Romantic Stitches

It's not dead!

2009-06-09T12:16:00.002-05:00

This blog is not dead. I promise. Just sorely neglected. I recently got married, so I'm settling into a whole new routine in a city and a new state.

The main reason of this post is to show off my finally framed Queen Mermaid. She sat in a drawer for 3 years waiting on me to frame her. She's going to hang in my guest room.

Finished socks!!

2008-02-14T15:22:00.002-06:00

Yes, you read that right. Finished socks. As in plural. There are two of them. On my feet!! They've been there since I took the picture and I have no plans to take them off anytime soon.

Sweater HD!!!

2008-01-28T13:24:00.001-06:00

I finished the baby sweater!!!!!! A good friend had a baby on the 3rd, a little boy. It's been so unseasonably cold down here that the poor thing is in dire need of a sweater.

I don't remember where I found the pattern, but it's an online freebie. Called the Yoda Baby Sweater if I remember correctly. The yarn is Hobby Lobby Baby Bee something. Color is pretty true here on my screen, a lovely pale gray.

Next up: Finish the sock so I can knit my hand warmers with the leftovers.

New Year, new start!

2008-01-07T14:02:00.001-06:00

I have a truly new year laid out in front of me. I'm starting a new job in another 2 weeks, one that I'm really looking forward to. My income will be going up, so a new car is in my future as well as more spending $$$ for stash. The new job has me working from home, and since I'm setting my office up in my room, I decided it was time for a major cleaning spree.

I do have a rather large room, when this house was built it was originally the master bedroom. I've divided it up into sections and I'm tackling one section every day until I get done. I should be done by Thursday if I stay on track. The massive cleaning also involves some re-arranging and organizing.

A friend sent me a nifty little fold-out knitting case. And I do mean it's little! And terribly cute, and yellow which means it matches my bedroom beautifully. The friend doesn't know what color my bedroom is either. Since I keep my small knitting projects in a little bag, I decided to put all of my thread crochet stuff into the little fold-out thing. So all my thread gets put in there, my favorite little pattern book and some beads that I'm about to play with.

Naturally I want to put my hooks in there too. My mom bought me a full set of steel crochet hooks for Christmas a couple years ago. 00-14 all in the same case! I think that was my favorite present that year. But I can't find them. Anywhere! I found the last hook I was using, the 6 out of the case. But no case. I've looked everywhere. In all of my tote bags, pulled all the yarn out of my knitting bag, looked in all of my little chests and sewing boxes. Zilch. That little green case is nowhere to be found. Rats!

So if anybody sees a little green case with steel crochet hooks in it that's missing the 6, please tell it to come back home.

WIP update

2007-11-22T21:15:00.000-06:00

Warning! Picture heavy post.

Kimono Butterflies Mermaid ACEO QS by HAED, artist Nadia Tate. It took me forever to "see" her face, lol. I'm very pleased with the way she's turning out.

Chatelaine St. Petersburg White Nights part 2 complete. Still totally head over heels in love with it! It's so sparkly already and there's not a single bead or crystal on it yet!

And my PV, cuz it's been awhile. The mirror is TOTALLY finished now except for the backstitching. The bouquet is just about complete too. It's still driving me batty, but I'm starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel.

Bad stitcher!

2007-11-21T11:54:00.001-06:00

Yes, that's me. I've been a very bad stitcher. I haven't kept up with my blog or shared pictures or anything. So I'm going to attempt to explain.

My last post on 9/10 is right around the time that I switched jobs. I've worked a lot of evenings, which is my main stitching time. So I haven't been stitching as much as I used to. I haven't even made one full go through of my rotation. I did finish Part 2 of St. Pete, and stitched 2 more times on KMB. I'll put some pictures up tomorrow.

I've also been swimming right along on my medical transcription course. I also have landed an MT job!!!!!!! I start the first full week of January. My last day at Hobby Lobby will be December 29th, and then I'll have a week to get my room cleaned up good, get my desk cleaned off and arranged and get some serious stitching done.

My silks for the Ink Circles freebie came and I've got them all picked out. I'm completely redoing the color scheme to match my grandmother. She successfully finished all of her treatments without one single adverse reaction, except for a sunburn type rash on the radiation site. No nausea, no dizziness, nothing. She did great and we're all very glad of that. I've gotten started on my Christmas stitching way too late and I'm trying to rush through 4 things in 3 weeks. Yikes!

On Tuesday I leave for New York!!!!! Our Mermaid tickets however, are up in the air at this point. The stagehands are on strike. They're supposed to sit back down and talk on Sunday, and I dearly hope they come to a resolution. I've been ready to see this show for nearly 2 years, since I first found out about it.

Come January I shall attempt to be a better stitchy blogger. I do have another blog that you can get to from my profile where I'm chronicling my life as a writer. Feel free to stop by there as well.

And one more thing. I've started selling hand-painted tote bags on Etsy. My store is called Ivy Cottage. Please stop by and take a look.

HAED SAL weekend

2007-09-10T21:26:00.001-05:00

This past weekend was the HAED SAL Challenge weekend. Yeah, that's a mouthful. It gets better though. This is KMB ACEO QS by Tate that I stitch on during the HAED SAL weekend. Take that, Army!

That translates to Kimono Butterflies Mermaid ACEO by Nadia Tate. I adore it. Didn't get a whole lot of stitching time this weekend because I had other things I needed to do, but I'm still very pleased with the amount of progress I made. I need to do a confetti session next month. Ugh!

I survived my first day completely intact. And I am exhausted! But it's a good kind of exhausted, one that I can live with. I discovered, much to my surprise, that I get an hour for lunch when I'm working an 8 hour shift. Thought it would just be 30 minutes.

So, I'm going to become a lunch knitter. None of my stitching projects are conducive to pulling out for 30 minutes at a time. So I'm going to get my sock finished, and then I can finally let myself order the yarn and pattern for the Ivy Trellis stole.

I just LOVE the pattern, and I've gushed about it before I think. I love ivy. I mean I really love ivy, my dishes for my kitchen are th Corelle ivy dishes. The yarn I'm using is Knit Picks Palette Iris Heather. It is a lace pattern, but done with fingering weight yarn instead of lace weight. Since I love the look of knitted lace and want to learn how to do it, I figured a heavier weight lace project would be a good place to start. And I can use the leftovers from my pair of socks to practice the new stitches. See, I do have a plan!

Lunch time

2007-09-09T22:04:00.000-05:00

I'm always on the lookout for good excuses to add stuff to my Little Mermaid collection. (say it like Ariel!) The Disney Store online has an Ariel lunchbox that is just the cutest thing, and I've been looking for a really good excuse to get it.

Well, I finally found it. I need a lunchbox to carry my lunch in when I'm working. Plus it has a matching water bottle, another something that I want. I'd rather buy one and just fill it up every day than go through dozens of bought ones. My tap water tastes just as good as any spring water anyway.

So that's the first thing I'm buying when I get paid. An Ariel lunchbox.

Spring Cameo

2007-09-08T21:40:00.000-05:00

Here she is! My first page is complete. 1 down, 24 to go. To be perfectly honest though, about 9 of those 24 are half pages or less. She is oval-shaped after all. I can't decided which way to go when I pick her up next though. To the left and fill in some more of the cameo? To the right and do her cheek and hair? Straight up to forehead and her eyebrows? Northeast to her hair and the beginning of the flowers? I only know I'm not going down to do her neck just yet. For some reason, that's kind of a creepy thought right now.....

I'm moving on to the next slot in my rotation, after the HAED SAL weekend. Next up is Part 2 of St. Pete!

I finally figured out why my Vikki Clayton silks haven't arrived yet. Even though she received my payment, she never got the order itself! PayPal's fault. It was still sitting in my shopping cart. Vikki is a sweetheart though and we got it all straightened out in about 5 minutes.

It's pink silks. I want to do the Ink Circles Breast Cancer Ribbon mandala as a biscornu for my Mamaw, who was recently diagnosed. But I want to use silks, not the Carrie's Creations that it's charted with. I'm a silk slut, of course I have to use silk!

Most recent stash acquisition happened yesterday. Lori told me about the matroishka doll pattern in the latest issue of The World of Cross Stitching, so I set off in search of the issue. I don't have a local source, so I ended up buying it from a lady on eBay. It's an adorable pattern! Very bright and Russian. I like it a lot.

WIP update

2007-08-29T21:47:00.001-05:00

I've managed to work almost entirely through my rotation! So proud of myself. This one is Through A Mother's Eyes by Paula Vaughan. FINALLY finished the dang mirror!! And got the bouquet completed. That was a thrill too.

Blogger images works again!!!!! That was getting really really really old.

Stitched on cream Belfast, 2x2.

I haven't been posting here very regularly. I'm very caught up in my writing and learning craft, so that's where I spend most of my blog time. If anyone is curious, you can get to that through my profile. Going to my first writer's conference in 20 days. I'm terribly excited.

Most everyone has probably seen this in various places too, but I'll say it again. I've changed jobs. Things at KH finally hit The Last Straw and I turned my resignation in this past Monday. Things reached the point where I will not even volunteer there as long as two certain people are employed there. So I'm going to go work for a few months at Hobby Lobby! I'm excited about the change and learning new things. My main duties will be as a cashier, but I'll also be trained in the fabric department and in framing! The one thing in the entire store that I desperately want to learn more about and I have it offered to me without my even asking for it. I took that as further proof from God that I'm making the right move. I feel great about it, even though I know I'm going to be tired. Physical tiredness is easier to deal with than mental tiredness.

Hanky Psanky

2007-08-18T21:29:00.001-05:00

Hanky Psanky. That's the title of the newest Ink Circles release. Which I have totally fallen in love with! Psanky is the art of Ukrainian Easter Eggs. They're decorated with wax and then sealed with some sort of finish that makes them bright and shiny. Here in central Louisiana, there's a Belgian woman who decorates them and I have one that she did. Lovely piece of art it is.

Haven't got the faintest idea what sort of fabric I'd use. Probably something along the lines of a solid and I do really like the way it looks on the black there in the model. However, the colors need to be brighter. Psanky are very colorful and vibrant. I'll most likely do it with VC silks and possibly a Dinky Dye or two.

I've been working on my PV this past week and will continue with it next week. I finally finished that dang mirror! *cue Hallelujah chorus* Tomorrow I'll start the vase of flowers that's on the right hand side, and I may alternate that with some more of the window frame.

Pretty sure Zoe has a cold now. She's been sneezing for a couple of days now and it's been getting worse. Then this evening I noticed her eyes were watering. I have antibiotics on hand from her trip to the vet last weekend, so she's on those just in case. She got stung by a yellow jacket last weekend, but is all better now except for some itching where it popped her. I also have a cold, so at least we're sick together!

Mermaid tickets!!!!!

2007-08-15T16:38:00.001-05:00

I have my Mermaid tickets!!!!! The Little Mermaid on Broadway that is. :D 12/1 at 8pm in the evening, in the balcony.

Part 1 finished!

2007-08-01T21:52:00.000-05:00

Blogger is still being a TOTAL pest about images! It won't load any of them. ARGH!! I'm having to do it the hard way and I don't like the way its laid out. *sigh*

Anywho, the thumbnail is Part 1 of St. Pete finished except for the beads. I'm going to bead later. Much later! Fabric is EF Evergreen painted linen. It's not that gray IRL, but the floss colors are pretty true. It is just so pretty and I'm totally in love. I've put it aside to give Spring Cameo, Alternative Reality and Through A Mother's Eyes some attention. They've been very neglected the last few months.

