New Year, Two Finishes

Yesterday I finished Plum Street Sampler's Garden of Eerie:

Garden of Eerie

Plum Street Samplers

DMC

32ct linen

Hand-dyed by Moi

Started January 2, 2010

Completed January 16, 2010

Someone and I can't remember who asked about the dyeing process and basically what I did was take my stockpot, I got one at Walmart for $13, it's black granite looking, you know like a stockpot you buy to take camping, I added water to about a 1/3 of the pot, I then mistakenly dumped a whole packet of RIT Golden Yellow powder dye into the pot, I should have used less for my intended look, I placed my fabric in the pot and stirred and let it soak for maybe 5 minutes. Probably another mistake since I wanted just a hint of yellow, I checked my fabric and it was GOLDEN. At this point I grabbed my big bottle of RIT Tan Liquid Dye and splashed some in the pot and started swirling the fabric around. I stopped, checked the fabric, added a splash more, swirled some more, checked it and decided to add one more good, solid splash of Tan, swirled, then removed my fabric and rinsed it like there was no tomorrow. At the time I was not thrilled with my results and annoyed that I didn't just order up the Lakeside Linen I needed, but I'm trying to lighten up, be more adventurous, figure things out for myself, use what I have-I'm not going to go all crunchy granola on y'all but I am trying to really let go of my tendency to be a slave to the chart. All that to say, I am really, really happy with my fabric. It gives the design an eerie enough feel and it's a bit different and up close and personal the DMC just glows on the fabric. That's the only way to describe it. It glows.

The big question now is will I ever be able to do this again and get a result that I'm happy with. I've attempted dyeing several times before and honestly my attempts were halfassed and I'm ashamed of that, so, I will learn patience, I will practice my mad dyeing skilz, and trying to explore my creativity that way.

Garden of Eerie is my second finish of the year. My first is the stitched portion of an ornament for my little buddy, John:

Santa Rides(Horse)

Prairie Schooler

Finished January 7, 2010

DMC

28ct Natural Linen

The ornament still needs to be ornamented. But I'll do that this week I hope!

The other night there was a knock at my door and the sound of people singing Christmas carols. I will admit to being a wee bit scared to open the door but then again my kids constantly remind me that we live on the most boring street in the world so against my better judgement I opened the door. My friend Pam and her kids were singing Christmas songs and Pam handed me my Christmas present(we don't hold to timelines around here, both of us being crafters we understand the belated gift, mine to her is still in progress, whoops!) I opened my package and what did I find:

Why this really cool bag she made for me. The words(the design on the front of the bag was stitched by Pam) say:

I collect floss and fabric

buttons and ribbon-

A stitcher's passion is

Pattern collection

How true are those words? Here's a peak inside the bag:

Pockets! How sweet is this bag? I love it. Thanks Pam!


And below you will see the statement that strikes fear in the heart of the men in my house:

Don't we all?
For one of your very own check out:
crossstitch naked tote by doecdoe on Etsy

Don't forget the Olympic Stitching challenge! If you want to join the team blog leave a comment and we can all stitch for the gold!

2010 Winter Olympic Stitching Challenge: What's Your Plan?

Inventory

Blocks left to crochet for afghan-1 1/2

Simply Live-need to stitch letters R-Z numbers 1-0, a bit of border and a few minor motifs.

Quilt-squares cut(months ago), still not sewn together. Just do it already. Plan to lame out and tie it instead of quilting it but I need a cover for my bed, period. Tying(tieing?) is just fine with me thank you very much.

Rearrange bedroom, give it a studio apartment feel. Sleep on one side, create on the other. Paint, make it look nice yet functional. Turn it into a chick cave because I need my own space. Spousal unit just sleeps there anyway. He doesn't care what it looks like as long as his side of the bed is sleepable.

Paint chili pepper red dresser white, acquire cubes with baskets to place on top and store various stash related stuff. Find new drawer pulls or knobs-something funky and cool if budget allows.

Move work table from living room to bedroom, look for prettier work table in the future or at least one that might fold out for sewing, fold up desk like for soldering, laptop, other desk related functions--maybe one of those sewing tables at JoAnn's. Hmmmm.....

Clean out closet, find mini dresser to fit inside closet to store underwear, pjs, tshirts.

Get some under the bed boxes for stash. Space that is completely unused and wasted, make it functional.

Find some wood, paint "Always Kiss Me Goodnight" on it(or maybe just order one premade from etsy or ebay), hang above the other closet door, viewable from the new bed position. Maybe crackle it. Try to ignore the fact that penmanship sucks(see "maybe order one").

