Tuesdays Are My Stitchy NIght

It's stitchy night and I want to get stitching. I don't have a lot of progress to show. At most, I've put three lengths in Letter G and I am itching to get back to her. She's a lot of fun and it makes me realize that I miss stitching on Mirabilias so I am putting Fairy Moon back on my project list and hope to get started on her very soon. She's been kitted up for 2 years now...just waiting. But first, I have to get through Letter G and Newton and one more exchange before devoting the rest of Fall and maybe part of Winter on stitching on some serious BAPs...Mary Wigham and Fairy Moon. Talk about contradictions in stitching!

The weekend was a blur! So fast and then back to Monday. Most of the weekend was devoted to finding the right materials to frame my mom's gift, framing and wrapping it. Throw in some errands, housesitting, visit to the local school festival which is literally in my backyard and a date night with *the boy*. We went to see Psycho at the local classic theater and have a nice cajun meal. It was nice and it was my first time seeing Psycho. That Norman Bates is one creepy dude! It was a packed weekend and I didn't have time to get ahead in my sewing class so I am *so* behind!!!

My parents arrived from their trip safely and I talked to my mom and she *loved* the gift. Yay! She was very touched, said she cried and that the gift was "better than diamonds"! Yay! Umm, but diamonds were not an option! I'm just happy that she liked the gift and I think that my amateur framing job worked out nicely. I went to Aaron Brothers because I just wanted a regular frame she could display on a table versus the wall. I found one I liked but despite the design size being 4"x7", the 5x7 frame was to small. WTF?! So I had to upgrade to an 8x10 frame but my fabric barely covered the front widthwise(about 1/16th of an inch too short) in order for me to lace it so I had to improvise. I went to Joann's looking for lace and couldn't find any suitable lace but I found tan crochet lace trim and that worked out great and seemed fitting since my grandmother tatted and crocheted. This was my finished product.
Not bad, huh? Took me forever though. Finishing takes me forever. Kind of like sewing...in class last night, I was wondering why my sewing was coming out all jacked up. Took me 30 minutes to figure out that the presser foot (or whatever the heck it's called) was up so my fabric was dancing all over the place which meant my stitches were all over the place and messed up. 30 MINUTES!!! I'd have finished my sample if I had my head attached. Are you laughing? Yea, I'm laughing at myself too...it's ok.

42 more hours until I turn one year older. Time has flown this year! I am treating myself to a 4-day weekend (because working on your birthday should be illegal) so that I can stitch and sew my booty off. I cannot wait! I have a ton of sewing homework to do (see scenario above to understand why) so that will be my focus but Letter G is hard to resist. I hope to have made great progress on her.

Have a wonderful week!!

Until next time...

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my mom's birthday...and I am hoping she likes the gift I made for her. She won't see it until she comes back from her trip on Tuesday. Both my parents are September babies. My dad's was earlier this month and he's getting a fax machine for his birthday. That's boring...I know. But this is the exciting and pretty stuff!

BBD Red Sampler Freebie
32 count Lakeside Linens Vintage Light Examplar
WDW Lancaster Red, CC Clay Pot and GAST Antique Rose

I am really happy with it! I tried to correct as much as possible...especially the bottom border, the flower border and that seven. This was made in tribute to my maternal grandmother who passed away in 1994. She was 90 years old. I think it's fitting that because of spacing issues, I moved the 8 to the third row and kept the 9 and 0 by themselves on the fourth row. I didn't plan it really. Once I finished it last night and looked at it, I was all "hey! She was 90 in 1994 and lookie there...it all adds up!" I suppose that's kismet in a way. My maternal grandmother was the only grandparent I ever knew. All my others passed away before I was born or could even remember. Almost every summer, my mother would pack me up and we would go to Nicaragua to spend 2-3 weeks visiting family. I got to play at the beach and play with all my aunts, uncles and cousins. My grandmother was very much the matriarch of the family. She kept all of us in line and loved us all so much with her warm and wonderful heart. When I was young, she'd sometimes come to the States to visit. I remember her making tons of little yoyo's and making lovely crocheted doilies. The craftiness passed onto my mom and me. With her passing came very heavy hearts. Even the parrot would still scream "abuelita", waiting for her to yell back. I had planned this little tribute for Mother's Day but I got sidetracked. I thought my mom's birthday would be just as fitting. *The boy* and I are heading to Aaron Brothers and Michael's to see if I can find a suitable frame for it. I hope so!

Happy Birthday to Mom!

