have not fallen off the face of the earth

It's been 10 days since I posted!!!!!
Forgive me.

I don't know what came over me.
Been writing other stuff, etc.

In this time I have finished one scarf with Jewel Box yarn and a peyote stitch beaded necklace with fringe and another peyote stitch beaded mini-purse. Need to plug camera back into 'puter so I can share some pics.

Twice now we've had to cancel a meeting of people interested in beading. But I hear there's a bead show coming in April - wow...that could be dangerous. Silly winter weather. Snow, extreme cold, wind. Hey, who's shingles are these? or those? and how come the siding can't seem to stay on these houses?

what I did

Spent 2 hours yesterday making another peyote beaded mini-purse. Unfortunately did not have a single pin type holder. But found a pin holder for 3 charms. And it was silver. So I made 2 matching dangles for the other 2 slots.

Also made 1/3 of a scarf, which I took to our silent auction. Will finish it today. It's with a jewel box yarn that's 4 ply black and kind of gold with a thread of brown to mimic tiger eye. Mostly I love how it feels.

Made $322 at the silent auction. Good job everyone!

Just for Giggles

I went to a taping of Regis and Kelly yesterday with a large group of women.

Was totally freeezinggg yesterday morning. Five degrees at my house. But we persevered and rewarded our frozen selves with hot beverages at the Starmucks across the street from the studio. Fortunately the line to get in is inside the building for those who already have tickets.

We waited and talked and laughed. And finally got led into the studio. Sat down and watched all the behind the scenes people do all the behind the scenes stuff. Gelman gives his spiel to the audience and we're off.

No Regis today :-(
We have to settle for Jeff Probst. I never watch Survivor, but he seems like a very personable fellow.
Kelly is as cute as can be. Great shoes. She comes over and talks to the audience during commercials.
Ice Cube - acts like a big teddy bear
Donald Trump - nicer looking in person
Richard Marx - a live performance without lip synching and he can actually play the guitar too!

Glad we went. Will have to go again to see Reege though....

where have I been?

No where. Right here.

just busy.

I started a new peyote stitch bracelet yesterday. Was going to try to fake it on the design. I have since realized my folly. And printed off some sheets of graph paper for beading. It's impossible to look at regular graph paper and try to see it as offset. LOL So I just started beading to see what would happen. I now realize that the first inch is going to be coming out. What was I thinking?

voila

Finished my grandmother's scrapbook and should have mailed it yesterday.
But I did too much shovelling of heavy wet snow on Wednesday and could hardly move yesterday. Ugh.
Much better this morning.

I spent about an hour yesterday working on the fringe on my peyote stitch choker. It got really interesting when the fringe got longer than the needle. I need to the get camera reconnected to the 'puter so's I can take a pic of this when it's finished.

I can literally sit here and watch the snow melt. We're being pelted by rain, the temp in the high 50s, and everytime I look out the window into the woods, there is less snow. Soon it will all be gone.

I'm off to cook for everyone else. Got a dish to make for a luncheon. And I'm leaving a dinner at my neighbor's house, as they are returning today after a death in their family.

note to self

vous et nul autre

six inches

of fresh new snow

and now it's raining

I was already outside clearing the way to the trash/recycling and that means I can almost get the car out of the garage

but it's supposed to get warmer today and tomorrow almost reach 60 degrees

I need to finish a little scrapbook I'm doing for my grandmother who turns 96 next week.
She's pretty darn amazing. Still lives alone. Just gave up driving last fall. Will climb onto her roof if she thinks it's necessary. Works as a volunteer in a kitchen once a week. Loves to play cards. Rides her 3 wheeled bike everyday. And she's the one I can thank for my crafty gene. She taught me to use a sewing machine, to thread a needle, to crochet, to knit. If something ever needs doing, she just does it. Much love to you, Gram!

So today is time for scrapping. Then maybe I'll look into making a list of WIPs. Time to admire that mauve table runner and any other old surprises I've got lurking in my cases and boxes of stitching stuff.

WIP

Great.
A friend has me contemplating actually counting all my works in progress.

I know of at least 2 that I'll never finish and I might as well just toss.
One is a Dimensions kit of a Noah's Ark sampler, maybe 5" x 7" and I made a mistake somewhere on the pig and didn't catch it till I was on the cow and I set the darn thing aside to figure out later and that was about 8 years ago!

