Cafe Mia

It's The Weekend!!

2008-02-01T08:27:00.000-05:00

Good Morning Everyone!! Well it is half the weekend for me. DD is off school today and I think she is still sleeping. We have plans later which includes her working on a project that is due Monday. DS has school but it is a fun day for him as it is Patriot Pride Day and he can wear jeans along with his HS emblem t-shirt.

It has been a busy week for DH this week. I never imagined that he would have most of the cabinets installed this week but there isn't much left to do in the way of the actual install process. Of course there is still a lot of work to do as there is the trim, lightrails, tile backsplash, etc. BUT my new kitchen is looking like a kitchen finally. I am so happy and never dreamed I would ever have a kitchen like this one. Since early in our marriage, I always dreamed of a big kitchen but was always happy with what I had. Now I am going to have something that I hand-picked. Cool!!

Here is a photo of the sink side of the kitchen. I think the dishwasher looks cool with the cabinets. It will be even better when it is all hooked up and working. My hands are being destroyed because of the hand washing everything and the cold weather. But hand cream seems to be finally working and it won't be long now before that baby is washing and drying our dishes.

This next picture is the stove/refrigerator side of the kitchen. Hopefully tonight or tomorrow, DH will have the rest of the cabinets up and the refrigerator in place. I would have taken a picture of the fridge but there are tools in the way (what else is new in this house these days?)

And here is my new stove. It is not white, it is stainless. It is just all covered in this protector stuff and everything else. I don't want DH unwrapping it til it needs to be put in its place.

And here is my stitching for the week. It is not much, but I have been trying to sit for at least 15-30 minutes each day and do a little bit. This week found me a little anxious and unsettled and I didn't want to have to frog any stitches so I left it alone a few days to avoid the ripping out. I know if I have to start ripping, it will all be put away yet again. I don't want that happening.

It is shaping up to be a busy weekend around here. Besides DD's report, we have lots going on. DS has been invited to a Freshman Dance at our local high school (not his). It is just a friend and she doesn't live far away. But most of his other friends will be there so he should have a blast tonight. I still don't know what time the dance is and I have stopped bugging DS about it. I did my part with the permission slip and clothing. He needs to find out when to be ready and if we are driving to or from the dance. I don't know the girl's parents but they live near my father in law so it isn't far away or in some unknown area where I am prone to get lost without Mapquest or DH's GPS.

Kitchen related, we are going to pick out the granite this weekend too. Then after that, the granite company will come out and make templates. I "think" shortly after that it will be installed within a couple of weeks. I don't know all this stuff exactly. I am finding that if my brain gets overloaded with unknown building stuff, I tend to have selective hearing. But all is good. I will be educated in that this weekend. I just need to decide on a color of granite. I have a feeling that will not be easy. It took me over a week to pick out paint. I won't have a week to pick out stone.

I also need to look at faucets again. I did a search online at the local stores but the pictures do not do these faucets any justice. I need to see these in person. As an example, I saw my sister-in-law's faucet online. It is beautiful up close and personal. The picture is ugly and for the price, I can see people saying they would never pay the price for that faucet. Yet, like I said, it is beautiful. So that is also on the agenda.

There are other things going on but at the moment, I can't remember. I just know that I want to enjoy the weekend and I want DH to get the kitchen futher to completion. I think that is why I am having anxiety problems. LOL It comes and goes but I am like a kid waiting for Christmas these days and I really need to settle down a bit. Otherwise, I will never get my kitchen stitching finished in time for the grand opening.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Focus, Baby!!

2008-01-29T08:46:00.000-05:00

After spending a weekend with boxes of cabinets all around and dealing with DH tiling the kitchen and the dust of him having to cut the drywall in order to anchor cabinets, I figured out I need to remove myself from the situation for a bit. Right now I am anxious, excited, tired, excited and worse than a kid waiting for Santa to arrive at Christmas. Sooooooooo...I sat down and decided to stitch. After about 3 minutes tops, I put it down, grabbed my coat and DD and went out and did errands. That cleared my head and my wallet but at least it was stuff that we needed and not impulse stuff. I am getting good at making a list and sticking to it. It is the only way the budget will survive these days. I came home to DH still tiling, cabinets still everywhere you can see and decided to get on the computer. I really wanted to settle in and stitch but it just wasn't happening. Then it hit me... While I was trying to get motivated by reading blogs, looking at all of your finishes and WIPS, it came to me. I need some focus. With focus will come the concentration I need to settle down a bit. Of course, it is easier said than done. This all came to me on Saturday and here it is Tuesday. But I have a plan and it will start later today. That is my goal. Later today... I tried yesterday but I had to clean up from all the dust that was made from the NEW drywall being cut. Do you know I really REALLY despise cleaning? I need a maid. When I win the lottery, I am getting a maid. Then again, she will probably quit because I live with slobs. So I better get used to the fact that I am the maid.

Okay I digress...this post is about focus and what I plan on doing. I have quite a few things I want to stitch for my kitchen along with quite a few things that have already been stitched. For the moment I have two kitchen WIPS. They are "Coffee" by Mystic Stitch and "Chef's Wardrobe" by Sue Hillis. I will be jumping back and forth between those two til they are finished or close to finish. Chef's Wardrobe will be finished sooner and then I will add another to my list. Hey, I get a new start sometime in the near future. That is something to look forward to. It has been a long time since I started something NEW.

Now for the already stitched pieces. They are somewhere in my attic which is somewhere in my new upstairs in a box (I hope). Years ago, I bought 6 kits (I was a novice back then) of coffee pots and had them hanging in my old kitchen in my old house. The frames will not match the new kitchen and I am so sure they are dusty (especially if they are not in a box somewhere). So the plan is to unframe them, rewash, stretch and press them and put them in brand new frames that will match my new kitchen. I already know they will go along the top of the huge window. DH even thinks they will look great there as they are each 5 X 7 in size and very colorful. So my plan is to dig them out, check them out and then put them aside til I can get new frames. My only saving grace is that they are all under glass so any damage done will be minimal. I just hope I can locate them quickly. There is lots of stuff in the new upstairs.

So there you have it. I am going to focus and settle down and stitch. It is all there waiting at my stitching side of the sofa. I am hoping to get something done while I do my laundry today. I still have some more cleaning up to do but that is minimal compared to yesterday.

On the kitchen front, the first cabinet was hung up last night. I was going to take a picture but I think I will wait til more are hung up so you can get the full effect. I still don't like the picture I showed you the other day. In the meantime, while you are waiting for kitchen pictures, I may have a cross stitch picture to share. I just need to focus...

Have a great day everyone!

They're Here!! They're Here!!

2008-01-25T12:14:00.001-05:00

FINALLY!!! After many long months (even though this part of the addition is relatively new), my cabinets arrived this morning. I have looked at so many cabinets, etc. in the past couple of months that I forgot what they looked like. DH unboxed one and I said it is lighter in color than I remember. But I am in love with them and can't wait til they are installed.

We chose a teal colored paint for the walls. DH wanted a blue shade. I wanted a green shade. So this was a compromise. I was not crazy about it at first but once the second coat was on and it dried I was very pleased. I was even more pleased when I made DH put a cabinet next to the wall to see if it looked good with the cabinet. He got a little worried because I have mentioned a few times this week that I may want the paint color changed. This was the true test and I am very pleased with the result.

It is not the best picture but here is the cabinet next to the wall. In looking at the photo, the color looks different up close and personal. But at least you get the idea. Hopefully at the end of the weekend, I will have another picture or two. DH is installing the tiles this weekend.

In stitching news, I have been stitching but not a lot. I have managed maybe an hour tops all week. It is exam week here at our house and I was busy helping DS study and prepare for this exams. He is finished and I can pretty much relax this weekend and hopefully get lots of stitching done.

DD does not have exams til June but she has been busy with a book report and just general tests and quizzes.

I guess that is about it from here. I hope you all have an enjoyable weekend. I plan on stitching, relaxing and having fun!!

Camera Found!

2008-01-18T08:04:00.000-05:00

After I posted yesterday, it started bothering me that I could not locate the camera ANYWHERE!!! So after much searching I managed to find it in my very messy living room. So to give you a visual update, here are some photos I took just a few minutes ago.

This first picture is what is left of my "old" kitchen. I still have the stove and fridge and a few cabinets. The plastic covered wall you see is now the wall of my new kitchen. It used to be my sink, dishwasher, window to the outside and a few cabinets.

This next picture is the back section of my new kitchen. If I were to stand outside and take the picture I would have gotten the whole thing but I wasn't about to stand on slush covered steps. The door leads to the side/back yard area of the house. The window is on the side of house (driveway) and that is where my new sink will be.

This next one is the front half of the kitchen. My kitchen table will go in front of that window. This is also the front of the house. And I have to tell you that with no lights in there and the blinds open, it is so bright and cheery (well as cheery as drywalled walls can be LOL).

This is the view from my dining room showing the entryway into the new kitchen. My DH made that curved archway (well he made everything) but I am proud that he didn't just settle on having it squared. He added something special to the entryway.

And to prove that my living room is a mess, here is the proof. Please know that I am not a messy person and the rest of the house is clean and as neat as can possibly be during this renovation. I need normalcy and the other areas of the house are cleaner than they have been BEFORE the building of the addition. LOL In this picture you can see the contents of most of the cabinets that we had to empty along with a few of the old cabinets that DH is going to hang in our cantina (wine cellar/storage). I found my camera in that mess. Not easy considering the camera was not in its case and is very small compared to what I had to sift through on the tabletops.

And because I mentioned it yesterday, here is a photo of DD and myself after she received her DARE medal. Please excuse my looks. In this picture I am in DIRE need of a haircut. Also, I am not tall. DD is just very petite for her age. It is a shame that DH had to leave. What a moment that was when she got that medal. Even she was not expecting that after having to read her essay.

And last, here is where I left off on Chef's Wardrobe when I put it away. I never got a chance to stitch last night as there was homework and phone calls and whatnot. But I do plan on putting some stitches in between now and the long weekend we are going to have. Especially since the weather is supposed to turn very, very cold by Sunday. I plan on staying in and cuddling up on the sofa and stitching on Chef's Wardrobe.

Well I guess that is about it from here. I need to get myself together as I am finally getting that haircut today. I can't wait. If I have progress on Chef's Wardrobe I will make sure to take a picture to share with all of you.

Have a great Friday and a great weekend everyone!

Back in the Saddle Again

2008-01-17T10:18:00.000-05:00

It has been a very long time since I have updated my blog. I almost thought of just deleting it but I knew there would come a time when I would want to return.

Lots has happened and it would take many posts to update you all on my life. I have missed reading everyone's blogs and have been trying to catch up in the last few days.

Since my last post, my stitching mojo was completely gone. Gasp...stitching felt like a chore instead of the joy you are supposed to get. When I started frogging more than stitching all got put away. In the past week or so, I am getting the itch to get back to it. There are a lot of reasons but the most important is that sometime in the next 6 weeks, my new kitchen will be complete or at least functional. DH has drywalled the room and is now spackling it so it can be painted.

Our cabinets are ordered and should be here in the next 2 weeks or so. I still need to buy the appliances but I have picked them out so it is a matter of going to the right store for the best deal. We bought the tiles for the floor so things are moving and moving fast. I am loving that I am now seeing the room that it will be as opposed to this big empty space that reminded me of a barn. We also need to pick out paint and the tile for the backsplash. But that shouldn't be too hard. It means a trip to either Home Depot or Lowes or both. :)

Some time between now and the weekend, I will pull out a WIP (Chef's Wardrobe) so it will be ready to hang in the new kitchen. I guess that is where the mojo is starting to return. And it helps that the weather is colder and I am tired of just watching t.v. or getting on the computer at night.

We are all doing well and the holidays were wonderful. The kids are doing well in school and DS's adjustment to high school is pretty much on a good path with just a couple of bumps here and there. Much better than a few months ago when I was living with rose colored glasses on. LOL He is now getting excited about going to the "Snow Ball" on Friday evening. Yes it is another dance and yes, I will be a nervous wreck that night.

During the Christmas season, DS was in his school's concert. What a beautiful concert it was. It was the Band and the Chorus and I never heard such beautiful music and heard such beautiful voices. It really put Christmas into perspective.

He is loving school and the activities he is involved in. He is turning into a great young man. I always knew he would as he was a great baby, toddler, child, and so on. I just wish sometimes that he wasn't such a TEENAGER. Oy, the attitude he gives us sometimes.

DD is doing exceptionally well. This past Fall, her class completed the DARE program. They had to write an essay at the end of the program. Unknown to DH and myself, DD won the essay contest out of the entire 5th grade. Her class had one boy and one girl win the essay. Hers was much better than the boy that won in her class. About a week or two before the closing ceremony, DD's teacher kept asking me if we were attending. "Of course" was my reply. At the last minute it looked like DH was not going to be able to make it. But that was still okay and DD was fine with it. The teacher kept saying to me to "try" to see if DH could make it. I never knew about the essay contest UNTIL the actual ceremony. In the end DH was there but left before the medal ceremony. Again, we had no idea and he had to get back to work. I was shocked and surprised when they had her go up to the sergeant to get her medal. I was crying and I don't think I stopped til after I picked her up from school that day.

Then to make matters even better, that same week, she was chosen from the 5th grade choir to sing cantor at First Friday Mass on January 4. I never heard "Joy to the World", "Christ has died (sung during Eucharistic Prayer) and the Great Amen sound so beautiful. I am tearing up now just remembering that day at Mass which was probably the best Mass I ever attended.

Since then we have cleaned up from the holidays, made a mess with the existing kitchen (I have no sink or dishwasher and have to use the laundry room tub for dishes) but everything is starting to fall into place and we see the light at the end of the tunnel

With any luck, I will pull out my stitching later and will take joy in those stitches I stitch. I also hope to update more on here. I need to take pictures but can't find the camera (half of the contents of my cabinets are in the living room) and hopefully I will have some pictures to share with you very soon.

