Jazzfest ramblings and an art gush

First off, Jazzfest! I was totally absent from the world wide web yesterday because I was in New Orleans at Jazzfest! More specifically the Dave Matthews Band concert that ended yesterday's portion of the festival. It was FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Absolutely totally worth the draggy feeling I have today and the driving through all the rain we got yesterday. (much and badly needed rain, we're in a drought)

The concert was amazing but it the whole trip was depressing too. I knew in my head that New Orleans is not recovering as quickly as they should. *glares at Congress, FEMA and politicians in general* The city has no money, so cleanup isn't being done. They've laid off nearly 20,000 city employees with more layoffs expected. Things like that happen when the state loses money too and has none to give the city to help them out. The state alone lost $1.3 billion due to Katrina and Rita. They hit exactly 26 days apart and wreaked much havoc on my state's economy. I don't even want to see the number for how much money New Orleans is losing! Still losing, every single day. 3/4'ths of the city's budget came from tourism dollars being spent and the city collecting the taxes. The tourists are gone, so the money is gone too. I work at a historic site partially funded by the state. Less than 50% of our funding comes from the state. We got a HUGE budget cut.

Louisiana has been forgotten. Again. There are only 31 days till hurricane season starts. Those 31 days are going to go by very quickly, and then the longest 6 months of the year will start.

In happier news, Deborah Grieves released Summer Cameo Friday!!!!!! What a wonderful thing to see when I checked in at the HAED board earlier today. The begging campaign has already begun. :D I am one very happy Deb Grieves fan and will be the most ecstatic HAED stitcher on the planet when Summer is charted and released.

What does your Birth Date mean?

Swiped from Fudgey!

Your Birthdate: December 10

Independent and dominant, you tend to be the alpha dog in most situations. You're very confident, and hardly anything ever shakes you. Mundane tasks tend to drain you - you prefer to be making great plans. You are quite original. When people don't "get" you, it bothers you a lot. Your strength: Your ability to gain respect Your weakness: Caring too much what others think Your power color: Orange-red Your power symbol: Letter X Your power month: October

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

The only true part is confident and hardly anything shakes me! Anybody who really knows me knows that I could care less what other people think about me. And October has far too many allergens in it for my taste. I'd rather just skip the whole month!

On the bruise front- it's just about gone now! Just some redness around the edges. The skin bruise has cleared up nicely but I can still the muscle bruise. It's still a lovely shade of purple! And odd to look at too, being able to see the lines of the muscle through your skin... A free piece of advice: Don't fall off of metal legged chairs!

The picture!

And here she is! 1x1 on 25ct bone lugana.

QS Wednesday SAL

My Earth Mermaid has a jawline and a cheek now! I had wanted her to have an eye too so she could see, but I can't stitch that much and talk on the phone at the same time. Yes, I was talking on the phone the whole 2 hours I was working on EM. Haven't taken the picture yet, will do that when I get home this evening. I'm undecided as to whether to work on Newborn Joy tonight or start gridding for Spring Cameo. Printed the chart out Tuesday afternoon and spread it out on the floor. Wowzers!!!! She is going to be so unbelievably pretty and once again I can't decide where to start. I've narrowed it down to three places: her eyes, the cameo necklace or the big pink flower in her hair. (I grid pages because I can't decide where to start!)

I am SO GLAD I don't have to waste an evening tomorrow by going to see that play. Our city is celebrating their bicentennial next year and a local playwright has written a play of the early days of the city. It's mediocre at best and Elizabeth and our boss Allie went to the dress rehearsal last night. I have been informed that it was absolutely horrible. Kent House did all of the costumes for it and we pride ourselves on being as historically accurate as possible. They managed to ruin even our wonderful historically correct Empire costumes. (My sister Elizabeth is the "bride" on the left with all the lace. She made that!)

A most welcome sound!

The sound of rain!! We're in a drought, although up here where I am isn't near as bad as in New Orleans and Baton Rouge.

This also means I don't have to water the garden or the flowerbeds tonight. :D

I can walk!!

