Muriel Ready to Travel

Miss Muriel has been visiting Kathy who has taken our Flat Grandma to quite a wide variety of places. Although Muriel has been quite crotchety, she loves to talk stitching. Anyway, she's ready for some (more!) new scenery, if you're interested in hosting, toss your hat in the ring.

Mme. Muriel

Muriel has arrived in New York at Fairy Tales and French Knots. She's settling in. They're exploring the Cape now. Keep an eye out for further adventures!

Mme Muriel

Dear Friends, Madame Muriel has wended her way back to CinDC whence she originated. They had a fabulous, and apparently boozy, trip to New Orleans but now she's ready to head back out. If you are interested in hosting her, head over to Pencil Crossings and comment on this post.

Framed!

Did you see Madame Muriel over at Grey Tail was all decked out yesterday for Carnivale in Venice? She is ready to move on. Check it out.

I picked up the framing I had done during the January framing sale at my LNS. I had two gift certificates, so these frames were free! Well, to me anyway.

Love, Me
Hands to Work
Called for materials

Molly picked this one out. I had chosen something else, but she started playing and well, love it more!

Christmas Elf Fairy
Mirabilia
Limited Edition Kit

I wanted this to have a fancy frame because it is very fancy--not my usual style at all! But I love her and I love it. I am going to be so thrilled to pull this one out of storage every December. You'll see in the close-up that the frame has a lot of red in it. I thought that was appropriate.

Scared Silly
Birds of a Feather
Called for materials

I kept passing over this piece when choosing items to be framed. I love it--LOVE IT--but it seemed so crazy to frame something that wouldn't be out very often. The love grew too much to bear, and I decided to bite the bullet. (Actually, it was free! Why not?) This piece just makes me so happy. The close up shows that this shabby-chic frame had beads on it as well. It must have been a beady kind of day.

Poor Sad Neglected Grandma

Funny how everyone has such fond memories of Pyrex! Now there's something else that was sadly stowed in the attic and has won her freedom. And I've been ignoring her.

Grandma Muriel flew from England to Arizona last May {blush}, and I haven't kept up with her adventures, and now she's back in Europe. I haven't forgotten her, but I have been remiss in keeping you up to date on her adventure.

Visiting with Gracie

In fact, Gracie (warning music on blog) kept Madame so entertained, I should have made a special effort to follow her comings and goings. My apologies, Gracie. Muriel and the Arizona Tuffet. Visiting Gracie's workplace. Scones and Sewing. Meeting a Snowbird. Among the Angels. Muriel reclaims the guest room. Relaxing on the Front Porch Swing. A Trip to the Nursery. Another library visit. Enjoying a  Lobster Dinner. Mother's Day Celebration. Oh, no! Muriel takes a tumble. A Visit to choose frames. It's too Darn Hot! Making her mark with the Sheriff.

Muriel is in Italy to visit with Chiara at the Grey Tail. Arrival in Italy! A little tea and stitching. They made plans for the holiday. Muriel received a nice little teapot. She's learned to make coffee, toured the town, and visited Stra.

In Italy with Chiara

Please follow her adventures with Chiara. I will try to be better at keeping flat grandma's page updated!

Day Seven: Bats in my Belfry

A couple of years ago, I saw this really neat specimen box on tatertots and jello {via One Pretty Thing}. It was a shadowbox with bats punched from Halloween scrapbooking paper.

(Maybe all those people who think I have so much patience because I cross-stitch are right. Here I am waiting two years for me to get myself together to make these cute projects. No instant gratification here!) 


First I punched and laid out my bats. I don't have a lot of Halloween paper, so I stuck with an orange, purple, and green color palette--the new official color palette of Halloween. (Orange and black is so 1972.) (I made some visual puns, like the tiger bat in the lower left and the tropical fruit bat in the upper left. Okay just two, what more do you need from me?)

The elusive tiger bat.

Then I pinned my specimens to the board. Then I went and checked the tutorial that Jen had put together. It turns out I was doing it all wrong. So I just kept doing what I was doing. Because I liked the idea of really being able to see the pins. And I hated the idea of using a grid to lay them out. I figure if they look pretty much gridded to me, they're going to look pretty much gridded to you too without all that geometry. (Also, she bought a regular frame and made it into a specimen box. I spent $10 on a shadowbox with a padded fabric background. She saved $6 but I saved my sanity.)

Don't mind the one that turned upside down.

Then I closed the frame and by some miracle of vacuum-age, a lot of the bats fell right to the bottom of the frame. So I revisited Jen's tutorial and saw that she used dimensional adhesive. So I got out some pop dots and stuck the bats to the pins.

I can't wait for Halloween! 

**But wait, there's more!** Our "Flat Granny" is ready to move on. If you're interested in a visit, check out Jo's blog.

***Also*** the article about library stitching has appeared! Clickez. I'd like to point out there are things I would never say. "She's xx years young." My grandmother is 90 years old. My niece is twelve years old. I am 45 years old. What I said was, "Here, I'm the young one. I'm 45 but you don't have to print that." I also did not say "substitute grandmoms." I don't have a grandmom. I have grandmothers who are called Mimi and Ma. I said "surrogate grandmothers." The rest is fine. But seriously someone tells you you don't have to print their age so that's what you open with? Gah.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

You may remember how sadly neglected my house guest Muriel was while she was here. Her visit with Margaret has certainly made up for that!

