Guess Who Came to Thanksgiving Dinner?

Thanksgiving came and went quietly. I baked a turkey, was bad and didn't put the turkey away as fast as possible after dinner, the cats helped themselves to turkey breast. We now just have dark meat left. My bad. I know this, but hey they have lots to be thankful for too right? It's only proper they had a bit of the bird with which to celebrate their comfy lives.

On a sad note, they broke one my Pistoulet bread plates. Also my bad. I shouldn't have left it sitting precariously on the edge of the sink. I got sidetracked, forgot to go back and put it in the dishwasher, and disaster ensued as Holly jumped up to lick the Coolwhip off the plate.

While spending some time catching up on blogs in the wee hours of the morning I slowly began to feel like such a slacker where my hobbies and creative outlets are concerned. How do these folks accomplish so much? Even when I didn't work I never managed to finish as much stuff as some of these ladies. I understand and embrace the fact that I have no focus. I bounce around aimlessly picking up project after project, putting one down and choosing another as boredom shows it's ugly face or as the spell of the new project wears off. I try so hard to finish things only to set them aside as the finish line draws near. What is up with that? Do I suffer from "fear of finishing?" Is there such an ailment? I know that these are hobbies. I don't sell anything, they are for my enjoyment and for the pleasure of those that I want to shower with my handmade gifts. The sad part is that I rarely finish anything to give as a gift. I started thinking how a friend of mine's daughters might love some funky scarves as Christmas gifts. It's almost December what am I thinking? I never manage to finish anything in a timely matter. I'm such a loser.

Maybe it's the full moon, maybe it's the cold whether showing it's face here on the Gulf Coast, I don't know but I have been overcome with a sadness. Especially when I reflect back on all the goals I set for myself this year, all the good intentions I had planned. I don't think I accomplished any of them. I did start a job. That was not in the plan. It was one of those things that just happened. It's enriched my life but also kind of taken over. The job got me out of the house and around people. That was a good thing. The hours are great, nice people to work with and a lot of the regular customers are wonderful folks. It's just gone from two days a week to four and some times five or six and seems to be the focus of my life. A job working at a BBQ pit on the side of the road has taken over my life. I miss my quiet, alone days. I have gotten to where I really dislike being around people when I'm not at work because they just get on my nerves. On my days off I find myself running here and there so that I can get back home and stay in for the next couple of days. I have to work today and I'm resenting it right now. I want to stay home with my kids. Yes, my kids that make me crazy. I want to be home with them. To talk and watch tv and just hang out. I don't want to leave them here while I go off to work.

Recently I've been struggling with being so far from family and my kids not being with their extended family over the holidays. What are they missing? Am I raising them to go out in the world with only their dad and I and their brothers as their family? Is that wrong? Honestly, there are times when I ache for family but 98% of the time even though I'm 600 miles away I'm still too close. Is this attitude hurting my kids? Will they too always be isolated from the rest of their family? Sometimes I think this is a huge mistake on my part. They need that connection, but at the same time do they need all the baggage that comes with those connections?

Can you tell I just really hate the whole holiday season? It just brings up all these issues that I need to get over. At least around our house there is no arguing about who's family gets Christmas Eve and who gets Christmas day. We're here at home both days. The kids told me last night they don't mind going to see family but they don't want to spend holidays with family and go out of town. So I guess I need to plan to go home occaisionally and get over the holiday guilt.

Plans for the Weekend

Ornaments are calling my name. I have the fabric and finally the thread for several ornaments, can't find the darn fabric though. Trust me it's in a safe place, just so safe that I have no clue what I've done with it. I need to stitch an ornament for a swap, and I want to make three stitching friends ornaments and I'd like to do an ornament for an online friend as a thank you for some clothes she sent me. They made my day and they all fit.

Knitting Progress

The BoogaBag is coming along slowly. I'm not happy with the way my stitches look so I'm going to take what I've done so far into the LYS on Saturday and let them look at it and tell me if it's looking like it should or I should just unravel and start over.

