TUSAL and some other progress

Good morning everyone!  I'm overdue for my first ort report of 2013.  I slipped outside early on this foggy morning and took a quick photo of my freshly emptied ort jar.  The threads from this month are all from Coraggio:

If you'd like to learn more about the TUSAL, or maybe even join in yourself, check it out here on Daffycat's blog.

As I mentioned, the only thing I've worked on so far this year has been "Coraggio" by Scarlet Letter.  I've been plugging away at the top band and the over one alphabet... that over one is S L O W.  Still no word on the back ordered threads.  I'll have to put this down soon if I don't get them.  But anyway, here's where I am as of this morning:

When I went out to get the paper this morning, I noticed that the crocuses (crocii?) have started popping up in the front yard:

I love these fresh, pretty little flowers.  And I'm happy to see that the bulbs seem to have divided quite nicely since last spring.  BUT, I know that a nasty freeze will come along before too long and I will probably not see the daffodils or many of the other crocuses this year.  Sigh.  That's the life of a garden, I suppose.

I think that on Monday morning I will set to work on the Christmas ornament I mentioned in my last post.  Turns out there is a little more work to do on it than I realized.  There are supposed to be lots of eyelets in varying threads all over it.  I'm trying to convince myself to add them.  But part of me doesn't really want to.  Who will win?  Lazy robin or perfectionist robin?  Tune it later to find out!

Final Ort Report of 2012 and a quick jaunt to NYC

What happens when you put off going upstairs to get the camera all day long?  You end up taking not-so-great photos of your ort jar long after the sun has set.  Since it was too late to take a photo in my usual spot, I decided to get a little festive and take my last pic under the tree.  Two of the cats supervised the process:

I think I'm going to get one of those clear glass (or plastic) ornaments and fill it with all the orts.  Then I can start all over again next year!

As I mentioned in my last post, my mom, sister, and I took a road trip to New York City over the second half of last week.  Mom hadn't been to NYC since the 60's, and I hadn't been at Christmas time in several years, so just seeing the city all decked out her holiday brightness was a treat.

We caught a matinee showing of the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular.  Words cannot express how thrilled I was to see the Rockettes performing in that famous location.  And the nativity, complete with live animals, was stunningly beautiful.

After the show let out, we hoofed it across town to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  There, we joined several other women who are taking Trish's Cabinet of Curiosity online course.  They had generously allowed Mom and I to join them even though we don't live in the area.  Once inside the Ratti Textile Center (located inside the Met), we saw about 20 exquisite antique needlework and beadwork pieces from the museum's collection laid out before us.  No glass between us and those lovely ladies.  We could photograph to our heart's content.  They would turn things around for us.  In a word, heaven.  There were two caskets available for observation, although we weren't able to see either opened up and pulled apart.  I wish I could show you all the pretty, pretty photos I took.  Sadly, this craptastic photo is all I can share:

Catch me in person in a few weeks and I might have some more interesting photos to share.  ; )

We finished our day with a stroll through Times Square, and dinner at Bubba Gump's.  I know, I know, chain restaurant in NYC.  But we don't have such things here in North Carolina.  And Mom really likes the food there.  We made friends with some funny British guys while waiting for our table, much to the amusement of the restaurant employees.  They kept asking Mom if she had a Dolly Parton cd.  Made me wonder if there is some sort of joke about the lady that we're just not aware of.

The next morning, we visited the 9/11 Memorial.  Beautiful and heartbreaking all at once.  I visited NYC for the first time in 2010, and spent time in one of the towers.  The next time I came, there was nothing but a big hole in the ground, and some damage to surrounding buildings was still visible.  Now, there is still lots of construction going on.  And the memorial:

We wandered around the financial area, saw the Statue of Liberty, shopped at Macy's, and finally, ended the day at Tinsel Trading.  Wow.  What an amazing place to shop.  Here's a few photos to give you the general idea.

Although it isn't exactly the kind of cabinet our course is covering, we still got a laugh out of this window decoration.

