New Shoes

A quick trip to Target and I've got two new pairs of Converse. Not your normal Chucks, but I like 'em!

Wall Arch

Hmm. Trying to link a web photo here and blogger seems to be all wonky. Sometimes my cursor just disappears, but if I type I'm in the right spot but with a time delay of sorts. Whatever.

Anyway. I noticed on the news the other day that Wall Arch in Arches National Park had fallen. And that reminded me of a story.

It was late June 1994 and we were traveling cross country from the seacoast of NH to Fort Ord, CA. This was a tremendous opportunity for sightseeing our way across the USA. When we had been packing up the household goods in NH every day had been hotter than the previous day. We started at 98, went to 99, and finally to over 100 degrees on the day they loaded our stuff on the truck. The heat and humidity we experienced in Washington D.C. followed us across the country. But when we reached the west, the humidity dropped off, but the temperatures soared. It hit 108 the day we arrived at Arches NP.

We checked into the Apache Motel in Moab and had pizza at Eddie McStiffs. The road in to the park was incredible. Being an east coast girl, I had never seen anything like this in my life. Armed with our canteens and bandanas we walked to the Windows Arches. Then walked to the Sand Dune Arch where we took off our shoes and played in the sand. The wind picked up and made staying here rather like being sandblasted so we headed off for the Devil's Garden Trail where we walked to the Tunnel Arch and the Pine Tree Arch and the Wall Arch. We would have headed off for the Landscape Arch, but sunset was approaching.

As we head back to the trail head and our car we make an unfortunate discovery. DH had locked the keys in the car. Yup. It's still over 100. We've drunk all our water. Darkness is coming on quickly. And there is no one around. This is where we get lucky. There's a campground nearby and DH is walking to it while I sit on the ground with the kids. At ages 5 and 7, it's been a long day and it's their bedtime and they are getting cranky. He runs into a Park Ranger who bless his heart is willing to break the laws for us. He is supposed to call a locksmith, but instead breaks out the hanger for his spare uniform hanging in his truck. He tries the drivers side door, but these modern cars are meant to be hanger proof. And here is where we get truly lucky. I had not rolled my window up all the way. There was a tiny crack. And we were able to snag the door handle with the hanger and open the door! Celebrations all around. The next morning we return at 6 a.m. for our hike out to the Delicate Arch (must do this before it gets too hot.)

I've always had my set of keys with me upon exiting the car ever since this time.

(And details are courtesy of the trip journal I kept. Otherwise I'd never remember Eddie McStiffs.)

I's Gots Internet!

So the lovely FIOS people were in the neighborhood while I was away on vacay and they cut my cable line. Uh. Duh. And you people want my business? Nice way to go about it.

As for Olympic Stitching:

I chose Celtic Christmas because she really doesn't deserve to be on those scroll rods for more than ten years and I saw this as a perfect opportunity to finally make the big push towards the finish.

But once again, I'm not enjoying it. LOL That's why she's been sitting in her pillowcase all this time.

I promise to fold my arms and persevere on this one. I might earn my own gold medal for endurance of non-pleasurable stitching.

Okay. Answering the questions before they come: what's wrong? why am I not enjoying my time with this pretty thing? Because of the beading down the sides. The changing of threads. I can't stitch with her comfortably in my chair and have to stitch at the table. I'm constantly flipping to the back to anchor a thread. (Okay. It was my artistic choice to stitch the beads with thread that matches the beads rather than thread that matches the fabric - because it looks better! ) If I can just push myself to finish the beading on one side I'll let myself stitch on her skirt again. And then I'll have the beading down the other side to contend with. I'm trying, darn it.

SBQ 8/7/08

8/7/08: What do you do to your thread clippings? Do you just scrap them or do you use them in something else? (submitted by Outi)

I have an ort jar that is an old canning jar with the bale and glass top. I've been stuffing orts in here since around 1997. Big projects are like an archaeological dig - they are a whole layer and easily identifiable. I have yet to decide if they will ever do anything besides reside in the job and wait for someone to throw them away decades from now after I die.

No photos as I'm still on the wrong computer. I am hopeful DH can solve this problem and he arrives home tonight. Otherwise, cable guy is coming on Monday. I'm fairly certain I can call and cancel this appointment.

Had a great time yesterday at the shop catching up with friends. Even bought a couple of canvas designs - Northern Pine Designs "Forever in Blue Jeans." It will take a while to acquire the speciality threads for this one. I also bought a Michael Boren piece - it's the one on the right.
I've got to decide on this one what to use for alternate fibers as the original is stitched with Eterna silks and Princess Perle.


I was happy to find a ball of Anchor Perle 8 that matched my DMC perle 5 Variations for my hardanger piece. The question is do I already defy my stitching plans for 8/8/08 or do I attempt my picots and dove's eyes before the opening ceremonies and consider it a legal loophole that I haven't seen the opening ceremonies yet.

Oopsie. I made an error. The Michael Boren piece has Glorianna silks not Eterna. The Eterna was used in all those kimono pieces that I looked at.

Morning Stitch In

I get to go for the first time in weeks. And DD is coming with me. There should be plenty of new things for me to admire, which I am looking forward to, plus all the progress my friends have been making on their stuff.

I need to spend an hour or two reorganizing my stuff and figuring out exactly how much progress I've made this summer. Gotta stop starting new projects before finishing old ones. I think I need to go back to the I-can't-start-a-new-project-without-finishing-a-UFO rule. I'm so confused that I don't even know what my current project is any more.