Crochet

My Ode to Yarngirl is coming along nicely with the exception that single crochet afghans take forever! So far I've used two full skeins of Red Heart's Ranch Red and am now about halfway through a skein of Red Heart's Gold. I hope to finish off that skein this weekend, then crochet 5 SC rows of Ranch Red and then crochet a whole skein of Red Heart's Med. Thyme, after that depending on the size of the afghan I'll either crochet two or three full skeins of Ranch Red before ending the afghan with the same stripe sequence as the other end. The colors are gorgeous together and the Red Heart Farmland is going to make a beautiful SC edging for the whole afghan.

I have my Woolease afghan, the Crazy Quilt Coverlet from Simply Creative Crochet, ready to go, just can't start it until I get some other projects finished.

Computer

This weekend I hope to get some time to refresh myself on adding buttons to the blog and adding more links. I'm so stupid where this is concerned. I do it once then forget how. I need to add my 63 Squares Crochetalong button and can't for the life of me remember how to do it. I'm still participating in that CAL just never have to time to crochet the squares these days. I'm also not happy with my color choices and may scrap what I have and start over with something else.

Where is that Visually HTML book?

Now Showing



My Finished L'Ete! I picked her up from the LNS on Thursday and can't stop looking at her. She doesn't photograph well, just too hard to get the details to show in such a large piece. She was designed by Birds of a Feather and is stitched on 35ct Birds of a Feather Barnowl linen using all WDWs threads.

My Next Project

Hopefully with the aid of these:



I'll be able to make one of these Black Sheep Bags-Booga Bag using these:



I started casting on in the car and DH yelled, "Hey you can't do that! You don't know how!" Believe it or not I'm a casting on bandit. I remember being taught when I was about 8 yrs old, then a few months ago I found a link to a demo on the web showing how to cast on, knit and purl and I watched the demonstrator for a minute, picked up my knitting needle and yarn and cast on like I had been casting on my whole life using the slingshot method. Then I started knitting in the car but realized I didn't know the pattern and wasn't sure how many rows to knit and honestly I didn't think I was using the circular needles correctly. Once I got home and read the pattern I could have kept on going in the car because you don't connect up the circle until row 35. Anyway I unraveled what I had done so far and will start over tomorrow when DH goes off to watch football since I have to work tonight. I'm hoping I can figure out the whole picking up stitches and "knitting the next 16 stitches twisted"(unsure about that whole twisted thing) but if worse comes to worse I'll have an excuse to head over to LYS again on Wednesday.

The Noro Kureyon I'm using is color 74. It's beautiful. I'm already planning several other knitting projects in my head. It doesn't even matter than I don't know how to knit yet. I just plan away. How's that for being the optimist?

Just One More Row and I'll Stop....

Anyone else do this? You've been crocheting on a project, you're almost down to that last little bit of yarn from a skein and you keep thinking one more row and I'll finish out this skein, yet it's another row and another row because while you don't think it's that much yarn it's a whole lot more than you can imagine? I've been doing this for the last hour. Thinking to myself one more row of single crochet will wipe out this skein, nope, got enough for another row, then another, it only looks like a little clump of yarn there but lo and behold it goes on and on.

This morning I was able to stop by the LYS and browse and ask a gazillion dork questions about knitting needles, circular knitting needles, the bamboo/cable knitting needles, got way too excited when I discovered they now stock Noro Kureyon. I'm pretty sure I scared the lady helping me when I think I actually squealed! From across the store, ok it's not that big, I saw the green/brown/orange/yellow wool that is used for the wrist/arm warmers in Stitch 'N Bitch Nation. Since I'm not a regular customer I think I caught her offguard with my wool knowledge. Especially since I was such an idiot where needles were concerned. They were completely out of 16inch circular needles of any kind so I ended up purchasing some 10.5 Bamboo Straights to practice the pattern for Skully out of the original Stitch 'N Bitch book. They told me that their needle order should be in at any time so I'm going to check back with them on Friday and hopefully get by there and pick up the 10.5 double points and circular needles I need for a boogabag or a Sophie bag. I could have bought the double points today but all they had in stock were plastic ones and I'm such a dork I wanted mine to be bamboo. I also spent $4 on a package of white rubber or plastic stitch markers only to see them at JoAnn's for $1.79. But I do know the importance of giving the LYS as much of my business as I can.

