Some end of the year finishes

Since my last post, I have been extreamly busy with the prep for the holidays. Between Yule, Christmas and now New Year invites I also had to get things ready for my brood here. I love the time spent on getting things ready, but am pleased to now sit back and relax for a few days before the New Year begins.

Yule  (Winter Solstice December 21) was spent with my oldest DD. We made cookies and began in ernest to get the meals ready for the day of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Christmas Eve was spent at home with 'the Brood'. We opened all of the presents that we had for one another. For the first time ever all of the kiddos had purchased a gifty for momma (aka ME). I love each of them and was plesently suprised by how much thought went into each of them.

I want to share some of my finishes for the year with you.



This first one is of a blackwork butterfly that I have been working on. The patterbn is from Stitches Magazine. It is one of 16 that will be placed into a frame and hung on the wall of my family room.

This is one of the "twin" angel that I made for my neighbor Ms. Liz. She wanted one for herself and one to give to her daughter-in-law. I was very pleased with how they came out. The only parts on them that were not had done were the head and hands. Those were purchased online. I hand sewed the dress, underskirt, and sleeves and hand beaded the cuffs just at the edge of the lace. The wings were made by shaping some "pipe cleaners" and sandwiching them between two pieces of gold tulleand using my sewing machine to satain stitch over the formed wings.

Thats all I have for now. I will be working on some new projects over the next few weeks and finishing up some of my WISP's that I have had hanging around.

May you all enjoy your Christmas goodies and I wish you health and happiness as the New Year begins.

Feeling Blue

Well, since I last posted I have completed several small cross-stitch items. I will post some pictures once I get to the store for batteries.

It is amazing that I keep finding myself up at midnight watching the shows that I DVR'd. The Martha Stewart Christmas show was on Fine Living the other night. I love to watch her at work...If only I was as organized as she is. Sigh....some day. For now I will have to enjoy my creative clutter. I do need to get everything all picked up so that the tree can be hauled down from the attic.

I have been putting it off. I am having a hard time getting into the spirit of the season. I think that it has a lot to do with the cold, wet, blustery weather. It has been gloomy. Last Tuesday it did snow about 4 inches. It looked like a glistening jewel when I got up. By mid afternoon it had started to rain and by eaving all the snow was gone. We ended up with icy roads and a few downed tree limbs. Tis the season.

I am going to have to give myself a kick in the kiester. Time to get over the gloomys. This is a time to enjoy and celebrate. I need to remind myself of all the good things that I have.

So here goes: My Happy List

I have a warm and comfy home.
I have a wonderful Boyfriend who cares about me.
My Children are healthy and (usually?) happy.
My car runs and has a new muffler (ah the peaceful hum of the engine is sweet).
My parents are coming from MN to spend part of the X-mas holiday with us.

Hmmmmmm...This should not be so hard! I will need to start posting some happy thoughts. I am going to shoot for one happy post each day for one week. It is a beginning that I hope will lead me to a happier place before the real holiday hits me.

I sound so whiney. Ah well...I am determined to turn over a new leaf and be more positive.

Merry Meet

Tina

Happy Birthday Momma

You would think that after 40+ years I would remember to give my mother a call on her birthday. NOT! There is a 2 hour time differance between NY (me) and MN (mom). I thought about making the call this morning...had a doctor's appointment...gonna live for another 100+ years...LOL  anyway, I didn't call mom. Then when I got home it was after noon and she is in classes (going to school to be a nurses aide) and will not be out untill after 9:00 pm MN time. I am usually dead asleep by 11:00. I guess that I should stay up and call my mom.

I have been stitching on the blackwork butterflies in the 198 issue of New Stitches. I love this magazine...I need to talk to the gals at Barnes and Noble to have them set a copy aside for me. I have a hard time finding it if I don't get there the day that it comes in. I need to check and see if they will do a subscription to a Yank. That would make my day!

When I get batteries for my cam I will post some pics. I tried to take some, but the cam died...ARGH

Have a wonderful December First.....Only 24 more days until Christmas!

The day before Thanksgiving

Today has been a very harried and active day. Everything is all set to be popped into the oven. Turkey, mashed potatoes, suffing, candied sweet potatoes, acorn squash and gravy from the drippings. Very traditional but oh so satisfiing.

The smell of baking cookies is presently in the air. My oldest DD has the weekend off from the US Army and arrived home earlier this evening. She is only about 75 miles away from home...how many soldiers can say that. her contribution to the feast is White Chocolate Macadamia nut cookies. Her SO made a New York style cheesecake.

DD #2 is making a no-bake double layer pumpkin pie. She had a test run at it last night as she had to bring in a desert for her Dental Assistant classmates. It both looked and tasted great.

The DS spent his day off from high School making Sugar cookies. Simple ones that were cut into circles, sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and baked. Yummy!

DD #3 had already made her contribution last weekend...She and I made three kinds of cookies...8 batches of dough frozen in one gallon ice cream buckets...simple ones;oatmeal rasin, chocolate chip, and peanut butter. We ended up makeing a nineth batch and baking them up. Those are gone already (who would have thought that 5 people could eat 3 dozen cookies in less than a week? LOL). Since the efforst of last weekend were consumed she made a graham layer bar that is an old family favorite passed down from my mother's mother.

My SM got the turkey all set to go. It is a good thing that the weather here is staying in the low to mid 30's F. We were able to season and bag the bird and then set it in the roaster on the inclosed porch. It will be quite safe there as it is supposed to dip down into the low 20's F overnight.

