Lethargic stitching and more

Hi all!

Yes, the title says it all. It should be my new blog title! I am so ready for temps around the 50's! I promise to not complain about the cold! I had today off so I spent it on the couch stitching on this

It's too hot to do much of anything else around here. I've added more to it since the pic was taken and I also apologize for that flash reflection. It's on 14ct Fiddlers lite aida, a nice break from the linen I've been working on lately. I like the cartoony look of the house. I was also thinking of stitching the insides of the tombstones gray but decided to leave it as it is. I will probably finish it as a flat ornament. I finished the PSS design 'My Pretties'. This particular one is Quothe the Raven Nevermore!

Stitched on 36ct V Basketweave from Lakeside. I will stitch the other designs as soon as I can order some more NPI silks. At the rate that I'm stitching, I may be done with all my Halloween stitching way before October. I would normally sell all of this but it's nice to hang onto it. Most of the craft fairs in this area seem to be right after Halloween. Don't know if anyone wants to look at anymore Halloween! That'll give me an early start on Christmas projects. I'm already going through all my Christmasy things, the JCS ornament mags, making lists of needed supplies, and putting in a conservative order at J.J.'s Collectibles. And I DID NOT order any new Baltimore releases, although I could have really done some damage there! Having water, electricity, and internet/phone (gotta check out everyone's blogs, of course) is a little more important!

I also went on a crazy magazine shopping spree!

I do this every year when everyone puts out their Fall/Halloween issues! I'm sure I'll be picking up at least a couple more. The JCS issue I bought from eBay. I haven't seen it on store shelves yet but the middle one is-from Joanne's. There are some great designs in there to stitch for the Fall/Halloween season, which is my favorite!

In my previous post I mentioned I was going to take a class. Well, I decided not to. I couldn't really come up with the money (I can sure buy magazines, can't I?!). I will take the rest of this year and save money to take a few classes in January.

In homefront news, my newly licensed daughter was driving home from school and drove through the red light at an intersection where they have a red light camera set up. She says she saw the flash as she got through the intersection. AArrrgghh!! It's a $180.00 ticket. Hopefully, there were other cars going through at the same time. Wishful thinking! We'll find out in a couple weeks though. I got caught going 1 mile over at a different speed camera last year and had to take a $175.00 defensive driving course just to keep it from my driving record. I hate these cameras but they make everyone pay attention.

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it! The skies look like they want to dump on us but it'll probably do nothing. So I'll just sit and sweat! Take care my 17 followers and anyone else who just happens to drop in!!

Holding my Breath and some finishing

You're probably wondering what the title of this post means, right? Two weeks ago my 16 yr. old daughter got her drivers license and I feel like I hold my breath everytime she takes the car somewhere. I listen for sirens, and generally feel fidgety until she pulls into the driveway. Not to mention the hike in my car insurance rate-Wow!

How're you all doing?

Sunday, as stated before, was the last day to stitch on WaBH. I stitched religiously on this thing for the past 5 days. I still have the 1 over birds to do down by the trees, and have smyrnas to do in the air near the left side of the house and around the birdhouse. I like the whimsical alphabet going on. The sand and snow are a little tedious!

I apologize for the fuzziness of the pic (for some reason I just can't take a decent picture of this project!!). There's also another smaller house next to the bigger one and another 1 over bird on the birdhouse. I can't wait to get back to this after I've stitched all the Halloween and Christmas designs I have planned.

Months ago, I was working on a Fall table runner with leaves on it. Well, in a fit of finishing this past Sunday, I finally finished it!

All it needed was for the ribbon to be sewed on at the ends and the blanketstitching. I also finished a few stitched items:

The little framed stitching is Faith by Shakespeares' Peddler. It fit perfectly in this little frame from my stash. There is no glass on it. On the left is Letters and Leaves (or vice versa) from La D Da, a freebie. (I wish my stuffing skills were better!). The bottom and back fabric is a homespun cotton, and I used the white ruffley ribbon, a skinny burgundy ribbon, and the faux mother-of-pearl button to finish it off.

I've begun stitching on my Halloweeny things. Here's my start from 'My Pretties' by PSS:

Nothing much here! The rest of the raven and lettering need to be stitched and then I'll be on to the next thing. I believe I have the necessary silks for one of the other designs from that chart. The model of this was made into (from what I can make out on the picture) a flat-fold or a flat ornament. I have a simple stitching of a Mission on 14ct Aida and I'm going to use that to attempt my first flat-fold as soon as I find a perfect fabric for it. I've been studying some tutorials on different blogs so wish me luck!

I'm jumping the gun with my latest woolfelt creation, this Christmas tree skirt

I need to cut out a hole in the middle and a cut thru to the edge. Cream-colored stars with large red beads and perle cotton will be glued onto the red portion and then blanketstitched with cream perle cotton. Then both red and cream edges will be blanketstitched. Now, I followed the directions for the large skirt but this will not fit a large tree! It will for a mini tree. Which is ok because last Christmas we put up a mini tree instead of a big one. Stay tuned because I've been going thru all my prim craft magazines for projects that I have woolfelt for. Can you tell I have a hankering for Fall?!

