Dizz-ay

I'm home sick again today. I got up to go to work and took a shower, which was enough to totally wipe me out. Just now, I took some photos for the end of month report and now I am swirly-dizzy, and not in the good way.

My goals for the month were to finish-finish two projects and to stick to my rotation. That didn't work out so well. I didn't do the finishing, and I sort of abandoned the rotation (below) for all kinds of reasons.

Monday: Scissors Sampler Box completed, photo here

followed by Folk Art Threadkeep shown above
Tuesday: Anna's Bird progress photo below

Wednesday: Emerald Mermaid progress photo below
Thursday: Apple Sampler see progress here
Friday: Tall Flowers Sampler completed, see photo here
Saturday: marquoir
Sunday: marquoir I only worked on this a couple of times, but you've seen my most recent progress
Traveling piece: Monthly Mania I finished June and July

For March:

Monday: sewing class

Tuesday: Anna's Bird

Wednesday: beading class

Thursday: Apple Sampler

Friday: Emerald Mermaid

Saturday: marquoir

Sunday: marquoir

Traveling piece: Rose Bunnie

I'm going to blog every day in March as well. Lists! Woohoo!

Beading Boot Camp II

Here's my "Not an Illusion" necklace. I used vintage beads, small periwinkle beads (it featured in this necklace too) and some pretty expensive blue Tiger's eye. I always seem to make the most expensive jewelry in the class. But they told us for next week to bring our leftover beads; we're making a fringe bracelet.
And the rest of the schedule...
Week 3: regal chain necklace
Week 4: chain drop earrings
Week 5: knotting II

Sorry, my neck model is ill and even her neck looks sick. It's a nasty sore throat and body aches.

Homespun Elegance Fans

Fans of Homespun Elegance, and cross-stitch fans in general, will be happy to see that Sandra Sullivan was interviewed in her local paper. It's mostly about being an area business woman, but there are fun bits of trivia too.

I was cleaning up my google reader, and I realized that there are a lot of blogs I don't know by their names. Oh, that's her blog. Others haven't formed enough of a personality in my head that I can remember them. Some probably never will, unfortunately. I also realized there's a lot of crap out there. And there are people who haven't blogged in millenia who I miss and I keep on the reader just in case they come back, even though their blogs have been taken over by spammers...


I'm starting my beading class tonight. You know what that means...

Traveling Man

The good part of traveling and being stuck in airports for five extra hours is that it gives me more time to stitch. {You have to see the bright side.}

I managed to finish July:

Monthly Mania
Heart in Hand Needleart
Stitched on 28 count antique ivory
with the recommended flosses.

I started Rose Bunnie. I realized that I had only kitted a few of my traveling projects (Monthly Manias), and that I would finish the last of them on this trip. So I grabbed a smallish project. It’s so cute.

Rose Bunnie
Liberty Street Designs
Stitched on 32-count hand-painted La Fern Liberty Fabric
With lots of color substitutions: WDW Carrot for the carrot; GAST Harvest Basket for the bunny; DMC 3740 instead of Anchor 894/DMC 224—the DMC was too shell pink to match with “light wineberry” (DMC 778). I’m going to use white Whisper instead of light brown for the tail because that’s the kind of bunny that roams these parts.

I also had a little time to work on the Apple Sampler.

Another good part about traveling (outside the airports) is that you have the opportunity to meet people who you never would have known existed if it weren’t for stitching and blogging. I got to meet Jacque. I don’t know how it works that I have enjoyed meeting so many different blogging stitchers IRL. For me, the real wonder is that I have truly enjoyed it. Meeting new people is sort of difficult for me. I never know what to say…but you wouldn’t have guessed it Saturday night! What’s really sort of a marvel is that all we all have in common is making little exes on fabric. And yet…

I called Jacque after we got to our hotel and we made dinner plans. She took the dude and me out to a nice Italian place where I ate as many vegetables as they would give me (you have to do this when your main goal is to eat lots of Q). The dude—why he lets me drag him out with so many strangers I’ll never know—enjoyed himself too. Then we tried to find some nightlife—there was lots of it, but not so much parking. We ended up back in our hotel in the Drum Room, where Frank Sinatra used to hang when he was in town. Jacque promised to come to Philadelphia so that we can take her (and Mark!) out to dinner. Note to self: research Philadelphia nightlife. (We are so lame.) Thanks again, Jacque, and do let me know when you’re coming to town! Full report on the Q here.

