Gadget's Joyful Page

My daughter's in love with Ducky Momo

2012-02-15T13:10:00.000-06:00

Both my daughters love Phineas and Ferb. Adèle seems to have taken a shine to Ducky Momo....a character who is only in one episode for only part of the episode. I may need to make one for her because Disney doesn't have a plush.

Muppet Mania

2012-02-14T14:51:00.000-06:00

We like the Muppets in our house. The girls like them and it's clean so I don't have to worry about inappropriate content.

Here are some of my favs:

Paul Simon

Elton John

Steve Martin

Liberache

Charles Aznavour

Enjoy this Valentine's Day

Dear Mr. Nolan Ryan,

2012-02-12T18:27:00.000-06:00

Dear Mr. Nolan Ryan,

I wish to express how much I love your steak. We discovered it about a month ago when Kroger had one of your sirloin steaks on clearance. We cooked it and....I didn't realize that I'd never had steak before. It was amazing. Like better than Outback or Texas Roadhouse or Logan's.

The next week, Kroger was having a sale on your meat so we bought a whole bunch of whatever we could find. We made one of your pot roasts that did not require a knife at all to eat. We made burgers with your ground beef and my husband has promised that the first thing he will make when we get our grill is some of your burgers because they were the best he had ever tasted. We've had more sirloin. We've had London broil. We've had new york strip.

Tonight I had a t-bone. The tenderloin half of it was to die for (don't get me wrong, the other side was good as well). So good in fact that I'm about to pack up both of my children and go back to Kroger right now to pick up some for our Valentine's Day meal.

In closing, whatever you are doing to produce such excellent meat, don't stop. And I will continue to be a satisfied carnivorous customer.

Sincerely,

Joy

Facebook Parenting

2012-02-12T10:00:00.000-06:00

I'm sure most of you by now have seen the latest rage on YouTube known as Facebook Parenting for the Troubled Teen. If you haven't seen it, it's a video response from a father whose daughter posted a letter to Facebook complaining about her parents but she blocked her parents thinking they wouldn't find out about it. So his father reprimands her, posts it to her facebook page so her friends won't think she got away with anything and then proceeds to shoot her laptop.

The reviews on this are mixed, some people think it was too extreme, many people applaud it. I would like to point out a few observations of my own on the video.

If you'll notice, this isn't the first time his daughter has done something like this on Facebook. She was already grounded and had her laptop taken away and is now a repeat offender.
The father's actual response as to why he posted this so publicly was because the offense was public. She posted on her Facebook page so he posted his response of Facebook via YouTube so that her friends and their parents wouldn't think that he would let her get away with saying stuff like she said. I can say that my stepdaughter has put me in a similar situation. She had posted something, our friend who is a pastor posted a response as a comment and one of her friends posted something very rude and inappropriate in response to him. My husband posted a comment in response saying that was unacceptable and then immediately talked to my stepdaughter and she was cut off from communication with that particular friend.
A lot of people think that this is extreme because he shoots the laptop with a gun.. Would they have been so shocked if he had hit it with a sledgehammer? That's a weapon too. Just saying....
He bought the laptop for her so it was his to do with as he pleased. I probably would have sold it but obviously taking it away wasn't working for her so this may have been the best way to get through to her.
Another point raised is her refusal to get a job to pay for the stuff that she wants. I got an allowance for chores when I was littler but when I was a teenager, I did go out and get a job to pay for stuff that I wanted and I didn't get an allowance for stuff anymore. I applaud his refusal to get free handouts. My stepdaughter spilled coffee on her netbook and now it's dead. We may buy her a cheap computer as a birthday present but if she had a job, she would be the one buying it. She's still a little young to have a job. She's already drowned one cell phone, fortunately it was cheap. Since I work for a cell phone company, she has a nice android smartphone. If she drowns that...I do have insurance but she will be paying or working off the $130 replacement cost.
The man is refusing media contact and says he doesn't want to teach his daughter that she can profit from something like this. I applaud that.
A lot of the commenters are saying a lot of negative stuff about her daughter being traumatized because of this and that she'll go out and be a stripper or get pregnant or become a drug addict or something. I say parents that don't reprimand their children when they do something like this and the child feels they can get away with anything end up with the stripper pregnant drug addicted teens.

The Results are...

2012-02-07T19:44:00.001-06:00

Today, we woke up bright and early and drove the hour to Cook Children's Medical Center in downtown Fort Worth. Zoé finally had her hearing test. It's called and ABR and the child has to be sedated for the procedure. They used a mask to put her under (bubble gum flavored gas I was told). They were very nice. She was cranky as all get out when she woke up. And...then she passed out again. Here's a picture.

As for the results....she can hear but her eardrums aren't moving. So, we have an appointment for the ENT next week.

Finished!

2012-02-06T13:56:00.000-06:00

I finished the tea cozy! It turned out better than I thought. Here are some pictures:

Tea Cozy

2012-02-05T22:53:00.000-06:00

This is the teapot:

As you can see, the spout is positioned a little differently but we thought it was cool. Here's my progress on the tea cozy. I started with the two round pieces of the Martha Stewart Loom but I was concerned it wouldn't get over the spout, so I stuck the two 6 hole pieces on either side to make it bigger and increased it a bit. I have finished the 3" hole in the side for the handle. Now I have decreased 6 pegs directly opposite for the spout.

I took the Basket hat pattern from Knitting Wheel Fashions but I've modified it so much, it really isn't that pattern anymore.

Contemplating a Tea Cozy

2012-02-03T23:34:00.000-06:00

My husband bought a tea pot. He now wants a tea cozy for his new teapot. I figured wool was the way to go because it's supposed to be insulated and stuff to keep the tea warm and if it's good enough for mittens, it's good enough for a tea cozy...right?

Of course the tea pot is not completely "traditional" and so I'm going to have to design my own pattern. Wish me luck.

Stay tuned....

My Weekend

2012-02-03T09:09:00.000-06:00

I didn't get a lot done except for a couple of small projects.

I used the Martha Stewart Loom to make this little woven square.

My husband also picked this up for me. It was one of those no-sew fleece blanket kit which I normally don't do but it's Perry the Platypus.

Having some setbacks on doing Perry's face. Setting that aside for now. Also having some issues with the whitework. I hate the stem stitches. Putting that aside for now as well.

My husband wants a tea cozy. I'm going to do that instead for now.

It's Never Too Late

2012-02-01T23:32:00.000-06:00

I took the ornaments off the Christmas tree today. Hopefully the DH will take down the tree tomorrow.

I hate chain stitches. They are giving me headaches on my whitework piece.

Perry the Platypus Hat and Martha Stewart Loom

2012-01-31T18:23:00.000-06:00

I know I said I wouldn't start the Perry the Platypus hat but....I did anyway. Finished the hat portion. Still need to work on the face.

In case you're wondering, I didn't really use a pattern. I started with the purple KK loom and made icords. Then I increased to make the earflaps. Then I started a set on the other side and started working in the round and did a hat and gather finished it.

I was thinking about getting the Martha Stewart Loom. I didn't want to order of HSN. Then I found out it was also sold at Michaels. Then I found out Michaels had a 40% coupon this week. So now I own the loom and my husband has cut me off from spending anymore for awhile :)

This is a picture of the box

This is the pieces.

These are the pegs

I'll be having some fun with it later.

I took Thursday off because my husband has an important appointment and we only have one car so I have a three day weekend. Hoping to finish Zoé's Kermit the Frog jacket and Perry's face.

Whitework and a Perry Hat

2012-01-25T19:06:00.000-06:00

So Brenda Myers (author of the Loom Lore blog), put an owl earflap hat on my Knifty Knitter group. I thought that it would look nice as a Perry the Platypus. But I thought I would put it off....but I saw this at Wal-Mart

It's Simply Soft yarn and it matches Perry pretty well. I might actually have to start it at some point today.

Also did some more whitework. I apologize, it's hard to see...

The mosaic stitches that make the heart at the top drove me nuts. I had to frog several times. Grr.

Whitework

2012-01-22T22:53:00.000-06:00

I was up late last night with Zoé. So, I got some stitching done. Had to do a bit of frogging since all the stitching I did at work ended up in the wrong place.

Whitework and a trip to Jo-Ann

2012-01-20T23:20:00.000-06:00

We were really slow this morning, so I got the first 2 1/2 hours of my shift off. so I went to Jo-Ann and I got this:

The needles are the size 28 tapestry that I couldn't find at Hobby Lobby. The stocking kit is long stitch and I'm going to make it for Adele.

Did some more progress on the whitework. Added some beads. Definitely going to try the tapestry needle. The beading needles were very hard to thread.

A trip to Hobby Lobby and progress

2012-01-18T23:46:00.000-06:00

So, I went to Hobby Lobby today. No size 28 tapestry needles, so I'm trying some "beading" needles for the beads. Also got a pair of scissors so I now own 2 pairs! I had a 40% off coupon.

Also did a bit more on the Whitework sampler. It's a little thick because it's calling for 3 strands over 2 on 28 count and the mosaic stitches are 6 strands.

Stop SOPA!

2012-01-18T11:08:00.001-06:00

So, congress has this very poorly written law that will allow anyone's website to be shut down for any reason in the name of stopping piracy. Now, that may stop piracy but will stomp on a lot of people's first amendment rights.