I bought some glass glitter and vintage ephemera for scrapbooking, and some gorgeous trims for edging some of my stitched ornaments and pillows.  Mom went nuts over the giant wall of trims.  Can you tell how much fun she's having?

And there you have our whirlwind trip to New York City.  Throw in one night at Foxwoods Casino, followed by an all night drive back to North Carolina, and I've covered it all.  We had a blast, but we were completely worn out.

I hope to post again with my final WIPocalypse update over the weekend.  But just in case that doesn't happen, Merry Christmas to my fellow Christians, and Happy Holidays to everyone else.  May the final days of 2012 find you safe and warm with someone you love.

A winner, TUSAL, and prepping for dinner

Yeah, I made that stupid title just so I could do some rhyming.  Maybe it's the early hour of the morning.  Or I'm just in a silly mood.  Who knows?  Sorry I've been away so long.  It's just been a blah kind of month, and I haven't really felt like blogging very much.  Haven't stitched all that much either (eek!).  I did finish a couple of scrapbooking layouts, so that's something.

The toe, and foot, and tailbone, have all been healing nicely.  I see the doctor tomorrow for a progress review.  Hopefully I'll get a big thumbs up and be out of this stupid boot before too long.

November TUSAL update:

If you want to read about the TUSAL, go here.  Daffycat will be doing this again next year.  I am thinking that I will sign up again.  That jar is almost completely full.  I think I will look for a clear ornament to stuff with orts during my post-Thanksgiving shopping.

While I was trying to photograph my ort jar, I let Princess enjoy a little outdoors time.  After I was done with the jar, I took a few photos of my sweet girl.  Some of my cats could care less about going outside.  Some don't go outside because they won't let me catch them when I am ready to go back in.  But Princess not only loves the outdoors, she doesn't run away from me.  Some might blame this on her large, fluffy size.

 Most of the time, this was the view I got when I tried to photograph her.  Not her best side, I'm thinking:

Okay, enough delaying.  An announcement of my 100 followers giveaway is looong overdue.  I used the random number generator, but I'm not tech savvy enough to figure out how to share a webshot on this blog.  Without further ado, the winner is...

Miss Pants!!!

Heather, I don't think I have your email address, so please shoot me a line with your snail mail... and be patient with me.  I will start stitching on your prize ASAP, but I doubt I'll get much done over this next week as I will be very busy with Thanksgiving prep.

Yup, that's right.  My man and I are hosting both our immediate families for Thanksgiving dinner.  And I'm cooking a turkey for the very first time.  I have to admit, I'm a bit scared of the whole idea.  Turkey totally intimidates me.  I'll let you know how it goes.

That's all for today folks!  Stay safe and stay crafty.

I'm ready for my closeup now.

October WIPocalypse update, and a little BAP too

Good morning!  I hope everyone is staying safe and dry on this blustery morning.  I'm certainly thinking about those of you living to the north of me here on the east coast.  Sandy has brought us some high winds, and the rain started overnight, but nothing like what seems to be in store for others.

It's time once again for a WIPocalypse update.  If you want to learn more about the WIPocalypse fun, check out Measi's blog.  I certainly got some stitching done since the last update, but not a lot of it was truly WIPocalypse related.  However, I'm going to share everything that I have been stitching on recently.  First up is my Girafa sampler, which has been slowly coming along.  I have my doubts about whether I'll finish it this year or not... I think the siren call of Christmas themed stitching my pull me away from this one.  Here's where I was last update:

 And here we are today:

Lots of progress, but a lot left to go as well!

I took some simple stitching with me on our trip to D.C. earlier in the month.  This piece is from this year's JCS Christmas ornament issue, and I used the called for threads.  I can't remember who this is by off the top of my head, but I'll be sure to include that info whenever I 'finish' the ornament.

Wow, that's a really crooked looking photo!

I've been stitching like a madwoman on the newest Blackbird Designs pattern.  But I'll be taking a break for the rest of this week because I need to acquire the rest of the threads I need to stitch it.  But I got pretty far with what was already in my stash:

And finally, the only real WIPocalypse piece.  I started stitching With Thy Needle and Thread's "Boughs of Holly" last holiday season.  Since I didn't finish it before Christmas, I put it aside.  I really didn't have that much left to go.  Here's where I was when I set it aside:

 And with just one day's worth of stitching, I am done!!!

