We've had a busy week! First we seem to have adopted a new kitty. Can't decide if we have a male or a female, there's so much fuzz! But we have an appointment with the vet today for shots so the question should be answered then. So, let me introduce PITA, otherwise known as Pain In The Ass. I suggested this name as a joke, but my husband likes it so I guess, Pita it is.

Last week, I had heard a kitty outside in the mornings and thought it was just the neighbor's cat. Wednesday night, a neighbor stopped us on the walk home from daycare and asked if we knew who this kitten belonged to, none of us did. But she (we're hoping!) followed Jakob into the garage. Ed, in all his infinite wisdom (haha) decided the best way to catch her was to let her into the house. The rest, as they say is history!
Last night, I worked on the ceilings in the bedrooms downstairs. Ed is off for the next couple of weeks and needed something to do. We purchased sheets of cedar last weekend so he will line the closets with it and install the closet systems before he starts going through boxes and boxes and boxes and boxes of "hunting stuff" that has been sitting in my basement since we moved back after the tornado. This is ceiling in Jakob's room. I did this just to see how it would turn out. Since it looked ok, I went ahead and did the rest of his room.

This is the closet in the guest room, where all the hunting clothes will, hopefully, soon live.

And Jakob's room. It is starting to look like a bedroom instead of an empty room in the basement. I'm hoping to be painting by the weekend. There's lots of drywall dust to be swept up and other cleaning to do first.

Sunday night, I finished Paladin by Fire Wing Designs. Jakob was mad at me because he wanted to stitch these. I haven't told him that this one is for him for Christmas. I've started Warrior and am making pretty good progress. Even if I don't quite make Christmas, it will be done and framed by the end of the year

Another WIP bites the dust! I've finished Baumchen!

Now, to take care of my new start fix and to give the boys somethingspecial for Christmas I'm goint to attempt to stitch them both dragons. I haven't decided who gets what yet, but I've got Warrior and Paladin from Fire Wing Designs all ready to go.

I think I finally took care of the frogs, at least on Baumchen. It seems I can't count so I frogged the corners of this one. One more part and this one will probably be my final finish of 2010. But that probably won't happen till tomorrow.

So, for now, I'm going to go figure out what we're having for supper tonight and go put 1900 Abecedaire back on the q-snaps. I have been pretty seriously considering another start...but since that start seems to be leaning towards Chatelaine's Convent Herbal Garden, I'm trying to resist. I want to finish 2 of the 4 Chatelaine WIPs before I start another one.

Wish me luck!

Dang! It's cold and snowy today and you'd think its the perfect day to stay in and stitch. I guess the frogs don't agree with the stitchy part of that statement though.

Off to finish frogging so I can attempt to get page 7 of Baumchen complete before I take the boys to supper!

Yesterday, over lunch, I finished page two of the 1900 Abecedaire I'm stitching with the Sticklounge group. I have all the pages from the original release which are a little longer with one more alphabet, but I figure stitching it this way, with Sticklounge, may see this piece done sooner. It's gonna be huge!!

Another finish for 2010! This was a fun piece to stitch. Not quite what I expected, but lots of fun!

So, we got back from Oklahoma yesterday afternoon. All I got done was laundry and more laundry. I didn't get as much stitching done as I would have liked since I caught a chest cold and spent a lot of time in the evenings curled up in bed with the TV. But here is the stitching I did do. When Stars Collide only has one part to go which I hope to get done tonight.

Zentangle 2 is now done. I can chalk up another happy dance for this year!!

I just finished part 6 of Baumchen. Each time I take a picture of this one, the fabric looks so bright! It's actually much darker.

Since Ed's been gone this week, I've made lots of progress with my stitching! Tonight, I finished page 8 of Lust!

I think I finished page 7 in June so this one has been a while in coming. Stitching that arm gave me fits. I really didn't like the colors used until they were all stitched and it came together. Now it works for me.

Now, what to take with me for the weekend...Lust is definately coming as are my Sticklounge pieces. I should be able to finish Zentangle with just a couple hours worth of stitching. I think I'm going to pick at least one Chatelaine, maybe two just for some variety!

Have a great weekend and a Happy Thanksgiving!!

This is going to be a super short update. Here's When Stars Collide again with part 11 completed. I knew it would be another small piece so I came home tonight and got it done. Now, I need to pull Jakob away from Hangman on my phone so we can have supper.

