Update

From the land of backed up septic tanks, crashed laptops and the world's most beautiful beaches. I prefer the latter description and will try to prove it with pictures tomorrow. The first two are killing me. The laptop is repaired or should I say system restored, lost all my pictures but hope that most of them are backed up on the desktop with the power supply problem. To ease the pain of the last few stress ridden days, I bring you some critter cuteness. Below you see Polly Prissypants and Little Bit. They are BFF except when Polly has Little Bit's head in her mouth trying to play. She tends to get a wee bit rowdy with the Little Bit. Yes, my yard is sand and I'm three miles from the beach. It beyond sucks, but last year's drought and a malfunctioning irrigation system wiped out what was left of the grass. Because I don't cope well with stress(of the backed up septic tank kind), discipline goes right out the window, I started a new cross stitch project. Below you see a BBD freebie, First Offerings. I'm stitching it with DMC 310 on 28ct white monaco and plan to coffee stain it when I'm finished.

I was very lucky this morning and scored one of the five remaining Mailorder #5s from Amy at

angry chicken. I wanted this mailorder big time yet due to all kinds of things happening around the time it was released it slipped my mind. I love the sampler Amy designed for this Mailorder and love that a popular crafty blogger has discovered the charms of cross stitch. So thanks Amy!Now maybe more folks will be turned onto how cool cross stitch really is. Seriously.

In Honor of the Oscars

I don't normally do the meme thing but saw this on Annette’s Acre.

The Movies of Our Life

It’s been said that allegedly if you’ve seen over 85 movies you have no life. Mark the ones you’ve seen. There are 239 films on this list. Copy this list, go to your own blog, paste it in and put x’s by the ones that you have seen. Add them up, change the header adding your number, and post it.


(X) Rocky Horror Picture Show
(X) Grease
(X) Pirates of the Caribbean
(X) Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest
( ) Boondock Saints
( X) Fight Club
(X ) Starsky and Hutch
() Neverending Story
(X) Blazing Saddles
(X) Airplane
(X) The Princess Bride
( X) AnchorMan
(X ) Napoleon Dynamite
() Labyrinth
( x) Saw
( x) Saw II
( X) White Noise
(X ) White Oleander
( ) Anger Management
(X ) 50 First Dates
( X) The Princess Diaries
(X ) The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement

Total so far: 18 out of 22.

( X) Scream
( X) Scream 2
( X) Scream 3
( X) Scary Movie
( X) Scary Movie 2
(X ) Scary Movie 3
( ) Scary Movie 4
( X) American Pie
( X) American Pie 2
( X) American Wedding
( ) American Pie Band Camp
(X) Harry Potter 1
(X) Harry Potter 2
(X) Harry Potter 3
() Harry Potter 4
( X) Resident Evil 1
( ) Resident Evil 2
( X) The Wedding Singer
( ) Little Black Book
( X) The Village
(X) Lilo & Stitch

Total so far: 34 out of 43.

(X) Finding Nemo
(X) Finding Neverland
(X) Signs
(X ) The Grinch
( X) Texas Chainsaw Massacre
( X) Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
( X) White Chicks
( X) Butterfly Effect
( X) 13 Going on 30
(X) I, Robot
( ) Robots
( X) Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
( ) Universal Soldier
( X) Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events
(X ) Along Came Polly
(X) Deep Impact
( X) KingPin
(X ) Never Been Kissed
(X ) Meet The Parents
( X) Meet the Fockers
( ) Eight Crazy Nights
(X ) Joe Dirt
(X ) King Kong

Total so far: 54 out of 66.

( ) A Cinderella Story
(X ) The Terminal
( ) The Lizzie McGuire Movie
( ) Passport to Paris
(X) Dumb & Dumber
( X) Dumber & Dumberer
(X ) Final Destination
(X ) Final Destination 2
( X) Final Destination 3
( X) Halloween
(X ) The Ring
(X ) The Ring 2
( ) Surviving Christmas
(X) Flubber*
(X ) Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
( X) Practical Magic
(X) Chicago
( X) Ghost Ship
( ) From Hell
() Hellboy
( X) Secret Window
( X) I Am Sam
( X) The Whole Nine Yards
(X ) The Whole Ten Yards

