Ups and Downs

SO the Axester has tossed a shoe again. I was getting on my chaps when Jodi called out that she thought Axe had lost a shoe. I went out to the paddock to check, and my good girl didn't run away, but let me catch her and sure enough, she was missing a back shoe.

So, maybe the gods are telling me she needs a break. Jodi and I figured that she had to have lost it today, because Em had walked her on pavement yesterday and would have noticed "clip-clop, clip-shuffle". She offered to help me look for the shoe in the paddock- it's at least half an acre big, and as luck would have it- I found the sucker! Right near the gate next to the fence. Axe might have kicked at a fly and caught an edge of the shoe in the wire fence and yanked it off. It's a clean pull- not a lot of hoof chunks came off with it. Plus there's not a lot of dry, rocky ground to walk across to the paddock, so Axe can still go out on the grass. At the old farm, she'd be stall-bound so as not to break her hoof apart.

I also actually stitched 3 strands of floss on my purple Quaker ornament:
Yep- that's as far as 3 strands got me. Here's where I was before.

And this following picture is of a little mouse figurine I bought in Ireland last year. I came across a bag of stuff I hadn't put away ( I was looking for a Guinness cake recipe) and found this still wrapped up, and stuck it atop my monitor shelf:

As you can see, he/she is waving goodbye! Time for you to stitch!

Happy Me!

Em came home for a bit yesterday afternoon and rode her horse. She thought at first she was lame, but she continued and she worked out of it, so maybe she IS just really stiff. I'll have to save up some $$ so I can have evaluated again. Jodi uses a different vet than my Irish guy, but I know her vet is also an awesome leg guy, and conservative- not so anxious to go the injection route, but rather tries less invasive (and less expensive) treatments first.
So anyway, she also bought me a gift certificate to Cranberry Cross Stitch - YAY me! AND
a pepperoni pizza from Baldies- Double YAY me!
I didn't expect the gift certificate (I had requested the pizza) so I'll have to ponder just what I want or need or have to spend it on. That will be a pleasant diversion from college tuition fund worries! Good thing the governor would rather give tuition breaks to illegals instead of keeping the Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority in the business of giving loans (oh yes- loans that HAVE to be re-paid!) to students who have been in college for 2 years already.
Don't get me started!

Where has my mojo gone?

Not wanting to blog, not wanting to stitch either. Not even wanting to turn on the computer.

Bob & I went to that chain Italian restaurant of the gardening variety yesterday. My chicken parm was good, although I could have used a bit more pasta. Bob HATED his grilled shrimp TV advertised special of the month. It was supposed to be glazed in a garlic-y sauce over a bed of angel hair pasta in a garlic vegetable sauce. I noticed he ate his amount of pasta in about 3 twirls of his fork, and had stopped eating the shrimp. He said it was the worst thing he's ever eaten: the shrimp had no flavor, they were previously frozen and were rubbery & watery, which is why any sauce just couldn't stick. There was hardly any pasta to speak off, which was surprising since it's the cheapest ingredient in the dish. To top it off, we were eating at the bar itself. There were 3 other couples eating in the bar area at tables(so not very busy) who had waitress service, and the bartender was enthralled in speaking with some restaurant head honcho instead of making sure were didn't need more than 1 breadstick a piece or more drinks. I told Bob to forbid me from ever suggesting we go there again- it seems to get worse & worse each time we go, which is only like once or twice a year. I think we'll switch to Bertucci's- I think they're better priced and more creative.

Axe has been Ok; I'm not sure about her hocks though. She makes these slippy/slidy steps sometimes with her back legs- just a single step and I'm not sure if it's the footing or if she's having trouble. However tonight she did three steps in a row and I just about threw myself off her  back because I though she was going down. She walked alright & I got back on & trotted her for Jodi who thought she just looked a little stiff, like she always does.

*SIGH*

more to worry about. :^(

Ugh!

It's still wicked humid- yesterday we had a tornado warning, so I unplugged every orifice on the computer. It's pouring buckets right now, but no thunder or lightning, which makes lil' Chickie happy. Except for having omitted doing all "her business" when I came home from work when it wasn't raining so hard. I had to take her out at 1:35 this morning for tinkles becuase she was too frightened to go before bed last night. *SIGH*

Here's all I've stitched this week:

That's it- Rites of Spring. Now back to my regularly scheduled stickiness. Can this summer be any more humid??? We've had about 3 days of dry (less than 60% humidity) since mid-June. I'm quite done with el Nino or la Nina, thank you very much.