Last week I also stitched a bookmark for my Mimi, for her birthday. This is it. The design is by Belinda and it's her Assisi Spring bookmark. I stitched mine with Dinky Dyes Blue Mountains and Kreinik silver braid. I miscounted, and ended up not being able to do the border. Oh well, I still like the way it turned out! That's why the iris looks a little funny, I didn't figure out my mistake until it was too late to fix that flower.

Rockin' Girl Blogger!

2007-07-28T15:53:00.000-05:00

Kaye has bestowed the Rockin' Girl Blogger button on me! And so I pass it on to Kati, Laura, Michelle, my mom and Kim.

Kaye's one of my writing buddies.

It's done!

2007-07-22T15:55:00.000-05:00

It is done. The first step has been taken. With a discount coupon that took $100 off my tuition.

Soon as the materials get here, I'll be starting. Then come January, I will be switching jobs. I feel really good about this change. Somehow my world has just become a bit more peaceful.

White Nights update

2007-07-10T21:46:00.000-05:00

So, Blogger is still being a royal pest about images, so I present a link to my progress picture. I'm almost done with Part 1!!!! Part 2 is filling in those big squares with lots of Algerian eyelets. It's a good thing I've already gotten the hang of those suckers and don't mind them. Yet!

Fabric is Enchanted Fabrics Evergreen painted linen. I can't get the fabric color to come out right, what's on the EF website is much closer to what it's really like.

In other news, I'm beginning the process of finding another job. There's a lot of stuff going on at work right now that I don't like dealing with, and some of the attitudes and directions that things are going I refuse to be a part of. I have other skills where I can actually be paid what I'm worth. Did have to write a resume for the first time.

As far as fun stuff goes, I downloaded the Colorful Tabs plug-in for Firefox last night. The tab I'm typing in right now is purple. :D

St. Basil's HD!!!

2007-07-04T21:32:00.000-05:00

St. Basil's is DONE!!!!! I finished it Monday night, but Blogger has been giving me fits with pictures. I'm not entirely sure this is going to work on the first try. ETA: OK, so the whole posting a picture thing with Blogger still ain't working. So a thumbnail will have to do.

Needless to say I'm thrilled to pieces about it. St. Pete immediately went on my Snaps and it shall stay there for at least 2 weeks. I should have Part 1 finished up before I rotate and I hope to get a good start on the over 100 Algerian eyelets in Part 2. I'm probably crazy, but I'm doing all my beading last. That's the way I like to do it though, and I'm not ready to wrestle with a 40" scroll frame just yet.

New furniture!

2007-06-30T22:18:00.000-05:00

Mama finally found new living room furniture while she was at Mimi's this last week. She's only been looking for a new couch for a year now with no luck at all. The new set is a love seat, a couch, a nice big ottoman and a Queen Anne wingback chair.

It's wonderful! Very comfortable, the right scale for the room, and we have more seating now. And the room seems bigger, even though there's more in it. Amazing how that works.

I got the Queen Anne for my stitching chair, and my old one is being junked since it has a broken leg. The old one was nice, this new one is PERFECT! And I do mean perfect. It's the perfect height for my long legs, the arms of it are also at the perfect height. I had been having shoulder problems when I stitched for more than an hour because the arms on the old chair were the wrong height. I stitched for nearly 4 hours today in the new chair, and my shoulder is only a little bit sore. I'm one happy little stitcher!

And I finished 2 more colors of backstitching!!

Presenting....

2007-06-25T18:22:00.001-05:00

Presenting St. Basil's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Almost finished. But still, this definitely rates a Happy Dance!

I started the backstitching last night and finished up one color. I really like the way Terry does his backstitching charts. Very easy to follow and I don't have to worry about whether or not I've got the right color matched up with the right line.

It's very sparkly, and I need a special frame for it. I don't know kind though. Maybe a dull antique looking gold. I know it won't be silver as I don't generally like silver. Not that it really matters for me to make up my mind. It'll be a little while before I can afford to get the frame!

Picture time!

2007-06-24T14:51:00.001-05:00

I finally got pictures uploaded of my trip. Enjoy if you so desire!

The Album

Back in the land of blogging!

2007-06-19T21:26:00.000-05:00

So, I'm back. Getting back was an adventure in and of itself. Storms in Houston + airlines just don't mix. I didn't get home till after midnight Sunday night. Oye! And minus my luggage, which came in on the next flight. That happens a lot here.

I still haven't made it to getting my pictures off my camera. Since I'm so tired and still catching up on sleep, I haven't woken up in time the last 2 mornings. Monday I woke up at noon, just in time to eat and get to work, and then this morning was 11:30. Maybe by the end of the week....

Several months ago I fell in love with a lace knitting pattern. It's from Heartstrings and it's called Ivy Trellis. It's also done with fingering weight yarn instead of laceweight, so I figured it'd be a good lace pattern to get my toes wet with. I love ivy and I asked Laura to look the pattern over and see if it would be a good one for a beginner. She said yes, with a little practice of the new stitches. Whoohoo!!! So I've been casually looking at yarn over the last couple months, trying to decide what to use.

Since it does require quite a bit, 1100 yards to be precise, I'm looking at KnitPicks. At first I was thinking about using the Rocky Mountain Dusk colorway from the Memories line. Then tonight I looked at the Palette line again and much to my pleasant surprise, they've added some new colors! And I decided what to knit this with: Iris Heather. Now I just need to buy the pattern from Laura and get the yarn... 5 balls at $1.99 is a very affordable sum for my first lace project. The subtle variegation in the Iris Heather should be lovely on the stole.

Off on vacation!

2007-06-12T21:01:00.000-05:00

I'm leaving bright and early in the morning for Pasadena to attend the Nancy Drew Sleuths convention. I'm very excited. Will be back online Monday with pictures to follow. Have no idea how many I'll end up taking...

SBQ- Who likes a challenge?

2007-06-08T16:07:00.000-05:00

This week’s SBQ was suggested by Ish and is:

What has been your most challenging project and why?

I think it would have to be TW's English Garden Sampler. First time over 1, first time with lots of specialty stitches, first time with blends, first time with beads, first time with cutwork. And it all turned out quite nicely! I'm at work right now, but I'll add a pic when I get home.

ETA: Pic added! Not the best one in the world, but you get the picture.

Needles galore!

2007-06-01T22:57:00.000-05:00

Today's SBQ was suggested Kathryn and is:

How many needles do you use during a project? Have you ever loaded
up a needle for every color? Do you use a new needle for every
project or recycle your favorite needle?

Let's see. Usually just one, unless it tarnishes mid-way through and I toss it. That's the only time I toss them, when they tarnish. Or if the eye breaks, which isn't often.

I've sort of loaded up a needle for every color. I've got on TW under my belt, English Garden Sampler, and the blends were overwhelming me. Enter the Pako Needle Organizer! Wonderful thing, that. I had 64 threaded needles stuck in that thing. One for every blend. But I finished the piece with my sanity intact. And a monstrous surplus of needles! I really should hang onto them for my next TW- Lady of Shallot.

It's here!!!

2007-05-26T17:01:00.001-05:00

St. Pete is here!!!! My kit arrived yesterday and was waiting for me when I got home from work. Needless to say I'm one happy little stitcher. I immediately opened it up, pulled my fabric out and did a floss toss. I'm not using the solid NPI's, so this is minus the DMC. I'm very pleased with the look! One of the Waterlilies, Crystal Bay, is very similiar to my fabric, so depending on where that color is used I may have to add some backstitching with a darker color. but since It's just one skein of that color and just the one color that blends in, I'm not worried about it at all!

So I then decided to treat myself. This weekend I'm stitching on it! Had Part 1 printed out within minutes, lol. On Monday I'll go back to St. Basil's. There's just a couple of weeks worth of stitching left on it, so I can make it.

Here's my first picture! This is about an hour and a half. I was watching Seabiscuit, so I freely admit to ogling Tobey and the horses and not making a whole lot of progress, lol. It's fuzzy, and doesn't get the fabric right. Oh well!

St. B update

2007-05-21T10:56:00.001-05:00

Wow, that uploaded really fast! Nice for a change, lol.

St. Basil's by Dimples. Stitched on Jamiaca Sparkle Belfast from Silkweaver.

Not a lot been going on thank goodness! Things are pretty quiet right now.

Had a very productive weekend. Got my room cleaned, my car washed, the refrigerant in my car's A/C filled up. My air works again! Imagine that.

Zoe wore herself out yesterday playing outside in the yard. No sign of the Siamese since last Sunday. I did call the city last week and they said they'd come put a trap out, but they haven't done it yet so I need to call them again.

Alexandria Afire!

2007-05-13T15:41:00.000-05:00

Alexandria Afire 2007!

Part 1- The Grand Ball

I discovered while dancing Friday night that when my skirt is moving, it falls down more. So I'm going to go back and do the scallops after all!!!!! Then it'll look much wonderful.

8 Random Things

2007-05-08T18:03:00.000-05:00

OK, I got tagged by Georgiana for 8 Random Things. First the Rules. And since I have 2 blogs, in order to get my 8 people tagged, I'm posting this at both of them.

1. Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves
2. People who are tagged write a blog post about their own 8 random things and post these rules
3. At the end of your blog you need to tag 8 people and post their names
4. Don't forget to leave them a comment and tell them they're tagged, and to read your blog

Okey-dokey, here we go!

1: I am The Munchkin's favorite chew toy
2: I sleep in socks year round, even when it's 80 degrees outside at night
3: I have crooked ankles and don't like to wear high heels because of it, very sad
4: I own 9 American Girl dolls, with #10 coming home this summer
5: I have a phobia of small cars
6: I like watching Discovery Health
7: I read military history books just because it's fun
8: I don't like nuts in my chocolate

So, now I tag! My mother, Laura, Lynette, Gill, Belinda, Michelle, EeKoon, and Dana!

The Ball Gown (and Zoe)

2007-05-06T22:16:00.000-05:00

The ball gown, for all practical purposes, is FINISHED!!!!!!! There's a minor bit of handwork left to do, which will get done mostly at work. I need a drawstring to pull the top a little tighter, and a couple more hook and bars to keep the two pieces attached.

The skirt didn't come out like I had originally envisioned, but that's ok. I like it this way too. It'll be very pretty dancing.

And Zoe... My poor baby! She's got a hurt paw now. So it's back to the vet in the morning. Good thing I'm back to my reguarly scheduled work schedule and the majority of the groups are over for the month. And I just got her paid off too!

Also, when I was at Wal-Mart earlier getting hooks for my skirt, much to my vast surprise and amazment, there were Ott lamps! The basic floor model and the tabletop. I'm sure my mouth dropped open. But the best part was the price on each. $80 for the lamp, $13 for the bulbs! For $80, I can totally buy the one I don't really like. After I get back from L.A.

The ball gown

2007-04-29T19:58:00.000-05:00

Behold my bodice!!!!!! I'm so VERY proud of myself. I did it all by myself, it's period correct for around 1860, and I made bias tape for the first time. Took me 2 weekends to do it, and one weekend to do the mock-up. Good thing I did make a mock-up, otherwise it would have been way too big!

The skirt is almost finished. It's brown tafetta underneath, with the pink as an overskirt. My overskirt is way too long though, so I have to shorten it by at least 15 inches, probably more. Took over an hour to gather the pink and the tafetta! It's all sewn into the waistband now, and I have to tack the waistband down on the inside. Then finish the overskirt, and it'll be ready to mark the hem and put on the hook and bars that hold the bodice to the skirt. And the event is in 2 more weeks, so I'm going to make it!! Just barely, lol.

