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!

May I present John Foster 1885!

Here he is...my darling, John Foster 1885....completed on the first anniversary of our meeting. Isn't he just grand????

John Foster 1885 - Historic Stitching

36ct Belfast Linen

Antique colorway - Weeks Dye Works cotton fiber & DMC

The pattern had 2 colorways, an antiqued palette (which I chose) created from the front of the original sampler and a brighter more colorful palette of the original colors taken from the back of the sampler. The color of the linen is a little more grey than I would have liked, I think that he would have been better stitched on a warmer toned fabric. But at the time, I was being frugal with my purchases and I wanted to stitch him on a 36ct fabric...flax was what I had on hand. The floss toss wasn't bad but the floss is in warm tones and I think overall it would have been better not to have that warm-cool tone tug-of-war that's going on now. It's ok, though, I love him and it's such an accomplishment for me to finish anything anymore, I'll take my happy dances anyway that I can get them! I got such pleasure from stitching him once I got over the initial bumps in the road with the miscounting threads and stitching with the wrong colors. The second half of the sampler went surprisingly fast and even though I thought I would get bored stitching the house, it was actually the vines and fir trees that got boring at times.

One of the things that attracted me to this sampler was that it was stitched by a man (or boy) and I wondered if this was John's home, a school setting or a product of his imagination. I won't really know, cause the information with the sampler had little to say about John and his life. I was particularly interested in the upper section of the sampler, I imagined that John loved animals and gardening. Two of my favorites!

As far as framing him goes...that's going to have to wait a little while, the DH and I have to work out what we are going to do with the contractor...we got a contract from the lawyer - his initial retainer is $3K...just to get started and the cost goes up from there...we are discussing cashing in stock now. I can't even think about all of this now. I get stressed and I just cry. I am doing a lot of praying for this situation, so if anyone believes in the power of prayer, please add me to your prayer list!! And if that's not your thing, keeping me in good thoughts would be just as appreciated.

Next will be another project from my WIP pile, not sure what I'm going to focus on just yet. I started BOAF's Peace Sampler (another house themed sampler) and I do have Martha and Beatrix on deck if I want to stitch a Quaker girl. Right now, nothing is saying STITCH ME! so I'll just wing it today and stitch whatever I feel like for now.

I should finish up Hinziet's Air Force for the Cadet, I only have about 2 hours to go on it, finishing up the borders and stitching on the charms. I have the frame too, I wonder how much it would cost if I mounted it and took it to the framer to add a piece of glass and spacers.
The Cadet is coming home this Thursday for his between quarter break and it would be nice to have it all finished for him to take back to school the following week. He was to come home yesterday but decided to go skiing in Quebec for a few days with 3 other ROTC buddies. (Lucky him.) His situation is smoothing out somewhat, he's not completely out of the woods yet.

Oh, I should mention this, if anyone wants this pattern, please post and let me know. The pattern is in excellent shape, the original was kept in a plastic sleeve and I made a working copy of the pattern to use when I stitched him.

I hope you are having a great weekend and thanks so much for visiting!!!