Tuesdays Are My Stitchy Night

Well...I'm a raving hormonal witch today so I will spare you guys the bitching, moaning and whining tonight...cuz really...I can barely deal with myself! It's just one of those weeks...or at least shaping up to be one. But it's Tuesday and I have my stitchy report to submit. I am *still* working on Red Sampler.
I think that I've either become the slowest stitcher ever or I am just *that* busy. I'll say I'm busy...last week was fairly disappointing considering all the relationship hoopla and that has kind of run into this week along with the intense desire to be anywhere other than work! The photo above was taken before I started stitching for the night and I've finished up the 4th line but then had to rip out the 9 and 0 to add a smidge more space and change the color to something with more contrast. Oof...long names are a killer! I'll probably finish this up over the next couple of nights and frame it this weekend. Just in time for my mom's birthday...this one is #79 but don't tell her I told you guys. She'll get all upset about how I'm blabbing to people about how old she is.

It's also that time of the month! TUSAL time! I'm late reporting but the photo of the jar was taken the day I was *supposed* to report on it. It still looks the same despite contributions to it. I wonder if *the boy* is playing with my orts when I'm sleeping! Well, that's it for today. *The boy* has been yelling at me to go to sleep for the last 15 minutes. Something about how I should go to sleep early so I don't wake up all tired. Yea, yea, yea...going to sleep early. What a concept. I think sleeping early and work are both over-rated. Now to figure out how to win the lottery. Its thoughts like these that are important in life and keep me up late!

Have a good week everyone!

Until next time...

Tuesdays Are My Stitchy Nights

It's Tuesday so time for my regular installment. First up is fun mail news. I was the winner of Melissa's huge bloggoversary draw celebrating her 8 years of blogging and 1,000 posts. Whoa! Talk about a huge surprise. I rarely win anything!! Her fantastic package arrived on Thursday night and it boosted my spirits. Look at all the charts!!
And she included a ton of goodies! I am so drooling over the fabric, Carrie's Threads, the scissors, PinPals, the Chatelaine and most of all...the cute little door hanger Melissa made...just perfect for Fall!
Here's the little door hanger contributing a lovely splash of color hanging on my living room door. I can see it perfectly from my stitching spot on the futon. I love it! Thanks Melissa!!
I've been stitching but not much. Life keeps getting in the way. Here is my small start in Mirabilia Letter G. This will eventually end up being a gift.
And I stitched a little bit more on Red Sampler. I better get cracking! My mom's birthday is the 24th although they don't come back from their trip until the 29th so I have an extra few days to finish this up and frame it. Umm...I still have quite a ways to go!
On Saturday, I made a quick trip to NiaH to pick up Tall Turkey from the finisher. I had him made into a small weighted stand up. A perfect display for Fall and Thanksgiving. I had a couple of Halloween things and Christmas things but nothing for Thanksgiving so here he is! She did a great job! It's backed with green velvet and has a multicolor-metallic cording. If you click the picture, you can see how cool the cording is a little better.
Well now is the part for the good news and the not so good news. The EDD hearing for *the boy* went well considering the former employer did not show up to the hearing so *the boy* won. But the whole thing...appeal after appeal and showing up to the hearing was just a waste of time, money and brought about a good deal of anxiety. *The boy's* doctors appointment also went well. Not great but it's a step in the right direction. He's been upgraded to a cane. Three views of x-ray came back healed and one view is still questionable. There's a little gap so he has to be careful walking with the cane, still use the bone stimulation machine and go back in 6 weeks for a progress report. Now the not so good news...*the boy* and I are taking a break from dating. We've been dating a little over a year and the majority of it has been him unemployed, crippled, sick and me taking on the brunt of the expenses and caretaking. I'm mentally, emotionally and physically drained. As much as I would like things to work, it's just not working for me right now. I'm quite sad and torn up about it. We both feel him going back to RI is for the best until he fully heals, can get a respectable job and afford his own space. Perhaps when he is ready to come back, the stars will be re-aligned and it will actually be normal and happen smoothly for us. For now...we're on a break and not broken up...but it really does feel broken up to me. I wonder if that even makes sense. My birthday is in a couple of weeks and I feel terrible...certainly not the happiest of times. He asked to stay til then so he can still give me a special day since we had just started dating this time last year and he was out of town on my birthday. I figure it's best to try to have a happy day with *the boy* before he leaves than be sad and alone on my birthday. I so wish things could be different and normal and what we had planned for months ago.

So there it is...a total bummer. I'm not quite sure what will happen but I'm happy to have my stitching, sewing homework (lol) and great blogging and real life friends to keep me occupied and entertained. I'm definitely grateful for that...

I'll come back with more vacation photos soon...

Until next time.

Au Revoir Mes Amis!!

Hi everybody...I leave for vacation in 11 hours! I'm not even packed! I hate packing...I mentally prepare the lists in my head and start making a huge pile of things I want to take and then when it comes down to the actual act of packing, I'm pretty fast. The weather here is about 84 degrees with around 60% humidity. I'm sure a lot of people may not think that's too bad but for here...it's HOT! This is part of the reason I haven't packed yet. It's sweltering in the bedroom!!

