Jobless?

Not yet but it appears as though the lady I work for is going to sell the BBQ Pit. Yes, I'll miss the extra money, but I will get my life back. I won't be a tired troll of a mom and just maybe I'll get the laundry off the kitchen table and maybe the kitchen floor will no longer be like super glue to the bottom of one's feet. I've done a good bit of stashing over the last year and have had no time to stitch like I used to so I think I'll have plenty to keep me busy. Not to mention the books I've bought too. Ah to be able to sit and read a book in one sitting again. Joy beyond belief. Not one paper has been signed, no iron clad deals but the owner just purchased a new business and running both is stressing her to the max so she's opted to sell. She's been talking about it for a while but was reluctant to let it go, now I think she feels good about the decision. I called the DH as soon as I found out and we're reasonably sure that if she sells and I no longer have my meager income we'll be fine. My pay for the most part picked up the slack on rent week, extra groceries and eating out, things that we can do on his salary if we take the time to do the adult thing like budgeting, how boring and mature.

Of course no papers have been signed so I may be working there for a long time to come.

Is it back to school time yet?

If I hear "I'm bored" one more time I'm going to go nuts. I've bought everyone books, magazines, video games, and movies. How the flippin' hell can they be bored? For the life of me I can't make these kids happy or keep them interested in anything for any length of time.

Crafty Update

Unfortunately there is nothing to update, but I think tonight I'm going to pull out Houses of Hawk Run Hollow(HOHRH) and see if I can finish House #5. DH has a softball game and when he gets home he will take DS#2 to his basketball practice at 9:00 pm. 9:00 pm! These kids aren't the Lakers. Why in the world would they have a practice at 9:00pm? It's summer basketball, there are two teams in DS#2's age group. They play each other for the total of 6 games, why is it necessary to practice at 9:00pm? What am I missing?

HOHRH is calling to me and I haven't held a needle in a few days so it will be nice to work on something I want to be working on. I've been gathering the supplies for BOAF's L'Hiver. I've had the chart for a while and picked up the fabric last week so now I'm collecting all the WDWs threads I need before I start. Hope to pick up the last few colors this weekend if I get a chance. When this design was first released she didn't grab me like Le Printemps or L'Ete did but now she's finally caught my attention and I can't wait to start stitching her.

I have so many projects I want to start. I'm rethinking DS#1's Ohio Star quilt. The original colors I planned to use just aren't working. I played around with the pattern in EQ5 and well, it wasn't pleasing to the eye at all. He loves green so I may go with green ohio stars and see what I can come up with for complimentary colors or maybe use green as the main background color and use different colors for the stars. I'll be spending a lot of time at the fabric store. I hate playing around with color. It's not easy for me, I'm not color blind but I tend to see colors differently from other people. I'll think that certain colors go well with each other only to find out later that they didn't match at all. My mother told me a few years ago that when I was growing up and put on clothes that didn't match that she thought I was trying to be rebellious or I just had really bad taste. Thanks a lot Mom! So that's one project that is undergoing an overhaul, then do I really need to list the cross stitch projects I want to start or make progress on? Here's a small sampling:

1)L*K's Monthly Block-It's all on the same piece of fabric, let's see if I can find a link:
http://www.lizziekate.com/debbieboothflipitfinish400.jpg -there ya go. I didn't care for the Block-It's that much until I saw this pic of all them stitched together. So of course I then decided I must stitch them all just like this.

2) BC's Monthly Snappers-again all on the same piece of fabric. This is thanks in part to
The Peacock's Feather and the pic here at Bent Creek's website: 2003 Snapper Complete Year
these Snappers became a must stitch for me.

I had become pretty tired of the designers doing all these monthly series, I mean how many little pillows can one have hanging around the house with the name of the month and the symbol for that month stitched on it? But after seeing these particular pieces presented this way,well it gave them new life in the old stitching basket.

And from the WIP file I'd love to work on And They Sinned again. It's such a beautiful design and since my friend Siobhan has finished it I know for a fact that this design can be realistically started and finished in one lifetime. She managed it in the span of one short year. There is hope for me yet.

In the Crochet Basket

I'm working on my grandmother's shawl and I hope to have a progress pic in the next few days. I haven't made a lot of progress so there's really not much to see at the moment but a few rows of crocheted ripple stitch and I think we all have a good idea of what that looks like.

