Coffee and Tomatoes?

In my constant search for the cross stitch action shot below you can view my current WIP, Little House Needlework's Coffee Menu, posing with my new round of tomato plants. And if you care to actually see the stitching, below you get the zoom shot:

I think the shot with the tomato plant has more personality but it doesn't show the stitching.

Finished Quaker Garden!

Finally I have a finished project to share. Above you can see a completed Blackbird Designs Quaker Garden, finished while watching today's Project Runway marathon. This was a fun stitch but took me much longer than I anticipated as my stitching time has been hit or miss lately. I plan to have it framed very close to the stitching to cover up the pink dots on the fabric. And yes, my usual disclaimer, please excuse the poor photography, it was starting to sprinkle just as I snapped the pic.

Trying to photograph cross stitch in new and interesting ways is pretty much a waste of time. There's just no way to add interest to the picture(yes, I know the French stitchers manage to do beautiful still lifes-lives?), the stitching must speak for itself. But I'm always willing to showoff my lack of photography skills in an attempt to showcase my stitching. I can't seem to have one without the other. No matter how hard I try to become a better photographer, my photos seem to be lacking some kind of artistic quality. Below you will see my lame attempt at photographing a scarlet macaw in his natural habitat, duh, a tree. I told you it was L-A-M-E. Birds in cages seem to enjoy swings so here's another shot, he's just a swingin'. No I'm not on crack. Shame on you for thinking that.

Is he one handsome guy or what?

Proof I Have No Life

Snagged this from Sue:

Instructions: Bold (or change the color) of all of the following TV shows which you've seen 3 or more episodes of in your lifetime. Bold and Italicize a show if you're positive you've seen every episode of it. If you want, add up to 3 additional shows (keep the list in alphabetical order).

My results are a little scary.