At JoAnn's I used my 40% off coupon for a skein of LionBrand Fisherman's Wool. Gaze into your crystal ball and tell me what you see in my future? Are you seeing a crockpot? Some empty packets of ...what is that? Squint through the fog.....could it be Koolaid packets? Yes! Koolaid dyeing is definitely in my future, maybe the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

Stopped by the LNS to check on my L'Ete. They were supposed to have her ready by tomorrow and I'm so proud of her and since I supplied the frame I fully expected her to be prominently displayed at the front of shop for everyone to ooooo and ahhhhhhh over. Boy was I depressed to find out that they hadn't even started the framing on her yet. It's not that I was in any kind of hurry, I'm not, I was just arrogant, and so full of pride I expected them to rush to frame her so that she could be displayed in the shop as long as possible because she is a piece of extraordinary beauty. Honestly she's very different from all the other shop models. I did order Eye of the Tiger to stitch for DS#1. Very cool piece.

Treated DS#1 to lunch at a local Country Buffett, he's been sick and I thought the vegetables would be good for him. I'm giving him through the weekend to improve and if he doesn't I guess it's off to the dr we go. I think it's just a cold but he's running just enough of a fever to feel bad and he has a sore throat from his sinus' draining but my luck it'll end up being strep throat or mono.

Great Mail Day!

Yesterday my order arrived from Lionbrand with the Woolease I ordered for the Crazy Quilt Coverlet from the Simply Creative Crochet magazine. DH has my digital camera or I would have taken a pic. The colors in the box were 7 skeins of Loden, 2 of Gold and 1 of Camel. Not sure when I'll get around to starting this as I have come to believe that I might be-gasp-a one at a time project girl. I'm on my second skein of Red Heart's Ranch Red in my Ode to Yarngirl afghan and I'm hoping to be able to add some Gold and Med Thyme stripes by the weekend. I have great hopes for this afghan. The Ranch Red alone is beautiful but I can't wait to add some more color to it. I've become obsessed with this afghan and every time I sit down on the couch to watch tv my hands grab the hook and add a few more rows to this afghan.

Right now my current projects are my Ode to Yarngirl afghan and in cross stitch Houses of Hawk Run Hollow by Carriage House Samplings - News. Once I finish House #1 on HOHRH I plan to set it aside for some Christmas stitching. I have several ornaments I want to stitch for friends and the ornaments I want to stitch keep changing. I hate that. I can't make up my mind. Anyway, I'd love to attempt the Christmas Wreath afghan in Vanna White's Afghans A-Z book. I've wanted to do this for years but let's face it I'll never get it finished by this Christmas and it will be relegated to the "I'm such a loser" pile along with the boys' Christmas stockings and my grandmother's Fairy Grandmother cross stitch piece and my long neglected novel. I might start kitting it up so that after the holidays when I have another 365 days to get it finished before next Christmas I may feel like giving it a try. I do have problems working on more than one crochet project at a time in that I get all my stitches confused. I've been wanting to alternate between my single crochet Ranch Red and my Girl Power Granny(I'm still working on blocks to make me one of these after giving my original one to my great niece), but I find bouncing around between different stitches confuses me and I end up having to look at the pattern and just lose track of where I am and what I'm doing. There are also tons of blocks I want to make from the book 200 Crochet Blocks. I've been toying with the idea of a Sampler afghan using different blocks from this book, then again I love some of the afghan ideas presented in the book and her color choices. I know I'm such a loser, I don't trust my color choices and prefer to use someone else's choices as a guide-the Crazy Quilt Coverlet is a perfect example. I'm sure I could have found some colors that were close locally but I opted to order the exact colors from Lionbrand. In my defense a desire to use something other than Red Heart also prompted me to order the Woolease too.

Rude Awakening!