If you remember last month or so, I had got a notice from google that some of my pictures violated copyright and they were taken off the site. I could not find out what pictures had violated or even who had requested them to be taken down. it was a nightmare and I would have had to go to court to fight it. The album in question was an album of pictures I had take of the front covers of my cross stitching books. I don't think that violates copyright but as a private citizen, I had no way to fight. This will make it a lot easier to attack your blog and any "offending" images will be replaced with this:

Whitework start

2012-01-17T23:23:00.000-06:00

Couldn't wait to post a picture of the beginnings of my whitework. Going to be a lot of stitching ahead of me but it's pretty already.

We've already got a variety of stitches. Regular crosses with ecru floss (3 strands stitched over 2 on 28 ct linen). Algerian eyelets and straight stitches and a lazy daisy with pearle cotton. Haven't even got to the beads yet. Will need to get a proper needle for those at Hobby Lobby tomorrow

Frogs.....interrupted!

2012-01-17T18:40:00.000-06:00

So, this is my weekend (I have Sun, Tues, Wed off) and I decided to stitch a bit on my frogs. Just starting the backstitching.

Then, a package arrived in the mail. And here's what was in it.

Some Ecru Pearle Cotton and Cream seed beads

A nice piece of 28 count cream cashel linen

Here's a closeup

Really impressed with 123 Stitch. I ordered on Friday and got it by Tuesday. And they even surged the edges of the linen for me!

Football and frogs

2012-01-16T00:04:00.000-06:00

So, I watched the Packers get streamrolled by the Giants this afternoon. Oh, well.

I did get a whole bunch of stitching done during the game. Now I'm basically ready to do the backstitching and then I'll have my first finish this year!

Frog progress

2012-01-13T23:43:00.000-06:00

I have some more froggy progress.

Tree Frogs coming to life

2012-01-10T16:53:00.000-06:00

As promised on my Yahoo! group, here's a picture of the Tree Frog Trio as it looks right now.

Hoping to order some supplies off of 123 Stitch for the whitework sampler I plan to do for my in-law's 50th wedding anniversary on Friday when I get paid. I need to see if it meets Becky's requirements for her BAP challenge so I'll have to dig out the mag and check the finished size. It's kinda big so I hope it does.

Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir

2012-01-10T16:49:00.000-06:00

I've only sung one Eric Whitacre piece. It was "Cloudburst" and you can see that piece here. (Please note, I'm not anywhere in this choir, I sang it with Martin Luther College Choir back in 2006ish).

Here did a project back in 2009 called "virtual choir." He took one of his songs and had people individually record themselves singing one of the parts on a webcam and upload to youtube. You can see the very very cool finished result here. It turned out so well and was so well received that he did one of his other songs and it was sung by 2000 people and you and you can see that here.

Well, he's doing it again. Here's his official site. I haven't sung much in awhile but I really want to do this, so I'm starting vocal boot camp (which generally involves going on Flonaise to clear out all my sinuses, drinking copious amounts of water and singing vocal warmups every day) and then I think I will be singing Soprano 5 which involves one high A which I used to be able to hit but just barely and I'm rusty so...well...we'll see how that goes ;)

An Unexpected Trip and a new project

2012-01-05T21:34:00.000-06:00

Tuesday and Wednesday we had to drive to Nebraska and back. We had to take my stepdaughter to high school. She's going to be going to Nebraska Lutheran High School this semester but we couldn't find her a ride up there. So, we packed up her and the girls and rented a car and away we went.

Zoé got to have her very own bed at the hotel. She didn't pass out until 2 am. I guess 9 hours in a car will do that to you. They were running around the hotel room like little banshees for about 4 hours after we arrived.

I started a new project as well. I still haven't ordered my materials from 123 stitch so I started a kit I had on the trip.

Here's my current progress:

The Year in Review

2011-12-25T20:29:00.000-06:00

Today was definitely an up and down year. I had Adèle in February, was forced to move in April and got carpal this fall. I didn't really get my goals done. So, let's look at what I did get finished.

I worked a lot on Christmyth:

I finally finished this as a banner for the girls' room:

Then I made this for my mother:

And I made some stuff for my friend Shelly:

And I made a PIF for Parsley:

I made myself a wedding sampler:

And some other miscellaneous stuff:

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

2011-12-25T20:10:00.000-06:00

Hi everyone!

I've had a lovely Christmas. The girls got lots of nice new toys and we have been invaded by Little People (the Fischer Price ones). We also have a bunch of Chuck the Trucks running around as well. We will be weeding out the toys next week (we rotate them so they get "new toys" every once and awhile).

The top picture is Zoé in her new Perry the Platypus pjs. Zoé is two now and has no words. Let me repeat that: absolutely no words. She also doesn't respond to her name very well either. We just had her evaluated and have specialists coming out twice a week to work with her. She also has a hearing test scheduled so we will find out if it's hearing or not. She is enjoying her toys though. Adèle is doing well.

I've been thinking forward to next year's stitching. My carpal tunnel is getting better so hopefully I will be stitching again next year. Here are my goals:

I want to do this piece in honor of my in-law's 50th wedding anniversary.

This was supposed to be my brother-in-law's present but I couldn't do it because of my hands.

Then again, I would like to finish my DH's stocking:

And I need to find a stocking for Adèle, but I haven't shopped for one yet.

First Sewing Finish!

2011-12-11T15:47:00.000-06:00

I have my first finish from my new sewing machine.

I made a pair of black pajama pants from McCall's Pattern M6231. I used a black flannel. Here's how they turned out:

I made my husband model them but promised not to put his face in the picture.

Got some Kermit the Frog fleece to make Zoé a jacket with but first I am going to finish the picture frame for my mom on cross stitch.

My Birthday/Christmas Present

2011-12-08T00:32:00.000-06:00

This year for my birthday/Christmas present, I got a sewing machine. It's the Brother Project Runway Limited Edition computerized sewing machine and it looks like this:

I never used to sew much by machine. I took a summer school sewing class once but I never had a nice sewing machine. I inherited my grandma's machine but it was old and didn't sew so well anymore.

I did a bit of research before deciding on a machine. I was looking at the Singer Simple which was cheaper but this one had more features and it came with a bunch of accessories

My main concern was the feet which get to be pricey if you have to buy them. It's also a free arm.

I used it a bit tonight to do some sewing on my first project which was a pair of pajama pants for my husband. I got black flannel for it and cut out the pattern pinned it and started sewing. I love this machine already. It has a needle threader and the bobbin is extremely easy to put in, no complicated bobbin casing to deal with.

Realized that the pants I made were much too big. My husband wanted me to start over but looking at the pattern, I realized I only had to take it in on the size by about 2 inches on each size and I was able to salvage it. Just have to do the elastic casing and the hem for the bottom. So far, so good.

An Advent service and a birthday

2011-12-04T22:40:00.000-06:00

November 30 was Zoé's second birthday. We celebrated it on Thursday because I couldn't get Wednesday off. We ordered out Pizza Hut and she opened up her Mega Blocks that she got from us. Now they are all over the living room.

We let her open one present on her birthday. She piled her favorite stuffies on it instead.

We also had her cash in her piggy bank because it was full. At our bank, they have a special account just for kids with your very own piggy bank and you get a prize every time you make a deposit. So, she picked out the kitty cat.

Our tree is also up. The 7 1/2 foot tree sure looks a lot smaller when you only have 8 foot ceilings instead of a 10 foot ceiling.

Tonight was the ladies' Advent candlelight service. We did a table. Here's what it looked like when it was all done.

Mine was definitely not the fanciest table. But I picked the nativity and the angel on purpose because it's an advent service. I heard a couple of people comment on that they never would have thought to do a nativity (most of them were just generic holiday/Christmas decorations but one person did have a light up church) so maybe I'll set a trend for next year. Wasn't going to do cloth napkins but I got that set of 8 for $5 at Tuesday Morning. What a steal! And they have a leaf pattern so they'll work year round..

I will be playing with my birthday/Christmas present soon. But I'll save that for a different post.

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T22:37:00.000-06:00

I had a wonderful Thanksgiving with my husband's family and all my kids except for Chris (who is on base). Hope yours was great too.

Advent by Candlelight

2011-11-21T22:18:00.000-06:00

My current church has a ladies' advent by candlelight service every year. Because of my work schedule, I have not been able to attend the past two years because I always worked Sundays. This year, I don't work Sundays so I decided to sign up. But I looked at the signup sheet and there were like 24 ladies signed up to attend but only 1 hostess. So, I signed up to be a hostess.

The ladies are all arranged in tables and there is a service with Advent readings and songs by candlelight. And the hostesses are responsible to decorate their tables and then they also have to bring dessert and serve it to the ladies and also serve coffee and water.

I don't have a lot of funds to work with so I went through my stuff to see what I had. The email I got said I had to have table settings for 8 and lots of candles and a water pitcher and coffee carafe.

I have two sets of china. One set looks like fiestaware but it's really china and wouldn't work so well because it's multicolored. The other set is gold-rimmed but I only have 4 dinner plates. I dug through my china which was still boxed up and found that I had exactly 8 medium sized plates in that set. I also had plenty of coffee cups and saucers but I only had 7 juice cups because one was broken! Ack! So, we got another set of the glasses we use for everyday and I will just use those instead (we broke a couple so now we'll have more that actually match.

