They're Back!

My pictures are back from the framer. Ooooh, pretty.

Curly Q Ewe
Little House Needleworks


Ewe and Eye and Friends
Room for You
I thought I was going to frame this in a white shabby chic frame, but this one just does so much more for it.



And, ta da!!! (Wow more than one exclamation point. You never see that here.)
Good Huswife
Anna's Bird

This frame just seemed so perfect for it! I love it. This was framed with glass because I wanted to hang it in the dining room. And where there's food, there's gotta be glass.

But up against the dining room wall, I'm not so sure.


I know we'll find the perfect place for it.

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.

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.

Stitching is My Bag

Or something like that... This is the bag I made for myself. Unlike the other two, I finally figured out the proper size for the pieced section. But I was patting myself on the back so hard I forgot to put pockets inside. And I didn't really do a great job of cutting the piece to size. But I love love love that fabric.

I loaded it up with stuff, dumped it out at the register and piled it all back in after I dropped a pretty penny. Good thing I had that gift certificate from my favorite aunt!

And since Monique gave her full shopping report, and someone did ask for details, here's the full shopping list:

Some WDW floss
WDW fabric, 35 ct fabric cappuccino and havana
28 ct Days Gone By fabric
Mill Hill Buttons and Beads Martini (for you know who)
Erica Michaels, To Thee My Heart (silk gauze) and the called-for GAST and Crescent Colors
Giulia Punti Antichi D2 Biscornu
Shepherd's Bush charms for Anna's stocking and Reed's (crossing my fingers I didn't buy the latter twice)
Lizzie Kate, Cinderella is Proof
Just Nan, Scream House
Threads that Bind, Sunday Social (another sheep punchneedle)
JABC clay--three bats for the monsterbubbles Halloween ornament from JCS

When I arrived on Thursday night, I took out Anna's bird and put a little more floss on that bad-ass black fabric. Here's how it looked last time I worked on it, which I think was last year at camp. And I know why: it's the white table cloths. They're so conducive to stitching on dark fabric. I guess I should buy one!

Oh, and I don't know how I forgot to tell you about this, but there was a small festival going on in the state park the same weekend we were there. The National Fry Bread Champ was there selling "Indian tacos," which for those of you who don't know is basically taco ingredients slathered on a piece of fry bread. Oh mama, that was good stuff.

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!

Update: Anna's Bird

The last time I showed you this, was a year ago. I know I worked on it some in March at camp, and I put it into the rotation a couple of times, though I don't think I actually worked on it until now.

Anna's Bird
Good Huswife
32-ct black linen with called for WDW and GAST

Everyone who sees this in person loves it. Even my dad, who is not known for his observational skills, told me how pretty it was. I was thinking I was going to hang this in the living room, but my mother suggested it would look nicer in the dining room. I think she has a point, but that means I have to frame it in glass...

I started outlining the scallops for two reasons. First, I am getting close to finishing this, and I want to get a clearer sense of how much is left. Second, it calls for three skeins of Tiger's Eye and I have been using just two. I want to spread it around so the last skein won't be used in just one section.

Anna's Bird Progress Report

After 4 hours in the car with the dude to get to my first college friend's 40th birthday party (sounds like torture, right?) I made some significant progress on Anna's bird. I am anxious to finish this because I have the perfect place for it in the living room.

This is where I started with Anna's Bird:













Here is my progress after 10 hours. The black parts on the bird have now been stitched with black floss.

Down the Sidetrack

I got a little sidetracked from my goals this weekend. I picked up Anna's Bird. This was not on my list; I'm supposed to be working my ten hours on Toy Gatherer. But we had company this weekend--the dude's aunt foist herself upon us. I couldn't whip out a project that required as much attention as the last few stitches of Toy Gatherer would require, so I picked up something that called to me from the WIP pile.

Tonight, I'm really, really going to try to pick up Sissy's bag. I should try to get this completed. I only have a little tiny bit to do, and only a little tiny bit of May left in which to do it.

At least I didn't start anything new.