First, thanks to everyone for offering your comfort and understanding where my HOHRH is concerned. Only other stitchers or crafters could understand how I felt.
People ask me all the time why I blog. This is usually after asking "What is a blog?" I blog for the very reason stated above. Stitchers understand each other. People who make things understand how bad you feel when something doesn't work out like it's supposed to. Also my husband was tired of listening to me talk about stitching. My friends Sharon and Siobhan had to be bored out of their minds when I kept ranting and going on and on about the same stuff. Maybe not, but my blog gives their email a little rest from my obsessive compulsive cross stitching rants. My plans, my frustrations, the fact that I never seem to ever complete anything at all, and most importantly the fact that I can't count!
You would think that the whole "counted" cross stitch would be a sign that counting is kind of important to success.
So this weekend while watching NASCAR, ok I wasn't watching NASCAR but the spousal unit was clicking away at channels and it finally sunk in that the National Guard, the Army and the Air Force all have cars in NASCAR. What is up with that? Are taxpayer dollars funding this? I get that there are advertising dollars alloted for this stuff but if they have enough money in their advertising funds to run commercials, magazine ads and each have NASCARS, pay a driver, a pit crew, and whatever else has to be paid for, I think there needs to be some kind of Congressional investigation since our troops are over in Iraq without proper equipment. I don't begrudge these institutions advertising money but NASCAR? Isn't that a little crazy? Maybe I'm in the minority thinking those dollars might do more good allocated to other departments like, oh, education, healthcare, homeland security. Just sayin'.
Right now I have some pizza dough rising in the kitchen, my new mission is making edible homemade pizzas. Saturday night I made pizza using Pillbury Pizza dough in the tube(it tasted a lot like biscuit dough), tonight because I'm lazy, I'm using Publix's Pizza Dough. It's half the price of the Pillsbury and freshly made in Publix's bakery. I want to start some sourdough starter so I can follow inmykitchengarden.com pizza dough recipe. If you go to the website, click on farmgirlfare.com in the side bar and scroll down you'll see the pizza recipe.
I stitched for a bit on TW Fantasy Triptyche today. Not very much. I put in one length of floss while watching the original Pink Panther movie. This project is slow going. With every stitch my admiration for anyone who has ever finished just one TW design is my hero. I'm waiting on my fabric for her mermaid and really want to get started on that.
HOHRH is still untouched. I worked on it a little while on Saturday and haven't touched it since. I'm not depressed like I thought I'd be, resigned, is a better description.
This weekend I watched Signs on TNT every time it was on. I love that movie. It is so not a scifi alien invasion movie. Such a human story told in that setting. One of my all time favorite books is Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlien. It's like Signs in that it's more of a human story with the aliens as the instigators or maybe Micheal Valentine the earthling raised by Martians. Great book. Even if you're not a sci-fi fan Stranger in a Strange Land is worth reading. All the characters names were chosen specifically for their meaning. After reading this book a drink of water will always have a little more meaning.
Oh should I mention that I now have a mile long list of Heaven and Earth Designs I want to add to the stash. There are so many things of theirs I want to stitch. I just can't imagine actually finishing one of them. There are some fabulous fantasy designs there. Check them out, heavenandearthdesigns.com The over one on 25ct kind of stresses me out but I think if you stitch on any other count you lose detail, or maybe I should say if you stitch over 2 you will lose detail.
Anyone know what to do about stink bugs on my tomato plants? I have a gazillion of them. My tomato skins are all blotchy. Kind of a handdyed look to them.
Monday, June 19, 2006
Saturday, June 17, 2006
Breakdown Here
Otherwise known as WTF Happened? Below you can see an overview of my Houses of Hawk Run Hollow. See how much I've completed on this design? Do you see HOW MUCH I'VE COMPLETED ON THIS DESIGN? Sorry just felt a need to emphasize that this is a whole lot of work you are viewing(that's mostly for the non-cross-stitchers reading this):
The area of this piece under scrutiny is dissected below:
Do you see how nicely those corners meet? All nice and lined up.
And look up, do you see how those corners match up so nice and pretty? That brings us to the questionable portion of the design. The "How in the heck did I do this?" portion.
As you can see under the diamond on the left there is precisely on over two row, if you look to your right you will see that under that diamond are two over two rows.