New (to me) Blog!

Marie Claire Idées, one of my favorite magazines, has a blog. {via CRAFT Magazine} If you're like me and your French could be better, they still have all those pretty pretty pictures that make you wish you were more creative, or more French, or both.

Thanks for your comments about Tall Flowers. I plan on framing it, probably in a plain black frame to echo the blanket stitching.

I have a full report on the trip to KC, just need to upload some photos.

Oh, Fudge

The weather, though not as severe as expected, forced Sissy to postpone our night out. This works out well for us since we are heading to KC to eat barbecue tomorrow (and I'll get to meet Jacque--if all works out with babysitting). We're leaving first thing in the morning--actually, even before first thing. So I don't have Sissy's analysis of the fudge, but the dude and my boss have both raved about memere's recipe. I think you can tell from the above comparison shot that her recipe (on the right, the chocolate) is drier. I can't describe the texture, almost gritty, soft and yet hard.

Her recipe:
1 can evaporated milk
1 lb brown sugar
1 lb confectioner's sugar
piece of butter, size of an egg yellow
2 1/2 heaping t Hershey cocoa
2 1/2 heaping t of marshmallow
3/4 cup walnuts
Put milk, sugar, and butter in a deep pan. Stir continuously until you can drop a bit into cold water and it's kind of caramel-ly in about 1/2 hour. Keep stirring. Then put in marshmallow, stir, put in nuts, stir. Pour into butter greased pan.

Here's my interpretation: butter, 1 T; about 4 teaspoons of cocoa; and I used marshmallow fluff for the marshmallow because this isn't the kind of fudge that has marshmallow chunks in it. I put the pan on medium heat because who knows what it is supposed to be. At about 20 minutes, there was a definite change in how it felt to stir it and lo, and behold, when I dropped some into cold water it didn't just seem "caramel-ly," it tasted just like caramel. I put the cocoa in when I put in the marshmallow, because it doesn't say when to add that. (I love that kind of recipe the best!) I probably should have taken it all off the heat at that point, and with future attempts I probably will. You should probably switch to a whisk when you put in the fluff because it's a lot of work to get the lumpy marshmallow incorporated with a wooden spoon. I think it was smart to use a glass pan, but grease it within an inch of its life because this stuff is hard to get out of the pan!

The recipe on the left, came from my friend, DD. You'll have to ask her.

May I Present

In the Tall Flowers!
Liberty Street Designs
32 count starlight pink hand painted fabric, Liberty Street Designs
recommended DMC

You may remember that this piece caught the attention of a little boy on public transportation. Tonight, a four year old who told me that being married was "nasty" (I think because it involves kissing) was very taken with this piece. We were trying to decide what the beads on the leaves symbolized; we went with bugs, even though they "live in the grass." Even after he told me how gross kissing girls was, he said to his dad, "Look!" and then he plopped himself in the seat next to me. (Apparently he's not so keen on girls but he loves him some older women!) They are going to have their hands full with him in ten years.

I made the fudge tonight. If Sissy gives it her stamp of approval, I'll post the recipe. I will warn you, though, it's one of those family recipes that includes precise measurements like "butter about the size of an egg yellow." (An egg yellow? What's wrong with the word yolk?)

Hold onto Your Hats

I've been challenged, sort of, to do the NaBloPoMo thing in March because the theme is lists. You know I love me a good list. I started trying to think of 21 blog-relevant lists. I know March has 31 days, but I thought I'd give myself weekends off from the relevancy thing. When I got to about 15 ideas, I decided you deserved for me to blog in list format in March. Aren't you lucky?

I haven't been following my rotation because I am two leaves away from finishing Tall Flowers. And I plan to finish it very soon. But I've started this exercise regimen and I have fewer minutes to stitch each evening. And there's no point in showing it to you now and then again when the only difference will be two leaves.

