Weird Al is a genius

I say because of "White and Nerdy". It's actually getting played on the radio in my town! I think it's one of his best parodies ever. I am proud to be White and Nerdy! YouTube can be a wonderful ting.

My favorite line is:

"Only question I ever thought was hard
Was do I like Kirk or Picard?"

That is the quintessential question for Trekkers. For me it's Picard, for my sister it's Kirk. And do I LOVE popping bubble wrap!

SBQ- Statistics

Last week's SBQ was suggested by Elizabeth and is:

How many pieces have you stitched? Out of these, how many have been for you? How many have had specialty stitches or other techniques besides cross stitch?


A primitive head count comes up with about 15. Hey, I'm only 23 and I've only been an avid stitcher for the last 4 years. Out of the ones I do remember, only 1 finish has been for me. Queen Mermaid last fall. Everything else has been given as gifts to family and a couple of friends. I have done a small variety of specialty stitches thanks to English Garden Sampler. Algerian eyelet, diamond eyeles, herringbone, satin and a wrapped straight-stitch. The effect was beautiful! Kreinik cord in Vatican gold wrapped around ecru Perle coton. EGS is the only one that's had more than backstitching or French knots in it.

Need to order the fabric and floss for my fleur de lis for the quilt too. And my Venus threads for the PR Stitchathon in October. I'll be starting Winter Beauty Princess. Also planning to start my two letter ornaments this weekend. Have to work Saturday, so I'll be bringing them with me so I can play with silks! In fact, I'm itching so badly to stitch with my pretty silks that I just might bring the ornaments with me tomorrow too, lol.

Katrina Quilt

Kevin posted on EF about a quilt being done to commemorate Hurricane Katrina. I checked the message board and site out today and am duly impressed with the effort being put into it so far. So I signed up. Knew exactly what I want to stitch for it. A fleur de lis.

The Fleur de Lis has been associated with Louisiana since 1714 when Natchitoches used it on the flag that was designed when the city was founded. It's also the emblem of the New Orleans Saints NFL team. The Saints are back home in the Dome for the first time since mid-August of last year. The quilt is all about hope. Right now, the Saints are the picture of hope for New Orleans. They're 3-0 and actually playing GOOD football. For the first time in many years, every single home game is sold out. Sold out!! Has been for 3 weeks. We're proud of our team and even people who don't give a hoot about pro football (like me) are cheering them on.

The fleur de lis can now be found on official state welcome signs, official Louisiana documents and on tourism brochures from all over the state. Including the one for Kent House, where I work.

The square has to be stitched on evenweave. Ugh. It won't be lugana that's for sure! I think I'll use Jobelan. I think I'll go for 28ct to help make the design bigger, instead of my usual 32ct. The Saints fleur de lis is dark gold, so after browsing through Vikki Clayton and Dinky Dyes, I've pretty much settled on DD's Aussie Gold. It's got the darker tone and variation that's in the fleur de lis on Saints jerseys and baseball caps. The stitch count isn't quite big enough widthwise, so I'll be adding a black border I think, to make it big enough. The pattern I settled on just now is actually a bead pattern, but that doesn't really matter since it has the right shape and arm position to be the Saints fleur de lis.

I'm back!!!

I'm back online! Ria is home safe and sound. We're both exhausted and wishing we could turn back the clock and have a few more days. I can't believe two weeks went by so fast. Had so much fun, did so much stuff and totally wore myself out. I've been in a fog all day. My evening plans consist of eating, possibly printing out the charts for the initial ornaments I'm stitching as Christmas presents, then going to bed as soon as The Unit is over.

Still have a lot of catching up to do on blogs. I haven't stitched just a whole lot, so there won't be any WIP pictures before Sunday. I do have something else I'm working on, but I can't post any pictures or talk about it really because the person who's getting it knows where my blog is.

And the purple quiz that's floating around! Couldn't resist. :D It's pretty doggone accurate too.

You Are Grape

You are bold and a true individual. You are very different and very okay with that. People know you as a straight shooter. You're very honest, even when the truth hurts. You are also very grounded and practical. No one is going to sneak anything by you. People enjoy your fresh approach to life. And it's this honesty that makes you a very innovative person.

What Color Purple Are You?

Day One!