I hope you all have a great day and keep warm if you are in my part of the world where it is very VERY cold and we are expecting a wintry mess a/k/a snow, sleet, rain later today.

Quick Update

2007-10-28T07:38:00.000-05:00

So much for trying to blog more. LOL It has been crazy around here. I think I am spending more time in the car than I actually do at home or anywhere else. My kids are really keeping me on my toes but that is fine. It is their time to shine and have social lives. :)

Since my last post, there has been a Homecoming Football game (we are 7-1 and won that day), a Homecoming Dance (DS had a great time even though I was practically biting my nails all night hoping he had a good time), last night's band competition (we came in 3rd) and all the after school activities DS is involved in. I swear I am picking him up at school after hours 3-4 times a week and school is only in session 5 days a week. LOL

As for DD, there have been 2 intense school projects, shopping for Halloween costume (medievel princess/damsel sorta thing), Halloween Party at school sponsored by the Home and School and just her general carting around to various friends' homes.

That leaves little time for me. Between all the school functions and activities, I am trying to keep on top of the housework, shopping, bill paying, etc. So that means, my stitching time has suffered or as I like to put it, my ME time. In the past two weeks I think I have managed two evenings of uninterrupted stitching. Now that sounds like a lot of time, but really we are only talking about 1-2 hours. After the next two weeks, I should have more time but not really because Thanksgiving is around the corner and that means Christmas is not far behind. ACK!! I have no idea where the year went. I think most of it is in my car. LOL But that is okay. I am glad that my kids have lots of friends and activities to attend. They are not "popular" but they hang out with great groups of kids.

We had horrible rain on Friday and the HS football game was rescheduled to tonight. I am not happy about that because it seems that Sunday is my only day that I have no where to go. So this afternoon will be another rush in getting DS ready for the game. Then it starts all over again. Hopefully next Sunday will be a free day for me.

So for most of today, I have laundry to do, dinner to cook and a band t-shirt to wash (he wore it last night and only has ONE). Then I have to get him to and from school. But at least it is later in the day that he has to be at school and not the middle of the day when I get most of my work accomplished.

I need to take pictures but the outside of our remodel is finished. It is stuccoed, sided and cleaned up and it looks great. If you were to ride by the outside of my house, you would never know that the inside is about to be a mess. But that will wait til after Christmas. In the meantime, DH has lots of prep work to do in order to knock down some walls.

Well I guess that is about it from here. I am sure I am forgetting something but I just wanted to post a blog entry to let you know I am alive and well. I just spend lots of time in my car. :)

I Really Do Stitch (sometimes)

2007-10-11T07:26:00.000-05:00

It may take me awhile, but I really do stitch and now I have some pictures to prove it. LOL Here is my car project all finished. Sorry for the wrinkles but it won't be washed and ironed until all 3 of this series is finished.

Here are the details:
Victorian Sink from UK Cross Stitcher, Issue 182
Designer: Maria Diaz
Started: March 21, 2007
Finished: October 5, 2007
This was solely a car project and it would have been done sooner if it didn't sit in the car untouched from June til mid-September. :)

I have already made a start on the Victorian Toilet and hopefully that will be finished in 2007 as now I have lots of waiting time in the car between DD and DS's after school activities.

Next up is my current WIP and it is Chef's Wardrobe. My stitching time lately has been at a premium as we have been very busy but I have managed to finish all the white and blended white/gray of the chef's uniform and have now started the dark gray (DMC 3799).

Finally the weather is feeling like Autumn (my fav. season) and I am so hoping to have more evenings to sit and stitch. It would be great to have weekends too but that won't be happening until sometime in late November and by that time, I will be getting ready for Christmas. So here's hoping I can have lots of stitching time starting right after Christmas.

Last night as I was stitching on Chef's Wardrobe, I decided that as soon as I finish up a motif in the closet, I will move to another project (Tesori or Coffee). That way, it will feel like I am doing a small design between my larger projects. I am enjoying Chef's Wardrobe and highly recommend Sue Hillis Designs. I love the way her charts are and I love the designs.

Like I mentioned earlier, Fall has arrived and it is so blissfully cool outside. It feels great to have jeans and a long sleeve t-shirt on. I even have the energy to tackle my housework today. My goal is to have everything finished between today and tomorrow so I can enjoy the weekend. We have an off weekend with DS. There are no football games or band competitions scheduled so I can hang around the house and make spur of the moment plans. My kind of weekend.

I best be getting along if I want a housework-free weekend. I hope you all have a great day and hopefully I will have more progress pictures very soon.

Fall Stitching Goals

2007-09-26T08:22:00.000-05:00

It has been awhile since I thought about projects and upcoming projects and finishes and so forth. It has been awhile since I stitched. But now that I seem to be back into the swing of things I started thinking about my stitching. I updated my Projects List (in my sidebar) and the list keeps growing. I am going to try to stay with the challenge but I have to admit, I have slipped up a few times in the past year with the most recent purchase being last night.

Looking at my list, it is HUGE. There are 33 projects I want to do NOW and I am sure there are many more that I can add. It is scary actually and I think that is what sets me up for defeat. The size of the list. So I am breaking it down a bit to make it more manageable.

I figure I can work on 5 projects and I need to make them various sizes. Let's face it, Tesori is not going to be finished any time soon. It will be on the list for quite awhile. So for now I have 4 projects and I need one more. I am not sure which project it will be. It will definitely be off the list unless of course I track down a JCS Ornament Issue and pick out an ornament. But to date, the magazine is nowhere in the region and I may have to order it. I just hate the fact that I have to pay shipping and handling for a magazine. So I will wait it out just a bit to see what project 5 will be. When I finish one of the 5, I will add a new one without feeling guilt. I know Cathy does something like this and it seems to work for her. Let's see if it works for moi.

The 5 projects are:
1. Tesori (1/5 finished)
2. Coffee (1/3 finished)
3. Victorian Sink (car project-almost finished)
4. Chef's Wardrobe (just restarted)
5. To be announced.

So if I should finish Victorian Sink in the next week, I will start another project which will be the Victorian Toilet or Tub. The sink has been a quick stitch and would have been finished long ago but it stayed in the car all summer without me touching it. I am now doing all the backstitch and should finish in a few days.

The other 4 projects I will probably just rotate but not a weekly or daily rotation. More like, when I get sick of one project, I will pick up another. But I would like to see me stitch on each project at least once a month to get more progress on them. I figure I will switch off of Chef's Wardrobe once it starts looking like something other than a white blob. Or I may finish an area and then switch. I don't know yet. I haven't put much thought into it.

If I can stick to something like this, I should see some more finishes which is what I want. But most importantly, I want to enjoy what I stitch and see it hanging on the walls or decorating my home in some way. And it is cheap therapy. So I get off easy by stitching my stress away. :)

Have a great day everyone!!

New Week

2007-09-24T07:51:00.001-05:00

Another Monday here in PA. Why is it that weekends go by in a hurry but it takes forever for the weekend to get here? Don't worry about answering that because I don't think there is an answer. LOL

The weekend was very nice and the wedding we attended on Saturday night was just beautiful. I can't believe M is married. Like I said on Friday, it was just yesterday when he was 6 or 7.

Yesterday I was tired but accomplished a good bit of stuff before I had to force myself to bed at the ripe old time of 9 PM. If I don't get in bed at 9 and do my normal nightly reading, I am up til way past 11 or midnight. That is not good when the alarm goes off at 5:30 AM.

This week is going to be busy as I am lunch mother all week and it is double-shift. So the middle of my day is shot. The only good thing is that the lunch mothers get paid at our school and it will be nice on Friday to have some extra pocket money.

After I send this, I must haul my butt to one of my children's rooms and start dumping. I hate that I have their rooms all clean and about a minute later, it looks like a bomb went off. They will not be happy this week but I will be.

I never got a chance to stitch this weekend BUT that is about to change. The fall t.v. season is starting and I get to sit for 2 blissful hours tonight watching Dancing With the Stars. So t.v. this week is good til Friday. Between DWTS and Survivor, I should be able to show you a picture of Chef's Wardrobe (providing there is more than white on the linen).

I won't be able to make CATS this weekend as DS's Marching Band Competitions are beginning. It is a shame that this is not the weekend we are in Hershey. Then I would definitely have found a couple hours to go to CATS. But I have priorities and DS is one of the two top priorities in my life. I am actually very excited to enter this whole new world. Friday night is a football game and I am working the concession stand. I sure hope I get to get out of there during half-time to see the band play on the field. BUT that is wishful thinking. That will be when we are most crowded. Then some time on Saturday I drop him off at school and he will head to another high school and then DH, DD and myself will follow a short time later. I am anxious to see how this band competition stuff works. Supposedly the band at DS's high school is up there in the ranks. This coming weekend should be interesting.

I hope you all have a great day. I need to get myself upstairs armed with trash bags and cleaning stuff.

High School Musical

2007-09-21T09:10:00.000-05:00

Last night it was back to high school for DH and myself. We went to our very first Back to School Night at DS's school. I am exhausted and did a weeks' worth of workouts in the 2+ hours we were there. My favorite time was lunch. LOL I got to sit and have some water before my next trek up to the 4th floor.

We started in homeroom and met the teacher who is also DS's Physical Science teacher. Then every 8 minutes the bell would ring and we would move on to the next class. The school is HUGE. It used to be a girls' school and boys' school. In the past 20 years it merged into one school and both buildings are connected by a "bridge". I was a pro going through that thing on the second floor by 6th period. I got to know one of the student ambassador girls and she would grab me after the first few periods to direct me. By the 5 class (right after lunch), I told her I was bound and determined to find my way. She gave me a thumbs up at 6th period cause I told her the room and pointed to where I was going. I was so proud of myself.

DS goes from the 4th floor East to 2nd Floor West then east and west and so on all day long. My legs were BURNING by the time I hit 7th period Algebra. Whew!!!!

All in all, it was a great experience and we get to do it all again next year. I got to see familiar faces from SPX (well we do live in the same neighborhood) and I got to see some old faces from our old neighborhood. DS never told me that one student from Roxborough was in 3 of his classes. It was great to see M's parents again. I always liked them and we had a nice chat at lunchtime.

But best of all, I got to see how my son's day goes. I give him credit. It has been a week since he has been late to class. He has to run around with each bell ringing and forget going to his locker. He must bring everything with him. I never asked but there is no way no how that he goes back to his locker during the day.

I think it will be a great year. I am impressed with the school and very impressed with the teachers. I liked them all and see great things happening in this my child's first year of high school.

It was fun meeting parents and making jokes in the hallways when we saw people we knew.

In other news, I am so HAPPY today is Friday. This week was long. Those early mornings get to me by Friday. Today I work at DD's school in the cafeteria. Then next week I am lunch mother all week to 1st and 6th grade. So next week is busy before it even begins.

This weekend we are attending a wedding. This is a very special wedding as it marks the wedding of the son of two of our very dear friends. I remember M when he was 7. Now he is getting married. It should be fun and I am looking forward to it. Sunday will be low-key and between now and Monday I really want the house in some kind of order. I have tried but with school starting and the work going on, it has been hard. Hopefully I will get lots accomplished including some stitching. I did start again on Chef's Wardrobe and so far so good. No more mistakes YET!!!

I hope you all have a nice weekend. I am planning on it.

The Inside

2007-09-18T08:44:00.000-05:00

There is a post below this one that shows the outside of my house remodel.

Okay, since I can pretty much safely move within the work area and since that is where most of the photos will now be taken, it is time to show you the inside of the addition. This is the back view of my soon to be kitchen. This is about 2/3 of the room. The other third is on the other side of the black wall. That wall will not be broken into til after the holidays. I still need the old kitchen and dining room.

This is just a close-up view of the new door and the existing house wall. Where the old kitchen window is, will eventually be my stove but further inside. I think DH told me that he is moving 3-4 feet inside the house and the new support wall will be built there.

This is a view of the new front window. My kitchen table will reside there in the Spring. I absolutely love the size of the window and because it is a bay window there is a nice size ledge for plants and pretty decorative things. I am so looking forward to having more than one house plant. (We have a Christmas cactus that my dear FIL bought us last year and it is the only house plant we have at the moment)

This is the view from the existing attic door. I cannot get inside of the upstairs without a bigger ladder so I stood on a step stool at the door. This is the showing the front of the upstairs. It is really big up there. :)

Again, here is a view to the right from the attic door. I must be crazy to have let DH do this. I will have twice the amount of housework to do when this is all finished.

So there you have it. I have to say here that I am very proud of my DH and my brother in law. They did all the work so far to date with the help of a few friends. The only contract work we have had to date has been a stone mason (the basement), the plumber (sewer pipes) and roofer (new roof).

I just realized I didn't take pictures of the inside of the basement. I will save them for another post. It is not much to look at but it will give you an idea and a good way to see the before and after.

Have a great day! Hopefully the next pictures I show will be of stitching. I really do stitch. Just not that much lately. :)

The Outside

2007-09-18T08:16:00.000-05:00

As promised, I took a few minutes from my crazy life and took pictures. If I had to show you all the steps that have happened since my last house update, you would be reading for awhile. So I broke it down.

This is what we started with. This is what the house looked like for the first three years we lived here.

And this is what it looked like as of this morning. The huge window is the new kitchen. The smaller long windows is the dining room. The upstairs will be broken into two large bedrooms, a bathroom and are you ready... a small craft room for me. The window on the right should be where the craft room will go. I am not 100% sure but I don't see a need for a huge window in the bathroom. It will just be a shower stall, toilet and sink/vanity. The kids will had to deal with artificial light. LOL

And not to be forgotten, here is what the back of the house looked like.

