. In no particular order:

Prairie Schooler:
1. A house sampler - different houses
2. The bird pillow book, all stitched in squares on one fabric
3. The Santa's stitched the same way.

Halloween Sampler - either a band sampler or different halloweenie things once again in squares like the Drawn Thread sampler that Jackie from California stitched.

Speaking of Drawn Thread - that very idea

I should have stitched a Prairie Schooler house for the exchange too....not that I don't like the Drawn Thread pattern, but it's a tad plain.

Then of course, there are different ways to finish some of these items. I think I want to make a box. I just have to go to AC Moore and look at the chipboard or paper mache boxes...a little fabric and a stitched top and voila! Something cool.

This is dangerous. I have 5 WIPs to work on, so close to finishing them and here I am dreaming and getting creative. Well, at least I have some creativity left. LOL!!!

Damn Rain

We were supposed to put in hay today but it's RAINING. Can't put in wet hay cause it MOLDS. Horses get sick on moldy hay so it's not looking like the best day to do this. David is terribly frustrated now, and that's bad cause it sets the atmosphere on edge. It would be a great rain if we didn't have PLANS.David will not be home this weekend either, so that pushes everything out until next week. This is the latest we ever got hay. It's pricey and scarce this year.

I am very tired today, my body is achey. Even coffee didn't help me. I need to get busy and take advantage of the day, I should return to our dungeon of a basement and clean some more or at least do some of the housework (ick). I just want to read or stitch. The Time and Seasons sampler is screaming loudly from the coffeetable. The Sampler House exchange piece is whimpering on the lamptable and the Quaker RR is mumbling something unintelligable from it's plastic bag...blech.

Not much stitching over the weekend

Hmmm...it was a very nice weekend, not much leisure time unless you count the fireworks last night. I only stitched a little bit cause Mike and Charlie's friend Erin was here from someplace East of here,near Albany.
I enjoyed having them here, it's a great time to be a teenager. Makes me kinda wonder where all that exuberance and spirit goes....do finances and mortgages marriage and jobs over take those high feelings and kill them? I remember being that age, stepping across the threshold into adultworld and thinking that I knew all the answers and could overcome any obstacle that stood in my way. But life has a way of being persistent..it wears you down until you are left with broken dreams and promises and a mortgage, a marriage, no money and a precarious employment outlook.

I liked Erin, she reminds me of what I was like when I was 16, I was not as mature, but just as inquisitive and droll and interested in things not of the norm. She, however, knows her mind, me at 16, well, I was trying on personas and trying not to get trampled by my family, who was unhappy at my happiness. Just wait, I was told, Life's gonna get you...and ya know what? It did. Cause I let it. So my wish for you, dear Erin and Mikey and Charlie, is that you kick Life in the ass and live it on your own terms. And Mike, I promise I won't stand in your way.

SO, this weekend, I gained an honorary daughter to add to my collection of honorary children. Erin, here's to you, kid.

Stitching News

I wanted to post what I am currently stitching. I have about 15 wips, only 5 or so are active. I get really stressed out if I have more, actually the 15 wips are burdensom right now. There are a few that are within an 8-10 hour finish, but I tend to stitch on the one's that scream the loudest.

The screamer right now is Time and Seasons Sampler by Moira Blackburn. A lady on the Legacy Embrodierers forum stitched this using the most subtle shades of silk. So of course, that bumped this sampler right to the forefront as a new start...I plan on framing it for the kitchen, I have the perfect spot picked out.

Next, I am almost done with Drawn Thread's Welcome Spot. That's really close to being finished. I just have to stitch the roof of the house.

I have the Quaker RR that I am stitching too and I am also in the Sampler House exchange.

I promise to post wip pics soon. I just have to figure out how to upload the pictures.

I thought I would try posting a picture, so here goes! It's a picture of our mare, Maggie. We bought her last year for our 25th wedding anniversary. I know, some girls get diamonds...I got a horse!

Joanie

Hello!

Well, I am now joining the blogworld. Mainly, my blog will be about stitching, of course. Currently, I am organizing my space and planning out my Wips and learning about blogging...