Going to be busy around here for the next week.

Dull Around These Parts

Life is busy yet boring at the same time. How is that possible?

The middle son graduated from high school last Monday. I'll post a picture tomorrow if I can find the darn camera cord.

Other than that I have nothing. Zero, zip, nada.

I'm not sure if that's good or bad.

Let's see on the stitching front, I'm still working on Salem Remembered, I should finish it in the next few days. Cape Cod Girls is partially kitted, I've got what I need to start so will be starting that as soon as SR is complete and I also have PN Simply Live kittted up from a mix of threads from the stash so that'll see some action later this summer. I also have PN ABC Hornbook partially kitted from the stash so I have that to look forward to also.

I'm supposed to be stitching on my HAED Dark Waters this weekend, it's the SWIP SAL and I haven't touched it and here it is Sunday night.

I have been exploring the world of over 1 tent stitching or petit point if you want to be all fancy pants. I'm stitching HAED Red Silk Mermaid(which is really Red Cotton Mermaid as I'm using DMC and the chart calls for DMC but there ya go). I'm stitching 2x1 on 28ct tea dyed Monaco and I'm shocked at how much I am enjoying it. I like the half cross. It's a quite lovely invention.

I've been thinking a lot about SL's Jane Atkinson and how I need to work on it and also want to work on LD's Sonne Spotte. There's really not enough hours in the day.

I'm also thinking about patchwork cushions, how badly we need to paint the house, it's really hideous, what a mess the bedroom is and how I haven't even started to sew my little squares together to make a quilt for that bed, they're all cut out but that's as far as I've gotten.

My Roma tomatoes in the Topsy Turvey tomato planter are doing pretty well, my Pink Brandywine is blossoming but so far not one single tomato. The blossoms just seem to keep falling off.

I'm feeling kind of whiney lately and I'm pretty sure that's why I've been on radio silence. I just don't know what I want to work on so I work on nothing which means a lot of wasted hours. I need to get a bit of my balance back, the kids are now officially out of school and we are finding it difficult to fall into some kind of daily routine. Hopefully that will work itself out in the next few days.

No Pictures Today

Because all of my stitching the last week or so has been ornament swap related stitching I have no pictures to share today.

Thanks for all the nice comments regarding my little friend's pillow. He loves it and that's the most important thing.

I can't believe the year is almost over and I believe I have finished all of four projects, not including the ornaments for my swap.

I'm not a big chocolate junkie, I have plenty of self control but I am currently addicted to Lindt Lindor Truffles. The addiction is pretty bad--if they are in the house and everytime I go to the store I somehow end up coming home with a bag, well I eat the whole freakin' bag. This is not a good thing. The bag does last me several days but I've even started letting the kids see the chocolate stash so they are the ones eating them instead of me.

New Project Runway!!

I'm so beyond excited that a new season of Project Runway starts tonight. I can't help it, I love this show. TV has not been too interesting the last few months and I'm underwhelmed with fall tv these days. I'm hoping Project Runway is full of creativity and wonderful cattiness between the designers. I know I'm horrible--so far season two is my all time favorite. They had designers with the most personality, they were all a little over the top. Daniel V, Nick V, Santino, Kara Janx, Andre(What happened to Andre?). I enjoyed them all, even the designers I haven't mentioned. So I'm hoping these new designers are entertaining and creative. Is that too much to ask?

Back to the Stitching

As soon as my ornaments are finished unless something comes up I will focus all my stitching time on 13th Colony Bay. It's so sad to sit it sitting all alone in it's Ziploc baggie.

As far as stitching goals for 2007, I'm reasonably sure I didn't reach any of them but that's ok. The state of my stitching is chaotic and that's how it's always been and even though I see myself gradually becoming more of a one project at a time girl I can't imagine ever having anything less than 20 projects started at any given time because I love starting projects. I see them, I kit them up, and those first stitches are just begging to be stitched. I'm weak. I make those Xs and then for whatever reason I set the project aside for a while, then one day it's all I want to work on.

The Tale of Laptop

Well my laptop is possessed. I have work to do, next deadline December 7th, and my monitor is doing this flashy thingy and at the moment I pretty much have to sit on the floor to see what's on the screen, it has to be at this weird angle or the flashing won't stop or if it does the screen goes to black. Kind of hard to get any work done. Fortunately it's still under warranty and last time the factory got it back to me in five days but this is going to be cutting it close and no right now this is the only functioning computer in the house so I don't have a back up. Also we have a school project due at the end of the week so I can't ship this off to be repaired until we have that finished, keeping my fingers crossed we get it finished tonight!