Hmmm, matching corners on each side, how in the world did I manage to do this amazing trick? So what shall I do? I shall bring the border on the right up to meet the border on the left, that will put House #3 up a row from House #4 but strangely enough everything below that looks ok. I think House #3 will be the only house that's "off". I'll know more when I start stitching those connecting borders which I'm going to do tonight. I can imagine and determine in my mind how I think it is but until it's stitched I won't know for sure. This weekend's stitching time will be devoted to those golden Xs and seeing if my HOHRH is on a hill. Since there is now a Village of Hawk Run Hollow, a hill might not be a bad thing. Can you tell I'm really trying to work with my stupidity? Trying to create art from this glaring, honkin' mistake? The whole lemons to lemonade thing? To quote Anna from her comment "it definitely sucks and blows".
In other news I picked up Pod Rescue software yesterday. Since getting my iPod and uploading 1300 songs to my desktop computer my computer has crashed not once, not twice, but three times. The third time I decided I was not going to spend hours reloading my music into iTunes, there had to be a better way. A few months ago I was reading GirlReaction -- Snip and she ran across this software. I'm hoping this software works and it's all a matter of plugging the iPod in and my music going from the iPod back to the computer. If it works(and all the reviews I've read have been pretty good) this software will definitely be worth the $30. I have that much invested in purchased music from iTunes on my iPod.
Sue-thanks for the comments on our beaches. It really is beautiful here. There are times when you forget you're inlower Alabama Northwest Florida and can't imagine you're anywhere but the Carribean. Go check out Sue's patio all ready for summer. Don't you want to sit down and have some iced tea and chill out there? It looks great Sue.
I want to take a minute and thank everyone that takes the time to comment. I appreciate it so much.
The area of this piece under scrutiny is dissected below:
Do you see how nicely those corners meet? All nice and lined up.
And look up, do you see how those corners match up so nice and pretty? That brings us to the questionable portion of the design. The "How in the heck did I do this?" portion.
As you can see under the diamond on the left there is precisely on over two row, if you look to your right you will see that under that diamond are two over two rows.
Hmmm, matching corners on each side, how in the world did I manage to do this amazing trick? So what shall I do? I shall bring the border on the right up to meet the border on the left, that will put House #3 up a row from House #4 but strangely enough everything below that looks ok. I think House #3 will be the only house that's "off". I'll know more when I start stitching those connecting borders which I'm going to do tonight. I can imagine and determine in my mind how I think it is but until it's stitched I won't know for sure. This weekend's stitching time will be devoted to those golden Xs and seeing if my HOHRH is on a hill. Since there is now a Village of Hawk Run Hollow, a hill might not be a bad thing. Can you tell I'm really trying to work with my stupidity? Trying to create art from this glaring, honkin' mistake? The whole lemons to lemonade thing? To quote Anna from her comment "it definitely sucks and blows".
In other news I picked up Pod Rescue software yesterday. Since getting my iPod and uploading 1300 songs to my desktop computer my computer has crashed not once, not twice, but three times. The third time I decided I was not going to spend hours reloading my music into iTunes, there had to be a better way. A few months ago I was reading GirlReaction -- Snip and she ran across this software. I'm hoping this software works and it's all a matter of plugging the iPod in and my music going from the iPod back to the computer. If it works(and all the reviews I've read have been pretty good) this software will definitely be worth the $30. I have that much invested in purchased music from iTunes on my iPod.
Sue-thanks for the comments on our beaches. It really is beautiful here. There are times when you forget you're in
I want to take a minute and thank everyone that takes the time to comment. I appreciate it so much.
As Promised
A framed Sirens of the Sea:
Now a family member posted a comment about the babysitting skills of Audrey and Ryne versus other's drinking skills and I must point out that our drinking skills are far superior to Ryne and Audrey's babysitting skills.
Now a family member posted a comment about the babysitting skills of Audrey and Ryne versus other's drinking skills and I must point out that our drinking skills are far superior to Ryne and Audrey's babysitting skills.
Random Saturday
I guess this post is going to begin with a tease. I've apparently uploaded all the pictures that Blogger will let me for a post. So what you see below is a close up shot of the frame for my CHS Sirens of the Sea. I'll post the picture of the whole piece in my next post. 
When we went to see Dwight Yoakam at The Swamp last weekend finding a place to sit or stand was at your own peril. What you see below is my view of the stage:
Until gigantor turned around and was mortified that he was 7ft tall standing in front of someone 5ft tall. He moved me around to stand in front of him and then asked all the taller people in front of him to move me up closer to the stage. COOL! In the pic below you'll see the only shot I got of Dwight. Why, if those kind people moved me up in front of them did I only get one shot of Dwight and a poor one at that? Well in the pic below you can see the hair and part of an arm of a woman who had and I quote "been standing here since 5:30, so I can get my picture and then move my ass to the back where I belonged because she had been there since 5:30." She didn't appreciate my pointing out that technically she had only been in that exact spot since 7:00 because the doors didn't open until 7:00 before that she was standing in the parking lot. Oh yeah, I make friends everywhere I go. So Dwight comes on, I snap that pic, and the woman and her friend tell me that picture time is over and to get back where I belong. At this moment in time a fist fight breaks out, my flip flops go all over the place and I'm trying not to lose my Dwight cozy from the local radio station. I'm crawling around on the floor looking for my flip flops and the woman in the picture looks down and says to me, "What are you still doing here? Go back where you belong." I get scared because I mean it's just Dwight Yoakam and he's good and all but not Elvis you know?
