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!

A Trip to the County Seat

It's not often I venture up north, the north end of the county that is. Today the oldest son and I had business in the county seat so I made him walk around town with me while I took a few pictures. While I live in a small southern town, my end of the county is relatively new. We have lots of tourists, the feel of the community in the south end is different. When I get to go up north, I'm reminded that yes I really do live in a small southern town, and I almost want to move here. The picture below is near the free public parking lot. Wow, how many places still have free public parking? This is a close up the Exchange Hotel--or at least that's what it says on the awning.

Below is a street view of the Exchange. The hotels in my end of the county are Best Western, Comfort Inn, you get the picture. I'm not really sure this is a hotel, could have been a hotel and now maybe has businesses inside? I don't know. Didn't have time to really check it out. I loved the look of the building though.

This is one of a row of old hitchin' posts behind apartments or offices, not sure which. The picture I took of the whole row of posts didn't come out. Why does that not shock me?

This is the building where the hitchin' posts live.

This is the view behind that building. How pretty is that? Right in the middle of downtown.

I had no idea there was a Local History Museum in my county seat. They were closed today but next time maybe I'll take a tour.

This is an old theater. I think the marquee in the front dated it at 1912. Not exactly sure, the picture I took of the front didn't come out, of course.

I might have to try and catch these plays:

What exactly is a Ghost Walk? Trick or Treating?

This is the oldest son outside the Blackwater Joe Coffee House. He's kind of annoyed with me, so annoyed that I wasn't able to snap a picture of Reggie's pigfish sign. Guess I'll save that for next time.

We didn't get a cup of joe at Blackwater Joe because we spent our cash at the Milton Bakery. Darn!

In other news the family is about to toss me out of the house because I keep playing the White Stripes "You Don't Know What Love Is" over and over. I so love that song. I like "Icky Thump" too but not as much as "You Don't Know What Love Is"

It's All About the Tools

My Just Beachy quilt had been progressing nicely until I reached the point a week or so ago where I had to cut out 6 16 1/2" squares. No matter what combination of quilting rulers I used I could not get an exact 16 1/2" square. It seemed to me to be a pretty simple process. Make sure fabric is ironed, check, measure several times with rulers, check, secure ruler to fabric with tape, check, hold ruler extra secure with hand while cutting with rotary cutter, check. Sounds like I should have no problem getting a 16 1/2" square. Yeah, right, this is me we're talking about. Below you see my pile of 16 1/2" squares. How did I finally manage it after a week of throwing fabric all over the place and calling my friend Pam crying about how I'm too stupid to quilt because I can't use a ruler?

Well these guys here were no help. I tried every combination of the three and got every size square but 16 1/2". I tried calling several quilt shops in the area and they didn't have a large quilter's square. I called Keepsake Quilting and they had one in their catalog but I wanted one NOW. For the first time I was truly enjoying the quilting process except for the whole not being able to cut an exact 16 1/2" square. So yesterday while running errands I stopped in at the quilt shop in Ft Walton Beach, I had forgotten they were there. The real reason I turned in the parking lot was to check out the Goodwill for sheers for my kitchen windows, I wanted to play around with some dye and see what I could come up with and didn't want to use new sheers, but I saw the Quilting Shop Around the Block(I think that's the name) so I forget about Goodwill and walk in the store and they ask if they can help me and I said, "What are the odds of you having the largest quilter's square known to man in your shop?" They said, "Well if 20 1/2" is good enough for you very good." I hugged the lady at the quilt shop, seriously. While buying this most amazing of quilter's squares I explained to them that I was not really a quilter, I'm a cross stitcher, I can count but apparently measuring is not one of my skilz. Then the lady asked me if I had thought of folding the fabric and cutting it using my smaller quilter's square? I said, "That would require math wouldn't it?" She said, "Yes." I said, "No, I wanted a big square, no math, just painless cutting." She said, "I think we're going to be friends!"

Above you see my new bestfriend the 20 1/2" Quilter's Square.

While discussing what a good investment this square will be I pointed out that my 12" Quilter's square is close to 20 yrs old and so is my rotary cutter. I bought those when I took my very first quilt class when I was pregnant with the 19 yr old. But I'm not really a quilter so they are like new. Good investment indeed.