Still Muriel is ready to hit the road. Visit Margaret to let her know if you are interested in hosting our flat grandma.

And her adventures in New Zealand have been updated. See the link above.

Head Spinning

Thursday already? A week ago my parents arrived. They only stayed four days, but with all the driving we did, I'm still recovering. They stayed with my sister and BIL in Jersey so it was an hour's drive every time we went to see them. On Friday we went to Gettysburg, a two hour drive from my house. If you ever visit Gettysburg, I highly recommend going with the Licensed Battlefield Guide Service. They drive you in your car around the battlefield, and explain what was going on every day and on each field. If you don't have the guide it is just 10,000 monuments in a bunch of fields (trust me, that's how I saw it when I was a kid...bo-ring!). The fam (just the nuclear family) was bitching about the drive (even me, and I was driving!) but they all said it was totally worth it at the end of the day. Even after we got stuck in traffic for almost an hour five miles from my house.

On Saturday we went to Jersey in the late afternoon. The boys went to AC to gamble/watch MMA (as last time) and the girls went to dinner and a movie (Bridesmaids...funny!) then we came home, ate cupcakes, and watched a movie on tv (Switch). We slept over in Jersey, drove home to rescue the dog from the hotel, and drove back for a Cuban feast. (My sister's MIL made me chicharrons!) Back and forth back and forth. You do not even want to know how much money I spent on gas!

I'm still 246 blog posts behind. I may comment late or not at all on your posts, but I'm trying to read them as I 1) become the (volunteer) director of communications for the animal rescue I work for and 2) prepare for my other volunteer position's big Garden Tour. (Oh, and do the calligraphy on 75 invitations to the stateside celebration of my sister's recent nuptials.) As you can imagine not much of anything else is going on right now.

However, Flat Flossie is ready to roll. If you'd like to have her visit, go tell Coni.

Flat Flossie

Muriel has sent us a missive from Indiana. Check out Connie's blog to see her adventures with Stewie.

If you missed her adventures in Pennsylvania, go here.

"Flat Flossie"

Muriel Arlene Myrtle Ethel Adeline "Flat Flossie" St. Clair, the traveling grandma, reports from Havertown:

Upon my arrival from Washington, D.C. I was shown to the guest room.
Not quite as comfortable and homey as it sounds.

After the photoshoot for my first blog appearance--I felt so glamorous!--
I was again left to my own devices...

Finally, I negotiated a trip to the library's "Tea and Stitch." Here I am with my new library card.

The Library Director showed me her (second) sock and poured me a cup of tea.
The library ladies were so welcoming!

They showed me some of the books they had.

Anna worked on Lizzie*Kate's Dog Lessons for People.

I toured the Art Sale at the library.
This is a $5000 sculpture. Not impressed.

On Monday we took a trip to Longwood Gardens. Lovely spring blooms!

Here I am at the Italian Water Garden.
Traveling to Italy is on my bucket list.

On Tuesday, we took a drive to the Strawberry Sampler.
 Molly, Phyllis, and Beth were so excited to meet me. (They are a delight!)
It turns out they know my cousin, Flat Stanley! We had some good laughs over his antics.
I couldn't make up my mind, there were so many wonderful new patterns.
I left the shop empty handed.

She's off to Indiana soon.  I'll make sure it's easy to follow her travels: look for the "Flat Grandma" tag.

Flat Grandma

A while back I showed you the new mascot of the old lady story, who I'm starting to feel needs a name. Connie saw her having a much grander retirement than simply being a symbol.

Hey! Why can't Grandma travel the world like one of those damn stuffed animals that little kids bring home and then send to unsuspecting aunts, etc. as a "project"? You know...Grandma goes to Mishawaka, where she learns how to use profanity AND where to get a decent dirty martini...that kind of thing. She could have her very own little travel book that would document her travels...(I think the kids actually call them passports when sent with the damn animals). I would be thrilled to host her as my guest and then pass her along to another (somewhat twisted) stitcher. 

For some unknown reason, I thought she was talking about my real grandmother. So I responded politely explaining that she's decided she can no longer travel. Coni must have thought I was a wingnut.

Then CinDC said, "@Coni - I'm laughing so hard at the idea of 'Drunk Granny' travelling the world like 'Flat Stanley'" and fortunately, I caught on. (Though the idea of sending my real grandmother along to unsuspecting aunts and twisted stitchers has its appeal.) 


So here's the deal. Grandma is packing her bags and coming to a blog near you. When you receive grandma, (still needs a name) take her out and show her a good time (or what passes for a good time in your neck of the woods) and post the photos of grandma to your blog. In her package, place two postcards and a hostess gift*. One postcard for the next hostess, and one to stay with grandma as a memento of her travels. I'll add in a passport, and you should write a few notes about her time with you. Take your hostess gift and place a new gift in the bag for the next hostess.


I'm sending her to Coni since this was all her big idea. You go see Coni if you want to host next.


Oh, and how about a name?






*Something small and with local flavor. Let's not go nuts here.