Below you will see a watermelon. It even has stripes! No it's not square, yet.
Here's a sunflower I planted along a wall on the southern side of my house. It's about 5ft tall.
Awww, isn't she shy? Here's a sunflower on the same wall turned towards the wall. What is up with that? I guess she's a "wall" flower.
After hanging with the family at the hotel in Ft Walton Beach all weekend I come home to find this huge dredging pipe stretched across the only public beach my little hick town has. I was furious. They had all winter to do this and wait until summer when LOCALS want to use the beach they pay the taxes for and half the beach is blocked off. Yes I called my county commissioner and complained to his receptionist. She took my name and number and he never called me back. DS#3 is worried that now that I'm on a list we'll have to move. I realize they want to rebuild the beaches, I get it. But really these barrier islands were never meant to be built on and should all be public land. The reason damages are in the billions of dollars when a hurricane hits the coast is because they let people build on these islands. They are called "barrier" islands for a reason. They protect the land where people are supposed to be living.
Here's DS#3 in front of the waves that Tropcial Storm Alberto brought our way. The storm made landfall 6-7 hours south of us and we got this kind of surf. Never ceases to amaze me.
Here's one of my nieces on the fishing pier with a heron. Yes, the picture is dark, I wasn't sure if her parents wanted pics of her on the internet or not.
However sweet you think these two are, don't believe it......
When we went to see Dwight Yoakam at The Swamp last weekend finding a place to sit or stand was at your own peril. What you see below is my view of the stage:
Until gigantor turned around and was mortified that he was 7ft tall standing in front of someone 5ft tall. He moved me around to stand in front of him and then asked all the taller people in front of him to move me up closer to the stage. COOL! In the pic below you'll see the only shot I got of Dwight. Why, if those kind people moved me up in front of them did I only get one shot of Dwight and a poor one at that? Well in the pic below you can see the hair and part of an arm of a woman who had and I quote "been standing here since 5:30, so I can get my picture and then move my ass to the back where I belonged because she had been there since 5:30." She didn't appreciate my pointing out that technically she had only been in that exact spot since 7:00 because the doors didn't open until 7:00 before that she was standing in the parking lot. Oh yeah, I make friends everywhere I go. So Dwight comes on, I snap that pic, and the woman and her friend tell me that picture time is over and to get back where I belong. At this moment in time a fist fight breaks out, my flip flops go all over the place and I'm trying not to lose my Dwight cozy from the local radio station. I'm crawling around on the floor looking for my flip flops and the woman in the picture looks down and says to me, "What are you still doing here? Go back where you belong." I get scared because I mean it's just Dwight Yoakam and he's good and all but not Elvis you know?
Below you will see a watermelon. It even has stripes! No it's not square, yet.
Here's a sunflower I planted along a wall on the southern side of my house. It's about 5ft tall.
Awww, isn't she shy? Here's a sunflower on the same wall turned towards the wall. What is up with that? I guess she's a "wall" flower.
After hanging with the family at the hotel in Ft Walton Beach all weekend I come home to find this huge dredging pipe stretched across the only public beach my little hick town has. I was furious. They had all winter to do this and wait until summer when LOCALS want to use the beach they pay the taxes for and half the beach is blocked off. Yes I called my county commissioner and complained to his receptionist. She took my name and number and he never called me back. DS#3 is worried that now that I'm on a list we'll have to move. I realize they want to rebuild the beaches, I get it. But really these barrier islands were never meant to be built on and should all be public land. The reason damages are in the billions of dollars when a hurricane hits the coast is because they let people build on these islands. They are called "barrier" islands for a reason. They protect the land where people are supposed to be living.
Here's DS#3 in front of the waves that Tropcial Storm Alberto brought our way. The storm made landfall 6-7 hours south of us and we got this kind of surf. Never ceases to amaze me.
Here's one of my nieces on the fishing pier with a heron. Yes, the picture is dark, I wasn't sure if her parents wanted pics of her on the internet or not.
However sweet you think these two are, don't believe it......