Here is what I'm planning for my table layout. The blue candle holders will have white votives in them, I just don't have them yet. I also think I'm going to swap out the red candy dish for a white one. Tell me what you think

Dentist Visit and a Finish

2011-11-17T22:24:00.000-06:00

Hi Everyone!

Happy weekend (well, my one day weekend anyway). I went to the dentist today. I'd been dreading it because when I went when I was pregnant, I was told I needed a deep cleaning and I had 7 cavities to fill. Today, I was told that my teeth just needed a good regular cleaning and I only had 1 actual cavity. He doesn't know what the other dentist saw but this new dentist has digital x-rays which is pretty neat. Gums are a bit raw but my teeth feel nice and slick!

I also finished the Adèle picture. Here is a picture:

My husband also took me on a date. Emily watched the girls. Went to Outback and picked out a toy for Zoé's birthday. Almost had a gingerbread martini but that steak really filled me up!

Some stitching

2011-11-10T20:33:00.001-06:00

Today, I did some more stitching. I had previewed it earlier but I haven't had any time to work on it.

Carpal has really messed things up. For Christmas, I planned to do this one Iris piece for my brother-in-law and this other piece for my in-laws and catch up on Zoé's ornaments and I was going to get the Pooh quilt done by her birthday. Well, none of that is happening. I will be lucky if I get the quilt done by Christmas.

So anyway, the piece I am working on is a mat for a picture frame. My mom had pictures taken of the girls and I'm making a mat for them. I'm using perforated paper. Currently, I'm doing Adèle's.

For hers, I went through my DMC box and matched colors to the colors in the picture. I was going to design my own motifs but I am not that good of a designer so I've raided my alphabet and Mini books. This is actually made of strips of perforated paper. I am attaching them at the corner by outlining it and stitching a heart through both pieces of paper. Seems to secure rather well.

I found this alphabet out of one of my alphabet books. Good old Leisure Arts. Altered the colors to match the color scheme I had created.

I couldn't figure out what to do on the long sides so I found this cute butterfly border from my trusty Better Homes and Garden book. I'm only doing one repetition. The heart will match the ones on the corners to tie them all together. Might add something like a flower in the white space, not sure yet. The bottom will be a white picket fence if the white on white shows up ok.

For Zoé's frame, I'm using primary colors. Not exactly sure what I'm going to stitch yet. Trying to finish this one first.

Cease and Desist?

2011-11-10T14:56:00.000-06:00

So, I got some kind of notice from Google saying that some of my pictures violate copyright. Then, I tried to follow the links that they provided and....it doesn't link to anything and one links to an album that is not mine so I am thoroughly scratching my head. I have gone over my Picasa albums and nothing seems to be in violation. The links supposedly go to the album with my cross stitch book covers. However, none of the internal content of those books has been posted, just the cover which should not be a violation of copyright.

I also noticed some comments on Picasa from people requesting that I email them patterns. I have deleted these comments and posted notices up in the albums now and I guess I should be clear. I DO NOT AND I NEVER WILL EMAIL YOU CROSS STITCH PATTERNS!!!!! Now that we're clear on that, there should be no confusion.

Not letting carpal stop me!

2011-11-03T09:55:00.000-05:00

I have decided that I'm still going to try to reach my goal by finishing the Pooh quilt by Zoé's birthday. So, I resumed work on it at work yesterday and I am hoping to do more today and post my progress.

Review: The Graveyard Book

2011-10-27T15:36:00.001-05:00

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I've liked Neil Gaiman ever since I read "The Sandman" (an excellent read but NOT for young readers at all). Previously, I've read "Coraline" and "Stardust" and "Good Omens" (which he wrote with Terry Prachett) and "The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish." I saw this is Barnes and Noble and thought that it looked like Gaiman's normal ominous work and I decided to put it on my list to read later.
Then I found out that it had won the Newbery.
Normally, the Newbery people are spot on in picking the best books of the year so I figured that I really REALLY had to read this one.
The book itself reads more like a collection of short stories that are all connected together. They center around Nobody Owens, a boy who's family is murdered when he is a toddler and he finds sanctity in a graveyard where he is raised by a ghostly couple the Owens and his mysterious guardian Silas. We see glimpses of Bod as he grows up, being taught things by ghosts, as he befriends a little girl, as he tries to go to school in the real world. Gaiman weaves all these stories together into an entertaining, cohesive book. A definite read.

Decided to read it again for #allhallowsread on Twitter. Excellent choice.

View all my reviews

Insomnia

2011-10-27T14:02:00.000-05:00

So, I've been away from blogging for a week or two. Been trying to spend more time with the girls and my heart's not really been into doing anything. Why? Because my insomnia is back. Now, of course sometimes the girls are to blame for it but lately, I've been waking up every night, in the middle of the night and haven't been able to go back to sleep. So, I lost a day of work (really hoping I don't get fired) and went to the doctor today. Ambien CR it is. Been on it before and I am happy to report that I did not sleep walk or eat my entire fridge. So, hopefully there will be sleep tonight. Let me rephrase that: There had better be sleep for the $45 the generic cost me. Yeah that's right generic Ambien on really nice UHC insurance we still $45. Boo.

The girls will not be wearing costumes this year. We couldn't find any we liked and they were all oober expensive for what they are. And I don't think Zoé will keep it on anyway. Better luck next year. Should have a sewing machine by then.

Speaking of Zoé, I decided to go through all the pics I have of them and had about 100 of them printed up. Then bought a photo album for them. Walgreens had a great deal of 10 cents a print if you ordered over 75 and the album was $7 at Dollar General. Has a nice false fabric cover on it that feels fairly durable. Also finally put some pics in their baby books but there's not a lot of space for pictures so we started the album on the side. It holds 200 pics and had space for memos.

Zoé had her first ride in one of those car carts at Albertson's. She loved it!

Adèle really has become a lover of stuffed animals. Here's her current posse:

We have Minnie Mouse (she loves to grab her by the hairbow), Pikachu (the ears are great for grabbing), Lady (she likes the ears), a seal (used to be mine but it's the perfect size for little hands), Bolt (a recent acquisition that I found at the bottom of Zoé's toybox that she didn't want), a duck rattle (that I recently had to fix because it was rattled around so much that he was partially decapitated) and a yarn dog that Grandma made.

Review: How Now Shall We Live

2011-10-26T21:14:00.001-05:00

How Now Shall We Live? by Charles Colson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I should point out to begin with, that this book is aimed at Christians as the target audience.

I was introduced to this book when I attended a C.S. Lewis retreat. The book that was recommended was Total Truth by Nancy Pearcey who is the co-author of this book. This was also recommended along with that book.

This book deals with the concept of the Christian worldview. It definitely takes the stance from "This Little Light of mine" which says "Hide it under a bushel? No! I'm gonna let it shine." The first part of the book deals mainly which the view of the current world. He explains thoroughly the teachings of postmodernism, naturalism and Darwinism, quoting material from different sources like Carl Sagan and other philosophers, showing their teachings and origins. Then he goes to show how the underpinnings from these theories gave rise to the current themes in society like free sex, abortion, euthanasia and evolution. As a Christian, it's often hard to see why society is the way that it is but once you understand the underpinnings, the results make sense.

The other part of the book deals with what should be a Christian's response. In a nutshell, the current views of the world has resulted in morality being thrown out the window. It's all subjective and there can't possibly be a firm set of rules. The world also seeks to solve is to create a utopia. Colson rebutts this by pointing out that there is in fact a moral law that God has laid down and that to help society, we must restore order.

I did really enjoy this book. Colson has definitely done his research and quotes many different sources when trying to explain postmodernism. He also uses a lot of examples to illustrate his points. I would definitely recommend this to any Christian.

View all my reviews

New Project - Sneak Peek

2011-10-11T09:06:00.000-05:00

This weekend was too short. I don't want to go to work today. But my Mom won airline tickets so she'll be flying back here sometime soon and I have to save up my paid time off.

I'm starting a new project. It's going to be of my own design. Here's a sneak peek:

Not much blogging going on here

2011-10-10T09:51:00.000-05:00

Hi y'all

Haven't been blogging much lately. Doing a little bit of lurking but mostly doing things around the house.With 2 under 2 there is constant cleanup. Things are a bit easier now. Our garbage disposal stopped working a few weeks after we moved in but having rented enough places, that is something that becomes tenant responsibility and they charge an arm and a leg to fix it. It wouldn't have been so bad except it caused that side of the sink to leak and that side of the sink also had the dishwasher flowing into it. We picked up a barely used disposal at the Habitat for Humanity store for $15 and put it in so now I have 2 sinks and a dishwasher. We mostly handwash but on those days when the bottles and dishes are piling up, it's nice to be able to just run it all in the dishwasher.

For anyone, having to go to a baby shower anytime soon, I will say that the Playtex Drop ins starter kit is awesome. Helps Adèle with gas issues and makes cleanup fairly easy. Yes, you do have to buy the liners but it saves me in spit up and fussy fussy baby so I'll take the extra cost. Plus, Kroger just had their liners buy one get one free so I bought 4 100 ct boxes for about $16. That should last me through the end of the year. The munchkin dishwasher basket is also awesome (so you can wash the nipples and stuff in the dishwasher. And if you have a bit of money to spend, go for the Pack n Play.