I'm having so much fun!!!!!!!!! And Kim, I bought that Disney Princess book today at Hobby Lobby!

Started off with her plane being nearly an hour late. OK, I can handle that though I just about went crazy with anticipation. Then her luggage didn't make it. Hazards of flying through Atlanta unfortunately. It finally showed up at the house about 9, shortly before we were planning to start the hunt for some PJ's for Ria to sleep in.

Yesterday was very laid back. A trip to Wal-Mart for her to get shampoo and for me to get the rest of the stuff to make a chocolate cake. Then looking at doll stuff and just general yakking.

Then today after work and lunch we headed over to Hobby Lobby. We're having a tea next weekend at work and Ria is going to be one of the table hostess'. So she needs an Empire dress! Got the fabric for that, got some fabric for a new one for me, the Disney Princess pattern book with the pillows on the front, and then we looked through the clearance rack.

JACKPOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mira's Sleeping Beauty kit for ten bucks!!! Snatched it right up. Will use the dirty natural linen for the pelican ornaments from the 2005 JCS ornament issue, and the floss and the beads will of course be used for SB. I am so psyched! I never would have found it without Ria. It was buried behind some of the Kelly's Kats kits and she was looking through to see if they had the cat on the ironing board and I spotted Queen of Peace. Then SB!

We've started the crochet lessons, but she's a leftie so that's going very slow. She does do plastic canvas with charts, so stitching will go much quicker. I basically just have to show her how to find the middle of the fabric and the chart. She's going to stitch one of the Belle's from the book I bought. She nearly bought the kit that I had already done for her for her BD. I kinda lied and told her it was rather difficult, lol. Near disaster averted! Tomorrow I have to work all day so we'll be cutting out playing cards and I'll be working on the cookbook and then Friday we head South!

Pictures!

The pictures I was going to post last night. Still mad at my computer, but at least it's mostly behaving right now.

My cell phone case! Crocheted with DMC Senso, the heather purple wool/cotton blend. The purple is about 3042 with flecks of 415. The pattern is a DMC freebie that I found on Michael's website, with some modifications and the strap from another freebie that I found. I'm very pleased with it!






And over there to the right is Ria's finished BD present! Framed by moi. Unfortunately this was the clearest picture I could manage. The frame really picks up the opal threads in the fabric. I'm going to enter it in the SMF Sugar Shack contest next year.



This might be my last post for the next 2 weeks. Ria gets here in a little over 16 hours!!!!

Argh!!!

I am going to shoot my computer and then throw it out the window!!!! At the very least I'm going to shoot Norton. For the last week this thing has been running slower than molasses in January! I can't have more than two programs open at once, it freezes, hangs up, refuses to do things, and just now it spontaneously DELETED nearly 4 months worth of email! So fudgey, I no longer have the link for that sampler you had emailed me about. And to top it all off it did the mother of all freezes too. Had to unplug it and pop the battery out to turn the stupid thing off! Wouldn't even eject the CD I was trying to burn a work related file to. Had to stick a safety pin in the emergency release hole to get it open.

This was going to be a post about my recent finishes and how much closer it is to Ria arriving, but I'm far too pissed at my machine to spend any more time on it. I'm going to have email the file to myself so I can get it back to work and start making the needed changes on it.

Swiped from Michelle! Being a purple lover, I couldn't resist.

You Are Lavender

You are a sweet person with a very soft personality. People become easily entranced with you. They seem to glow around you. You have a quiet energy that can keep you active late into the night. Even if you aren't the life of the party, you definitely keep the party going.

What Color Purple Are You?

But is it true? Not particularly! Soft personality? Not on your life! Energy late into the night? *laughs myself to death* Heck no! I'm dead by ten pm. Actually, Michelle's result of Grape is nearly me to a T. How come I didn't get that answer? I am bold and a very different individual. And quite okay with it and proud of it. Took me a LONG time to get to the point where I like myself (just ask my mom, lol), but I'm there and I honestly don't care what most people think of my habits and likes. I'm me and nobody can change that.

On the stitching front, BD present is complete! Will be framed this weekend and I'll post a picture. I lucked out and frames at Hobby Lobby are 50% off this week. Talk about perfect timing! And the perfect frame. I just wish lacing didn't take so long, lol.

