A Package

In today's mail I received a package from Beth Twist of Heartstring Primitives(you can find a link to her Etsy shop at her blog). I won her pin pillow giveaway on Facebook. If you are on Facebook, become a fan of Heartstring Primitives. Beth's designs are very nice, I have With One Accord, Rachel Holmes 1842 and Ann Taylor and I don't know which I'm going to start first but back to the package:

See that strawberry? How sweet is that? I have a jar of these that my Mamaw made. Yep, the ones she made by hand in a Mason jar like a jar of strawberry preserves.
Here's the front of the pin pillow. I think it's a Williamsburg print, is that what those fabrics are, my mind is blanking at the moment. It'll come to me as soon as I hit publish.

Here's the back.

And here's a close up of the strawberry. Sweet! Thank you so much Beth!

And because it's the day before Halloween I thought I'd share my progress on HAED A Night in the Pumpkin Patch based on the art of C.C. Kuik. My goal had been to have her finished by tomorrow but as you can see that ain't happening. I'm glad I pulled her out because I had forgotten how pretty she is and now I want to stitch on her all night. Sorry the picture isn't any better it was cloudy when I did her photo shoot.

Don't forget to check out Missy Ann's 13 Days of Halloween......

No Stitching but FROGS!

Disclaimer: No frogs were injured during this photo shoot, I promise.

On Monday I babysat my little buddy John. He's absolutely my favorite human being person. He's smart, way beyond his three years. If I'm sad, this kid can brighten my day, even when that day starts at 6 a.m. We somehow ended up in my backyard which I think is one of John's favorite places and I'm not sure why. I have a swing, he has a swing in his backyard too. I have dogs and cats, he has a dog and a cat. I'm pretty sure he even has frogs in his yard but on this day he caught a baby frog in my backyard. Below you see him trying to contain the frog who really was just minding his own business, hopping along to meet some frog buddies.

Trust me there's a frog on his arm.

See peeking out there, Sir Frog Hopsalot. He really was calm considering his current situation.

The mantra of the morning: Do not squeeze him. Do not squeeze him. I finally gave up and said, "If you keep holding him that tight he's going to pee all over your hand and I'm out of soap!"
Sometimes gross works, especially with three year olds.

This picture was taken by John, Still Life with Frog. So see Sir Frog Hopsalot survived the photoshoot and is hopefully off chillin' with his frog lady friend and getting ready to make some tadpoles.

Here's the much delayed graduation picture. That's the 13 yr old to the left, the graduate in the middle and the spousal unit there on the right. The oldest was off somewhere with a pack of girls.

And here below you see my very own Angel with a Dirty Face, Polly Prissy Pants. I love this dog so much. She's my best friend, my protector, and so darn goofy.

In stitching news which is probably what you come here for, I'm almost finished with Primitive Needle's Salem Remembered. As soon as that's finished I'm going to start either Simply Live which is kitted up from a mix of threads or Cape Cod Girls which I have partially kitted up, just need a few more colors but I could start it no problem. Both of these are also Primitive Needle designs. Here's a link to more of Lisa's designs: The Primitive Needle.

I had a bit of a fabric dyeing disaster. I wanted to start HAED Cinderella-Dawe, I am having trouble accessing the website or I'd include a link you can go to http://www.heavenandearthdesigns.com/ click on artists listing 1, then scroll down to Dawe, click, then you can see Cinderella. Anyway, my fabric was a bit too white so I thought a coffee stain would darken it up enough that the light grays wouldn't fade into the fabric, well I dunked my fabric, took it out, put it on the patio table to dry, the wind kept blowing it off the table so I tossed it in the dryer. I'm not skilled at this stuff, I just do what I think I am supposed to do. I can't stress that enough. Well my fabric came out of the dryer and all the coffee stain had pooled along the edges and now the fabric just looks dirty or peed on. Fortunately this is a solidly stitched design, I was planning on matting it when I framed it, so only a tiny bit of fabric will show and I just didn't want it to bright antique white. So I'm stitching on the screwed up fabric because I'm just wild and crazy that way and have no shame. I love the way Cinderella is presented in this picture. I can feel her heartaching, the magic is gone and she's back to being Cinderella, cleaning girl. Right now other than the fabric being in hideous shape I've only stitched a bit of black and gray and there's not much to see but a blob. Will share when I have more of a picture.