The other one is a country type sampler. This one is even older. Maybe early 90's. Matched my kitchen at the time.

I even have a mauve table runner that's halfway finshed. I like the design -houses and weeping willows, but nothing is mauve any more...

But there's probably 20-30 other projects in various states of being worked upon. I can see a database in my future. Might listing them provide some incentive? Or is the prospect just too frightening?

so many wonderful people

There are so many wonderful people out there in cyberspace writing. I wanted to make a comment on a blog I read this morning, but it's another different hosting site that wants me register before allowing me to comment. I think I've reached my fill of registering. And instead will comment here.

I was reading SharonB's Inaminuteago when I saw the title of this blog and thought it was brilliant! More Art, Less Housework I admire cleverness such as that. Brava! Here's hoping she gets her wish. We all need more art and less housework.

I did want to comment on a trip we made to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. My main intention in going there was to see the Art Deco exhibit (which closed on Sunday I believe.) I did love the tracing the roots of art deco. And the beautiful pieces by Cartier. But I think I was expecting something different. I wanted more furniture and more textiles.

Why Blog?

First, this was just an experiment when I started in September 2003. A group of regular and semi-regular posters to RCTN started blogging around the same time.

What grew out of that was a place to write whatever came into my head. Needlework, family, world politics.

I do note starting new projects. What fabric and threads choices are made. I note finishes. I don't keep a running count of WIPs, but will post about what I'm currently working on. Maybe I should. Maybe that's more motivation.

But meanwhile, I'll just continue to do my own thing. No pressure.

Frogging Silk Gauze

You would think I could tell black from dark, dark grey.

But no. On Sunday while still at my in-laws I stitched away on 40ct silk gauze with the wrong color. What a pain in the ass that was to frog. Two threads worth. It was so painful I only added about 5 new stitches with the correct color - black!

Stash Enhancement

While in NH, I of course made my piligrimage to Yankee Cross Stitch in North Hampton. I was good. Bought a Mill Hill peyote beaded mini purse which I promptly stitched. This will be a donation to my EGA chapter - maybe for the basket for regional seminar. Side note - the directions to this suck. If you've never beaded before you'll give up before you get to the third row. I tried 5 times before giving up. Went to bed and woke up with the solution to my problem.

Bought another perforated paper santa. I've got 5 of these on my tree, but did not complete a new one this year. Bummer. Bought a Homespun Elegance "Merry Cardinal" ornament chart. MIL has a thing about cardinals apparently.

Bought Carriage House Samplings "My Hometown."
another some day project...

Bought the Black Forest by the Goode Huswife.
The Black Forest
This is a reproduction of a design from Transylvania stitched on black. Saw a shop model and it knocked my socks off. I can't remember if I have any black linen, but I did buy the silks for this one.

Bought the Feb. issue of JCS mostly for the envelope directions. But saw the tea cosy and thought I could do this in blue. Didn't look at it closely before buying - it's a prefab tea cosy. Thought I was getting some more directions. Sigh

Also picked up issue #32 of Stitch by the Embroiders' Guild in the UK. Has a wonderful article on Polish flower embroidery among other things. My hometown has a large Polish heritage population (yes, we even have a Polish American Club - see Bill Morrissey lyrics about drinking at the PAC, if you are a folk fan.) These women would march in the Memorial Day parade every year in the most beautifully embroidered outfits that included beribboned, flowered head pieces. What a colorful sight. Next time I'm home, I'll have to go searching for someone who can show me what they do.

And that it's for stashing.
I said I was good. Not bad. Not bad at all.

Note to a Certain Someone

Read away.
I removed the "secret" info.
Wonder what it could be, don't you?
LOL

Go ahead and read. You'll see I normally only write nice things about you.

Excepting the occasional vent :-(

No Resolutions

I am of the why bother frame of mind on the issue of resolutions. New Year's resolutions have never worked for me.

But I do see value in looking back and looking forward. And in trying to improve.

On the stitching front, there is one resolution that a friend makes that I think is doable.
Finish more projects than you start.
Of course, this could be a close call come December 2005, but I'm willing to try.

Best Wishes for a Happy, Healthy New Year

So it's 2005. For the past 18 years I knew this would be a memorable year for my family as our DD will be graduated in June. Where has the time gone?