Framing finishes and a little griping

Ok, just need to get something off my chest first.  Bear with me.  A friend of mine had been trying to reach me for a couple of days but didn't leave a message on my phone.  When I did get back to her, she only had a question about a restaurant here in town.  "Do you know if they are open and what their hours are?"  I had no idea since we haven't been there for ages so I suggested she call them or look on the web.  So logically I asked her why she needed to know and she said that she and her "girlfriends" go out to lunch once in awhile and were thinking of trying that place.  ?????  What's that all about?  Plan a lunch with your friends and then ask your other "friend" about the restaurant they want to go to???  Nothing like feeling like THE HELP.  You know, I almost called her back (I was so mad) to express my feelings but I just don't feel like it's worth it.  This is not the first time this has happened and it probably won't be the last.  I don't think she'll get it anyway.  Enough said.  Not that it makes me feel any better...

Here's what is making me feel better these days.

Bitter Flower, Birds of a Feather

Look at this!  Finally had some framing done!  This was the big test, to try out Michael's.  Overall I am happy.  I like the frame and the work seems to be good.  With 60% off, the price on this came to about $72.00.  When I picked up my pieces, I realized they had left out the spacers (due to a miscommunication when I placed the order) but the clerk took them apart and put them in while I did my other errands.

Frame detail

I am not quite as happy with my other piece but I take most of the blame for this.  I really didn't know what kind of frame I wanted and ended up with this.  I don't think it was the best choice.  Maybe someday I will reframe it and use this frame for something else.  I think there needs to be more linen showing around the edges and it's also a little crooked.  This one cost about $67. 

Spring Has Come, Prairie Schooler

Michael's doesn't have a huge selection of frames but I will probably use them again.  I will just take more care next time to choose the right frame and be sure of the size. I still plan on doing some of my own framing soon and I really should check out some of the small framing shops in our town.

I've been stitching away but no photos today.  Got a list a mile long and blogging was not on the list!

a little knitting, a little stitching

I am one sorry excuse for a blogger!  That's why I have the "blogging without obligation" gadget LOL.

I've been knitting!  I'm making an baby sweater for one of my managers at work who is due very soon.  I'm pretty sure she will appreciate something handmade since she majored in fashion design in college.  Everytime I knit a sweater I swear I'll never do it again and then proceed to try just one more time.  At least with a baby sweater fit is not so important.  There will be a lot of sewing to do though, something I am not crazy about.  I still need to finish the left front, the sleeves and the neckband.

I also stitched up this Prairie Schooler santa and I'm not sure how I want to finish it yet.  It's stitched on 18 count Floba, a fabric I really like to use for Prairie Schooler designs.  It's got a simple homespun quality about it. 

We've had our fair share of small triumphs and setbacks here in our little household lately.  DS seems to be buckling down (fingers crossed) and working hard at school.  I'm finding that an art major can spend quite a bit on supplies!  DD was accepted at the 5 colleges she applied too but hasn't figured out which one she wants to attend.  4 of the schools are in Ohio and 1 in Indiana.  We'll wait to see what the numbers add up to and make a few visits before she commits.  I am so excited for her...it's almost as if I'm going off to school, not her!  A severe case of senior-itis has set in though and this last semester will be rough for her.

My MIL is now in hospice care and Mark has been with her in New Hampshire for the past 5 days.  We don't expect her to live through the week...it's just a waiting game now.  I may have to hop on a plane and head out there later this week.  Her birthday is in 12 days, her 91st.  Mark and his brother have been by her side for many many hours lately and did the right thing by moving her from a nursing home to the hospice facility.

Hoping we don't get a lot more snow in the next couple of days!   I have been spoiled by a man who loves snow and always does all the shoveling.  I sure do appreciate it.

Cat in the frying pan

Now that I've captured your attention, let me explain lest you think we are having cat for dinner.  Let me introduce Noodles.  She was Hawaii born and bred and had a need for warmth so she would camp out in this old cast iron pan over the pilot light.  This photo was taken about 25 years ago in the duplex DH and I shared not long after we started dating.  Noodles lived a long life of 20 years.  She was deaf and we actually had to have her ears trimmed away because of ulcers.  Her skin was very sensitive and she loved the sun!

I bought a scanner for the family for Christmas so that we can convert pages and pages of slides that we have and came upon this pic.  We plan to scan lots of old slides from Mark's parents and put them on cd's for everyone.  It make take awhile, but if we scan a little everyday it should be doable. 

I sat down to post last night and ended up spending way too much time fiddling around with the blog.  Tried a 3 column template but some of my gadgets didn't work right so went back to minima.  All that wasted time!  I like my new background though. 

Life in retail is slowing a bit but people are still returning massive amounts of merchandise.  People overbuy, then pick and choose what they want to give as gifts and then return the rest later.  It's always kind of a letdown in a way when we go from crazy busy to the slow times of January and February.  We are all scrambling for hours so that the paychecks aren't too pathetic, though they are even when we have lots of hours LOL.  I finally have weeks with 2 days off in a row and one week with 3 days off!  I have ambitious plans to paint a room and do some other household type stuff.

I was so tired during the holiday madness that I didn't stitch much.  I'm working on Prairie Schooler's 2009 santa now (the one with the skates!).  I'll post pics when it actually looks like something recognizable. But I did manage to finish up an ornie for my wonderful friend Lee.  Here is the pic that I stole from her website since I completely forgot to photograph it before mailing it.  I had a lot of fun stitching this, especially since it was going to Lee.

