Sadness and random thoughts

 So, I found out today that my great aunt is about ready to die.  She had a stroke and they have decided not to take heroic measures so she's in a hospice in Wisconsin paralyzed and waiting to die.  I'm not sure if I can go the funeral due to costs and work.

Got home from work today and needed to wind down.  Had a glass of wine (no lectures, please, pregnant women are allowed the occasional glass blessed by my obgyn).

 I decided to stroll through my collection...I have pointed out before that I collect frogs.  Here is a portion of them:

My favorites are the white alabaster frog in the bottom right next to the blue glass frog.  I also love the white box of the three frogs, one that has its tongue sticking out and it's sitting on it.

I also collect thimbles.  I try to get one from every state I visit.  My choir got me 4 thimbles from our west coast trip after I suddenly had to leave due to my father dying.  I thought that was rather sweet.

I love the San Francisco one they got me.  It has a trolley on top.  My pewter Texas one is cool too.


I have a lot of Precious Moments.  They were presents from my aunt.  I had so many that I weeded out my collection so they looked better.  I love the wood carousel that plays "Baby Elephant Walk."  It's in the back left.  Of course, there's the frog too.  And next to the frog is the tea set which is also oober cute.

This is a Katchina Doll from Arizona.  My grandma got it for me.  He looks funny but the details are awesome on it. 

Got the 4 colors of DMC I needed today.  Hopefully more stitching tomorrow.

More Progress

My pumpkin design is taking shape.  Only problem is, when I started the other corner motif....I found I was missing 3 colors of DMC.  [sigh]  Everytime I think I have most of DMC, I have to get more colors.  Here's a picture.

Pumpkin Project

Becky over at Becky Bee's Stitching Hive is hosting a pumpkin contest and since I've never really stitched anything fall ish, I decided to do something.  The only problem was finding something I liked.  I found two haunted house patterns in my 4 gigantic binders of cross stitch magazines, but they looked a bit cheezy.  I wasn't really going for something with ghosts.  So, I looked through this book:

and I found quite a few things that I liked....so I decided to design my own pattern.  Here is what it looks like at the moment:

I'm using a cream 14 ct Aida (it was in my stash) and I used the green thread to block off the available area I can stitch.  I want the finished piece to fit in a 5x7 frame so I allowed 1/4" on each side so my area to stitch ends up being 4.5x6.5 inches.  As you can see the pumpkin is going strong.  Once I have that finished, I have some other ideas but I'm really making this up as I go along.  More progress reports to follow.

Oh, and my husband got me this (well, the note said it was from my daughter saying she was sorry that she broke my frog). My stepdaughter pitched in as well

I was eying these up at Hobby Lobby last week.  Thomas Kinkade has done 4 gorgeous pictures for Disney and it was a toss up between Cinderella and this one as to which one was my favorite.  It's going to take me a long time to do this as it's solidly stitched on 18 ct Aida and is 16" x 12" (yeah, lots of stitches and lots of colors from what I can tell).  I will have to finish the stockings first after my fall project and then I have a PIF to do and then I can start this (yes, Parsley, I have not forgotten you.  I still haven't found anything that screams you yet).



Oh....on a geeky note.  We actually don't have cable internet anymore at the moment because of the current job situation but working for a cell phone company, I have a smartphone so I decided to use it as a modem.  Needless to say, the speed is the same as wifi with the cable modem.  They aren't joking about the HSPA+.  Oh, and Android is cool and all but Windows Mobile was extremely easy to set up as a modem (one setting changed and I'm done).  The pictures I've put up have actually all been taken on that phone as of recent (don't feel like letting my 5mp camera eat more AAs) which isn't bad for 3.2mp with no flash.

 If that last paragraph made no sense, sorry, I felt like being geeky.  You can tell you live in a family of geeks when your stepson's computer parts (that's right, parts, not entire computer, it has to be built) are sitting in your foyer and you and your husband just discussed ways to transform a wagon into a Starship so we can take the baby as a Starship captain for Halloween.