Knitting

Have I mentioned that a few days ago I bought some Trekking sock wool and some double pointed knitting needles and the book Socks, Socks, Socks? Well I did. Not sure what to do with any of this but I'll get it all figured out soon, hopefully before sock weather.

Music

I've been listening almost nonstop to one of my all time favorite CDs, Lucinda Williams-Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. I hadn't listened to this in a while and had forgotten how much I *heart* this record. Another CD getting a lot of play around here is the new Dwight Yoakam CD-Blame the Vain. I'm liking it a lot.

Busy, Busy, Busy

That's how my summer is going. I don't like it. I'm more intouch with lazy days than busy days.

Weekend Wrap-Up

DS#3's basketball team won their first basketball game 30-10.
DS#2's team lost their first game and I can't remember the final score because I had to leave in the middle of the game to go to work. The DH told me but those numbers just flew right by me.
DS#2 did manage to score two buckets and snag a couple of rebounds.

Was able to make the one day sale at Books-A-Million and scooped up Harry Potter Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix for DS#3 in paperback and for myself, Gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson, The History of Love: A Novel by Nicole Krauss, and The Mermaid Chair: A Novel by Sue Monk Kidd. All of these were at least 40% off, almost as cheap as paperbacks!

Met the SILs for an early breakfast at a local diner. They had been down here for a week, staying not too far from where the girl was attacked by a shark in Destin this weekend. They were staying too far from us for us to be able to spend any time with them this week in between workand basketball practices so the Saturday morning breakfast was the only time we had to visit. They were on their way home to Tennessee.

Had to work Saturday night but the positive side of that was that I had a front row seat for the local fireworks show. DH and DS#3 came up to watch the fireworks while I closed. After the two kids who cooked Saturday night finished up their work I told them to go on home so I could finish up my stuff. I was there until 11pm but I didn't have to work yesterday and I've decided I'm not closing any more. I hate it. I'll work for someone if they need the night off of course but I'll never ever volunteer.

On Sunday morning the DH and I headed out to breakfast early since we both skipped dinner the night before. We tried a new place, Happy Donut Breakfast, it just opened Saturday morning and we had to miss it because of the SILs so we had to go on Sunday. Who can't stop by a place called the Happy Donut Breakfast? The breakfast was good and cheap. I had a ham and cheese omlette with hashbrowns, grits and toast for $3.99, DH had French toast with bacon for either $2.99 or $3.99 I'm thinking it was $2.99 because their prices were just so good I couldn't believe it. Donuts are $4.30 a dozen and $4.90 for assorted.




Came home from breakfast, turned on the desktop and it wouldn't boot up. Apparently DS#1 downloaded a nasty virus, didn't bother to tell anyone, tried to pin it on DS#2 who said he tried to turn on the computer when DS#1 shut it down and couldn't get it to turn on(the first tip off it was DS#1 who caused the problem was the fact the computer had been shut down. He never does that, thus begins the cover-up). Then DS#1 conveniently remembered that he might have downloaded something and the computer started acting "weird". My kids aren't supposed to download anything on this computer, ever. But DS#1 thinks I'm clueless and no one "really" gets viruses. Freakin' Idiot! I love the child but he's at that age, 17, where he knows everything and I know absoultely nothing.

The other day this little guy was trying to get into the back door of my house.



No, not kidding. He's about 4 inches from the french doors. DH started out the door and stepped over him, the snake scooted over to the grass as the cat was pissing him off.

Here's a pic of him contained in a toy bucket:



I'm thinking about cross stitching a sign for the back door, "No Rattlesnakes Allowed", probably wouldn't keep them away.

Lazy Summer Days?

Not one lazy summer day to be found around here. I live under three miles from beautiful beaches and other than the view of the bay across the highway from where I work, I haven't seen the Gulf in weeks. I need my beach fix and need it big time.

What have I been working on?

Try nothing! Arrrgghhhhhh! I started a crocheted shawl for my grandmother and have managed to get about three rows finished. Three effing rows. This was supposed to be finished by this weekend but I don't have any time.

DS#2 and DS#3 are both playing basketball this summer and it's killing me. I'm spending two hours at a time at the Youth Sports Courts. I can't take it!