I did a small bit of stitching. Here's a picture. Have some Christmas presents to think about but we'll see how the wrists hold up.

No Stitching but some cute kids

2011-09-26T10:19:00.000-05:00

My mother was in town this week and flew back yesterday. We had a lot of fun. I took 2 days off so I had 3 1/2 days to spend with her. Still not stitching but I've started a new project, scanning in my photos that I took with my old 35 mm camera and digitizing them.

We discovered that the girls LOVE going to walks in the stroller. We couldn't do it for most of this summer because it's too hot to do anything much outside. But now that it's cooled off to the 80s, things like that are possible.

So, here is Zoé making Snickerdoodle cookies with Grandma. She liked taking the dough and putting it in the cinnamon sugar. Apparently, she also decided not to wait on baking the cookies and just ate the dough ball. Then, she refused to eat a baked cookie.

We went to this park in Gainesville that has a large playground, a kid-sized train and a small zoo. And Zoé had her first ride on a playground swing.

Then Grandma took us all out for ice cream and Adèle had her first taste. I think she's a fan.

Zoé has also become quite the colorer. We ordered some Crayola Jumbo Crayons off Amazon (because surprisingly, they're not sold in stores, we've looked everywhere. They only have large). So, she takes on in each hand and goes to town. She's pretty good about not coloring the table.

News

2011-09-15T17:39:00.000-05:00

So, I have been having some problems with the new phone I got just under a month ago. The audio on the handset speaker was awful. So, I got an exchange and....the audio was just fine but instead of coming out the handset speaker you put up to your ear, it came out the speakerphone instead! Whoever put the phone together put it together backwards! So, I got a 3rd phone today and am happy to report that it is working just fine.

The bad news is I've been having some wrist pains for the last few weeks and I went to the doctor and it's the beginnings of carpal tunnel. He was very optimistic and said I probably would only need therapy if the stretches don't make it better. I'm also going to be taking an anti-inflammatory. Hopefully it gets better. It's been interfering with my stitching and has brought it to a halt!

BIZY BACKSON

2011-09-11T22:36:00.000-05:00

Been on a bit of a hiatus. Having some wrist pains and my mother is coming to visit in a week so we've been preparing.

Edited

2011-09-05T22:04:00.001-05:00

I had to find a good present for my brother-in-law for Christmas. So, I settled on this. Just have to order the 25 count mushroom lugana.

To answer the question, yes it is cross stitch but the majority of the piece is blackwork.

New Bed

2011-09-04T12:32:00.000-05:00

Zoé climbed out of her crib yesterday when I was at work. Took the new ornaments I had just stitched and put them in the toilet (fortunately, doesn't know how to flush). My DH washed them so hopefully they are okay.

We made it through the night okay with her in the crib but today we converted it to a toddler bed. Glad that we paid the extra money when we bought the bed originally to get the convertible bed that comes withsds l;.,......., jmj jo;klm, /rails

I see Zoé was using my computer while I was making a bottle for Adèle....

Our house is childproofed for electric but we never did the kitchen cabinets because she's never in there unattended but since she ran around the house yesterday, we'll now have to keep all the doors closed and put the gate up at her room door. Thank goodness we moved to a one story

From Now Until the End of the Year

2011-09-01T20:28:00.000-05:00

First of all, somehow the meaning of the ellipsis (...) got changed. I thought it meant that I was trailing off but apparently my stepson has informed my husband that it means "I don't care." I guess I won't be using it anymore lest I seem apathetic.

It's September 1st. Which means my Mother comes in about 20 days which means we have some massive cleaning to do . Not that we have a train wreck of a house but it's hard to keep things clean with a teenager and 2 under 2.

It also means that I have September, October, November and part of December to think about Christmas presents.

Eek!

Hopefully the meaning of that hasn't changed.

I think I have found a few things I can give to my husband for Christmas. I think I have also found something for my brother-in-law and my mother and father-in-law but I'm not sure just yet. I'm sure my stepdaughter will want clothes like any teenager.

At some point I've probably mentioned that I like frogs. My husband cleaned the bathroom today and put all my froggy stuff out:

Yes, the shower curtain is all frogs, even the shower curtain hooks

The night light is a frog, the license plate is from my Dad and the frog on top is a tile that had the picture of the frog imprinted on it somehow.

Those lights in the top picture are indeed frogs

Frog soap dispenser

And last but not least, a frog bath mat

Christmons Explained

2011-08-31T09:33:00.000-05:00

It occurs to me that when I posted my first two Christmons, I never bothered to explain them. That's actually one of the major things about a Christmon tree, it is essential that you know the meanings of the symbols you are making. I have the book from the Danville church who has pioneered the beaded Christmons with a lot of different explanations. The symbols actually get quite complicated. These two are still Christmons even though they aren't beaded (Christmon being a Christ monogram).

It's important to note that symbols were very prevalent in the early church. The church was underground since it was illegal to be a Christian in the Roman empire until the time of Constantine. If it was discovered you were a Christian, well, you were in trouble. Emperor Nero was known for making Christians torches in his garden or feeding them to sea snakes. The symbols helped them communicate but yet were mundane enough that other people wouldn't catch on their true meaning.

Fish - Many of Jesus' early disciples were fisherman. When Jesus was calling his first disciples, he said, "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." (Matt 4:19). From this passage, it makes sense that the fish was a Christian symbol as Christians are called to go out and spread the good news. You may notice the Greek letters in the middle of the fish. They actually spell "fish" in Greek. In the early church, this was a monogram for "Jesus Christ, God's Son."

Alpha and Omega - Alpha is the first letter in the Greek alphabet and Omega is the last. The Alpha and Omega symbol is a direct reference to Revelation 1:8 which says "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty." It's basically like God saying "I'm A to Z and I cover everything inbetween." It's a reference to God being eternal.

Hope I haven't bored you too much. Not a lot of stitching going on but I have been working on the quilt at work (that way Zoé doesn't see).

Looking Ahead to Christmas

2011-08-30T00:07:00.000-05:00

I know it's a little early but when you have as much stitching time as I do, you have to start early.

I know I have some new followers so for those of you who are just joining up--welcome and thanks for the lovely comments on the wedding piece. For this post to make sense, I need to fill in some backstory. My husband and I met at college. His wife left him about 3 years ago and we reconnected and got married (he is in fact, Biblically divorced, so he was free to remarry). That's the short story. The college we went to had 2 courses of study: Christian teaching and pre-seminary for pastors. So, we both have a very Lutheran house.

He thought it would be cool to have a all-Christian Christmas tree. Now, I love Christmas trees as much as the next person and I have a very large collection of ornaments. But most of them are secular, sad to say so it's really not "Christian" in that sense. My goal is to make a collection of Christian symbols for the tree. So, today I got started.

I have a bunch of patterns for different Christian symbols that I got out of my grandma's stash. They are supposed to be made of three different shades of gold (in this case, meaning "yellow"). I thought it would look cool in metallic gold and white and black. So, I had some DMC metallic gold and perforated plastic and went to work.

Needless to say, they turned out a bit small.

I figured I would try again with larger plastic canvas. I had some Lions Brand Glitterspun yarn which was the only yarn I could find that was metallic gold. I got it a few years back when I was making a kleenix box cover for a friend.

Much better sized but I cut it a bit weird.

You can clearly see the size difference.

I am also hoping to do some beaded Christmons like what my Grandma used to do.

I also glued Tartan Teddy onto the journal. I used Crafter's Pick Ultimate Glue which Pat recommended. Bob recommended Mighty Mendit but I decided to try the other stuff because Hobby Lobby had it on sale. Next task for it to do is fix some couch cushions. We'll try the Mendit if this stuff doesn't work.

Wedding Sampler Finish

2011-08-27T23:42:00.000-05:00

So, we were overstaffed majorly today. They were bracing for extra calls due to the hurricane (to those of you anywhere near it, I hope everything goes ok and feel free to ship that water down here, we can use it). So I had time to finish all the french knots and the personalizing. Here's the final result:

Now for a frame. I'm thinking Silver...will have to wait for some money though :(

Also picked up some glue for the Tartan Teddy Journal. Should have a final pic up soon as well.

Tartan Teddy Journal

2011-08-26T18:50:00.000-05:00

So, I finished stitching the Tartan Teddy today. I stayed home from work (they had time off and I was dead tired) so I got it finished. Here it is on the journal. It's just not pressed and glued yet. Yes, I did FINALLY buy an iron (it was $6 at Wal-Mart).

RAK Update

2011-08-25T23:31:00.000-05:00

So, I've made more progress on my RAK. Yes, I can post pictures because she doesn't follow my blog (that I know of).

First of all, though. Sadly, Jennifer at "Feathers in the Nest" has decided to delete her blog for personal reasons. I always enjoyed visiting. Hopefully things will settle down enough for her to start posting and stitching again. I know it was her dream to publish her designs. My prayers are with you Jennifer.

Now, to the RAK.

I bought this journal at Dollar General for $3. It looks like it's leather (it's not) and it has a nice strap to keep it closed and a built in bookmark.