I'm not sure if I've shared this link before but Beatrice is stitching The Autumnal Woods from Golden Kite. It's something like 600,000+ stitches and is the size of a blanket. She has a pretty sweet gallery of stitched masterpieces from http://www.goldenkite.com/ and when I see how much she has stitched on this ginormous piece it makes me want to pick up my needle and go to town. I just don't know if I have that kind of stick-to-it-ness. How long have I been working on Salem Remembered a piece I love?

I'm hoping the spousal unit will be motivated to paint the living room this weekend, I mean what else has he got to do? The only thing on his calendar is True Blood at 8p.m. on Sunday night, he can surely squeeze in a bit of painting right?

Keep your fingers crossed next post will be a "I finished Salem Remembered" celebratory post.

Also anyone else think Facebook puts you right back into the mindset that you are still that awkward kid you were in high school?

Odds & Ends

How's it going gang? I uploaded my pics all out of order and Blogger isn't letting me move them around but that's ok. I'll make it work. This weekend I ventured out in the world at large. My how things have changed. Gas has gone up like 40¢ a gallon, it's like waking up in another world, ok not that bad but still. Saturday I went out with my big blue boot on, it was hot and annoying so Sunday I shoved a sneaker on my foot and called it good. The spousal unit and I went for a drive out the beach road between Pensacola and my hick town and we saw this:


So much nicer than the TV or my neighbor's house across the road. You know you think when you're laid up it might get all exciting like Jimmy Stewart in Rear Window but it doesn't(at least I do because I have a pretty good imagination) but I know my neighbors and the one who might be nuts, well I can't see that house from mine.

My kids are right, we do live on the most boring street in the world, which we tell them, is why we moved here in the first place. So they could be wild and free and safe and also because the beach is like five minutes away and that's really why we moved here. The whole safety thing is just an added perk.

The picture above was taken at about 50 miles an hour flying by the beach. I love this stretch of road so much. It's Gulf Islands National Seashore I believe that's the official title, but there's no development accept for a few parking lots and one or two parks with picnic pavillions and bathrooms and I do not begrudge beachgoers parking or bathroom facilities. My heart sings that there are no condos or houses here. I'm a firm believer that the beach belongs to everyone and it's wrong for it to be privatized(is that a word) in any way.

In Topsy Turvy Gardening news up there you can see the beginnings of some Roma tomatoes. How cute are they? Can't wait for them redden right up and become tasty bruschetta or a tomato/basil/mozzarella sandwich.

We moved the Topsy Turveys to the back yard. We have a wooden swingset, this side used to be a single swing and it broke a few years ago. This area of the backyard gets lots of sun so we moved these bad boys back here. Yes, that's picket fencing laying there on the ground. My friend gave us their old fence and when the spousal unit was trying to dig postholes he kept running into pesky tree roots so we have to rent an auger to do the job. So right now the fencing is just laying in it's possible future home. The Brandwine tomato plant there on the right, I was watering it yesterday and noticed that the stem on one of the blossoms is broken. I don't know how it happened and wonder if maybe birds might have gotten at it or squirrels.

We are going to plant a Topsy Turvy zucchini plant and also a cucumber plant and I want to do a cantalope plant but the spousal unit has this bizzare plan of doing a Topsy Turvy corn plant. Yeah, he's a little bit crazy.