St. Pete

2007-04-23T21:54:00.000-05:00

Well, I did it. I've just placed my order for my monstrous piece of fabric for St. Petersburg White Nights! Later this week I shall place my order with Cindy for the kit.

Haven't done much else. The wedding was this past Friday. Pics can be found at the Shifting Winds blog in my sidebar. Stitched one day last week and that was in the car on the way to New Orleans. Hoping to get back into my groove this week and finish up another page on St. Basil's. I am still bound and determined to get this one finished before I let myself start St. Pete.

Zoe's doing well. She had to go back to the vet last week after her fiasco with the tree and the Siamese. Something got into the hole and it had to be lanced and drained and she's back on medicine. I swear that stuff smells and looks EXACTLY like melted bubble gum! She should be able to get the staples out tomorrow. She was also in the house all by herself from Wednesday till yesterday. I'm VERY proud of her! Nothing was broken and she only knocked over one small box in front of my parents bedroom door. She's been very clingy today though, following me around, always having to know where I am. Can't say that I blame her one bit.

It has arrived

2007-04-17T21:24:00.001-05:00

The wedding that is. Leaving tomorrow, back on Sunday. I'm a bridesmaid, so I'll have some pictures. Just not sure how many.

St. Basil's!

2007-04-13T22:09:00.000-05:00

Whoohoo!!! I am officially 2/3rd's done!!! My needle has been smoking for the last 3 weeks. I'm down to 2 1/2 pages left on the chart and one of those pages is VERY small. Then all the backstitching of course. Love the way Terry lays his backstitching out though, so I expect it to go pretty quickly.

Stats, again, in case anyone doesn't know.

SW Jamaica Sparkle, Belfast, 2x2 with DMC and Kreinik BF. I really wish the picture captured all of the BF. The spire and the domes wink and twinkle and sparkle so prettily. It's just lovely! Definitely looks like snow. There's also a lot of BF in the snow at the bottom of the cathedral. This piece is truly one of my favorites and will always have a treasured place in my home.

Clean bill of health!

2007-03-30T22:22:00.000-05:00

The munchkin had her second follow-up today. The last stitch came out and she was pronounced free to go outside! This made her very happy.

She spent most of the day outside playing with Murdock, running through the grass, getting up on the roof. That's her favorite place to play, on the roof. Only it had been so long since she'd been up there that she really and truly forgot how to get down. Took longer than usual because she had to remember which branch to step on first.

I'm feeling slightly risque and I'm taking St. Basil's with me to work tomorrow! Finished the tall steeple spire last night and started on the outermost right edge. It's going to be at least another week before I put it aside and move on in my rotation. The finish is so close that I can almost taste it.

Alternative Reality

2007-03-26T22:33:00.000-05:00

Here is the latest picture of Alternative Reality. Spent most of the week filling in confetti, so not a lot of visible progress. That one single hole there all by itself, I don't have that color! Anywhere. So far I haven't managed to remember to run by Hobby Lobby and pick it up...

Pulled St. Basil's out today. I can almost taste the finish on this one, even though I still have 5 pages to go. There's just not a lot on those 5 pages, except for one of them. As soon as it's done, I'll be able to start Chatelaine's St. Petersburg. So I'm hoping I'll be close to having it done by the time my tax refund arrives.

I'm actually considering shelving my rotation for a little bit to get some serious work done on St. B. It's the kind of piece that I can do that for because I'm still as in love with it as I was when I bought it. It's definitely coming to work with me Saturday.

PV update

2007-03-20T21:58:00.000-05:00

I have only taken 3 pictures of Through A Mother's Eyes. I think that is a reflection on how much it has been driving me crazy!!!

The girl nearly made my lose my religion. I frogged her hair no less than 5 times. 3 of those times were on the same night! Most recent session was Friday evening.

But she's done now, thank God! Everything else in this area is a walk in the park compared to her hair.

And no, she doesn't have any eyes. I'm still too ticked at her to start the backstitching that will give her a face. She's kinda creepy right now, but I like it.

The Munchkin is doing wonderfully. Her wound is healing very nicely. She can't go outside yet though and she's getting kinda bored. Currently she's napping in my lap and getting the cat version of Neosporin all over my pants. Good thing I wasn't planning on wearing them again tomorrow!

Mini-HD!

2007-03-17T22:39:00.000-05:00

Mini-HD's are almost as fun as big ones.

This evening, after much aggravation and frogging on my part, I finished the dang girl in Through A Mother's Eyes!!!! The hard part anyway, that consisting of her face and hair. Still have to do her doll and the bottom part of her dress, but hot-dog!!! My major frogging sessions appear to be over! All those darn fractionals in her hair like to drove me out of my mind.

And my baby is home now and feeling so much better. She spent Wednesday-Friday at the vet. When she was out traipsing around last week she managed to poke herself in the tummy. It abcessed, pretty deep apparently, and she had to have to surgery and the wound was packed with gauze for 2 days. She's home again though, hopefully to stay this time and handling it pretty well considering. At this moment she's curled up in my lap fighting sleep.

SBQ- spending spree!

2007-03-15T17:45:00.000-05:00

Today's SBQ comes from Danielle and is:

If you had $500 to spend on stitching-related items, what would you buy?

What would I buy....... I'd spend about $100 of it on hand-dyed fabric. And then a full set of Dinky Dyes silks, about $50 on Vikki Clayton silks, then the kit and class for Chatelaine Mystery X. If there was anything left over after that, I'm not really sure what I'd get.

Oh happy day!

2007-03-12T21:41:00.000-05:00

I thought this post was going to be sad, and depressing, reflecting my mood over the weekend. But it's not. It's happy!!

My weekend was awful. It started with my sweet munchkin going missing. I searched everywhere for her Saturday, and cried most of Sunday. I'm very attached to the little beast. That thing about pets being great for depression and people with chronic illnesses, it's totally true.

Cried some more this morning, then at 1:30, Mama called me at work and announced that Zoe was home!! In 10 seconds flat I felt 200% better and had to explain the tourists why I was crying and saying "Thank God!" over and over. I'd finally made my peace and decided that next week, I would go find another cat.

Well, I hope that other cat finds another home, because I won't be going out looking for another one. She's currently curled up in my lap alternating between taking a bath and snoozing.

I'm hibernating

2007-03-03T15:09:00.000-06:00

And no, it's not because winter came back. It's because spring is here. That means busy at work, horrible allergies and just feeling "blah". I HATE pine trees!!!! I fantasize about someday living in a place where the closest pine tree is a thousand miles away.

Started and finished the second dishcloth. Will have pictures of those Monday. Also finished the last coaster last night and they are on the ironing board drying. The trip to Hobby Lobby looking for a pretty box to put them in was a total blow. Nothing! Not even a suitable sized one that I could cover with pretty paper. She's still getting them tomorrow, I'll just tell her I'm still looking for a pretty box for her to store them in.

Some finishes!

2007-02-25T22:45:00.000-06:00

Started and finished my first dishcloth Friday. Whoo! Pictures of it later after the recipient has received it. I don't know if she reads this, but she certainly knows where it is.

The second sock has been successfully started. One more round and I'll start the stockinette!

I've also FINALLY decided what size Peace Fleece needles to get. I've been mulling it over for a good 2 months now and have decided on some 14" 7's and 14" 5's. They're lovely hand-made needles from Russia with Russian enamel ends. Russians truly excel at enamel work.

For the life of me I can't remember my rotation order! I'm going to have to go back through my own archives and find it. Sheesh...

SBQ- Size matters

2007-02-21T21:26:00.000-06:00

Today's SBQ was suggested by Kathryn and is:

What is the smallest count fabric you have ever used? Did you stitch over one? Conversely, what is the largest count fabric you have ever used?

The smallest count I've ever used would be 32, but over 2. I will be doing over one on 32ct once I start the Chatelaine St. Petersburg Garden. Smallest over 1 count as of right now is 28ct for an M Designs ornament.

The highest count I've ever stitched on would be 25ct over 2 for a TW. Not something I'll do again. Over 2 on 25 is just too big for my tastes. I only love 25ct when it's over 1.

My first sock!

2007-02-18T13:47:00.000-06:00

My first sock is done!!!! I'm so proud of myself. Finished it this past Tuesday and then Mama took it south to show Mrs. Sandie and Kati.

The yarn is Trampoline Stretch, a superwash wool blend. The colorway doesn't have a name that I know of, but I have been told I won't have to worry about losing these socks. They are even bright IRL. (and I love that my camera blacked out the icky carpet in my room)

Knit on size 5 bamboo dpn's from Clover. I love bamboo needles.

The leftovers of this sock yarn will be used to knit arm/hand warmers for use while I'm at my computer. One of the symptoms of my fibro is chronically cold hands and they always get worse when I'm typing. I have the pattern for them, just need to finish the second sock.

I've been pretty scarce the last few days. My fibro is flared up pretty bad from being too tired and I slid into a pretty bad few days of depression too. I think that's getting better though. I've changed my work hours, and the new schedule starts Tuesday. I'll only be working one full day a week, and the other 4 days will be afternoons. This should let me get the rest I need, and let me have some time to devote to my writing.

Wedding announcement

2007-02-12T21:42:00.000-06:00

This is the wedding announcement I'm stitching for my brother and Kati. They both love Celtic knotwork, the wedding colors are lavender and a pretty light minty green, so the color choicese were easy! There was no way on the face of this earth that I was going to use the drab browns that the model was stitched with, so I changed it! The words are stitched with VC Wisteria, and the knotwork is being done with Gumnut Stars 273. The pic is nearly 2 weeks old, I've since almost gotten to the halfway point on the top knot. Their names and the date will go underneath.

The Gumnuts are wonderful! Fudgey at HAED clued me in on them. The shading is very subtle and absolutely stunning in person. They're very soft, like Dinky Dyes. Have some yummy purple shades that I'll use on the Purple Sampler from Ink Circles.

And over there to the right is my new start for this past weekend's HAED SAL challenge. It's Nadia Tate's Kimono Butterflies Mermaid and that is her shoulder. The colors are very bright and one of them is the exact same shade as deer hunter orange! That totally cracked me up when I was pulling and sorting floss for it.

My first Piecemaker

2007-02-09T22:22:00.000-06:00

Oh. My. Gawd. This thing is AMAZING!!!!!! No wonder so many people rave about Piecemakers. I fully understand why now and am totally on the bandwagon.

Piecemakers are AMAZING!!! It's just gliding right under my stitches, no pushing or tugging required. I am just floored. I've just become a Piecemaker convert I think. Now I just have to see how long it'll take for it to tarnish.

I did it!!

2007-02-03T22:35:00.000-06:00

I finished a page on St. Basil's Cathedral!!!!! This puts me just shy of being halfway done. Tomorrow I'll start going up that tower and start on its spire. And then on Monday I'll rotate on to Alternative Reality.

I still haven't found the right place to take pictures where I can get the true color of the fabric. Will have to keep experimenting. It's SW Jamaica Sparkle and is nowhere near that orange IRL. It's more pink than orange.

Still love this design so very much. It's just breath-taking.

Quiz time!!

2007-02-02T22:18:00.000-06:00

Haven't done one in awhile, and Mrs. Sandie put this one up on her blog the other day.

