Still Here

Friends, I had not expected to be away for so long, but I have taken nary a stitch for months. And months.

It took me a while just to be able to stay up and eat dinner after my safari. It took me a couple of weeks to feel like I was back in the game, but honestly I've felt off for months--I haven't even baked any cookies for the old ladies! I have finally gotten around to figuring out how to share my hundreds of safari photos with you. The only problem is that you won't get to hear my patter.
I am still reading rather than stitching. But I have missed you, so I'll be making the rounds. See you on the interwebs!

And now for something completely different...

My friend Rachael is thisclose to having her book Kickstarted. She needs to raise roughly $1500 $1100 more in four days. SUCCESS! She's a photographer who suffers from chronic migraine...and, well, here let's have Rachael explain:




Kehrer Verlag has given her a letter of intent, but she needs to shoulder some of the risks (ie costs) of production. I think Rachael's work is amazing and sure some of you might too.

And then we'll return to our regularly scheduled programming.

Santa, Day 6

Just a quick hit and run. I'm off to see John Pizzrelli at Longwood Gardens tonight with Sissy. She's a huge fan so this is her Christmas present from me and the dude. (His Christmas present is that he doesn't have to come with us.)

I'm pretty sure I bought this Santa at JoAnn's after Christmas one year. So it's not particularly special. But I love how his cape and beard are swept by the wind. I love the idea of a cape swept by the wind. The reality is of course, even the tallest, lithest person looks like a giant dufus in a cape. Like you want to be an extra in Lord of the Rings.

Turning to the DIY: At my sister's wedding (it was my BIL's wedding too) they had a photo booth. Some of the best pics come from that. At Christmas, my aunt is the photo taker. Early in the evening (we celebrate on Christmas eve) she makes sure she gets one or two pictures of each person. That way if things get crazy in the evening, we won't have missed the opportunity. But imagine if we could set up a photo booth so she wouldn't have such a responsibility! MAKE has printable props for a Christmas photo booth. Brilliant! Print them now, and you won't be in a rush come December 24th.

The Sixth Sheik's Sixth Sheep

A long time ago--November to be exact--Sadie tagged me for the sixth picture in my sixth folder meme. At the time, the only photos I had on my computer were ones I'd already posted here. I told her I'd get back to her when I found my missing thumb drive. Well, I was looking for something in my messenger bag while I was at the Tampa airport. I dug into the pocket for my sunglasses and felt something...could it be? The thumb drive I had given up as lost lost lost? Indeed.

So the sixth file that had photos (the sixth file was all documents) was my family made into South Park characters. One year the dude and I "Southparked" everyone and put the resulting pictures on their Christmas presents. My niece loved matching them. So the sixth photo is my grandmother, the one you've come to know and love. She's got two drinks because she was a bartender...oh that's right, you've read about that.

She hated it. "It makes me look old."

Charge up the Camera

Photo courtesy of Shimelle.

Pictures of Another Kind

It's the 25th tomorrow and time for more photographs. I think tomorrow's may be the most boring ever. I will be holed up in my office avoiding my evil boss and the dude is leaving for a conference in Chicago before I head to work. Oooh, but I will be picking up the farm share. So look forward to photos of my feet, the sky*, and some vegetables. Aren't you glad I own a camera?
You can see my previous photos here and here.

Photo courtesy of Shimelle; used by permission.

*Check out the pdf for the reference.

May 25

I never did get around to showing the photos from my day o' pictures last month. All that spending time with my MIL got in the way.

Up a little later today. We've got nothing in the house for breakfast, so I toasted some stale crusty bread (Don't tell, but I cut it with a very sharp knife.) Then we went outside to work in the garden. The dude and MIL conditioned the soil. My job was to line up the plants. We got them all in.


Then we cleaned ourselves up and went to Chanticleer.