On the Craft Front:

One day last week I was assessing my WIP pile and what I still loved and what I no longer felt the love for and why and I pulled out my HAED Sampler Large. I had started it on a big ol' hunk of bland, vanilla, 25ct cream lugana. I have been checking different hand-dyed fabrics and decided that a new piece of fabric was just not in the budget. So I took a deep breath, pulled my unsweet tea out of the fridge, dumped out a little, took my morning's coffee and poured it in the tea pitcher and just crammed my ginormous cut of lugana, with a tiny bit of stitching on it in the pitcher. I let it soak for about two hours. Then I pulled it out, rinsed it off and decided that the tea/coffee bath was a vast improvement over the bland cream color but it needed a little something else, a finishing touch, so I hobbled over to the dye cabinet, ok it's a Fiesta Orange hutch in the kitchen and it's where I store my bottle or two of RIT dye but "Dye Cabinet" makes it sound like I have a clue what I'm doing. Anyway I pull out the handy dandy bottle of Tan RIT Dye and start splattering up my fabric and smooshing the fabric together. I let it sit out on a cookie sheet in the sink for an hour or so and then rinse it off, and move it to the patio table and let the afternoon sun bake it a bit. Below you can see a bit of my antiquing and I'm pretty stoked about the result. Sorry the picture isn't any better, I took one of the whole piece of fabric and it was blurred. I think my poor camera is on it's last leg.

As you can see I hadn't stitched too much and since I wasn't loving the fabric I was either going to dye it and love it or start over anyway. I'm pretty sure now I can keep on stitching and be happy with the piece. Unlike most HAED this piece has a lot of fabric showing and it was screaming for a handdyed fabric which I knew from the very beginning but I'm hardheaded and cheap and wanted to use what I had already in the stash. This is what the finished piece will look like:

Sampler Large [FENECH51007L] - $15.00 : Heaven and Earth Designs, The Art of C

A lot of my stitching friends ask why I like stitching HAED when I could just buy the artwork and stitch something else and well, I have to say, I have always enjoyed stitching art. I tend to want to stitch things I like to think I would have the imagination to paint if I were an artist. I also find stitching these huge pieces comforting. I am not pressured to finish them like some other projects. You know when you sit down with needle and thread and think to yourself, "I'll finish this during this stitching session" and then you don't? That is such a frustrating feeling, especially since my finishes are few and far between. The HAED projects take that pressure out of the stitching. I am just stitching for the sake of stitching, no urgency to finish, no possibility of finishing, just little Xs on fabric and hopefully with each stitching session the picture comes a little more to life.

My stitching time lately has been devoted to The Primitive Needle's Salem Remembered. I think I might just finish it this week. See there I go, setting a goal I might not be able to keep. I'm in the process of kitting up Cape Cod Girl's and ABC Hornbook and if you check Lisa's blog, Witch Stitches The Primitive Needle , you can see her Mystic Sampler which will also get bumped up to the top of my "To Be Stitched Immediately" pile. I have Ichabod Seabury to start when I finish Salem Remembered. He's stitched on PTP(http://www.picturethisplus.com/) Swamp linen. I love that color.

The fascination with tombstones, well I've always had one. When I was a kid, every Sunday before Mother's Day the whole family would make a trip to Woodville cemetery for Decoration. That's when you clean all the dead flowers and weeds off the graves so that it's all pretty for Mother's Day when people come to put fresh flowers out. We would spend all day there and people would bring folding tables, card tables and food and we'd picnic right there among the tombstones talking about those that had gone on to the great unknown and hear their stories and where they fit in the family tree. It was never a time of sadness for me, I only personally knew one person buried in that cemetary and he passed away when I was four or five, my great grandfather, Papa Sparks. I remember him vividly. My Mamaw and Great Aunt Lila would take care of him and I would run up to him and kiss his hand and Mamaw would make us tea cakes that we would eat hot from the oven with butter and cold glasses of milk. Yes, technically a tea cake was a sugar cookie, not quite as sweet but sweeter and more cookie like than a biscuit but big and softer than a true cookie. Papa liked his hot, dripping in butter and to this day I like them that way too. We would play and hide and seek among the tombstones, because this is one of those great old country cemetaries with real tombstones, above ground, not hidden away flush with the grass. I think about these weekends this time every year and how my mamaw was so worried that after she and her sisters were gone no one would go up there and tend her mother and father's graves. If I get home sometime this summer I plan to make a trip up there and make sure the graves are taken care of, I owe Mamaw that much.

The tombstone love, well I found it in novel form, thanks to a tip from my friend Siobhan. I've read two of Sarah Stewart Taylor's novels over the last week and enjoyed them both.