Thanksgiving is next Thursday! What planet am I on? I thought I had two more weeks until Thanksgiving and it's next week. I haven't bought my turkey, any casserole ingredients, no flour, no sugar. Guess a major grocery shopping trip is in my future. How did this sneak up on me? To top it off, the house is still a disaster area. The more I clean, toss out junk, the bigger the piles seem to grow. What is up with that?

Stitch 'N Bitch Nation

Was in stock at the BooksAMillion yesterday so I scooped up a copy. I have decided that my first big knitting project is going to be the Jesse's Flames sweater for DS#2. It's so cool. I think once I get my knitting and purling in sync this is a very doable project and by the time I get to the sleeves I should be comfortable enough to attempt the intarsia flames. I dream big don't I? Never fear I plan to do several smaller projects, probably bags, before I ever attempt a sweater.
There are lots of nice projects in this book at least at first glance. I've read some mixed reviews of this book and at first was relieved when my BAM didn't have it in stock on Friday, but after getting a chance to flip through it in the store Saturday I thought it would be $16 well spent.

I also picked up Dan Brown's Angels and Demons(had intended to scoop up his other two paperbacks, Digital Fortress and Deception Point(think that's correct) but saw Stitch 'N Bitch Nation so decided I could pick those up another time. It was a fairly easy decision, Angels and Demons was 40% off and the other two were regular price. I also picked up John Grisham's Skipping Christmas, another 40% off purchase. I missed reading it the first time it was released and wanted to definitely read it before seeing the movie if I get around to it. Also bought the kids various magazines to keep them quiet yesterday afternoon. Worked pretty well.

Did I mention on Friday I purchased the 9/11 Commission Report book and also Holy Blood, Holy Grail? I've had a pretty good book buying weekend. I remember when I used add a few new books to the reading pile every week. I'd read the NY Times Book Review and just go buy as many books on the list that caught my interest, now I take my book buying in spurts. I tend to haunt the used book store but since Hurricane Ivan my favorite one has been closed. I believe it was supposed to reopen this weekend. Just didn't get a chance to pop over there. I try to keep a list of books that I want to look for in my purse so I always have it with me when I get a chance to get to the UBS. Then again I have shelves of paperbacks that I have yet to read. But I look at this the same way I look at stash enhancing, they are there for me when I finally have time to read. I'm also pretty anal about reading series books, I want to buy all the books in a series that are released before I start reading them. I'm not happy with just book #1 in a series, need two, three, etc. I've been trying to get into Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series but I keep setting it aside.

LYS Rant

In an earlier post I believe I mentioned not ever being able to get by the LYS for yarn buying or help, yesterday I discovered why it was so flipping hard, they close at 2pm on Saturday. On Saturday they close at 2pm! Isn't there something wrong with that? Am I missing something? Isn't Saturday a big shopping day for working women/men who pursue crafts of any kind? How can they justify closing at 2pm on a Saturday, especially when they are in the heart of downtown Ft Walton Beach. Doesn't make sense to me. Then again what do I know? The few times I've been in the shop the ladies have been very nice, but those hours. Can't get over that.

Sunday

Today is going to be quiet, I don't plan to leave the house. I plan to watch the Stepford Wives and cross stitch, crochet and read. I have three kids, the above statement is only a dream. Hopefully though I can get a little work in on some projects and just enjoy the day.

I probably ought to clean house a little too. ICK!

I Think I Can....

Purl!

One of the reasons I ordered the Coats Knitting Made Easy CDROM was due to my purling issues. It just felt wrong. I didn't have an experienced knitter around to ask if I was doing it correctly and can never seem to get to the LYS to ask them for their help so after reading
Hazelnut Latte and her success with the CDROM I decided it might just be worth the investment. I popped it in this morning just to see what it was like and I immediately figured out what I had been doing wrong when purling. I'm such a visual person that no matter how many books I read, how many diagrams I looked at, I just wasn't going to "get it" until I saw someone actually doing it. Now to just find the time to sit down and practice.

Nice Quiet Weekend

At least that's what I'm hoping for. I didn't really plan to leave the house but the kids want to go to CiCi's for lunch and I found a JoAnn's coupon so I may take them to lunch and stop by JoAnn's and use my 40% off coupon on a skein of Lionbrand Fisherman's Wool that I can play around with and Koolaid dye. Then maybe knit or crochet a bag to felt.