1. What time did you get up this morning? 8:13
2. Diamonds or Pearls? Amethysts!
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Pirates 2
4. What is your favorite TV show? Can't pick just one, lol. CSI, Criminal Minds, The Unit, Psych, Monk, Farscape, Magnum...
5. What did you have for breakfast? a bowl of Maple and Brown Sugar oatmeal. Yum!
6. What is your middle name? LeighAnne
7. What is your favorite cuisine? Just about anything
8. What foods do you dislike? Things that are very very spicy, things with lots of onions, tofu and tomatoes
9. Your favorite Potato chip? Sun Chips Harvest Cheddar
10. Favorite CD you've been listening to lately? Nickelback All The Right Reasons
11. What kind of car do you drive? Pontiac Grand Am
12. Favorite sandwich? Hmm.... The club sandwich from the corner deli at work and the Devil Wood chicken spread
13. What characteristics do you despise? Narrow-mindedness and condescension
14. What are your favorite clothes? Jeans and a comfy shirt
15. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? Russia!
16. Favorite brand of clothing? Whatever fits, thought right now it's Newport News because for the first time in my life I own a pair of jeans that are actually too long! It's a wonderful feeling.
17. Where would you want to retire? Right now, lol
18. Favorite time of day? Afternoon
19. Where were you born? Little Rock, AR
20. What is your favorite sport to watch? Thoroughbred horse racing
21. Who do you think will not send this back? Everybody. I'm blogging it!
22. Person you expect to send it back first? ^^ see above
23. Pepsi or Coke? Coke!
24. Beavers or Ducks? For eating, ducks.
25. Are you a morning person or night owl? Neither!
26. Pedicure or Manicure? Pedicure. Specifically at California Nails in the mall. When they put the lotion on your feet, they massage all the way up to your knees!
27. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share? I finally joined ACFW!
28. What did you want to be when you were little? A nurse, thank goodness I grew out of it, lol
29. What is your best childhood memory? There are so many...
2. Ever been toilet papering? Nope
33. Been in a car accident? According to the police yes, according to me no
34. Favorite restaurant? anyplace with shrimp
35. Favorite flower? Irises
36. Favorite ice cream? Blue Bell Dutch Chocolate
37. Favorite fast food restaurant? I'll eat at any of them except McDonald's. Checkers has really good fries.
38. How many times did you fail your drivers test? None. I'm just smart like that, lol
39. From whom did you get your last e-mail? My bank and an ACFW member
40. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? ABC Stitch and Barnes and Noble. I have two cards after all. :D
42. Who are you most curious about their responses to this? I don't know!
43. Last person you went to dinner with? My brother and sister, tonight in fact
44. How many tattoos do you have? zilch
45. How many people are you sending this to? none
46. What time did you finish this e-mail? I finished blogging it at 10:26
47. Favorite magazine? Writer's Digest
48. If you could meet any famous person, who would it be? Robert E. Lee
49. If you could choose another first name, what would it be? Charlotte
50. If you could change your profession right now, what would you be doing? I would be a published novelist.

Ugh

2007-02-01T21:31:00.000-06:00

The weather is still nasty. It rained most of the day. Needless to say I feel awful! Thursday is the night of the GTG at the Parrot Stitch, and I've made it once this year. Because of feeling so awful. I had wanted to go tonight to show off my sock, but just couldn't find the energy. So instead I caught up on message boards, fought with my wireless connection and then stitched on St. Basil's.

I am *thisclose* to finishing the first page of St. Basil's! And by first page I mean the page I started on, in the center. So this page has the most stitching on it. When I'm done it with it, probably tomorrow, I will be a hundred or so stitches shy of being HALFWAY DONE!!! I am so excited that for the moment I've chucked my rotation and I'm focusing exclusively on St. B's. But what's the fun of having a rotation if you can't chuck it every once in awhile. Finishing St. B is one of my major goals this year. The sooner I finish it, the sooner I can start St. Petersburg.

Speaking of, the materials list will be up Sunday! Martina promised. She also said that she would be including special stitches and extra threads to use in place of all the Swarovski crystals that this one has. I'll decide which route I'm going to go after I see the kit prices at ECS. I already know I'm not using NPI's, so there's a chunk of change saved right there.

The wedding announcement is halfway done. Will be taking a picture this weekend to show off. Need to order some more Gumnut silk so I can finish it. I'm horribly bad at estimating the amount of floss I need, lol.

Finally, WIP pictures!

2007-01-28T14:38:00.000-06:00

Life has been so crazy. I know I've been busy, but for the life of me I can't remember what I've done... Picture heavy post, so you've been warned!

First up here, my sock! I'm very proud of my inch and a half of ribbing there. The yarn is Trampoline Stretch and my needles are sz 5 Clover bamboo. I love those Clover bamboo needles. I started this Thursday night at the Parrot Stitch.

That long strip of purple is the first strip of my knitted lapghan that I'm making. 7 shades of purple! Lots of baby yarn, and the fuzzy one is from N.Y. Yarns, the Cloud line. It is so unbelievably soft, like a cloud actually. Imagine that...

And this little thing is my square for the Hurricane Katrina quilt. It's the Saints fleur de lis. Living in Louisiana myself I just had to stitch it. The chart was in my Pattern A Day calendar that I got for Christmas. Done with plain ole DMC, a blend of 3820 and 725.

I also just realized that I never posted my latest blob of Alternative Reality. It's still very much a blob, and I haven't had it out since I got back from my Mimi's house. I think the green patch is turning into moss. This is the lower left hand corner.

SBQ- Fabric

2007-01-26T22:31:00.000-06:00

I'm a bit late, lol.

Today's SBQ was suggested by Danielle and is:

What company produces your favorite hand-dyed fabric? Are there any
companies whose hand-dyed fabric you do not like? If so, why?

I can't pick just one favorite hand-dyed company. I'm addicted to hand-dyed fabric. Huge fan of Enchanted Fabrics, Silkweaver, and Sugar Maple. I've yet to come across a hand-dyed that I don't like, but I'm far from having tried all of them, lol. I do know that dyed lugana doesn't make me like the stuff, lol.

In fact, I'm going to do the St. Petersburg Garden on an EF fabric, Evergreen. Lori's fabrics are so soft and wonderfully done and she's a real gem herself.

I started my first sock last night!!!!!!!!! It's just a simple tube sock so I can get the hand of knitting in the round, and then I'll work my way up to heels. I'm being taught by a master sock-knitter (or at least she seems so to me, lol) and thoroughly enjoying myself. I have a grand total of one inch of ribbing done. Have a whole bunch of pics I want to put up sometime this weekend, including my sock. Have also finished the first strip of my lapghan. Whoo! 1 down, 6 to go.

A sad day in Louisiana

2007-01-21T17:37:00.000-06:00

Chicago: 39
New Orleans: 14

But regardless of the score, it's been a season to remember. Beating arch-rival the Cowboys. IN Dallas, running plays there that have never been successfully run, made it past the first round of the playoffs, brought a shattered city and broken state back to life and gave us all something to hope for.

Next year, the Saints will be even more dangerous. This was a phenomenal accomplishment for any team to pull off. It's made all the sweeter by the fact that it was finally our turn.

Silly me

2007-01-20T22:45:00.000-06:00

Wednesday came and went and I didn't get the SBQ question. Couldn't figure out why, since I knew there was one. It hit me just now. My email changed Sunday and I uhm, hadn't gone to the Yahoo site yet to change my email. I'm feeling kinda sheepish. I remembered to change all my other Yahoo groups!

So here it is!

Have you had a happy dance yet this year? If so, tell us about it! (Or
just point to the entry that talks about it.) If not, when do you
predict it will be?

Yes, I have actually. I stitched my square for the Hurricane Katrina quilt project. Started it Wednesday when I was home all day because the weather was too nasty to go to work, then I finished it Thursday. Will be taking a pic tomorrow and then I have to get it in the mail.

My next HD will be my brother's wedding announcement. Before April 20th, lol. Ordered the last batch of silks I need to floss toss, and they should be arriving middle of the week. Lots of Vikki Clayton silks! And I just had to get more than the 2 skeins I was after to make the shipping worthwhile. Ah, the hardships of being a silk addict.

Party time!!!

2007-01-13T22:29:00.000-06:00

Saints: 27
Eagles: 24

PARTY!!!!!!! New Orleans is a madhouse of partying right now. Kinda glad I don't live down there, lol. The streets around the Superdome probably won't clear out before daybreak. Every bar in the Quarter will be open all night, there's probably impromptu parades going on too. And I kinda wish I could see it. There's a whole lot of people all over the state who won't go to sleep tonight.

This is the first time in franchise history that the Saints have made it this far. Next up the division title. Then actually possibly for real the Super Bowl. This just might be the year that hell freezes over. That's one of our state jokes, hell will freeze over when the Saints win the Super Bowl.

A fitting end to the day. I have proven that my Southern womanhood is still intact and successfully made chicken and dumplings. It was the first time I've made them in 10 years. And they came out almost perfect!

Fiddling around

2007-01-12T18:56:00.000-06:00

With my Muvo that is. LOVE IT!!!!!! It came yesterday and I'm ripping music and loading it up. Whoo! For once I actually like Windows Media Player. Makes loading players very easy. Not to mention how fast it is at ripping music.

It's a great and eclectic collection of music. Broadway, rock, Big Band, Russian folk music, Buble.. I have very eclectic tastes. Now I just need to get my hands on my brother's Metallica CD's and rip my favorite one. I don't remember which album it is, just that it's the one with The Creeping Death and For Whom The Bell Tolls on it.

Was fiddling around with my laghan today too. I have to go find another color. One of the ones I have, a Bernat baby yarn, is going to be too close to another color I have. Also a Bernat baby yarn. I had thought the second one I was getting was a variegated. It's not, it's a self-striping. I tested it out on the 'ghan, but the stripes were going to be so far apart that it would end up looking almost exactly like the other Bernat color.

The self-striping one will eventually get made into a blanket of some sort. Either for a baby or Project Linus. Probably Project Linus since nobody I know will be having a baby anytime soon. That I know of anyway, lol.

Man do I love Sing, Sing, Sing. Though I beg to differ with that article and I say that the definitive version of Sing, Sing, Sing was recorded by Gene Krupa. Benny's version is terribly UN-danceable. The tempo changes too much. Gene's is much smoother and also doesn't go on forever and a half.

SBQ- stitching dreams

2007-01-10T19:10:00.000-06:00

Today's SBQ is:
Do you dream of running your own LNS/ONS? If so, tell us about your
dream. If not, tell us about your cross stitch dream… maybe you dream
of designing, dyeing your own floss or fabric, etc.

I do have a dream of running my own LNS. I think it would be both, brick and mortar with a good website. It would be called, surprise surprise, Romantic Stitches. I would specialize in romantic designs and feature Mirabilia and Passione Ricamo. I would also have a large selection of hand-dyeds from Enchanted Fabrics, Silkweaver and Sugar Maple. Also in stock would be silks. Lots and lots of silks! Dinky Dyes, Vikki Clayton, Waterlilies, etc. I would definitely have the full color range of Dinky Dyes in stock and on display.

If it were possible, I'd also sell Venus threads. I really wish they were sold in the US, they're far superior to DMC, IMO.

Plugged in

2007-01-08T20:19:00.000-06:00

Just ordered my MP3 player. And I didn't get the Zen. ZipZoomFly had the Creative Labs MuVo 2GB for just 10 bucks more than the Zen AND free shipping. Too good to pass up. Twice as many songs, same features, drag-and-drop loading, direct USB connection and AAA batteries. I think I done good. And for only $1.99 shipping, I'll have it Friday and I can load it up this weekend. :D

I will need to track down a case for it, but that shouldn't be too hard. If I can't find one locally I'll just get the one from Creative Labs.

