Beacon House Update!

Into the home stretch:

Still lots of snow to do, but at the moment, I’m tired of snow. We got about 16” yesterday. Today it’s close to 50 degrees, so it’s melting.

I also found my cribbage board from the old days, before Blogger:

This was handmade by an old friend almost 20 years ago who has since moved to Maine.

I.O.U….

A progress picture of Beacon House:

Almost to the right side. But there’s still a ton of snow and water to infill, the numbers, 4 more pine trees, another dog and a person or two.

I also owe you a Christmas update: I’ve been reading a lot- Emily gave me a Kindle for Christmas:

(that’s the screen saver)

I bought a pretty pink cover for it:

She also gave me these 2 cross stitch books:

which contain some very cute projects. Dirty words, but cute!

She also gave me 2 pretty cardigans, plus some new horse ornaments for the tree, and LOTS of chocolate!

Presents!

We had our yearly stitching group Christmas party last week. We went to Longhorn Steakhouse first, then back to Jeanne’s house for dessert. I forgot my camera – for shame!- but dinner was excellent (steak tips & mashed potatoes for me- YUM!) and Jeanne really outdid herself- gingerbread cake,  and 4 kinds of cookies- a peppermint topped shortbread, nutmeg logs, cranberry orange cookies & these thin crispy lacy sugar cookies, and Joanne brought the most colorful fruit salad I have EVER seen! Everything was delicious- thank you both for such a wonderful evening!

Deborah, from Cranberry Samplings, was my  secret Santa. She gave me a beautiful needle book:

Inside:

Outside:

I love me a pretty paisley and this one is gorgeous!

She also got me a bag of assorted trims from Victoria Motto Sampler:

which is totally sweet because I won one of Nancy’s drawings over the weekend for a chart of Christmas ornaments! I know what I’ll be stitching on next year, and I have all the trims for finish- finishing them!

Thank you Deborah!

I found several photos on my camera- enough for a few more posts so hopefully, I’ll get off my keister and do something about it!

Off to do dishes- it’s late for me!

I forgot...

what songs I had loaded into my Spotify account. It's been months since I've used it. Since before Bob died. And some songs still can't be listened to.
I need to make a play list of just good old '80's hard rock songs.

As Promised…

Here’s the update photo of “Joy Sampler” from Lizzie Kate:

Also for your entertainment- sunset on Friday night:

That is all, folks.

Some Interesting Research….

I get an email once a month or so from The Scarlet Quince, ever since I started buying charts from them several years ago. I usually keep them saved in my in-box because often they have some good stitching tips and/or information that make them worth saving. Today’s post was a review/comparison of four different needles, by manufacturer- it was very thorough and well done. I highly recommend you read!

Towards  the bottom of this page is a link to sign up for the newsletter.

From work today….

On Mon, Nov 12, 2012 at 11:06 AM:

From me to daughter: “I just want to take an aluminum baseball bat to a co-worker’s face. I think I’m PMS-ing, as well trying to fend off said co-worker’s head cold”

From daughter to me: “yikes...what is he doing?”

From me to daughter: On Mon, Nov 12, 2012 at 11:09 :

“Nothing much except EXISTING”

From daughter to me: “lol  is everyone I know on the same cycle? what gives?”

Mind you- my only “co-worker” is my boss, a fact of which my daughter is totally aware. Good thing I’ve been working there for 30 years and could resist the urge to give in to violence.

Epic Fail!