24
3rd Rock from the Sun
7th Heaven
Adam-12
Aeon Flux
A.L.F
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Alias
Allo Allo
American Idol/Pop Idol/Canadian Idol/Australian Idol
America's Next Top Model/Germany's Next Top Model
Angel
Arrested Development
Babylon 5
Babylon 5: Crusade
BattlestarGalactica (the old one)
Battlestar Galactica (the new one)
Baywatch
Beavis & Butthead
The Ben Stiller Show
Beverly Hills 90210
Bewitched
Bonanza
Bones
Bosom Buddies
Boston Legal
Boy Meets World
Brady Bunch
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Bug Juice
Chappelle's Show
Charlie's Angels
Charmed
Cheers
China Beach
Columbo
Commander in Chief
Coupling
Cowboy Bebop
Crossing Jordan
CSI
CSI: Miami
CSI: NY
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Dallas
Dancing with the Stars
Danny Phantom
Dark Angel
Dark Skies
Davinci's Inquest
Dawson's Creek
Dead Like Me
Deadliest Catch
Deadwood
Degrassi: The Next Generation
Designing Women
Desperate Housewives
Dharma & Greg
Different Strokes
Doctor Who (new Who)
Doctor Who (series 1-26)
Dragnet
Due South
Dungeons and Dragons (old cartoon)
Dynasty
Earth 2
Emergency!
Entourage
ER
Everwood
Everybody Loves Raymond
Facts of Life
Falcon Crest
Family Guy
Family Ties
Fantasy Island
Farscape
Fawlty Towers
Felicity
Firefly
Flamingo Road
Frasier
Friends
Full House
Futurama
Get Smart
Gilligan's Island
Gilmore Girls
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
Green Wing
Grey's Anatomy
Growing Pains
Gunsmoke
Happy Days
Head of the Class
Highlander
Hill Street Blues
Hogan's Heroes
Home Improvement
Homicide: Life on the Street
House
I Dream of Jeannie
I Love Lucy
Invader Zim
Invasion
Iron Chef (Japan)
Iron Chef (USA)
Ironsides
JAG
Jackass
Jeopardy
Joey
John Doe
Kath and Kim
Knight Rider
Knots Landing
La Femme Nikita
LA Law
Laugh-In
Laverne and Shirley
Law & Order
Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Law & Order: SVU
Little House on the Prairie
Lizzie McGuire
Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
Lost
Lost in Space
Love, American Style
M*A*S*H
MacGyver
Magnum P.I.
Malcolm in the Middle
Married...With Children
Melrose Place
Miami Vice
Mission Impossible
Monk
Moonlighting
Mork & Mindy
Murphy Brown
My Family
My Favorite Martian
My Life as a Dog
My Mother the Car
My So-Called Life
My Three Sons
My Two Dads
Mysterious Cities of Gold
NCIS
Night Court
Nip/Tuck
Northern Exposure
Numbers
One Tree Hill
Oz
Parker Lewis Can't Lose
Perfect Strangers
Perry Mason
Picket Fences
Pirates of Darkwater
Pokemon
Power Rangers
Prison Break
Profiler
Project Runway
Psyche
Quantum Leap
Queer As Folk (US)
Queer as Folk (British)
Queer Eye For The Straight Guy
ReGenesis
Remington Steele
Rescue Me
Road Rules
ROME
Roseanne
Roswell
Samurai Jack
Saved by the Bell
Scarecrow and Mrs. King
Scooby-Doo Where Are You?
Scrubs
Seinfeld
Sex and the City
Six Feet Under
Slings and Arrows
Smallville
Small Wonder
So Weird
South Park
SpacedSpongebob Squarepants
Sports Night
Square Pegs
St. Elsewhere
Star Trek
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Voyager
Star Trek: Enterprise
Stargate Atlantis - New season
Stargate SG-1 -Newseason
Superman
Supernatural
Surface
Survivor
Taxi
Teen Titans
Teletubbies
That Girl
That 70's Show
That's So Raven
The 4400
The Addams Family
The Andy Griffith Show
The A-Team
The Avengers
The Beverly Hillbillies
The Bionic Woman
The Colbert Report
The Cosby Show
The Daily Show
The Days And Nights Of Molly Dodd
The Dead Zone
The Dick Van Dyke Show
The Flintstones
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
The Golden Girls
The Jetsons
The L Word
The Love Boat
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
The Mighty Boosh
The Monkees
The Munsters
The Mythbusters
The O.C.
The Office (UK)
The Office (US)
The Pretender
The Prisoner
The Real World
The Shield
The Simpsons
The Six Million Dollar Man
The Sopranos
The Suite Life of Zack and Cody
The Twilight Zone
The Waltons
The West Wing
The Wonder Years
The X-Files
Third Watch
thirtysomething
Three's Company
Top Gear
Twin Peaks
Twitch City
Upstairs,Downstairs
Veronica Mars
Wings
What Not To Wear (US)
What Not To Wear (UK)
Whose Line is it Anyway? (US)
Whose Line is it Anyway? (UK)
Witchblade
Will and Grace
Wonderfalls
Wonder Woman
Xena: Warrior Princess
Young Hercules

Couture

Last night's Project Runway challenge was to design a couture gown in two days. The definition of couture according to Webster's is the "business of designing, making, and selling fashionable custom-made women's clothing". Tim Gunn added to the definition by stating it should be handmade, beading and embroidery could or should be used.

My thoughts, well if the definition of couture is completely unwearable and designed for shock, and really, if Gwyneth Paltrow wore Jeffrey's dress on the red carpet it would be to quote Micheal Kors from last season's Nicki Hilton challenge, "a what was she thinking" moment, then Jeffrey deserved the win. It definitely looked handmade. Marilinda rocked the heck out of it though. She sold that dress. Talk about "making it work", she did. The real question is if Jeffrey hadn't had immunity would he have taken his idea this far?

Uli's dress was definitely her same pattern, but while she cranked that dress out probably from memory, the halter was handbeaded and embroidered. I need to see a closeup but according to Tim's definition of couture Uli did a beautiful job and was once again robbed of a win. It not only included handwork but it was wearable, it was gorgeous, was it a museum or gallery gown, no, but handmade and handbeaded, yes.

Laura's gown, definitely been done before, and unfortunately she didn't do it well. It looked great on the Paris model but the collar lost some volume on the trip back to NYC and definitely lost something in the translation.