I had this pattern for a journal case in the "Loom Crafts with Knifty Knitter" book but I decided to modify it a bit. Instead of having two pockets, it has one with a strap. I should have used the yellow long loom with clips instead but the yarn is stretchy enough it seems. It calls for the pink loom which is what I used.

Here is the final result:

And this is what it looks like with the journal inside:

I used "Homespun" in the "lagoon" color. It's a funky color and the camera really doesn't do it justice.

And since the cover of the journal looks a little boring, I decided to start this which will be attached some way to the journal. I'm still not sure if I should use hot glue, super glue or some other adhesive.

It's called "Tartan Teddy." I have one color left to go which will do the eyes and nose and then the backstitching.

It's being done on 14 count Aida. I found a scrap of it in my collection. It's kind of an oatmeal color.

hi

2011-08-25T06:42:00.000-05:00

Hello everybody.

Thanks for all the lovely comments. Th wedding sampler has made more progress but I forgot to take a picture. Hope to have one up on Fri or Sat.

And AJ ..on that pincushion it did take way more time to pull the threads than it did to actually stitch but I do like the finished effect.

Joy

Some backstitching done

2011-08-24T09:07:00.000-05:00

Half the green done...then I have to do the words.

And a Finish...

2011-08-22T16:48:00.000-05:00

So, I finished the pincushion today.

Here's what it looked like before any finishing:

I trimmed it down and then sewed on the backing fabric. Because of the pulled threads, I had to also sew fabric behind the cross stitch piece as well:

And this is what the back looks like:

I'm hoping to find some fancy pins to send along with this. I managed to secure a journal today and am starting the journal cover.

Quick Little Project

2011-08-22T10:45:00.000-05:00

One of my friends RAKed me earlier this year when I was really down at the end of my pregnancy. So, I'm going to return the favor. I've started on the first thing. She's an avid seamstress so the first thing I'm making is a Victorian Pincushion out of The Cross Stitcher's Complete Companion.

I'm using 28 count Monaco. It has pulled threads in it.

This is the fabric I'm going to use to finish it.

I have no idea where I got it from but it was in my collection of fabric. Hopefully, I'll be able to post the finish a bit later.

Bracing for the backstitching

2011-08-21T00:26:00.000-05:00

So, I'm almost done with the cross stitches on this piece. Next up, all the backstitch. I have started the bride and groom but there is a lot more backstitching to be done. And a bunch of french knots. So, maybe it'll be done about the middle of September. We'll see.

Quilt

2011-08-19T09:07:00.000-05:00

As I said, progress is going slow on the quilt. Here's about the best picture I can manage of the progress on it.

There's twelve of those on the quilt so like I said, slow going. But November's a fair clip off so hopefully I'll finish it in time. Still trying to figure out the binding part.

Some more progress

2011-08-18T15:24:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone.

Finally got my new phone and am loving it. They have lots of apps. Not as many as Android or iPhone, but the ones I've downloaded have been useful.

Used the camera on the phone to take this picture of the wedding sampler. I've made a lot of progress. Progress is slow on the quilt since I have to work on it when Zoé is not around.

New phone

2011-08-14T11:40:00.000-05:00

So, my trusty old Touch Pro 2 has decided that it no longer wants to take a charge. It's an older phone...I got it in the fall of 2009 when it first came out. I had to exchange it this spring because of some issues it was having (gotta love extended warranty). On Thursday night, it decided to not charge :(

So, they're sending me an HD7. The Touch Pro2 is out of stock in the warehouse so that's what I'm getting. It's huge (4.3" screen) and has no keyboard. Not sure I can get used to that. I like my keyboard. And it's running Windows Phone 7 which is completely different from Windows Mobile 6.5 that I was running so it'll be a big adjustment.

So, hopefully new pictures will be up of any progress I make today or tomorrow later on Monday night because the new phone has a 5mp camera with flash. :)

Completely Finished!

2011-08-11T21:31:00.000-05:00

I finally finished binding the edges of the latch hook (I use thread and not tape), added the fringe, cut the dowel to size and braided the hanger and now the "You are Loved" latch hook is completely finished! Here's a picture:

My Mom also sent this kit in the mail. I'm not sure when I'll get to it. It's crewel, which I've never done before. It was my Dad's but he apparently never did it.

Kinda Lazy Thursday

2011-08-11T17:10:00.001-05:00

If you've been watching the news, you'd know that Texas is experiencing a bad drought. Here, they've put limits on watering and there's a burn ban.

Here's a picture of my backyard:

We got excited this morning when we saw the clouds. It was really smelling like rain and I could hear the thunder in the background...

And it missed us :(

Thursday is one of my days off of work (I work 4 10 hour shifts so I have 3 days off) and we normally do our shopping. So, we went to Wal-Mart and picked up some stuff (they generally have the cheapest diapers) and then went to Kroger. We found a bread machine at a local thrift store for $6 and it actually works well so we've been using it to make bread. I needed to make french bread for work so I used it to mix the dough, then removed the dough, shaped it and baked it in the oven. All that baking has worn down our supply of flour so that was on the list. I also got some of that powdered buttermilk since it seems several varieties of bread call for it.

Wal-Mart may say they have low prices but they rarely have stuff on good sales or clearance. Kroger on the other hand can have some awesome sales and almost always has manager's specials on stuff. Today I got 100 bottle lines for the playtex bottles (the generic brand) for $2.99 :)

It seems to have wore Miss Zoé completely out because she passed out in the checkout line at Kroger. This was her at home:

Not been getting a lot of sleep lately since Adèle has bad diaper rash and wakes up every time her diaper gets wet. Since she and Zoé share a room, we have to be careful to remove the one crying baby so we don't wake the other baby.

We've been doing a bit of decorating on this house slowly but surely. We got one of those Eclipse curtains for the babies' room so that it stays darker. Since this is a rent house, it only has basic blinds in every room. We got a large curtain rod and put up some of the curtains we already had in the living room. We liked the Eclipse curtains so much that we got another 2 for the windows in the master bedroom but we haven't put them up yet.

Here's some of the stuff we've hung up so far.

My Dad picked this up at an antique store at some point. I don't know who made it or even when it was stitched. I have it by my piano.

My cousin made this when I was a baby. I have it up in the girls' room. My husband moved the cribs around so I don't have any nursery pictures since I haven't moved the pictures back around yet.

This is the shadow box I made of my stuff from high school since I didn't have a letter jacket. The top row of letters is for math track as is one of the medals. The other letter and the rows of medals are for handbell choir and all my performances at the state contest for piano, voice and handbells (they're all first place if you're wondering but they are different colors for the class of the piece and district or state level). On the left hand side, you can see the yellow of my National Honor Society cords and the tassels from my high school and college graduations. The medal on the right is from my college graduation.

We also hung up my grandma's bird pictures in the hallway. I would post pictures but blogger is being a pain.

Have to go make meatloaf now.

A Better Pic of the Wedding Sampler

2011-08-09T23:54:00.002-05:00

I got a better picture of the actual progress on the wedding sampler today.

Finally, a UFO finish!

2011-08-08T17:59:00.000-05:00

So, my goal this year was to finish up some UFOs....and it hasn't been going so well. Well, today, I finally finished my Carnival Afghan...

I decided not to do the tassels. Adèle really really wanted to help Mommy sew the panels on. She has been looking especially cute today.

She is crawling now, saying "Ma ma" and stealing her sister's toys and chewing on everything because she has two front teeth coming in.

Wedding Sampler Progress

2011-08-07T18:32:00.002-05:00

I made quite a bit of progress at work this week. Actually, there's a little more progress but I forgot to snap another picture.

I hate Wal-Mart. We went today and there was almost a fist fight in the parking lot and then Zoé got stung but a bee on the finger in the meat department. We got the stinger out and she's ok. Doesn't appear to be allergic.

Also, Lynn is having a giveaway for this fantastic Paris collection:

Maybe I'll finally win something for once....

Switching Projects

2011-08-04T23:48:00.000-05:00

I had a little time today to work on my stocking. Here's a picture of recent progress:

The picture really doesn't do it justice. The colors are really quite vibrant. Maybe I'll get out my 5mp camera and take some better pictures when it's done.

I have switched projects over to the Pooh quilt I'm doing for Zoé for her birthday. This is the one deadline I'm really trying to keep (so it has to be completed by November 30). At this point, I don't see the point of making deadlines since with the little ones, I never know if I'll have any time to do anything at this point. Especially since Adèle is officially crawling now. I got the thing pinned and I got one block stitched. I don't have any hoops anymore so I'm using one of my qsnaps. Also continuing to finish binding the latch hook. I got a dowel for it the other day so once I'm done binding, I'll put the fringe on the bottom, cut the dowel to size and braid the hanger (for $1.99, this kit came with EVERYTHING!) and it will be ready to hang.

Made lasagna tonight. I used my mom's microwave recipe but baked it in the oven since my Pyrex pan won't fit in our small microwave. It turned out very good and my husband even liked it (or so he said as he doused it in pepper)

Review: The Case for Christ

2011-08-01T21:56:00.001-05:00

The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Level: Adult

Scanning the reviews for this book, I notice that it either gets 5 stars (mostly seem to be Christians) or 1 star (mostly seems to be non-Christian).