As for me I was the supervisor of the kitchen. Between batches of cookies and bars I tried to get in some crochet work. I began a treetop angel that I plan to give to my neighbor, Ms. Liz. She is a fistey widowed 84 year old woman who still throws logs down into the basement to feed her wood stove. I love her dearly. She reminds me of my Grandmother.  Anyway, I finished the head and began the first round of her neck and shoulders.

Tomorrow there will be 8 of us here: me, my SM, DD #1 and her SF, DD #2 and her SM, DS and DD #3. All of the family together again makes the nest feel full and brings a glow to mommy.

Happy Thanksgiving to All of you.

What to do? What to do?

I have been relaxing with a cup (or two) of tea as I scanned through blogs that I am following. So many thoughts and ideas that are running through my head. I really need to pull out my old sketch books and put some of these ideas down on paper.

Ahhhh...where does one start? I figure that since it is getting so close to Christmas I ahould sit down and work on some of my UFO's. Even before I do that, I need to pull them all out...hmmmmm...where is that box....it has only been up in the attic for 16 years now!!!!!!

Wow. Has it really been that long? YEP....ARGH! There are UFO's that were started for people that are no longer with us. So many people who have slipped in and out of my life. What to do?????  I have to rummage through the box and see what can be salvaged. Can any of these be repurposed or exchanged? Can I actually finsh any of them...do I have all the needed supplies???? Argh....What was I thinking?

Well...I'm off to hunt down the box. Look for me later....maybe I'll show you what I have found

chicken scratch 2

I decided to up load a few more of the scans of my chicken scratch. I like these two much better. I worked them using a blue color from my floss box that was in a tangle. The light double cross stitch is the base for the weaving in this photo. All the floss is three strands. The abstract stitching was done following the lines or crossing the blocks of the squares.

I have been enjoying this form. I can see that there are many other ways that this form of stitching could be used. One of the things that I would like to explore further is to use these stitches on an evenweave cloth.

I can remember seeing and doing this stitching when I was a youngster. I am not sure of the name of the company that the kits I worked was, but I know that they did in-home parties to demonstrate different stitching forms. My mother still has many of those pieces of work.

Again here are some more stitches. I think that they are based on several different photos that I saw while browsing the web. I have seen so many interpertations of this form over the last few weeks.

I enjoyed re-learning these stitchs, it took me back to my childhood and made me feel so youthful. Working the stitches brought back good memories. My favorite one is of working a lovely yellow gignham pillow with a rooster pattern. It was one half of a set...the other was a chicken.

This memory makes me smile because I was stitching it as we rode around on my parents pontoon boat. The sun and sweet air come rushing back as I sit here and think about it. It makes me nostalgic for my parents home.

Things around here have been a bit hectic.  I am not all that fond of my vehicle at this moment. Over the last few days we have had three cars in the shop. Ouch!!! Well, my pocketbook is about empty. My SO and my DD#2 both had their cars in as well. Not such a big deal, just an annoyance.

With all the running back and fourth between the garage and home, I have not been able to sit down and stitch like I would like to. I managed a few moments of stitching at my machine. I finished up two chair cushions and a fitted curtain/cover for my bookcase. I do love getting at my projects and actually completing some of them. As of right now I have no photos....Must add batteries to the shopping list.

My nest project will be completely non-sewing related... I have been asked to make cookies for a family get together the weekend after Thanksgiving. I am to make three kinds of cookies, Oatmeal raisin, Peanutbutter and Chocolate chip. I will be baking my heart out. I figure that 10 dozen of each will allow everyone to take some home if we can manage to keep the kids out of them until next weekend.

Off to don the apron and start mixing....Maybe a triple batch of oatmeal.... wrap it up and bake it later.... Now that sounds like a plan....

I'll let you know how it goes.

To my fellow Veterans

I am proud to claim the title of veteran. I am also proud that my oldest daughter has joined these ranks as well. She makes me so very proud. I wish to thank all of those who wear the uniforms of the United States Armed Forces.

The family and friends of all these people deserve a day of their own as well. Since that has not been set into motion yet it is with heartfelt thanks and deepest gratitude that I say to all the spouses, children, parents, and other faimily and friends, we are proud of all that you have sacraficed  for the freedoms that your soldier fights for every day.

God Bless all our soldiers and their families

some of my work

I am going to attempt to add photos to this page. I am still working out how to do all of this. Please be patient with me.

To the right is my first attempt at Chicken Scratch. I picked the wrong color (to light a blue) for it to show up very well, but I figured that even my oops' are a learning experience. Most of these are just areas that I stitched to see if I liked the pattern.

The photo (below left is the next area on my Gingham. I switched colors (DMC floss, not sure of the color as it was in my floss drawer as a tangled mess. 2 strands) and am much happier with the looks of it. I am still not completely satisfied with the way that the floss is laying in my woven areas,

I have been enjoying the time I have spent stitching my chicken scratch. I hope that if anyone likes it they will drop me a post. Also and suggestions as to how to improve the way that the floss is laying would be greatly appreciated.

Hope that everyone "in your neck of the woods" is healthy and happy. (I apologize now to my English Professor. I still use way to many euphemisms.)

First time ever

So I have been reading blogs non-stop for the last few months. I keep wondering what I could have to say that has not already been said. It seems that I have talents in common with many other bloggers and since this is the case I would like this blog to be a way to dialog with them about ideas and such. After 17 years of marriage I got divorced. Now for the first time I have been able to "play" with my artistic and creative side. It has been a lot of fun.