Micheal's gown, I had flashbacks of Malan during the second challenge. Micheal did manage to do it better than Malan even though this was his first attempt at doing anything by hand. I couldn't get over the change in the gown just from tucking the cups in. Completely changed the whole feel of the gown. I knew he wouldn't be auf'd because he's been a solid contender every week.

Kayne's gown, I didn't see the problem that the judges had with. The flow of the gown was perfect, the bustier looked good, not tacky, IMHO. He held himself back and I really didn't think the gown screamed "pagent". Are they trying to beat him down as they did Santino in season 2? I thought they would have learned that if you beat someone down enough they start to lose their point of view and that's what happened with Santino's runway show. He went for safe instead of Santino which should have had tons of handwork, embellishments and gathers in the final products. Kayne does have "taste" issues but pagent gowns are almost always a bit on the gaudy side. Did he deserve to win, no, but I think he did much better than the judges gave him credit for.

Vincent's gown, what can I say? I'm so glad to see him gone. He deserved to be auf'd during the Recycling challenge, was given a win for the Everyday woman challenge that was so wrong on the judges part, and his gown, the front was a rip off of Laura's "down to the Bermuda triangle" neck line. He had a huge fleurchon on the waistline in the back, (was he channeling Angela?), and the sleeves were crazy. When Heidi asked him what he did by hand, he avoided the question. I have to wonder if the judges knew about the glue. Very couture glue is, NOT. Yes there were time constraints but good grief, he did no handwork at all that I could tell.

One thing I know, I know beading and embroidery and handwork. Uli did it right, same basic pattern but she managed a beautiful gown with handwork in two days. I could go to the machine and sew Jeffrey's gown right now with no pattern. Half the crap I manage to sew, when I'm trying to do a good job, looks like Jeffrey's "couture" gown. What am I missing?

So in the previews for next week, Laura has a meltdown. It made me sad. She's tough, she's woman hear her roar! Her quote about "designing for the Olsen twins" wonder that "Olsen Twins" is code for? Surely it can't be literal. The woman is looking so pregnant. I don't care how many kids you have, she has to be farther along than three months. Even as slim as she is, she's just really popped. I'm guessing 5 months, if so that would put her in a bad position trying to get ready for Fashion Week if she's in the final three. They usually give them 6 months to design a collection, if she's really three months that puts delivery right around fashion week, if she's farther along, while creating emotional havoc right now, she'd been in a much better place physically for fashion week.

I'm glad Jeffrey didn't get immunity this week because then he would have been assured a spot in the final four. That spot should have to be earned.

How many hours until next week's Project Runway?

Flashbacks

This picture was taken in 1970, it was summer, and my grandparents, my uncle and I were vacationing at Pensacola Beach. The cottages in the background were where we stayed, the Sunray. It was a dump in 1970, it was a bigger dump when they tore them down a few years ago. I sobbed when I found out that those cottages were being destroyed to make room for a resort. Many happy sunburned vacations were spent at this dumpy little motel right on the Gulf. The summer of 1970 is also known in my family as the summer Missy tried to commit suicide twice in the same day. I was six. I didn't know how to swim, I didn't know that I didn't know how to swim. The first attempt was when I floated out on a raft until I was as my grandmother says, "a speck on the horizon". My uncle who had just gotten home from the marines and had had an appendectomy had to swim out to bring me back to shore. For years everyone wondered what kept me on that raft, what made me stay there, floating out to sea, my family dots on the shoreline. One day it hit me when we talking about this, what kept me on the raft was the shadow of the raft, I thought it was a shark. It was only a few years ago when floating around on a raft in a pool, I saw the shadow, that day on the raft so far from shore popped into my head, the shape in the water was the same. I do believe in a Higher Power because something held me on that raft. I even remember being hot, but the "shark" made me afraid to move, much less jump in the water. So Nickey swam out, brought me back, Mamaw was crying so Papaw took me to the pool. What's the first thing I do? Go down the slide into the deep end and suck half the water in the pool in my lungs. Fortunately a teenage girl saw me, saw I couldn't swim, remember I didn't know I didn't know how to swim, she saved me, handed me over to Papaw who took me back to the cabin and said, "Take this child this is the second time she's tried to kill herself today."