11/21

I really don't know how the weekend managed to go so fast!

Yesterday, my DH and Joshua left for Oklahoma. They're spending the week down there for Thanksgiving. Jakob and I will be going Wednesday afternoon. I have to work and Jakob has school. Next year, if Ed does this again, he'll be going by himself since Josh will have school too.

I did get some stitching done. Not as much as I thought with only one child in the house but a little.

Here's where I left Lust Friday night. I will be going back to this in just a little while. I finally finished her shoulder and arm and have moved onto the rest of the page. I would really like to see this page finished by the time I get back from Oklahoma Sunday.

Saturday afternoon, I finished part 10 of When Stars Collide. This one is getting very close to finished!

Just a little while ago, I finished part 5 of Baumchen. The fabric isn't this bright but the colors, especially the lt cream color just pop off it!

The boys have been playing at a friends house today, which leaves the house very quiet. I've been stitching on Baumchen and have finished part 4.

Now, I'm going to go downstairs, turn on the radio pretty loud and sand some drywall for a little while. Depending on how ambitious I get, I may try stomping the ceiling...or maybe not. After I clean up, I'm going to pull out Lust and try to finish stitching her arm!

Yesterday, the weather man was saying that we could see some snow but that there as no accumulation expected. Boy was he wrong! This morning, we woke up to our first snowfall this winter. There was enough that Jakob tried to build a snow man. Then Ed got the lawn tractor out and pulled the boys around the yard on the sled. I don't know who had more fun!


Just a little while ago I finished part 9 of When Stars Collide. I've gotten behind with this one in the last couple of weeks. Now, I'm going to pull Baumchen out for a little while and see how much progress I make before bed.

Well, it took a week but we bought me a car! It's amazing how much plans can change in just one week. We were originally going to go to Omaha to look at cars there. We'd found a couple we were interested in online. We ended up in Milford (another small town, but big enough for a car dealership and a community college!) buying one that was almost identical to my old one. Instead of silver it's blue and two years newer with almost 90, 000 fewer miles. It still looks funny sitting in the garage!

Since the funeral, I've not been stitching much till late this week. I've been reading a lot and taking some hot baths to relax. I need to catch up with a couple of Sticklounge SALs but neither one should take long once I pick it back up. Here's When Stars Collide thru part 8.

Baumchen is completed thru part 3. This is the top row.

And here's Chatelaine's summer Knotgarden thru part 2. Part 3 came out on the first so I'm not too far behind. I've converted all the silks to HDF on this one. I'm thinking there isn't enough contrast in the upper left petal and may take out what looks like leaf veins and restitch in a slightly darker color.

There's been some buzz on one of the boards I frequent about needlework stores and designers giving some independent designers and fabric/floss dyers a hard time. I think this says it all.

What do you think?

Thanks for the well wishes. I really appreciate them.

I need opinions. Tell me if you think I'm being too morbid or your take on this idea. I'm getting a copy of a photo of my grandparent together when they were much younger...not a gray hair to be seen. I want to get it enlarged to at least an 8x10. Here's the possibly morbid part, I want to get a picture of the headstone once it's completed and chart it. I want to stitch it and hang it with the picture. My husband gave me a dirty look. What do you think?

I thought I'd updated more recently. I haven't been getting much stitching done, too much going on and I've been reading a couple of books.

Tuesday morning I got a call from my sister, Grandma's blood pressure had dropped and she was running a temp. So I ran out there and spent the rest of the day and came home. Wednesday morning, I had to finish a couple things at work when I got a call from Dad that she'd passed. They were going to wait for the funeral home and follow them to make arrangements. I found out later Wednesday that the funeral's Saturday morning and I'm one of the pall bearers.

This morning, on my way to work, I'm driving along, minding my own business when I hit a deer. Not Bambi, I hit momma! Everything in my car lost power and I pulled off the road. I'm ok. The airbag didn't even deploy. It just sucks that everything seems to be happening this week. Three years ago on the 24th, our dogs got out and were hit on the same road, then this week has been one of the suckiest (is that even a word) week ever...knock on wood.

Here are some updated pics as promised. When Stars Collide is through part 8. I finished that part Friday while I was waiting for Jakob to get home from school so we could go up to the hospital.
Then you have Baumchen. This is through part 2. I have started on part 3 which is the upper right corner and hope to have that part done today. I should have taken this to the hospital with me. I took Summer Knotgarden instead and got a little done on the third corner of part two but the football game was on and my sister was playing with the boys. They don't see her very often so it was worth watching!