Mostly, lol. The bruise is now a lovely mix of purple, yellow and green. Too bad it's not the Mardi Gras shades... But I do love my new blinds!!! Much much better than the sheets I had previously, which were a vast improvement over the vertical blinds the room came with when we moved in. God I hate those things.... Vertical blinds that is!

EeKoon put up a wonderful and thought-provoking post on her blog, Crafty Pretender. It's on my sidebar. Go check it out!

My Newborn Joy has a face!!!!! Pictures will be posted tomorrow, then Wednesday after the SAL I'll take a new pic of my Earth Mermaid. Fabric is all gridded for Pirate and Mermaid and I have the fabric for Spring Cameo now!!! Printing that chart tomorrow afternoon so I can grid. :D I hope Deb releases Summer Cameo soon. Spring looks like my sister and Summer sort of looks me. Can't WAIT to see Fall and Winter!!! Must go check her LJ....

I have got to stop hitting the Draft button in place of Publish... They should reverse the order of the buttons!

Ooh... ouch!

I got in 2 good hours of stitching on my QS this evening. I would have taken a picture but my mom has the memory card for my camera and she hasn't given it back to me yet. And I really don't feel like hiking all the way to the other end of the house to get it from her.

And there's a good reason for that! I was putting up new blinds in my room yesterday. Standing on a chair since we didn't have a stepladder tall enough. (Me and stepladders don't get along anyway) So I was holding the blinds up to mark the holes for the hooks, when something slipped. I don't know if I turned my foot the wrong way or if I shifted my weight too far in the wrong direction or what. The chair went one way and I went the other. The lovely grapefruit sized bruise on my thigh is now 5 shades of purple and I can't put my full weight on it. *sigh* such is me...

The amazing part is that nothing was broken! The blinds landed on a glass vase, which is still intact, there are no holes gauged in the dresser and the doll lamp that was on the dresser is still in one piece too. *whew* To top it off, we had 3 different groups tour Kent House today- BIG groups (this translates to fantastic gift shop receipts, one of our best days in YEARS!) and I was on my feet most of the morning and a good chunk of the afternoon. Now both legs hurt.

That's life in my house! Rarely are we all unhurt and unbruised at the same time. It's amazing that only one of us has ever broken any bones (youngest bro, aka Indiana Jones wannabe in his younger days), although no one has ever topped my dad falling out of a deer stand and spraining his ankle.

I was bad yesterday. Silkweaver had a few solos left and they put them up at reduced prices. I snagged a FQ of 32ct Belfast. It's so pretty!!! I have no idea what I'll stitch on it, but I had been wanting it for awhile now. $17 after shipping is a REALLY tough price to talk yourself out of for that much linen.

More edits!

Some new blogs added to the sidebar and some blinkies!!! I put them down at the bottom. The blog links and a couple of the blinkies reveal a few things about me.

The blog link- I'm a DIEHARD Nancy Drew fan. I attend convention. (Yes, there are Nancy Drew conventions) I met my two closest friends because of Nancy Drew.

The blinkies- I STILL haven't forgiven Sci-Fi for cancelling Farscape *pouts* Brilliant show, just brilliant. The white Christmas blinkie.... In 1954, Bing Crosby partenered with Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera Ellen to make the most wonderful Christmas move ever: White Christmas. Christmas doesn't start at my house until the movie has been watched. It gets me and my sister in the mood and we go around singing the songs for months afterwards. If you've ever seen it, my sister and I used to do "Sister, Sisters" with the cut-off branches of our Christmas tree. It's a wonderful movie, if you haven't seen it go rent it this December!

Before I go off on my sidetrack in the next paragraph, here is Newborn Joy that I'm stitching for my new little cousin Lainey. (And no, I don't feel like messing around with the pic feature tonight) Be warned, she doesn't have a face!

And now I have a major dilemma! An Amazon search has revealed the White Christmas soundtrack. Do I buy it and chance ruining the magic or do I buy it on the chance that I will thoroughly enjoy listening to Gee, I Wish I Was Back In The Army, Mandy and Choreography and all the other songs? (And Snow!) Decisions decisions....

