Made a quick run to Walmart today to scoop up that lime yarn and bummer, there was only 5 skeins. DS#1 wants a solid afghan, so that just wasn't enough. The yarn is Caron Simply Soft Brights. I tried my JoAnn's today too and they didn't have this in stock at all. Guess this gives me a good reason to make a Hobby Lobby run this weekend. My B-plan is to use Caron (or is it Red Heart's Lime Baby Soft?). It's a nice color, just not glow in the dark bright. I thought about using it as filler along with the bright lime and I decided it just wasn't going to look right.

I did manage to pick up some chicken and salad fixin's for supper tonight so it wasn't a wasted trip.

Well it's back to DS#3's quilt. I'm bound and determined to have all those rows sewed together before bedtime tonight. It doesn't help that I took a three hour nap this afternoon.

Long week last week for me. I plan to veg on the couch all day and watch movies and hopefully, finally, finish DS#3's quilt top without the borders of course, then again I may go ahead and do those too. Next week all I'll have left to do is buy the backing fabric, then it's on to basting and tie the quilt, then finis!

Creatively I've been stalled lately. Not sure if it's project overload, spring fever, depression or just burnout. There are so many things I want to do and finish and things I need to do for the house. Paint the living room, buy some saris to make a drape to hang between the living area of the living room and the computer area of the living room. I found a decent computer armoire at Walmart this weekend and I told DH that's what next week's paycheck is going to buy. It's only $90. We are using a crappy metal student desk and I'm sick and tired of all the junk piled on it and worrying if my printer is going to slide off the end of the desk and this armoire would match my wicker on this end of the room and really clean the area up.


I would love to get my house to the point where if someone drops by I don't have to run around throwing things in the closet or start vacuuming as they are walking up to the door. I hate housework. I keep thinking if I can just get organized the house will stay cleaner and might always be company ready. That's my long term goal anyway.

It doesn't help that I have a foldout table in the living room piled high with yarn for various crochet projects, a few cross stitch projects and now fabric for my quilt projects.

Speaking of quilting, I did buy the fabric for DS#1's Ohio Star quilt. He wanted lime to be the main color so I found a very bright lime green fabric at Walmart and bought almost three yards, I then bought a yard each of yellow, tourquoise, orange and blue. The lime will be the background color, the points of the stars will be in yellow and then the center square of each block will alternate between the tourquiose, orange and blue. It's going to almost glow in the dark, but that's what he wants. At first I was concerned the colors might be too girlie but I guess tropical colors work as well for boys as for girls. I also found some lime green yarn at Walmart in a soft yarn, but it's hmmmm, maybe Red Heart's Britz line? I should have bought it when I saw it because they only had about 8 6oz skeins, exactly what I need for a basic ripple afghan, I swear it was a sign, and it was in the endcap of the isle which means it's promotional and they probably won't be carrying it on a regular basis, but I had already spent about $20 or so on the fabric and DH was with me so I couldn't really see buying another $16 worth of yarn. I'll keep my fingers crossed they still have it next week when I go back. A few weeks ago I bought some Homespun Plantation yarn to make the freebie Waterfal pattern at Lionbrand for DS#1 because he told me he wanted a green afghan and then when he saw the Plantation he informed me he wanted bright green.

If Walmart doesn't have it next week(seriously who else but me would buy neon green yarn for an afghan?) I think Hobby Lobby might have this line of Red Heart. I didn't think about it until just now but I could have just popped it in the layaway until I could get back over there without DH. Yes, sneaky but he's really been rolling his eyes at all my project supplies lately. All he sees is me buying scrapbooks, yarn, fabric, cross stitch stuff yet no finished projects. I'm sure it makes no sense to him. Why buy the stuff if you aren't going to get around to working with it for a week or a month or even a year?

They did have this nice Red Heart Cotton in a purple too. I'm thinking about using that to make a tank from Crochet Fantasy magazine. Maybe I should run back over there and put the purple and the lime in the layaway and then I can pick it up in a week or two? Yes, I'm obsessing.

