Hello? Is anyone out there?

I am sorry that I’ve not kept up with my blog recently. I promised myself that I would post more often than once or twice a month but as usual, my execution of that promise produced less than desired results. I am glad though that you continue to hang in there with me and continue to check up on my world. It’s really appreciated and it makes me glow because you and a few of the needlework forums that I visit are really my only connection to the cross stitch world. There really isn’t anyone to share my stitching with, my friends admire my work but wonder why I would want to spend all my free time making little x’s on hole-y cloth. Sharing my interest in stitching with them is not the same as sharing my passion with fellow stitchers who are as in love with and are as passionate as I am about stitching.

Honestly, I haven’t stitched an awful lot in the last few weeks. I worked on an Ewe & Eye & Friends piece called Liberty House in the late evenings because I wanted a new patriotic piece for my house. It’s ¾ of the way stitched but it won’t be made into a pinkeep before the Fourth. And I’ve worked a tiny bit on Where My Heart Blooms. Progress on that sampler is negligable though, I re-stitched what I frogged out, the border and and a few strawberries. So now I am right where I was before I found the mistake and had to pull out most of the right top and right border out. One step back...two steps forward. Story of my stitching life.

Mainly, I’ve filled my stitching time with my horses and my birthday and our anniversary. Also, throw one full day in Saratoga to attend the Jazz Festival (no, I am not a fan but was gifted a ticket along with a whole hearted attempt at conversion) and the result is my stitching time dwindled to almost nothing. In fact, the most time I’ve spend any extended stitching in the last 2 weeks was on the trip to Saratoga (2.5 hours in the car one way) and that’s where I re-stitched the borders on Where My Heart Blooms.

My birthday was June 24th and was spent pretty quietly. I worked and once I got home, the David took me out to an authentic Mexican restuarant which was scrumptious. I got a very nice gift card to a favorite store and a beautiful diamond pendant which was a complete surprise from him. We visited Mike the weekend prior to my birthday and he gave me a windchime for our front porch. We spent the day with him, we took him and his buddy, Charlie to lunch and grocery shopping.

Our 29th anniversary was on June 30th and we spent the evening working in the yard and grooming horses. We will be going out to a nice restuarant on Saturday to celebrate our marriage. It’s amazing to think that I’ve spent more than ½ my life with this wonderful man who loves me in spite of my faults (which number more than a few!). I wouldn’t trade him for all the gold in the world and I’m so blessed to be loved by him.

I need a break from the big projects that I have going now and seem to be taking forever to show any progress at all. I have 2 small finished pieces that I plan on finishing as pinkeeps in addition to Liberty House. I am in a "smalls" mood, small patterns that can be stitched and finished quickly. It shouldn’t take but a few hours to assemble them. They’ve been stitched for a long time and have languished in a dresser drawer just waiting for the time to see the light of day to be finished. My pieces are: The Trilogy’s, Liberty, which was an old freebie, and The Drawn Thread’s, Halloween Spot. I bought all the finishing stuff, backing, ribbons and trims. Now just find the time to put them together. Plus, I can mount 2 smaller pieces to be framed. I’ll take photos the minute I get them done.

Speaking of photos, here’s a tease for you. My friend Sandra made me the nicest bag from beautiful toile fabric, trimmed with antique lace. Sandra also made me a Stacy Nash pinkeep. I promise, promise, promise to take pictures tonight after work of these beautiful items. Sandra, I absolutely love them and I will cherish them always.

The next couple of weeks will be busy at work, we are auditing our business for a new Quality standard. Hopefully, I will not be too tired to keep up with hearth, home, horses and stitching!

So, to all my American friends, please have a safe and happy July 4th!!!! I hope that you spend time with those you love at a picnic and at the fireworks. That's where David and I will be at dusk, watching the fireworks from our little blanket on the lawn of the Presybterian church. The best seat in the house!

HAPPY JULY 4th!!