With This You Get

You get egg rolls.

Step one: the filling--I adapted a recipe from The Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen--the original Moosewood Cookbook.

Here's the beginning of the envelope roll:

Hard to take a picture and keep the egg roll together:

Here they are all nice and fried up:

And plated with some shrimp fried rice:

What inspired me to make my own egg rolls? This post Posie Gets Cozy: keeping her in eggrolls.

What changes did I make to the original Moosewood recipe? I added some shrimp so they weren't vegetarian. I used soy sauce instead of tamari. I subbed shredded carrots for celery and used canned bean sprouts because I couldn't find fresh and I left out the dried mushrooms because I couldn't find them. These weren't bad. I should have rolled them tighter. I thought I did, next time I will definitely make sure the corners are tucked in extra good.

And since this is a stitching blog and not a cooking blog here's my progress on Midsummer Night Designs, Monkey Sampler.

If you all haven't checked out Kiwi Jo's patchwork bags, head on over there and be ready to be awed. My sewing skills are limited at best but I have to make me one of these. Very cool, Jo.

Check out Jan's latest post, Be*mused. I love the paragraph about preparing yourself for sewing. Uh, nope not around here. Knock on my door, prepare to be frightened when I open it.

Weekend Stuff

Here's today's progress pic of CHS Strawberry Blonde. As you can see I still have not completed the large tomatoesque strawberry. Close but not there yet.

I'm trying to understand why some people can take pictures of coffee cups and they look like art and my still lifes(lives?) come out just looking dumb. Not one to be afraid of humiliating herself, I give you "Strawberry Blonde with Strawberries".



Yes, you are correct in assuming the table needs to be painted. The spousal unit does not understand the concept of putting down newspapers before painting anything. You think this is bad? Don't even ask about the kitchen table. I'm just glad there are such things as tablecloths in the world because, our naked dining table, there are no words to describe how ugly it is!

Current picture of the Vintage Vertical Stripe Crocheted Blanket Pattern above, the four or five rows to the right are the most recent additions. Once again, attempting the artsy still life, I present, "Strawberries on Top of Vintage Striped Blanket".

I've managed to finish a couple of books over the last week:

Break No Bones, Kathy Reichs

Kate Remembered: Books: A. Scott Berg

I started Kingdoms: A Love Story, Mary Jane Salk and also started

Evenings With Cary Grant: Recollections in His Own Words and by Th

Been doing some cooking, trying a few new recipes. One night we had Ree's

Marlboro Man's Favorite Sandwich for dinner. It was a hit with the family, with the exception of the 11 yr old. He won't eat anything that isn't spaghetti or pizza or a chicken nugget. The sandwich is great, requests were made to add it to the dinner rotation.

Last night I made Shrimp Fried Rice, Egg Foo Young, and used Meari's Musings. General Tso's Chicken recipe. When you click on the link scroll down for Meari's Recipe. It was good. I didn't have any rice wine vinegar and just used rice vinegar. I think the sauce would have been a little bit sweeter had I been able to find the rice wine vinegar. I also went a little overboard with the soy sauce. I added a little more than the recipe called for by accident. You know you're pouring the soy sauce into the measuring spoon and it kind of overflows into the bowl because you aren't paying attention? So my sauce was a teeny tiny bit saltier than it probably was supposed to have been.

Hopefully the weekend will be quiet and uneventful. Those are my favorite kind.

Jane has a nice post on a room of one's own, read it here: yarnstorm: a room of one's own

I'm looking forward to her book.

Finding My Way Back

To the part of my life devoted to my passion for the X. Not a lot of stitching has been accomplished lately. I've been so overwhelmed with all the projects I'd love to start, all the ones I have started that I want to complete, that the thought of picking up a needle and making virtually no progress made my stomach hurt. Maybe I take this a little to seriously? My mojo is back and I have been working on the little BBD freebie, no picture today, the sky looks pretty stormy so I'll tempt you with the following:

Mermaid's Folly by Courtney Glau.

Next is Adam & Eve-Permin .

I saw this stitched in red and now I'm obsessing over it.

Another obsession is thanks to Carol, check the Garden of Stitches link in the sidebar, she mentioned a new Long Dog, St. Reatham-longdog-/LD32.jpg on her blog. MUST STITCH THIS! Check out her and Kiwi Jo's progress on Paradigm Lost too. I really want to be their BFF. They both manage to get so much stitching accomplished, always gorgeous projects.