All these projects I want to do will hinge on whether I take the 3 credit online class I'm interested in. It's Microsoft Office 2010 and like other online classes I've taken, I may have a lot of work to do. I have 3 weeks to register. We'll see.

Take care, thanks for the comments and to my 16 followers, thanks for following! I'll leave you with a pic of our 4 cats enjoying the shade before the sun moves and comes to the front!

A Casey Anthony sighting and more

Long time no blog! But being MIA means I have lots of show and tell!

Yes, according to local info (or gossip!!:)), Casey Anthony was said to have landed at our small airport overnight Monday. The husband of a co-worker works at the airport and said he re-fueled the small airplane she was on. He SAYS it was an F.B.I. plane. How he knew this the co-worker didn't say. The newest stuff being said is that she is looking to buy a place in Prescott, which is 9 miles west of where I live. Latest news reports has her broke. She may have to move to Borneo if she wants an anonymous life! Instead of Where's Waldo, it'll be Where's Casey!

Okay, onto stitchy stuff. I've been stitching on WaBH and here's what I've got:

I'm loving the big red house. I've since added more onto it. I had finally received the thread needed for the house, birdhouse, and the alphabet. It was a lot brighter than the skeins I already had. It's a good thing I separated the older stuff for the border. I'm going to stop stitching on WaBH the end of this month because I want to start some Halloween designs. The designs are 'My Pretties' by PSS, some Halloween freebies, and designs from The Stitcherhood:

I just love Halloween!

I also bought some stash:

That's the JCS Jul/Aug Ornament Preview, CC fibers for another project, and those silly, cute Pirate frogs from Stitchy Kitty called Toadally Arrrgh! After I've stitched all that, I'm starting Christmas! I'll tell ya, Halloween and Christmas has already arrived at the Hobby Lobby! It's crazy! Can we please get through the hot summer first?! Speaking of hot, I sure feel for everyone living back East who are dealing with those high temps and outrageous humidity. One word: water.

Right at the 4th of July our Monsoon season finally arrived with lots of thunder and lightning, and rain. This is what our skies looked like for a week or two:

See that rainbow in the top photo? These storms arrive fast and dump a lot of rain or not, and then leave as quick. We're not used to the humidity and it's been humid for sure.

Back in April, I had a package of wildflower seeds and planted them in an area under our living room window. I had no idea what kinds they were. Lo and behold, we now know!

Wild sunflowers! They stand about 6 ft. high. They're very pretty and growing like gangbusters since all the rain arrived! At the end of this weekend, we're due for more rain because of a storm off the coast of Western Mexico. It's movement will send moisture up through Baja California and into Southern Cal. and Arizona.

Bring it on!! Arrrggh!!

Giveaway!!

Check out Valerie's Birthday Giveaway here at A Shenandoah Sampler . Happy Birthday Valerie!

Ode to the Mechanically Inclined!

Woo Hoo! My wheels are running again, thanks to my bro who has a thing for mechanics. Thanks Joe!! Right now, it moves and doesn't screech. That screech was the serpentine belt (attached to the alternator, I think) being stretched out and last week, it finally broke. When the alternator went down, the engine continued to draw power from the battery, which took a hit. My brother said the battery was too small for the engine/car and had to buy a bigger battery. So the total price tag for all: two belts (while he replaced the bad belt, he replaced another just because), and the battery--$140.00! The battery alone was $100. I was told taking the car to a shop would've set me back $400-500. So I'm so grateful to have a brother who knows cars. My car needs a few more things, like a new gasket, and CV shafts. Those are things that he can put on himself. But for now, it runs and runs good!

While the car sat outside dead and I missed two days of work, I stitched on my new start. Yes, it isn't the ones I talked about on the last post, but it's a new start nonetheless:

Witchy Brew
Witchy Stitches
Mystery count and fabric
GAST

I'm half-way done with this one. I've been neglecting stitching for the Spooky Stitcher's SAL. So Witchy Brew satisfies that. I've ordered GAST Cherry Wine from one of my favorite ONS's-J.J.'s Collectibles and should be getting that sometime next week. I'm needing Cherry Wine for WaBH. I'm taking a break from the witch on her broom right now. I'm just so giddy I have wheels again!

This morning I headed out to a not-for-profit 2nd hand shop to look for stuff to sell on eBay. I found some paperbacks (for me), a Jim Shore cross stitch pattern (this'll go on eBay), and what I consider to be a great find, these plates:

No cracks, no chips, nothing! Wonderful folk-artsy plates by Jim Shore, all for .49 cents each. I walked out of there with $4.00 less and smiling. I'll be putting these on eBay also.