Three Songs

Right now three songs bring me a lot of joy when they come on the radio:

Pink-You and Your Hand

Justin Timberlake-Summer Love

Avril Lavigne-Girlfriend

These songs just scream summer to me. They make me want to roll the windows down in the car and sing at the top of my lungs.

R.I.P.

You totally rockin' hot momma shoes:

Last year I found these shoes at TJ Maxx on clearance for $5. At the time they represented everything I wanted to be when Summer 2007 arrived. Thinner, uh no, didn't happen. Shaking my badonkadonk butt on the hood of Nikki Sixx's car, (because baby I got back), uh no. What they do represent is a house where the animals rule and humans are just pawns in their wicked games. You see, these shoes were safely tucked away in my closet, but my cat Sabrina(who looks a lot like Laurie's Soba) can open doors. I used to never lock my front door until one day I came home and every animal in the house was in the front yard except Heidi the black lab who will not walk through the front or back door without being told to, she was sitting just inside the front door. She's such a good girl, anyway, Sabrina loves to open doors, she runs through the house opening all the closets, has a blast let me tell ya. Well since acquiring Polly PrissyPants the yellow lab puppy, none of our shoes are safe. The oldest son, the middle son, and youngest have managed to protect their shoes except for two pair of flip flops. Unfortunately the Spousal Unit has lost two pair of sandals and one pair of sneakers to Polly. Fortunately the sneakers were his yardmowing shoes so no great loss. Now I am Sabrina's favorite victim. She loves my closet and most of the time I keep it blocked with a pillow so she can try to open it but can't ever get it open. Well for whatever reason, maybe to put on some clothes, I opened the closet and shut the door and forgot to put the pillow back in place between the door and tv cabinet. Sabrina opened the door and Polly ate the shoes seen above. I'd have put the other shoe in the picture but the damage is heartbreaking. She also ate 5 pair of Old Navy flip flops. I live in Florida and currently have no flip flops. I see a trip to the mall in my future.

What's really sad is I never got a chance to wear these shoes out. I did wear them around the house listening to I'll Remember You by Skid Row, Wild Side by Motley Crue, Photograph by Def Leppard, you know the whole Monster Rock deal, wait should I have said that outloud?

Thanks for all the compliments on my version of Faith's Doris Daymat. It was a fun, fast project. I do think I will attempt another one following her pattern. I'm use to the feel of the twine now and believe if I play around with hook sizes I might get a positive result using the thinner twine.

I want to make a few things from Erika Knight's Simple Crochet. I started a box made of kitchen twine a few years ago and never got it finished. I'm thinking of mixing the kitchen twine with the garden twine and making some stripey baskets or big bowls. I love using different kind of fibers and seeing how they work up. The mason twine is cool too, kind of slippery but I love how it shines.

In cross stitch news I put in about 10 stitches on the Monkey Sampler this morning and that's been about it for the last week or so. It's going to be my mall project this summer. My kids like to go wander around the mall and I tend to park myself in the food court with a Cafe Carmel or an iced tea and sit and stitch. It gets me out of cleaning and the food court has pretty good lighting and food that I don't have to cook!

In book news, I read Motor Mouth by Janet Evanovich and am currently listening to Metro Girl. I ♥ my library. So far I like the characters and the silliness. Good summer reading or listening rather.

I also finished Kissing Sin by Keri Arthur thanks to Deep Inside Missy.

I'm loving the new Fountians of Wayne CD and my favorite track so far is 92 Subaru. The youngest son is enjoying it a lot too and he didn't want to admit it but I caught him singing along with the songs.

Crafting from the Edge

Lots and lots of stuff going on around here, spring cleaning, no pics of that, aren't you glad? It's really hard to photograph a Hefty bag still life. Just doesn't work in any setting.

Here's a picture of my in progress BBD First Offerings. This really should have been completed ages ago but I have no focus or discipline at the moment. I'm using DMC 310 and 28ct white Monaco. I plan to do some damage coffee or tea dyeing to the piece once the stitching is completed. Here's my attempt at a springish still life. This is my version of Bella Dia: Vintage Vertical Stripe Crocheted Blanket Pattern

Here's a close-up, such that it is. I need more light, sparkley colors. This is a stash buster and I seem to only have dark or neon colors. I bought a skein of baby pink Red Heart yesterday to add a little lightness to the palette.