The Home Front


Sick and tired of my usual lasagna, I gave Pioneer Woman's Best Lasagna. Ever. a try. Below you can see my sauce simmering. Excuse the ugly pot, the good one was boiling noodles.

Here's the lasagne before baking:

And here's the first slice-no I will never win an award for food presentation. Top Chef participants need not fear me. It was plate licking good and that is what's important. The family said this was way better than the usual crap I serve. So that's a four star rating! Hard to get around here.

The youngest DS looked out the back door yesterday afternoon and said, "Mom, look how green the backyard is!" So I snapped the two shots below:

These trees were glowing around all the dead leaves.

Warning for Pink Monkeys:

If you are anywhere near our house, you must die. Trust me it's better than a live kitten!

Spring Break is OVER!

Can you tell I'm overjoyed at the thought of my three kids going back to school today? Oh yeah, I was happy. Let me tell ya. HAPPY!

We didn't do anything vacationy(vacationie?) over the past week but we did get one bathroom painted and one hallway, I say we, I bought the paint, the spousal unit did the painting. We went simple. Good old Country White. Amazing what a coat of paint will do to lift your spirits and make a room or hallway look so much better(cleaner). While much painting was being done, I took Mr Clean's Magic Eraser to the front of my hideous kitchen cabinets. They look like brand new. The stuff the Magic Eraser is made of worked some serious magic on my cabinets. I got all the laundry off the kitchen table and of course it is now piled a mile high with yet more clean laundry. I'm doing better folding and hanging as stuff comes out of the dryer but sometimes you just have to get the stuff out of the dryer to get the stuff from the washer into the dryer and well, I get a little behind.

I haven't accomplished a lot in the stitching aspect of my life. Too many distractions, which means the chaos that is my home finally got inside my head and I actually chose to clean the cabinets and fill up forty Hefty bags with trash instead of stitching. I think I must have had a fever. The sad part of the tale is that we still have a lot of junk around here. Whatever pile I seem to get rid of, five more take it's place. With everyone going back to school today, some balance came back in my world and I worked a teeny tiny little bit on BBD First Offerings. I forgot to take a picture but will do it first thing in the morning. So I'm stitching along and for some reason the tv screen divides itself in half and we have about a centimeter or less of tv screen, on either side the tv is black. This is not a good thing. The new living room tv will be a 13 inch from the garage until a new tv is in the budget. YIKES! It's March Madness! University of Memphis is in the Sweet Sixteen and we're stuck watching it on a 13 inch tv.

Over the last week we watched several movies. Borat won our minifilm festival hands down. That's the funniest movie I've seen in a long, long, long time. I don't even like this kind of thing, but Borat, "It's NICE." I love that people are suing and I hope a judge tells them before you sign a contract, read it, especially if it's someone you've never seen before in your whole entire life and really read the contract even if your mother asks you to sign it. Hollywoodland was a bit of a snooze. I wanted to watch it but just wasn't in the mood. I'm going to try it again in a week or two and see if I like it any better.

We also loved the Galapagos special on the National Geographic Channel Sunday night. The Spousal Unit who normally doesn't get into geek stuff loved it. He considers NGC a geek channel.

The new Rolling Stone has an article celebrating 10 yrs of South Park. I can't believe that show has been around 10 years already. Personally I think Trey Parker is a genius.

This afternoon I talked to an old friend, we don't talk as much as we should. We've known each other since eighth grade and talk maybe once every two years. That's so wrong. We have so much history together, there was a time when were like family. Then again we talk after not speaking for two years and we start conversations midsentence. Truthfully I've been missing my grandmother a lot the last few days. You know those moments when you want to tell them something and the ice cold fact that they are no longer here slaps you upside the head and you just start crying because there's really nothing else to do. You can't talk to them and they are they only ones that would have a clue about what's going on inside your head. They might not understand it but know that it's you being you and know just the right thing to say. It may not have anything to do with the reason you called but for whatever reason when you hang up the phone everything is better. Talking to Leslie kind of brought my grandmother back, she spent a lot of good times with my grandparents when we were in high school. So picking up the phone and calling her made me feel a little closer to Mamaw if only by proxy.

The funniest part of the conversation, we were talking about our age, reading glasses, the possibility of bifocals, her not me, yet! And the converstaion to turned to all the hours we spent on the phone in high school talking about all those high school things, boys, Friday night football, why so and so was popular and "Did you see those new Willie Nelson Jeans at the TG&Y?" and I asked her if she felt fortyish inside, and like me she said, "No, it's not right that I'm the one saying back when I was your age we had three tv channels." That seems to be our generations "I walked uphill five miles in the snow back and forth to school barefooted". Three tv channels sounds a lot worse than walking barefooted up a snowy hill to this new group of kids.