So I did forget to post last night. I worked all day, then I had to go to one of those "buy-something" parties at my barn-friend's house. I got home by 9:15, and refused to turn the computer on- not remembering I hadn't made a post when I had my computer on after work. I believe my thought process then was: "you can write about the buy-something party when you get home". So much for that.
This party was from a company called "Trades of Hope". The products are fair trade craft items- jewelry, home decor, scarves, xmas ornaments, etc., from around the world. The workers are for the most part women in 3rd world countries. The Trades of Hope people set them up with a business creating these items from sustainable, local goods and materials, and work with them to ensure a consistent quality, sell-able product. The women get paid first, then T of H people back in the US. It seems like a nice idea.
Of course, I spent way too much on some items I normally wouldn't buy, but it kicked off my Christmas shopping, so that helps.
Plus I got to hang out with my pooper-scooper barn buddy Michelle for the evening, and met some of her friends that she's told me about as she gabs while we did our chores.
I miss my old barn tons, but Axe is fitting in nicely at Alice's. While I am now thoroughly enjoying being able to sleep in on weekends- it's been over a year since I could-I started doing weekends last end of October 2011 after Jodi got back from Worlds, I do miss barn chores.
Today I put that plastic film on some drafty windows. That stuff is NOT for women of a certain age who need readers and refuse to get them. I was convinced I had a faulty package of film because all the sheets seemed to be cut too short and I couldn't find an edge to peel back. Finally i measured a sheet and sure enough, one dimension was half as long as it should have been- telling me that the film WAS folded in half.
It took a bit of rubbing and crunching the edge to finally see the two plys, and then get my fingernail in between to separate them. So that's done. I am now procrastinating big time at picking up my tree limbs from the Hurricane- and thank you Anna & Krista for the info on "Superstorm Sandy"- it was very interesting. It's a terrible shame that the authorities had so much advance warning to the storm and for what ever reasons, didn't have the necessary follow-up in place.
Well, my computer is pestering me for a re-start to finish an security update, so I should comply.
TTFN

!!!???

GOTV!

It’s taken me an embarrassingly long time to realize this isn’t an acronym for some PhysEd television station. Can I have a TTSBJ* that the election is tonight? And that the airwaves and inboxes of America will no longer be inundated with political ads & spam ad nauseum?

I have to admit, I think most of my Facebook friends have blocked my status updates, which are usually political in nature. To that end, I created a Twitter account, and I fulfill most of my political junkie cravings there. I even tweeted along for all 3 debates, and got some re-tweets and responses for my efforts (now that’s a surprise!) Bob and I used to discuss currents events all the time, and so I’ve kind of gone overboard now that I don’t have that daily debrief to get it out of my system.

Anyway, it’s all over tonight. I have no idea what the TV & radio stations will do with all the free air time they’ll have open. What do you think?

 

* Thank The Sweet Baby Jesus

Does Anyone Else Wonder….

what the heck was Brad Pitt thinking when he made this Chanel commercial?

Every time I see it, I think it’s a Saturday Night Live parody and Will Ferrell will jump up from off-screen shouting “More cowbell!”

Googling…

I googled the word “stitching” and got a lot of interesting results:

“Stitches Though Time” which is about a group of current quilters who have undertaken to duplicate the Jane Stickle Quilt, which was stitched in 1863 and comprised 5,602 pieces.

This story is about a New Hampshire cross stitcher  who spent ten months on a 24” x 18” portrait of a witch. I’m not sure but it sort of looks like a HAE design? The stitcher doesn’t identify the designer. She won numerous fair awards for her work though.

“Craft of the Day”  from the Huffington Post. (Who knew??!!)

From Ireland, a story about the Knitting and Stitching Show, which is one of the largest textile and crafting events in Ireland, which started on November 1st and running for 4 days (this past weekend I guess- too late to get there now).

Two different stories, from Minnesota and from Georgia, about women who’ve displayed their work at their respective town halls. One woman’s stitching “career” started with a birth sampler, the other with a wedding sampler.

This story from the Philadelphia area about a quilter extraordinaire , described as “one of the best thread painters in the business”, and even has some works hanging the Smithsonian. This story has a small photo show attached- make sure to check them out.

There were plenty more stories, but you all know how much I love to type (NOT!), so you’re on your own to find those!

Stitching in the news….

This story was in one of the Boston newspapers a couple of weeks ago. It’s a story about a stitching studio in Newton, MA that has had an influx of youngsters wanting to sew their own Halloween costumes. I kind of have the impression from the article that this craftiness skipped their parents’ generation. Wouldn’t it be nice that the hand-fiber arts tradition is now passing down to a new, younger generation? Who’s the youngest cross stitcher you know? I can think of Becka, at The Stitching Lion blog, who is about 20 years old. One of Paulette Stewart’s (Plum Street Samplers) daughters designs charts, so I think it’s safe to assume she stitches too. I think she’s also about 20.

It's THAT Time of Year Again....

