Monday, July 30, 2012

Numb Butt Prevails But Alas No Stitching!


Yes, my butt is numb once again and I've not a stitch to show. Seems I can't watch every blessed event in the Olympics and stitch at the same time. I MUST see every flip, twirl, splash, arrow, and paddle do its thing. Yesterday was archery and a bit of fencing during the day. Today found me watching water polo, kayaking, volleyball, and swimming. My evening is constant sports! And I'm loving every minute of it! lol


My hubby reached the milestone of 50 over the weekend. We were going to enjoy a meal but his work interfered. He worked from 6a Friday until midnight. He got home and crashed most of Saturday. Sunday found him working another 12 hour shift. My dinner plans were gone. 
DH with his new camera.
So, today I'm in the kitchen. Would you like to see what I've whipped up so far? This first picture is the soup I'm serving as my appetizer. Then we'll have a small salad.

Three Cheese Tortellini Soup
Then the second appetizer will be a tomato-basil grilled shrimp. The marinade is in the fridge already - shrimp will be added about 45 minutes before we eat.


Up next - Omaha Steak's filet mignon and baked potato. Followed by -

Lemon Curd
Lemon Ricotta Cake
The cake just came out of the oven. The picture of the lemon curd is my first ever attempt at tempering eggs. And I did it perfectly the first time. Completely beginners luck! The taste is shivering good. The curd is the stuff between the layers. As soon as the dishes finish - icing time. 

Now to get the man home before 8pm! So, what do you think - will the eating be good tonight? 

Hope today finds you as happy as it found me! 
Denise

Friday, July 27, 2012

Two Weeks of Numb Butt Has Begun!

The Opening Ceremonies haven't concluded and my butt is numb. Gonna be a LONG two weeks! Better start riding my bike a bit longer in the mornings to combat what all this sitting will do.

England has so far shown great pageantry - very impressed! Loved the 'Queen' jumping from the helicopter! lol

My heart still belongs to the USA - GO Red, White, and Blue!

Denise

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Back to Solid Stitching

Back in 2000 I found a picture that I wanted to stitch. I sent it away to be charted at Calico Stitchery in Canada (no longer able to find them on the internet). I asked for the pattern to have around 90 colors (what was I thinking) and for it to be enlarged. It's 36" x 36" solid stitching. 

What you see here is page 1 and 2 finished and page 3 nearly finished. Then the upper right corner is done.

Portland Headlight Lighthouse - Portland, Me
Calico Stitchery
DMC floss

Here's the chart showing what I have accomplished so far - everything in orange is the last few days.

Page 3 Chart

And here's page 3 with a few stitches to go. I've now completed page 3 and have another 200+ stitches in on page 4. 
Page 3 Almost Complete

Thought I might stick with this one for a few weeks. If I am able to keep this pace page 4 will be done in a week. That's a lot of blue - 3838, 3839, 798, and 824.

Have been working on the genealogy again - found some great uncle's families last night. Then I 'data mined' and found my nephews half siblings. Have you heard the phrase 'data mining'? My son threw this one at me last night. Think I have close to 1600 people in this family now - where does it stop?? Oh yeah, Adam and Eve!

Hope today finds you doing whatever it is that makes you happy!
Denise

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Fini!

May I present ~ 

Jingle All the Way
The Scarlett House
Copper Penny linen
Toasted Marshmallow and Indian Summer Floss
Determination won! Maggee you can finish this too - if I can - I know you can!

Side note - in talking to DH this morning about the contest - I realized I did not count his WIP's as part of the patterns in the house - he has two WIP's taking the grand total to 473! (Insert Twilight Zone music here)

Off to do enjoy the cloudy cool day --- so nice to say that!
Denise


And the Answer Is...

I have to say my mind was blown when~

1) Two people guessed the same number.
2) The best answer was guessed within 90 minutes of the posting.
3) How close several other guesses were.

I have to approve every comment before it goes to the blog. So, to see 4 comments sitting there waiting for me and two of them with the same answer and it was the winning answer - WOW!

There are 471 pamphlets in my possession. Melody and Mouse both guessed 473. But Melody answered 16 minutes before Mouse.

Congratulations Melody! I will be emailing for your snail mail address.

I am pushing through those snowflakes on Jingle. Tried a hoop, tried light colors under the fabric for reflection, and decided on pure determination! I have two more to finish and hope to get those done this morning!

Thinking a WIP might surface for a few days. After cleaning up I found more that need attention. Something I didn't say about my cleaning this week - I actually threw 2 partially stitched projects away! Unheard of in this house.

The one pattern went back into my to-do pile. The problem that I had - it was on aida for one. But, the coloring was purple and black. Which is fine for a Halloween piece but not one with hearts and a saying about love. It had a black heart on it for pete's sake! The colorway will change before my next attempt.

Hope this weekend find you happy and healthy! Stay cool!
Denise

PS ~ Does anyone know what's wrong with my slide show? It is only showing a corner of each picture.

PPS ~ I keep meaning to say hello to my newest followers. There are several of you and dang it - I'm glad you're here!

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

A Teeny Tiny Give Away

***Give Away is Now Closed ***

I decided once again to clean out my stitching room. And stumbled across a few things and decided I would never stitch them.

So, they are up for grabs!

Pie Menu by CCN, The Honey Shop by Shepard's Bush (freebie),
Ice Cream Shop by Angel Stitchin' (freebie), The Candy Shop by L*K (freebie), and
Sheepie Joy (freebie)
The Sheepie Joy can be punch needle or cross stitch. It shows many ways to do the same pattern.