I've been trying to listen to Cormac McCarthy's The Road on CD and OMFG it's the most depressing book in the world. Of course I want to know if the Man and the Boy make it down the road to warmer temperatures but this post nuclear bomb world is a horrible place and I'm not finding much to love about it and the Man happens to be a man of few words and I keep worrying something really bad is going to happen to the Boy. I've stopped at the third CD and am not sure I can go on. I think I'm going to go with The Historian this week. I've read the book and enjoy the story, it remains one of my all time favorite books.

OK while doing our long drive this Sunday morning, I had to take a picture of the cheesy beach ball water tower on Pensacola Beach. I love Pensacola Beach. It is a constant reminder of happy family vacations, sunburns, seafood, staying in little beach cottages, called "motor inns" back in the day. I miss those. High rise Comfort Inns are just not as homey as those sweet cinderblock beach cottages, and yes, even back in the day they were dumps but I loved them and was broken hearted when they bulldozed them in the name of progress. Another thing I love about Pensacola Beach is the neon Swordfish sign that directs people to the beaches:

Pensacola Beach travel guide - Wikitravel

There was a time not too long ago when some uppity folks bought their million dollar homes on Penscacola Beach and wanted the swordfish gone, it was tacky they said. What they didn't understand was that locals have a very warm place in their hearts for that tacky swordfish. It represents Pensacola Beach, that it's not an uptight place to vacation, but a nice, comfortable, fun place to spend your time. I'm so glad the swordfish still stands and was repaired after the last hurricane. When I see that ginormous swordfish, my heart swells with love for this beach town. I remember driving across Three Mile bridge with my uncle's feet hanging out the back window while he slept and I slept across dashboard above the backseat and would occaisionally roll off on top of him. I remember almost drowning not once but twice in one day. Once in the Gulf when I was on a raft floating out to sea, my Mamaw swore I was a dot on the horizon, and my uncle who had just had an appendectomy had to swim out to save me, and then going down the slide in the pool in the deep end and not having a clue how to swim. I remember being sunburned and eating fried oysters in the coldest oyster bar in the world. Good times.

Forgot to mention for all you crocheters or those needing inspiration, I always need inspiration where my color choices are concerned, check out this blog:

Attic24

I'm already planning my football knitting and crocheting. Can't really cross stitch at the football field so I'm going to save my crochet projects for practices. I can't stop looking at her pictures. I want to make tons of things using her palette.

What I Did on My Spring Break

I would love to tell you all that Spring Break was a whirlwind of travel, Paris, Barcelona, London, Ireland, NYC, Chicago, LA, but no spring break was spent in my messy house listening to almost grown kids whine about the nasty weather. I've apparently done a very good job convincing them that I have superpowers because they acted like I could do something about the deluge of rain falling from the sky. Like I was totally connected to the clouds and could blink my eyes, twitch my nose and the clouds would part, the sun would shine and life would be good. Uh no. So we spent the better part of last week listening to thunder, watching the lightening, and visiting the video store as much as humanly possible.

Of all the movies we watched over the week The Mist was the best. That's not saying a lot. Man are there some baaaaaad movies on the video store shelves these days. Avoid Mirrors. Yes it's got Keifer Sutherland but I so completely didn't get it. I mean I did get it, I understood it, but still that is two hours of my life I will never get back. We watched W. Josh Brolin is going to be the next great actor. He's wonderful. Whatever your politics this movie is worth watching just to see Josh Brolin. We watched Quantum of Solace, James Bond, Daniel Craig, 'nuff said.

I also watched A History of Violence a gazillion times. I love me some Viggo. If you haven't seen it's great on so many levels.

What did I do while watching all those movies? Well cross stitching was out because it's easy to make mistakes when someone is in your face whining for eight straight hours so I decided to spend some quality time with the 63 Squares afghan I'm making for my oldest son. The colors are his choice--I played with different shades of green, blue and yellow and these were just the ones that looked the best together. I added the variegated for some pizazz and well I like those variegated yarns. I can't help it. I always have, always will. I love them and pop them in when I can. I am crocheting this with good old inexpensive Red Heart, that staple of yarn baskets everywhere. I would love to make one of these in real wool. Really, I would but I have a few issues.