Piddling around....

I really should be in bed. My usual bedtime is between 10 and 10:30 and here it is 11:15 and I'm still up! I am SO GLAD I don't have to work tomorrow. It gave me great satisfaction to not turn the alarm back on this morning. I can only think of 2, maybe three Saturdays in the last 2-3 months where I haven't been working or somewhere else. It's nice to just stay home. I'm going to paint my daybed too. This makes me very happy. :D

This weekend I hope to add more blogs to my sidebar, but I still haven't figured out where I want to put some of my other blinkes... Right now I'm thinking between the Recent Posts listings and the Archives listings. But I'm not sure. I guess I'll just stick one in and see if I like the way it looks.

I finished the coaster today!!!!!!! It's certainly not the prettiest coaster the world has ever seen, but I do have the pattern figured out now and the one I'm currently working on looks just like the picture. So far, lol. I'm only on round 6 out of 10. Well, 9 actually because I don't like the way Round 10 finishes it so I'm going to leave it off on my set of coasters. I'm making a set for me, a set for my sister and a set for my sister-in-law-to-be. I'm sure my mom will get in on the list somehow, lol. And I have now worked up the courage to finally do the thread crochet Christmas Tree angel and that's what I'll do after the coasters are done. Or if I decide I need a break from going around and around and around. (I have a serious thing for Christmas decorations)

I need a banner up top.... The default heading is BORING!!!! I shall have to look through my pictures and see what I can come up with to make something that represents me.

*sad sigh*

Take 2! Some days I could shoot my computer *proceeds to cuss out Adobe*

I had a whole post written up and then Adobe decides that it wants to hang my browser up!! I was attempting to read filed newsletters on the website of an LNS in Metairie.

I'm going to Gulf Shores in June and on a lark I decided to see if there are any shops closer than Pensecola (that's about 45 minutes further down the Interstate from where I'll be) and I went to the Hoffman site to have a look-see. Clicked on my region first to see how many shops they had listed in Louisiana. Metairie, Metairie and more Metairie! From websites, it looks like most of those are open and I had no idea there was one in Lafayette and one in Ruston! But not the one in Chalmette is not open.

Chalmette no longer exists. The town is no more. Nobody lives there and right now the plan is to just tear everything down and never rebuild. The worst of the breaches flooded Chalmette and then an underground oil storage unit burst and the natural gas pipelines caught on fire. There still aren't any birds and it's been nearly 8 months.

In happier news, I'm back in the HAED Wednesday QS SAL. I'm working on Earth Mermaid. And today Fudgey gifted me with Storykeeper QS! The agony of deciding whether to do my Angel of Compassion storykeep or Storykeeper after Earth Mermaid might very well drive me batty, lol.

There should be a picture....

ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so NOT in the mood to sit here and figure out why Blogger suddenly doesn't like to insert off-site hosted pictures. Earth Mermaid Blob. And now I'm getting off of here before I hurl the stupid thing across the room.

Fabric!!!!

I FINALLY figured out how to navigate the CountryStitch website! Many thanks to Andie at the Mira board for the instructions. I'm so glad Linda will be redesigning it.

Now that I have had a chance to browse the colors, I have quite the list shaping up! I've heard so many wonderful things about these fabrics. And now at Fudgey's request, my list! All linen of course.

Applemint
Coastal Ice
Forget-Me-Not
Lagoon
Paua
Taupo
Waterfall

And now for the Sparkles!

Honeydew
Wisteria

Kiwi Patches

Eden- this one screams "stitch a mermaid on me!"

And I think that's it for now. If only I have an endless supply of money...

Today is QS Wednesday, and I'll actually be working on Earth Mermaid this week. The last two weeks I was just flat out exhausted and didn't stitch on anything most of the last two weeks. I did get another chunk done on Newborn Joy for my little cousin Laney. I'll have a picture of it sometime this week. Just have to remember to take it, lol.