The winner will be the person who guesses how many cross stitch pattern pamphlets I own. I would say patterns but many pamphlets have 3+ patterns each. I'll tell you I have 8 books of patterns. It is a number between 300 and 600. This number includes finished, long since decided never to do, to-do, and someday patterns. I will say I found 28 Mystic Stitch pattern books included in this number. Let's make this a quick one - I'll pick a winner from the entries July 21st. Just leave a comment with your guess on this post only.

I counted my patterns because Stitch Bitch asked her 11 questions and this was number #1. How many cross stitch patterns do you own? It's been on my mind every since and I am ashamed to say - this number is entirely too high.

Then in the organizing - I switched some things around and came up with a shopping method for storing fabric.


Disregard the mess on top of the cabinet! 
I can see every piece of cotton fabric for finishing without digging through a box and every piece of linen is arranged by amount in the piece. Large pieces being on the left and scraps on the right.

Felt a little smug when I came up with this rational. lol And it's pretty.

Ran to Jo-Ann's this afternoon for a box to store my little pillows. Thought I got a big enough one - I didn't. It's good for what I now have with some being displayed. I make many more and I'll need another box!

Since my room is clean and I have nothing pressing to do - I'll go tackle the snowflakes on Jingle All the Way...grump grump grump! The linen and floss are battling and I'm loosing. 7 more snowflakes to go!

Denise

Friday, July 13, 2012

~~ Keri Passed ~~

Breaking News ~~

Keri is officially a Registered Nurse!

Thank you every one who said a little prayer for her on testing day. It worked. She starts her new job Monday morning.

And I got to tell her the news. She was over complaining that the results hadn't been posted yet. She just 'knew' she failed. Everyone else she knew had their results in 24 hrs and it had been 48 hrs since she took the test. She failed. She just knew it.

I asked for the web site. Typed it in and she walked me through what I needed to input. Mind you she was sitting where she couldn't see the screen. I started reading what the site had to say. At one point I said a date. She was thinking she was going to start crying and run from the house because I was making it all up. But, when I hit the date...she knew I didn't know there should be a date involved. She was up and looking at the screen doing the funniest happy (almost a pee-pee dance) dance I've ever seen. Then she sat back on the couch and collapsed to the side with the biggest smile on her face. You could visibly see the stress melting off her shoulders.

Congratulations Keri! You did it! We are so proud of you!

Thank you everyone - your prayers helped.
Denise

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Finished ~

America
The Sunflower Seed
28 ct Summer Khaki
GAST and DMC floss
Had the kids for the last couple of days. Hard to stitch when the baby is napping in your stitching room. Last night I didn't want to go to bed and stayed up to finish this one. Thank you MJ - love the way this came out!

Could you do me a small favor? Send a prayer for my sister this morning. Keri's taking her test for certification as a RN. She passes this one and she gets her license. The job is lined up and she's ready to go. The test starts in 7 minutes and I'm sure she is nervous. GO KERI! YOU CAN DO THIS!

Take care everyone ~
Denise

Friday, July 6, 2012

The Last 24 Hours - Wow!

Wanted to post yesterday but my computer charger went haywire and wouldn't charge. No way I could try to post with 9% of my battery left! lol Had to order a new one and have it shipped for delivery today. Ouch - the shipping charges were half the cost of the new charger.

Mary Jane (CalamityJr) sent me a belated birthday gift. It arrived in perfect condition and the wrapping was perfect - I love blue and green together. Not only that but after unwrapping - I know I would have waited months for her gifts. She nailed my likes to a T!


Didn't realize the card and gift on the left were upside down until loading the picture - oops!


Notice the card has a birdie on it too! This pattern was on my wish list at 123Stitch and I thought it was cute but after seeing it in my home - it's adorable! She even got me the buttons and floss to do it. See the pillow - no, can't see it well enough...hold on.

See her initials?


Happy Birthday 2012 is written in the 'grass'
And check out the bead work for finishing! Absolute perfection! And it matches my patriotic pillows perfectly. When we were texting yesterday she asked the unfair question, "Which side do you like better?" How in the world to answer that question? Like I told her the crow fits in with my other birdies but the flowers match up with the spring flower pillows I have...I love both sides! Right now the crow is looking at me from my shelf. Thank you so very much Mary Jane for my birthday gifts - I love them all.

Since I now had a new pattern in my stash and I was completely in love with it - I needed to finish the project I was currently working on.

Little Liberty
Lizzie Kate kit
28ct linen (can't remember color)
Had this frame sitting around from another piece that I had made into a pillow. I love the way this frame fits the piece.

I was a little out of sorts trying to stitch because this was happening in my yard -


Not one but two tree services were in my yard. The white truck's crew had decided to camp in my yard and climb a 70' tree to trim it. They were here for nearly 12 hours. Not going to mention the name of the company but they sat more than worked, did a HORRIBLE job cutting back the tree, and had a rude/crude crew.

Now, the orange truck's crew came in because DH and I had found a 'widow-maker' tree. In the storms last week the top of a tree had broken off and was stuck nearly 20' in the air. Orange truck crew came in and in 20 minutes had the tree down, cut up, and were leaving. The crew was polite, quick, and pleasant.

I found it amazing with the power outages still in the area that both crews were in my yard trimming trees when I thought they should have been helping restore power. Guess I don't have the same priorities.

Today found me babysitting...outside..with children 5 and 1. We were all hot, cranky, hungry, and getting tired. They have been fed, had drinks, and are now sleeping. I feel more human myself.

Please anyone having to be out in this heat - take care and drink plenty! Not sure how many records are set to be broken today but wow! Standing in the shade with a breeze and still sweating - this weather is not fit for man or beast.

Another weekend is upon us - fireworks tomorrow night. Maybe. Otherwise, our plans are to be in the house with the a/c on.

Have a wonderful weekend and stay cool!
Denise