Total so far: 72 out of 90. *original version and new version

( X) The Day After Tomorrow
(X ) Child’s Play
(X ) Seed of Chucky
(X ) Bride of Chucky
( X) Ten Things I Hate About You
(X ) Just Married
(X) Gothika
(X ) Nightmare on Elm Street
(X) Sixteen Candles
( X) Remember the Titans
( ) Coach Carter
( X) The Grudge
( X) The Grudge 2
(X) The Mask
( ) Son Of The Mask
(X ) Bad Boys
( ) Bad Boys 2
( ) Joy Ride
( ) Lucky Number Sleven
(X) Ocean’s Eleven
(X) Ocean’s Twelve
(X) Bourne Identity
(X ) Bourne Supremecy
( X) Lone Star
( X) Bedazzled
( X) Predator I
( ) Predator II
( X) The Fog
(X) Ice Age
( ) Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
( ) Curious George

Total so far: 94 out of 121.

(X) Independence Day
( X) Cujo
( ) A Bronx Tale
(X ) Darkness Falls
(X) Christine
(X) E.T.
( X) Children of the Corn
( ) My Bosses Daughter
( X) Maid in Manhattan
(X) War of the Worlds
(X ) Rush Hour
( ) Rush Hour 2
( ) Best Bet
( X) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
( X) She’s All That
( X) Calendar Girls
(X ) Sideways
(X) Mars Attacks
() Event Horizon
(X) Ever After
(X) Wizard of Oz
(X) Forrest Gump
(X) Big Trouble in Little China
(X) The Terminator
(X) The Terminator 2
( ) The Terminator 3

Total so far: 115 out of 147.

(X) X-Men
(X) X-2
(X) X3
(X) Spider-Man
(x ) Spider-Man 2
(X ) Sky High
(X ) Jeepers Creepers
( X) Jeepers Creepers 2
( ) Catch Me If You Can
(X) The Little Mermaid
(X) Freaky Friday*
(X) Reign of Fire
( ) The Skulls
( X) Cruel Intentions
( ) Cruel Intentions 2
(X ) The Hot Chick
(X) Shrek
(X) Shrek 2

Total so far: 130 out of 165. *original and remake

( X) Swimfan
(X) Miracle on 34th street*
( X) Old School
( X) The Notebook
( X) K-Pax
( X) Krippendorf’s Tribe
(X ) A Walk to Remember
(X) Ice Castles
( X) Boogeyman
X) The 40-year-old Virgin
(X) Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
(X) Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
(X) Lord of the Rings: Return Of the King
(X) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
(X) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
(X) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Total so far: 146, out of 181. *original and remake

( X) Base-ketball
( X) Hostel
( ) Waiting for Guffman
( ) House of 1000 Corpses
( ) Devils Rejects
( X) Elf
(X) Highlander
(X ) Mothman Prophecies
(X ) American History X
( ) Three
( ) The Jacket
(X ) Kung Fu Hustle
( ) Shaolin Soccer
( ) Night Watch
(X) Monsters Inc.
(X) Titanic
(X) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
( X) Shaun Of the Dead
( X) Willard

Total so far: 158 out of 200.

( ) High Tension
( ) Club Dread
( ) Hulk
(X ) Dawn Of the Dead
(X) Hook
(X) Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
( ) 28 days later
( ) Orgazmo
( X) Phantasm
(X) Waterworld
(X ) Kill Bill Vol. 1
(X ) Kill Bill Vol. 2
( X) Mortal Kombat
( ) Wolf Creek
( X) Kingdom of Heaven
( ) the Hills Have Eyes
( ) I Spit on Your Grave
( ) The Last House on the Left
( ) Re-Animator
( ) Army of Darkness

Total so far: 167 out of 220.

(X) Star Wars Ep. I The Phantom Menace
(X) Star Wars Ep. II Attack of the Clones
(X) Star Wars Ep. III Revenge of the Sith
(X) Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope
(X) Star Wars Ep. V The Empire Strikes Back
(X) Star Wars Ep. VI Return of the Jedi( ) Ewoks: Caravan Of Courage
(X ) Ewoks: The Battle For Endor
(X) The Matrix
(X) The Matrix: Reloaded
(X) The Matrix: Revolutions
( ) Animatrix
( ) Evil Dead
( ) Evil Dead 2
( X) Team America: World Police
(X ) Red Dragon
(X) Silence of the Lambs
( ) Hannibal

Total: 180 out of 239

The scary part, there are so many movies I've seen that aren't on this list, so I've seen way beyond 180 movies in my life time. Oh and what about the movies on this list I've seen more than once? I've watched all the Scream movies 10 times each. I watched Kung Fu Hustle twice yesterday because it was on cable. I watched the east coast feed, then the west coast feed. I love that movie. I've watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy so many times it's not even funny.