DH is gone for the weekend and I'm kind of glad. I can stay up as late as I want, cross stitch or crochet or practice knitting until all hours of the night, I don't have to share the tv and can just turn it off and listen to music if I want to, funny how such simple little things can make life so nice. Don't get me wrong, I love my DH but I just prefer to go to bed than to fight over the tv or sit there and watch him flip channels. It drives me crazy. I know that if that's our biggest problem then I should count my blessings and tv is not the most important thing in the world but now that I work too when I'm home I want to do what I want to do because my time is just as important as his and we absolutely do not agree on what to watch on tv. If I see Rudy one more time I'm going to throw up.

It's a dreary day down here but I think the sun is supposed to come out later on this afternoon.

Good Mail Day

My Coats Knitting Made Easy CDROM arrived today! Now to find the time to use it. DH is going out of town this weekend but all the kids will be here so I'm not counting on getting too much computer time over the next couple of days.

I sent the order for this CDROM in to Herrschnerr's after mailing out my Lionbrand catalog order. Usually anything from Herrschnerr's takes weeks to arrive, so I fully expected all my Woolease to arrive first. Now I'm obsessing over whether or not my order and payment ever arrived at Lionbrand. I may call and check on it.

Also bought some Lavendar Red Heart at Walmart today for a shawl and I plan to use Red Heart Monet for the fringe. I agonized over whether to go with Lavendar or Orchid and decided that the Monet looked nicer against the Lavendar, then again I also loved the softness of the Orchid against the colors in the Monet, very soft and feminine.

Treated myself to some books at BooksAMillion today. Holy Blood, Holy Grail, about an alternative story to Jesus' life based on documents they found in France, I think that's what I heard about this book, and I picked up the 9/11 Comission Report. I've heard a lot of people talk about how well it was written and that it reads like a novel. That remains to be seen but I do think it's an important part of our recent history. I looked around for Stitch N Bitch Nation as it appears to be available at Amazon but didn't see it at my BAM.

Since DH gets to get away for the weekend with the guys I think I deserved these treats. I also bought stuff to cook omlettes and hashbrowns for breakfast in the morning. Even splurged on a couple of new skillets.

Where to begin....

Today I had to work. Same old, same old. We were busy. Lots of construction going on down here in my part of the Florida Panhandle. The FEMA and A.C.E. folks tell me they fully expect to be here at least through Christmas. It's like tourist season all over again. I've really been putting the old high school Spanish to the test, it helps that my SIL is Mexican. Lots of Mexican workers are in my area and love grande puerco(not quite sure about that spelling) with frijoles and papa fritos. For those not schooled in Espanol, that's a jumbo pork sandwich with baked beans and french fries. Unfortunately I speak just enough Spanish to be dangerous. Fortunately these guys appreciate my effort.

Not only did I work today but I'm cooking dinner tonight. DH will be so surprised. It's just tacos and enchiladas but I've really been slacking off in the cooking area lately. I used to think I enjoyed cooking, what I have come to realize is that I hate it. I don't get one little bit of joy out of cooking. I put forth a good effort, I try to visualize my family being nurtured by the food I create. I try to visualize the beautiful colors nature creates in our food, please stop me. I just don't like cooking. Everyone whines, "Not that again!". Kind of hurts, when you've worked all day and are trying to do right by your family and all you get is a "Not that again!" Kind of makes you feel it's all hopeless and I should just order out for pizza. I've been thinking about going back to a more whole foods meal plan. I pulled out my Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappe and plan to make a big pot of Golden Gate Minestrone this weekend and maybe even some Betty the Peacenik Gingerbread. I'm going to work hard to do more baking instead of buying snack cakes for the kids. How hard is it to mix up a batch of cookies? Sure it takes a little time but in the long run even though it's sweet homemade has got to be better than processed.