Man oh man, has summer hit! Last week the temp's been around 94, 95. It seems we went from winter to summer in two weeks. First part of June, I was still pulling on a blanket in the morning! The dew point has been hovering around 10%, humidity at 20%. I get zapped from everything I touch. As that famous saying here in Arizona goes: Yes, it's hot but it's a dry heat. Go outside and it feels like a blowdryer on medium heat.

Well, that's it. I just wanted to yell to the heavens that my car is good to go. Hope you all have a super weekend with no car problems!!

When It Rains, It Pours

Today my car chose to break down on my way to work, which is 9 miles up the highway. Fortunately, I got about 1 mile away and limped half-way back when it went completely dead. Called my roadside service, and towed the darn car home. The mechanic in the house is 100 miles away at work (my brother). I washed dishes and vacuumed, and now here I sit. I'm in the middle of a huge pity-party and decided that just for that, I'm going to start a new stitching project! Because I can! Take that, car and the other problems! I do my best thinking when I'm stitching, and its calming.

Before discovering blogs, I primarily stitched to sell on eBay. To this day I'm still in the seasons cycle, i.e. Halloween stitching now and then Christmas. For the first 6 months I stitched Halloween and Christmas so by those times I had quite a bit of things to sell and I'd make extra money for Christmas. I've been itching to start a new project and now with the car, I've found some seasonal designs to start. When you have a huge stash pile like me, sometimes looking at it all is overwhelming! But with these designs, I have all the threads and fabric needed:

The Pirate design I chose because it'll be quick and is frameable. I have 3 things that I'll frame myself but with the car problem, I'll have to wait for the non-glare glass that I was hoping to buy next week. I will make the 'My Pretties' designs just as they are. Luckily, last year I bought the fabric for it and with my tax return this year, the Belle Soie called for. The Leisure Arts book has a cute Christmas design in it and should go quick too.

For the last 2 weeks I've been stitching the Witch on the Broom, one of my WIP's from years back. I realized we're at the halfway point of the year and that I'd better start finishing up the last 3 or 4 WIP's that I have. I've taken creative license and stitched the border differently than what's on the chart. As you can see I don't have much more to go BUT I have backstitching to do on the witch, broom and cat (just love backstitching, NOT!). I'll be turning this into a pillow.

Funny how 2 weeks ago I was frustrated about Blogger problems. They have smoothed out and I'm able to leave comments. Now I have a new frustration that will take a large chunk of change to fix. We will be on foot for a couple more days until the brother and his pickup come back. For the rest of this week I'll be able to hitch a ride with co-workers who live out here. Then next week I'll be able to use bro's pickup to go to work. I hate car problems!!

That's all for now! It helps to unload sometimes and I'm glad I have a blog to do it with:) Have a great rest-of-the-week and thanks for dropping in!

New stash, WaBH update, and frustrations

Yes, I know the new stash should've done away with the frustrations. Blogger frustrations, that is. I haven't been able to comment on anyone's blogs for a whole week. And I'm not even sure I can get my pics onto my blog. So here goes:

I received my thread that I needed and I bought an extra chart because I've been such a good girl. Have a look:

Yay, it worked! Anyway, I'm finishing the one WIP I have that needed one of the new threads. Stay tuned for pics! As for the PSS design, I had to have it! I bought it at Stitching Bits and Bobs Friday morn, shipped Friday afternoon, received Monday morn! I love them! I get so giddy when I'm able to buy stash:))

I finished my Antique Locks and Keys design from Shakespeare's Peddler. I had a lot of fun with this. Since I got through stitching each key and lock with no problems (although Frog came a-calling for 5 or 6 stitches), I feel I can stitch Rosewood Manor's newest 'Keys to the Kingdom'. It has dozens more keys than this one I just finished.

After finishing 'Keys' above, I went back to WaBH and stitched quite a bit:

Sorry for the blurryness. My recent purchase of GAST thread should've included Cherry Wine. I totally forgot! I could have stitched up the building, the alphabet at the bottom, and the bird house at the fence. Ah well, just gives me the excuse to buy more stash!!

It has finally warmed up around here but it's still below what it's supposed to be. I still find myself pulling a blanket over me in the early hours. Usually the second week of June is hot, in the high 80's. I see areas of the South are hotter than Phoenix! Crazy! Take a look at my cactus flowers. There are more that are ready to bloom:

This Fall, for sure, I'm making Prickly Pear jelly. It's good stuff!

That's it for now. I'm hoping the Blogger problems will be fixed so I can comment on blogs. Obviously, I was able to post pics. Hope the weather is fine where you're at. We have a couple of raging wildfires burning east and southeast of here. Sunday we could smell and see smoke, and see the slurry bombers passing over us. But it's been quiet lately, firefighters must be getting the upperhand. Hope so! Take Care!