DH is a nut.  We scrambled to replace our daughter's totaled car so that we wouldn't have car sharing issues and then he decides he will walk the almost 4 miles to work.  Yesterday, in the snow, he rode his bike.  Go figure.  We did find a good little car (a Honda CR-V) for Claire but now she is really timid about driving in all this snow.  There is always a bit of anxiety when choosing a used car.  We came upon this nicely priced CR-V at the Honda place just up the road.  It has many miles on it but they had put lots of money into it to bring it up to snuff and and it is bright and shiny.  Hope that Honda's reputation for long lasting cars proves to be true.

Thank you for visiting!  It really means a lot to me.

An ending and a beginning

Prairie Schooler "Spring Has Come"
32 count Wichelt lambswool
DMC threads

I finally sat down to put the last "few" stitches in Spring Has Come. It seemed everytime I thought I had stitched the last stitch I noticed another one that I had missed. It's those dreaded single stitches that get to me so it takes a little discipline to get them in.

But it's done and now I have to figure out how I want to display it. I have the rest of the season charts, but don't think I'll get to another one anytime soon.

I started BOAF Bitter Flower which I want to give to my mother. I haven't given her any needlework since I did a bargello pillow in the 70's. I hope she still has that pillow up in the attic somewhere. Think I will rescue it on my next visit.

Birds of a Feather "Bitter Flower"
32 count BOAF Barn Owl
WDW threads

Sorry about the yellow cast to my photos. It is bright and sunny outside, but I took these inside on our sun porch, which is not really a sun porch because of all of the trees surrounding our house. DH wants to remove a few trees ($$$) but the tree guy that came over the other day said that would be a mistake. There is one broken sweet gum that really needs to go and a lot of deadwood to be taken out of the elms and maples.

I have gotten back into gardening after neglecting our yard for the past couple of years. I just feel so totally overwhelmed by our yard sometimes and there are so many projects to be done that are costly. I realized yesterday as I pulled weeds that I have probably lost a fair number of perennials because they were crowded out by the asters and black eyed Susan's. I am trying to revive the herb garden as well and when the sweet gum goes, I'll be able to expand it.

We also need to paint and repair trim on this old house, so we are never lacking for things to do! I know I am lucky to live where I live, on such a nice large lot with a lovely brick home, but it really gets to me sometimes that we are always so behind. At least that's how it feels to me. I need a million bucks so someone else can do the work! We tried renovating our kitchen and ran into a number of problems, now it is half finished and I'm ready to call in the troops. Yikes! If it's not one thing, it's another...

DH has a birthday and I make a mistake

Here's my progress on PS Spring Has Come. I had wanted to get this finished by the end of March, but I don't think that is going to happen! Not with my slow stitching it won't!

Don't know if I'll get back to it today. DH IS 57 YEARS OLD TODAY!!! Of course he is in complete denial about his age and and will be skiing and biking until the bitter end, that is, if the new hip holds up! I can hardly believe that we're both so old!

Somedays I don't get to spend too much time stitching. If I set aside time in the evening, I can be just too darned tired to get going. Mornings are my best stitching time for sure and I usually work mornings.

I started a little simple stitch ornament (Bluebird of Christmas Happiness) for my March ornie, but I have had to set it aside before I decide to throw it in the trash. I am using a piece of Silkweaver linen and blue DMC that I chose. I had a bunch of blue flosses in a pile and somehow got mixed up with which one I had started to use. So I picked the likeliest suspect and continued stitching. See how I stitched 1/2 of the bird on the right and then began working the other side? I didn't notice right away that there was a difference in the color. It may not be very noticeable but IRL it is quite easily noticed. I think I started the other side with the wrong color (grrr...).

My stitches seem to be coming out really dense on this fabric. I've never used this before...is there a slight difference in the thread count after dyeing?

Thanks for stopping by!

A little of this and that

Wow...haven't gotten much stitching done this week.

I have to give my husband lots of credit. He really does a lot of stuff around the house and now I am doing most of it! Not that's it so much work, but just a pain in the you know what. Hope he can be doing yard work in a month or so. We still have leaves on the lawn that didn't get raked up last fall! I'll have to describe his yard work methodology later. It's quite different from the norm.

DH is doing great. Off the pain killers except at night and against my wishes, went to work today. He works in a corn genetics lab but I think he'll be in his office and not at the bench today.

Today I am going to sew up this ornament, but first I need to find some twine for the hanger. I think this one calls for a rustic finish.

And last night I decided to start this so I pulled the floss and I'm trying to decide which linen to use.

I have all 4 charts now for this series. Hope I can get them all done this year! I really do love Prairie Schooler.

Some new stash from DSL

It's been a long time since I bought cross stitch supplies, so it was both thrilling and scary at the same time. I know that sounds silly, but too much stash to me means too many unstarted and unfinished projects, which can feel overwhelming to me. I am going to moderate my purchases and just keep working away and trying to keep it all enjoyable and relaxing.

Here's what I got from Down Sunshine Lane. My package came so quickly I couldn't believe it. And it was all on sale!

2 Prairie Schooler charts and 1 by Cricket Collection

My first Blackbird Designs piece, to be stitched on RR Reproductions linen (sheep's straw)

Little SB kit, Busy Sheep

Not sure what I'll do with the CC piece, but I really do like the acorn motifs.

I have another order to place, probably from Needle In a Haystack, since they are having a good sale. And I have a gift certificate for Christmas from 1-2-.3 Stitch that I'll be sure to use up quickly.

Things are getting back to normal at work and slowing down, so I'll have more time (and energy!) to stitch. Looking forward to Friday night SAT tonight.