I have already picked out the fabric I want to back the pillow with, so as soon as I'm in a finishing kind of mood, I'll whip this baby right out... well, unless I decide to finish one of the half dozen or so ornaments that need finishing first!

Ugh, I had thought that I might hobble out today for a much needed shopping trip.  I completely failed to consider Sandy and her rain.  Hmmm, not sure whether this will deter me or not.  For the rest of you, stay safe, stay dry, and maybe work in some nice crafty time while you are stuck indoors!

PS.  Don't forget about my giveaway from two posts ago.  The chance to enter ends on Halloween!

TUSAL, the October version

Whew!  Things have been really busy here for the past week or so.  I have a lot of things to share.  So much, in fact, that I think I'm going to have split everything into 3 (or more) posts.  So for now, I'm just going to do a quickie, overdue post of my TUSAL jar.

I will try to post again later this afternoon, and then again in the morning.  But don't hold your breath, lol.  I see that I now have 99 followers.  One more and I will have a giveaway of some sort to celebrate!

And if you'd like to see what the TUSAL is all about, go here.

See ya soon!

September TUSAL and a trip to Atlanta

Good evening!  This month's TUSAL update had to be relocated due to inclement weather.  Here it is:

If you want to read more about the TUSAL (or maybe even join in), check out Daffycat's blog here .

I did not get much stitching or scrapping done since my last posting.  On Wednesday, I joined my husband in Atlanta, where he had been all week for a business trip.  He spent some time in this beautiful city while he was in school, so we ended up meeting with several of his former classmates, churchmates, and professors while we were in town.  We also go the chance to explore the Georgia Aquarium.  What a wonderful place! Both of us really enjoyed our time there.  Some of the tanks were just huge, and full of so many beautiful fish.  It was hard to get many great pictures, but I did get a few decent ones, including this one of a cool little starfish:

 Some of these tanks were HUGE!  I think you can get some sense of the scale by noting the full grown man in the bottom corner:

 We got to watch them feeding the sea otters, who were very cute:

 And the South African penguins were lovely as well:

Although I don't have a picture of it, one of the funniest things we saw involved an employee in scuba gear working in one of the tanks.  He kicked a small shark lurking at the bottom of the tank (not on purpose) and suddenly, the little guy was biting him on the knee.  It must not have hurt much, because he just looked at us and pointed down at his knee to make sure we were watching what was happening.  Funny (since neither seemed to be the worse for the wear).

I also visited the Atlanta History Center, where I toured this gorgeous early 20th century home called Swan House:

Is it just me, or does this front door make anyone else think of the TARDIS?

I know.  It's mostly because it's such a pretty shade of blue.

Even after we got back home, I didn't get much stitching done.  The weekend just seemed to stay busy.  Later this week, I'm planning a visit to Mom and Dad's where I hope to deliver some pinned pieces for framing, pick up a copy of the JCS Christmas issue, and work with Mom on our Cabinet of Curiosities course projects.  So I hope to have another update later in the week.  Til then, I hope everyone has a wonderful, creative week.

Ort Report for August and an annoying accident

Hello, everyone!  Hope you're having a wonderful, relaxing weekend.  There have been happenings since last I posted, and I have been far too grumpy and listless to post an update until today.  Two days after my last blog post, I fell down the stairs while carrying a load of laundry.  I could not bear to put any weight on my left foot, and the pain was quite unbearable, so I drug my husband home from work and had him take me to urgent care.  I have what appears to be a fractured toe and a sprained/strained foot.  For two or three days, I could do nothing but sit on the couch and sulk (well, I only sulked a little bit, but I just didn't feel energetic enough to even stitch.  Pathetic, I know).  Fortunately, my foot seems to be slowly mending and I can move around in my little boot, as long as I don't do too much at one time.