And here is what it looked like this morning. The upper window will be a bedroom. The door is in the kitchen and will lead out to a small deck. The steps are just temporary and of course there is still work to be done i.e. moving the a/c unit, etc.
It has been crazy here and I have been trying to get pictures to show you what is going on in my life. I would have had a stitching photo but something went wrong. I had to end up frogging the white blog in my Chef's Wardrobe and am now down to a blank piece of linen again. If all goes well, I should be able to stitch tonight. It has been hard as I have been exhausted after dinner. I am hoping by the end of this week that I will be used to getting up at 5:30 AM every morning. And I am hoping that I have some sort of new household routine in place. It has not been easy and I have always hated the first couple weeks of school.

More later...

Beautiful!

2007-09-12T12:23:00.000-05:00

That describes the day here. Finally, after what seems like forever, the humidity has broken and it feels more seasonal around here. I don't think our temperature is going to even reach 80 today. I am so ready for Autumn. It is my favorite time of year and I can't wait for it to get here.

In other news, the roofers are here putting on our new roof. The outside of the addition is now complete other than the siding and the roof and the odds and ends that DH needs to finish. There is also one more window that needs to be installed and I think that is happening this weekend. I am thinking that in the next month that from the outside, people will not know that there is still much to be done. It will look like home again. Probably in a month, I will start the panic mode because the inside will be more ripped up than it already is. LOL The target for my new kitchen is next spring. Lots has to be done before the kitchen can be installed. At least I will still have my old kitchen. I have to take pictures to show you. I have been lazy lately when it comes to my camera. I hope to remedy that soon when I am back into the swing of my "school routine".

I went back to stitching on my car project which is the Victorian Sink from a UK Cross Stitcher magazine. There is not much more to finish. Hopefully today I will finish up the cross stitching and then get to the backstitching.

Last night I sat so nicely with Chef's Wardrobe. There is still not enough to take a picture because it is white on white (well antique white actually) and it is just a white looking blobby thing. Maybe by next week, I will have more finished and will actually take a picture.

School is going good for the kids. They are settling in nicely and I have to admit that I don't have the nervousness and anxiety I had last week. I have my moments, but that is all they are. It passes quickly when I realize that I am getting back into my routine and with any luck, I will have a weekend free from housework. It has been a long summer as weekends were about the only time for me to get things done. And I don't work outside the house. Strange, but true!!

My plan for tonight is to sit and stitch again and veg out in front of the t.v. It felt nice last night and I plan on it again tonight. What a stress reliever!!!

Have a great day everyone!

Always Remember

2007-09-11T07:25:00.000-05:00

September 11, 2001

Innocent lives were lost forever.

The innocence of a country was lost forever.

My children will never experience the world I lived in up to that dark day.

Hell is too good of a place for the monsters that caused this terror.

God Bless those fighting for our freedom.

God Bless America.

God Bless the World.

First Day Updates

2007-09-06T08:02:00.000-05:00

First off, thank you for your kind comments yesterday. It really was emotional and I cried on and off most of the day.

Not to be forgotten, DD had a wonderful first day and is happy with the teacher she has. I knew she would be. I sometimes sub as lunch mother for this teacher and I have always liked her. Yesterday when I took DD to school, I was still red eyed from the crying about DS. One of the snotty moms commented to me that she was very emotional as she couldn't believe her princess was in 5th grade. It took all of my self-control not to smack her. I turned to her calm as could be and said 5th grade is nothing. I was still emotional because my son started his very first day of high school. That shut her up and made her move on. Then I come to find out by looking at the school line that her princess is in my DD's class. This is not one of DD's favorite people and DD has been fortunate the past couple years not to have princess in her class. But I have complete faith that DD will be able to stand up to princess this year.

So anyhoo, DD came home from school all excited about what she is going to learn this year. Last night she sat with me as I filled out forms, covered books and picked hot lunch menu for the month of September. She was very animated and I am happy for her. This morning, I did not even have to wake her up. She came down the steps at 7:30 to see if it was time to get dressed. :) What a girl!!

DS had a wonderful day too. Of course I was on pins and needles to see him yesterday afternoon. He was only late for one class and it was because he decided to drop stuff off in his locker. He told me he is not doing that again. :) We have to run out later for his binders and looseleaf paper. I have everything else.

The real worry was when it was time for him to be home. Yesterday felt like forever waiting for his day to end. He got out of school at 2:00 but the bus did not arrive at school til the normal time of 2:30. The HS did not inform the bus company of the special schedule. Okay no problem. I figured that out on my own and was expecting DS to show up on the corner at 3:10 in the afternoon. At 3:00 I stood out on our front lawn and kept looking at the corner. Sure enough at 3:10 a bus went by and didn't stop. Okay I convinced myself that was not the bus. It is not like I could read the bus number as it zoomed by. 3:15 rolled around and then another minute and then I texted DS. DH just rolled his eyes at me. He was working on the addition at this time. Almost immediately DS texted me back that he was on his way home. Cool, I thought. I saw the wrong bus and figured that since it was the first day that there are kinks to be worked out. Wrongo!!! Another few minutes went by and another bus went by. No DS. Okay where the heck is my kid. I text him again and no answer. I finally call him and he tells me "Don't panic". ACK!!!! What kind of way is that to talk to your mother? Of course I will panic. He informs me that he got on the wrong bus but got on with a girl that lives close to us and is in his class. He forgot the bus number he was supposed to get and figured he would get M's bus since she lives closeby. He got off a block and a half from home and was now walking home. At this point I am relieved but I have ants in my pants and start walking to the corner. Next thing you know, I see him before I even made the corner and we walked home together. Again, he is very animated about HS and is looking forward to the year. He is off today but tomorrow is full schedule with the entire school. Tomorrow should be interesting for him but I am not saying a word. Let him find out on his own.

I am glad for the break today because I know I will be worried tomorrow but all should go well. At least I hope so. With any luck, we will be pros at this by the end of next week.

Then and Now

2007-09-05T08:10:00.001-05:00

To my little man Nick who is not so little anymore:

10 years ago: You were just about to my hip and holding my hand so tightly as we walked into the pre-k classroom. Your sister was 6 weeks old and in her infant carrier on my other arm. Your hand was so small and you were looking up at me with tears in those big, beautiful brown eyes. After my 1/2 hour that I was allowed to stay, you were crying and holding onto my leg. You wanted me to sit next to you for the next 2 hours til it was time to go home. After the teacher took your hand and lead me to the door, I stayed a few minutes longer making sure you settled in and stopped crying. On that day, you didn't see me peeking in nor did you see my tears. When I came back to pick you up, you were very excited about your first day of pre-k and told me every little detail of your day.

This morning: I tried my hardest not to cry. I told myself for days that I was not going to cry. For the past few days, I have had the biggest butterflies in my stomach. My nerves have gotten the best of me. The minute you walked down the steps in your new high school uniform, I lost it. I am sorry. Of course, you know I cried. I am still teary and you have been gone for almost 3 hours. You look so handsome and grown up. I know you hate that I made you get your haircut yesterday but I want the world to see how handsome my not-so-little man is. Nick, I still see that little boy holding my hand. Only problem is you are independent now. Your hand is bigger than mine. Heck, you are 2 1/4 inches taller than me. You don't need me as much as you did 10 years ago. You are growing up at a rapid speed. I watched as you walked to the bus stop. It took all of my self-control not to walk down to the corner. This is the very first time that I have not taken you to school. I know you saw me out front waiting til the bus came. Dad stayed in his truck just a few minutes longer to make sure all was okay. He won't admit it to me but I know he is just as nervous for you as I am. We can't wait to hear about your day today. Today is so special for all of us. It is the first day of High School.

I have no idea where the past 10 years went. I blinked and here we are. You are beautiful inside and out and I realize that Dad and I are doing a great job of raising you to be the young man that you are. You will do well the next 4 years. We will be at your side the entire time. We have been there before you and high school is the best time of your life. You picked a great high school. In the past few weeks that I have been there, I know you made the right choice. We gave you that ability. We know you listen to us even though you pretend not to.

I wish you the best of luck in this your Freshmen year. The next week or so will be difficult for you because everything is new and different. You got used to grade school but now things are different. I know you will do well. You have already proven that over and over again. I hope the next four years of school are filled with fun, laughter, friends and memories that will last a lifetime. I hope that all of your classes are challenging and interesting but rewarding in the end. You will do fine. You are smart and can do anything you set your mind to. We are very proud of you. We always have been and we always will be.

Remember to always reach for the moon. If you miss you will still be among the stars that shine so bright.

Quick Post

2007-08-31T07:44:00.000-05:00

I have a busy day ahead of me, but I wanted to write something before the weekend begins.

DS does not have an ear infection and his ears are squeaky clean. He has caught a cold and has now become a miserable whiny little man. I guess he realizes that if he feels this bad, he isn't going to be hanging out with his friends on their usual Friday night get togethers.

Thanks for the compliment, Berta. I thought that Chef's Wardrobe was so cute and will look nice at the entrance to my new kitchen. I told DH I need wall space, lots of wall space. LOL

Judy, when you are done with your wife send her my way. I really need help today.

On my agenda today is to bake cookies for the marching band bake sale tomorrow. Tomorrow is the first football game and we have a concession stand and a bake table. I want to do my part and the way to do that is stress myself out and make a good impression as most of these parents don't know me. Good way to get my foot in the door of high school. A girl has to start somewhere.

I am also baking something to take to my sister in law's for when we jar the tomatoes on Sunday. I know I am making cookies but I want something else too. Hopefully an idea will come to me between now and tonight.

I just pulled all my boxes of empty mason jars out of the "new" cantina. What a haul!! I have over 12 boxes of jars and that doesn't count the ones I gave to my sister in law a month ago when we had visitors from Italy.

Because we ran out of jars (a first in many years), father in law told us we MUST do more especially since we will have more family visiting from Italy between Christmas and New Year and again during 2008. So with that said, the order at the farm is for 50 baskets. We have never jarred that many tomatoes. Sunday is going to be a very long day. But I am not complaining. It is a family day and even though the work is hard, we enjoy each other's company and we get to catch up on things. Only problem is we spent the majority of the summer together and there is not much to catch up on. LOL I am sure we will still have lots of laughs. We always do. I am blessed to have such a good family.

Tomorrow is the first time DS will march onto a football field. I am so proud and I cannot wait to see that moment when I spot him on field in his band uniform. I have to remember to charge the camera battery and take lots of pictures.

DH will be unable to attend the game. A major part of our addition is happening. They will finish the upstairs part but that means ripping up the roof. Don't ask what it entails. I am afraid to ask and am grateful that I will not be home during that part of building. All I know is that tarps are going to be my friend for the next few days and I need to pray hard for no rain or high winds. :)

Saturday night we wash and pick over the tomatoes. It will be a long night. Then Sunday is the actually cooking and jarring. I should take pictures to show you our process. It is comical to those that have no idea how we cook that many tomatoes. We do it outside because I don't think there is a stove big enough in the universe to help us out. :) Propane is our friend on Sunday and 6-7 tanks were filled the other day.

Monday I plan to enjoy my Labor Day. I have no plans and if all goes well between now and then, I will be sitting and watching t.v. and stitching. Oh and we will barbecue something. I will think of that later.

Well I best get the dishwasher loaded and butter out to soften. I also need to get clothes into the washer and dryer.

To my American Friends, have a Happy Labor Day! To my overseas friends, have a Happy Weekend!!

More Hours

2007-08-30T07:29:00.000-05:00

There I said it...I need MORE hours in a day. This week has found me out and about at various appointments.

DS went to the dr. on Tuesday and is loving the fact that he is 2 1/4 inches taller than me and 2 inches shorter than his dad. The boy is 5 feet 5 1/4 inches and 119 pounds. We are going back again this morning so the nurse can read his TB results (can't even find where the needle went, thank goodness) and he needs to get his ear cleaned out. He has been complaining about his ear and the dr. can't even see if there is an infection. He just guessed that there wasn't because of the absence of a fever. We will find out later today.

Then yesterday DS had Freshmen Orientation at the high school. To say he is loving going to the school is an understatement. I just hope he stays this happy once he actually has to open a book and work. LOL

Tonight he has band practice and then Saturday is the first football game and the marching band will be present. Between now and then, I plan on making something for the bake sale table and I need to charge my camera battery so I can take pictures.

Last night for the first time in forever, I stitched and had fun and can't wait to do it again today and tonight. I don't have pictures yet, but I received my order from 123 Stitch and started "Chef's Wardrobe" by Sue Hillis. It felt great last night to be stitching. It is like finding a long lost friend. Starting something new was just what I needed and this design is much smaller than what I have as WIPs (Tesori and Coffee).

As soon as the camera battery charges, I will take pictures of the things I ordered and if I stop with just stitching white on white, I will take a progress picture of "Chef".

It is going to be a busy weekend. Besides the football game on Saturday, we are jarring our tomato sauce for the year on Sunday. I know I have blogged about it before but my DH's family jars tomato sauce every year. So this weekend we will be spending quality time with DH's sisters and brother in law and jarring sauce and of course having the first pot made for Sunday dinner. Monday should be low key and I think (I can't remember) we will be spending it with the neighbors that we went away to NC with. Then it is just a day before the kids go back to school. I can't believe it. Summer just whooshed on by. But I am ready for Autumn. It is my favorite time of the year because I love the cooler weather and all the pretty colors you see during those short months.

Well I best be going for now. I need to get some housework done before I trek out to the dr. with DS.

TGIF

2007-08-24T06:28:00.000-05:00

This week was very busy for me but in a good way. I spent the majority of the week schleping DS to Band Camp, pulling out school supplies, making lists for school stuff and getting over a cold. It is all worth it because after today, I should be DONE and waiting for the first day of school.

Today, we are going to get DS's HS uniform and shoes, DD's shoes and the rest of her school supplies. I need DD to try on her uniform but it should fit her as it was a little big on her last year. I also need to bring DS's band uniform to the dry cleaner.