Sissy has made reservations for Friday at Rae. Check out the prices on that menu. She thinks pretty highly of herself! At any rate, her message ended, "Gifts are required...I mean optional.....no, nope, required. " Man, I was almost off the hook.

February 22

Sissy's birthday is Friday. Friday. How did it get to be late February? I am no closer to finishing the Amy Butler Weekender Travel Bag than I was before Christmas. We're having dinner in the city with her on Friday, so I have to bring her present to work with me that day. I have three nights. What can I make in three nights? I think I have an idea. I just hope someone has the recipe...

Okay, I just wrote to my great aunt to see if she has memere's (my great-grandmother) fudge recipe. That stuff was gritty with sugar, but Sissy's favorite candy is circus peanuts... Memere made mean fudge and even better brownies. She called all the great grandchildren "brownie" or "cookie." I always thought she just didn't know our names. I may have been right: she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 1987 or so. In the 1970s she drove a pristine forest green bug with white leather interior. Yes, I said pristine and white in the same sentence. This is the same woman who helped my grandmother with her cleaning every week for as long as I can remember. She ironed everything: sheets, underwear, money... Another thing I remember about her was how she used to draw on an upper lip with orange lipstick. I photographed her 75th birthday party with my brand new black and white polaroid camera. (I'm so old.) She'd have been 108 this month and I haven't thought about her in a very long time. Thanks.

If I find the recipe, I'll happily share.

Puppy!

Here is the puppy quilt that I made for my niece. It was a very successful present. She didn't shriek like she did over the stocking I made, but she did jump up and give Uncle Dude a big hug. Clearly, she has no idea which side the bread is buttered on. But that runs in the family; when sissy was little, she always flipped her toast* as she brought it up to her mouth and ate butter side down.

I used the directions that Wendy over at Knit and Tonic shared. In the future, I would make one change: Some of the squares fell apart in the washing machine. However, the edge was double stitched--straight stitch then zigzag over it. It held much better than the straight stitch. (I spent a lot of time repairing holes after I washed it.) Even better, the zigzag looks cute! So next time, I'd do a zigzag stitch instead. The most exciting part for me is that the squares on the back actually match up square. I must be getting the hang of this sewing thing. (It was a good idea to back it in horses, XMaryX, but this is a self backing "quilt"...)

Good news, CinDC found her floss box. Thanks for taking the quiz. It seems I should have added another option, the question my mother always asked when I couldn't find something: "did you try looking with your eyes open?" And you wonder how I got to be a bitch?

Can I make 31 lists? Surely. Could I make 31 blog-relevant lists? That might push me off the deep-end. I'll think about it, Diane.

*Or blueberry toasties, remember those from Howard Johnson's available in your grocer's frozen food aisle?

Threads from Down Under

I received my threads from Sharon B on Friday. Very exciting. Saturday we bought a camera and new computer, so I can show you all the fibrous goodness.

I have ideas for the green and blue wool and chenille. But I'm afraid this is going to be like a lot of my ideas...something you'll see eventually.

But aren't these great? Hand-dyed by Sharon herself! Lucky me.

Thanks again, Sharon!

Can I Really Talk about My Niece and Pamela Anderson in the Same Post?

If you ever have to use the word "classy" to describe something, it never is. And I don't care if it is your outfit, Pamela Anderson stripping, a brass objet, a dame; if you use the word classy to describe it, it most certainly lacks it. Trust me: I'm from New England, and I went to women's college.

I stitched a dot on Anna's bird last night before I packed it in at 9:30. (It's okay, the doctor said I couldn't um, you know, what every other married person in America did last night.) But the meds have kicked so I should be able to stay up like a normal person. This is good because I have to finish the blanket. Today is the little one's 7th. Not so little; I still ended up feeding her lunch today--she gets so distracted--when we went to Jones. She had the Thanksgiving Dinner. I had calamari salad. (Just for a full report mom had grilled cheese and tomato soup, and Lala had chicken parm with plain pasta on the side. The dog pretended to eat the bread and some fries, but I saw him eyeballing the turkey.) This time the green glow is from the banquette and shag carpet.

Brain Dump

Random things:

• I have an infection which you don't want to hear about (Rhymes with TMI.) and is making me cranky and sleepy. Last night I went to bed at 9:00. Sorry, Michelle, no mermaid.