On Monday after I fell, I was thrilled to get my receive my kit of threads and goodies for the Cabinet of Curiosities course that I've signed up for.  I won't share any photos, in case anyone reading this is also taking the course and doesn't have their package yet.  Let me just say that it was a wonderful treat to brighten up a rather gloomy day!

Once I got back to stitching, I mostly worked on models for Mom.  I can't show any of  them yet, but hopefully I'll be able to share by the end of the month.  If you look at the state of my ort jar this month, you may notice that the top is full of lots and lots of black threads (think Halloween, hint, hint):

See the birdfeeder in the background?  It provides hours of entertainment to myself and the cats.  Earlier this week, I went out to refill it, and as I hobbled back into the house, I realized that the impatient birds weren't even waiting for me to retreat before swooping in for a snack.  Usually, they are too shy to tolerate my presence on the deck.  Remember how punky I told you the juvie cardinals look?  See for yourself:

I just love his little ragged crest on the top of his head!  And the hummingbirds were not to be outdone in bravery.  I heard the whirring of rapidly beating wings just before I spied this fellow at his feeder:

 It's mating season, so the hummingbirds are going a little nuts, whizzing around the yard as they chase one another away from the feeder.  It is amazing to watch.

I have been doing a little scrapbooking as well as stitching, I even made it to the scrapbooking convention in Charlotte last weekend (it was exhausting on this stupid foot, but I still managed to enjoy myself).  I think I'll save those photos for my next post, though.

The cats have been enjoying my disability.  I suspect that they are happiest when I lie still and allow myself to be used as a pillow.  Of course, when I'm not in the mood for cuddling, Scout might snuggle up with a good read:

At least he has good taste.  I have started rereading The Stand by Stephen King while I'm mostly couchbound.  Good stuff!

That's it for today.  Til next time, have a wonderfully creative day (and be careful on the stairs!).

TUSAL and BAP, how about that?

Yup, it's time for my monthly TUSAL update:

That Prima jar is filling up nicely!  If you want to learn more about the TUSAL, follow this link to Daffycat's blog.  I've started thinking about what I'll do with all these orts at the end of the year.  I believe I've seen a couple of fellow TUSALers stuff theirs into clear glass Christmas ornaments.  Given my adoration of Christmas ornaments of all kinds, I'm thinking that might be the way for me to go too.

I've spent most of last week and all of this week working on my Giraffa sampler for BeckySC's BAP challenge, which you can read about here.  I'm quite pleased with my progress.  However, I'm about 4 lengths of thread shy of being completely out of the pale yellow thread, and I've got yellow all the way around the border.  Guess I'll be making an emergency stash run of some sort here in the near future!  Which is bad because emergency stash runs often involve the purchasing of non-emergency patterns.  Anyway, here's where I am on Giraffa as of this morning:

Look, there's a man leading a giraffe in this sampler!  And even though it's kind of hard to tell from this photo, there's another robe floating behind the giraffe, waiting to be filled in with a head and body.  Then it's palm trees and the borders.  Lots of palm trees and lots of border.  I will probably set this sampler aside at some point over the weekend and pick up Soleil again for at least another week.  

Lest you think that the scrapping bug has left me, let me share the two layouts I punched out yesterday afternoon and early this morning.  This first one is a layout about my many trips to Biltmore Estates for their Christmas candlelight tours.  That house is gorgeous on an average day, but in the evenings at Christmas, there's something magical about it.  I caught this picture of the guardhouse at dusk, and it's one of my favorites of the estates.

And finally, I made a multi-photo layout inspired by Lisa Andrew's layout.  Among the many CHA-related scrapbooking challenges going on at Two Peas in a Bucket, was a challenge to create a layout based on her lovely work.  And here's what I made:

Look at all the pretty little fishies!  Of course, I realized this morning that the song I'd been humming while I made this layout (and slapped that lovely little title on the page) was actually "Under the Sea" instead of DOWN by the sea.  Which makes a lot more sense given the subject of both the songs and these photos.  Sigh.  I can be such a dingdong sometimes.  Regardless, I'm excited to have made the first of many layouts documenting our honeymoon in Hawaii.