I work in 900 degree heat, next to a flaming BBQ Pit(let me tell ya that whole vegetarian thing is looking really good these days), I come home, shower, change and head to the basketball courts. I take a project with me but DS#2 looks mortified when I take it out of my bag, so last night I took the new iPod and Foreign Babes in Beijing: Behind the Scenes of a New China but other parents wouldn't shut the hell up. Then when the guy that cuts my hair shows up I majorly stick my foot in my mouth because his girlfriend works at our local video store and I told him congrats on his first anniversary with the girlfriend. He then asked me how I knew and I said well I was standing in line at the video store and I heard her talking about it. How completely uncool am I? She'll probably never hold another movie for me. I was just trying to make conversation with someone I actually enjoy being around.

Why is it that when you have headphones in your ears and a book opened on your lap that every moron wants to talk to you? Am I antisocial? I'm stuck at basketball practice, it's a time when I can sit and read and people I have absolutely nothing in common with want to chat?

New Stash

Did some awesome stashing the other day at a long overdue visit to the LNS. I picked up C & D of the Victoria Sampler Alphabet Sampler series. "D" can be seen here:

The VS Welcome Page

I also picked up the BOAF fabric, 35ct Barnowl for Birds of a Feather's L'Hiver.

http://www.elegantstitch.com/birds_feather/l'hiver.jpg

It took a while for her to grow on me, guess it had to do with already stitching Le Printemps and L'Ete practically back to back, two incredibly large projects. She just didn't grab my attention. Now that I have the fabric, once I pick up the rest of the WDWs I need, I plan to start stitching her. I also got the fabric for Goode Huswif-With My Needle. I didn't have my chart stats with me so when Kathy called to get the stitch count I learned the chart had been discontinued. So I bought a fat quarter of a 32ct overdye that I can't recall the name of and hope to start this project before the end of the summer.

I also bought some 11 x 17 Q Snaps, BC Snappers March Blows and April Blooms-the fabric for this arrived in the mail the other day. I'm going to stitch them all on the same piece of fabric, one honkin' long project, and then either frame them or to borrow an idea from
The Peacock's Feather, I may turn them into a long pillow, I can't begin to imagine how much it will cost to frame this piece, the pillow might be the only way to go. Also in my bag were BrightNeedle's Under the Sea, Little House Needleworks Spot of Coffee Sampler, and BOAF's All Hallow's Eve. I ended up spending $210! Holy crap! I haven't done this in a while so it was a real treat.

Speaking of spending money

I've bought a lot of CDs lately. Recently added to the collection: the new White Stripes-Get Behind Me Satan, Weezer Make Believe, OK GO(thanks to a recommendation from girlreaction), Dwight Yoakum Blame the Vain, and the Gorillaz Demon Days.

Lessons Learned

One should never attempt to blog on a laptop when one is not plugged into a power source. The flipping thing just shuts down with no warning. Or should I say, you get the nanosecond warning to plug in and then poof! I had forgotten DS#1 borrowed it for a while this morning and didn't plug it in to recharge the battery. I wandered through some blogs, some BBs, some websites, then started my own blog entry. Bad idea. From now on I will always be on a power source and save the battery for when I'm out of the house. DS#1 won't be touching it again if he can't remember to plug it back in to the charger either.

New Stash, No Pics

This weekend I picked up 6 skeins of TLC Amore in the Lagoon colorway to make a shawl for my grandmother who is very ill at the moment. I have been having trouble deciding on a pattern but I think now I will go with the shawl pattern from Vanna's Favorite Crochet Gifts book. It's a ripple type pattern and should go pretty fast once I get the pattern in my head. At first I wasn't sure about the lagoon for this pattern but I think the variegated will make a pretty shawl. I've been wrong about this before but I hope I'm right this time so I can get it started and finished fairly quick. It's my priority project at the moment. Hope to start it tonight or first thing in the morning.

I also picked up 4 skeins of TLC Cotton Plus. I got two skeins of the Thistle and two of Lavendar. These are going to be turned into baby sweaters for my niece Leigh Ann's new baby. The pattern is all garter stitch so I'm hoping these will go fast too. I'm concerned because the pattern says, "Use the needles and yarn of your choice" I need a little more guidance than that. No one in the shop could tell me what size needles the shop model was knitted on so I'm in for some guess work. I hate that. I'm guessing either size 7, 8 or 10. Guess I'll do a swatch or two(or three or four).

No Stitching

For the last couple of weeks I don't think I've picked up a needle once. I could be wrong but I think the last time I touched a hook was when I was playing around with granny hexes. That was a least a week ago.