Then there's Lust. I'm still working on her arm and the colors are starting to look better. With just her forearm, I didn't like them at all! Once this page is finished, I'm hoping I like them a lot better!

Thanks for looking and all the well wishes!

I'm going to get a post with some pics up later today. Right now the boys want breakfast!

We just spent Friday evening and Saturday in the hospital with Granny. She's now in hospice. Thursday night I talked to my folks to get an update and was told that there were more complications. Her leg had been hurting for a ocuple of days and when the hospital did an ultrasound, they found a major blood vessel was mostly or totally obstructed. That meant no surgery for the cancer. There was a family meeting Friday. I asked Mom what they were going to do. She asked me how much I wanted her put through.

We got to the hospital Friday about the time Granny was being moved to hospice. There is no course of treatment at this time. They're just keeping her comfortable with means morphine. She sleeps most of the time and when she does wake up, she doesn't know where she's at. She seems to recognize me when I was up close talking to her, otherwise, not so much. I'll probably be going back out sometime this week.

I know I need to post some update pictures but they may have to wait for a little while. I may be away from a computer for a couple of days.

My Granny has been in the hospital for about a week and a half. She went in because her red blood cell count was low and she was dehydrated. The dehydration was fixed with an IV but it look a little while longer to figure out what was causing the low red blood cell count. The docs have discovered she has colon cancer. She's decided to do surgery now rather than waiting. The surgeon can't get her in today so they'll probably remove part of her bowel tomorrow. This wouldn't be too bad for someone younger but she's 91 so any surgery is dangerous. The surgeon has kept her on clear fluids, so we're assuming he is planning on getting her in tomorrow.

Right now, I'm planning on taking my boys to see her tonight. Don't know if we'll hit actual vising hours or not, but Mom has worked in that hospital for almost 40 years so I think we'll be able to get in without too many obstacles.

Hopefully, since this is laproscopic surgery, there won't be any complications and she'll come out of it perfectly. But this isn't a perfect world and it doesn't hurt to be prepared so we can be pleasantly surprised!

Last night I finished another part of Zentangle. Here's part 17. I can't remember how many parts are in this one, but it looks like only two more parts to another happy dance!


Insteaf of continuing on with Summer Knotgarden this evening I pulled Lust out again and am making some progress. I'm stitching background on page 8 around her arm to see if that makes the colors in her arm look more realistic.

This last week has been interesting. My second, part time job has become a pain. The restaurant manager, Kim, quit in July. The new manager, Jennifer, is also the owner's daughter so I've been tip-toeing around a little, till I figure out what she's doing. Problem is, I don't think she knows what she's doing managing a restaurant. Long story short, I contacted the owner Friday and asked for a meeting. He met me and I showed him my list of problems and some of the other problems I found while cleaning out the office. He agreed that those were his concerns as well and he wanted to set up a meeting for today. I didn't have a problem as long as he was aware I would have my kids with me since Ed works today. No problem. Well, he was supposed to call me yesterday with a time for this meeting. I haven't heard from him. So, I'll work on getting some of my responsiblities taken care of and try calling him again.

Onto the stitching.

I've been stitching on Summer Knotgarden and I've gotten through the second petal of part 2. This part is an interesting stitch. The varigated part of each petal is the same, but the green, the veins and the specialty stitches change. I'm so ready to be done with this part. I've about had enough of eyelets!


This one is another piece from the Sticklounge group. It is available for 1 Euro at broderie.net. Sticklounge is calling it Baumchen which I think means little tree. The colors aren't actually this bright. I'm stitching it with two different perfect reds and Oil of Amber 4111, all out of detrious bags from HDF. I'm stitching on Mystic in 32 ct Belfast from Picture This Plus.


And last but not least When Stars Collide from Tam's Creations. This is through part 6 through the Sticklounge group.
Now, I'm either going to go pull out Zentangle and work on the current part or go work on Jakob's room for a little while. I've borrowed a tool to make doing the corners easier. I had some big problems doing those last weekend. They're still time consuming but they look more finished now.