I guess that's it for today.  I'm off to put some more stitches in Giraffa.  Til next time, I hope everyone has a happy, crafty day!

June Ort Report (and some other stitching stuff)

Here's my June TUSAL update:

I think the jar is a bit out of focus, but it's hot outside today, I'm late with this update, and I just didn't feel like taking the time to get it better.  The jar is filling up and I'm having to shake/tamp down the threads so that's there is room to add more.  I may have to empty this jar before the end of the year.  Maybe.  If you want to learn what the TUSAL is all about, click on the link up above.

The reason that my update is late this month is that Mom and I took off for Cherokee earlier this week.  We had a great time.  We each had a bit of free play at the casino, and I had a good time with the Blackjack video machines that I discovered on this trip.  Wish I had found them before this, because Cherokee's tables are too expensive for me, and I ALWAYS have lousy luck at them.  Disproportionately lousy luck.  Maybe that will change when they switch to a live card system, but I may never find out.  In addition to playing at the casino, we visited the Museum of the Cherokee Indian.  It was a really good museum, with a well laid out telling of the story of the Cherokee.  I would strongly encourage anyone heading to that area of NC to take the time to check it out.

On our way home from Cherokee yesterday, we stopped at a really nice quilt store in Maggie Valley.  I got a few pieces of fabric for backing some of my little pin pillows and ornaments.  Guess which one of these is NOT for backing a Halloween piece?

See that little white paw in the upper corner?  Scout was 'helping' me with the fabrics by pointing out a loose bit of thread coming off one of the pieces.  Little rascal.

In other stitchy news, I have another oldie that finally made its way into a frame.  This piece is from a kit by Maureen Appleton.  It's a reproduction of an antique sampler, and it is stitched over one.

I finished Sarah Bateman in 2005.   I like her, but if I were stitching this piece today, I would have substituted a darker, more noticable color for that pale white one that you can barely see (and in which her name is stitched).  In '05, I was not yet ready to think outside the box and use anything other than the called for colors of thread.  These days, I don't hesitate to change things around to suit my tastes.  What a difference a few years can make!

I pinned another sampler in preparation for framing.  I am a bit ashamed to say that I forgot to date this one, so I'm not sure exactly how long ago I finished it.  The piece is a Scottish reproduction sampler from The Essamplaire, and I got it in the very first class that I took at Jeanine's .  I finished it about a year and a half later.  Here's a photo of Elisabeth Ramsay propped in the frame, but she's not quite ready to be locked in place.  It seems that she's sagging a bit in the upper left hand corner, so I shall have to pull some of the pins free and re-stretch her.  Sigh.

I will leave you with two more photos.  The first is a snap of the three patriotic pieces I've been working on this past week.  I'll share more details about them as I finish them off.

The second photo is of another patriotic piece.  I don't know who the designer is, or what the name of the pattern was.  This is a piece that I sought out and stitched in the aftermath of 9/11.  Although I certainly did not finish it on that day, it was the only date that I cared to put on the piece, because, for me, the emotions and anguish of that day were what this piece was all about.  The text is the pledge of allegiance, and there are flags from different eras of the American government marching down the banner.  I love the fabric on this piece.

Until next time, I hope everyone stays safe and enjoys some creative time on these long, hot summer days!

May Ort Report, BAP Challenge update, and other stitching thoughts

It's time for my monthly TUSAL update.  If you want to learn more about the TUSAL, check out Daffycat's blog here .  As I have moved since my last TUSAL update, I have to find a new location for my ort jar photos.  So I decided to give the birds a chance to admire all my lovely orts:

In retrospect, this may not have been the wisest decision.  Don't some birds find that bits of thread make excellent additions to their nests?  Stay away from my orts little chickadee!  Seriously, I am having such a great time watching the birds that gather around our little bird feeder.  It's right outside the kitchen window, along with a humming bird feeder, so I can watch them any time that I'm doing something in the kitchen.

I spent a week working on my BAP challenge sampler.  It's not an impressive amount of progress.  I went from here:

to here:

I've only been devoting about a week a month to this piece.  I may have to bump the stitching time up later in the year, but for now, I think I'll stick to that schedule.