BIrthday gift revealed

I just checked Carol's blog, Garden of Stitches, and she posted that she received my little birthday gift. Carol is such a sweet lady and I wanted to stitch her something special. I stitched the Summer Face biscornu from the patten Seasonal biscornu for her. I also sent her a sampler note pad and a pattern that was on her wish list. The pattern was a thank-you though, she sent me her Barnabee Quest patterns when she finished with them. It was a nice thing to do and I appreciated her kindness.

*Summer Face*

Seasonal Biscornu

MTV Designs

Stitched on 32ct Belfast Linen Cream

Olde Willow Stitchery Threads

I was disappointed though, cause the beautiful fimo pins that came with the pattern were crushed in the mail and the replacements didn't come in time for me to put them on the edges of the biscornu. I tried beading the edges but gave up cause beads and I don't seem to play nicely together. The biscornu looks a bit naked. But I love it cause it's really tiny. Happy Birthday, Carol!!!

The Cadet has been gone now for 3 days...it's very weird not knowing what he's doing or how is doing. Field training is intense. I know he will do well if he just keeps a positive attitude. David thinks that once he gets used to getting yelled at, he will actually like it. He's always loved a physical challenge so I don't think the running and PT work outs will bother him too much except it's really hot there. It's the boredom that will get to him. The endless drilling and marching. Standing at attention for hours. That stuff. Plus, he does have a temper and I am afraid if he gets discouraged, he will say ENOUGH and quit trying. Mike is a lot like me, when he gets to a point where he feels that he's exhausted all possibilities, he will just STOP, give up and quit or take an *I don't care anymore* attitude.

On house news, David and I now realize that we will never see any of the money we gave the contractor, nor will we be able to finish the job like we planned. We've had a number of other contractors come out to estimate finishing the job. Because the house is partially done and most of what has been done must be removed, all of the contractors said they just want to start it over. No one wants to touch what's been done because the job and the materials are sub-standard. The estimates we've gotten to see what it will cost to finish the house are in the 50-60K range, the amount we were quoted when we started this mis-adventure. So I went to the bank to see what they could do for us and they are willing to consolidate our existing mortgage and give us another 40K on top of what we have out in a home equity. Unfortunately, the payments would be over 2.5K a month and we can not afford it. SO, David and I are forced to rethink all of it and cut back on the *niceties* and drop back on the type of windows we wanted. And to afford this, we will have to do the work in stages, which means I will have to choose replacement windows over new construction windows because they will have to fit into the existing structure which really limits us on style and type. Also, it will limit us on siding choices too cause we were looking at siding with built-in insulation which is thicker than normal siding and requires the windows to be framed out to meet the thicker siding.

Needless to say, I am quite beside myself. I really want to just cry. This entire situation has put me into a state, I am really, really angry over it and I can not shake the feeling of helplessness because I can not do anything to fix this situation. Two managers at work have approached me and told me to come see them if I needed to talk. One told me that I never smile anymore. The other said that it's evident that I have the weight of the world on my shoulders. I don't believe my work has been affected yet, my manager just gave me a pay increase, much more than I expected. This situation is like an unspoken wedge between David and me, though, I cringe when he wants to talk about it and I get snarky over it.

I believe that this is the cause of my stitching slump. It's not a full blown, put everything away slump, it's just an *Ok, you have to do this slump*. There isn't much joy in stitching cause I can't seem to concentrate on it. Usually, the rythmn is calming but now I get all fidgety after 15 minutes or so. It seems to be a chore right now so I just stitch a little at a time. I worked on my Stitcher's Wallet a bit and I picked out the patterns for the exchanges I am in. But, I did put away most of my WIPs. and I will work exclusively on exchanges until the end of September. It's ok cause it is stitching, and obviously, I enjoy the process much more than the finishing! I am very happy to work on pieces for others, it's a good feeling to share my work. It takes my mind off of the Cadet and all the other things going on in my life right now. I don't know what I am going to do when all this stress finally goes away. I'd love to find out though!!!

So, thanks for sticking through this long whiney post..I'll take a glass of merlot to go with my *whine*. I appreciate you and I am glad that I can share with you.

I hope that your weekend is filled with good things and a lot of stitching time!