My main problem is not being organized. If I only planned better, I could whip up a batch of cookies in no time. For me it's an all day thing because first I have to find my mixer-it's only got one beater(guess I need to buy a new one huh?), then I have to gather ingredients, of course that means taking a bath. Why take a bath before baking cookies? Because I will be getting in the truck and driving to the Publix because God knows I won't have everything, might as well buy a new baking pan while I'm there, oh and does Publix sell potholders? Can't find nary a potholder in this house. I'm not sure where they go, is there such a thing as a potholder gnome? Maybe a kitchen troll that takes potholders to the land of missing socks? "Hmmm," you may be asking yourself, "if she doesn't have a potholder just how does she plan to get the pan of enchiladas out of the oven for tonight's dinner?" Well duh, I'll use a clean pair of socks right off the top of the dining room table! Doesn't every one do this when they can't find a pot holder? isn't everyone's clean laundry piled up on the dining table?

This afternoon I sat around calculating the size of fabric I need for various cross stitch projects I want to kit up to work on in 2005. My stitching to do pile is getting larger and larger, it's funny I find that comforting. I may not get around to working on anything I have kitted in the next ten years but it's there, all mine, whenever I'm finally ready to work on it. I don't think I'm materialistic in any way, but I do love my stash. I'm getting almost as obsessive about my yarn stash. I tend to only buy yarn when I have a specific project planned for the not too distant future but now a days I find I'm kitting up more and more crochet projects. I'm not sure if it's the doomsdayer in me that doesn't know what the future holds but if it's bad at least I'll be able to cross stitch and crochet because if it's a financial crisis cross stitching and crocheting become more of a luxury than they are now and they are the first things deleted off the budget. If I have things kitted then I'll always have something to do because I fear boredom. I can't imagine not having a project of some kind to work on. I don't understand how people live without a creative outlet. My mom doesn't have one. Since she's retired she's become obsessed with the news. OK I'm a news junkie, major news junkie, but at least while I'm watching the news 24 hours a day when I'm home I'm also cross stitching or crocheting. I'm not just sitting there-my eyes glazing over in front of the tv. I don't think I could sit still all day and watch the news(or that guilty pleasure-Court TV) if I didn't have something to do to at least justify sitting there watching the news all day. I'm a geek and I can't help it.

Impending Doom!

After reading Yarn Harlot it has been brought to my attention that Christmas is only 46 days away! It feels a lot better to think it's two months away, that sounds a lot longer than 46 days. I had the boys turn in their Christmas lists over the weekend. Now to go over the lists and decide what they will get and what they can use their Christmas money to buy for themselves.

46 Days! YIKES! Double YIKES!

Bad, Bad Blogger

Yes, I've been a bad blogger lately. Just too much going on and unfortunately not in the least bit interesting. I'm working way more than I ever intended when I took this job and I really miss my lazy days. Yes, they were lazy days. But working has been good for me. It's gotten me out of the house and to quote Jackson Browne "I'm alive in the world" again.

Stitching Progress

I've finished my L'Ete and will have a pic soon. I took it in for framing and the finished pic I took just isn't very good. It's so bad that every time I try to upload it to Webshots or Photobucket both sites hiccup and lose it. Every flippin' time.

I've been working pretty steadily on Carriage House Samplings - New Designs Houses of Hawk Run Hollow. I'm about halfway through House #1.

I've been alternating between crocheting and cross stitching. I've been on a mad search for some Needle Necessities colors I need for a couple of Christmas ornaments and can't find them locally. Arrrgghhh. I'm hoping to place an order with Nordic Needle later this week for fabric so I may just order those colors from Nordic Needle. I guess I'm not in any hurry. As long as they are finished by Dec. 1st I think they can reach their destinations before Christmas.

I've been dreaming lately of cross stitching a WIP stitching pouch for myself or maybe a stitching accessory pouch-you know a pouch that will hold scissors, needles or maybe some pretty stitching counting pins?(saw some pretty ones in the Nordic Needle catalog). I can't decide what to stitch on it and I'm kind of making it up as I go along, at least in my dreams.