Here's another attempt at embroidery on the obligatory tea towel. The mermaid's hair is one strand of DMC 498(I think that's the right color) the bird is stitched with two using a split stitch I think, I can't really remember. Her arms are also two strands, her tail is outlined with two strands and the scales are two strands using Jenny Hart's scalloped chain stitch. The rocks are three strands using a split stitch and a stem stitch. Also part of the photo shoot a newly knitted Mason Dixon Ball Band Warsh Rag.

Sometimes when life is dark and dreary a bright light of hope shines through. After 30 something years of cross stitching and not being able to make a (insert the "F-bomb" here) French knot, I give you my first ever French knot, on the work I've titled, "Tea Towel with Red Mermaid".

It is not perfect, it's a bit loose but that doesn't matter it's a French Knot made by me! I was dancing and jumping all over the front yard, yelling across the road to my friend Pam, "Come look at my French knot." You see she's one of those stitchers that can make a French knot, her heart doesn't skip a beat when she sees a chart with ten or twenty French knots. They cause her no angst. French knots have me rootling through the bead box to come up with an alternative for my albatross, the French knot.

Because I love sharing my dorkiness with the world at large, I thought I'd share this link with you, angry chicken: it's the little things. After reading this entry the other day I immediately called the oldest DS-(who is 19 today Happy Birthday Ryne!)who was out with friends and began to quiz him on these and other Urban Slang words. He paused after I asked the fifth or so word and said, "Mom are you reading and Urban Slang dictionary?" Then he said, "I'm busy, find someone else to bother." The boy does love his mom, NOT! He did score a 100 on my mini quiz. Unfortunately it's the only quiz he's scored 100 on in while. Then I was reading GirlReaction and Carolyn mentioned Lupe Fiasco, because of Carolyn I was on the Gnarls Barkley band wagon way before my kids who think they are so cool, so I call DS#1 again and ask him, "Hey have you heard of Lupe Fiasco?" He said, "Yes, I have his CD. Don't call me any more unless it's an emergency we're in a movie." So much for being super cool hip mom in regards to Lupe Fiasco. I started quizzing the kids on the road. Yes they all know who he is. I am enjoying his CD even though I'm a little late to the party on this one. Also listening to Lucinda Williams' West and Live at the Fillmore.

I forgot to mention in my earlier post that we watched Casino Royale this past weekend. I loved the new James Bond. I know I read articles when Daniel Craig was chosen for the role that people weren't happy about it. I thought he was a great Bond.

Say Hello To

The reason I haven't blogged or stitched in a week. Her name is Polly PrissyPants and she's the newest addition to our family. No, she is not as innocent as she looks. This is the only picture I've been able to take of her because she's always on the move. Her current mission in life is to see how many times I can take her out to pee, call her a good girl, give her a treat, and then let her back in the house to immediately pee behind my back. The Dog Whisperer says that if you take your dog out and they have to go again real soon it means you didn't let them finish. My question is "How long is long enough to keep them outside?" She peed three times, pooped once and came in and peed about 2 minutes later. What am I doing wrong? I don't remember being this exhausted when I had a newborn. I'm definitely getting exercise, but the Pee/Poop Patrol is going to do me in.

In other news, The sample CD in the new issue of Paste(Shins cover) is great. I bought it because there's an interview with Lucinda Williams and she's one of my all time favorites. If you haven't heard her record Car Wheels on a Gravel Road I highly recommend it. She's a great songwriter. I'm also excited about the new Shins CD. I love the track included on this sample CD.

The sun is shining here in the Sunshine State so if I can I'll take an updated picture of By the Bay's 13th Colony Bay. I've made a little progress since my last photo. I will not get it finished this month like I had hoped but such is life. Why can't I finish it? Well we fell under the spell of LOST. It's the greatest tv show ever. Ok, maybe I just don't have much of a life but we have plowed through Season 1 and Season 2 on DVD and caught up with Season 3 at ABC.com and I'm anxiously awaiting the new episode that will air Feb. 7th. Of course due to some kind of dispute we lost our ABC station so I'll have catch it on Feb. 8th at ABC.com. Can you believe we don't have an ABC station any more?