We were at Menards yesterday and looked at the sheets of cedar for closets. I decided that $25 was too much right now so I need to finish the closet too which meant mud and tape yesterday. Instead of spending $75 on cedar, we bought closet organizers for Jakob's room and for the guest room. I need to watch the ads so when baskets come on sale I can pick up a couple of those too so we can keep some of the smaller stuff coralled better.

We had a fairly busy weekend. Not the busy I had planned on, but busy just the same.

Friday afternoon, I was planning on having to grind deer, lots and lots of deer all day Saturday. It seems that Nebraska has a problem. We have too many deer. So to thin the herds a little, Game and Parks had an early season. All you had to do was purchase an inexpensive permit and you would be allowed to shoot all the antlerless deer you could find in your sights. So I told Ed to shoot 'em up! I have a case of sausage seasoning that's not doing anything in the basement. Well, it seems my husband is a dumb ass. Ask him, he'll tell you. He was supposed to go and scout the land where he was going hunting with a couple of friends. But it seems that they were supposed to meet at noon Friday to do this so they could get an evening hunt in. Did Ed remember this small but important fact? Nope.

So the friends got mad, eventually and went off without Ed. Could they call him? Nope. Maybe I should call them dumb asses too. So they're mad at Ed and Ed's mad at them. Oh well.

Instead, we went and watched flag football Saturday morning. Jakob played really well. I was very proud of him. Didn't get much done Saturday, but I did get a Sticklounge piece framed. Just a simple little frame, but I think it shows off the fabric and the color of the stitching.


Yesterday I sanded the walls of Jakob's room. Then I came back upstairs for my little mud trough and saw someone parked in the drive way. Ed's dad was back but the sneaky man had made himself comfortable in the back yard with some beer and a paper while he waited for someone to come home. He said he'd opened the front door and called in but no one answered. Guess I had the music on a little loud while I was working. So...I finished putting another coat of mud on the wall and discovered that I must be getting better at this. The walls didn't look half bad! I'm hoping to sand and put the final coat on this week.

After I cleaned the mud off I went back to lacing Chatelaine's Autumn Watergarden onto foam core. Ed helped me hang it on the wall. I think it turned out really well. I tend to frame these very simply to better show off all the bling!

After I got every thing cleaned up after supper I stitched on Summer Knotgarden again for a little while till my book called too loudly to resist. Here's where I left off for the night. I really like the pop of color the pink flowers give.

Frosty!

Last night I finally finished part 4 of chatelaine's Frosty Knotgarden. I'm really enjoying watching this piece grow as I stitch it up, but I almost started dreading all the algerian eyelets on each corner. I think there's around 40 on each corner.

I also completed part 4 of When Stars Collide with the Sticklounge group. The next part should come out tomorrow.

After I finished Frosty last night, I pulled out Summer Knotgarden again. I have been working on the upper left petal last night and today and should have it done in the next day or so. I'm looking forward to seeing what this one actually looks like.

I know, three posts in two days is a lot fore me, but I picked up a frame a little while ago and wanted to share.

The frame is just set over the fabric so there's lots of wrinkles, but I'm pleased with the result. Now I need to go see if I have a piece of foam core big enough to lace this over and order some glass. I picked up a couple of other frames when I ordered this one that I really need to get motivated to frame too. Probably won't happen this weekend.

DH's cousin is getting married Saturday afternoon and Ed's folks are coming up Thursday night. That they're still coming up really suprises me since they have a new grandbaby as of Sunday morning. Baby Eden Claire finally made her appearance which is probably a huge relief to her mom who was looking VERY uncomfortable when we saw them in early August. I have to see if I can save pictures from Facebook. Seems those are the only pictures we get to see. The boys are excited about having a new cousin. Josh reaaallllyyyy wants to hold her. Thankfully, we probably won't see them till Thanksgiving. Then everybody involved will probably be ok with him and Jakob both holding her and trying to make her laugh.

So I took the day off today. Something in the air has been giving me nasty headaches and my children yesterday didn't help at all. Must be the same stuff in the air giving them the whines lol! So instead of going to work today, I called in sick and avoided the whining people I deal with on a daily basis. Instead I stitched and stiched!! You saw When Stars Collide this morning. Well, I just finished the current part of Zentangle.

Now, I'm back to the last two corners of Frosty Knotgarden. Hopefully by the end of the week, those will be done too. Then 1900 ABC comes up!