Really, what this book is about is one man's investigations into the validity of the Christian faith. Strobel outright says this at the beginning of the book that he is retracing the steps that he took after his wife converted to Christianity and he wanted to learn more. So, being a journalist, he looked up some scholars, argued some points and this book has his conclusions.

I don't expect anyone to be converted by this book, however, I think it has some interesting points about the New Testament and it's testimonies.

View all my reviews

Wedding Progress

2011-07-31T11:01:00.000-05:00

I have made a little progress on my wedding sampler this week at work. Here's a picture:

This is what it looked like when I last touched it.

Have a great weekend. We're going to use our Outback Steakhouse gift card for lunch today and I'm hoping to hear from the teaching job I applied for tomorrow maybe.

Latch Hook finished

2011-07-25T23:13:00.000-05:00

So, the latch hook is finished. At least with the latch hooking part. I have to bind the edges and have secured them with safety pins for now. I will sew them later.

Here's a picture:

The Two Topics You're Never Ever Supposed to Discuss

2011-07-25T15:32:00.001-05:00

Which are in fact, politics and religion...

I don't know the whole story. I don't keep up much on the news but there was something about Michelle Bachmann being a former member of the WELS and taking some flack for our beliefs. As a member of the WELS, I feel the need to say something so if you're not into politics or religion, now would be a good time to stop reading and I promise to post some pretty pictures a bit later of my crafty work.

Now with that disclaimer out of the way. The big point that's being made is that we believe that the office of the papacy is the antichrist as described in Revelation and other parts of the Bible. But the media, of course, has blown this out of proportion. The best rebuttal comes from WELS president Rev. Mark Schroeder (the bold emphasis has been added):

While WELS continues to see the characteristics of the Antichrist in the Roman Catholic Papacy, it is wrong and dishonest to portray this belief as stemming from anti-Catholic bigotry. We do have strong convictions and we identify what we believe are teachings that depart from the Word of God. But we hold no animosity toward Christians who hold the Roman Catholic faith and we respect the right of people to hold beliefs different from ours even as we point out the error. Furthermore, we rejoice that even in the Roman Catholic Church, where we believe that the gospel has been distorted, there are many Catholics who hold to a simple faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior and who will ultimately be saved. Testifying to the errors that still exist in Catholic doctrine is itself an expression of love; remaining silent or glossing over doctrinal differences would express the opposite.
Media reports have portrayed the WELS position on the Antichrist to be a prominent or even signature doctrine in our church. Certainly we do not deny this teaching or attempt to hide it. At the same time, it is not a topic of daily discussion or a regular theme in Sunday sermons. Nor is this a view peculiar to WELS; it has been the historic position of the Lutheran church for almost 500 years—a position still held by confessional Lutheran church bodies around the world.

So there, you have it, yes it's a Lutheran belief but it's not prominent and I find that it comes up maybe once a year like at the celebration of the Reformation. Otherwise, it has no bearing on faith in Jesus so why would we discuss it except once in a blue moon.

A long night

2011-07-19T21:58:00.001-05:00

So, Zoé started throwing up at dinner last night. She hadn't stopped by midnight and couldn't keep any liquids down. So we ended up in the ER which took forever. We finally got back home at 5 am. They stopped the vomiting and it seems that it's just a bug.

She's doing a bit better today.

We also picked up a bread machine for $6 at a thrift store and the cassette for Wee Sing Bible Songs.

I got a little progress done on the latch hook.

A new bed and a almost new computer

2011-07-18T11:35:00.001-05:00

Adèle has been sleeping in the pack n play for some time now since we're looking at about $150-$200 for the crib plus matress. Fortunately, a coworker sold me his for $20 with matress. It is drop side but we don't drop the side and it gives us a chance to save up for something nicer a little later on. I put up the mobile but the music box spinner thing doesn't work so it's a stationary mobile. I could buy on off ebay but it's too expensive for what it is.

I formatted my computer. After 5 years of junk, it needed a cleaning. Maybe now it will connect via the midi cables to my keyboard. That should allow me to record songs and also have have finale notate for me when I'm playing. My piano is a Yamaha keyboard which is basically a portable Clavanova with weighted keys and everything. I got it and Finale at cost when I worked for a music store teaching lessons.

Stylish? Me?

2011-07-18T09:29:00.000-05:00

Ruth over at Ruth's Running Stitch has awarded me a stylish blog award. Thanks Ruth!

In real life, I'm really not that stylish but the terms of the award are as follows:

Thank the person who has awarded you
List seven things about yourself
Pass the award to 15 other stylish bloggers

So, the 7 things about myself are:

I love all things science fiction and fantasy
I have a large collection of frogs (and I used to have a real water frog named Phlox but he died)
I have a teaching degree
I play piano, organ, handbells and I was in my college's audition only choir as a 1st soprano.
I have 2 stepsons, 1 stepdaughter and 2 daughters.
I love Italian food
I own a set of Renaissance Faire Garb (but it doesn't fit yet until I lose the pregnancy weight)

The 15 blogs I would like to nominate are:

Ruth, I figure I can't nominate you AGAIN so there's my list. In alphabetical order.

I would post stitching progress but there hasn't been any :(

Review: A Man Lay Dead

2011-07-16T23:56:00.002-05:00

A Man Lay Dead by Ngaio Marsh

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I read this book because my husband put it on the iPod to listen to on my long drives to and from work. I don't read a lot of mysteries.

It wasn't a bad read. I had a little adjustment to make to get used the the writing style and I had problems getting into the book. The beginning had a rather abrupt entrance with a lot of characters thrown at you all at once. And the murderer wasn't the person I expected it to be. Otherwise, not a bad mystery at all.

View all my reviews

Help on a Quilt

2011-07-15T05:54:00.000-05:00

So, I found this at Hobby Lobby.

It's a pre-printed quilt pattern. This is what I got for backing.

Now, I need some help. How do I assemble this thing? I have the batting. I know that I have to basically quilt it myself so I got a spool of matching thread for hand quilting but I've never done it before. So, here's my list of questions:

1.Do I attach the batting to the panel and quilt and then attach the back?
2. Do I sew the backing on with batting, flip and then quilt?
3. Is there a special stitch that I need to be using to do the actual quilting?

I don't have a sewing machine so this will be done by hand.

Thanks for all your help!

Ah the weekend

2011-07-11T20:58:00.001-05:00

So, I am trying out the Blogger android app. I'm testing out a new phone. Finally got my music books out. So here they are. Got a fair share of hymnals (being the church organist) and other organ books besides piano and voice. It's been a long time since I've touched an organ. Hope I remember if I'm asked to play again.

Hope I haven't already told my organ story (if I have I apologize). I started piano when I was 7. When I was 11, I had already started accompaning. The summer between 8th and 9th grade, I started organ lessons. Played a bit in high school. In college, I HATED my organ professor. She was the complete opposite of my old instructor and wanted me to be some virtuoso which I didn't want to be. So, after 3 semesters...I quit! Until about 2 years later, my friend asked if I would play organ for Christmas Eve at a church in Milwaukee. I reminded him that I'd quit but he told me that they'd asked like 30 people and were desperate. So I practiced like I'd never practiced before and when I was done with college a little later that year, I played as one of their regular organists.

An Open Letter to Mr. Alton Brown

2011-07-04T11:06:00.004-05:00

Dear Mr. Alton Brown,

I must say that I adore Good Eats. It's not boring like other cooking shows and it tells us not only the history of the food but also the science behind the food. And it gives you useful tips like how to safely deep fry a turkey and how to make a fish smoker out of a cardboard box. And I must say that the pizza dough recipe turned out extremely good and made the tastiest pizza ever.

However, this morning, we were watching a bunch of Good Eats that we had taped and ran across the one on gumbo. Now, I married into a Cajun family direct from Acadia Parish in Louisiana and direct descendants from the guy who broke Evangeline's heart (yeah, the girl that Longfellow wrote the poem about). They know gumbo. In fact, we had it yesterday, made from scratch in my mother-in-law's kitchen.

My husband would like to point out that the recipe used appeared to be from Northern Louisiana where there are no Cajuns. No respecting Cajun would put tomatoes in gumbo, okra might be found in a chicken gumbo and why did sausage go in with the shrimp? The roux was also the wrong color because apparently there is a spectrum between brick and black. The only thing that was right was making stock from the shells.

I must add that I'm just going off what the Cajuns tell me. I'm a German Wisconsinite. I know cheese, brats and beer. I leave the gumbo to them.

Just thought you should know.

Sincerely,

Joy

Happy Fourth

2011-07-03T23:34:00.000-05:00

Today's meal was excellent. We had seafood gumbo (with shrimp, crab and crawfish) over rice and brisket that was dry rubbed and smoked (you could smell it two houses down!) and baked beans that my DH made from scratch.

When we got home, I got a little progress done on my latch hook.

It's really starting to take shape now. This it the 3rd latch hook I've done. Only one appears in the finished pieces album, a unicorn that I made into a pillow. I also did a cat also finished as a pillow which I don't have a picture of unfortunately. This, of course, is charted. My little trick is to lay out all the pieces of yarn for the current row in order before I start attaching them so that I don't have to try to attach and count at the same time. I also completely ignore the printed on pattern as it's never lines up correctly.

