Stitching Bloggers' Question of the Week

I'm so far behind in these that I'm not even getting the email anymore. I think Renee has given up on me. The question came from Kathryn. This week's question was:

What is the smallest count fabric you have ever used? Did you stitch over one? Conversely, what is the largest count fabric you have ever used?

I have stitched over one on 28ct linen. I did two pieces that way. The largest count was on 11ct aida.

Some WIPs

To the right is my Little House Needlework SAL, "Home of a Needleworker." I've been so busy with my eBay sales, I haven't had all that much time to stitch, so some of my WIPs' progress are downright pathetic.

This is fun to pick up now & then, even if the season isn't right. Mill Hill's Scaredy Cats. I love the convenience of having everything together to use in one package.

This is the most pathetic thing I've started! Why is it that a person can frog a simple start 4 times and still not get it right, causing one to put it away in frustration. This is a Prairie Schooler Santa SAL, and thank goodness I only committed to two for the entire year. You would never know I've been stitching for 25 years.

And oh, how I do love this one I recently started---The Trilogy's "Winter Lineup" for my daughter, who dearly loves penguins.

Whew! Got It Back!

I really don't know how, but I got it back---not exactly the way it was. It's a bit better, actually, except I want to use a different picture of Amber, and the photo size needs a bit of tweaking; plus I need to add some things to my sidebar. Right now, I'm just going to leave things alone and rest my mind and my nerves.

I must get more pix of my WIPs up, but for now, I need a shower and my head shampooed. I know this is TMI, but I stink. Anxiety makes me smell. You can go ahead and laugh. I am just so relieved, I'm also going to eat something after I get rid of the smell.

I've Messed With It Till I Broke It

I don't know why I'm such a fiddly-boob, but I've played with this blog like it was a new toy, and I broke it. I'm so frustrated with trying to fix it that I'm giving it up until my frustration level goes down and I'm not cross-eyed and suffering from red ears and an ugly red rash. Why can't I just leave well enough alone. Now I can't remember how I got it the way it was.

I'm seriously thinking about trying Wordpress, but I know nothing about it. Duh is me. I'm hanging this up till I'm not crazy.

Stitchless 24 Hours

You don't even wanna hear what I've been through in the last 24 hours because of this storm. It's been a nightmare. My car is still parked across the street from my daughter's house across town (don't ask). The garage door remote wouldn't begin to open the door, even though we dug around the bottom, using a scissor and a nail file and broke the ice along the sides with our hands. At least she had on gloves. I didn't have a coat, hat, or gloves (don't ask), nor did I have my key to the front door with me. My daughter broke in (don't ask). My kitties were so scared, it took me a long time to get them to come out from hiding. We had lost electricity for a short time, and they always freak when that happens even when I'm there. Well, when I'm not there, they puke everywhere, and I spent my day cleaning up cat puke and putting my stuff away. Also, I donned gloves, coat, and boots and made the trek out to the street to fetch mail. Boy, we have one helluva dedicated mailman. No freaking mail; no freaking way!!! So much for the USPS delivering in rain, sleet, and snow. I took a long, hot shower and fell asleep watching QVC. Yes, I'm an addict, and it's Collector's Day. So I got zilch stitching done, so I'm just posting a couple of pix of a WIP (Mirabilia "Scent of Old Roses) and a finish, though I'm waiting for the pillow insert for the Pine Mountain "Winter Tie One On." A little secret though---I didn't center the stitching on it and am having to rip the ready-made (no longer) pillow apart and make adjustments, and as you can see, I don't have the machine stitching even yet, and I'm still working on it. It happens to be making a wreck of me cuz because of my counting error, I have virtually no room left on the edges of the klostern, and I'm eeking out something from nothing. I worked on before the storm hit and had to put it down because my ears were turning red, and I broke out in a rash. I put in about an hour on the Mira just so I could unwind. Pitiful.....

Winter Storm

I'm staying at my daughter's while she's with her husband getting back surgery, and wouldn't you know?--- a winter storm hit hard late last night, and it's ice, slick as snot and getting worse by the minute. Schools are all closed; there's damage all over town with trees down from the weight of the ice, and there are power outages all around, but not here yet, thank goodness!

My daughter is determined to get back here today, which is an hour north of here. I'm so worried about her driving, though she does have a 4-wheel drive Durango. They're great in snow, which they have where she is, but she's going to hit ice halfway home, and nothing will help driving through that. It's a heavily traveled highway, and I think the state will be out in force keeping it driveable. I still worry though. And silly me---I'm worried about my cats being home alone. They're so spoiled, yet they have everything they need. I just think they need their mommy, and I sit and look at my ice-covered car sitting out in the street now and sigh.

I also need gas and have packages to send to eBay customers, but I don't know if a trip to the P.O. is in order today. I just like to get the packages sent ASAP for good feedback. I need to turn on my car and have the grandsons go out and scrape so I can get to the nearest gas station, which is only a few blocks from here. Hope I have enough gas to get it defrosted. Why didn't I just go get gas before I got here when I heard a storm was coming? How stupid can a person be?

Party Time At "The Home" - 94th Birthday

Mama's Boy feeding Mama

I told my granddaughter to get a good picture of me for my blog, and this was the best she could do. Horseface with overdone Botox. My chin isn't that long. Pinhead too. Bad camera angle... yeah that's what it is!

My husband, Richard, who thinks you're all axe murderers who are someday going to show up on our porch cuz I give out TMI about myself. I'm scared.





If the grandsons have to come to Great Grandma's 95th birthday, I hope they're not quite as excited.

Here's a few more of the family. My favorite neice, Kelly - such a doll!