• My bil (really cousin's husband but that takes so long to write) keeps hounding us to come up with inventions.


• One Saturday morning while we were lying awake in bed, the dude asked me what kind of a restaurant I would open. After much thought, I went with a meatloaf restaurant called Loaf. Because it's short for meatloaf and who doesn't like to loaf? My bil was completely perplexed by that last part. He really needs to learn how to relax.
• The dude's restaurant was a pie restaurant--he's a huge pot pie fan. And he likes the idea of eating pie and then more pie. We're calling it Pie Hole. We're not sure if we should add a "Shut Your" or a "Fill Your" to that. So for now...Pie Hole.
• In coming up with the meatloaf restaurant, and the meatlof of last week, (which you have to try--and with that particular brand of soy sauce) I realized it's really hard to get the first slice of meatloaf out, so my invention: a springform meatloaf pan. (Of course, you could just turn the meatloaf out of the regular pan before you hack away at it but that would be inefficient in a restaurant.)
• The airedale (over there --->) is my cousin. His name is Jameson, after the whisky. When I put up the "blog for choice" thumbnail, I lost the self-portrait I had up there. I found this picture on my drive. I stuck him in because the photo totally shows his personality. I'm not really a terrier person; they have too much energy (see above). Labs are my dog of choice.
• At Naked Chocolate today the line was almost out the door. What was I thinking? Then some joker says, "you'd think it was Valentine's Day or something."

• There's a horrible greenish hue being cast in my office (and the photo was taken with a phone). My favorites are the truffles with the word "naked" on them--how is that not a brilliant gift?

Good Juju

I'm totally off the rotation this week: working on the quilt for my niece and making Valentine's day cards for my grandmothers--still trying to write to them every month! And our home computer is having "issues" which are stressing me out. I told the dude to go buy a new one last weekend, but he'd rather just yell at this one. Why not? So it takes ages to get two photos onto the blog. Anyway it's sapping my low energy.

However, CinDC blames my lost poll for sweeping her box of floss off into the great wide open. Let's help her find it.

Promises, promises

I promised you a photo of the marquoir , but I have to admit that I didn't work on it at all this weekend. I spent much of Saturday working on a present for my niece's birthday. It's a rag quilt made from puppy flannel fabrics. Of course, I bought this fabric in December, and they're changing her room decor from puppies to horses (her other obsession) this month. Of course. We're also going to (God help me) take her to Strasburg when Thomas comes.

Then the dude called in one of his Christmas presents--a monthly trip to a new-to-us restaurant that was packaged as "around the world on your stomach, without ever leaving home." We went to Vietnam on Saturday night. There's a Vietnamese place of that name in Philly's Chinatown. We started in the third floor 40's style lounge. The dude thought it reminded him of "that movie...the one with Michael Caine." "The Quiet American," I said. Then we noticed it was playing in an endless loop on the flatscreen. We were sitting in a location where we could mostly ignore it because it's one thing to sit in Philadelphia's Chinatown in a 40's style French-colonial-inspired Vietnamese lounge, and quite another to sit on a fake Quiet American movie set while you watch the movie in an endless loop. We had some delicious food. So no stitching on Saturday.

Then on Sunday, I went to an alumnae club craft group. It was mostly knitters but one woman was spinning cotton and I stitched on Tall Flowers. I couldn't bring the marquoir and my travel piece is just cute, not very impressive. So I brought something that I hoped was funky to encourage people to see the possiblities of cross-stitch. It was a great group. Two students showed up (we met on campus) and we had alumnae from the 40s (dedicated argyle sock knitters as undergrads), 60s, 70s (the first class who could wear trousers to class), and 80s (the first computer users). I'd tell you more about the woman from the class of '62 except that she asked if anyone could show her how to do cables, and the woman in the most beautiful cabled sweater I've ever seen could. She spent two hours concentrating on that but she promised to come to our next meeting and participate a little more. We meet again in April.

After Sunday dinner I went back to work on the blanket which is due next Sunday. I sewed together three rows of seven squares. Six to go. Then it's on to Sissy's overnight bag.