Friday, June 16, 2006
New Family Member
Yes, the Red Mr Coffee is our newest family member. My coffee pot died on me about 13 days, 6 hours and 10 mins ago but who's keeping track? I could have replaced this sooner with a coffeepot I didn't really want so opted to hold out for the red Mr. Coffee because it's the one I've been coveting for a while. Our Target was short on the red coffeemakers so I've been spending a lot of time checking their shelves until they restocked. The maiden pot is currently brewing. I might even be able to string a couple of thoughts together today.
The camera cord is missing or I'd share the photos of wonky Houses of Hawk Run Hollow. Right now I'm trying to figure out why a digital camera cord would be anywhere but near the computer.
On Sunday I finished reading Crusader's Cross : A Dave Robicheaux Novel (Dave Robicheaux Myster. James Lee Burke writes so beautifully, so poetically of the modern South, of a flawed hero constantly fighting his demons. His books are always devoured by me in one sitting. I can't put them down. If the only contact you've had with James Lee Burke's work is the movie, Heaven's Prisoners I beg you to please give James Lee Burke's words another chance. That movie was a joke(it's not unwatchable but Alec Baldwin is not Dave Robicheaux). He's a great writer, wonderful storyteller. This series doesn't have to be read from the beginning, Heaven's Prisoners is the first in the series, but it helps to know where Dave's demons grabbed hold of his life.
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Tale of Woe
And a big woe it was a few minutes ago but I've let my desire for perfection go. So I'm feeling better. Oh I bet you're wondering what is this tale of woe? Well, let's say you're cross stitching a project, a biggie. One that's fairly large, probably will be an heirloom to someone. Ok, it's HOHRH....well if you see the pic on the right of the design, you'll notice that everything is very lined up. Borders all line up, blocks of houses all line up. Well I discovered this morning that my House #3 doesn't line up. How I did this, I have no flipping clue. One minute I've got XXXXX the next minute I've got XXXXXX and they don't connect. The second group of XXXXX, is a row lower than the first one. So I have no flippin' clue what's going on, what I've done(well I know that I miscounted). If I have to frog all of House #4--I think the original miscount must have occurred there or maybe I'm just going to move the second XXXXX up a leave it a little wonky. It might even be just noticeable enough to drive those linear focused people a little nutso. The error could be fun for that quality alone. At this point I don't know what to do. I know that I've completed way too much on this project to start over, and I don't think I have the ability to actually frog a whole house block, I seriously think I'm going to leave it just a little off. I'm not anal so it's not going to bother me, seriously, if I leave it just so, House #3 will be a row shorter than House #4. Houses 1 & 2 will match up with three, but 4 won't. I'm thinking the house below will be a little off too. But you know cross stitchers at times complain about the difficulties of putting their personality to a piece, I think funky, wonky, not conforming, well that's me a "T". I'm going to sleep on my decision to leave this flaw in the design and if anyone asks I'm just following the Amish Rule that no one but God is perfect. At the moment this thought is the only thing keeping me from ripping the whole project up and setting fire to it in the backyard.
Saturday, June 10, 2006
Weekend Festivities
This has been our view of the beach for much of the last week. Family is here, hanging at the hotel so we get to see the view from a little higher up for a change. OK if you're reading this blog because you are friends with some of my family, oh boy, do I have stories to tell and you know who I'm talking about. Those will be told but only after the fog of much sangria and margaritas has cleared. How can a guy as classy as Dwight Yoakam bring out the redneck in people who are 60+ years old? I thought they knew better. Oh and if you are reading this and you are the woman in the purple zebra striped cowboy hat(I'm not making this up), I really don't think Dwight was going to sleep with you and I'm pretty sure he wasn't singing directly to you. There were easily three thousand people between you and the stage and uh, well I was right up at the front of that stage for a few minutes and well, he was singing to me and continued singing to me even when I moved out of the mosh pit. Oh and just so you know I think I even got some Dwight spit on me, are you jealous now? Then again it could have been beer.
If you're reading this and you have a daughter here, I saw her at midnight and she was fine. I haven't heard all about the babysitting adventure other than Laney and Alex were with Barbara and Sue when we got back. That's probably not a sign that Ryne and Audrey handled it. But Audrey did know how to order pizza so everyone got fed.
Oh if you're reading this and you were at Los Panchos last night, they sat us in the back, if we had been any farther in the back we'd have been at Fudpuckers. We appreciate the standing ovation when we left, but was shouting "Thank God they're leaving!" really necessary? It was just a little rude and you got off easy. We could have had all the kids with us and well, let's just say, it could have gotten really ugly. Other people requested to be relocated somewhere else in the restaurant, you had the same option. Lighten up, have some sangria, we had 8 pitchers. Oh you knew that already?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)