I do have to say that I am surprised and quite happy to have received quite a few comments from people interested in adopting my butterfly family! I like the ones who tell me what they will do if they get the chance to adopt. It makes me feel like they will be safe. I wonder if that sounds weird. As much as I don't necessarily embrace my culture, I am really proud of my heritage and I do think this is a good way to share an art form that you wouldn't really see anywhere outside of Central America. This giveaway idea makes me feel like I am doing that. I also got comments from "new to me" bloggers. Welcome! Please stop by again...I'll visit soon to say hi!

I did update the last post with better photos. I wanted to illustrate the back. They are made as stand-ups and aren't equipped for hanging on the wall. Unless you want to hang them upside down! LOL

I do have a small start to share since I've been procrastinating with the packing. Here's my start on my BBD Red Sampler. I'm really liking it so far even though it's making me think a lot! The spacing between letters is not consistent and the fact that there is no "W" and the Y comes before the X kind of drives me a little nuts. I wonder if my mom will get it...she's going to think that a college education was wasted on me if I can't even get the alphabet right! I'm going to have to explain the story behind this little sampler to her. I also have the dilemna of being from a latin family. Women typically have 4 names...first, middle, male last name and female last name. So my grandmother was known by four names but I will go with the first three for the sampler. The name itself is still long so I will have to shift my spacing to be able to fit first and middle in that fourth line without scrunching it.

Apparently, I got off easy being born in the States with just having two names, first and last. But I always feel a little sad that I don't have a third name for sampler initials...so I think that when I start working on samplers, I'll adopt my mom's maiden name to round it out a little.

So far, I am liking the color combination. I've only used two colors so far in the sampler, Lancaster Red and Antique Rose. Clay Pot has not come into play yet but it will soon.

I am still going to try to blog while I am on vacation assuming *the boy* will let me use his computer once in a while. I don't feel like lugging my computer and besides, I am lugging 4 books, Mary Wigham, BC Snappers, Gwendolyn, Spring Biscornu and BBD Red Sampler with me LOL! I don't think I'll get to work on all my projects but I would like to have the option of picking what I want to work on.

I'll catch up with your happenings when I get back!

Au revoir!

Until next time...

Tuesdays Are My Stitchy Night!

Jeezus, it took me 45 minutes to figure out the Picasa Collage function! Doesn't the computer know I am supposed to be stitching and not figuring out why it's having a temper tantrum or realizing how inept it's owner is at figuring out techie stuff? So I could have done better with the collage but the light wasn't blazing into my apartment like it usually is when I got home and the pre-stated technological issues kind of made me lose my steam on my "hey, let me learn how to make a collage...sounds cool!" mood. I do kind of dig how the words go in all sorts of different directions though. One day...I'll be good at the photo-taking and collage-making. I promise! But here's the L&K ABC Lessons a la collage with more normal lighting than that last snap.
Someone had asked what my plans were with the ABC Lessons and my answer is that I'm not very sure. I can't picture it up and framed in my apartment but I can in a house. I bought this kit as a reminder to myself to strive to be and do all the things suggested in this sampler. Some days, I find it hard to not let the little things get to me...and with the stress of the past year...even more so. This should probably be hung up on the wall though...so it's a constant reminder to be kind, to scatter joy, to understand others and to x-ercise...amongst other things. We'll see how this piece ends up.

I realized as I was driving home and setting the plans for this post that I should have taken pictures of my floss tosses for Gwendolyn and Mary Wigham before organizing it all into floss away bags. Oops! Too late now...I guess it will be a surprise! But here is the floos toss for the BBD Red Sampler that I'm making for my mom. I'll be using 32 count Lakeside Linens Vintage Light Exampler (surprise!) with WDW Lancaster Red, CC Clay Pot and GAST Antique Rose.
I didn't want to go as dark or bright as red but wanted something close. I think she'll like these colors and they will be complementary to the "Mom" piece I gifted her last year. I'm sure she'll put this piece in the same room.

And I almost forgot...hence crappy picture...that it's time to share my TUSAL progress. I'm three days late!! The jar is only 1/3 of the way full despite stitching my little heart out! Most of the colors on the top are from the ABCs so there is a lot of brown with some green, blue and pink thrown in for good measure.
I don't have any new stitching to show. What little I did over the weekend was more and more leaves for my Snappers border. It's boring. I don't want to stitch more leaves or photograph them either. I'm debating whether to continue with the leaves to try to catch up or start the BBD since it's sitting right here. Decisions, decisions.

I leave on vacation in FIVE days!! Yay! I have the feeling stitching time will be scarce leading up to the trip since I have to get the apartment in order, figure out and organize what I am taking with me and make sure I get my mani/pedi in before leaving! I can't wait!! I just hope the weather cools down a bit over on the East Coast! I'll touch base before I leave for sure and will probably post while away....maybe.

Hope everyone is having a stitchy Tuesday too.

Until next time...