1) This is for my 21 yr old son, I hope he loves it so much that when he moves out one day when he's like 40(I wish that wasn't a joke, LOL) that he will want to take it with him. This means that if he ever washes it, it will go in the washer and the dryer and that means it will felt and be a doll blanket. Not good.

2) Since he's a guy and has a wild streak, I can only imagine what he will put this afghan through, so that means even if he doesn't want to wash it he will, eventually, which means if I crochet it with wool, it will felt--see reason 1.

So good old Red Heart it is. Below you can see the first 5 of 7 squares of Row 1. I had hoped to complete the row this weekend but had huge gauge issues and as you can see from the last square there I still have a gauge issue but I said screw this I'll make it work. The next smallest crochet hook was too small for the worsted weight, the E hook I think, so I just went with the F and left it as is. I will work it out later. My goal is to crochet this row by row instead of 1-63 and then assemble each row as it's completed and then sew the rows together as I finish them and it should make assembly much more enjoyable and not as overwhelming if I waited until all the blocks were done.

Here you see them piled up showing that nifty variegated. I can't help it. I love that Red Heart Bananaberry. It's a happy mix of colors. Every attempt I've made before on the 63 Squares afghan has ended up looking really sad. No matter what colors I chose, bright, dark, classy, they all looked uninspired, but these seem to be coming together ok. Or maybe it's just me being full of hope and all.

And the squares from a different angle because that's just how I roll:

Here is some progress on my HAED Dark Waters:

This project will be a lifetime commitment and I try to work on it when I can. I'm stitching it 2x1 on 22ct aida. It's a combination of Selena Fenech's Dark Waters(the mermaids) and across the top will be her Bright Skies which is an angel panel. I'm almost to the center panel of water and sky. I love this project so much. I can't imagine ever actually finishing it so that means when I sit down to work on it, I don't see the finished project, I just see little Xs. There is no pressure, I can just stitch and get lost in the story my mind makes up about these swimming mermaids and the shenanigans they are off to get into. Since I don't think like an angel I'm not sure what I might be dreaming about when I get to that part of the design but I'm sure I'll come up with something.

And below you see my start on The Primitive Needle's Talking Board. I thought I'd have this finished by now but got side tracked by spring break and that whole family thing and crocheting takes less concentration. I'm stitching it 1x2 on 36ct Relic from Picture This Plus.

Today I'm going to play around with my Patternmaker software and see if I can get a pattern for Kudzu out of it. I have to use the other laptop with missing keys because the CD drive in this one is fried and I need to look for one of those external drives because I want to buy one of these for myself:

Walmart.com: Acer Blue Aspire One ACA150-1447 Mini Laptop PC Netbook with Inte

I'd prefer the HP Mini but only because the keyboard is almost normal size. Everything I've read about the Acer with the 6 cell battery is that you can get up to 3 1/2 hours of battery life. I love that, makes it great for taking it places, although if I want to write on it I need to figure out the whole Barbie sized keyboard. I'm really tired of fighting for computer time so I've told the spousal unit when that money tree sprouts up in the backyard I want one of these. Of course I have a never ending wish list of things I want--this is a necessity but the others? Total luxury items. Want a peak?

SpinBlessing.com Ashford Traditional Spinning Wheel, $425.00 A few things we'll ignore: I live in Florida and have no need to learn to spin wool but I want to. I really, really want to. I mean with climate change and all, Florida's weather could be like Montana's one day. Seriously. Learning to spin might be good knowledge to have one day.

Ashford Joy Spinning Wheel with free shipping and free fiber Add to that, I rarely travel and can think of no reason why I need a spinning wheel that I can fling over my shoulder but I do. I can't imagine a situation where I'd ever take a spinning wheel with me but for some reason I want this wheel, I dream about this wheel.

Amazon.com: Kindle 2: Amazon's New Wireless Reading Device (Latest Generation) We will ignore the fact that I seem to get most of my books at the library these days or the used bookstore. That doesn't matter I want a Kindle!