Besides, nobody has a purple Zen right now! *pouts*

What's in a name

2007-01-06T18:10:00.000-06:00

The town I live in is called Ball. Whenever I go to the Weather Channel website to check the temp and where the rain is, the "sponsored ads" crack me up every time. Apparently, people who live Ball should buy lots of balls.

I spent last night in a writing workshop over at Dancing Word. The "speaker" was Susan May Warren, one of my favorite authors and a former missionary to Russia. She's an amazing writer with an incredible gift for breathing life into her characters. She does it through dialogue and internal monologue (their thoughts). The workshop was all about crafting dialogue.

Boy did I learn a lot! I'm eagerly waiting for the transcript of the chat so I can print it out and mark it up with a highlighter, lol.

At the end of the workshop, she opened up the floor for the attendees to post a scene or paragraphs of dialogue for her to crititque/make suggestions. I did just that. It was the first time that anyone has ever seen a piece of my serious writing. And it was wonderful! She has the same love of all things Russian that I do, so it was surprisingly easy to share part of this particular story.

Her comments were most helpful! I was stuck at one scene in the beginning, and I couldn't shake it loose. She made the simple suggestion of changing the setting, and all of a sudden, there it was! Nearly the entire first third of the book is now sitting in my head, waiting for me to connect the dots and get it down on paper. Or in this instance keyboard to word processor. I also had an amazing spiritual paralle present itself in regards to trains and how far the east is from the west. The story opens in 1962 Russia, with one of the two main characters being seperated from his family. By train. He's going east- to Siberia, they're going west- to the US. It's also given me more ways to build scenes around the title and how important the character's hands are. He's a violinist.

It's really going to be a wonderful book, and is going to be getting a lot of attention from me. I'm ready to get truly serious about my writing and start carving out time for it. And I'll be starting by focusing on this story. It's got so much potential and I just can't let it down. Starting Monday, I'm going to be off in the mornings. I'm going to set aside at least one hour of every Monday morning just to write. I never feel like writing in the evenings, I'm too tired after the events of a full day to let my imagination run wild.

I'm expecting my readers to hold me to that!

Setting goals

2007-01-02T19:32:00.000-06:00

It's that time of year again. Time for the annual setting of goals at the HAED BB. I've set my HAED goals there, so here I would like to set goals for my other WIP's.

1: Finish the stitching on my Iris pillow and then actually make it into a pillow. And enter it in the Silkweaver Showcase.

2: Finish St. Basil's Cathedral. Will be entering it in SW Showcase.

3: By the end of the year, have a rotation slot freed up for the St. Petersburg Garden.

4: Do my darnedest to finish up at least one page of Through A Mother's Eyes. (If I can just get past that mountain of fractionals in the mirror I'll make it on this one)

#1 is doable if I'll just work on it regularly. It's not a big design, 8x9". I can do it if I'll just work on it more than once every 6 months. Part of the reason I don't like working on it is the stupid color chart. It's a Paula Vaughan. As much as I love her designs, I will never do very many of them because I simply hate the charting. Color charts drive me bonkers!

#2 is also doable I think. St. B is a quick stitch when I'm working on it. The chart is 4 pages and I'm nearly done with a whole page. I've only got about 6 weeks worth of stitching in it right now. Would have made more progress at Mimi's last week if I had remembered my blending filament... Plus the fabric I picked is giving it *exactly* the look that I wanted it to have, which makes stitching on it sheer joy.

St. Petersburg White Nights

2006-12-29T20:26:00.000-06:00

I saw the screenshots of the next Chatelaine garden, St. Petersburg White Nights, and really really liked it on the navy blue. Didn't like just the plain green that she picked. So all this time I've been seriously considering doing it on a blue fabric.

Enter the Chatelaine fabric viewer. And Lori's yummy fabrics, the Painteds. The Flairs would be a bit too dramatic for White Nights methinks. I don't like the blue anymore. I like her Eire, Evergreen and Mint. All greens! Yes, greens. I didn't like the green screenshot. Or the gray. It looks really good on her Slate too. Which is a gray. And I kinda like it on Wizard's Magic. That one's gray and a very pale lavender.

What's a girl to do.... Tonight I really like the Evergreen best. It's a muted green, makes the design pop but it's not overwhelming. I still do like it on SW Enchantment. Evergreen is better though.

Yup, Evergreen it is! That was a lot easier than I thought it would be.

I've been at my Mimi's house since Tuesday, just got home today. I took Alternative Reality and St. Basil's with me. We don't do much when we're there except sit and talk. Prime stitching time! Probably got over 500 stitches in on AR, and a nice-sized chunk of St. B was done too. I couldn't finish that onion dome though because I forgot to drop my BF in the bag. Ah well, still got a lot done. Will have pictures tomorrow. Zoe is in my lap right now and I don't feel like getting up.

Merry Christmas!

2006-12-25T22:04:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas, everyone! Hope your day was filled with family, fun, food and wonderful memories.

Didn't get much stash for Christmas, but I hadn't asked for very much either. Got a needlecase for my knitting needles, the Craftmates storage tote I had asked for to put my beads in, and a complete set of steel crochet hooks in their own pretty little case. Yes, I'm a thread crocheter and proud of it, lol.

Mostly I got American Girl stuff. Which is ok with me! I have 9, with #10 coming home in the spring sometime. My youngest brother Jason bought me Josefina's adobe oven. It is wonderful! I set it out on my bookshelf. Mama got me Emily's PJ's and robe. Boy is that robe ever soft! It's chenille. I want one that soft. Elizabeth gave me a gift certificate so I'm going around in circles trying to decide what to buy. I can get two things with it and also make use of the movie code to get 10 bucks off my order.

And to make matters even worse on the GC front, there's supposed to be new stuff for Molly and Emily coming out next week, including a 2-piece swimsuit for Emily! I think my brain might very well explode. I hope the suit looks like a real 1940's suit and is just as good as Molly's.

SEX and pondering

2006-12-23T21:51:00.000-06:00

Now isn't that a title that would raise eyebrows for the unknowing, lol.

The Watergarden kit arrived yesterday!!!!!! It's so beautifully packaged too. I'm very impressed and will be a repeat customer for further Chatelaines.

I've also been doing some pondering on the wedding sampler I'm going to do for my brother. The original floss I had picked out, Waterlilies "Fir" just isn't going to work. There's not enough purple in it, it's too blue up against my fabric. I'm stitching it on SMF "Guinevere" and the piece I have is more green than purple, so now I'm considering just using a purple or lilac variegated silk to do it.

The design itself is a Celtic knot with "Love Never Fails" in the center, and then the names and date underneath. I'm toying with the idea now of using VC Grapevine to stitch the knot and something lavender to stitch the words. Or there's Wisteria, also a lovely color. And then there's Dinky Dyes Lavender Mist or Jacaranda. All 4 would be acceptable. The wedding colors are lilac and light green, so the Wisteria would fit that. And it would be stunning on Guinevere. (I would link, but my piece is greener than what's on the site)

Most likely will use Wisteria now that I've sat here and pondered and looked at colors. still debating on what to do the words with though. Wisteria also or a green?

swooning

2006-12-21T21:34:00.000-06:00

Martina of Chatelaine released the screenshots for the St. Petersburg Garden today. Can we say "I'M IN LOVE!!!!!!!!"

I knew it would be spectacular and that I would fall in love with it on the spot, but I had no idea I would love it this much. I'll be joining the class to get the chart even though I can't stitch along. The reason is very simple: It'll take me a few months to save up to afford the kit! I'll definitely be subbing any NPI's for DMC though. That $3.20 pricetag per skein just ain't worth it to me, not even for this one.

I dropped my finished Knit Your Bit scarf off at my LYS today. And gosh darn it I forgot to take a picture! Also bought the last 3 colors that I need for the lapghan I'm going to knit for myself and the needles I need. My first circulars! Size 6 and 7 Clover bamboo needles. The pattern I'm adapting from calls for 6's, but since I knit rather tight I want to have 6, 7, and 8 on hand so I can get it just right. The pattern is really cool too, it's 7 different colors and you do it in strips of 7 squares each and arrange the colors in a geometric pattern. I've picked 7 different shades of purple to do mine. All I have to do now is decide what the color order will be, lol.

Happy Birthday to me!

2006-12-18T18:37:00.000-06:00

Finished my Joy tree into an ornament last night. And there it is! Stitched with VC Evergreen and Wine, beads are Delica 279 red/green luster. My first matboard finish too. And I liked to killed my finger sewing the cording on, lol. But I love the way it turned out and will definitely be finishing more ornaments with matboard.

Chatelaine's Watergarden kit has been purchased! Unfortunately I have to wait till January on the chart because of my bridesmaid dress and my medicine. Ah well. It's not like I have the fabric yet anyway, lol.

Speaking of, the fabric will be EF's "Ocean Dreams" painted 32ct Belfast. I'd link to a pic, but Lori took the site down while she's moving. And I need a custom cut so I won't be ordering it before February. Lori will need some time to get stuff set up again and I don't want to be part of the flood when the cart goes live again.

And my Christmas money will be buying me the new Mirabilia Christmas tree kit from Karen over at the Froggy Stitcher. I love it SO much. Having the darnedest time coming up with fabric for it though...

The voting for my knitting bag is 3 for Ruth Fielding, 1 for Judy, 1 for Hardy Boys. I'll take votes for a couple more days.

What's in the bag

2006-12-14T22:01:00.000-06:00

I need a knitting bag. Something that doesn't have Velcro on it. That nixes all of my current empty totebags. Darn, I have to get a new one! But I have a quandary. I can't decide which one to get!

Should I get this one? It's the artwork from Judy Bolton #2 The Haunted Attic. And I am always on the lookout for books, just not necessarily when I'm knitting.

Or this one? I am a Sleuth, a charter member in fact. But I already have a Sleuth Cafe Press tote bag. From the 2004 convention, I won it. It has the cover from The Haunted Showboat on one side and the cover from Mystery of the Fire Dragon on the other side. It has my HAED "A Favour" in it.

OR, there's this one. That's Ruth Fielding. I've just recently found out that I love this series. Need to round out my collection of them. Or to complicate matters even further there's the Hardy Boys tote. That would be nice walking around with Frank and Joe on my arm.... And Secret of the Old Mill is one of my favorites. Decisions decisions.

My JOY tree is finished. I was going to take a picture of it this evening to post, but Zoe decided to take a nap in my lap and I just can't bring myself to stand up. So I'll do it tomorrow. It came out beautifully! I'm so happy with it and it's going to look fantastic on the tree.

The Cafe Press tote bags are AMAZING to be quite honest. They're 100% cotton so they can go in the wash. The picture doesn't come off and they're incredibly well made. Worth every penny.

O Christmas Tree #2

2006-12-11T22:07:00.000-06:00

This time it's the tree in our living room. Truly one of the most beautiful we've ever had. But I say that every year, lol. It's a 7 foot tall Noble fir, real of course. I love real trees and so does my dad. He won't even entertain the thought of a fake tree as long as he's alive. Nobles have such a wonderful Christmassy scent too.

