Whoopee ... Shores Block 3

Finally, Block 3 is finished! What's taken so long? It would take forever to list all of my excuses, so I'll just say that I've been distracted. There's so much going on here, and I'm ready for the more boring part of my life to reappear. For now, just lots of sighing and a very crooked, dark (it's dark all the time!), wrinkly picture of my accomplishment.



I tried to get a picture of just the mermaid, but I couldn't seem to hold the camera still enough to get the job done. I love her.
I had good intentions of showing you some progress on my most recent start, but I really wanna wait until the face (yes, a face) is finished. Until then, you'll have to be content with the supply picture:
Doesn't it look fun? I know! I'm so excited to be working on another Ewe & Eye & Friends Limited Edition Santa. If this guy ever gets finished, it'll be my third. Gee, that makes me sound like a Santa slut, doesn't it? This Santa is from (get ready) 1994. Yes, kids, you read it correctly. It's been in my stash for 14 years (eeeeek). I know! Am I the worst person you know? The really bad news is that this isn't the oldest item I should've already stitched. There are several kits that are older and probably hundreds (no, I don't think I'm exaggerating) of charts that are older. Do you think an intervention is in order? Or do you wanna come over and check out my cedar chest and file cabinet? Uh huh, I'll bet you do! Anyway ... I took a picture of the picture so you could see what Santa will look like in a few weeks (yes, Delusional should be my middle name) ...




My new plan (really? a plan? me?) is to work on him when I'm hanging out with the man I hang around with. We usually end up watching football (sniff ... poor Broncos ... sob), and I can work on him (Santa, that is ;)) during that portion of the weekend. Another good place to work on him will be when I'm visiting Mom during chemo sessions. We always stitch together then, and this is a perfect take-along project. I'm also gonna give him one evening a week while I work mostly on Shores Block 4. I'm afraid that if I set down Shores for the holidays, it'll somehow work its way more deeply into the dreaded WIP pile, so I have to stick with it. Then, just to give myself some variety (a way to ward off distractability), I'm gonna give Sarah Esh an evening per week. Will some organization in my life help to keep my nose pointed toward my stitching? I reckon we'll see.
Another exciting bit of stitchy news is that I got to pick up my son-in-law's stocking from the finisher (who must be working at the speed of light) on Saturday. As soon as I can remember to get a picture of it when it's still light out, you'll see it.
Finally, yesterday I completed another trip around the sun. My 54th! How can that be? Do you ever feel like you're still in your 20's? Never when I look in the mirror, of course! But once in a while, when I'm skiing or riding on the back of a motorcycle, I feel too young to be in my 50's. That's one of my favorite feelings, and I'm thinking it's a good thing.
Make some fun.

You've Gotta Love a Snow Day!

What's not to love? It's an unexpected gift of a day at home. Here's the view from one of the front windows.
That was about 9:00 this morning, and the snow is even deeper now. It also has more of that cool snow sculpture from chair to deck rail. It's been snowing since Tuesday night, and it's still going strong. Our school district, in its infinite wisdom (NOT), decided that we should go to school yesterday. The roads were slicker than owl snot, so getting to school was quite a treat. Buses got stuck and had a fender-bender or two. We're all much happier with the decision to let us stay home today. On really bad days, so many kids are absent anyway, and it seems a waste for us to brave the roads.

I've spent part of my day catching up in blogland. My brother was here over the weekend, so we spent lots of time at the folks' house. Work has demanded many, many hours at the computer screen this week, so sitting down to read and comment and post just didn't seem like much of a treat. I found out how much I've missed this morning, and ya'll have been so busy. It's so much easier and more fun to stay caught up.

Here's what I've been working on ...

Yep. Shores Block 3 is nearing an end. It seems like it's taken forever to get this far. Those gingerbread corners were tricky, especially when I was trying to keep track of what was happening on the boob tube. I'm very excited to get to the mermaid. When I wander back upstairs, I'm set to work on her hair. I'm hoping to make some good progress so I can show you what's gonna be in my hot little hands when this block is finished.

I'm running upstairs to get busy and enjoy what's left of this delightful day. Make some fun.

Try, Try Again

Thanks to all of your comments, I now know that I'm not alone in my frustration with Blogger f***ing up my last post. That thought is somewhat comforting, even if it doesn't fix anything. Maybe it's a sign that I spend too much time on one post. I'll stop analyzing and just move on.