Looking forward to the Oscars tonight. I'd like to see Jennifer Hudson from American Idol win, just because it's one of those stories that you love to hear. Of course I hope to catch a glimpse of George Clooney, too.

In Search of Light

For a couple of years I've been longing for a Daylight Floor lamp. I saw one in the Nordic Needle catalog and flipped. It was a stitching lamp but didn't look like an office lamp, but it was well, $200+. No way was this in my budget. A week or so ago while wandering around Walmart, yes I said it, WALMART, I found a floor lamp that I thought would work well for a stitching lamp. It's a Mainstays Tourchiere with Reading lamp. It was $12.74(and yes while it is a floor lamp in theory it does look as cheap)inexpensive as you might imagine.) I checked it out several times, pondered why it might or might not work, went back and checked out all the various light bulbs offered in the lightbulb department. Would a GE Daylight 100 bulb(26watt) work as well as one of the Ott-lite bulbs or the Daylight bulbs? Since I really had nothing to compare them to other than how the light appears on my fabric, I gave in and bought the cheap inexpensive lamp and the cheap alternative light bulbs.

The results of my experiment are: I can freakin' see! I had no idea how horribly wretched the lighting in my house was until I could actually see again. The GE lightbulbs, while I cannot do a true lightbulb to lightbulb comparison, the GE works for me. Defintely worth the $8 I paid for two.

I'm telling you this because there has to be other stitchers out there like me, wanting the Ott-lite or the Daylight lamp and thinking, "I really can't spend the money on this right now but I can't freakin' see, what can I do?" I just want you all to know that there are options, for $20 I was able to put together a lamp to stitch by that isn't horrible in appearance. No one would know that the shades are plastic instead of glass--ok I'm reaching there, but if you're saving up for that great stitching lamp, see what you can do to make your stitching more enjoyable until you can buy it. Wander some stores, check out the lightbulb options and see what you can work with. For a while I was using a gooseneck desk lamp and a Reveal bulb, the difference between that and this GE Daylight 100 bulb is amazing.

The youngest son has already requested one of these lamps to read by at night. He thinks it's pretty cool.

I do believe the one difference in my put together lamp than the Ottlite or Daylight lamp is that it does kind of light up the room. Not as much as the overhead lighting but one of my neighbors knocked on the door and wanted to know if aliens had landed in my living room because it was glowing blue outside in the yard. I think the light from the better lamps is more contained.

The true test of this lamp will be And They Sinned. I'm stitching it on 36ct Dirty Linen. The fabric is so dark that it's frustrating to work on. I've considered switching out fabric because I don't have a lot accomplished on this piece yet but I really hate letting go. The fabric is purchased, the stitching has been started, and if I stop I might not pick it up ever again. So if this light makes a difference I just might get ATS finished this year. Seriously.

News Alert

The spousal unit is not the father of Anna Nicole Smith's baby. The oldest son says he might be a possibility but we have our doubts. Can that story get any sadder or weirder?

Here's an updated picture of By the Bay's 13th Colony Bay. What goes with 13th Colony Bay like wine and cheese? Could it be The Complete First Season of Beverly Hills 90210? Why yes it can. Sometimes surprises are the best and 90210 on Valentine's Day is about as good as it gets.

What goes with a Mason Dixon Ballband Dishcloth like a Mardi Gras Parade and Moonpies? Why Season 1 of Dawson's Creek is the perfect Ballband companion. More proof that I do indeed have the mentality of a 15 yr old girl. The oldest son has asked, "What's next, Seventh Heaven?" NO. Not Seventh Heaven, maybe The Simpsons or Married With Children. Is that adult enough for him?

Sometimes when there's a lot of things running around one's brain, some escapism is the best way to let it go, chill out, and relax.

Dinner's in the crockpot, pot roast. I found a recipe on Allrecipes.com. I was concerned, I mean it's one thing to load up a chicken pot pie with all the "cream ofs" soups but a roast? Didn't sound too appealing but I read all the recipe reviews so I cut up some potatoes and threw them in the pot along with some baby carrots, then put my roast in and topped it with fresh sliced mushrooms then mixed up a can of cream of mushroom soup, golden mushroom soup, beef broth and a packet of Lipton Onion soup mix and dumped that over everything in the crockpot and hoped for the best. It smells pretty scrumptious. Since it's winter I'm not worrying too much about the "cream of" overload, when the weather gets down in the 20s like it's supposed to tonight some comfort food is a good thing and technically I'm the only one around here that needs to lose any weight, everyone else can easily handle the extra calories offered up by the "cream ofs". Brett Butler used to say that "cream of mushroom soup is the glue that holds the Southern diet together" boy is that true around my house these days.