We had dinner at the General Lafayette Inn and Brewery, which was empty because of Memorial Day. I had the Buffalo chicken cheesesteak. From left, MIL (lamb sirloin), the dude (fish and chips), Sissy (crab cake sandwich). Then Sissy took us for a drive to see Erdenheim Farm. We drove by the Morris Arboretum and saw this field of poppies an installation by Gary G. Miller. All in all a very relaxing evening.

Another Photo Op

I've already taken my first photo this morning. Others to follow: MIL and the dude in our new garden, then the three of us at Chanticleer Garden, maybe us having dinner with Sissy, and I think, maybe a finish. You heard right! I started stitching again last night, and I think something may be done soon.


Photo by Shimelle; used by permission.

Documenting the Day

A random day can be quite boring. Here are some of my photos from the 25th.


Up. Dressed (new $10 skirt from Ross). Breakfast. Bus. Pedicure (Opi Black Cherry Chutney). Lunch (Eggplant Parm, Top Tomato). Shopping for a new top for Saturday's Campaign celebration (H&M, black sweater with a tie at the waist). Dinner (Spicy Cashew Chicken, Cheesecake Factory).

I love how the first photo of the day came out. I took it from bed. If only it came out a little blurrier to represent my bleary eyes. We took photos at dinner like we had never seen food (the dude had fish tacos) and we took photos of each other. I kept blinking so there were about 5 pictures of me. The teenagers at the table next to us thought we were nuts. The good thing about being 40 and not 18 was that I didn't care what they thought. I took about 30 photos of the day, but there aren't many people pictures. I was pretty shy about photographing the woman who gave me the pedicure and our waitstaff. Maybe next time.

{25}

You may have heard me occasionally claim to scrapbook. If you cast your memory way back, you'll even remember that I've shown you a thing or two that I have done (okay, just one, but it was a double book). I read Shimelle Laine's blog because she makes some beautiful stuff, and I hope that someday I will too--you know, with paper and page protectors instead of linen and fiber.

Shimelle recently announced that the 25th of every month will be "Scrap Your Day" day. When I first read about this, I looked to see what the 25th of every month will be: Friday, Sunday, Wednesday, Monday, Thursday, Saturday, Tuesday, Thursday (and Christmas!). I thought this would be an interesting way to document the everyday which was, well, the point. She has a few pointers available. More here. Even if I don't get around to putting these photos in books, won't it be nice to have the pictures to remind myself that I exist on days that don't include cake and ice cream or aren't preceded by a long airplane or car ride? Yes, I think so.

Tonight's big excitement is the craft circle at the library. I'm bringing a new start. You guessed it!

Picture This . . .

My friend NS has offered to host some photos for me. I'm hoping that this will work. I did a great deal of work on the afghan this weekend, although I was unable to complete the peony. I have just a few days' worth of work to do on that before I move on to one of the potted plants, narcissus perhaps?
You can see the afghan and the peony on her website. As we work out the details, we'll post some more photos of the afghan and other projects in process. I'm really excited that you'll be able to see what I've been talking about for the past six months!

Progress Report

I so enjoy looking at everyone's progress on their projects that I might upgrade so I can post pictures too. I got a lot done this weekend on the gladiolus-freesia. All of the leaves and stalks are complete. And I have even begun backstitching. No, I wasn't bad; I just decided that if I wasn't so bored that I had to start stitching the flowers, I should get some backstitching done while I had the energy, instead of leaving it all to the end like on Gallica. I also made four cards with my sister-the-stamper. That took up most of Sunday evening, but I'm very pleased with the work I've done.

I have confined my knitting to the commute to and from work. It seems that I will be done my bil's scarf well before the mid-October mailing deadline. This leaves me with the two small hats and my fil's scarf. He hasn't told me what color his winter coat is, so I may opt out and go buy him something instead. The little boys' hats should take me just an afternoon. And on Friday, it looks like we'll be driving to Vegas so that ought to give me plenty of time!

I can't believe I may make all my deadlines this month!