I've been too tired, too hot, and to sick with a kidney infection to do anything other than lay around and be a vegetable.

I now have priority projects and need to get organized and get some major progress made on them. My grandmother is not doing well at all, the shawl, the baby sweaters and then Fairy Grandmother are my priorites and then I can work on a few things for myself, I'll toss in Mermaid of the Pearls as my off and on project when Fairy Grandmother is finished because this will be for my niece and I want to get it finished and to her before the end of the year. Then I want to start MLI's In the Arm of an Angel for my mom, in memory of my niece who passed away of SIDS at the age of 5 weeks. I think this piece will off a lot of comfort to my mom because she never really got over Adrianne's death, at least I hope it does. She has no idea I'm going to stitch her anything so it will be a surprise and no pressure because she will not know about it until I give it to her.

Hopefully I'll have some new pics in the next few days, just no time to deal with them at the moment.

I'm Such A Dork

Because I bought a laptop today and I'm blogging from the car. Why a laptop? Because it's COOL!

I plan to annoy the inlaws by sending inprogress basketball pics and courtside reports this summer when DS#2 and DS#3 hit the hardwood in the neighborhood recreational basketball league. That's how I justified the expense of the laptop to the DH. Who at the moment is pretty doggone dear!

Tropical Storm Arlene

Is headed this way. Tropical storms don't usually upset me in any way, they are just intensified thunderstorms with extra strong winds but there's still so much debris in our area it could get ugly. Many roads washout these days after a light rainshower. The next 48 hours should be interesting.

I'm planning on heading to the grocery before I go to work this morning so that I'm ahead of the game. Plan to buy some canned goods, sandwich stuff and extra water and a roast to cook tomorrow. We have a gas stove top so I should be able to prepare hot meals even if we lose power. Why am I so concerned about losing power? Well we have this very dead tree tangled up in in the power lines to our house. The power company won't do anything about it because it's behind the power pole, the property manager doesn't seem concerned, and we aren't paying to have it cut down, I guess if we had an extra $800 we might but it's not our property and we've mentioned it to the property manager a couple of times and so have our neighbors because their power lines are tangled up in it too and they have the same property manager we do. Ivan didn't take the tree down so I'm hoping a minor tropical storm will not be a problem.

Well the best news is that I'll have a minimum of 48 hours of major crochet time. I might just finish the Ranch Red of the afghan I'm working on. That would so rock. Then all I would have left is deciding what to do for the border. I still like the granny hexes, just not the yellow. If I get to the store we love to hate tonight I may see what kind of brown I can find to work with the Farmland border.

Well off to prepare for Tropical Storm Arlene's visit.

Foolin'

Around with color.

Here are some very lame pics of the granny hexagons I've been playing around with as a border for my Ode to Yarngirl afghan. For some reason I couldn't get my scanner to work so I took this pic on the front porch and of course the sun was behind me but the flash kept going off in the shade of the backyard so this is a glimpse of what I've been doing:



Here's a pic of the blocks against the SC Ranch Red afghan, another feeble attempt at photography:



I will try to take better pics later in the week.

I'm not exactly happy with the yellow. I think it's a little too bright for the softness of the Ranch Red and Farmland. I may see what I can find in the way of a brown.

So I'm trying to decide if I like the solid hexagons better than the striped hexagons. I really love the Med. Thyme hex. It works well with the Farmland I'm using as the final round in each hex. But if I make all the hexagons Med. Thyme that could be just a wee bit boring. The yellow though just sorta takes over, no subtlety there at all. So the mission this weekend is to find a nice brown, not a boring brown(is there such a thing as a nonboring brown?) but something that doesn't overwhelm the Farmland, Ranch Red and Med. Thyme. I do like the hexagons better than squares. I think they'll add interest and soften the edges of the SC afghan. I'll finish it off with a SC edging all the way around in Farmland. That's why I'm opting to make the last round of each hex Farmland.

Not one stitch has been crossed in what seems like weeks. I'm uninspired at the moment. Not sure what it is. I've been going through some boxes and sorting charts and while there are a few new projects I want to kit up and start, I am overwhelmed with all the projects I have started in the past. I still love all of them and want to work on them too. It seems they are all begging for my attention for one reason or another, I feel guilty picking up anything but Fairy Grandmother so I avoid the needle altogether. I need to suck it up and finish the Hag and once she is out of the house it will be so liberating. I can only imagine how many projects I will start the day she is out of my hair.