Amanda over at Soulemama has had a theme this week of "What* I Love". The two people in the picture with me, I love more than anyone on this earth other than my kids. My grandfather passed away when I was a junior in high school. It still breaks my heart. My grandmother has given me so much, so much, that there is nothing I wouldn't do for her. When I saw the picture of Amanda's grandmother's hands, I cried. I haven't seen my grandmother's hands in several years.

This is what happens when moms have to go digging through photos looking for the perfect baby picture for the oldest son to submit to the yearbook for his senior year. Memories come flooding back, happy, heartbreaking, the yearning for home, a grandmother's arms around you, the swing in the yard at twilight, quiet moments, family stories, crying from laughing so hard, chicken & dumplings, molasses cake, and hugs that heal any hurt.

*edited to correct my mistake, it's What I Love, not Things I Love....

Random Thursday

Let's start this post of with a recap of last night's Project Runway.

First of all I'm glad Angela(Jubilee Jumbles) is auf'd. It's about time. Just because one doesn't "jet set" it doesn't mean one is clueless about comfortable and chic travel clothes. The fleurchon butt presentation was a hoot. What was she thinking? Definitely a "Glamour Don't". I can say this because I am always a "Glamour Don't" myself.

Kayne was dangerously close to being auf'd and that would have broke my heart. I adore him. Yes, he's over the top, but that's part of his charm.

Jeffrey should not have won. His jetsetter ensemble was him, but was it new, fresh? It was current. I believe NinaGarcia said it was "Now" so if it's now it's not fashion forward or new. Yes, I could see Tommy Lee, Nikki Sixx, Sebastian Bach(anyone else love him on the Gilmore Girls?) wearing this outfit but they are all a little stuck back in the 80s. Don't get me wrong, I love me some Nikki Sixx. But isn't it all about new ideas?

Laura's dress was fabulous, so her, and she did venture out of her comfort zone, not far but she still tried something a little different. Did anyone notice in the interview sections that in some of them she looked like she wasn't wearing lipstick? Granted our tv is missing red, blue and green at the moment but even with the limited color palette I can usually tell Laura is wearing that blood red lipstick. It appeared that Laura was not as made up as usual. I was afraid that it might mean she was out. No way, I kept telling myself, her dress was too good to get her auf'd. (Vincent flash back right after I typed that, YIKES!)

Uli looked upset(mad) when the judges called her on her gown being the same thing she designs over and over. I didn't like that they did that because she was designing for herself. I expected more of the same. I love Uli's stuff and would love to own some of her dresses. I always liked those long gowns, what did we call them back in the 70s maxi length skirts? Uli wears them as comfortably as she would a short cocktail dress or her jeans. Uli is my favorite, I hope to see her in the final three.

Micheal's was very P Diddy(I know not an original description, everyone has said that about his design, but face he's more P Diddy than Jay-Z). He looked like he was ready for a weekend in the Hamptons. I didn't get the strappy things on the pants but it looked good on him and he took Tim's advice and immediately changed his ensemble. Loved him showing Kayne how to work the Runway.

Vincent=boring. I own that outfit. I did enjoy watching him trace his pants to create a pattern, working in his boxers. Wonder if that was payback for Laura's almost nipple action a week or so before?

My prediction for the final three Micheal, Uli and Laura. Yes Laura is boring and predictable but her stuff is gorgeous. If not Laura, Kayne, for entertainment value alone.

At first I thought it was cruel to toss Angela out in Paris but I read on Bravo or heard in Tim's podcast that she was able to spend the night in Paris and catch some of the sights without the stress of the competition. Very cool. Flying first class, even cooler! I loved how excited Tim was over the TV screen or remote on the plane. Over at Bravo they have lots of footage you don't see on the show. I enjoyed that more than the show.

Already counting down the hours until next week's episode.