Wow! I don't blog for a couple of days and Blogger makes all these changes. A little disconcerting at first but now I like it. I think.

Things have been quiet around here to say the least. I like quiet. I revel in quiet.

I worked today. Will work Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Makes for a long week for me, but the extra money will come in handy, actually I've already spent it in my mind. That's really sick isn't it?

Progress reports. Hmmm, not much progress on anything. I did finish a book. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris. It's a Southern Vampire mystery. I enjoyed it, loved the main character Sookie Stackhouse. Refreshing in the Vampire genre, kind of Tanya Huff/Laurell K. Hamilton but different. Gee, I'd make a great book critic wouldn't I? Anyway, I hope to track down the other two or three books in the series soon.

The kids had frozen pizza for dinner and I think DH and I will have BLTs. I love BLTs. Without a doubt the greatest sandwich ever created. A close second is a mushroom/bacon/swiss burger.

I'm exhausted tonight so I'll probably try to do a few rows on my gemstone/black afghan. Single crochet, Q hook, no thinking, just a nice repetitive motion.

I'm obsessing over shawls at the moment. I want to crochet several for myself. How selfish is that? I may do one for my grandmother. I think she'd like it. First of all I will justify my current obsession with shawls by saying that if I had one I wouldn't feel a need to wrap myself up in an afghan and proceed to drag it around the yard at 2am while Miss Heidi(my absolutely wonderful black lab) does her business. Then again I just like them, have always liked them. I'm glad to see they're back in fashion. I saw a really cool one in an ad in the new issue of Family Circle's Easy Knitting. I think it's a Paton's Pattern. Heatwave might be the name. I can't find the pattern locally so I'll have to find a source online. I've been obsessing over it even since I picked up that magazine which was two months ago so I guess I have to have it.

I've made a little progress on my Liberty Sampler but not really enough to justify a new scan.

Fortunately it is supposed to rain here the next few days and I won't feel guilty for not being outside so I ought to get lots of things accomplished. I always say that.

On tomorrow's to do list:

Finish DS#3's quilt top. Really shouldn't take more than an hour or so. Just straight line sewing by hand. No big deal. I'm just being lazy. I'm only talking about getting all the pieced blocks set together, borders are for another day.

Work on Liberty Sampler at least enough to make a new scan of the piece.

Work on my gemstone/black afghan just because I enjoy it.

Maybe put in a length or two of floss on Fairy Grandmother a.k.a. the GrandHag, just because I'm feeling very, very guilty about not finishing this. I'm a horrible granddaughter.

My dad's wife is pretty sick and I'm considering stitching MLI's Angel of the Morning. It can be seen at Told in a Garden . It's a beautiful piece, not my style but I think she'd like it and maybe it would bring her some comfort. Then again, large projects take me forever, they may find a cure before I get it finished. I really didn't mean for that to sound as irreverant as it did. Unfortunately it's a fact of my stitching life.

For example before I've finished a few wedding samplers for friends, they've gotten divorced. I decided that maybe wedding samplers were not necessarily worth the work these days. Am I jaded or what? Guess I ought to be a faster stitcher.

I want to work on jazzing up the blog by adding some buttons but I'm not exactly sure how to "steal" them from blogs I read. I hate not knowing as much as I should about the computer.

Yesterday was pretty quiet. I took DS#2 and #3 to get haircuts. We ran to the Mall to grab some lunch. They were arguing over where to eat so the Mall seemed to be the best solution. Believe it or not I didn't eat anything. Go me! I had an unsweet tea and honestly I didn't miss not eating fast food.

When DH got home from work we headed over to Destin to go to Sockeyes, a surf shop, to look at their Tshirts. I was looking for something specific that I had seen in a magazine but couldn't find it there. Guess I'll be ordering it online. I thought DS#2 might find a few tshirts he wanted me to buy for him in the next couple of weeks but nothing caught his eye. Guess he's stuck with wearing what mom brings home. He's upped my coolness factor and is refusing to wear anything with the words "Old Navy" on it for the time being. Fortunately TJ Maxx always has a good selection of Quicksilver, Billabong and Shady Limited. He wants some Fat Albert clothes but won't let me ask the mom in the neighborhood who's kid wears them where she purchased them. So he goes without a Fat Albert ensemble. Apparently it's totally uncool to ask someone where they buy their clothes. He refuses to tell anyone where I buy his tshirts. Oh the joys of middle school.