A Finish (almost)

Almost finished with the get well bear.  All stitching is finished, I just have to put on the finishing touches.

Progress

Made some decent progress on the Get Well Bear.  Here's a picture

Had a scare Thursday and Friday when I had sudden dizzy spells and I had to go home early from work.  Found out that if I don't snack frequently, I leave myself open for hypoglycemia so bascially, I have to eat more.

On a sad note, my baby girl broke one of my froggies in my collection today when I was cleaning the bathroom.   I had a set of frogs that were candleholders and they locked at the lips with a magnet.  Only one of the pair survives.  I'm going to have to try to superglue the other together.

I am highly recommending Mr. Clean Magic Eraser as it completely cleaned my very very dirty vanity in my bathroom, got off all the formula powder that had glued itself to the vanity and even cleaned the rust left by a metal can of hairspray.  I have also decided that the off brands of Desitin are worthless.  Sure, it was a lot cheaper but it was a lot thinner and would come off if she got her diaper wet (my poor baby has developed a nasty case of diaper rash which normally goes away with a few treatments of Desitin but we ran out and got the off brand...big mistake as it got worse).  Still using off brands of children's Tylenol as there isn't any name brand stuff on the shelf at the moment.

Quickie project

Started a new quickie project yesterday.  It's for my ailing cousin.  This is just the picture of what it's supposed to look like when it's done.

Help me find good homes for this stuff

So, I found these two kits in the stash.  Never been opened.  Unfortunately, the holy family got left behind in Wisconsin and I have too many other things I'd like to get done first.  

I also found this punch needle kit.  I decided I would dabble in it but after trying it for about 15 minutes....I hated it.  So I have a whole entire kit with all the floss and pattern with just  a little bit of stitching done.  I'll even throw in the punch needle.

Anyone want to help me give these a good home?  Leave a comment and tell me which one you want. 

Checking the stash

So, I found out last night that my cousin is having carpal tunnel surgery tomorrow in addition to the stress fracture in her foot.  So, I investigated my stash while looking for the pattern I wanted to use to make her a get well card.

Or rather....the baby beat me to it.










My stash has dwindled in my move from Wisconsin.   A lot got left behind.  I have quite a few kits yet to do.

Most of these kits I got from the Catholic rummage sale in Waukesha (thanks Cindy!).  Some day I will start them.  I've got some other pieces I'd like to do first but kits are nice to have around.  No floss hunting, just some separating and away you go...


I also found a few WIPs

Unfortunately, I stopped this great piece because I'm going to have to rip out a portion of the dragon.

These are some of the Christmyth pieces from the Dragon Dreams collection online.  The unfinished one is a griffin I believe.  I think I have some ripping to do on it as well.  She does have a lot of fabulous free patterns on her website as well that I would love to do....I just need more time.  And seeing as I'm the only one working in this household at the moment....

Tornado!

So....I got yanked off the phones for an hour yesterday as the managers frantically ran around telling everyone there was a tornado warning. The remnants of that tropical storm went through, giving us a lot of much needed rain (well....maybe TOO much...see article below). It's the only time you can hang up on a customer (aside from if they swear at you or threaten you. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my stocking with me. Could have got a little stitching done. Oh, well

Floodwaters recede, cleanup begins after tornado narrowly misses downtown Dallas 7:10 AM CT | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Latest News

More Progress

As you can see, I've made more progress on the stocking.  I actually had to tear a bit out because it wasn't matching when I put the two halves together, so I'm going to finish the right hand side before returning to the left hand side.  Unfortunately, they don't have that "grayed out" area that you normally find on multi-page charts so it makes it harder to follow.

I would love to join the UFO project on Evalina's blog, but I'm trying to get this done before Christmas.  Maybe when this is done and I'm to the assembling portion for this and Zoe's stocking, I will post some pictures of the numerous UFO's and other stuff I have waiting to be done.