First, here's how I spent some of my free Friday hours.

I know! I resurrected something from the WIP drawer (ok, ok, one of my WIP drawers) and finished it. Yay me! Exercising extreme self-control, I chose Small Sampler, 3rd in a Series, by Ewe & Eye & Friends. I can remember charting this one way back in the olden days, so it's kind of an old friend. I stitched all but the lazy daisy leaves and sheep wool way back in 2004! So why did I wait five years to finish it? Sadly, that's probably a question for a trained mental health professional, and there's no use discussing it here.

Anyway, 3rd Small Sampler is stitched as kitted with Anchor floss on 40-count Sandstone, but I changed the stitches for the sheep wool from Kam's coils (pains in the ass, IMHO) to large, loose French knots. Because of Murphy's Law of Changing Kitted Stitches, I ran out of floss, and it was one of the few colors not in my stash. That issue caused two things to happen: 1) blog reading/commenting sucked up some of my morning, and 2) I had to go to the LNS and buy other things along with the floss. So it turned out rather well!

For those of you keeping score, I returned to Shores Block 3 on Saturday. I'm making rather slow progress, and I'll have a pic for you next time. I'm gonna have to hold the Broncos partially responsible for my lack of progress. Their games have been so unexpectedly exciting that I find myself sitting in my chair with my needle in the air. Sometimes I even have to jump out of the chair and holler. All of that fan action tends to distract me from my stitching! That's my story, anyway, and I'm sticking to it.

My TUSAL picture for the month was technically on time, because it was in the post lost in internet space. I was so proud of myself for doing something on time! Take a look at all those perle cotton orts from Reed's Stocking. They take up a little space. huh?

I was at Mom and Dad's a couple of times over the weekend, and look who's been hanging around over there!

These turkeys have absolutely no idea how determined my dad (alias, Mr Gun) is to remove them from the premises. The abundance of droppings they've left on Dad's wooden deck and paved surfaces could eventually motivate him to use extreme measures. So far, he's only used the leaf blower and pellet gun, but he owns quite an arsenal. I'm a little worried that one of these birds is gonna end up on my Thanksgiving plate. Before I shooed them out of harm's way, I pulled out my phone camera to get a shot (so to speak).

A few of you have been kind enough to ask (via comments and emails) about Mom. I decided back in June that I was going to try to give only good news, especially since Mom reads here from time to time. Sadly, there hasn't been much good news to report. Mom's been pretty sick (dizzy, weak, feeling generally shitty) for more than a month. After her last scan received less-than-shining reviews from the docs, they decided that they'd gotten all the good they could from the first chemo recipe, and they gave her a month off. She's on a new chemo recipe now, and it's much harder on her. Dad's taking care of Mom, and the rest of us are trying to help, and we're all hoping that this new recipe does some good work. If you have any prayers/good words/positive thoughts left in your hearts, we'd very much appreciate you sending them Mom's way. I know for certain that she'd welcome the help.

Hope you're all having a good week. Tomorrow it'll be half over! Make some fun.

Oh, Please!

I just spent an hour on a post, hit the button, and nothing happened! Dammit! I guess I'll hit the hay and try again tomorrow. Ugh, damn technology.

Reed's Last Week

The final stitches were in on Thursday night, and the charms and buttons were put on today. First, a picture without the embellishments ...

And here's a picture with all the fun stuff ...

I'm very happy to have it stitched, and it'll be going off to the finisher as soon as I find a moment next week. This really was the quickest I've ever stitched a stocking, and I have to hand it to all of you who helped me with fun comments. Especially thanks to Anna for lighting the initial fire under me. For the moment, I can say I'm a good mom-in-law, which still sounds funny to me.

As I said I would, I've picked up Shores to start on Block 3. It had to wait a while, because I had some chores to do. There were the usual things (laundry, cleaning, etc.) that we all do, but another chore had to be done a little early this year. It was 18 degrees when I woke up this morning (brrr!), so I had to put my comforter on the bed. To do that, I had to press the cover and wrestle it onto the comforter, press the matching pillow shams and put them on, and then wash the stuff that came off the bed. I know! All just to keep cozy on cold nights. Now you watch ... we'll probably have some nights in the 40's this week, and I'll be wondering what the hell I was in such a hurry about.

