Art Star Craft Bazaar and a Winner

Yesterday the dude and I ventured into the city for the Art Star Craft Bazaar. There were a lot of t-shirts, and despite the vendor called "Cutesy but not Cutesy" (shouldn't that be "Cute but not Cutesy"?) there was nothing even remotely twee. It was delightful to see so many things that I would actually want to buy. And weird stuff. A lot of weird stuff.

But first, I have to tell you about the soup dumplings we had. Oh.My.God. Little pouches of deliciousness! The soup was out of this world, and the combination--wrapper, soup, pork meatball--was just sublime. The scallion pancakes held their own as well. It was so amazingly good. If you are in Phillie, go to 11th and Race. Go! Sakura.

We hiked over to the bazaar at Penn's Landing. I would love to have pictures but I forgot the camera like the dufus that I am. Like I said there weren't many things I wasn't interested in. So we had to control ourselves. The dude got a wooden bookmark with a little skull on it from beacon bookmarks (I should have gotten the one that says "Analog." That's me.) Then we saw this fabulous photo of a little Laotian girl having a bath in a big bowl by Gene Pembroke (Click through: Gallery->Asia-> "Bath Time, Laos"). Perfect for the upstairs (pink, burgundy, and brown) bathroom. Then we bought a faux-bois reusable sandwich wrapper from Chez-Sucre-Chez who also sold cross-stitch, bless her. Finally, we went back to Emmalynne Photography because I had been thinking about this one picture the whole way through. (It's the middle right with scissors and wooden thread spools.) That's going in the craft room.

Anyway, it was a very nice day, and you can sort of replicate it by going to the Art Star website and clicking through the list of vendors. Really, they're almost all on etsy.

And now, you've all been waiting patiently...the winner of May's giveaway: Donna, needleworker not in paradise! I'm really pleased that her number came up. Donna's blog was one of the first needlework blogs I found (also Nicole's and Melissa's); I think we all started within a few months of each other. It seems very appropriate for us to celebrate together.

There are two more chances for you to win. In August, we'll celebrate my sixth year of blogging much like a 41st birthday. Until then...

Yellow, Yellow, Kiss a Fellow

March was “Use Up Your Yellow Scraps” month chez van Schurman, and as I promised, here are the snapshots.

We have the quilt series (minus two that I have already used). I've deliberately left these blank because I can use them for thank you notes, birthday cards, or get well wishes.

The flower series. I still have more flowers, but I put them into a little container. I saw this in this month's Creative Keepsakes. (I'm so bummed that Simple Scrapbooks is no more.) Anyway, rather than storing small scraps, you punch them and store small punches for when you need them in your scrap book. That piece with the birthday paper on it is actually an 8x8 scrapbook page. Someday I'll need it.

The polka dot series. The plan was for more of these, but they're kinda boring to make.

And the rest:

You may remember that there were a number of half-finished cards from pink month. Well they were in my way, so I took care of (some of) them. I love this one.

You can see it half-finished here in the upper right hand corner. How will I ever send it to someone?

Coming soon: Purple

Getting it Together

Today when I was commenting on someone's blog, the verification word was "scronad." Now there's a unique morphed word! I don't know quite how to use it, but I didn't want to be the only one with that word/picture in my head.

I haven't been stitching much on Tree of Life. It's all backstitch now. I've been reading some and gardening some and sort of staring off into space a lot.

Here's a photo of that promising rhododendron from May 20:

And the front yard:

You may remember when we planted all this. I thought we had put those roses in three years ago, but it was only two. Yes, you need these, they grow themselves--no watering, no pruning, no fertilizer. (They said to prune them every three years, so I've got some work next spring. Actually, I have work as soon as that rhododendron loses its blooms.)

Maybe later today I'll get myself together to do a report on the card making/scrap utilization project. Maybe I will never be together again...

Summer-Summer-Summertime

Nothing like a little old school Fresh Prince (remember back before Will Smith was an actor?) to remind us that summer has begun however unofficially. Of course today Southeastern Pennsyltucky is wet and cold. Unofficial, indeed.

The dude and I enjoyed our start of summer by planting some veggies, visiting Bartram's Garden, and seeing an old friend. And sitting around on our asses for good measure. I didn't stitch much, but I did wind loads of floss onto bobbins--AC Moore had a 6/$1 sale. In addition to the 30 I picked up, there were the 150s, 160s, and 3800s that I've had sitting around waiting for a new storage box to live in. Nothing says holiday weekend like shopping a craft store sale.