9/20

I don't think the weather has decided if it wants to be summer or fall yet. Last week, we had temps in the high 80s then Saturday morning we had flag football. The temps were in the mid 50s and didn't get past 60 all day. Yesterday was more of the same. Today, we're supposed to have highs near 90. WTF! I mean seriously, I realize we're in Nebraska but choose one! I can't handle turning the air off in the morning because Ed had to have it 72 to sleep and think about turning the heat on later in the day!


Saturday afternoon before Nebraska football started, Ed and I got the drywall up in Jakob's room. Now I need to get busy with finishing that drywall so we can get Jakob moved down here and he can have his own space! He was talking about wanting army colors so I was thinking about painting everything a tan color and painting some horizontal strips for his other colors. Don't know if that's what we'll end up with or not. He's talked about wanting Nebraska colors too (scarlet and cream) Might work...then I could put a big N on the floor? We'll have to wait and see what colors he wants when I get the walls ready for paint.


Here's part 3 of When Stars Collide from the Sticklounge group. This is a really fast stitch that is different from everything else and makes a nice break. I've also finished the second corner of Frosty Knotgarden but that looks exactly the same as the first so it isn't really worth putting up here till it's all finished.

Frosty

Last night I almost finished my first corner of part 4 of Frosty Knotgarden. This morning after I got to work, I stitched the beads on (all three!) I really like how this part looks! It seems like the eyelets go on forever though.

We've gotten busier here with fall coming. Jakob started flag football practice Thursday and had his first game Saturday. Then just to make Saturday busier, he went with Ed to watch his first Huskers game. GO BIG RED! He had a really good time. If you don't know, which you probably don't, this is for the University of Nebraska - Lincoln aka Nebraska Cornhuskers football team. I asked him again Monday if he liked the game and his eyes got big and I got a very affirmative nod!

Here's 1900 ABC I'm stitching with the Sticklounge group. This is part one I'm stitching with Old Maid of the Heart on HDF 36/40 ct linen. The linen is interesting since the border is exactly the same horizontally and vertically but it looks different with the different counts.

After I finished 1900 ABC I started part two of When Stars Collide by Tams Creations. This is a really fun and quick stitch! I enjoyed it very much and lost track of time and quit stitching at 1am! I finished this part over lunch yesterday.

I pulled Frosty Knotgarden out after WSC yesterday. I'm enjoying stitching a Chatelaine again after these other projects!

Over the last couple of weeks I've had some goodies arrive in my mailbox. Thanks to the girls over at the HDF forums, showing off some of their WIPs I placed an order for some designs by Marie-Therese Saint-Aubin. The picture below is of Le vieux lilas. Lilacs are probably my favorite flower so I couldn't resist this one. I also picked up several others from the same designer. I'm thinking of stitching them as a set to hang in my dining room.
Last week I got my order from Casa Cenina. They were having a sale! I hadn't ordered from them before because the shipping was too high for me, but with the sale, the discount almost offset the shipping! Below are some charts I've been eyeing for a while.

Because I've heard so many good things about Graziano fabric I got three different cuts of that as well. I got the 28 ct (bottom cut) the 38 and 45 cts. I haven't sat down to figure out which of those two are which yet but I'm looking forward to stitching on them. I need to double check sizes but the lilacs may go on one of them.

Since I caught up Zentangle Friday, I've pulled 1900 ABC back out as my main WIP. That border is going to drive me crazy! Part of the corner medallion was stitched 3 times before I got it right and moved on.

Just for a change of pace last night, I pulled One Nation back out too. I've almost got the third strip done! Only 10 more to go!! and 40+ stars. It's a really easy stitch but I really have to watch my tension on this one. I was debating about the white too. In natural light, it really pops but inside, especially at work, it kind of blends into the fabric. I think once I get more on there it will look really nice.

Here's a close up of the stripes.

Yesterday DH and I worked on Jakob's bedroom. He cleaned up and sealed around the window so there is no air moving where it shouldn't. Then we got studs put up so we can hang drywall today. It only took one trip to get more supplies we were short on. After the drywall goes up, I'll have the joy of mudding and taping and eventually painting. Then Jakob will move into here and we'll split the "stuff" that currently resides in their room, after I go through it all and hopefully weed out stuff they have outgrown or don't play with any more. I've promised Jakob one of the desks from my office and some bookcases to store his treasures. So I have lots of projects waiting for me beyond my stitching.