My granddaughter, Moriah, two nephews and Paranoid Pete.

Yup, it's me doing what I do best, and it shows.

The birthday girl with Paranoid Pete and his sister, Judy. I love her, but she's anal.

My beautiful daughter, Vanessa, and she's not looking her best. They just came from home with a fire department call and losing their furnace.

Just give my granddaughter a wheelchair, and she'll come every year! I'm taking up a collection to get her the rest of those jeans.

My brother-in-law who, after the party, went to the hospital birthing room.

My Vanessa again, with her hunk of a husband, my wonderful son-in-law, Craig.

WooHoo!!! I'm Back Into Blogging!

I spent a weekend with 19 ebay auctions ending Saturday night, and a birthday party to host Saturday afternoon for my 94-year-old MIL at the nursing home on the same day. I announced to all my Yahoo Groups that I was going "No Mail" on Thursday so I could get some blog researching done and get a new blog up I could live with. Yesterday, I had to get auction items addressed and ready to go for my first run to the post office run later today. PayPal payments and money orders will be trickling in for the unpaid ones, which means continued runs to the post office as the week wears on. I listed more stuff today, but this eBaying is a LOT of work! Keeping everything straight is the worst part. I learned this last time not to list so many items at one time. I listed half the amount this time as last.

I'm so happy to have a nice blog I can live with. I tried using Beta Bloggers' format, but I ended up just using another template and using HTML to adapt to suit myself. I just wasn't happy with the other. It takes longer using my brains, but it's more satisfying to make it all mine. I still have a lot to add and subtract and some fine tuning to do, but the basics are here to blog away. I have pix to add of the party of poor old MIL. Every day is a miracle for her. She's just clinging to life, and the party about knocked her for a loop. She's a little heap today.

I need to get pix of my WIPs too, but here I am just adding a post in the wee hours after finishing some eBay business. I feel as though I've had my butt glued to this chair for days, other than the party for MIL. Wait till you see my butt glued to the chair feeding my face at the party. I have some other family pix to post that I think are good, but my mug looks like a horse face with a chin that could hit the floor if I wasn't careful. Kinda like John Kerry with Botox gone awry. Sad, but true.... when I was young and thin, I was photogenic. Now that I'm old, fat from eating more during 12 years on prednisone, and disease-riddled, I'm not just not photogenic---there is no such thing as a good picture of me. Such is life, and it is passing me by, but I'm still having a good time of it!

It's good to be back, and once I get some rest, I'll be posting away! Just wanted to throw in my hat!

Stitching Bloggers' Question of the Week

Do you dream of running your own LNS/ONS? If so, tell us about your dream. If not, tell us about your cross stitch dream… maybe you dream of designing, dyeing your own floss or fabric, etc.
This is going to sound like a disgruntled old Maxine-type. I've worked all my life, and I'm a domestic goddess now and have no intention of doing much of anything except exactly what I wanna do for the rest of my life. I've had an unbelievably difficult time in this life, and I have nothing left for anyone but my family, my cats, and my hobbies. If I sound selfish, it's because I'm spent, worn out, and I'm no longer young enough to put up with much out of anyone outside my increasingly smaller circle of friends and family. My Internet friends are right up there with my circle of friends. I enjoy going to my LNS and bantering with the gals there, but I have no desire to have anything requiring discipline, balancing books, pleasing the public, etc. I've owned two businesses, and it's a thankless job. Everyone thinks you're rolling in the $$$, and nothing could be further from the truth. You have to work your backend off, which is why mine has grown since I left the working world. I'd rather stay at home and eat ice cream than work my butt off for nothing. I'm always nice to clerks and owners of the businesses at which I enjoy shopping. Their jobs are hard work, and some people expect a lot and reward them by being ungrateful and rude. I've had enough of that. I won't go down in history as a great entrepreneur, and I don't give a hoot. Family comes first. If my grandkids remember me with a smile, I will have done my best job well.

Trying Fresh New Looks

I spent a quiet day yesterday, working on a dab of Mirabilia's Scent of Old Roses to start off the new year on a positive note. The poor thing got dragged out of hiding, and it took me longer to get out my supplies and stretching her on my stitching frame than any stitching done. But that's OK; intentions were good, and it got me in the mood to finish her this year. In my little under-the-stairs hiding place for the overflow of what's put away in my sewing room where the closet is. The cabinets are full in my sewing room, but it's mostly fabrics and crafty things. The bulk of my cross stitch had to have their own place. DH is not allowed in my closet. In the shuffling to pull out my bag with Scent of Old Roses and supplies, I dumped over a whole plastic drawer box of alphabetized hand-dyed fibers, which I now have to refile.

As those of you who know me can see, I've changed to a different template and have nothing else on my blog except my posts. I'm looking for a less cluttered look anyway, but I do want to do some experimentation and add some interest. I may change templates again. I've seen other sites with very attractive templates I'm thinking of. I'm writing this post as I'm on hold with a credit card company. My call is very important to them, blah, blah, blah......

I didn't make any resolutions for the new year because I never keep 'em. But I do hold out hope that the mood will strike that I'll work out better eating habits and limited exercize (limited because of lupus); therefore, lose some tonnage in the process. I'm just very unhappy with myself right now. If it hadn't been for my butt, I wouldn't have knocked over my little floss cabinet, LOL! The nice thing about a new year for us stitchers is that we have high hopes for a more productive stitching year, and though I won't commit to it, it's what I hope for.

Hope all my stitching blogger friends had a great Christmas, Hannukah, or whatever applies, and my hope is that your new year is blessed with fun and plentiful stitching!