Our tree stand is a hair on the large side for the trunk, so we weren't able to put as many ornaments on it as we usually do. It tried to tip over on me, so I stopped. That gray square ornament is a Borg cube from Star Trek:TNG. It plugs into the light string and has a button on the bottom and the inside also lights up, just like a real Borg cube. Push the button and it says "We are the Borg. Resistance is futile. Enjoy your holidays". Belongs to my dad the Trekker. He has also has the Enterprise-A and the Romulan ship from Enterprise. I'm not sure which one he's getting this year.

A lot of the ornaments are handmade and have stories attached to them. I think those are the best kind. The ornament of the 7 dwarves are ones I made with a kit. They're very cute. We also have an ornament from every place that we visit. You can't see it, but we have one of the Ponderosa map from the Bonanza credits! And our angel looks like a Gibson girl and she has feathery wings.

And this one just because I like pictures of trees when all the lights are turned off.

Haven't gotten a lot of stitching done this last week between working and decorating, not being home and generally feeling "blah" because of the cold snap last week. Fibromyalgia + cold = one miserable person. I did start the Joy ornament from the 2005 JCS. It's nearly done and once it is done I'll finish it out and find a place to put it on the tree. I'm doing it with VC Evergreen and Wine.

The week between Christmas and New Year's I'm going up to see my Mimi. I'm thinking about taking AR and St. Basil's. Both will just blow her mind. And I love them so much. S.B. is starting to whimper at me, though not very loudly yet. And I'll take my knitting too I expect.

I'm alive

2006-12-05T21:22:00.000-06:00

It's been really cold around here the last few days. But of course my definition of cold is a lot different than most peoples. Anything below 58 in the daytime is cold. Last night it got down to 19! I can't remember that ever happening before Christmas. The old-timers are saying it's going to be a hard winter. The trees were full of color once they finally started turning. Prettier than even the old-timers ever remember seeing. We've had one hard freeze and 4 regular freezes. Again, absolutely unheard of before Christmas. Especially the hard freeze. Those don't usually happen until at least January. And never before my BD.

AR is coming along. I haven't touched it in a couple of days. Way too tired. So I was working on my scarf some last night and then crashed early. Going to do that again tonight. Planning to start the JOY tree ornament from the 2005 JCS ornament issue tomorrow too. I need a little break and something Christmassy! I'm using my skein of VC Evergreen and Wine over 1 on white 28ct Monaco. Why white? Because it's the only color I have! This will also give me an excuse to carry the piece into Hobby Lobby and test out Delicas. I discovered a few months ago that they have a rather large selection of them tucked into the jewelry section.

Most of my Christmas shopping is done. God Bless Amazon! And Target online. I hate going in our Target. Hate it hate it hate it. Getting in and out of the parking lot takes an act of Congress this time of year, and nothing is ever where it's supposed to be. And they're even worse than Wal-Mart about not having enough lanes open.

O Christmas Tree...

2006-12-01T22:21:00.000-06:00

I love Christmas. Especially Christmas trees. Even more especially Victorian Christmas trees!

2 years ago Kent House was presented with an opportunity to display a Christmas tree in the lobby of the Hotel Bentley, downtown. The only catch was that it had to be representative of our historic site. So I set out researching early Victorian Christmas trees. By "early", I mean pre-Civil War. Our interpretive period stops at 1855.

What I found was a description of General Robert E. Lee's Christmas tree from 1853, from his daughter's diary. So I set out to re-create it as best I could. The tree was on display for about a week and the idiot owner of the Bentley decided to kick all the guests out and close the hotel. I very sadly took down my beautiful tree and packed everything away.

Fast forward to day before yesterday. We've been decorating the grounds for Christmas and everything had to be up by this Sunday. The lady who usually decorates the tree is out of town. So Allie said we'd take care of it. And by that she meant I could put MY tree up!!! So we did. This is it, in all its lovely glory. The only things I changed from the description that I found is obviously the electric lights in place of candles, and my mom took pictures of events at KH and made little paper ornaments out of them. I popped the popcorn and strung it myself, and yes there's tinsel on it! I nearly fell out of my chair when I found out tinsel was that old.

I've had several comments asking what the pinhead stitch is. Here's the diagram that I used to teach myself how to do it. It's quite easy actually, and I'm sure there are more diagrams out there. I think I found out about it on the TWBB.

SBQ- Oh those knots

2006-11-29T21:14:00.000-06:00

Today's SBQ is:

How do you secure your thread when you begin a new one? Specifically, do you or have you ever used a waste knot?

No, I have never used a waste knot. For over 2, I use the pinhead to start. Over 1 is started by running under. I always end with running under. I've never worked up the nerve to try the pinhead for ending.

Alternative Reality is progressing nicely. Still in blob form, but I expect that for at least several more pages. Lots of detail takes longer to pop out I've noticed. Will probably take another picture this weekend.

Don't have to work Saturday after all!!! God bless Wayne. So I'll be dressing my dolls for Christmas and finish at least one of my letters into its ornament form. I have trim and fabric for L, but none for R. So will require a trip to Hancock's or Hobby Lobby.

It's been a busy day!

2006-11-23T17:51:00.000-06:00

The second part of the room makeover started today. I have a little dressing room area where my sink is and it had a desk built into the wall. For years I've wanted to rip it out and put shelves on that wall. I'd rather have the book space than the cabinets to fill with clutter.

So today the task began of getting rid of it! Cleaned the top off- no small feat, then cleaned out the inside. Again, no small feat. It's been nearly 10 years since we moved into this house and it's been my catch-all place for all that time. Didn't take nearly as long as I had thought it would though, for which I am very thankful. I had cleaned it out a couple years ago thank goodness.

All empty and it was time for the de-construction to begin! With the aid of my trusty hammer, a chisel and a prybar, out it came! It had a marble top that I'm not entirely sure was even real marble. So I had no problems whatsoever banging the thing into pieces to get it out.

I've started an album to chronicle my progress and the transformation. With a new camera to play with I couldn't resist!

Argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

2006-11-20T20:23:00.000-06:00

When somebody in the banking industry has never heard of PayPal, something just ain't right. Usually the people at my locally owned bank are wonderful and so kind and will bend over backwards to help you get something straightened out. But not this lady, oh no. Heaven forbid she should be helpful.

In paying for my camera, the seller had not changed his PayPal addy to the correct one, so the first payment I sent never went through. Meaning the money never left my account. And then I get an NSF notice, so I called this morning to explain. I would have to get the one lady in the bank's employ that has never heard of PayPal and did not understand anything I told her. She told me and I quote "Since it's not a bank error there's nothing I can do" in the haughtiest, most insulting voice I ever heard from an employee at my bank! I beg to differ, lady!!!

So my mom is going to go to a different branch and see what she can do to fix it since her name is on my account on too. How can you work in the banking industry and not know what PayPal is????

Just prattling on and the SBQ

2006-11-17T18:17:00.000-06:00

Finished my other Arabesque letter today!! Will post pictures this weekend. My kitty is in my lap and I don't want to stand up to take the pictures right now.

Knitting For Victory is a new charity effort being sponsored by the D-Day museum. They're collecting knit scarves for veterans. Since a knitted scarf is supposed to be your first project, I'm going to do mine up and send it in! You don't have to knit the pattern on the site and you don't have to use those colors. They're aiming to have enough to send the first batch out in time for Christmas, so the deadline for that delivery is December 11th. I don't think I'll make that one, lol.

And the SBQ- it's Christmas!

Do you stitch Christmas ornaments? If so, how many do you stitch each
year and for whom? If not, why not?

Yes, I do! Mostly for myself to put in my hope chest, but this year I've stitched initials for my two best friends. I've shown pictures of them. Both are finished stitching-wise, I just have to finish them into ornaments. I love Christmas and ornaments and stitching, so putting the three together puts me in high heaven!

Both of these are from Dana's blog.

You Are a Mermaid

You are a total daydreamer, and people tend to think you're flakier than you actually are.
While your head is often in the clouds, you'll always come back to earth to help someone in need.
Beyond being a caring person, you are also very intelligent and rational.
You understand the connections of the universe better than almost anyone else.

What Mythological Creature Are You?

This one is what Sci-Fi crew would you fit best with.

SG-1 (Stargate)

100%

Serenity (Firefly)

88%

Deep Space Nine (Star Trek)

75%

Babylon 5 (Babylon 5)

75%

Galactica (Battlestar: Galactica)

75%

Millennium Falcon (Star Wars)

75%

Moya (Farscape)

75%

Enterprise D (Star Trek)

69%

Andromeda Ascendant (Andromeda)

56%

Bebop (Cowboy Bebop)

56%

FBI's X-Files Division (The X-Files)

56%

Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix)

44%

Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in? (pics)
created with QuizFarm.com

I'm surprised and not surprised by that one. Thought Farscape would be higher though. And working on Serenity would be SO MUCH FUN!!

I have a kitty purring in my lap... And pictures from Sugar Day can be seen here!

Making lists...

2006-11-09T21:51:00.000-06:00

I have this list of crafts that I want to learn how to do before I die. I don't necessarily have to master it, just know the basics so I can pass the craft on to others. Today, I came one step closer to knocking one off the list. I can purl!!!!!!!!!! It's slow going, but I can do it!!!!!

The newest Kent House employee, Emily, knits. She's making a cardigan out of this BEAUTIFUL chenille yarn, the color is called Sea Glass. She found it at Hobby Lobby. And it's stockinette. So I took my little swatch of knitting with me to work this morning and learned how to purl! I now have a 6" tall 4" wide swatch of stockinette. And I am so proud of myself!!! Emily said she'd show me how to increase, decrease and cast off too. I'm very excited.

I have this dream of being able to knit my own socks. I have chronically cold feet and sleep in socks year round. (except when the power's out in the summer) It is nearly impossible to find good warm socks locally that aren't camoflouge. And as pretty as Mossy Oak camo is, it just doesn't fit in well with my ankle boots and sweaters in the winter. My socks don't have to be anything fancy, just wool and warm. I already do thread crochet so I'm used to working in rounds with tiny needles/hooks, so I'm really looking forward to it. Once I get a chance to sit down and breathe for a weekend with nothing else planned, I'll be looking around for a free and simple sock pattern.

And in stitching news I finished a page on Alternative Reality! I will admit that I cheated and started at the very bottom with one of the 10 row pages. With the express purpose of being able to say "Page HD!" within a week. :D I'll have a picture sometime before Monday I hope.

SBQ- Floss floss floss!

2006-11-08T21:23:00.000-06:00

This week's SBQ was suggested by Jan and is:

How many different brands of "complete" embroidery floss sets do you
own? How do you keep track of it? (i.e., spread sheet program, index
cards, palm pilot, etc.)

Thanks to the infamous Hancock's print mistake, I own 1 complete set of DMC. And that's it, lol. I keep track of it with an Excel spreadsheet. And since I just pulled for an HAED, I need to replace a whole bunch of it.

Zoe was spayed yesterday. She's speaking to me again, begging for her ears to be scratched and chewing on my knuckles. She's still quite perturbed that she can't run though. Until yesterday she had two speed- head on run and asleep. She's recovering slowly and will thank me eventually when the tomcat leaves her alone.

It is finished!

2006-11-05T20:32:00.000-06:00

My room that is. I spent the weekend building myself a new desk, putting up a new bookcase and re-arranging my room. I am all tuckered out now and my arms aren't speaking to me. Manhandling wood, a 50 pound bookcase, a ten drawer dresser, a full hope chest and a 30 pound bookcase are not things that one with fibromyalgia should do by herself. But I did it anyway and am VERY pleased with the results of my labor.