Sorry to all youse guys in Texas , with Dolly and all. Take care.

Icky Sticky

It's been way too hot to even turn on the computer, never mind sit on the couch and stitch.

Saturday morning I worked in glorious A/C; by the time I left & called Bob to say I was going to pick him up, he said traffic down thru Wareham was so backed , up I'd never get there. So I dissolved into the couch, almost literally for the rest of the day.

I picked him up Sunday morning after my ride, and we went out to lunch at the Stoneforge Tavern. I got steak tips, he got a rib eye. Both were yummy.

A wild thunderstorm blew thru Boston; 10 men on a soccer field got hit by one strike of lightning when they sought shelter under a tree. I believe 5 are still in critical condition. Emily told me she had to ditch a fare to get her horse & carriage into a parking garage to wait out the storm.  She's Ok though.

It finally got cool(er) tonight; I hope to actually pull out Rites of Spring.

TTFN

Lots & Lots of Stuff!

Progress on Rites of Spring:

Progress on next Quaker Xmas Smalls:

Jeanne & Joanne bought birthday cupcakes for Linda & I from a new place called "Cupcake Charlies" in Mashpee.

Here's the (almost) empty box with requests for a refill:

 

My two take-homes:

Chocolate Overload in the rear; I already had 1/2 of one of these- it was SO delicious! And a Toffee Something in the front. I also had an Oreo Delight which had a cream filling that Hostess dreams of being able to create, and 1/2 of a CHocolate Mint Madness. If you go to the website & scroll down, you'll see the menu. I think the Toffee one is a special of the day.

Just fabulous! Thanks Joanne & Jeanne and Samantha!

Presents from Jane's stash:

     Gaelic Blessing Kit 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mary's Pin Pillow

 

 

 

 

 

 

A skein of Thread Gatherer's Silk ' N Colors "Turquoise Fields"  from Linda resting on top of the 40ct. cream linen for my E.Davis Sampler:

And, last but not least:

 

I think I have now reached S.A.B.L.E. I have at least reached the point of having too many designs I want to start all at once.

Thanks ladies for all the fun birthday gifts- I love(d) them all!

Someday....

When I'm rich & famous, or most likely, old and retired, I'm going to design a sampler around my all-time favorite quote. It's from a novel called "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt. I read it about 15 years ago, and it was a so-so book. I remember almost forcing myself to finish it, because I couldn't believe that it could contain this sentence, yet the rest of the book just kind of suck. The quote resonated so much with me, because of my mind-set at the time: being unhappily married to a very difficult-to-please person, working a full time job with a young child in daycare/kindergarten.

I read this sentence to  my boss and to Barbara, my co-worker at the time,  whose likes & dislikes and sense of humor were so  mirrors of mine, I felt like an honorary member of her family. And they loved it too. I photocopied just the one sentence, and enlarged it and posted it on the wall at work and on my refrigerator, but forgot to note the author and the name of the book , which remained unremembered until about 6 years ago when Donna Tartt wrote her next novel and bells went off in my head and I gleefully made the correction to my poster.

And forever since, whenever we felt harried, disorganized, and distracted by the monotony of our lives, we just had to say "The Bunny Quote" to each other, and we knew EXACTLY how the other was feeling. And now, without further ado, is

The Bunny Quote:

"If he had his wits about him Bunny would surely keep his mouth shut; but now, with his subconscious mind knocked loose from its perch and flapping in the hollow corridors of his skull as erratically as a bat, there was no way to be sure of anything he may do."

from "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt

Another One Bites the Dust

Wasn't that a Queen song? ANyway, here it is Sunday night, I've no stitching to show, I still have my colored clothes to launder and I've lost my TV schedule for this week. I had a cup-  single freekin' CUP of instant coffee at about noon and I've been fighting waves of exhaustion all day. Like- "I don't care if the steak is about cooked, I NEED to take a nap-NOW" exhaustion. But I plodded thru the day, with no nap. I gave Ms.Axeu a bath this morning- yikes -she was a dirtball! She also has copious amounts of snot dripping from her nose. She's up-to-date on all her shots and no other horses have it, so I have to call the vet tomorrow. Em needs more contact lenses, so I made an eye doctor appointment for tomorrow. So that just about takes care of the 4-1/2 hours of free-lance work pay I earned yesterday.

I have to sign off now- I'm making way too many typos.

TTFN

Places to Go & Things to Do:

Progress on Rites of Spring:

This is working up very quickly; I'm liking it a lot.