NaBloPoMo-"National Blog Posting Month"

Why this has to be the month of November, I don't know, as it gets pretty painful towards Thanksgiving at the end of the month.
Anyway, I will try to use it as an excuse to actually do some blog posting, instead of reading everyone else's- yes- I've become an Olympic-caliber lurker.

Nancy, at Victorian Motto Samplers, is having a 25-Days of Christmas giveaway
She dyes her own flosses and trims in the most scrumptious colors.

Now, that wasn't so bad, was it??

Lather, Rinse, Repeat…..

Here’s my latest Beacon House update:

I had to unstitch about 3” of the top line of the water, back to where I stopped infilling, because I had mistakenly repeated the previous section of chart. This JCS version of the chart is horrible. The chart runs across 3-4 pages and breaks at very inconvenient places- it’s been difficult trying to keep my place. I finally taped all the sections together into one big chart.

Em got me a new purse for my birthday. It has smaller outside pockets than my previous bag, and a single large inner compartment. So I made some zippered organizers so I can find my all-important lottery cards: 

Here are the lining colors:

And this is for my Mom- the thread catcher:

Then Em got me this- a leftover from the Olympics:

Google “Steven Colbert” and “Dressage”. He’s made several hysterically funny videos in an attempt to skewer the Romneys, but the videos are too funny. Oh- here: From The Colbert Report and this. And dressage queens united to produce this at Gladstone (site of the Olympic Trials) 

And then…

Here’s this week’s progress on Beacon House:

More alphabet and lower border and snow ground cover…

As I was pulling into my driveway, Mommy turkey and her brood of 6-9 chick lets were crossing my street up into my yard. I ran & got the camera  but while Mommy and half the babies hid in the shrubs, these ones thought if they froze, I wouldn’t see them:

Chickie says: “I’m the ONLY Chicklet round here if you please!”

Shaved Chicken…

Poor puppy is getting up there- I’ve had her for going on 9 years, and she was an adult dog then, so my guess is she’s anywhere from 12-14 years old. She doesn’t tolerate the hot so much anymore and it doesn’t help that her coat is like a collie’s fur. Last fall I had her trimmed to clean clean her up some, and I like the results so much I vowed to have her done for summer. And vee-ola- here she is: (don’t laugh too hard)

Here’s what she used to look like:

I keep doing a double-take and laugh when i look at her- poor baby! She feels like a seal. And her little legs crack me up now that I can actually see them.

I’ve been busy doing stuff I’ve neglected around my house- scraping and re-painting exterior trim on my house, lots of cleaning. I have to mow the lawn at least once a week to keep up with it. I still am having trouble taking out my stitching except for Thursday stitch nights. Can’t figure out what that’s all about because i love Beacon House, even with it’s wall-to-wall stitching, and there’s very little on TV to watch these days.

Off to mow- rain coming tomorrow and Tuesday!

TTFN

Halfway….

Geesh! I’ve been very bad at posting and stitching. Don’t know where my mojo’s gone %^(   but we’re halfway thru June already!

Here’s 2 weeks’ worth of stitching on Beacon House. I yanked up my big girl panties and did the snowflakes on the left side of the chart. I can now scroll over to the right side. I think I’m about halfway done:

You may have seen on the national (and international)  news about  the town next-door to mine that has imposed a $20 fine for swearing? Yeah- except for the people who voted for it at Town meeting, we all think it’s pretty stupid too. It’s not like they don’t have other, more important problems to deal with…

Happy Mother’s Day!

A day late and a dollar short- it’s how I roll.

Here’s what my favorite daughter sent me- I received it at work on last Wednesday morning:

And here’s what was inside:

5 individually wrapped cookies- all different, and 5 individually wrapped brownies- all different. Soooo yummy and decadent. And perfect because I needed something sweet that day! I managed to make everything last until last night. I invited Em over for chicken dinner Sunday night and we had a very nice time.

No stitching pictures this week- I filled in more snow in Beacon House, but it isn’t a huge change from the previous week . I did some quilting this week for a gift for my Mum, and then I mailed it off today but forgot to take a picture. Doh!

Just in case….

the link I posted a while back to the Decorah eagles web cam may have expired. Here’s the new one: Ustream

The first hatch is expected between March 23rd and March 25th!