So in order to bring some order to this process referred to as my stitching, I will vow to only work on two projects during the Olympics. As of 8/8/08 I can only stitch on In The Midnight Hour and Celtic Christmas. I really need to get that red lady off those scroll rods where she has been since, OMB, 1998. If I finish either of them, I have a bevy of UFOs to choose from to go next.

Drat and Phooey

We arrived home yesterday around dinner time without any incidents on the road worthy of note.

And about an hour later, discovered that the high speed cable internet connection was not working. I was too darn tired to investigate so I have no idea exactly what DS tried to do to make things work. I spent the morning trying to sort it out, even calling DH in CA, but no luck. Finally called Comcast. Did everything I had already tried again. And then when he told me to find a pin and press the reset button, I knew I had someone who didn't know this modem. There is no reset button. I'm not stupid. That's the first thing I looked for, even found the manual to make sure I wasn't blind. No reset button.

Right now I'm on DD's computer who is hogging signal from a neighbor who is silly enough to leave a network unprotected. I won't be doing that on our home desktop. So no pictures until things are straightened out.

Off to Play Reunions for the Next Two Days

It has been interesting being in New England for the great Manny trade. Of course everyone here weighs in with their opinions. Everyone is an expert. In this place, little bitty kids and 92 year old ladies can talk intelligently about baseball. Got to love it.

As for stitching.
I've been working on my hardanger, but am missing the correct color of perle 8 and can really go no further. I've got this terrific turquoise shade of perle 5, one of the new DMC variations. I had forgotton how quickly hardanger can be stitched. I see more of this in my future.

DD started a Textile Heritage piece she picked up and discovered last night that there is a shade of green that doesn't match the other shades of green. And that would make 5 shades of green in a kit that has 4 shades. She got a bit frustrated. It was funny.

So I started my Mill Hill scissor pocket, but won't go very far with this as I am without my beading mat which I love for beading.

Well, other peoples are getting up. Now to go shower and have tons of fun!

Quick Check In

I did make it to Yankee Cross Stitch in North Hampton, NH.
Seemed like there was a little bit less stuff in there than usual. Also some big holes in the overdyed flosses I was looking for.

But I did buy one or two things. Some perle cottons. A Sampler Girl chart - the Martha Washington sampler and a Forget-me-not-in-stitches of a lady slipper. Also a scissor pocket kit by Mill Hill. Pretty colors.

Not bad. Very reasonable.

Weather is not fully cooperating with us, but we're managing.

Da Updatey Stuff

We made it to NH on Monday without any incidents happening to us. We did see someone drive right off I-95 in front of us - a sharp left turn into the median at 75 m.p.h. I hope they were okay. And then a pickup tried to take us out by merging across several lanes at once. Fortunately I was driving and knew that there wasn't anybody in the far left lane behind me. Other than that it was uneventful.

This means Sunday was spent finishing up laundry, cleaning the house, packing, finishing off a bookmark for a gift, etc. The bookmark came out very nicely, except for one tiny issue. I thought when I put this away last year I was finished with the stitching. Instead of checking it closely against the pattern before cutting, I assumed it was finished. Then I cut the sides, top, and bottom only find I hadn't stitched two stitches of green and the bottom green border. Oops. By then I had started stitching the bottom point together and I managed to add in the missing 2 green stitches, but because I had already cut it I didn't have room to finish the green stripe. Oh well. One more lesson learned. Always check a piece carefully against the pattern before beginning finishing.

This morning I had time to sit and finish the embroidery on a canvas piece. I added lady slippers, a pine branch and pine cone, forget-me-nots. Now I need to detach the canvas from the stretcher bars and cut and assemble and do the final finishing stitches. Then I started a hardanger piece, but need to swing by somewhere and find some perle #8 that matches my DMC #5 Variations.

We did a bit of shopping. We went to Newick's for supper. (I'm in New England. It's supper. Not dinner.)

Note: The canvas piece was a class I took in 2006. It's a crazy quilt pyramid that you get to embellish in the colors and stitches of your choice. Instead of doing generic flowers, I decided that I wanted to commemorate a real place in my life.

In 1960, my grandparents bought what was essentially a fishing camp at Pawtuckaway Lake. I spent a lot of time there. Now 48 years later, it's for sale. Will I finish this piece before someone buys it? We'll see.

Friday in Photos - July 25th

In the morning, before it got too hot out, DS and I took the desert rat to the car wash. Vacuumed, took out the trash, and cleaned the windows. And then made sure the tire pressure was good. All in preparation for driving 500+ miles on Monday.



I came home and did a bit of gardening. The anise hysop on the left is starting to overtake things. Poor begonias are getting lost. But the butterflies love it.


This year the lavender bloomed. We had such a mild winter that several things that normally wouldn't have survived, did.

Impersonating a needlework shop employee. I was filling in so the shop owner could get to the hair salon.

What I do every night.



The other thing I do frequently.
It's ten o'clock. Do you know where your son is? I leave to go pick him up from work. The Red Sox have 2 men on with no outs. Come home and find out they didn't score. Oh well.

At 11:30 p.m. I have finished my Habitat sampler (no name/date yet - those are still to be determined) and my kissing pillow. These were our community outreach projects this year in our EGA chapter.