Off to check the Odds and Ends page at Silkweaver, and then it's back to work.

So tired....

I am so incredibly tired this weekend. Herb Day at work was today. It's one of our biggest, busiest days of the year and we have herbs for sale. This year it was an all day festival type thing. I ended up being there just after 7 and didn't leave until nearly 5. And yesterday was set-up and unloading hundreds of flats of herbs.

So last night I sat down to watch something, (I'm blanking on what it was, lol) and I have to be doing something with my hands. Didn't want to get my thread crochet out because the next round was something I'd never done before. Would have required thinking. Didn't want to get Newborn Joy out for the same reason- thinking. So I got out my fabric for Pirate and Mermaid to do some gridding. One wouldn't think that requires thinking!

Turns out gridding does require thinking. After ripping out the SAME THING four times, I finally got a whole page gridded. Took me 45 minutes just to do one page. Lesson learned: You do have to actually use brain cells when you're gridding.

*sigh* still no Pearl linen on the SW Odds and Ends page. I can't wait too much longer for it. I need to get Spring Cameo gridded. I'm thinking I'm going to take her to the beach with me in June. :D

As soon as I finish the thread crochet project, a coaster, I'll take a picture of it. I only have 4 rounds left! I'll be decreasing for the first time. And I'm glad to discover that it doesn't hurt my hands as much as working with yarn. Weird...

Warning...

This post has absolutely nothing to do with stitching!!

As some people may have noticed by now by my various avatars and sig pics, I'm a Disney fan. Specifically The Little Mermaid. It's coming to DVD in October AND to Broadway!!!!!!!! I have just gotten my paws on the practice studio recording for the Broadway show and I'm sitting here falling in love with TLM all over again. Nobody knows yet when the Broadway show will open, but when it does I am so there!!! (I'm so glad my best friend lives on Long Island and is a Disney fan too...)

Whoever wrote the new songs for the show really has a wonderful handle on the story and the emotions of the characters. Eric has a solo called "Her Voice" and it's sung after Ariel rescues him. It's my favorite song from the show and beautifully sung by Cheyenne Jackson. I really really really really hope he signs on to play Eric in the show. He's fabulous!! Better than Christopher Daniel Barnes who voiced Eric in the movie. I tracked down some pictures and with the right wig and makeup he'll be a dead ringer for the animated Eric.

Then Ariel and Eric have a duet. Sort of. They're on land, I'm not exactly sure what the timing is but he's talking to her and she's singing to herself all the things she wants to say him. It's called "If Only" and it is beautiful. And then finale song gave me goosebumps! I haven't had goosebumps over Broadway songs since the first time I heard Phantom of the Opera.

And now back to the regularly scheduled stitchy talk. :D

Squee!!!!

Summer Cameo is nearly done!!!!!!! I just love Spring Cameo. Soon as I get fabric for Spring she'll be started. (That reminds me, need to go check SW Odd and Ends page) Summer is purple and lavender with roses in her hair! She kinda looks like me, lol.

*skips off to check Odds And Ends page before I forget again*

Took a little break

So, I finished Queen Mermaid and a brand new book arrived the very next day. :D So I took a little stitching break to read the book, Expect the Sunrise by Susan May Warren. She's one of my very favorite authors right now for two reasons. #1: She is a FANTASTIC writer, and #2: she shares my love of all things Russian.

So anyway, I won the book from her. She was giving away 15 copies and I was #14! First time I ever won a contest in my whole life, lol. The catch was write a review on Amazon, Christian Book Distributing.com or B&N. So I did. It's the third in a series called Team Hope, and the first two books are just as good as the last one. They are Christian books, so I don't recommend them to the average run of the mill reader.

Yseterday, I started my first Mira Little Stitches, Newborn Joy. I have a new baby cousin, and wanted to do something small and quick for her, so I picked Newborn Joy. It's going very quickly, just as I expected. Need to go back and get two skeins of floss that I somehow missed the first time around. That'll teach me to go down the aisle too fast, lol.

And one last note: I HATE springing forward!!!