Ranch Happenings

Unfortunately not much news from here. I've had a nasty kidney infection but am on Cipro and it appears to be knocking it out. Let me tell ya, Thursday night I was freakin' out when I went to the bathroom and saw a very unexpected color in the toilet. Not a good thing. It's never a good thing to go to the bathroom and then ask yourself, "That came out of me?" Very scary. Fortunately my drs office got me in ASAP, after I tried to work Friday morning telling myself, "I can survive anything for 6 hours, how bad can it be, 6 hours, that's all." Of course I couldn't, the pain was pretty bad. Lucky for me one of the kids was home and glad to have the extra hours. I drove myself home, called the drs office and they said come in RIGHT NOW!

I slept most of yesterday, the kids were home for their first day of summer and due to my medical trauma DS#1 missed out on a pool party. More his fault than mine, he thought the party started at 6pm instead of 4pm. Anyway, not much crafting going on with the exception of pulling out my "Ode to Yarngirl" afghan. Julie crocheted a beautiful shawl using Red Heart's Ranch Red and Farmland. The colors were so great together I wanted to make something using those colors too. I opted for a boring single crochet afghan using a J hook. I had thought about adding stripes on each end using RH Gold and Med. Thyme. I didn't like how that was going so ripped out the stripe I had started in the gold and decided that I'd do a solid Ranch Red Single Crochet afghan, add a granny square trim or some kind of motif trim using the gold and the med. thyme, then do a SC edging using the Farmland. Since I haven't been able to do much more than sleep, the single crochet has saved me from complete and utter boredom-don't have to think or count, just make wonderful SCs, turn ch-1 and start all over again. I've been browsing though my crochet block books and now can't decide which blocks to use for the trim. The 200 Blocks book by Jan Eaton has quite a variety of blocks to choose from(uh the book is titled 200 Crochet Blocks, should have been a clue--ok shoot me I've been doped up for a couple of days), her Crochet Basics book has a pattern for a hexagonal block that I like too, so that's an option I'm pondering. I guess I'll crochet up a few of each and see what I think about them. May try some blocks from a scarf in Hip to Crochet.

Other than that no more news. I'm hoping to add another skein of Ranch Red to the afghan before the end of the weekend. That would be some major progress. Then once I decide which blocks to use for the edging I can alternate between the afghan and the blocks for the edging. So it will break up the monotony when my mind can focus on more than SC. It's funny, single crochet isn't challenging but I like it. It's comforting.

Tonight we have lemon herb leg 1/4s on the grill, along with cajun seasoned chicken breasts and we have some shrimp to grill with garlic butter, also have some corn we plan to grill in the shucks, we did this all last summer and it was so good, for dessert strawberry shortcakes. Can you tell I haven't eaten in a day or two?

Oh and if you are bored, thanks to saucy kitty I found this link: Threadbared. Definitely worth a peak. Check out the May archives and the Barbie and Ken Crochet Paradise story. Too too funny!

Trinity Stitch Woes

The last few days I've been working on my 63 Squares afghan. Pics in the previous post. But Monday I got jammed up big time on block 6-the Trinity Stitch block. I followed Donna's tutorial this morning and it's helped a lot but I still keep losing three stitches after a few rows. I've restarted this too many times to count several times and keep decreasing somewhere along the way. Probably just trying too hard. I just hate it when I get on a roll and then get stuck. So annoying when I could be several more blocks along if not for this roadblock.

Cross Stitch Happenings

Unfortunately not a lot. I'm filling in the roof of House #5 on HOHRH, too boring to really take a pic of at the moment. HOHRH is my Gilmore Girls project. Gilmore Girls comes on twice a day on ABC Family so while it's on I work on HOHRH on my days off. All other free cross stitch time is being devoted to Fairy Grandmother. Unfortunately not much progress to photograph there either. Slow, slow going.

So when do I get around to working on the 63 Squares afghan you might ask? Or maybe you aren't asking that, but I'll tell anyway. It's what I work on while sitting outside, or when I can't stand looking at the Fairy Grandhag for one more freakin' minute see to cross stitch any longer. Crochet is much easier on the eyes. Unless it's playing freaky mind games like magically disappearing three stitches after 4 or 5 rows and very careful counting.