We grabbed a quick supper at Captain D's. I was finally starving and decided frying shrimp and fish at home was going to be way too much trouble and probably cost more.

I worked for a little while on my Liberty Sampler and pulled out my Sugar and Cream yarn for my Pieced Throw from Simple Crochet. I think I may start it next week. It's worked in strips and won't be as hot to work on as my larger Gemstone and Black Red Heart afghan. I had the A/C turned really low the other day because that heavy afghan on my lap was making me sweat. Of course everyone else in the house was freezing.

This week will be a long one work wise. I'm working Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Fortunately not a double on Saturday. Just my regular 5-6 hour shift. Should make for a nice paycheck though. That is always a good thing.

Over the last few days we watched Master and Commander, what a boring movie. I love movies set on ships and the high seas but this one put me to sleep both times I tried watching it. I never got any farther than halfway through the movie before going to sleep. We also watched The Haunted Mansion. I thought it was pretty good. I had heard bad things about it, but DS#3 has been wanting to watch it and honestly I enjoyed it. Last night DH wanted to watch School of Rock. I hated it. Normally I find Jack Black entertaining but this movie just expected me to take too much for granted. Like he could show up at an exclusive school and substitute teach with no photo ID? Sorry if they had handled that part better I might have been hooked, even enjoyed the movie. But I hate movies that expect me to accept whatever they say no matter how unrealistic the plot maybe. DS#1 says I'm overthinking it, it's just a movie. Sorry I expect more from a movie and the writers. Today we'll watch Marci X with Lisa Kudrow and Damon Wayans. I remember seeing the previews and thought it sounded funny.

I had wanted to rent Calendar Girls and DH said no chick flick for him so I'll rent that Monday and watch it when I'm home alone.

On the reading front I finished Jill Churchill's Bell, Book and Scandal. Pretty good mystery. I started Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas by James Patterson last night and need to get to reading on it as it due back at the library tomorrow. It's already got me hooked. Patterson writes well from the woman's point of view.

Today's quick run to JoAnn's was disappointing. They only had 2 skeins of Waterfall Homespun so I decided DS#1's afghan could be LionBrand Homespun Plantation. It's a nice dark green variegated. Of course when I got home and showed it to DS#1 he wants a much brighter green. Like neon green, glow in the dark green. Is there no pleasing these kids? Anyway I told him right now he's getting the Plantation green afghan and he's going to like it. I told him he'd really appreciate it when he's older. Later on I'll try to find some funky bright lime green yarn for another afghan for him.
Maybe dye some wool with Koolaid. Koolaid comes in some bright glow in the dark colors.

Made a quick run to the LNS also and purchased the new Mirabilia Emerald Mermaid. Love this merchick. I don't think a pic is posted on the 'net yet. At least one wasn't yesterday. Also picked up a BC chart, Signs of Summer.

Came home with a major headache. It was hot today. I should have drank more water. I think dehydration caused my headache. I plan to go to Walmart tonight and get the stuff to repair the A/C in my truck. I don't think I'll be able to survive without it any longer. Happy Mother's Day to me, yea! Chances are this will be the closest thing to a gift I receive. My 8 yr old made me the sweetest Mother's Day gift at school. Made me cry when I read it. I guess that counts as a gift. Ignore the nasty sentence before the previous one.

I am so tired, I hear the bed calling and it's only 6:55 pm.

Yikes! Just realized I hadn't blogged since Tuesday. Not much going on to really blog about unfortunately.

I did put in about 4 rows on my gemstone/black single crochet afghan. With any luck I'll get it finished this weekend. I'm still debating on whether or not I might need two more skeins of black to get the finished size I want. I think I'm going to do a single crochet edging all around in solid black when it's finished.