Stitching Odds and Ends

I'm so uninspired with my stitching these days. I'm not sure what it is. Pulling out all the old WIP/UFOs has really opened my eyes to how distracted I become with projects. I remember back in the old days(when my mom bought my stitching supplies at Woolworth's) I was a one at a time girl. I don't recall when the whole chart collecting thing started. I think it was with Paula Vaughn charts or maybe Prairie Schooler charts or possibly TW. Sometime around 1987 I started buying charts just because I could. I had no intention of stitching them at that moment, just buying them and putting them up for a later date. My stash of stitching stuff is small compared to some people's. I tend to buy charts more than anything. I only purchase fabric and threads-unless it's DMC-when I'm close to starting a project. I also kit things up slowly, if a chart calls for overdyes it doesn't bother me to buy a few here and there and not start stitching it for a few months. That's easy to do when one has 11,000 WIPs. There is never a rush to start anything. There's a "want" to start stuff but never a need.

I want to say that I'm not going to start anything new until a few things are finished but I can't say that. I have a few things just begging to be started. If I can get Quaker Garden finished this weekend I plan to start CHS Haunting Mermaid.

Oh and I forgot to mention my in progress Mouline Rouge by Long Dog in my list of UFOs the other day, I can't remember if I added Good Huswife's With My Needle either.

Knitting/Crochet

I kind of slowed down on my warsh rags, I have one close to finished but haven't touched my knitting in a week or so.

I want to start working on my Alien Illusion scarf again, but am concerned I'll start knitting on the wrong side. I'm afraid to touch it until I'm 100% focused on it or I'll end up ripping out everything I've done so far. I've ripped this scarf out too many times to start it over again. Why would I have to start the whole thing over? Because I can't frog my knitting. When one doesn't know what they are doing and are a poser, it shows when a mistake is made and the only way to fix it is to unravel the whole darn thing.

I started crocheting an afghan for my mom months and months ago. I'm a terrible daughter and haven't done much of anything for her over the last couple of years. She bought a new house, new furniture so I crocheted all these blocks for an afghan, I freaked out trying to put it together, it's made with Lion Brand Homespun and for some reason I couldn't figure out how to connect all the blocks. This is not my first afghan by any means, I just had some kind of bizarre brain fart where I couldn't figure it out. Talking to my friend about it a few weeks ago, it hit me, I knew how to do it, I was just making it difficult. Connecting blocks with the Homespun is the same thing as connecting blocks with your basic acrylic. What threw me was that the blocks are connected along the bottom, bottom to top, then the long strips of blocks are connected to a long double crocheted panel on the side. There are two strips of blocks, three of the double crocheted panels. I kept telling myself that the blocks wouldn't hold together, well duh, to me, I connect the blocks, bottom to top, then to the sides, it'll be perfectly secure once connected to the solid strip. I don't know why I was so blocked on this other than maybe I wanted to work on other things and not that afghan. Which is entirely possible.

Quilting and Sewing

I have several quilts planned in my head. That's about as far as they ever get. The same quilts I've mentioned here in the past. At least I'm consistent in my planning. I love planning quilts but the execution is usually years in the making. For example DS#1's Ohio Star Quilt(he was born in Ohio) has been floating around my brain for 15 yrs or so. I just can't find a color combination I like. He likes green. Greens are not my strong point. I've found it tricky to find colors that work well with the bright horrendous green he likes. I want to do each of the boys "Story of Their Lives" quilts. I think it's such a cool way to tell their stories. I plan the heck out of those quilts but never actually get around to making them. The other two boys were born in Arkansas and I don't want to make two of the same quilts so one would get an Arkansas Trouble quilt(I'll use the Kansas Trouble block and just call it Arkansas Trouble) and I found a quilt in an old, old issue of Quilters Newsletter Magazine called Jack's Circles or something like that but it's a tedious pattern, very cool, the circles are created with mini ninepatch blocks, I need to find that pattern again. I set it aside when I determined it would have to be pieced using a machine. I prefer handpiecing. So daydreaming about quilts is something I do a lot of, it just never gets much beyond that. But it's fun.

I have a purse pattern here, fabric, and I want to use my skull girl cross stitch as the outside pocket, my sewing machine doesn't want to cooperate so I'm kind of scared to try to sew a purse on a machine that stitches inconsistently, my luck the bottom would fall out or the sides come unsewn and my whole world would be on the floor. My friend who can fix anything borrowed my machine when her's broke, my machine frustrated her so much she went and bought a new machine for herself. I took that to mean my machine is a piece of junk.

Many, many projects running all around my brain these days. No wonder I can't sleep.