I have a hallway from my bedroom door to the main part of the room. This shot is looking down the hallway from the door. On the left hand side of the picture are my bookcases, on the right side is my little dressing room area where my sink is at. That's the area that will get made over Thanksgiving weekend. And I've picked my color too! And on top of my dresser you can just see Molly and Emily there on the right- Emily's the redhead, and on the left is my sister's Kirsten. Between her, me and my mom we have 11 American Girl dolls.

Over there to the right of your screen (I hope!) is my new bookcase. It's not even full!!! The top two shelves are entirely Hardy Boys, the third shelf is some of my miscellaneous series books and then the next one down is temporarily holding my mom's Trixie Belden books. On the very bottom is one of my hats because I haven't figure out where to put it yet.

And this is my desk! Behind me is my bed. That left end of it will eventually have a skirt made out of purple toile that I picked up at the KH yard sale last month. The filing cabinet is pretty self-explanatory and it meant I didn't have to buy quite as much wood, lol. You can just barely see Josefina over there on the right.

Now this bookcase used to be where my desk is now. My old desk was on this wall. I moved it out, moved the bookcase and even though there's more stuff in the room now, it feels a lot more open. Old desk had a hutch on it that really seemed to close the space in. And it was too short for my long legs and kind of uncomfortable. The new desk is just right for me! On the top of the bookcase are L-R: Elizabeth, Felicity, Samantha Nellie. On the smaller bookcase is L-R: Marisol and Katrina (AGOT #24). Off screen to the left of the small bookcase is my bed. On the lower right corner there is the head of my daybed.

And there ya go! My new room. :D

SBQ- What's in a name?

2006-11-03T22:18:00.000-06:00

Yeah, yeah. I'm late!

Today's SBQ was submitted by Lee and is:

How did you decide on the title of your stitching blog? Was it random,
or does it have a special meaning to you or about you?

Usually I struggle with titles for things. But for my blog name, it was quite easy! I'm a romantic. And I stitch. My favorite types of designs are romantic designs, like Alternative Reality. (pic coming soon! Right now it's a tiny blob of brown and navy blue) So there ya go. It's two words that describe me beautifully.

IT'S OUT!!!!!!!!!

2006-10-31T21:44:00.000-06:00

Bob and Michelle finally got the image of Alternative Reality by Josephine Wall!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm pulling floss before I go to bed, printing the chart out tomorrow when I get home from work and then I'll start gridding. :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

I am one superbly happy stitcher this evening.

And on the college football front Arkansas has moved up to #12 with LSU dropping again and sitting at #13. Whoohoo!!!!!!!!!! Bowl game here we come!

WIP updates

2006-10-29T18:03:00.000-06:00

Picture post! First up St. Basil's Cathedral. SQ Jamaica Sparkle, 2x1. I love the way this fabric makes the purples pop out. From the model pic, you can't even tell the purples are there. At least to me anyway. I hope to be able to enter it in the 2007 Silkweaver Showcase.

And to the right is my PR Arabesque Alphabet "R". It's being stitched with Vikki Clayton "Blueberry Creme" 2x1 on 20ct Pearl linen. It's a Christmas present to my friend Ria and she's Greek. I picked Blueberry Creme for her letter because it reminded me of the Greek flag. It's nearly done!

I'm home alone right now. That means I have the TV all to myself! and since there's never anything on on Sunday evenings, I plan to watch The Misadventures of Merlin Jones. It's an old Disney flick with Tommy Kirk and Annette. Hilarious!

Eureka!!!!!

2006-10-28T18:32:00.000-05:00

Genius strikes at the strangest times. This time it was in the shower.

I'm a book-a-holic. Probably moreso than with stash. More importantly, I'm a series book collector. Nancy Drew, Judy Bolton, Black Stallion, etc. I haven't bough any in over a year because I quite literally ran out of room. I don't even have room to put them in boxes and stack the boxes up! Next weekend I'm putting a new bookcase in, but by the time I finish putting books on it it'll be nearly full.

I have this unused and wasted wall in my dressing room area. (that's code for the sink is in a seperate room from the tub) It has a marble-topped desk in it. And the marble is cheap, it may not even be real marble. The desk is of no use to me whatsoever and I've been debating for years on whether or not to rip it out and do something else. I finally decided what to do about 4 years ago- turn it into bookshelves! But I kinda ran out of paint before I got to ripping it out and sadly the color my room is painted can no longer be obtained. So the project got shelved. (pun intended!)

Until just now, when I was in the shower. I have remedied the no paint problem! I'm going to paint the whole wall lavender. A very pretty lavender, pulled out of the quilt on my bed. Then I will use a metal shelving system to get the brackets on the wall, and use boards to make the shelves. I'll need a little help taking the desk apart, but after that I can do the project entirely on my own which makes me VERY happy since that tool-handy brother of mine now lives 4 hours away and is busy building his house. The whole thing will be white to match the rest of the trim and bookcases in my room and I think it will be quite lovely on a lavender wall. I've always wanted a lavender wall...

eBay here I come! It's amazing how much you can miss trolling eBay and used book sites looking for that one great find to fill a hole in your collection.

Somebody get me a blender!!!!

2006-10-27T17:48:00.000-05:00

That section on my PV that I was complaining about the other day, I had to frog it AGAIN last night!!! New plan of attack- move back to the window where there are nice big blocks of the same color and no dang fractionals.

New Nadia Tate QS's at Heaven and Earth. A new mermaid! I missed it somehow when she painted it. It's Geisha-Fantail Mermaid and she's purple!!! And just about the prettiest thing I've ever seen from Nadia. Once I finish Earth Mermaid I'm going to have to start Irises and this Tate, lol. They're both screaming at the same volume!

I have to work tomorrow, but Allie ok'd me not going in until 10:30 or so, so I'll get to sleep till at least 9:30. This makes me happy. We have a wedding on the grounds tomorrow, and it's a small one so I may be able to leave before 3. That would be nice.

I hate...

2006-10-24T21:51:00.000-05:00

Fractionals! Loathe hate despise and abominate the things!!!!! I do love Paula Vaughn's stuff, but I swear I'm going to lose my mind before I finish the dang thing! "The dang thing" is Through A Mother's Eyes. It's for my mom.

For the PR Stitchathon this past weekend I did 2,378 stitches. Not as many as I had hoped for, but more than I thought it was. Saturday turned out to be a bad fibro day and after wrestling with the vacuum cleaner for 45 minutes I didn't have a whole lot of energy left for anything else. My arms hurt that day, it's hard to stitch when you can barely lift them.

As soon as I actually remember to take a picture of my St. Basil's, I'll post it. I'm going to try tomorrow, but since we have 70 1-3rd graders going on tour in the morning I'm not going to hold my breath on making it home with my brain still functioning.

Zoe eats too fast. She's the only cat I've ever known that belches.

I've been tagged!

2006-10-21T13:24:00.000-05:00

Kim tagged me for the 7 songs thing that's going around. Here goes!

The rules: List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether or not they have words, or even if they're not any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they're listening to. Mine are:

1. Feeling Good by Michael Buble
2. Far Away by Nickelback
3. Beep by Pussycat Dolls
4. Buttons by PCD
5. If Only from The Little Mermaid Broadway workshop recording (It hits Broadway fall '07)
6. Sing, Sing Sing by any big band except Benny Goodman. His is way too long!
7. String of Pearls by Glenn Miller

Talk about ecelectic there! My tastes range all over the place, lol.

OK, I tag Belinda, Laura, Mrs. Sandie, Michelle of Singular Stitches, Terry, Mr. Todd and my mother!

Adventures in floss

2006-10-20T23:13:00.000-05:00

Wow! Venus threads are AMAZING!!!!!! They are so soft and lay so nicely. Very little twisting or slipping around. It's stranded cotton like DMC, except it's only sold in Europe. This makes me very sad as it's very nice and wonderful floss. I'm using them to stitch my Winter Beauty Princess. I started her for the PR Stitchathon going on this weekend. And I'm stitching her on 32ct Enchanted Fabrics Royalty flair.

*insert shameless plug for Lori here* Her fabrics are AMAZING!!!!!

OK, so I'm stuck on the word "amazing" tonight. Chalk it up to lack of sleep and a headache from the bouncing temperatures this week. Today it never topped 70, outside right now it's 50 and tomorrow it's supposed to be nearly 80. Then back down to about 69. My poor head!!! I don't handle temp changes well, throws off my groove. Yet another reason why I will probably never live outside of Louisiana, lol. And I found the coolest things at Hobby Lobby today. Cushions for steel crochet hooks! That aren't humongous and cover the whole dang hook. Will have to try them out next week since I've pulled my coasters back out to work on.

And now this week's SBQ, from Vash.

Which way do you stitch, i.e. do you stitch /// followed by \\\ on
top, or the other way around \\\ followed by ///? Are you left- or
right-handed and do you think that this affects the way that you stitch?

*stops to think* I go /// then go back \\\. I'm right handed, but I have no idea if I stitch right-handed or left-handed. I iron left-handed and crochet right-handed. I do know that I am so dominantly right-handed that I'm convinced I'll never master 2-handed stitching. I've tried several times but it's so frustratingly slow that I just give up.

Random thought. Why is that people in some fan fiction communities give unwanted and unasked for advice then have the nerve to allow their feelings to get hurt when the writer ignores it? And honestly has no idea that what said reviewer said in the first place hurt the writer deeply and she was afraid to write for 2 whole days. (not me, I got good at ignoring people whose opinion doesn't really count a LOOOONG time ago) This critique was not asked for and was really rather rude. I mean really, since when did one college writing course qualify someone to definitively state that someone can't write? And this reviewer is the one who can't write, my friend found her blog somewhere and sent it to me. I've never seen so much unnecessary parenthetical exposition in all my life! Granted it's not a very long life, but I do have a lot of experience in the fan fiction world. And I come from circles where the writing quality is impeccable. Without the help of any kind of degree in writing or English.

Some people.....

SBQ- Brr!

2006-10-12T19:07:00.000-05:00

Today's SBQ was suggested by Lee and is:

As we all know, stitching in the winter can really be rough on the
hands. What do you do to treat your hands well in the cold winter
months? Do you have any suggestions for creams or soaps? Or perhaps a
special regimen that you would like to share?

Well, I live in Louisiana. Down here, there's no such thing as winter, lol. So I don't really do anything else special for my hands. It stays very humid (80-110%) year-round, so I don't even use body lotion most of the time.

I've been smoking right along on my first PR Arabesque letter this week. And then today I ran out of silk with a fourth of the stitching left. Woe is me for having to order more Dinky Dyes, lol. So I'll move to the other letter for awhile till the DD's come in. And I have to get more of the other silk color too, the VC Blueberry Creme. And gosh darn it, I'm going to have to order at least 5 other skeins just to make the shipping worth it. Life can be such a hardship for a silk addict, lol. The hard part will be deciding which colors to get!

A cold front is moving through right now, so I'm rather achey and my fingers are getting stiff. I really should put some warmer clothes on and that would help considerably.

Spring Cameo update!

2006-10-08T16:42:00.000-05:00

Update time for Spring Cameo! I'm still as in love with this one as I was the moment I saw her in Fudgey's sig, just a few weeks before Michelle signed Deb as an artist. IRL, the grays and browns in her lips don't stand out that much. It flows together beautifully and really defines her lovely mouth. It really is amazing what Michelle can do with color.

I've picked up a few new blinkies I'm going to display on my sidebar. FINALLY found an HAED one that will suffice to use as a hot-linked button.