I also want a Serger--uh I don't sew but I've decided it'd be cool to make some exercise clothes and the serger will make finishing them nicer. I also won't add that fabric to make my own exercise clothes is more expensive than buying the clothes off the rack, and again I don't SEW! But a Serger it's a necessity.

I also want a set of Knit Picks' Harmony Interchangeable Needles and a set of the Options Interchangeable needles, and a set of the Harmony DPNs and the Harmony straights. No--I am not a passionate knitter, I play at knitting, I am slowly teaching myself and plan to take a sock knitting class in the not so distant future none of that matters, I want, I want, I want. Once again with climate change knitting might be a skill that's kind of important.

And I also want one of these quilting frames:

Honey Fork Fabrics So we won't mention how I've never completed a quilt. That doesn't matter. I would have this when the time came.

And do I mention here how I want tons of fabric? Kaffe Fossett, Anna Marie Horner, Amy Butler, BBD and oh so many more? Lots and lots of fabric.

I would also love a room full of Picture This Plus fabrics, all the floss I could ever need, and could just walk in the room, pull out what I need for a project and BAM, I could start it right then and there.

I know, I'm insane. Does anyone else have these unrealistic wishlists? Like you want things, you don't need them, you just want them so that one day when you get around to whatever they are there waiting on you?

Rainy days really gets me list making, dreaming, planning.

I won't mention the raised beds that didn't get built because they would have floated away, that'll be a job for this coming weekend. Because I want to grow lots and lots of tomatoes and can homemade salsa and tomato sauce this fall.

I'm thinking about getting several of these and hanging two of them on my front porch:

Topsy Turvy Hanging Tomatoes Official Site - Upside Down Planter

That's kind of decorative don't you think? We get western exposure, my front yard is the perfect place for a garden but I don't think the neighbors would appreciate me plowing up the yard, it wouldn't fit in the HOA code. But wouldn't these look like maybe viney party lanterns? I'm also thinking about hanging them from shepherd's hooks in the backyard. I'm going to grow tomatoes in the ground and in containers and in every free spot that gets sun because we use a lot of tomatoes around here. We eat a ton of salsa so canning my own might be a good thing or we could all die of botchulism which is my biggest fear about home canning but I want to try it this year.

So this is what I've been up to this week. Now to go fight with the ancient laptop and the Patternmaker sofware and see if I can work out a pattern for kudzu for My

21st Century Sampler Project. And for those of y'all that don't what kudzu is here are some links:

The Amazing Story of Kudzu and Kudzu-The Vine

And also, note to self, when bored quit doing searches on flickr for quilts. My brain goes into overload and I want to make everything I see. It's TOO MUCH!

Thanks Y'all!

Thank you for all the notes and emails about my dad. They were all appreciated more than you know.



If you read my friend Sharon's Blog this little biscornu will look familiar. I went to my mailbox one day last week and found the frogs. I am deeply in love with these guys. They have beads on their toes. Frogs with bling. Sharon ROCKS! I am so honored to be the recipient of these guys. Thanks Sharon--for so many things but most of all for being my friend.



Here's the back:

It's overcast here, of course I post no pictures for ages and the first day we get rain I decide it's the perfect time for a photo shoot. The spousal unit is probably correct that I really don't need a Hasselblad camera. I'm kind of obsessing over one right now. Ashton Kutchner humping Nikon has really put me off wanting a D80 Nikon now. I know I'm weird.

Some stitching has been going on:

Above you see part of page 10 and part of page 11 of HAED Dark Waters based on the artwork of Selena Fenech. And below you see how the table looked right behind the stitching. Crystal will not move and she hisses when you try to move her yourself. I left her alone and just propped the Q-snaps on the cat. Whatever works right?

Chick With No Skilz

That would be me. I thought zigzaging around some wave borders for my Just Beachy quilt would be easy. Wrong. Even going S-L-O-W I messed it up in some spots. I need a little bit more control and some practice.

My library has started getting in books on Playaway. They are so freakin' cool. It's the convenience of an iPod without spending time loading the material on the computer and then loading it up on the iPod. I price checked these on Amazon and they are only a little more than a book on CD.