Update From a Crafty World

Spent most of this weekend working on 13th Colony Bay, will take a picture when the sun decides to shine. I've managed to work my way all the way over to part 3. I have not finished Part 2 or even Part 1 but do have guidelines set up now so the stitching should move along at a faster pace. For the moment I do believe I'm a one project girl. I don't want to work on anything but 13th Colony Bay. This feeling is so odd, so new to me, I'm just going with it. I'm supposed to be in a couple of SALs but well, I just can't work on them. They aren't screaming at me. I'm a horrible SAL partner, good thing the two SALs are part of groups and not just me and a stitching buddy.

Yesterday I worked on a Mason Dixon Ballband Warsh Rag. I love knitting these things and I love using them. It's an easy project for the newbie knitter and so functional. They really scrub your dishes clean. I'm not kidding. The one I knit yesterday reminds me of Easter eggs, as I said before I'll take a picture when the sun finally shines. I immediately cast on for another one. If you don't have the Mason Dixon book the pattern can be found on the back of a Peaches & Cream Cotton label, hence the name Ballband Warsh Rag.

Along with the warsh rags my other guilty pleasure is Season 1 of Dawson's Creek. The 18 yr old caught me watching it yesterday and asked, "When did you become a 15 yr old girl?" Funny not. I really love this show. I'm not sure how I missed it the first time around and I wish I didn't know what I do now about Katie Holmes, kind of ruins her character for me. Then again I'm a Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer junkie so it makes sense that I would like Kevin Williamson's tv show.

In the housekeeping department I can actually see the top of the kitchen table. I bought more laundry baskets and clothes hangers, wow, what a difference. We might even eat dinner at the table tonight. Yeah, I know, don't get all crazy now, dinner at the kitchen table, what a concept.

Big Weekend For Cross Stitchers

Market, Market, Market!

This weekend is Market. I'm so excited. I have a wish list of the new designs I have to add to the stash.

I think it goes without saying that all of Kathy Barrick's new designs will eventually end up living at my house. I do have a dilemma. I love, love, love the mermaid stocking, but it's punch needle. This is the first punch needle design to make me even consider going down that road. I do not need one more hobby to get sucked in to. But more thoughts on that in a moment.

More designs that have caught my eye are the new releases from Plum Street Designs. Gameboards are cropping up all over the place and I have to say Dead Man's Chess is a must stitch for me along with her tombstone piece. I'm debating on how to display my tombstone pieces. I've stitched two of Kathy Barrick's, have another ready to go, and was thinking about hanging them all together in my hallway with Village of Hawk Run Hollow in the center since it has that Burial Ground block. Then I think maybe that's too much so maybe I should scatter them through the house for a quirky kind of thing or is it just kind of morbid?

A few more I like are the new Hands to Work designs. My Beloved Tennessee is a must for me since I was born and raised in Memphis. I like Hannah Miller and Education too.

Now back to punch needle, I'm a cross stitcher. I piddle in other crafty areas because I enjoy learning new things, but I have also discovered that that piddling really cuts into my cross stitch time. I try to quilt because I'm too cheap to buy quilts when it seems like I can just make my own. I enjoy handpiecing, it's just all the prep work getting to that point. I'm learning to knit because I believe it to be something that might come in handy one day and I like to make things that are functional. I really enjoy using my knitted wash rags. Seriously. They make me happy and almost make cleaning up the kitchen painless. There's a difference in a handknit wash rag than a terry one. I don't know what it is, but there is. It's not even something I think about but I love my knitted ones. They scrub up messes really well too. So the time spent on those is time well spent, and pleasant and doesn't take too much time from my cross stitch. I'm knitting a scarf. This is my second year on this particular scarf, I've started it over several times because I'm a dork and forgot to check right and wrong side when I was picking it back up. It's the Alien Illusion scarf from Stitch N Bitch. I have two alien faces completed maybe by next winter I'll have a handknit scarf. Fortunately I live in North West Florida so my winter at it's longest is 2 months. Usually runs about 6 weeks. But it's a really cold six weeks. I crochet. I have an afghan I've been working on for my mom's new house since she started having it built. I crocheted it in about a week but am procrastinating on putting it together. It's all Lionbrand Homespun will that even fit through the eye of a yarn needle? But putting it together will take time, time away from cross stitch and I've got a lot of projects to get done doncha know? So now here we are with the whole punch needle issue. I will have to learn punch needle, I will have to purchase punch needles, probably a special punch needle hoop, not to mention punch needle kits on which to practice because we can't just jump into the mermaid stocking, do I really want to do this? Is one design worth crossing over to the darkside? And of course we have the whole issue of, "I really like this punch needle stuff, more, more, more!" Do you know how much that will eat into my crafty time? Kathy Barrick's Tombstone punchneedle piece might be good practice and can hang on my tombstone wall if that's the way I decide to go with those.