Anticipation

I'm waiting patiently for my knitting CDROM to arrive. I can't wait to learn to knit. I think I have the basics down but purling will be the death of me. I think I'm doing it right but it sure feels wrong. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this will be the affirmation I need that I'm doing it correctly and can then invest in some cool yarn and knit something with confidence. I do have a LYS but can never seem to get over there during their hours of business.

I'm also waiting on my order from www.lionbrand.com to arrive so I can start on the blocks for the Crazy Quilt Coverlet out of the BH&G Simply Creative Crochet magazine. Hope that's the correct title, I don't have it handy at the moment.

I'm also anxious to dye some wool with Koolaid and crochet some felted bags. You can read about Koolaid dyeing here: Dyeing Yarn with Kool-Aid ®, but who has the time?

I also want to make soap. Do my dream projects ever end? I never finish anything, I have a mile long list of things I want to do, want to learn how to do and spend 99% of my time being frustrated because I can't make the time to do everything I want to do.

Long Week

I'm so glad tomorrow is Friday. It's been a long week. I stayed up almost 24 hours Tuesday and Wednesday awaiting the final outcome of the election.

I finished my L'Ete and will post a pic soon. The one I took today isn't that good but it'll have to do until I get her back from the framers. I couldn't wait and took her in tonight to be framed. She should be home around November 19th. I'm hoping to get the living room painted before I pick her up.

I'm hoping to have one more big cross stitch finish before the end of the year, Lady of the Flag by Mirabilia, but of course since I just said that outloud or rather typed it out, put it out there in the universe there's no way I'll ever finish her before the end of the year. I'd include a link to the piece but for some reason I can't seem to pull up the image from Mirabilia's website. If you'd like to try it yourself, the website is www.mirabilia.com click on cross stitch designs, scroll down to design #62 and it's Lady of the Flag. This has been a work in progress since January or February 2002.

Fall Has Arrived!

According to our local weather person it's going to be about 40 degrees in the morning. YIKES! None of us have long pants. I guess we'll all be wearing shorts and sweatshirts tomorrow morning. It'll warm up pretty early in the day but I guess this weekend will be spent shopping for some fall clothes. The boys have out grown last year's jeans.

Work Whine

I'm tired of working, 'nuff said........

Halloween Is Over

Now it's time to get into a Thanksgiving/Christmas frame of mind. I can't believe we're closing in on the end of the year. Where has the time gone? I know, cliche, but true.

Weekend Stitching

I worked almost none stop on L'Ete . I have all the bottom half of the chart stitched, all of the top left of the chart stitched(I may have missed a little bit in her hat but I'll go over that area as soon as the rest of the piece is finished and double check myself) and I am very close to having all the top right of the chart stitched. I have made a huge mistake in her hat and I can't find where it begins. This piece would be finished if not for the froggin'.

Didn't get any crocheting in, darn it, but my Ode to Yarngirl afghan is progressing nicely and I hope to have enough work in on it by next weekend to share a WIP pic. Right now it's just row after row of single crocheted Ranch Red, very pretty.

I placed an order with Welcome to the official Lion Brand® Yarn Knitting and Crocheting Web Site (they sent me a catalog) for some hard to find Woolease colors for an afghan out of the Simply Creative Crochet magazine put out by BH&G. I thought about adapting it to colors I can find around here or even sub a Red Heart color or two, but I really wanted to use something other than Red Heart for a change and I like the colors in this afghan. It's the Crazy Quilt Coverlet. I hope my skills are up to the challenge of this afghan. I did look around for a substitute for the Loden but nothing really worked. I decided that the money spent on shipping and handling would be less than the money I spent on gas going to Pensacola and Destin searching for yarn. This will be my winter project.

Tomorrow I'm planning to send an order to Herrschnerrs or Mary Maxim for Coats & Clark's Teach Yourself to Knit CDROM. I can't remember which catalog I saw it in but no one around here carries it so I've given up my search and just decided to order it. I will learn to knit. That's just all there is to it. Hazelnut Latte is a knitting machine after learning from this CDROM so I think it's worth the investment. Just wish I could have found it around here.

Your Assignment for Tomorrow.....

GO VOTE!!!!!!