I also finished winding the double pull ball of yarn. It doesn't look pretty but so far it appears that it will work. I just have to undecrease my panel. Not sure when I'll get to it.

Wedding Sampler Progress

2011-07-03T08:20:00.000-05:00

Finally, I'm posting a picture of the progress on the wedding sampler "To Have and To Hold." DH still doesn't know that I"m doing this.

Going to celebrate the fourth today with a smoked brisket and homemade baked beans and gumbo. Adèle is really really trying to crawl. Hopefully we'll have some progress in the next few weeks.

Cake Walk

2011-06-28T23:16:00.002-05:00

Today at work, we had a "fun fest." There was food catered by Dickies and I won a cake. I would post a picture....but we've sort of eaten half of it already. It was a Swedish Lace Cake. Yum.

I got more done today than I thought I would

2011-06-26T22:42:00.000-05:00

Today started early. Like 5 am. I know some people wouldn't think that's too early but I don't get off work until 10 pm so I don't get to bed until midnight since I have an hour drive home. Zoé soaked her diaper and woke up and she doesn't go back to bed well so I ended up staying up with her for awhile.

My stepson Chris has his summer leave from the army so he drove down here from New York. Made it here just in time to go to church. We have an hour drive to our church and we were late. I thought we were going to have to sit around and kill time until it was time to get my stepdaughter but she managed to convince her mother to let us pick her up early. So it worked out well.

Coming home, I had to deal with a very cranky Adèle who had been trying to poop unsuccessfully for 3-4 days. Not good when you're only 4 months old. Poor thing. I spent most of the afternoon comforting her. Fortunately, glyceryn works wonders.

Despite all that, I finally finished finishing Country Noah. Here's a picture.

I thought it turned out nice and once I find the nails again, I'll hang it up in the girls' room. It's done on 9 count Aida which is extremely large. It's been sitting in my collection of finished yet unfinished cross stitch pieces. It turned out so well that once I get an iron, I think I'll do the same thing with Mary's Lamb Sampler and hang it up as well. Hopefully the latch hook will be done by then. Haven't been working on that.

What I have been working on is the stocking. I think I've got my second wind on it and it's coming along nicely.

And to finish today's blog post off, Adèle managed to flip herself over yesterday. Here she is, looking proud.

Thrift Store Find

2011-06-23T11:35:00.000-05:00

Today, we hit a thrift store (looking for a crib since we still don't have one for Adèle so she's camping out in the Pack 'n Play) and I didn't find what I was looking for at all. But I did find this:

And now you are probably saying "What is that?!"

Anyone play handbells? Basically, it's a set of pitched plastic pipes that you can hit on anything to produce a sound. They're called Boomwackers.

As some of you know, I used to be a professional musician. Great job. No benefits. Not a steady paycheck. I always wanted a set of these but this C to C set was $25 and I wasn't willing to shell out that much money for them (I really didn't have that much extra anyway). I got this set for $1.31. You can't beat that!

I think Zoé and I can have some fun with these. She loves her xylophone and my piano.

Lotsa Pictures

2011-06-20T20:40:00.000-05:00

My baby is growing up so fast. Today, we tried rice cereal for the first time. Didn't eat a lot and most of it ended up on her chin but that's pretty normal. Zoé loves her little sister and has popped a bottle in her mouth several times when she was fussing. She also kisses her. But, on the other hand, she bit Adèle's toe the other day.

Speaking of Zoé, we were at Kroger the other day and she saw something she just HAD to have...

Yes, that is a melon. I think she thought it was a ball. We ended up not getting it but she held it all through the store.

Here are some kitten pictures from Father's Day.

And last but not least, my project progress for the week (it's not much, I warn you)

Father's Day

2011-06-19T23:01:00.001-05:00

We had a great Father's Day today. We went over to our in-law's house after church to have a meal. My stepson Steven and his wife Ashley came over as well. My father-in-law smoked a brisket and barbecued some chicken, my mother-in-law made rice dressing and cornbread, my husband made a three bean salad and Ashley made red velvet brownies from scratch. It was all good.

They feed some stray cats and some of the cats had kittens. They were so cute, I wanted to take one home. Unfortunately, the pet deposit is insane in this place. I know my stepdaughter wants one badly, so I'm hoping to buy a house in the next 2 years (hoping that we can move closer to a WELS school for the girls but it will depend on jobs) and then we won't have to worry about silly things like pet deposits.

I've had a bad cold all week. I perpetual nose-blowing kind. Body aches too. Right before the cold hit, I started getting chest pains. I was tested for an ulcer but that apparently was negative so they think it's some kind of reflux (left over from the wonderful heartburn I had during both pregnancies).

Also, let me take this opportunity to not recommend Centurylink. We got them for DSL when we moved here. We don't get the 6 mb that we pay for and to boot, they lost our first payment and cut our service off. And their customer service department did nothing to help us. We had to do the leg work to find our missing payment (I had paid in cash in a store, but I got my receipt). Next week I have to call them back to complain about our service again and to make sure they're not charging us reconnect fees or late fees.

A bit of finishing

2011-06-13T22:39:00.000-05:00

Today, I hung up pictures in the baby room. We finally decided how we were going to arrange the cribs so I was able to figure out the decor. We still don't have a crib for Adèle (she's residing in the pack 'n play) but we used the measurements from Zoé's crib to figure it out. I have a random mess of assorted pictures hung up. Adèle's theme is sheep so I put up the little miniatures of the sheep that my grandmother made and I will hang up Mary's Lamb Sampler once I have it finished (well, stitching is done but it's not been framed or anything). I have found a birth announcement sampler that I like that I am hoping to make for her maybe in the fall

Zoé's theme is Winnie the Pooh. Classic Winnie the Pooh. However, I was unable to find any classic Pooh patterns I liked for birth announcements. Her sheets and stuffies and stuff are a mix of classic Pooh and Disney Pooh. I have a Disney Pooh book and I think I have found a pattern in there that I can modify.

The rest of their stuff is a mix of other things. I did this piece awhile ago. It's called Country Noah. I never finished it and I've decided to basically quilt mount it and hang it in their bedroom as well. Here is a picture of my progress on it.

Just have to attach the backing and the batting and I'm pretty much done! Probably won't do it until next weekend.

Sunday Sunday Sunday

2011-06-12T19:39:00.000-05:00

Today I am blogging with the "help" of my assistant Adèle who was much less cranky when I snapped this picture.

The dog was knitted by my mother who has seemed to be making a lot of stuff for granddaughters lately.

It's been a five day weekend for me...not really by choice. I had some chest pains on Friday as I was dropping Em off at home from summer school before I headed into work. We suspected a gall bladder attack. The doctor thinks it's actually reflux which is really painful from all the heartburn I had when I was pregnant or I have an ulcer. Waiting on some test results.

Today we made homemade pizza ala Alton Brown of Good Eats. But it appears that the dough has somewhat killed my brand new mixer. The pizza was delicious though.

Here is my crafty progress:

I have continued work on the stocking:

I have also started a latch hook kit that I got for $1.99 at a thrift store (all yarn included!)

The finished project is going in to the girls' room.

Wedding Progress

2011-06-09T09:05:00.000-05:00

Here is my progress on the project I've been working on at work (so my DH doesn't see!).

I'm thinking of taking a hiatus from my stocking but not sure what I'm going to work on instead. Haven't had much time at home anyway.

Found a knitting pattern for Little Charley Bear (a BBC children's show that Zoé likes). It's for needles which I'm not good at knitting on but I'll give it a go. It's in metric so I have to find our equivalent and then see if Mom has the right size needles and then I have to track down the yarn but I've already found it on one website so it shouldn't be too hard to find.

Marco!

2011-06-01T08:30:00.000-05:00

Parsley over at Seasons of my Mind has started a game of Marco Polo.

I prefer this game in a swimming pool. We'll see how well it works in cyberspace.

To play, leave a comment with the word "Polo" on my blog. You can go over to her blog and do the same here's the post Then on your blog, start a new post explaining the rules.

Here goes.....Marco!

Mommy's Day Out

2011-05-30T23:52:00.000-05:00

It's been forever since I've been out shopping. Mostly because we couldn't afford new clothes (couldn't afford much of anything at the old house, the new house makes things a little easier). My everyday shoes were falling apart and all I had to wear was sweatpants since I didn't have anything else that fit. I nearly cried at Christmas because some people at church helped us out with presents for the girls at Christmas and they included two sweaters for me. Hadn't had new clothes in so long.

Enough with the depressing stuff. I had $50 in gift cards each to Sears, JC Penny and Kohl's. DH stayed home with the girls and I took the car.

Started out with lunch at Del Taco. Chicken tacos (free with coupon) and cheesecake bites.

Then it was off to Sears. Got some very comfy Dr. Scholls shoes (I had a different style of their shoes, very comfortable but literally falling apart) for $20 (was $80). Some Lee jeans for $20 and the polo tank of $7. Apparently I'm a size 18 now which means only 2 dress sizes to lose.

After that was JCP. Got two pairs of Lee jean shorts ($17.99) and two of their solid color tees.