Haven't had a picture of my guys on here lately. Here they are at the hotel where my SILS were staying a few weeks ago. The youngest is refusing to cut his hair. I'm letting it go. Picking my battles. He keeps it clean so we'll see how long he can suffer with the Fabio look.

BTW-I conducted a taste test, McD's iced coffees vs. Burger King. If a Starbucks Frappe is no longer in the budget go with the Mocha Joe at Burger King. The McD's are awful. JMHO of course. But the Mocha Joe has a really rich taste and I've tried several at McD's different times of the day, different McD's and they all taste watery and why don't they have a mocha flavor? Vanilla, Hazelnut and Coffee are the choices around here. Don't they know people love mocha?

Random Things

Here is my progress on my current "to go" project:

It's BBD Beneath the Sunlit Sky. I had stitched most of the flower on the top left and had to frog it because I wasn't paying attention. The frogs are alive and well in North West Florida.




Here is my minimal progress on Fenech's Sampler Large from HAED. The stitching is slow for many reasons. The "A" block has a gazillion colors in it and and I haven't found a rythmn yet. I'm looking forward to seeing the design come to life but feeling a bit of frustration at the moment.

I am surprised to discover that I really love 1x1 stitching on 25ct Lugana. I can't believe how much I like it. When I was stitching on Beneath the Sunlit Sky over 2 on 32ct, it was like needlepoint or rug hooking. The #26 Piecemaker needle felt so big in my hand, the the two strands of GAST was so thick! My stitching felt sloppy even though I was careful to railroad my stitches. My only regret with this project was not waiting to start it until I could order a hand-dyed Lugana from Silkweavers but it really wasn't in the budget and I'm sure this cream Lugana isn't looking bad, I just think some splotchiness would have enhanced the picture a bit. Maybe that's just me. Some folks like the left in a leaky attic look(I would be one of them) and others like the appearance of crisp, fresh fabric, and I don't mind that either.

I have been giving DMC's Stitchbow system a trial run on Sampler Large. I kitted it up using a DMC Large Travel Bag(thank you AC Moore 50% off coupon) and the binder sheets. I don't think using the Stitchbows is that much more time consuming than bobbins, but I'm lukewarm about the system at the moment. I love the bag and really want to like the system so I can kit up more projects in these bags. It appears to be well made and looks so much nicer than a two gallon ziploc baggie peaking out of the top of a tote bag or backpack. I thought after stitching all weekend on Sampler Large I would decide if I loved or hated it but I'm still lukewarm on the whole product. Must be the Libra in me.

The other day I pull in the drive and see this sign in my neighbor's yard:

( click to enlarge)

My one neighbor who thinks every man is looking at her, well who wouldn't when she mows the yard in her bikini, I find myself staring too(not that there's anything wrong with that), was talking to them while they were cleaning the retention pond. Uh, did she miss the sign, and on top of that they were prisoners with chainsaws. She must not have seen a little movie called The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I went in and locked the doors I have seen that movie one too many times and it doesn't end well for anyone except maybe Leatherface. Did you all know that Viggo played Leatherface in a later version of Texas Chainsaw Massacre?

This is the sky yesterday afternoon:

I wish my crummy photography could do it justice. The pink just shimmers from behind the darker clouds. I know the sun sets everywhere but we have the greatest sun sets even being three miles from the beach. Sometimes in the afternoon the sky is just glorious, the colors all exploding in a hundred different directions. Makes me tear up. And speaking of tearing up, from the PMS files: the other day I'm driving down the road and Trace Adkins' song You're Gonna Miss This comes on and radio and I start sobbing. I thought I was going to have to pull over. You can find it on Youtube with a video from some girl from One Tree Hill. Two other songs make me cry and it's Randy Travis' He Walked on Water and Andy Griggs' If Heaven. The line in If Heaven about, "If Heaven were a town it would be my town in 1985, when all my hopes and dreams were out there waiting on me and everyone I loved was still alive." Breaks my heart every single time.

So this is the state of my life at the moment, a little stitching, some picture taking, and breaking down to songs on the radio. Perfectly normal!