Belinda is working on a PR BB blinkie, so once that's done I'll have it hot-linked too. And in my BB sig, lol.

So tired!

2006-10-06T21:52:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow will be my second Saturday in a row working. This past Sunday I slept till 11! Yes, SLEPT. And I was in bed half asleep at 10:30. And I'm also working the next 5 Saturdays. All in a row. I don't do well with 6 day work weeks. I need that Saturday to recharge my sleep. Right now the only thought getting me through the thought of all those Saturdays is that next Saturday I'm only there till around 2, and then on the 28th I don't have to come in before 10, and I can go by 3:30.

I've made quite a lot of progress on Spring Cameo this last week, in spite of the limited stitching. I was sick of skin tones for the moment so I've done her lips, moved over to the green of the cameo background and stitched some hair tendrils. I switch out to St. Basil's on Sunday, so I'll post a picture then.

It's kinda sad when an online place that you used to consider a safe haven goes sour. After 2 months, I've finally had someone ask me why I'm so scarce. And nobody's ever contacted the admin who left at the same time. Not even her writing partner, who started the whole place. It's even sadder when you know that it was the fault of one person and that one person has been given WAY too much responsibility and soured it for all the old-timers, the ones who made the place what it was prior to August 13th.

I never knew...

2006-10-04T22:31:00.000-05:00

There's been a whole big mess at work this last week and I just found out something that I didn't know and almost wish I hadn't found out at all.

One of my co-workers, who was a really good friend of my sister (who I also work with) has been spreading lies about me behind my back. Said co-worker quit yesterday and blamed it on me, even though I really had nothing to do with it and she was going to quit this week anyway. Now I know why. She was presented with a vague opportunity and she jumped on it. A lot of things make sense now that didn't before.

We had a lady come in today with a marked service dog. The past presidents of the board were also having a luncheon on the grounds and we had to walk through all of them to get to the house so I could start the tour. It's a federal offense to refuse to allow a marked service dog to accompany their human. My sister saw us with the dog, went into the gift shop and told my mother (who was helping out today) that I had made a very bad call in allowing a dog to be taken up into the house. My mother looked at her and said "Do you really think she's that stupid?"

It did upset some of the ladies because they couldn't see the dog's badge. But I'm really not that stupid. Pets are not allowed inside the house under any circumstances. It doesn't matter if the pet is dying, they still can't go in!

And then, said co-worker when she came by today to get some more of her stuff had the nerve to tell my mother that she was going to go over to the gift shop and send me back to the office because I'm not good with tourists. WTF????? There is absolutely no telling what sort of slander she has spread about me to our dear Allie and the board members. I was ticked at her before for acting like a child, but now I'm mad. MAD. I have never talked about her behind her back to anyone how DARE she talk about me like that and to my own sister! And often enough and long enough apparently that my sister believed her!

She's been saying "Be nice" to me an awful lot over the last year, at work, come to think of it. In reference to tourists. And it's been bothering me as to why she would say that. I'm not stupid. She knows full well that I'm capable of dealing with all sorts of people without them knowing how I really feel. That's the first skill you learn in a doctor's office. You put on a happy face and you act like you are delighted the tourists have stopped by, even if your feet are killing you. Which I do. Every day. Now I think I know why she's been telling me that. Angel. Spreading lies about me.

I'm pissed. Royally pissed.

SBQ- Mistakes

2006-10-01T19:55:00.000-05:00

Still playing catch-up here! This one is 9/28.

Today's SBQ was suggested by Sharon and is:

When you find yourself making a lot of mistakes in various stitching
projects do you find it better to muddle your way through or do you
take a brief break from stitching? If you do take a break, how long do
you take?

I take a brief break. After I've frogged the mistake! If I don't make sure that is taken out, I'll forget where it was and ruin the whole thing, lol. I usually put it down for a day or two. Any longer than that and it'll be months before I pick it up again.

And I have one picture, my letter "L" from the PR Arabesque alphabet. Stitched 2x1 on 20ct Pearl linen with Dinky Dyes silk "Wild Lavendar". I'm planning to finish it off as an ornament. It's not the best pic in the world, but it shows the lovely subtle color variations in the silk.

Weird Al is a genius

2006-09-30T22:08:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-28T13:05:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-27T22:09:00.001-05:00

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!!!

2006-09-26T19:34:00.000-05:00

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!

2006-09-13T19:58:00.000-05:00

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!

2006-09-11T19:44:00.000-05:00

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!!!

2006-09-10T21:53:00.000-05:00

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.

2006-09-08T21:23:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-03T16:30:00.000-05:00

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!

2006-09-01T22:36:00.000-05:00

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.

SBQ- How do you share?

2006-08-30T17:50:00.000-05:00

Today's SBQ is from Carolyn:

How do you share your finished pieces with others? Do you frame them, scan and/or photograph them, or do you have another method that you would like to share?

For online showing, I take pictures. They're shared on message boards and here on my blog and I have a Yahoo album of finished pieces. Need to add that link to my sidebar! I like big projects, and those don't fit on scanners very well. And the scanner is hooked up to another computer, so it can be quite time-consuming to get the pictures transferred. I do have a cheap camera, but the macro setting works very well for taking pictures of my stitched pieces now that I actually have a lamp that I can get at just the right angle for just the right amount of light.

Most things that I have stitched have been framed. To date, I've only ever finished one piece for myself and I only have 3 pieces that aren't framed, 1 is mine, 1 I did for my sister and the other I did for my mom. I should frame my mom's for her... Anyway! Smaller things usually get finished as tree ornaments. I LOVE Christmas and Christmas tree ornaments and am in the camp of you can never have too many ornaments. What if you end up in a house with cathedral ceilings and you can have a ten foot tall tree?

The joys of fabric viewers

2006-08-30T10:06:00.000-05:00

I fell in love with Chatelaine Water Garden about a year ago. Totally head over heels! I've been having a very hard time deciding what fabric to stitch it on. (yes, I make these decisions waaaaay in advance of when I actually stitch the piece) I was playing with the Chatelaine fabric viewer and hit upon Ocean Dreams by Enchanted Fabrics. It's perfect! The only other thing I could come up with was white, which is the recommended fabric, and that's just boring for me now. I would link straight to Ocean Dreams, but I can't get the EF site to come up on this machine. Kinda maddening because I still need to decide if I want it in painted or flair. I'm thinking Painted, go for the more subtle look. Now that I have fabric decided on, I'll actually buy the chart and fiber/bead pack from European Cross Stitch before the end of the year.

I've also finally joined a club! I picked one of the Indulgence of the Month from Cajun Crossn. I'm about to start the process of re-producing an 8134 sampler and I want to use Gentle Art Sampler Threads to do it. Cori has a club for GAST, 6 skeins a month for $10 or 12 skeins for $20. I may eventually go up to 12 skeins, but right now 6 will do. I don't have an LNS anywhere around here that carries GAST, so this will be the next best thing. And I've heard so many good things about the threads in general.

One of these days I'll actually join a FOTM, and I would love to do the Dinky Dyes selection from Paw Prints. But right now I have a real and actual need for GAST, so that's what I'm going to do.

One year ago

2006-08-29T14:17:00.000-05:00

One year ago today, Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Waveland, Mississippi. The central Gulf Coast still has not recovered and many areas will never return to their pre-Katrina state. My area, which is 180 miles northwest of Waveland, also will never be the same again.

Our population sky-rocketed. Traffic was a mess, traffic lights had to be reset all over the area to handle the extra traffic, there was public panic. Yes, public panic. We ended up with about 2,000 people from the Super Dome. Narcotics departments on both sides of the river saw drugs they'd never seen here before, namely heroin and crack cocaine. Every single day. For two months. There was a carjacking at the hospital where my dad works, a sharp rise in burglaries and a couple of murders. We saw more crime in those two months than we'd seen in the last two years.

Then nearly one month later traffic came to a complete standstill when evacuation orders were issued for southwest Louisiana. It took me an hour to get home that day, and that was going the back way that is not an evacuation route. Lake Charles was a ghost town. And then came Rita. A week later I was shocked and appalled to hear a Red Cross worker refer to the hurricanes jointly as Katrita. I did manage to bite my tongue at that moment, since I'm in the tourist industry and they were tourists that day. But I've never forgotten it and I never will. It was insulting quite frankly. The Louisiana victims of Katrina that were on the news are a completely different breed of people from the Louisiana Rita victims. The Rita victims have quietly put their lives and homes back together. Without help from FEMA and the feds I might add.

I still applaud my parish for standing up to FEMA and saying no to a FEMA trailer park in Rapides Parish. A few parts of the country- namely Houston, now understand why the residents of Louisiana have a love/hate relationship with New Orleans. We need the tourism dollars for the state budget. What we don't need is the Lower 9th Ward. Pre-Katrina it was not safe to go down there if you're white. It had gotten to the point where tours of St. Louis Cemetary, which borders the Lower 9th Ward, were dangerous and sporadic. There are cops who wouldn't go down there for anything. The Lower 9th Ward ALWAYS had the highest violent crimes rate in the state, and usually the highest violent crime rates in the entire South. Rapes, carjackings, shoot-outs, murders, drug-deals gone bad and more happened every day down there. To save their own lives, NOPD generally ignored it. I never had the chance to go to the Chalmette Battlefield because the only way you could get there took you on the edge of the Lower 9th Ward. Many residents would not go into New Orleans without a gun. My dad was one of them.

I see Katrina in New Orleans as sort of a blessing in disguise. The 9th Ward was finally cleaned out and if the state has any sense at all they won't rebuild it. Most of those 60,000 people from there aren't coming back anyway. The New Orleans metro area is still losing residents, there are 18% fewer residents now than before the storm. They're leaving Orleans Parish for the surrounding parishes and states. With an idiot like Nagin in charge, I can't say that I blame them.

Romantic Stitches

It's not dead!

Finished socks!!

Sweater HD!!!

New Year, new start!

WIP update

Bad stitcher!

HAED SAL weekend

Lunch time

Spring Cameo

WIP update

Hanky Psanky

Mermaid tickets!!!!!

Part 1 finished!

Rockin' Girl Blogger!

It's done!

White Nights update

St. Basil's HD!!!

New furniture!

Presenting....

Picture time!

Back in the land of blogging!

Off on vacation!

SBQ- Who likes a challenge?

Needles galore!

It's here!!!

St. B update

Alexandria Afire!

8 Random Things

The Ball Gown (and Zoe)

The ball gown

St. Pete

It has arrived

St. Basil's!

Clean bill of health!

Alternative Reality

PV update

Mini-HD!

SBQ- spending spree!

Oh happy day!

I'm hibernating

Some finishes!

SBQ- Size matters

My first sock!

Wedding announcement

My first Piecemaker

I did it!!

Quiz time!!

Ugh

Finally, WIP pictures!

SBQ- Fabric

A sad day in Louisiana

Silly me

Party time!!!

Fiddling around

SBQ- stitching dreams

Plugged in

What's in a name

Setting goals

St. Petersburg White Nights

Merry Christmas!

SEX and pondering

*swooning*

Happy Birthday to me!

What's in the bag

O Christmas Tree #2

I'm alive

O Christmas Tree...

SBQ- Oh those knots

It's been a busy day!

Argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Just prattling on and the SBQ

Making lists...

SBQ- Floss floss floss!

It is finished!

SBQ- What's in a name?

IT'S OUT!!!!!!!!!

WIP updates

Eureka!!!!!

Somebody get me a blender!!!!

swooning