I do love Market Weekend. It's like Christmas for stitchers!

Have you all heard about the Goat Lover of Mossy Head, Northwest Florida Daily News
big news around here. Here's another story, Northwest Florida Daily NewsGoat2. Other towns have drugs, murders, we have goat lovers. Got to love the Redneck Riviera.

13th Colony Bay-Part 1

Part 1 of By the Bay's 13th Colony Bay is very close to being finished. There's a bit of landscaping, some fences to finish, and there's a wee bit of a sandbar showing out in the dark water but the majority of the stitching is done, oh there should be clouds in the sky but we're not into the rainy season just yet.

Our pirates are setting sail for the second port in the Bay. They have new sails, have stocked their galley and are easing over to Port #2. This little island is inhabited by a spinster librarian/school teacher who they've heard is as skilled with a gun and a rope as she is baking cakes and diagramming sentences, not your typical spinster. Rumor has it she's pretty too. They're going to offer to raid the mainland for the much desired books if she'll teach a few of the crew how to read and write.

In other stitching news, head over to Carriage House Samplings click on the News section and scroll down and you can see my LNS owner-Kathy's version of Kathy Barrick's ABCs. She changed up the colors and it's fabulous!

Books

I just finished reading Christopher Moore's A Dirty Job. All I can say is I loved this book. Yes, the premise is bit bizarre, not in anyway believable but that's not really the point. His characters sucked me into the story. I could see what was happening. I believed it when I read it. I can't wait to read more of his books. He's like a Carl Hiaasen of the Underworld.

What is the "dirty job"? Being a death merchant. I don't want to give a lot of the story away, but a death merchant is someone responsible for removing a person's soul item and making sure it gets placed with the right person somewhere down the line. How do they know what a soul item is? It glows red but only for them. They job is to retrieve and keep it safe until another person comes along to claim it. Most death merchants run second hand shops of some kind. This book was great. Nothing has captured my imagination since the Reacher series by Lee Child until this book.

TV/Movies

New Lost this week. Go Sawyer! Can't wait. We just got our ABC affiliate back so I don't have to worry about watching it at abc.com on Thursday, I can watch it in real time.

Also started watching Season 2 of 24. Is Jack Bauer's daughter the stupidest human on earth or what? Why doesn't she just listen to her dad, do what he says? Life would be so much easier for everyone if she would just do what Jack tells her. But no, she knows more than him. More than the baddest you know what on the planet. I hate watching the show because she's so dumb! Love everything else about the show but Kim.

I also watched Serenity. Pretty good movie. I need to watch the whole series, that being Firefly, I wasn't lost watching the movie but I haven't seen the series from the beginning.

Family Stuff

The spousal unit was working in our area yesterday, came home for lunch, flushed the toilet and flooded the house. What a mess. We filled up the shop vac about 6 times and the carpet is still wet.

New family favorite dinner, Chicken Pot Pie. I combined several recipes to come up with my own. It's very easy.

Chicken Pot Pie

Cook 1lb or more boneless chicken breasts, cut into cubes when cool

Steam a small package of peas and carrots along with some sliced mushrooms

Make or use 2 prepared pie crusts, place one in a pie pan-poke it with a fork to keep it from getting soggy while baking.

mix together cooked chicken

1 can of cream of mushroom soup

1 can of cream of chicken soup

1 can of cream of potato soup-you can also use cooked cubed potatoes, I'm lazy so I use the soup

steamed veggies

add pepper to taste

Pour into pie crust, top with second pie crust-don't forget to perforate the top

Bake at 350 or 400 for 30 mins or until crust is golden.

There may be enough to make another small pie. Crescent rolls rolled out can be used to make a crust for the small pie if you only have the top and bottom crust and don't want to waste your filling.