I worked for about a nano second my Liberty Sampler, and then fell asleep. I dosed on the couch while watching Princess Daisy on the Love Channel. Can't believe I wasted four hours of good stitching time vegging on the couch and watching a sappy miniseries. Ok, it held my interest. It had Rupert Everett in it. I know wasted energy drooling over him but he's still a beautiful man. He was such a horrible man in this movie. Not really horrible, obsessed, lovesick, violent and vindictive-ok really horrible. I missed a lot of tv in the early 80s and 90s so now I'm playing catch up. There are a lot of Danielle Steele's miniseries that are new to me since I didn't watch them the first go round. Princess Daisy was based on a Judith Krantz novel.

I'm hoping to make a trip to JoAnn's today to pick up six skeins of the Lionbrand Homespun that's on sale for $3.99 a skein. I want to make the freebie Waterfall afghan shown on the Lionbrand website. I love that color. It calls for a Q hook. The Q hook is my new best friend. Love that huge hook. Wish I could find a wooden Q hook.
The largest I've found in wood is an M hook.

I'm also planning to order Marlo's Felted Crochet Bag Pattern package. Now I need to start stocking up on wool so that I can play with Koolaid dying and felting. I think the bags would make nice gifts for stitching friends.

Other than those few items life has been dull. I kind of like dull. Dull is good. I have to work today and don't really want to. It's going to be HOT today. In the 80s with no breeze, add to that a barbque pit and a grill and that spells SUPER HOT! On the plus side I am making money for stash so I shall suck it up and be happy to be there. I also don't think another day spent vegging on the couch is healthy and it's exactly what I'd be doing. All I seem to want to do these days is sleep. I can't get enough sleep.

Ok do I need to mention all the Friends hoopla? It's a tv show for crying out loud. Sure I've watched it a few times, I have to admit though I've watched it more in reruns on TBS than the original shows. There's all this hoopla surrounding a TV show. A TV show! Friends is funny, ok, but it's still no Seinfeld or Frasier. Where's the hoopla for Frasier's last episode? A consistently funny show that never failed to make me laugh and was smart and clever. I have to say that as much as I loved Seinfeld the last episode fell short of what the show represented the years it was on the air. Everyone interviewed about Friends says they don't think it's going to disappoint anyone. Of course I'm going to watch. Do I have a choice?

Yesterday I worked on my Liberty Sampler designed by Hester's Needle.



I didn't know what I wanted to work on yesterday and saw this sitting on my shelf in it's photobox and decided it was screaming at me the loudest. I didn't want to have to think or count too much yesterday so I worked mostly on the red border around the inside of the piece. I also worked a little on the sail on the right at the top, but mainly stuck to the border. I have to do borders when I feel like it. 99% of the time I find border stitching boring but yesterday it was relaxing. I needed the repetition.

I had started out the day working on my single crochet black and gemstone afghan, but I managed to pull out a bad skein of Red Heart Black, one of those where both end threads are in the center of the skein and they keep knotting up on each other. I hate that. I'm too lazy to rewind the skein so I'll crochet when I'm ready to deal with that every few stitches.

Yesterday while stitching I watched 21 Grams. I can't decide whether I liked it or not. I can't decide whether or not it was this profound look at the way one accident, one stupid choice, can change the lives of several people or if it was just trying too hard to be that kind of film. I didn't care for the way the story was told. They told it backwards and it took me a few minutes to put the pieces together and realize what was going on. I also watched Emma with Gywneth Paltrow for the first time. Pretty good movie. But can one really go wrong with Jane Austen? Then last night when the boys should have been in bed, we all laid around in the living room watching Mars Attacks! Now I love that movie!


I have to go to work today and I don't want to. I know I'll be glad I'm there when I get there, but right now it's not some place I really want to be. What I'd really, really love right now is a Denver omelette, some chocolate chip pancakes, hashbrowns and some cheese blintzes from IHOP. I've been craving this particular meal for about two weeks. I'm eventually going to have to go and at the very least have the omlette and chocolate chip pancakes.

Well time to do some housework before I go to the job that pays me. I would rather crawl back under the covers and sleep the day away.