Last up was Kohl's (it wasn't in the mall). I love the purple shirt (it was $13 on clearance). The brown shirt was a regular solid tee and the other thing was a skort. I couldn't find a skirt that fit well and this has belt loops on it and I figure no one can look up my skirt while I'm chasing Zoé around church.

So, here were my spoils of shopping!

Stamps and stuff

2011-05-30T09:28:00.000-05:00

So, this afternoon I decided to move my stamps out of the closer where it's a wee bit damp because of the bathroom and someplace drier. I figured I'd share some pics.

I love hand painted caches. This came out of my dad's love collection.

This one holds a special place in my heart because it is from the stamp show that I helped my dad with. I helped him haul all the exhibits from the post office and then went around with a screwdriver and screwed and unscrewed all the exhibit cases. I was about 13 or 14 at the time.

One of my Dad's friends who was a cachet maker, made this for me. He did several Star Trek ones for me in the past at my Dad's request.

Another hand painted cache. Isn't it gorgeous?

This is for the Wisconsin sesquicentennial. The envelope is actually a piece of the Wisconsin road map.

Star Trek stamps. Of course.

Some of my Lord of the Rings souvenir sheets from New Zealand. I have all of them from all the movies and from the first two Narnia ones as well.

Rather cool Harry Potter stamps from Taiwan.

And now for something completely different...a Scentsy. Very cool. Was give to us yesterday for Adèle. It's like a flameless candle with a lightbulb inside and you can melt different scented waxes.

Some progress, some setbacks

2011-05-29T13:32:00.000-05:00

Here is my weekly progress on the "To Have and To Hold" piece:

I had a bit of a setback on the carnival afghan again. I thought it was 120 rows but it turns out it's 180 rows and I'd already decreased. [sigh] Putting that piece away for today. Maybe I'll try again in a few weeks.

Progress - slowly but surely

2011-05-25T09:09:00.000-05:00

Here's what the wedding sampler looks like so far. Not much to see yet.

Weekend project

2011-05-23T16:59:00.000-05:00

So, this weekend (my weekend being Sunday and Monday now), I didn't stitch but embarked on another project that I got done this afternoon while the babies were asleep.

Our back door in in our living room. And it has a window. With no blinds or curtains.

Now, the backyard is fenced but it is a little weird to just have this big open window sitting right there. Since we rent the place, we can't do a lot with the place really and it's a wooden door which I really don't want tobe screwing things into. So, I made this:

The fabric is a heavy felt that I got as a remnant at Jo-Ann's for $4. I sewed the top and bottom so that I could stick dowels through it (those would be $1.25 dowels I got at Jo-Ann's). Then I got a set of Command hooks to hang the dowels on. That was the expensive part because it was like $10 for the 4 hooks. However, they come off cleanly with no damage to the surface you stick them to.

Sunday Pictures

2011-05-22T22:23:00.000-05:00

So nice to have Sundays off. I still don't quite fit into most of my dresses :( but I put Zoé in her cute ladybug dress and Adèle into the yellow dress that one of the ladies at my former church made and thought would look cute on Zoé who has since outgrown it of course. They're cute. We won't talk about me...

I've stopped breastfeeding so I can diet now and I'm hoping I can get back close to my regular size. I really really can't afford a new wardrobe and I'm getting tired of sweats. The color seems to have come back to my hair (I noticed before that the color had literally been leached out of my hair and so I had to dye it last year then I let the color fade and it's back to strawberry blonde for the most part).

Zoé would also like to be nominated for the new T-Mobile 4G model according to my husband. As seen here:

Wonder who they'd get to play the iPhone... :)

A suprise

2011-05-21T09:15:00.000-05:00

So, I never made a wedding sampler for my wedding, mostly because I could never find one that I liked. Well, I was at Jo-Ann's yesterday and found this:

So, I got it and I'm going to work on it at work so my husband never sees it and then surprise him with it. What do you think?

Congratulations!

2011-05-19T11:14:00.000-05:00

I have to say congratulations to my dear friend Luke. He finally finished Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary (7 years of college + 1 year as a vicar) and was assigned this morning to a church in Kenosha, WI.

Congrats Luke and good luck with moving all your stuff. and the kids and everything.

He and some friends have a blog about Science Fiction writing which you can find here.

End of the weekend :(

2011-05-16T22:55:00.000-05:00

So, it was my last day of freedom. Didn't get a lot of stitching done but here are some current WIP pics of the stocking.

I intend to finish the carnival afghan once I find the loom and partially finished panel. They are still packed somewhere but I have the partial blanket unpacked. Go figure.

Here's how it started the weekend

This is the picture that I just snapped

Busy Sunday

2011-05-15T23:06:00.000-05:00

Well, my long weekend is nearly over :(

Today, I got to go to church for the first time since November. November was when transportation started getting tight and my schedule changed so I worked 10 hours on Sunday starting at 1 pm. We're switching back to our old church because of the move. There are no WELS churches very close to us and we're equidistant from our current church and our old church, so we picked our old church because we always felt more at home there. Maybe I'll be organist again! The girls were pretty good. Zoé ended up in the nursery halfway through but she's definitely in the throws of the terrible twos. Adèle didn't fuss too much (it was her first service, pastor came to our home to baptize her).

Haven't done a ton of stitching as both babies are demanding attention. And Zoé as always wants to play with Mommy's pretty string. I'll post a picture tomorrow sometime of my stocking progress.

Been putting up my books as we try to clear the garage so we can put our car in there. Going to leave a ton in storage. My DH wants to start up his Bible studies again so we put out his Greek and Hebrew lexicons (he was studying to be a pastor before his wife left him and our pastors are required to learn the original lanugages).

And as for the picture, we went to Don Pablo's to see my DH's cousin who was in town. Didn't expect to stay for lunch but they invited us to sit down. This was Zoé playing with a ball of tortilla dough. She went through two, becoming one with the dough. It's in her hair and up her nose. Bathtime tomorrow morning (we were too tired to do it tonight). Guess I'll be making pie dough for her to play with.

New mixer!

2011-05-14T16:14:00.000-05:00

My swagbucks mixer that I got off Amazon came today! Check out the unboxing. I may put a video of it in action up later

5 day weekend!

2011-05-13T12:08:00.000-05:00

It's shift change weekend which makes it a 5 day weekend!

Hoping to get some stuff done and I've managed to find most of my stash. I'm converting my vanity into a craft desk since the mirror was broken by Mom's cat while it was in storage

I ripped out the Ruana so you'll see that it's been removed from the UFO list. I now have 6 balls of this yarn:

Brenda from Loom Lore suggested an afghan square pattern which I may try out but I'm thinking of converting the pattern for the long loom. Unfortunately, my blue long loom has broken a peg

I'm going to see if using a loom clip can allow me to still use it.

This so would have been posted yesterday if Blogger hadn't crashed. At least it's back up :)

My First Hardanger

2011-05-09T00:46:00.000-05:00

So, the 99 cent kit I got included a "how to" sample kit which I did today because they gave us a 2 hour lunch because we were overstaffed (yeah, I worked on Mother's Day - about 8 1/2 hours instead of 10).

Here's the kit:

Here's how it turned out:

Now, I think I was supposed to go over 2 threads but I got confused because the instructions showed over one so it turned out very very small.

Also, my husband made this for me from the girls :)

Happy Mother's Day

2011-05-08T00:12:00.000-05:00

From one mother to another....Happy Mother's Day.

Gadget's Joyful Page

My daughter's in love with Ducky Momo

Muppet Mania

Dear Mr. Nolan Ryan,

Facebook Parenting

The Results are...

Finished!

Tea Cozy

Contemplating a Tea Cozy

My Weekend

It's Never Too Late

Perry the Platypus Hat and Martha Stewart Loom

Whitework and a Perry Hat

Whitework

Whitework and a trip to Jo-Ann

A trip to Hobby Lobby and progress

Stop SOPA!

Whitework start

Frogs.....interrupted!

Football and frogs

Frog progress

Tree Frogs coming to life

Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir

An Unexpected Trip and a new project

The Year in Review

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

First Sewing Finish!

My Birthday/Christmas Present

An Advent service and a birthday

Happy Thanksgiving

Advent by Candlelight

Dentist Visit and a Finish

Some stitching

Cease and Desist?

Not letting carpal stop me!

Review: The Graveyard Book

Insomnia

Review: How Now Shall We Live

New Project - Sneak Peek

Not much blogging going on here

No Stitching but some cute kids

News

BIZY BACKSON

**Edited**

New Bed

From Now Until the End of the Year

Christmons Explained

Looking Ahead to Christmas

Wedding Sampler Finish

Tartan Teddy Journal

RAK Update

hi

Some backstitching done

And a Finish...

Quick Little Project

Bracing for the backstitching

Quilt

Some more progress

New phone

Completely Finished!

Kinda Lazy Thursday

A Better Pic of the Wedding Sampler

Finally, a UFO finish!

Wedding Sampler Progress

Switching Projects

Review: The Case for Christ

Wedding Progress

Latch Hook finished

The Two Topics You're Never Ever Supposed to Discuss

A long night

A new bed and a almost new computer

Stylish? Me?

Review: A Man Lay Dead

Help on a Quilt

Ah the weekend

An Open Letter to Mr. Alton Brown

Happy Fourth

Wedding Sampler Progress

Cake Walk

I got more done today than I thought I would

Edited