Last night, we went to the HS to see the "preview" of the marching band. They were awesome and so was DS. He didn't miss a beat and DH and I were so proud. I am so excited for his first game in September. After the preview, the school provided us with a pizza party and we had fun and even met another parent or two.

The best is that DS feels he belongs at that HS. It seems like yesterday I was obsessing about whether the right choice was made. He had the choice of three schools and three good schools at that. He made the decision and I told him last night that he made the right one. To see him smile and interact with the other band members made my heart swell. I only hope that he does well academically. Then the money we are spending will be well worth it. :)

I did manage to buy some new stash. It is for my new kitchen and I will take a picture once it arrives. Of course it is mostly coffee themed things. I also bought supplies for said charts including a few magazine charts I want to stitch. Now I have to wait for it to arrive. :) In the meantime, I plan on doing a freebie and will kit it up some time this weekend.

This weekend should be downtime for all of us. DH will be working on the addition and me and the kids will be taking it easy. I just have some cleaning and laundry on the agenda.

Speaking of the addition, it is coming along nicely. DH hasn't really been doing much because of our family from Italy and vacation, but last night BIL and DH were working on the second floor. They need to prepare in order to build the final part of the walls. A support beam will be put into place and DH is hoping to have it finished or at least almost finished by early next week. I will try really hard to post pictures this weekend or early next week so you can see the progress that has been made.

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Note To Self

2007-08-22T07:50:00.000-05:00

Note to Self: Never go so long without buying stash!!!

With that said, I have spent some time looking for something new to stitch. Of course, I have "new" stuff in my stash but that is not good enough. I want to BUY something new. The past couple of days have been busy with DS and DD but during my off time, I have been going to my favorite ONS sites and filling shopping carts. Goodness, since last year lots and LOTS of stuff has come out.

I am noticing that I have picked out lots of Autumn type stuff. That is really a no brainer. I love Autumn and all that goes with it. Then there is the Christmas stuff. Then there are the miscellaneous stuff that I just fell in love with. So as of this writing, I have nothing bought. I need to trim it down. I have to pick out favorites and then just buy it. But it is so hard when I want it all. Unfortunately, the wallet says differently. If I could just win the lottery...

Things around here are getting back to normal after vacation and the whirlwind that I called summer. DS is loving Band Camp. Anna, if you see this (I know you are away), my DS is going to a high school on the mainline pretty close to where we both live. Yesterday was a long day for him. He was at school from 9 AM til 8:15 PM. Today is the same schedule. Last night when I arrived at school, the marching band was outside practicing. They looked and sounded awesome. I am getting very excited to see them all in their band uniforms at the first game. Tomorrow night is the "Parents Preview" and we will see them march for the first time. Then there is a pizza party afterwards. Very nice. I am loving this school. And I think DS is too. I notice he has less butterflies with the days leading up to that first day in September.

Yesterday, DD had her 10 year old well visit. My baby is now 51 inches and 71 pounds. Gosh it seems like yesterday when she was 20 1/2 inches and 7 pounds. I swear I blinked. LOL Before the dr. visit, we went to some of our old haunts near our old home. We went to Target and I got her some new pjs and her school bag. We went to the big Barnes and Noble (it has a coffee bar there) and spent some time there. Then we drove off to the dr. and spent time catching up there. I used to work there and love seeing everyone twice a year.

Right now I am trying to plan out our day. I do have a couple of errands to run but they could wait til tomorrow. I am still debating on what to do. I have some laundry to do and straightening to do. So things are pretty much up in the air today. Chances are with just me and DD home, we will do the errands. I need to check my surplus school supplies and see what she still needs and maybe we will add that to our list for today. I don't know. I plan on enjoying my day.

I also need to make a decision about what to buy stitching-wise. I have already picked out a freebie that I printed out and can start that after I place my order. That way I am at least stitching something fresh and new.

Hopefully the next time I post, I will have goodies to show you. :)
Have a great day!!

Thank You North Carolina

2007-08-20T08:00:00.000-05:00

Well it is back to reality for me. We just got back on Saturday from a wonderful vacation in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Wonderful is such an understatement for such a beautiful state and a beautiful beach resort. We stayed in the town of Corolla near Duck in the Outer Banks. We stayed in a beautiful rental home right on the 13th Green of the Currituck Country Club. We were there with our best friends and had many laughs, good food and good times. Even the 8+ hour drive was worth it. If we went straight through from Philly area we would have gotten there in about 7 hours but we made a few pit stops along the way. I thoroughly enjoyed stopping at various shops and restaurants and the people could not have been nicer. We are so hoping to go again next year. Now I need a reality check. LOL

This week is Band Camp for DS and he is already at school. I actually had to make lunch for him today. It has been a long time since I had to do that. I get to do that the rest of the week too. Fun, fun, fun, NOT!!!! But this Band Camp is well worth it as he will meet 10 other freshmen and make friends with the upper classmen/women and go to school in September knowing he knows students and is not all alone those first days of school.

Today I need to go to DD's school to get her school supplies. I love it. Last year, our principal arranged a shopping day with Beckers (school supply store) and I just have to go in, pick out the 5th grade box, pay and go home. After that I just need to get the basic pencils, pens, crayons. Later this week, I need to get her school shoes and be done with that. Her uniform should fit her for a while longer. I need the $$ to buy all new for DS and will do that some time next week. So for the next two weeks, I will be preparing to send my kids back to school.

I haven't been stitching because of preparing for vacation and the visitors we have had from Italy all summer. But that is going to be remedied this week. I am breaking my 25 project challenge and am buying myself something new. Nothing big, but I decided I want to treat myself to something. I just don't know what I want. Today and tonight I will stitch on something. What I don't know. But I have two blessed weeks of nothing to do and nowhere to go. This summer zoomed by because of visitors and normal summer fun. It will be nice to have some down time at home.

For today, since DS is out of the house, I plan on really cleaning up his room. It is a mess and I can't take it anymore. The only way to do it is this week when he is out of the house. I am sure he will appreciate it once he gets over the fact that I stepped into his "shrine". LOL

I best be going for now. Have a great day everyone!

Quick Update

2007-07-30T06:40:00.000-05:00

Sorry to have been gone so long but summer is just whooshing by. It has all been good though. I just want some lazy days of summer but it doesn't look that way.

DH's aunt who lives in Italy has been here visiting for the past 5 or so weeks. She leaves today. To say I am going to miss her is an understatement. I just adore this woman. She has spoiled all of us the past several weeks with her charm and her wonderful cooking. Last night I kept getting teary eyed while at my sis in law's for our final family dinner while she is here. Today is going to be tough for me. I can only imagine how it is going to be for my father-in-law, sis in laws and my husband.

The addition is going great and I finally have my big kitchen window in place. DH and brother in law installed it yesterday. I have pictures to share but I haven't had the time to upload them yet. I will get to that sometime soon. I have lots of pictures to share but haven't had the time to do it.

Starting tomorrow I have to go back to reality. I need to food shop as I haven't done a biggie food shopping trip since DH's aunt has been here. My cupboards are really bare. I also need to get my house in order and that means staying home for a few days this week to get the house in some kind of order. I have been keeping up with the construction dirt, it is just the regular household maintenance that is sorely lacking.

After this week, we have more visitors from Italy. This time it is my brother in law's family. His brother and his wife and children, his niece and her husband and baby and his nephew are coming for two weeks. I haven't seen G's brother in about 20 years. It will be good to see him and his wife again. I have never met their daughters and I "think" one of his children is my son's age or close to it. I also have never met G's niece. I have met his nephew but he was about 6 the last time I saw him. He is now 30.

During their visit, I will be leaving on vacation. To say I am totally unprepared is an understatement. But I am looking forward to getting away and being lazy. This year we are going to the Outer Banks in North Carolina. When we get back, we will spend more time visiting and then I will be trying to get the kids ready for back to school. What a summer it has been!! In past years, July usually drags a bit which is great but this year it was not to be and I swear I am going to blink and it will be the first day of 5th grade for DD and the first day of high school for DS. Every now and then, I have been getting nervous for DS. I have a feeling I will be a wreck by September 1. But I will cross that bridge when I get to it. :)

I have managed to stitch a little bit. I am hoping this week that I can unwind with my stitching. It really does bring me down to earth when I can sit and stitch. But lately that has not been happening. There just hasn't been time.

I guess that is about it from here. I am so hoping I will get a chance to show photos of our addition progress soon. I am aiming for some time later this week.

Have a great day everyone!

Today is the Day!

2007-07-01T08:40:00.000-05:00

Today is the day I will be picking up my needle and thread and sitting down with Tesori. I have been trying and trying to get my act together and this morning when I woke up, I realized today will be the day. There are lots of reasons. One is there is no work being done on the house. Because of July 4th and all its festivities, our stone mason and plumber are on vacation. Two, I have already told the kids, I will not be running around from here to there. I need a day off to get caught up on laundry and housework and stuff like that. And three, it is beautiful here and there is no better way to spend the day than stitching and folding laundry, when necessary. :)

I have no new progress pictures to share. Work was done up til the middle of this past week but it was all in the "hole". LOL DH and his "crew" dug a tunnel under the house which will house the stairs to the cantina. We ran into a slight problem as our sewer pipe is there. It was supposed to be a few feet away but NOOOOOO that would be too easy for us. But anyway, the plumber should be taking care of it and work will progress within a week. I need to give DH the camera to take a picture of the tunnel. I will not be climbing down a ladder and venturing under my house even though it is only about 5-6 feet in. No way, now how. But knowing DH, he will take some pictures. My plan is to give you some stitching progress pictures this coming week.

That is about it from here. I want to enjoy the beautiful weather we are having. Last week was a bear with the humidity. Today there is such a beautiful breeze and not a cloud in the sky. My kind of day. :)

Have a great day everyone!!!

We Got Walls!!!

2007-06-21T17:43:00.000-05:00

Since my last post lots has been happening. On Tuesday, the concrete footers were filled with concrete and a huge shipment of blocks and cement was delivered to my front lawn and side of the house a/k/a, the "hole". I would have taken pictures of the concrete footings which was just a square of concrete all around the bottom of the hole, but we got torrential rain. Lucky for me, my DH, BIL and good friends put in pumps in the hole to drain any water that would accumulate there. It was all good. Yesterday morning, the stone mason started building the walls for my basement. Again, I would have taken pictures, but I never got to it. But in reality, the pictures would only be 4 rows shorter than they are now. So without further ado, here is the latest progress on our addition. Like I said, we got walls!!! :)

Here is a picture I took from the back. The wood frames you see are going to be windows for ventilation.

This next picture shows where the door will be. Notice there is dirt there. That is underneath my house. Supposedly, it is going to be dug out by DH, BIL and our good friend this weekend. It will break through the house and into the crawl space. Then support beams, etc. will be put into place and then at some point, the wall in the laundry room will be broken through to lead down stairs. It doesn't make sense to me as this stuff is not in the house as of yet. LOL It is very hard to picture in my mind but DH knows what he is doing (I hope :) ).

This next picture is just a closer view of the basement. This is as close as I could get without falling between the walls and the dirt. Since the rain this week, the ground surrounding the hole and new walls is very soft and has been giving way. But at least it gives you an idea of what it looks like.

Again, this is just a view from the side since you saw a picture of what it used to look like. This is what it now looks like.

This is now what my front lawn looks like. It is one big mess. I am so sure some of my neighbors are not happy. We have gotten a few comments. But it is not like I am throwing trash on my lawn to rot for eternity. I have the permits and the inspector to prove that this is only temporary. I have been trying to catch the inspector but he has been coming at like 6 AM every morning this week. I wanted to ask if there have been any complaints. I am not stressing about it but you should know some of my neighbors. You probably have a few of these people in your neighborhood. :)

And for those of you who are calling me brave and calm, please know it is not me. I have been having quite a few talks with the Blessed Mother. She has been hearing my voice a lot lately and she is keeping me in check. :) I think she has lots to do with my calmness right now.

Well this has been an up to the minute report of our house addition. I can't believe I actually posted these pictures as soon as I took them.

In other news, I did NOTHING at home today. I ran to the grocery store and on the way home I saw the Hair Cuttery was empty. I came home, got DD ready and off we went to get her haircut. An hour and a half later and I have a brand new DD. She looks absolutely adorable with her new do. Then DS wanted me to take him and his friends to the mall. So I picked up said friends, went to the mall, had lunch with DD and walked around mall, came back around 3 and just now finally got to sit down. Tomorrow is a whole other story. I am not leaving this house til my laundry and housework is finished. I already warned the kids. :)

Have a great evening everyone!

Every Picture Tells A Story

2007-06-19T06:31:00.000-05:00

I have been trying to post these pictures for TWO days but blogger was being a bugger to me. I have no idea why. I have been good lately. Anyway, here is part one of your picture story of my house addition remodel or whatever you want to call it. I call it STRESSFUL!!

This is a picture of my house taken on May 25, 2007. It is the side of the house where my new kitchen, basement and upstairs room will be built. Just an FYI, we live in a contemporary split level home.

This is the patio that needs to be demolished in order to build. The door leads into my now dining room. The window you see is my kitchen window.

This is a view of the side of my house where all construction is taking place. The new addition will be extending from the lower window (my laundry room) to the front of the house. The laundry room window will become a door (I think) which will be INSIDE the house and will lead to the basement or cellar or dungeon. You pick. LOL

This will be the view of many of the pictures I will be taking. This is from the back to the front of the house and how it looked to me for the three years I have lived here.

Again on May 25, 2007, this is the start of something big. My DH is on the ladder, our demolition man a/k/a very, VERY good friend is in the foreground and my dear brother in law is on the side (he is in yellow).

After the patio roof was dismantled, it was time for the bricks to come crashing down and crashing down they did. Our friend is on the left, DH is on the right.