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In the continuing celebration of my five years of blogging, May's giveaway is a summery scissors fob I beaded imploring you to stitch, matching fat quarters, and a pair of Fiskars embroidery scissors. Just comment on this post. No need to spread the word; you don't want any competition. ;)

Drawing on May 31.

I Can Quit Any Time I Want

You've all left for the weekend. I know because I was sitting in the traffic you caused when I was driving to the Strawberry Sampler to drop off my framing. You know one piece that I brought. I'll make the others a surprise. You'll know more in June.

As promised, I have turned to Tree of Life Window (Frank Lloyd Wright).

Last night I was finishing up one of those small squares on the bottom when the dude declared he was off to bed. Was I coming?

Me: "Just a few more stitches." (Four to be exact.)
Dude [in his best Lebowski]: "'Just one more stitch, man.' Can you quit anytime you want?"

I'm not sure I can. Can you?

So This is Spring

Thanks for all your comments about Anna's Bird. I can't believe it's done--and in time for the Strawberry Sampler framing sale! I really thought I'd be bringing that to camp to work on again next year. I might be bringing Tree of Life Window--it has so much back stitching! But I'm working on it--photos soon. I'm glad you enjoyed our trip report too, no matter what kind of animal you want to bring home. (Poo, people, you have to remember the poo!)

Yesterday* I was freezing when I got out of the shower so I put on jeans and a pink long sleeve tee under my brown and pink Craft tee--one of my favorite slummy outfits. By the afternoon, I was sweltering while I put together my tomato cage. Indeed, I've been out in the garden.

One to enjoy now and one for later.

Carol is ready to send on the Sisterhood pattern. Will she be addressing the envelope to your house?

* This morning I put my coat on in the house. It seemed ridiculous to turn on the heat and I've learned you can't dress for 50 degree weather when it will be 81 before long.

Zoo Goers

Yesterday the dude took off from work and because he's just finished Temple Grandin's Animals in Translation, I thought he might enjoy a trip to the zoo. We have done Philadelphia's zoo--America's first zoo--so many times, I thought we should change things up. When I suggested the National Zoo, the dude wanted to know what they had. I was very excited about elephant washing, but he was won over by the chance to see a panda. (You never know with him. Remember the sheep herding?)

We were aiming to be there by 10:30 so that I could see the elephants being washed, and we arrived by 10. Not a bad job avoiding rush hours. But they had temporarily closed the elephant house so there was no elephant washing for me. I was mildly disappointed, but we saw so many other wonderful things, I forgot the stinky elephants. When we finally got round to the panda, most of the school groups had left (phew!) so it was a little quieter. Pandas spend about 16 hours a day eating, and this one spent most of our time with him lounging in a corner chomping on bamboo. What is it with girls of a certain age? They all want to adopt cute animals--from the fisher cat to the panda; all we kept hearing was "I want one" in cutesy-girl teenage voices. Then the adorable panda did a big poo. The girl decided she didn't need a panda anymore. (Quelle surprise!) The dude was off to the side of the crowd, and the panda strolled over to where he was and started rolling around. So cute! I almost wanted a panda. But the best part was it was like he was performing just for the dude. Then everyone ran over to the side where the panda was, so we decided it was enough panda. We also saw golden lion tamarins, golden-headed lion tamarins, black and rufous giant elephant-shrews, prehensile-tailed porcupines (who knew?), naked mole rats, Madagascar tenrecs, meerkats, black-tailed prairie dogs, gibbons, orangutans, a sloth (in a box), mongooses, lemurs, pale-faced saki, Prevost’s squirrels, a rock hyrax, Asian elephants, cheetahs, zebras, an emu, Mexican wolves, Prezwalski’s horses, a hippo (just the nose, ears, and eyes), lions, a caracal, a giant anteater, poison frogs, many birds from the Amazon, jelly fish, cuttle fish, nautilus, spiders, giant octopus, corals, sea anemones, starfish, butterflies, leaf-cutter ants, beatles, a fishing cat, river otters, Mexican wolves, eagles, a sloth bear, a komodo dragon, a red panda, a tiger, sea lions (not seals), turtles, lemurs, a beaver, and a collared peccary. And deer, but I think these were more of a "suburban nuisance" than an exhibit.

He's having fun, really.