I'm not really sure what I'm trying to say right now, but old friends, sometimes their voice can heal, or take the sting out of a hurt for a little while. They can also make you homesick like you wouldn't believe!

Running All Around My Brain

This time of year is when I attempt to declutter the house and plan what to do with hopeless patches of green that we loosely refer to as the yard.

Today's project: the spousal unit's closet. It's a nightmare because it's the closet we throw stuff in when people show up unexpectedly and then we just ignore the piles of crap until we start looking for something we haven't seen in a while and think, "maybe we threw it in there". So far I've filled up two garbage bags and am in the process of emptying out a huge rubbermaid bucket tote I shoved in there a while back. I had high hopes of running across my Beatrix Potter Quaker chart but it wasn't in that particular bucket. I found more jeans the kids have outgrown for a denim throw I plan to make one day. I still have the other half of the floor of his closet to clean, this is a project that takes baby steps. If I work longer than 30 minutes at a time I get overwhelmed. I still can't figure out how we accumulate so much junk. Well I do, I'm a magazine whore and those create piles everywhere and I hate throwing them out because you never know when you have to look something up in a back issue of Mary Englebreit's Home Companion. Although the one I really wanted to save, there was a quilt I wanted to attempt to copy, I can't find. It's probably hanging out with Beatrix Potter laughing at me.

I've also been trying to plan the backyard. From pictures you can tell we have very little grass up near the house so I'm thinking about extending the patio using those large square stones. I have to get the grill off the patio and I'm thinking three rows of three stones will be perfect for that and then six rows of three on the other side and I can get the patio table off the porch. That way when we open the back doors we won't bang against chairs or the grill. I'm sure my neighbors appreciate that at 4 am when I'm letting the dogs out.

We're going to build a raised bed for a garden this weekend. Last year I did the container garden thing and my tomatoes would only get so big so we're going to put a raised bed on the south side of the house. I don't think it'll look tacky. Once it's nice and green and leafy it'll be pretty. We enjoyed home grown tomatoes last summer. Didn't have a large crop but made some killer bruschetta a couple of times. I'm going to try Square Foot Gardening this year. We're going to try watermelons again but a smaller kind instead of the congo watermelons we planted last year, very unsuccessful, we'll go with something that's not supposed to get 30lbs in size. I want to plant my herbs in big pots and set them around my extended patio created by the stones I mentioned above. Yes, I do understand that these plans are primed for disaster but I want to make the backyard a sanctuary. We're also going to put up some privacy fencing between the houses on either side of us. I've been pricing it and think we can do it pretty cheap to just connect us up on either side. We'll have to build our own gate unless Home Depot has premade gates, Lowes doesn't.

We have these new kids that have moved in and they are making me nuts. Don't get me wrong I don't mind other people's kids, but if I'm outside they are in my face talking to me constantly. Now they have started ringing the bell and wanting to tortureplay with the cats, they want me to bring the puppy out, I want to say go bother your own mom. So a fence it is and I'll never have to go out in the front yard again. The one girl is also clumsy and has fallen off the swing in my backyard twice. That's all I need a kid getting hurt on our swing. Although this little girl told me that I really should give them our swing because she doesn't have one. What is up with that? Every time she comes around my house into the backyard I'm sitting in the swing. I believe that means we use it! Anyway, I have plans for the backyard to make it a nice place to hang out expand the patio on the cheap and be able to leave my back doors open and the dogs can stay out as much as they want.

No stitching news, I worked a little this weekend on that BBD freebie, First Offerings.

We did watch a lot of movies this weekend. We watched The Departed-brutal. We also watched Snakes on a Plane. How good would that movie be in 3-D? We screamed all the way through it and kept pulling our feet off the floor on to the couch, lots of fun. We also watched Stranger than Fiction with Will Ferrell. I loved this movie and Rumor Has It with Jennifer Anniston and Kevin Costner, very enjoyable. We wasted Sunday finishing up season 1 of Dawson's Creek and starting season 2. Yes, our weekend was as lazy as you're thinking. Sometimes you just have to lay around on the couch and let all your brain cells chill for a while.

I started reading The Expected One by Kathleen McGowan and I can't get into it. I should have never read the acknowledgements before finishing the book. It has really taken some of the magic from the story. Sometimes I just don't need to know the backstory. Let me just enjoy this work of fiction and not know the author's journey. Sometimes too much information is too much information.

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.

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.