This is what the house looked like after the bricks went tumbling down. DH then put this black tar paper on the house to protect it from the rain. And boy did we get rain after that. Just our luck. LOL

On Wednesday or Thursday evening of last week (the days have now run together), our friend brought home this cute piece of machinery to smooth out and level the ground. If you look to the right of the picture you can see a nice pile of dirt. That dirt is still under my dining room window and will remain there for some time. I don't think some of my neighbors like this. But wait til they see the view in a couple of months. :)

Bright and early this past Saturday, June 16, 2007, this HUGE piece of machinery (a backhoe) took over my property and dug out the ground that will now be our basement, cantina, dungeon, whatever. :)

This is my view on Sunday. I can tell you I am a nervous wreck and keep saying to myself "what the heck were we thinking?". But I do know in a very short time, I will have a basement (that hole), a kitchen built above and another room built above that. I just feel my karma is off because people, namely DH and friends and family, are messing with my house that I love. Note the smiley face on the "wall". Our friend knew how I was stressing on Sunday and left me a memento. It really did make me smile and laugh when I saw it.

This was yesterday afternoon, June 18, 2007. My DH and brother in law had to make a form for the concrete to be poured. As I type, the concrete guy (someone my DH used to work with), is in the hole and is working. Later today, the concrete machine will come to my yard and pour concrete for the foundation. DH is on the right and BIL is on the left. In case you were wondering, they work for Pella Windows because I realize in lots of the pictures you see a truck and trailer that says "Pella" and people wearing Pella shirts.

So this is how I am spending my summer vacation so far. It is not that bad as I have been at the pool. But for today, I am going to be around the house doing laundry and getting my inside of the house in some kind of order. Who knows, I may even pick up a needle and thread. Tesori is sitting to the left of me as I type. It is tempting me. LOL

Have a great day and watch this space for more of my remodeling adventure. :)

It Has Been Forever...

2007-06-12T08:16:00.000-05:00

since I have posted. I am sorry about that but it has just been a whirlwind around here. May has gone by in a blur but it was all good. The first weeks of June have also been hectic but I am counting the days to Friday when I can officially start summer vacation from school with BOTH kids.

Our addition is started. So far, the old patio has been dismantled and the bricks on the side of the house have been taken down. In its place is this tar paper stuff to keep the rain from getting inside. Our property has been marked by our demolition man (our good, good friend) and I am waiting for the electric/gas/water people to come out and mark the property up even more. Today I am getting excited. Tonight the demolition man comes with his equipment and the concrete slab which was once a porch will be broken up. Starting Friday night or Saturday morning (sorry I don't remember which day), more equipment comes in and the demolition man will be digging 7 feet under our property for what will be a new foundation and cellar. Then in a week or two, DH will start the construction of the kitchen and brand new upstairs. Our addition will consist of a cellar, kitchen and room on top of the kitchen and over part of the dining room. Make sense??? It doesn't to me so I will have to offer photos of all this stuff starting next week.

But most importantly in my life right at this very moment is I have a newly minted 8th grade graduate. Yeppers, DS graduated last night and I am such a proud mama at the moment. He received the Altar Servers Award for his years in the ministry of our Church community and his grades for this trimester went through the roof. I always knew he had it in him to excel. That is where most of May went. It went to projects, reports, tests, reviews and then last week the final exams of grade school. He came through it all shining like the handsome young man that he is.

Yesterday morning the Award Ceremony was at Church. I started tearing up around 10:30 yesterday morning and didnt' stop til around 8:30 last night. The graduation itself was wonderful. He sat with us the whole time and then got up after Communion to receive his diploma. I was a blubbering mess by then. Gosh, how the heck am I going to be when this happens again in 4 years. Sigh...

Tonight his is Graduation Dance and the theme is Casino Night. I bought him a black striped shirt, sage green tie and black pants. He is going to look so handsome. It is at a local country club and I am very excited for him. I made a collage of his life about a month ago with the other moms at school. They will be decorating the ballroom where the dance will be held. I can't wait to see it tonight. The parents get to stay for 1/2 hour and then we get kicked out. I will be on pins and needles til we go get him around 11. I know he will have fun.

Tomorrow he goes to school for a Yearbook Luncheon. He will receive his yearbook and the school will provide a catered lunch for our graduates. I know he will definitely have fun doing that too. I can't wait to see the yearbook but I know there are not a lot of pictures of him. We only came to this school in 6th grade but it will be fun to look at anyway. I know they stressed a lot of 8th grade pictures this year.

As for DD, she is excellent as always. She passed all her exams with flying colors and even got a 90 on her dreaded Social Studies exam. I am very happy for her and I can't wait til Friday when she gets out of school. For this week, she has half days with Thursday off and Friday is only the closing Mass and report cards and she will find out who her teacher is next year. Yesterday she got to go to her brother's Award Ceremony so she really didn't even have school. DS and I will attend the Mass as the 8th graders have a special place at that Mass on Friday also. I love how this school really praises its students. It will be another special day for me on Friday.

I put my stitching away last month and plan to spend some time on Friday pulling it out again. I need my "pool" project and a big project for the evenings. I can't wait to just sit back and relax and not worry about projects, reports, exams, etc. for a few months. May really did me in and May is normally one of my most favorite months of the year. This year, I couldn't wait til it was over.

I guess that is it from me. I am so hoping to get back into blogging on a regular basis once this week is over. I want to stitch and I want to share our house construction with you. I am going to be proud of that as DH is doing practically all the labor himself. :)

Have a great day and great rest of the week!!!

Stitching Goals

2007-05-07T10:41:00.000-05:00

I have been thinking and thinking and thinking some more about my stitching and the state that the stitching is in. In my dream world, I would have all day to stitch and all the things I want stitched would be finished in such a timely matter, it would make my head spin. But that is not the case. I have such a tendency for bigger and/or more intricate patterns. I have lots of stash and patterns that I want to do. I have an even bigger wish list so I need to now live to be over 200 years old. The reality is I want to stitch but can't find the time. At least these days anyway. I am sure once school is out, I will have more time especially since we go to the pool club most days and I sit and stitch while the kids swim and play.

Right now I have the following projects that are started and I want finished...

Tesori D'Italia
Coffee by Mystic Stitch
Victorian Sink from UK Cross Stitcher

I have tons I want to start and I am getting such an itch to start something. Of course everything I want to start is BIG!! My list is in my sidebar under the Multi-Project Challenge. I even found a few things I may add to the challenge. I haven't decided yet.

What to do? What to do?

As of right now, Coffee is on the back burner. Tesori is in the closet (we had company and I didn't want little fingers to dirty my huge piece of linen) and Victorian Sink is in the car. The sink is about the only thing that will be finished soon.

I pretty much know I have to get back to Tesori and I do know I want to get some of my challenge complete. So with that said, I plan on getting Tesori out later today so I can stitch during Dancing with the Stars tonight. I will be working on the sink later today. Coffee will sit a bit longer til I am finished up the next two regions of Tesori. Once I bring Coffee out, I will add another BIG thing from my list for the rest of the summer. If all goes well, I could possibly finish Coffee and start the Fall with a new project. That would be cool.

So all in all, my stitching goals are pretty much the way they have been. The only difference is I haven't had time and I don't see a lot of open blocks of time til June. :( Hopefully in the next couple of days, I will take pictures of the state of my current stitching. Who knows, maybe just maybe there will be progress before then. :)

P.S. I did manage to read ONE book and will start another tonight at bedtime. DD is over half way through her book which will be a Book Report due at the end of May. YEAH US!!

TGIF

2007-05-04T10:12:00.000-05:00

After my last entry, things got very busy around here. Actually, the busy isn't all that bad and I have been trying to figure out my summer stitching goals. That has been hard as I probably only stitched about 10 stitches in the past few days.

This weekend is very busy for us as DD is singing in the choir for First Holy Communion at our parish and then on Sunday we have a Communion party to attend. DS has to practice altar serving stuff for Confirmation on Monday afternoon and then there is all the things I need to do but I will be busy driving my kids to and from events all weekend. But it is a good kind of busy.

Tonight I have no plans and since I got off to a late start today, I plan on spending the rest of the day and early evening getting caught up on household stuff. We have spent the last few afternoons/nights in the garden getting our flowers planted and veggies planted. That should be winding down by the weekend though. DH has plans for one more thing and that should be it. Then I have a few pots to plant the extra flowers in and then I think we can call it done. :)

I will be thinking of my stitching goals and hopefully I will have them written out by Monday or Tuesday at the latest.

I hope you all have a great weekend!!

May Day

2007-05-01T09:11:00.000-05:00

I cannot believe it is May 1 already!! Where did the months go? It feels like I was just saying Happy New Year on January 1. Now here it is 5 months later. I love May. There are tons of reasons but the top three are 1) my birthday, 2) DH's birthday and 3) this year will mark my 20th Wedding Anniversary. I also feel happier in the month of May. Not because of the birthday and anniversary but with each passing day, the weather will be more pleasant, I will see more and more color in the flowers, grass and trees and school will be winding down in a little over a month. I cannot wait. I think I am worse than the kids. I am not liking 4th grade these days but that will be for another entry. I am in a good mood today and don't want to ruin it (at least from now til 3:15 pm).

This morning I woke up thinking about goals. Not so much in my everyday life but in stitching and reading. I haven't picked up a book in months. Okay, I have picked them up but not opened them. I love to read and I don't know what is going on with me not reading.

On Sunday evening, DD and I were at Barnes and Noble. She wanted a Nancy Drew book. I got so excited thinking she was going to read the same ones I did. Nope!! There is a whole new "updated" series on Nancy. She is loving them. I bought her the first two of the new series and told her that she would even enjoy the old series that I read when I was young. She advised me that the covers did not appeal to her. Nancy was "old" looking in those. Hmph!! In all honesty she was "old" on those covers when I read them in the 70's, but the stories are timeless. Looks like a new generation is going to be reading a new Nancy Drew. And an FYI, the Hardy Boys are updated too. :)

Well back to the reason for goals in reading. While at Barnes and Noble, I went to the Mystery section to see what was new. I even picked up a couple of books. I love Laura Childs and Joanne Fluke and Diane Mott Davidson. I got the books and started to walk where DD was in the children's section. Then it hit me. I "think" I have both of these books. That minute walk had me going back and forth until I decided to just put them back. I have to check first. Yesterday while straightening up, I pulled a bag from my closet that holds my unread books. There is quite a bit in there. Yep, you guessed it. I had one of the two books I was going to purchase. Sigh...I bought them last year with the intent to read a book a week all summer. I never even finished a chapter in one book. Here I am telling DD that she really has to get back into reading this summer once the horror of 4th grade is over. Meanwhile her mother has yet to practice what she preaches. LOL She is anxious too as she was telling me that she misses reading every night before bed. I may no longer read to her, but she had a beautiful habit that I created of reading every night. It goes way back to when she was just a baby and I read books each night to her and her brother. It dawned on me that she has so much on her shoulders these days that she can't even enjoy a chapter a night. 9 year olds should not have this much pressure on them nowadays. They have their whole life for that. But I am digressing and I am so not going into the 4th grade rant right now. So walking to the check out we made a deal. We are both going to read every night once school is out for the summer. Actually we decided to try before school lets out but I know there are going to be many nights that she will be too burned out to do it. But we can start. So now, I need to organize the bag of books and make a list of what I want to buy and keep that in my wallet. I plan on starting a book tonight. She already started her Nancy Drew. By the end of the summer we are hoping that we read the same amount of books. I told her that she will probably read more than me as some of my books are longer in length. But that is okay. She can win by reading the most. It will really be a win for me too if she accomplishes that.

Now if I can just get her big brother to read...

P.S. The stitching goal will be the next entry tomorrow.

Car Project Update

2007-04-19T10:09:00.000-05:00

It is another dreary day here. I wish the sun would come out and stay out. I am sure I would have more energy to do things. As it is now, I feel like I am dragging my butt and chores are taking forever it seems.

Anyway, here is my progress on my car project. It is stitching up fast and I have yet to do any of it at home. It is getting done in the car everyday and at gymnastics once a week. I am enjoying it and I think it will look so pretty in my bathroom once all three are finished.

I also managed a half decent picture of the magazine so you can see what all three will look like when finished.

In other news, not much is happening around here. That is fine by me. I am so hoping to enjoy this coming weekend as once May hits, I think we are booked every single weekend and quite a few weekdays with school things and social functions.

Tonight after gymnastics, I plan on stitching on Tesori. I haven't picked it up all week though I had good intentions. With any luck, I will have a picture to share of that in the coming week.

Have a great day!

Reality Check

2007-04-17T09:09:00.000-05:00

Today I was going to post about yesterday's weather, my loss of DSL service for almost a day, a snow day from school in April and just general rainy day feelings. It is all so petty in light of the tragedy that happened yesterday.

The shootings yesterday at Virginia Tech were horrible, callous and senseless. My heart is breaking right now for the families, students, faculty and all those involved or who will be involved for many weeks and months and even years to come. As a parent, I can only imagine the horror and terror those parents felt yesterday. As a former student who never felt fear or terror at school, again I can only imagine their pain, anguish and pure terror. Things like this shouldn't happen but that is easy for me or even you to say. I know I hugged my family a little harder yesterday and will do the same always.

My prayers and thoughts are with all of the people at Virginia Tech.

TGIF

2007-04-13T08:45:00.000-05:00

Good Morning All!! It has been awhile and it is not like I didn't have things to talk about. It has just been too busy around here. My kids' spring break was long and I barely had time to check email because there was always a child on the computer. Then by the time I got to sit here, I didn't feel like blogging. I know, I am bad. :)

Anyway, our Easter was very nice. It was quiet but nice. We had a nice day at home with just going to Mass and then dinner at my sister in law R's house. She had a wonderful dinner and we had a great time. But I realized some time on Monday that all we (the girls) talked about was food. We talked about dinner, recipes, cakes, breads, you name it. From start to finish, the entire afternoon/evening was spent talking about food. LOL But it was nice. You see, both of my sister in laws are great cooks/bakers. I always get great tips from them and I always enjoy whatever they prepare.