Of course, there's nothing like watching the people. It was shocking the number of signs people didn't read. They would charge up to the gorillas, knock on the window, stare at them and wonder why the animals didn't come over to them. (The sign explained how to "make friends with" large primates; none of those actions were on the list.) One group of kids was making up what a komodo dragon (or as one group of teen girls called it "the kimono dragon") was; neither of their chaperones made it over to the sign so they could tell the kids--clearly curious--about the animals. I showed the kids the sign, but they couldn't read it. (I'm terrible at judging children's ages and how old they should be to read.) I think teachers should have exercises for the students to do while they are there. Then it's not all just running around like they are part of the exhibit. (And what about the signs telling everyone what a bad idea it is to stand on the railing? And the kids lounging all over the railings. Oh how we would cry and gnash our teeth and rend our clothes about the injustice, if one of those kids were trampled by an elephant or eaten by a lion.)

Education and entertainment have a sort of uneasy coexistance at zoos. Zoos were nominally created for both reasons, but today zoos seem to focus more on education (environmentalism, conservation) and do things like provide "full experiences" by having you walk into an environment that includes animals, birds, and reptiles that coexist in the wild. Most people, it turns out, don't really want this from their zoos. They want to move from one freakish animal to the next where they can see them (don't be hiding in a hole!), point at them, scream and laugh, and frighten the poor animals by knocking on the glass. When we were walking through "Amazonia," two women said to each other "There's nothing here." Well, there's nothing to see if you don't bother to look! Harumph.

At any rate, that's why I couldn't show you what I finished on Sunday night:

Anna's Bird
copyright 2003 Good Huswife
Called for WDW and GAST on black 32-count linen
(That dark spot on the left is a shadow.)

And as promised, I picked up Tree of Life Window for the drive to DC and back. More photos soon.

Down To It

I have been working for real on Anna's Bird.

Before:

After:

I'm a little sad today. We had a dog come by for a home visit, and she bit the dude. I knew she had problems: she used to belong to an old woman who used a walker, and she kept the dog in a kennel nearly all the time. This lab-mix was nine but had the energy of a 5 year old because she's hardly been exercised. Anyway, the dude was walking behind her on the stairs, and she went for him. I know I could handle her, and some socialization would take care of this, but the dude's never had a dog so we really need something move-in ready. The good news is that we've decided to volunteer at a shelter so we can meet a wide variety of animals and maybe find one more suited to our situation. Sometimes doing the right thing makes you feel really, really bad.

Bag It

I have been reading rather than stitching, so I don't have anything to show. I will share my new carrying case. When I went to camp, they gave me this Vera Bradley lunch tote:



The pattern is "purple punch," though it seems kind of brown to me. Anyway, I haven't been packing lunches and I'm not really a huge fan of VB, so I was thinking WTF am I going to do with this? So there it was, sitting on the table amongst my stuff.



And, though I am spatially retarded, I thought, does that Ott light fit in there?



Turns out it does! Perfect for camp; I am not sure the Ott light leaves home any other time. But if it needed to, it could. And dressed to the nines at that.

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Apparently when President Obama wanted to change the conversation about race in America, people in Philadelphia thought he meant they should talk to me. The other day, my across-the-street neighbor was outside and started chatting to me about my next door neighbors who have recently moved out. (Open house this Sunday! I love nosing around other people's houses.) "You know," she says, "they were black but they were nice." Now I lived next door to them for 3.5 years. Did she have to tell me they were African American? No. It's the correlation. Then she says, "he (the father) didn't let them (the two boys) run wild in the street." It might surprise you to learn that both boys were born while we were living here. We moved in December 17, 2005. Wow what a good father! And hey, two African American boys not in gangs! Where do people get this? Honestly, I'm flummoxed. And torn. She said I made her day talking to her, and I stood there for about five minutes. She's obviously very lonely. She doesn't drive and her sons visit maybe once a month. Her next door neighbors are good to her, but I suppose there is some moral obligation for the dude and I to visit or reach out in some way. See? See why I hate living in a society?

Oh, and just by-the-by when society no longer does something it "loses" the custom not "looses" it. L-O-S-E spells the word that means to come to be without, to suffer the deprivation of, to fail to have, to fail to win. L-O-O-S-E, which does not rhyme with C-H-O-O-S-E, means unfettered, lax, sexually promiscuous or immoral. Are we good on that? Because this one is really starting to drive me nuts.