And cell phone case is complete. Will post a pic this weekend with the finished BD present. I will be meeting Ria with my Nancy Drew purse on my shoulder, with nifty new cell phone case attached, neither of which she has never seen. Oh, and Samantha. She's never seen my Samantha out of the box. Tuesday!!!!!!!!!! So come Tuesday I'll be rather scarce for exactly two weeks. She goes home on the 26th.

On the agenda for tomorrow is cleaning my room. As things stand right now Ria has no place to sleep. Must fix that... And truth be told it's driving me crazy. I haven't put my clothes up in a week because I've been so tired when I get home that all I do is crash. And I still haven't put away my floss that I bought at Hancock's. That was 2 weeks ago. But it is sorted and catalogued, which is a step in the right direction.

And Fudgey told me about another pattern for New Orleans relief efforts. Yes, they still need help. Areas of the city STILL don't have electricity and it's been over a year. It's a sampler stitched with VC silks. I'll be emailing for all the info sometime this weekend.

WIP updates

I finally took pictures! First up, my crocheted cell phone case. I'm over halfway done with it already. I'm using a bigger yarn than called for, so I only need half as many rows, and I won't have to make the side inserts, I'll just whip-stitch the sides together when I get to that point. It's done with DMC Senso yarn, the heather purple. I'm thinking I'll make me another one too out of more springy colors, a variegated of some sort probably.


Next, HAED's "A Favour". I'm about 2200 stitches in. Nearly all of the progress from the last picture to this one was done in 2 days. I so proud of myself!


And this one is my best friend's BD present. I accidentally cropped off some of the side when I took it, but you get the picture, lol. It's a Belle portrait, Beauty and the Beast is her favorite movie. It's a Janlynn kit that came with aida. I chucked the aida and am stitching it on SMF's "Abracadabra" 28ct Cashel. She'll look much better once I finish the backstitching in her hair and on her face. That pink down at the bottom goes all the way around and up and forms a heart around her. And Hobby Lobby has frames on sale this week!! Talk about meant to be.

Quz time!

This is the second one I've seen today, so I think I'll play along with both! Swiped from Belinda's blog.

1. Elaborate on your default icon.
It's Rafiki from Disney's The Lion King. The little animated inset is my favorite scene in the movie where Rafiki goes karate on the hyenas.

2. What's your current relationship status?
Single and available

3. Ever have a near-death experience?
If I have, I don't know about it, lol.

4. Name an obvious quality you have.
Brains! And I know how to use them.

5. What's the name of the song that's stuck in your head right now?
"Buttons" by the Pussycat Dolls

6. Name a celebrity you would marry.
If we're going by pure looks, the guy who plays Peter in Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.

7. Who will cut and paste this first?
I don't know!

8. Has anyone ever said you look like a celebrity?
No, not to my knowledge anyway. Unless being told I'm the spitting image of my mom and grandmother counts...

9. Do you wear a watch?
Yup, but only in the daytime.

10. Do you have anything pierced?
Just my ears

11. Do you have any tattoos?
Not a one! Sometimes they can be sexy on a guy, but I have no desire to have one.

12. Do you like pain?
No. Just ask my mom, lol.

13. Do you like to shop?
Only if it's stash, books or I can walk into American Girl Place with $400 to blow on dolls.

14. What was the last thing you paid for with cash?
My mother's Sprite at Sam's this evening. It was her cash.

15. What was the last thing you paid for with your credit card?
Lunch. Except it was my debit card. If we're talking real-live credit card it was my floss at Hancock's.

16. Who was the last person you spoke to on the phone?
My mother.

17. What is on your desktop background?
Alternative Reality by Josephine Wall

18. What is the background on your mobile phone?
A dandelion.

19. Do you like redheads?
Anne of Green Gables is a redhead!

20. Do you know any twins?
I used to, but I haven't seen them in years.

21. Do you have any weird relatives?
Lord yes!!! I've got more than my quota of weird relatives!

22. What was the last movie you watched?
Idlewild. Predictable but good. I liked the credits best- tribute to Cab Calloway and Bojangles Robinson.

23. What was the last book you read?
Last one I finished was Night Light by Terri Blackstock. Currently reading Dancing Under the Red Star by Karl Tobien.

24. Why do you fill out these memes?
Because they amuse me and I like seeing other peoples answers.