This past week was still Spring Break (they went back to school yesterday) and I am now trying to play catch up with housework and so on. DD also had a huge project which is due today. We spent most of the week working on that. I will be so happy when 4th grade is over. I do not remember DS having this much of a work load when he was in 4th grade and that was only 4 years ago. I do know it is one of DD's teachers that thinks he is teaching college age students instead of 9-10 year olds. It is just too much and DH and I came to her rescue last night because she was on the edge of giving up. But hopefully her presentation will be okay. I could tell she was nervous today as she couldn't eat breakfast and barely finished a glass of milk I forced into her. I am now on edge as I can't wait for her to get out of school so I can ask how well her project went.

DS is in a lull right now and I am glad for that. He is pretty much on the downslide of 8th grade. All HS stuff is done at the present and all he has to do right now is keep his grades up. Easier said than done but I am proud of my little man. He is doing much better than I anticipated.

I have been stitching a lot lately. I don't know if it is because of my stress levels or just the need to vegetate or the lousy "spring" weather we are having. Regardless, I am enjoying every minute of it and should have some pictures to show next week.

Thank you for your kind comments on Tesori. I am loving it and the pictures do not do it justice. Even DH is impressed every time he sees me working on it. It is either that or he is still in disbelief that I WILL finish it. The fabric is almost 4 feet long. LOL

Michelle, you will love working on Tesori. I picked out two colorways and asked DH to choose. He chose the colors closest to the Italian flag. I am using DMC 321 and DMC 909. There is some accents done in DMC Metallic Gold (I forget the number but it is on a skein). There will also be some blue in the central panel that has the country outline. I forget the DMC number on that one. The other colorway was a darker red and green. I am pretty sure the red was DMC 498. I don't remember the green as I had a few darker shades which looked great with the 498. If you look on Carla's website, there is a gallery of stitchers' works. I wasn't about to do it in blue (I am just not a "blue" person) and there were some great ideas in that gallery.

My car project is also going great. Right now the bathroom sink I am stitching looks like a blob. As soon as I can backstitch it, I will post a picture. If my scanner was set up, I would show you what the three pieces will look like when finished. Maybe next week, I will try to take a picture of the magazine to show you.

This weekend should be quiet. I have a bridal shower to attend on Sunday. I feel old. It is for our good friends' son's fiance. I remember when the son was 7. Now he is 26. But to let you know I am not THAT old, I was just married when we met these friends. They are close friends with my sister in law. The wedding will be some time in September.

The rest of the weekend, I plan on doing whatever I feel like. The weather is going to be cold and blustery (I can't believe I just said that about April) and right now all I want to do is curl up with my cross stitching. But who knows?

After I send this, I really need to get back on track with my cleaning and such. It is never ending but I really neglected it this week with the kids home.

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Tesori Update

2007-03-30T07:36:00.000-05:00

Last night, I FINALLY sat down to finish up the Trentino region of Tesori. This took me so long because I lost my stitching mojo of sitting down in front of the t.v. and stitching. I don't know why as I really do enjoy stitching on this and it is a welcome change of what I am stitching in the car. I don't have to change colors. :) Here is a picture of the finished region:
And here is what is complete so far. I still have a long way to go and after this row of regions, I will start the central portion with the outline of the country of Italy. But that is still a ways off. I have three regions to complete before I get to that point.

The next region is Abruzzo and hopefully some time this weekend, I will start on that. I was thinking of putting this away for a bit but decided against it. After the Abruzzo region, I may move on but I plan on stitching on this at least one night a week to get it closer to being finished. It is going to be HUGE when it is done.

In other news, I am glad it is Friday. It has been a busy week and I am looking forward to some down time this weekend. Other than getting together with friends tonight and Mass on Sunday, I really have no solid plans. I like weekends like that. Lately it seems we are busy all weekend and then busy all week and then I have a day like today where I don't know where the past few weeks have gone.

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Officially Spring!

2007-03-21T11:21:00.000-05:00

Good Afternoon Everyone!!

I have been wanting to post but I didn't want to bore you with the everyday stuff and not have pictures to share.

Today is officially the first full day of Spring!! It is chilly outside but it is oh so sunny and standing inside looking out, it looks great. Hopefully by the end of the week, the weather will warm up a bit (according to AccuWeather).

This morning while waiting for a load of laundry to come out of the dryer, I decided to finish up DS's graduation announcement. I was at the point where I had to do the Smyrna crosses surrounding "Follow Your Dreams" and I couldn't do it in hand in the car. They just weren't laying straight. Also I had planned to use metallic DMC and that was not cooperating so I changed it to Kreinik Blending Filament and I am very happy with the result. Here is his graduation announcement in all its glory (with the wording taken out for safety reasons):

Here is the information on this very special gift:
Graduation Announcement for my very DS
April 2006 Stoney Creek Magazine
Stitched on 28 ct. Paradise Sky from Silkweavers with DMC and Kreinik Blending Filament and two Mill Hill gold beads
Colors changed from magazine to his school colors. The blue and gold is his current school and the red symbolizes his soon to be high school colors (red and white)
Started: February 1, 2007
Finished: March 21, 2007

I am so happy this is finished. Now the hunt will be on for the perfect frame and mat and I still have 3 months til I give it to him. I have never been so ahead of the game for a gift.

Now after I fold the next load, I will pull out my next car project and start that. It is from a UK magazine and it will be for my bathroom. I can't give the particulars because I can't find the magazine. I have to give a shout-out to St. Anthony to help me. I did find the floss and fabric but no magazine. Hopefully it turns up before I have to get to school to pick up the kids. I have been enjoying my stitching in the car. :)

I did pick up Tesori the other day and I am almost finished with Trentino. I plan to finish that and the next region before I move onto another WIP which is Coffee.

Well I better go have a talk with St. Anthony. Have a great day everyone!!

I Need A Schedule!

2007-03-13T10:44:00.000-05:00

It has been forever since I have made a post. It was February and here we are at March 13. It is not that I don't want to post, I haven't had the time to post and throw stupid daylight savings time into the mix and I am totally screwed up.

Since I last blogged, I have almost finished Spring Cleaning. There's a surprise. LOL I didn't plan on it but I figure if I can get that out of the way and then stay on top of housework, I will have it pretty easy once the addition/construction begins at our house. So far, so good. But then again, it has only been a week.

Next off, DS is all registered to go to High School. I have a few loose ends with this round. But that will be remedied tomorrow. Then I will wait on the next batch of paperwork from the school. They said something like May or June. I don't remember. I lost lots of brain cells with all the paperwork I have been facing.

I am almost finished DS's graduation announcement. It is really looking great. I was hoping for a finish this week, but I have been getting to school a little late and only had maybe 10 minutes to stitch. I am so hoping some time next week I will have this finished. I will do my best to take a picture to show you.

Tesori is sitting doing nothing. I did manage to stitch the cutest cow in the Trentino region but that was about it and that was some time last week. I totally vegged on the sofa this past weekend with no needle in hand. I think there is something wrong with me. I never watch t.v. without my stitching. But I am hoping to remedy that tonight.

That is about it from here. I am so hoping to get back on track with blogging on a regular basis. It seems I have been stitching (even if it is 10 minutes in the car) but not having the time to get on here.

Well I best be getting some laundry done. I am so on top of this that I should have about 3 loads done today and then tomorrow maybe 1 more and then I am good til at least Friday!! I am so happy not to have that MEGA PILE anymore.

Have a great day everyone!!

I Do Stitch!!

2007-02-27T10:05:00.000-05:00

It has been such a long while since I posted any kinds of stitching pictures. Then again, I really haven't been stitching til now. Anyway, here is a progress picture of my car project which is DS's 8th grade graduation announcement. I am jumping around as I want to do the personalization first since that is what I charted out. So here is a sneak peek of what I have been up to these days in the car while waiting for the kiddos to get out of school. This is from the April 2006 Stoney Creek Magazine but I have changed the colors to our school colors (the blue and the gold/yellow). I also plan on doing the 2007 which will be above the personalization in red. The red will symbolize the school colors of DS's high school. So all around this is a very personal project and one that I am enjoying stitching. The fabric doesn't come up really well but it is called Paradise Sky and is from Silkweavers. It is a pale blue with some slight mottling. I love it. Hopefully the next time I show it too you I can play with the coloring a bit to see if I get a good representation of the color.

DS has decided on which High School he wants to go to and we will register him on Sunday. It was supposed to be this past Sunday but it was postponed because we were getting the snow, ice and sleet crap yet again. So come this Sunday it will be official and I for one am glad this decision will be behind us. I swear I was close to having a nervous breakdown leading up to DS's decision. Now we will just be a lot poorer than we already are because he did pick a Catholic High School within the Archdiocese. But I do know a lot about this particular high school and DS will be getting an excellent education at this high school.

For today I am trying to get back on track after last week. That means mega laundry and I have to go to the food store and a few errands later. Right now I am waiting to get at least some of the laundry finished and put away so it won't be a burden come tomorrow when I want to get some housecleaning done.

Have a great day!!

It's Friday

2007-02-23T08:43:00.000-05:00

Woo Hoo!!! I am so glad today is Friday. I thought it would never get here. I have spent the last three days decluttering, dejunking, cleaning and emptying DS's room. I told him last night I better never, ever see his room that way again. Of course I know I will. He is 13 and the teen years have just begun in this house. But what a job!!!

Right now, I am washing all of his new bedding and waiting for the furniture truck which should be here between now and noon. DS was so excited this morning. I just hope all goes well and the furniture is in place before he gets home from school.

...Well forget the above. The furniture was just delivered and it looks beautiful in DS's room. I will have to take a picture of it before he gets a chance to mess it up. LOL But it has to wait til I wash all the new bedding.

This weekend DS will be going to the 7th and 8th grade Valentine Dance at a nearby restaurant. He went last year and had a blast. I hope he has a great time this year. This will be his last mixer at this school.

Also, he will be making his final decision this weekend about high school. DH and I decided yesterday after an anxiety-filled week that DS has to make the choice of high schools and we will support his decision. We want him to be happy and it is time that he makes a choice with just some input from mom and dad. :) I will keep you posted about the big decision some time next week. We only have til February 28th.

In stitching news, I am making good progress on DS's graduation announcement. I am liking my color changes to the school colors and will make sure I take a picture. I am kind of jumping all around as I want to get the personalization done before I go further. That has to be perfect and I have it charted out but it doesn't look great charted out. I will only know once it is stitched next to what I have stitched so far. I will definitely take a picture of it some time next week.

Poor Tesori hasn't been touched since Monday. I made a mistake in the lettering for "Adige" and frogged it. I haven't picked it up since. The only reason is that I have been too busy emptying DS's room and trying to keep up with normal household stuff that is really being ignored right about now.

AC Moore is having a floss sale this week and I am pulling out some charts so I can get the floss needed. It has been awhile since there was a floss sale and I know I have some charts that need DMC that I know I don't have. I have lists in lots of charts with missing floss colors so I plan on gathering them up in the next couple days and organizing it and then shopping for the colors needed. I also plan on revamping my Project Challenge. My list is in my sidebar so I will be updating that. I am thinking of adding on to it as I really don't want to take any of the charts off of there. So it is looking like I am going to be at about 30 or more projects. But these charts are already in my stash and it looks like it will be awhile before I can buy anything other than floss and fabric. I also plan on starting a wishlist. I have been seeing some new charts that I want but I am being good. Sometimes it helps to not have the extra money to buy so the challenge is perfect for me at the present time. :)

I best be going as I need to start putting DS's clothes and whatnot back in his room and I need to switch the washer and dryer with the next set of bedding.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Ash Wednesday

2007-02-21T11:14:00.000-05:00

Today is the start of Lent in the Catholic religion. In the past few days leading up to today, I had no idea what to give up or what to work on for the next 6 1/2 weeks. Lots of things going on here and I figured I would wing it. But of course, being the Catholic girl that I am it has been nagging at me. Going into Church this morning, I still had no idea. Last year, I was going to recite one decade of the Rosary each day. Last year was the first year that I failed miserably. I did pray but never found the time to pray the Rosary. I do not know what happened. But last year I had some low points during Lent because I broke what I was going to do to better myself as a person and as a Catholic.

I went to the School Mass today as the 4th grade was "in charge" of this Mass. My DD who is also in the choir and 4th grade had a speaking part of the Mass. It was a biggie. Her and another girl read during the receiving of the ashes. She did a great job both at reading and singing. Sister Margaret really does a wonderful job with the choir and the children preparing for each of their respective Masses. (DS's 8th grade Mass was the one right before Christmas break). Now here was my daughter on the very first day of Lent. DH tried getting off work for this 1 hour to see this but he had to be at work because of an emergency situation. I know he felt bad but hey, I represented my family today. To say I am proud of my DD and DS is such an understatement. I am absolutely beaming and I should be beaming every single day. Somehow DH and I are doing a wonderful job raising our children though some days I will admit that I am failing. I sat near my DS's class and when his sister stood at the podium on the altar, he was straight in his seat staring at his sister almost cheering her on. She is shy and you could see how nervous she was. She kept biting her lip and I swear she was going to be bleeding by the time I reached the altar to get my ashes. But she did great. I guess DS and myself sent her the best vibes in the world during the 10-15 minutes she was standing there reading. She was wonderful.

I got back to my pew and waited while the rest of the congregation was receiving ashes. At that moment, I still didn't know what to do about Lent. I can tell you that I felt wonderful sitting there amongst the school and the many parents that were present at this Mass.