Fairy Tales

So Mother's Day...that came and went. Here's the present I made for my mother. Not really a sentiment that I espouse...sometimes when I was stitching it, it made me a little depressed. Sure, shoes can give you special powers, but they're only a tool. I should have finish-finished it for Sunday but I'm a slacker so it just went out today. My aunt and grandmother were here though, so we had brunch at my sister's house. They got me a nice periwinkle lacecap hydrangea for... being a woman who chose not to use her womb? It's the thought that counts.

Today I went to see the dude's boss. The dude works in career services, so it's sort of a no brainer to get help from his office. She had a lot of good ideas for me. On the way home, at the bus station, this guy asked about the 104. Then he started chatting with me, telling me he was from Colombia and it was his first time on the bus. "A lot of blacks," he says. What the hell do you say to that? "In fact, Philadelphia is 45% African American." Then he gives me a look like that's a bad thing. So I say, "we're all the same: some rich, some poor, some bad, some good." He says, "But there's a lot of crime in Philadelphia." The conversation continues from there and it transpires he is from Medellin, Colombia. Um, MEDELLIN once the most violent city in the world. (Philadelphia isn't even the most violent city in America.) Oh, you clean up your act for a couple of years and you get to be the pot calling the kettle black? The mind boggles.

In the spirit of bringing together all races, I want to point out that I made that three color cord on the easel. I followed the not entirely comprehensible directions of Marcia Brown in the Fall 1998 issue of Fine Lines. (The dude read them and was at a loss.) Not bad, huh?

Oops almost forgot the most important part: the backing fabric. Thanks to dd (she of RR fame) who not only thought of it but also bought the fabric and sent it to me. Sweet!

Edited to add: The pattern is Lizzie*Kate's Cinderella. I changed the colors to make them match better with the backing fabric. That lime green is the called-for DMC; darker green is WDW spring grass; dark red is GAST cranberry; the star is GAST poppy; lighter blue is GAST Tropical Ocean. I don't know what I used for the darker blue and the medium red, but surely your conversion will be as good as mine!

Stitcher's Meme

Emily over at the Floss Box had this little meme on her blog while I was away. Emily does a lot of embroidery, which is my roots. I like to visit to see what she is up to; recently she's been working on the most adorable bunny series. If you're a biscornu stitcher, be sure to visit her pattern store. You can get, oh, 90 or so patterns for under $10.

• Where did you learn to stitch? My mom taught me crewel and other surface embroidery. I taught myself to cross stitch.
  
• What is your favorite type of stitching? Cross-stitch. French knots. I love French knots!
  
• How many years have you been stitching? Over 20.
  
• What are your favorite threads to use? I love love love Rainbow Gallery Very Velvet; I don't use it often enough.
  
• Have you tried any new techniques in the past year? If so, which? No. I've been stitching for 20 years. Not much new under the sun.
• Do you prefer small or large projects? Definitely small. I do not have the attention span for large projects.
  
• Any particular subject matter you prefer for your projects? No.
  
• Where do you get your inspiration? From YOU! Other bloggers. Whether it's a SAL or just drooling over what you are making. Thanks!
  

What Day is It?

The dinner party went off well, though I did have a rough start--everyone arrived before the dude got home from work (where is my extra pair of hands?) and I was still cutting up the potatoes and the green beans. Fortunately, it's just family, so they can entertain themselves. My cousin likes to help, so I let her. Everyone fell in love with the teriyaki meatloaf (Mandajuice's recipe--and you do need to stick with that sauce!). But I really only needed two; you know I made three! I also tried out Nigella Lawson's recipe for peanut chocolate sundaes from Nigella Express. That recipe right there is worth the price of admission, though I don't know how much sauce she puts on her ice cream. I doubled the recipe--which served four--and was left with two cups of sauce after everyone (all 11) had indulged!

Thanks for your camaraderie on the beer situation. The other loopy thing about Pennsylvania is that you can only buy beer a case at a time. Makes it pretty expensive--and forget about trying new things! You can buy a six-pack from a bar to take off premise, but the mark-up is ridiculous. (Back in the 1980s I bought a six-pack of Miller Lite--the only thing they'd sell us--for like $8. That was my first and last time!) Recently though, Wegman's and another grocery store that also serves food, have figured out a way around the outmoded liquor laws in Pennsylvania. The Wegman's "near" us has given up some of their cafe space to beer, mostly unusual brands. I think they are using their status as "restaurant" to get around being a grocery store. I'm sure the state is going to figure out a way to close the loophole, but for now I foresee a lot of trips to Wegman's!