 

 

 

 

 

I started another Milady's Needle Xmas ornament:

It's the little bit of purple below the first one I did. I'm using Thread Gatherers' silk "The Lavenders" which was left over from Creepy Kids.

 

 

I rode tonight- a nice one, after S&B. The Axe was good for me considering she hasn't been ridden in 2 days.

Speaking of  S&B, Jeanne brought a lemon blueberry pound cake which was scrumptious ( I have a piece for tomorrow!) and Nancy brought assorted pastries from Konditer Meister. Yummy!

Tom might have work for me for a few Saturdays; he says all of a sudden things are picking up. This is awesome seeing as I have to buy oil AND firewood this month.

Bob has been feeling crappy the past few days- dizzy, no appetite. I thought maybe dehydration as that has happened before to him. My next fear was precursor to heart attack which I did not want to dwell upon. He went to the doctor today and they found a spider bite behind his ear. They drained it and put him on antibiotics. He's already feeling better. He has SUCH a sensitive body chemistry. It's a relief it wasn't anything serious.

Off to wash dishes and to bed. There's a skunk outside my house making Chickie bark, which in turn is making it lay stink bombs.

Acck!

Oh Sweaty Days...

Here's progress on Rites Of Spring:

So far it's a lot of fun to work on. The double circle motif reminds me of a wedding sampler, though, so I might hold off on the text & turn it into a sampler for my friends D & J.  Mmmaybe not; mmmmaybe so. I actually bought a chart, floss AND fabric well over a year ago at Cranberry Cross stitch- Deb  helped me convert the floss to Crescent Colors (how's that for product placement!) for their wedding sampler - I should take that out to start sometime. I don't even remember the design, just that it had a pair of swans.

I had to stop at Michael's on the way home & get another scroll rod to hold this. I can't find for the life of me find my 18" scroll frame.

And of course, there hasn't been any 40% off coupons for a couple of weeks. I got a 24" set for $14.99 (full price), knowing that eventually I HAVE to start Cirque de Circles, Paradigm Lost, and Quaker Virtues. Plus the E Davis Sampler and WhistleJacket. All these charts are ginormous.  E Davis is going to be at least 20" wide fabric.  oh and "And a Garden Grew" - I have that on order.

Geez Louise- I need to retire.

Yet Another Finish!

Ta-Da!
Milady's Needle
"Quaker Christmas Smalls"
40 ct. Linen "Lentil"
DMC 4210 floss

07-07-08

or The Aftermath:

3 day weekend. Too humid & warm for my tastes, meh. At least it was 3 days out of the office. I got to stitch Sunday afternoon:

I was on a roll stitching, as you can see, & started getting phone calls. First Bob, then a telemarketer asking for my freekin' ex-husband's 2nd ex-wife- like how the f &%^#*k did my phone number get associated with that C-You-Next-Tuesday's name? I had my own phone account at least 2 years before she came along and married the AF. Sorry- whenever I hear that beeyotch's name it it's like a spork being driven into my brain thru my nostril. (Speaking of which: I've had a blog visitor who came here via a search for "restitching nostrils". I wonder if they found what they were looking for? Go figure!)

3rd and final phone call that ended all my misery came from friends Dianne & Jen, who invited me & Bob & Emily to an impromptu cook-out. Since I was the only one available, I said sure. It was very nice: Alice & Dave and Mary & Kevin were there- so we had a lot of horse talk & reminiscing. I was home by 8:15.

Ms.Axeu has been good- doesn't seem to be lame and her cuts are all healing nicely. Some scabs have even dropped off. I, on the other hand, have been tired lately, and feel spent after about 5 laps around the ring. My rides have only been about 45 - 50 minutes including warm-up & cool-down walking so I don't know what's wrong with me. I need to get a physical I think; this ever-present fatigue is a PITA.

Well, if I stop writing, I can wash dishes & stitch some more. How about it?

New Stuff:

Quaker Smalls Xmas ornie:

This is working up fast; I would have shown more completed except I had to undo the inner triangular side section because I repeated a miscount in 2 different rows.

Here's my new start:

Rites of Spring by Blackbird Designs. I'll get the fabric for you later. This is also fun to work on.

I bought a pack of John James 28 needles for the ornaments because the 40ct fabric seems to need them, and a pack of Piecemakers 26's. Boy are those fabulous to work with - like buttah!

Doing the Snoopy Dance!

"Fruit of the Spirit"

by Plum Street Samplers,

altered with my own graphics

on 28 ct. Jobelan "Bone"

w/ various flosses

Chickie says "Yay! Let's have a hamburgler!"