During Communion I will still reflecting on what to do. My mom never let me "give something up" because she always felt that like New Year's resolutions, a Lenten offering will be forgotten way before Easter. She was right. I am no good at giving things up. I always had to do something to better myself or strengthen my soul and spirit. Those stayed with me way beyond Lent and to this day some of those things are part of my daily life. I like that.

After Mass was over, the principal talked and she pretty much echoed what my mother always believed and what she instilled in me. As you can see, at that point I still had nothing, nada and zip to do for Lent. I pretty much was not leaving Church til I had something. Then it hit me. I so lose my patience for the stupidist of reasons. I always say God didn't give me patience. He did, I just choose to ignore it. And lately I have been ignoring patience by not really listening to my kids, DH or friends because I am thinking of other things or there are things that have to be done. Do they really have to be done at that moment? The answer is NO. They can wait. After witnessing my beautiful children today at Mass, I realized they aren't going to be this age and this little much longer.

You know from other posts that DS is going to high school in a few short months. DD will be the big 1-0 and I will be another year older. So for this Lent, I am working on my patience. It will be a sacrifice because I have some bad habits associated with the lack of patience. I have a tendency to ignore the need for patience. This time I know it will work. I need to stop and listen to my kids, DH and friends. I need to stop what I am doing because whatever I usually do can wait til a short time later. I need to enjoy each day with those that I love the most. That all involves patience.

Wish me luck...I have no patience.
P.S. I am also not going to hit the snooze alarm either. That gives me 15 more minutes each day to gain patience. :)

Lazy Sunday

2007-02-18T16:08:00.000-05:00

I finally had no choice but to switch my blog to the new google one. So far so good except it took forever. Gosh I know I talk a lot but not that much!!!

This weekend has been pretty laid back. I have a cold and it is pretty much wearing me down. Relaxing this weekend has been the best.

Yesterday we FINALLY bought DS his new bedroom set. A new furniture store opened near us yesterday and the sales they were having was incredible. DS ended up with a queen size bed, dresser and night table. After we get it set up in his room, we will see if there is additional room to get him the desk. He picked it all out and even though I wanted a different dresser, this one is fine. It is actually in the same set, it was a matter of the tall dresser or the long one with the mirror. He preferred the tall dresser. Now the fun part of dismantling his old room. The furniture will be delivered February 28 so I have exactly one and a half weeks to dejunk, declutter and empty the room. But it will look so cool in the end. I also now have to buy all new bedding because now he will have a queen sized bed as opposed to the twin we originally wanted to get. I am just happy that his room is big enough to accomodate the queen size.

Today I ran a couple of errands and now I am getting ready to sit and stitch. I stitched a little bit earlier and will be glad to get back to it. I really love Tesori but this one motif I am doing, I am not thrilled with. So far the frog did not come to visit but I still have about 1/4 left to do of the motif along with the gold backstitch I decided for this motif since my research showed that this is the region's symbol or something like that.

Tomorrow school is closed in honor of President's Day and that means we have one extra day of the weekend. I love it as I have nothing to do tomorrow. Well that is not true. DS has a biggie research paper due and the first part is due on Tuesday. This project goes from February to May. So far, he has almost all of it typed. All that is left is a conclusion and an outline. He is unsure of the outline so I told him I would help him. Hopefully we will do it all later so tomorrow is a free day for all of us. Right now I let him go out and play with friends because he really did work hard most of the day on this project.

Tonight I am hoping to just sit and relax in front of the t.v. with my stitching. The past few nights I have been in bed early because of my cold. It really was for the best but I would like to be able to sit up tonight and stitch. I guess we will see how that goes.

Hopefully in the next few days I will have a progress picture of Tesori to show you.

Have a great evening everyone!

Stupid Snow and Ice

2007-02-15T11:27:00.000-05:00

Sorry this is late but I hope you all enjoyed your Valentine's Day!!! Ours was good and we did get a snow day. I thought DD was going to cry when I told her. Of course, she still had the book report to work on but at least her Social Studies was finished.

Well we didn't exactly get socked with snow but we got over 4 inches and then the ice and sleet. It was not pretty. I am so not a snow person. I can't wait for Spring!!! This morning there was a late delay at school and I had to drive on top of this snow and ice. Yucko!! The plow did come down our street yesterday and laid down salt and snow melt but the temperatures here are horrible and there was no way anything was going to melt. In fact, it all froze up again. So I drove the kids to school, praying the whole time, that we would get there in one piece. Those prayers were answered and I get to do it all again this afternoon.

Thanks for your kind words to my rant the other day. I just hate when my kids are overwhelmed. They are kids!! They should not be overwhelmed at their ages. Now when they get to be my age that is a different story. LOL

I managed a little stitching but now I am catching a cold and until my headache and faucet of a nose stops, I think the stitching will be on hold.

For today, I have to clean up all the snow gear that is all over the house and get dinner prepared. I plan on enjoying the peace and quiet in my house. It has been a few days since I had quiet.

I best be getting off here. I want to relax my head and then get my dinner started. Before too long I will be out in this blasted cold to go get the kids.

Have a great day!!

Snow Time Finally!!

2007-02-13T15:43:00.000-05:00

I started a blog post this morning and I never finished so I just now deleted it. It has no bearing now. We are finally getting some significant snow in SE PA. This after the weather people have been wrong, wrong, WRONG!!! My poor kids!!! They have been so praying and hoping for a snow day. So have I. I hate driving in this stuff but of course ice is my worst nightmare. Anyway, this morning as I was watching the weather forecast, it was snowing outside. Of course the weather man was saying this was just a passing flurry. Flurry my butt!!! It never stopped. So the kids got off to school and I started my day. The snow was still falling. During Rachel Ray's show, there was an accuweather check and it still said flurry. Looking out my window it did not look like a flurry. By 11 AM, our school was closing 1 hour early. 20 minutes later and my school was closing 1 1/2 hours early. So at 1 PM, I went out in this mess. I swear I took a couple inches off my car. But again the weather report on the car radio said that the significant (1-3 inches) snow was not happening til later today. Hmph!!!! So anyhoo, I got to school, got the kids and came home. There was a slight lull and now it is coming down again. I so hope we have off tomorrow. Hearing the weather forecast, we are getting everything. I guess the weather people are covering their butts!!! I told my kids and DH that I will never believe the weather people again. I also told them to expect school tomorrow. Of course, their teachers told them there may be a snow day. Stop getting my kids expectations up!!! I no longer believe the weather people. I will forecast my own weather. I think I do a better job of it these days anyway!!!

Well enough about the weather. Things are intense around here. There is a high school registration looming and we STILL do not know where DS wants to go. We have one more school to look at and then DS must make his decision. Then there is his biggie science paper. It will count for 4 major science test grades. This project will go from February til May. He has yet to sit here and do any research. I told him this weekend we are doing nothing til something of his science project is finished.

Then there is DD. I really don't want to go there. It isn't pretty. She is having meltdowns because of all the work on her shoulders right now. I can't even help her because it has to be written in her hand. She has Social Studies crap due tomorrow, a science project due tomorrow and a book report due on Friday. We so need this snow day!!! As of this writing, the science project is finished and she still has to finish up the Social Studies crap and write the book report but we can do that tomorrow. At least she finished the book. It is a matter of putting together the book report which is supposed to look like a pizza. I so need a break from school. I know my kids do. I see it in them. Please let there be a snow day tomorrow. After DD finishes this crap tonight, she basically can have an off day with just doing the book report. She likes those. She liked Social Studies too. She no longer likes it!! In fact, she despises it and told me so about an hour ago. I feel bad because she is in 4th grade and this teacher expects way too much out of a 9 year old. She is melting down and quite frankly so am I.

Woo Boy, I just read what I wrote and I apologise for this rant. I need somewhere to vent. DH is tired of hearing me. Heck, everyone is tired of hearing me. It is all I have been going on about for the past 2 weeks.

I have been stitching but not as much as I want too. I am working on DS's graduation announcement in the car and at gymnastics. But all totalled, I only have about 3 hours stitched. Not enough to even show you a picture. It looks like a blue blob. Tesori is a little better but I am doing a biggie motif of a bird or eagle or something. My plan tonight is to sit and stitch on Tesori. If there is a snow day tomorrow, I plan the same thing. I really would like to show a progress picture of something to you. Actually tomorrow would be a good day as my housework is pretty much in order and I can have a fun day. That would be cool!! I think I need it.

I better go for now. DS is calling me and he has been outside and before he makes puddles all over, I better go see what he wants.

Have a great afternoon/evening everyone!! And thanks for reading this far!! I need a vacation!

TGIF

2007-02-02T08:26:00.000-05:00

Happy Friday Everyone!!! I am so glad it is the weekend. I am trying to get as much stuff done today so I can have a relatively easy weekend. We are having some friends and family over for the Superbowl on Sunday and I want to definitely have it easy by Sunday because then I will be preparing stuff to eat. :)

Thank you so much for your kind comments on my Rose finish. I wish you could all see it in person. It really is beautiful.

In the past week, I have made some decisions about what to stitch next and my Challenge List. I went back to Tesori and am stitching the region "Trentino Alto Adige". It looks as though this is a northern region because it looks like snowflakes on the chart. I don't have much finished so no progress picture. I did manage the border and a couple of the snowflakes. I hope to get more finished tonight and maybe even tomorrow night.

I also picked out a new car project. I was doing an ornament but now I don't even want to look at Christmas stuff so that was put away til probably late summer when I will finish it. The new project is the 8th grade graduation announcement for DS. I just started it last night after spending a week changing the colors to his school colors (blue and gold) and charting out his name, school, etc. This will be a surprise and it should stitch up quick. It is from a Stoney Creek Magazine I bought at CATS. I think it is the April 2006 issue. I am not sure about the month but it is definitely a 2006 magazine. I will also keep the colors and extra fabric all together as I will be stitching this again in 4 1/2 years for DD. I will post a picture of that before I add the details.

I also took a good look at my challenge list and decided to take a few things off and add a few things. I have lots of coffee related things and while I will do them, I won't be doing them now til I know how much wall space, shelves, etc. I will have in my new kitchen. So in their place, I found a few bathroom things that I will do for our recently painted main bathroom. This is also where Rose will go for the time being. Eventually Rose will be placed in our powder room once I have a companion to go with it. So in the next few days I will change my project listing to show what I have changed. Since I already have the charts and fabric, it really isn't falling off the wagon of the challenge (I hope).

Other than the Superbowl on Sunday we don't have much on the agenda. Tonight I will probably just collapse in my stitching chair and enjoy the evening. Depending on tomorrow, I may do the same thing as tonight. LOL

Have a great weekend everyone!!

1st 2007 Finish

2007-01-25T11:55:00.000-05:00

Well it is not quite the end of the week and I have my first finish of 2007. On Tuesday evening, I put the final stitches into Rose and I can now call this done and get it off my list. Yippee!!!!!

Here it is in all its beauty. I will be hanging this in the bathroom as my bathroom is blue (not my choice) and pale yellow (my choice). Here are the details and some of them are gory because of my start date on this. LOL
Rose by Heritage Stitchcraft UK (kit)
Done with DMC on 28 ct. white evenweave (I think Jobelan)
Started: August 8, 2005
Finished: January 23, 2007
This poor project has been rotated, put away and forgotten about in those 2 years. It was not a hard stitch at all. Life and new stitching projects got in the way.

Last night, I pulled out Tesori and put it back in the q-snaps. I had plans on starting the next border of "Trentino" but got sidetracked with school stuff and household stuff. I am hoping tonight to get a start on the next region. The weather is going to get downright nasty around here and I would not be surprised if school is closed tomorrow because of the ice that will form overnight from a snow shower we are supposed to get around rush hour. I so hope so if the weather is bad. I hate driving on ice. It is one of my worst fears.

I am trying to get household chores done today and so far I have accomplished quite a bit. I would love a free weekend. I haven't had a chore-free weekend since before Thanksgiving and I am hoping to have that this weekend.

Have a great day everyone!!

A Little Late-Stitch Related

2007-01-22T08:48:00.000-05:00

I can't believe it but I actually stitched yesterday. I spent the better portion of the weekend deciding what I wanted to start to get me motivated. I have so much I want to do and in the end, I decided to pull out my "Spot of Coffee" by Little House Needleworks. It is special to me because it was a gift from Cathy. But I didn't start it. I didn't even kit it up. I pulled out Rose and stitched lots yesterday. I am almost finished. I was going to take a picture but I figure I will be posting the finished product in the next few days or so. It felt so good to sit down and relax. I guess all the right elements were in place this weekend. There was cold weather, family down time and football. Some time this week I will kit up "Spot of Coffee" and start that as a car project. I am just keeping my fingers crossed that I have fabric for it. :)

So the reason for this post and it is a bit late but it is my 2006 wrap up of what I started and accomplished.

In 2006 I finished 7 projects. That is so much better than the measly 3 I finished in 2005. I started many of those projects in 2006. The only projects that have not been finished is Tesori, Coffee and Rose (which will be a finish very, very soon).

For 2007, I have decided not to do anything drastic. I never keep resolutions so it is only natural that I will not keep to a rotation. I have tried in the past and it doesn't seem to work. It only stresses me out and slows me down.

I will keep to the 25-project challenge I have signed up for. I may tweak the list a bit because as I was digging through stash this weekend, I found things I rather do. I figure that will be okay because I haven't even touched the list and all this stuff is in my stash anyway. Right now I am not worried about it, as I still love most of the stuff on my project list. It may only be a one or two project change at the present. I want time to think about it before I do anything. It may end up me not doing anything at all. I don't know.

After I finish Rose, I am leaning toward going back to Tesori. I figure I will do another two regions and then change to Coffee or even something new. Again, that is later this week before I have to decide what to do.