I went shopping with my mom, aunt, and grandmother ("left eye") yesterday. Mostly boring, but I did get these at SteinMart:

Okay, you're out taking pictures in the rain and you're not wearing the boots? What do you have on? Slippers? And pajamas? The neighbors think you're nuts, you know.

Anyway, that's my excuse for not having stitching pictures for you.

I'm greedy, so I am entering Edgar's drawing. I know I'm supposed to link so that more folks will enter, but you really shouldn't. I know you want me to win! ;)

Bird is the Word

Thanks to everyone who voted on my May project. Should I finish this, I will move on to Tree of Life Window then Apple Sampler. (Now that's optimistic!)

Right now--nearly 11:00--I am trying to motivate to clean my house. I have 11 people coming to dinner at 6:00. Monday is my usual cleaning day (downstairs--I clean upstairs on Tuesday) but I've got to do the second bathroom and vacuum the stairs today too. I also have to shop. And make meatloaves. Two or three? Two of the 11 are children and two more eat like children, well, as much as children. I also need to get beer. (Which, because Pennsylvania is an ass-backwards state, means going to a separate place--not the grocery store--to buy beer. Grr.) And did I mention I'm still in pajamas? Yet...here I sit reading e-mail and your blogs. Because I'm never happy if I'm not being bitten in the ass by deadlines.

Anyway, when everyone leaves tonight, we'll turn on the dvr'ed High Stakes Poker and I'll stitch on Anna's Bird. Better find a place for that white towel.

I am Curious, Yellow

Here's something I've found interesting about you choosing my next project. You all have very different ways of choosing which project to stitch. Kathryn won't "make" me stitch on black fabric. Cathy does eeny-meeny-miny-mo, even for her own projects. Doris wouldn't stitch what you picked out of spite.

So, how do you choose what to stitch?

I suppose when you have a smaller number of projects on the go it might be easier. And maybe it's easier when you don't give as much stuff away. Still I'm curious.

May Day

I wish I had pictures of myself frolicking on May Day in college. We had (they still have them, I just don't participate the same way) rather fabulous traditions for May Day. First the sophomores woke the seniors with a rousing pre-dawn rendition of "The Hunt is Up." Then the seniors in their best white dresses and skirts head up to the roof of one of the dorms and sing to the sun. We sang very traditional Magdalen Hymn to the Sun in Latin (hey, usually we sang in Greek) but kids these days sing all kinds of "sun" songs. Harumph. Then we breakfasted on strawberries and cream and mimosas. After convocation, the traditional maypole dances would be danced, and because it's a women's college, the "mayhole" would be danced around too. The ever-important hoop race ("rolling" hoops down the green) decides who will be the first to complete her PhD (first place) and who will be the first to marry (second place). Now you know why I love my college so much. Throughout the day there are all sorts of old and newer traditions--like performing the Robin Hood play which dates back to at least the turn of the last century--and other "festival" type things. The day ends with the last step sing of the year (all the students sing, class songs, class rounds and other traditional songs, some serious and others spoofs. Here's a songboook you can check out). Last but not least is the showing of Philadelphia Story starring our very own Kate '28.

But you come here for the stitching content, so let's review how I did with my goals this month:

1. Donna's RR--yes, I still have about 25% to do, but I've made real progress
   
2. Flea Market Souvenir--yes, I started the third section, though not very much
3. one Saturday, work on French marquoir--sadly, no
   
4. Have fun at camp and finish all the projects--fun, yes, finishes no. I still have one project I haven't even started. The other two are completed but not finished.
   
5. Finish-finish one project from the to-be-finished pile--yes, see below. Not a very good angle, I'm afraid. He's much straighter IRL. I did my "patented" sew all four sides finish on the stitched piece. Then attached that to the pinked wool with two buttons. I knotted some hemp around the buttons for the hanger.
   

To the Maypole

To the maypole let us on,
The time is swift and will be gone.
Then come lasses to the green
Where their beauties may be seen.
All fair lasses have lads to attend them,
Jolly brave dancers who can amend them.
To the maypole let us on,
The time is swift and will be gone.

Come together, come sweet lass,
Let us trip it on the grass.
Courting, piping on the green,
The bravest lads will sure be seen
There all day on the first of May
Lads and lasses dance and play.
Come together, come sweet lass
Let us trip it on the grass.