What I'm Up to

Reading:

The Friday Knitting Club

Watching:

too much High Stakes Poker

Loving:

my new fleece snowman throw (while the wind blows outside)

no longer available at target.com

Playing:

What Were You Thinking

the adults have to do something now that football season is over

Eating:

delicious "magic meatloaf" from Amanda at Mandajuice

Up from the Deep Blue

Here is my mermaid arm. I did start her body last night--the blackish-green stripes. I am stitching this on a hand-dyed fabric I bought from Carol. I'd tell you what it was, but that would mean I'd have to find the other half. Maybe I'll run across it and write it down and remember to tell you. Maybe.

On the bus, I finished June:

I know I complain a lot about public transportation, but in the end I much prefer it to driving. I hate driving, and I just spent 15 years doing it in Los Angeles. Sure, public transportation is green and all that but it also costs less than parking. There's no free parking at work, not even for the president--I'm guessing most people who work in major cities face this. It would cost me $8-12/day to park and that's after the university underwrites it and then it's in the remote lots. You pay a lot more to park closer ($20/day). SEPTA is $56/month. Trains run every 6 minutes and four bus lines run by my house so I never have to wait very long, if at all. I get to stitch or read on the commute. We've even made friends with a woman in our neighborhood because we wait for the bus with her. We're acquainted with more people too--fastwalker, Irishguy, and Operawoman (we need to find out their names). It's nice to have a little chitchat every day with people a little outside your circle. And the bus drivers--the one who called me his girlfriend until he asked the dude how his girlfriend was doing, and the dude broke the news. Now he calls the dude his buddy. And Crabby--I finally broke her down and got a hello out of her. See, public transportation is like a little game. Mostly, you win.

How Much?

Maybe I just haven't noticed because I never was that into Houses or Village of Hawk Run Hollow, but Shores is going to cost $32-40 for the pattern, $129 for the silk, and $48 for the fabric. No wonder everyone converts to Vikki Clayton silks (her conversion is $61). Maybe I'm just cheap but that seems a little high to me. I'm sure that it is worth it from everyone's point of view (what the take is for each hand that brings it from the designer's head to my hot little hands). But still...I'll have to see how much the mother is willing to underwrite on this one.

Tonight I'll be stitching along with Michelle on my cheap little mermaid.

Dear Designer,

I told you about this! Are you trying to kill the dude?

Rotation

So far so good on my rotation. I worked on the marquoir and finished part 4 on Saturday--12 parts to go! I will continue to work on that on Saturday and Sunday, and will try to get a good picture next Sunday. Can you stand the wait??

Tonight, I finished the stitching on the sampler Shaker box. Now it goes into the finishing pile. I am going to try to finish it before camp, which is something I wanted to do years ago.

Lost Poll: Post Options

Hey gang,

When I was uploading the lost poll I accidentally disabled the comments. D'uh, after I told you to put your "other answers" in the comments. They're open again.

I was going to tell you that I've lost three projects, but my network card at work failed Friday, and I was too stuffed up and goofy to get on the computer this weekend. I'm on a coworker's computer today. Anyway, the projects: two were on airplanes; you'd think I'd learn. The first was in the early 90s when I was flying BOS-LAX. There was a huge snowstorm and we sat for ages on the plane. We were the last flight out of Boston that night. Anyway, a sunflowers scissors pocket (by Forget-Me-Nots in Stitches) attached to scissors in my lap, stood up to get off the plane, didn't hear them drop to the floor. Left without them. I have everything to stitch this project again, but I'm not sure I want to. Maybe I'll rethink it once I have finish-finished the needlebook that goes with it.

Second was a stumpwork thistle (Liz Turner Diehl) that I made for my MIL. Sent it overseas where some horrible postman stole all the Christmas presents from the box. Never restitched.

The last one, I discussed here. It was an anniversary present for the dude. Left it on the plane because I was so worried about making my connection. Argh. I have repurchased the pattern, but that's as far as I've made it. This one is the one I'd put my money on...

A Different Kind of Lost

It's Friday, time for a poll.

I'm sure there are other answers. If I haven't listed yours, you know where to stick it...in the comments, why, where'd you think?