You know, I never know when I'm gonna write something here that causes someone out there to come up with a good idea. When I wrote about my plan to stitch in my jammies next Friday morning, Staci, stitcher/knitter/enabler extraordinaire, asked what I'll be starting that day! Is she naughty, or what? I hadn't even thought of starting something new, and I'm not sure I can bring myself to do it. But Staci's suggestion made me think about putting Shores down for the morning and working on something different. Heaven knows, I have lots and lots of WIPs to choose from, so I'll have to pick out something interesting. Maybe something that might be finished in a few hours.

On the health front, the poor little kids have been dropping like flies at school. Most of the second grade was out the first half of the week, and then a lot of the first grade was out later in the week. So many of us are coughing at school that I did extra wipe-downs of the tables and Lysol-spraying of pencils and shared books, computers and doorknobs. I'm staying home this weekend with some unidentified virus that, knock on wood, has only made me cough and have a headache. My doc who roto-rootered my nose last January fixed me up yesterday to try to head it off at the pass, and I feel relatively well. The bad news: no time with Mom or the man I hang around with. The good news: it's a nice weekend to be at home stitching. It's ugly out there! Everyone stay well and make some fun.

Reed's Second Week

Well, what do you know? I think I'm gonna finish this stocking in a few days! That's record time for me, so thanks for all of the encouragement you've offered. I've been working on it whenever I'm not at work and can avoid my chores. Despite the chunkiness of the materials (18-count linen and cotton perle), I'm enjoying the stitching. So here's this week's Sunday-to-Sunday progress.

We're having a very gray day in the Denver area, so the picture is a little dark, and the colors don't show up well. Those blues I was complaining about look great in natural light. Last week, I was stitching in a sunny Starbucks while waiting for my car to be serviced, and I couldn't believe how perfect the colors looked. So those readers out there who thought the blues looked good, you're right.

Since I'm so close to finishing, I'll stick with Reed this week and then get back to Shores as soon as the buttons and charms are on. Really, Anna, I promise. We have many extra hours at school next week (evening parent-teacher conferences), so when I get my work finished (hey, a girl can dream), I'm gonna have my stitching at the ready. In fact, maybe having my stitching there will motivate me to get all the crap off my desk in a hurry! Hmmm ... a plan is forming in my pea brain. Picture me stitching while waiting for the next conference. Because we'll be spending more time at school next week, we get next Friday off. You know what that means, don't you? Friday morning stitching-in-my-jammies time. Ahhhh, something to look forward to, even if it is eleven days away.

Make some fun.

Reed's First Week

I have so little to show this week (sniff). I started Reed's Stocking last Sunday (that's eight days ago), and it's really all I've worked on all week. Of course, there wasn't that much stitching time last week, because I stayed late at school or went to school meetings three out of five days (she said whinily). On Friday (the day I long for), I went out with a group of teachers from my school that closed last year, which was extremely fun. I stitched terribly little Friday night, because my poor little eyelids just couldn't be forced to remain open very long after my butt hit the chair. The weekend was kinder, and (to make a short story long) some stitching was accomplished ...

I'm not sure I like the mixture of blues in this piece. I'm tempted to pull them out and use lavenders instead, but that's a lot of unstitching that I'm not really up for. Besides that, Nikki chose it, and she likes it. I'm wondering how much the DMC colors have changed since this stocking was designed. The Shepherd's Bush girls have changed one of the colors since then, but I think it looks a little funky. I suppose I'll just carry on and keep stitching.

Back to the progress thread of this post ... Anna said in a comment, "You could get the stocking done in three weeks definitely, possibly one and a half." Golly, I love her. Despite many previous posts containing visible evidence of my slow stitching, she thinks I'm capable of semi-fast stitching! That thought thrills me to death. When I first read her comment, I poo-pooed her estimate. But now that I've gotten this far, I may actually finish the silly thing in three weeks! Thanks for the encouragement, Anna! Nobody out there hold your breath, but I'm going for it. On October 1st, I'll have to make the decision to continue with the stocking and start Shores Block 3 after a finish, or begin Block 3 and go back to the stocking after that finish. I may go for the first option in the hope that the finisher (you really didn't think I'd sew it together, did you?) could have it to us by Christmas. And why am I boring all of you with this crap? I don't know! Maybe I needed to think it through. Thank you for your kind patience, those of you who are still awake.

I'm off now to get some stitching done before din din. Make some fun.