On Wednesday, I drove over to Mom's house for an intense 'framing' session.  For many years, I have not had the majority of my finished pieces framed.  This happened for several reasons: I didn't have space to hang the pieces, I didn't have the money for framing, and my mom doesn't really love the whole framing process all that much (I mentioned in my last post that my parents are photographers, which also means that they are able to provide me with a large selection of framing options for a far cheaper price than your average consumer can find).  But now that I've got this nice big house to fill up with stitching, I feel like it's time to put some of these beauties on the walls.  We started by dragging out every single stitched piece of mine that we could find.  This in and of itself was a bit overwhelming as Mom had finished pieces, both mine and hers, stashed in several places in the upstairs of her house.  Much of our work is hidden under piles of class kits and stitching models, etc, etc.  It took a while to find everything.

Once we had a nice big stack of needlework, we carefully measured the size of each piece and wrote it down on a master list.  I forgot to bring my camera with me, which is a shame, because you might have gotten a kick out of seeing that big pile of stitchery, just waiting to be framed.  We also found two Christmas ornaments, one large pillow, and a needleroll, all waiting to put into their finished form.  The ornaments and needleroll have come home with me, to be worked on here at my house.  After we finished with the measurements, I selected a half dozen or so pieces to be the first to receive their frames.  We spent another hour or two picking out the frames for them.  Dad has ordered one of the frames, and will hopefully order the rest when they return from Connecticut later this week.  Next week, I will return to Mom's house for a training session in pinning.  No, not Pinterest, pinning the linen to mounting boards so that each piece will be smoothly stretched across it before going into the frames.  Sigh.  I'm not really excited about learning how to pin.  But I will learn, and I will do it, because the end result will be worth it.  Sigh.  So hopefully I will have photos of one or two beautifully framed pieces sometime next week, followed by many more in the weeks to come.

Having been inspired by this week's trip down memory lane, I've pulled out some of my patriotic finishes and put them up around the house.  I figure they can stay out from now through September 11th and be perfectly appropriate, right?  Anyway, I only took a photo of one of the pieces before I sat down to blog, so that's the last photo that I'll share with you today.  I have a fondness for stitching sheep.  Don't know why.  I just do.  So here's an oldie but a goodie:

I spent my stitching time this past week working on Sous le Soleil.  But I don't feel like I stitched very much. There were just so many other things going on.  So I'm going to keep working on Soleil this week.  Til next time, I hope everyone has a beautiful, crafty day!

TUSAL

Good grief, are things getting busy around here! I had a wonderful shower last weekend, and we're heading out for another round of celebration this afternoon. This time, it's a mani/pedi party!

My March TUSAL update is ready, but it looks like I accidentally focused on the bricks instead of the jar. Whoops. I'd redo the photo, but it's raining here. This will be the last update with that brick background. By the time the next update rolls around, I'll be living in my new home with my new name. Actually, I won't even be around for the next update. I may try preloading the update, or I may just have to skip April's update. We'll see. Anyway, here it is:

The newest threads at the top of the jar come from a piece I've been working on this week that arrived in the mail with this lot:

I cracked that BBD Limited Edition box open immediately and set to stitching on it. It suited my springy mood. It's now completely finished except for the button. The holes in the button are so narrow that I need a beading needle to attach it, and I've packed all my beading needles! Fortunately, Mom is supposed to be bringing me a needle so that I can finish the piece later this afternoon. I'll post a photo of my finished stitching with my next post.

I want to thank those of you who shared suggestions for dealing with my worries about running out of thread. I especially loved the idea of blending one length from each skein in order to keep the differences between dye lots from being so noticeable. Unfortunately, I am stitching with one thread. Fortunately, I did have enough to finish the grass. But then I packed the sampler without taking a photo of my progress. Whoops.

I am back to work on my Gyrafa sampler, but I haven't done enough on it to merit a progress photo. Til next time, I hope everyone stays safe from all this crazy weather, and that you have a frog-free week!