Today I woke up to a thin layer of snow and ice. This is the first we have seen all winter. I am so hoping to get at least one big snow storm this winter. I don't want my kids new winter boots to go to waste. I also like the idea of a snow day. That is the only way I enjoy snow. :)

For today, I have laundry and the usual to do. I won't bore you because most of you do the same thing. I also need to run to the grocery store but that won't be til early this afternoon.

Have a great day!!

Gosh, It's Been Awhile!

2007-01-19T10:36:00.000-05:00

It has been forever since I have been here. There is really no reason as things have settled down since the holidays. I think I have just been doing lots of things and haven't even been on the computer much.

First, we are getting ready to do a major renovation at our house. We will be adding an addition which will entail a kitchen and another room above the kitchen. DH has been busy planning it out and using the computer for such work. There have also been lots of talk with people about getting this project underway. I am sure to lose my sanity somewhere in the near future. My only savings will be the labor as DH, our BIL and close friends in the same business will be helping out.

Second, my DD has a biggie Social Studies project to do. I don't even want to get into it because I do not think it suitable for a 4th grader. 8th grader like DS YES but DD NO!! So suffice it to say, I have been doing her research. She just doesn't know where to look or quite how to do it. She gets so far and then gets flustered. I don't want that now in 4th grade. It will happen soon enough when she gets in higher grades. We will get through it.

Third, I am getting all the information ready for registering DS for high school. Where would we be without internet? There are so many options and such out there and all we are waiting on is one more visit to another high school and that will take place in February. Once that day is finished, I will fill out the appropriate forms and get him signed up. Then we will be broke. LOL I swear the bigger they are, the bigger the expenses. :) But it will be worth it in the end and DS will have a big part in making what is really his decision. DH and I just want to be armed will all information available at the moment.

Then there is the aftermath of Christmas and all the getting together with friends that we didn't get a chance to see during the holidays. It has been busy but there have been lots of fun and laughs.

As far as stitching goes, I haven't picked up a needle since the beginning of December. Along with losing my blogging mojo, I have lost my stitching mojo. I want to stitch. I just don't know what I want to do. So I figure, I will just take a break for a bit and see what happens. In the past few days, I am leaning toward taking something off my project challenge list and getting a fresh start. That usually seems to motivate me to go back to my WIPs.

So that is what is pretty much going on here. I may not be blogging as often but I will try to get on as much as possible. Of course, if the stitching bug bites, I will be here lots more often to share with you. We are all happy and healthy here. There is just lots going on and it will be ongoing for the next few months. :)

Happy New Year

2007-01-01T11:52:00.000-05:00

Happy 2007 to all of you!!!

I hope your year ahead is blessed with laughter, fun, family, friends and good health.

Sorry I haven 't been around but December pretty much wiped me out with all the shopping, baking, wrapping, buying, parties, get togethers, etc. I had to cut my "me" time to get my normal everyday stuff done.

I should be back later this week with my stitching year review and my looking ahead stitching.

Have a great day everyone!!

Feast of Saint Nicholas

2006-12-06T09:07:00.000-05:00

Happy Saint Nicholas Day to those who celebrate. We do as it is the feast day of my DS. It all started when DS went to 1st grade and came home telling me that he and his classmates (the entire school actually) put their shoe outside the classroom. They heard bells throughout the morning and when they heard the bells stop, they peeked outside and inside their shoes were candy, stickers and pencils. He loved it and of course it was even bigger to him as the teacher explained that St. Nicholas Day was also Nick's feast day. Every year since and another school later, it is still done. What a great tradition!!!

So I decided to put a spin on it the following year. I started the tradition at home and it was the start of something my kids so look forward too. At first it was cookies Mrs. Claus baked or candy canes or maybe an ornament or small toy because DD was so small and wasn't even school age at the time. It was also the time when my kids knew if they were on Santa's naughty or nice list. Of course, they are always on the "Nice List". I have perfect kids!!! ROFL!!!

I have gotten creative over the years. I have gotten more age appropriate over the years. They also don't know when the small gift bags will appear. Sometimes when they wake up in the morning, sometimes after school, sometimes before/after dinner, etc. This year, I got them each a small game and candy. I also plan on getting them each an ornament. It has been a couple of years since I purchased new ornaments and I need some new ones to spruce up the tree this year. The tree is getting overtaken with "homemade" school ornaments. It needs something else so I will trek out to the Dollar store or CVS later to get those to place in the bags. This year, it will be before dinner. I love the anticipation and this year I will be cruel. Last year, the bags were waiting when they arrived home from school. This year, it will be just before dinner. LOL

I realize by doing this, my Christmas spirit starts to shine through. Up til now, I have been a bit of a Scrooge. I am not really bah humbugging, but I am sick of the commercial/material aspect that is on t.v., in every newspaper, magazine and even the net. This small tradition kind of puts things into perspective and I see the season more through my kids' eyes than my own.

We are getting our tree on Saturday (we get a real one) and then we will decorate that and the rest of the house on Sunday. DH has been very busy at work and I hate having him drag boxes from the attic late at night. I have also been trying to keep on top of the housework and figure this weekend is the best weekend as we don't take things down til after New Year's anyway. The outside is done so we just need to get ready inside. :)

I have managed a little stitching and hopefully in the next day or so, I will post a picture. It has been hard to blog everyday as I am trying to get stuff done. I know you are all in the same boat. I will try my best to get entries posted every few days or so.

Happy Saint Nicholas Day to all of you!!!

72 Degrees on December 1

2006-12-01T10:58:00.000-05:00

I cannot believe the weather here in southeastern PA right now. It is gloomy, muggy, misty and an all around bad hair day. By tonight the temps are going to drop and we could possibly get some snow on Monday. I find that hard to believe because as of right now the 5-day forecast is predicting 41 degrees on Monday. It is hard to get Christmas-y when I am ready to put on shorts and a t-shirt. I won't because they are put away for the winter.

Today my kids get out at 12:30 because of a faculty meeting. I decided to spend the afternoon baking Christmas cookies. I don't know what yet but I still have that Chocolate Snickerdoodle dough that must be baked. So I will start there and DD and I will have an enjoyable (I hope) afternoon.

So far for the weekend, only tomorrow night is booked. I figure tomorrow during the day I will start decorating the inside of the house. DH needs to get me some boxes from the attic. They are too heavy for me to manuever through the small attic doorway. Then tomorrow night we are going out to a party.

Sunday my plan is to go to Mass to see that first Advent candle lit and then come home and maybe do some more baking (depending on today) and finalizing my shopping lists. I haven't even started yet so I figure I will make a list and spend some time Monday doing some online stuff. Then next weekend, DH and I will go out and pretty much plow through the list. The list is not big if you do not include my kids. But I pretty much shop for them the entire month picking up a gift or two here or there. It all gets done. That is the only way I survive the holiday season. LOL I haven't failed yet.

I managed a little stitching last night but not enough for a picture. Hopefully I will get some stitching in tonight and then again on Sunday. I am so close to the finish on Rose. I can't wait because I will be kitting up something new and that will be a new start for a new year. Til the end of the year, I will probably go back to Coffee.

I hope you all have an enjoyable weekend!! I plan on it!!

Updates

2006-11-28T08:26:00.000-05:00

Where do I start? Lots went on this weekend. I was too tired yesterday to type about it. LOL
First off, here is my progress on Rose. I finally got to stitch a little on Sunday and a little last night. I am jumping between the two last colors (both blended) in this design. I need to thread some up before I start stitching tonight. I am so hoping this will be finished by the weekend. That will be another finish and one that has been sitting around for a year. It will be a great feeling.
The living room window went in very smoothly. It looks gorgeous. I tried to take a picture from the inside but I couldn't get a good one. I will have to get myself outside to take a picture. The Christmas tree will look gorgeous in front of the new window. And I am happy to report that they all open and shut the way they are supposed to do. YES!!! I have been waiting 2 1/2 years to be able to open the dang living room window and now winter is approaching and I will probably have to wait til spring. LOL

I also managed to put away all of the Thanksgiving platters, plates, bowls, etc. I won't need them as I am not hosting another holiday dinner this year. That is a good feeling. Thanksgiving was great but I already wrote about that.

I did start baking on Saturday and then on Sunday I prepared more dough. I plan on baking those cookies today. So far I baked Chocolate Crinkles and I have Snickerdoodle and Chocolate Snickerdoodle dough in the fridge waiting to be baked.

On Sunday night we went to the store to get some more Christmas lights. Our dogwood tree in the front grew a lot and needs 3 more strands of lights. So we went out. I was pleasantly surprised that Michaels and Target were not crowded. I decided I will do my Christmas shopping on Sunday nights. I really hate crowds.

I haven't started shopping yet but I do have lists. Hopefully this weekend or the next, we will get the kids started and finished and then I can concentrate on my other gifts I need to buy. The list is not long and I have ideas so it shouldn't be bad this year. Last year was rough on me. I don't know why but this year I feel prepared. :)

Besides baking the cookies today, I still have tons of laundry to muddle through. It feels good to have a down type day and I may even be able to sneak a little stitching in before I get the kids. I figure I will take it easy this week as once the weekend hits, it will start getting hectic. I plan on enjoying the holiday season. Sunday is the beginning of Advent and I can't wait to see that candle lit in Church. I don't panic til I see the pink one (the third one) lit. At that point I am hoping that I am more than ready for Christmas. Last year I sat in disbelief when that candle was lit and I was not even half ready. This year will be different. :)

Well I best be getting along for the day. I want to read a few blogs and check my email. I have been bad the past weekend in reading and blogging.

Have a great day!!

Whew!!!

2006-11-24T08:09:00.000-05:00

Happy Day After Thanksgiving to you All!! I can't believe it is here!! No I am not going out Black Friday Shopping!! That is insane. The last thing I would want to do is beat the crowds or stand in line. My shopping will get done eventually. It always does and I do it in my own time.

Anyway, Thanksgiving around here was wonderful! All the hard work and preparation I put into my meal paid off. The entire family was here. All 16 of us from the oldest (my father in law) to the youngest (my DD) and the girlfriends and boyfriend of our nephews and niece. We ate lots of food and laughed even harder. It is easy to do especially when our oldest nephew is around.

With the help of my wonderful sis in laws, the house is cleaned up and all I have to do is empty the dishwasher and put is all back in the china closet. That is a great feeling and for the first time in a week I went to bed without thinking of food or preparation or something I forgot to buy.

My kids are still asleep and DH is out picking up our new windows. We have a HUGE window (12 panes) in the living room and it is hideous. It is the original from 1956 when the house was built. Well I am getting beautiful new Pella windows and DH and brother in law are putting them in today. I can't wait especially since now it is officially Christmas season. :) The tree will look absolutely gorgeous in front of the new window. I am especially grateful that I will now be able to open the windows. The people that used to live here painted the dang things shut and it always bothered me that I could not open a window. In fact, up to today the only window on that floor that opens is the kitchen and then the two entry doors. Not good in my book. I like windows that open.

My plan for today is not too exciting. I need to do some laundry and I want to stitch and maybe if DD doesn't end up at a friend's house, we will bake some Christmas cookies. I plan on avoiding stores if at all possible. Of course, I need to run to the Acme for a few things to bake but I know the supermarket will be empty. Everyone is out gift shopping. :)

Have a great day everyone and hopefully I will have a progress picture of Rose to show you. I didn't stitch much this week because of Thanksgiving but I will make up for lost time today and through the weekend.

Happy Thanksgiving

2006-11-22T10:45:00.000-05:00

I have been very busy this week preparing for our Thanksgiving feast tomorrow. As I type, I have the first of two desserts in the oven. I am actually ahead of schedule but crunch time is coming and there is all that last minute stuff, like cooking, that will take place tomorrow. But I am happy to report that 95% of the preparation work is finished. Tonight when DH comes home and after dinner, he will help me do a little more prep work and set the tables for our feast for 16 tomorrow.

I want to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!!! I give thanks for all of you everyday but tomorrow I will add even more special thanks for the online friends I am blessed to have met through the "net". We may not have all met in person but I feel I know all of you and talk about you as if you were living here near me.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Getting There

2006-11-16T08:51:00.000-05:00

I didn't get to stitch much the past two days but I did manage to get to the bottom of the design on the left side. I also did a little more filling in near the stem. Hopefully tonight I will get to relax and stitch. I just got home about 1/2 hour ago from dropping DS off at one of the high schools he is considering next year. I got so emotional after I dropped him off. Here I was in a line of cars just dropping him off. The last time he went to school for the first time, I was holding his hand. When the heck did he get so big? I swear I am the same age and haven't changed a bit. LOL Anyway, I am counting down the hours til I can go get him to see how his day was. That won't be til 2:00 this afternoon. I have a feeling I am going to have a tough time come next September. This was only Visitation Day and I was emotional. I can only imagine the first day of High School.

I have the usual to do today so I am going to get to it to make my day go faster. I just wanted to post my meager progress on Rose. I am so hoping by the end of the weekend, that I will have more to show you.

Have a great day!

Thank You

2006-11-14T16:07:00.000-05:00

Thank you so much for your kind comments on my Rose progress. I didn't manage much stitching time last night but I hope to remedy that tonight. I usually get good stitching time in on Tuesday. Now that I said that, I probably won't stitch a stitch. LOL

Not much going on. I just wanted to say thank you for the comments. You all are really motivating me to finish more so I can post another progress picture either tomorrow or Thursday. I am really shooting for tomorrow so we will see what happens.

Julie, in response to your comment, my lap stand is by Images Stitchery Design I have the Lap-Stitch frame and it comes with three different sized rods. This past year at CATS in Hershey, I bought the mini lap stand for small projects. I love my lap stand and I highly recommend Images Stitchery. The lap stand is high quality and the company stands behind their product. I also loved the price of mine when I bought it a couple years ago. I also saw first hand how they stand behind their product. My sister in law bought the same stand and one of the knobs cracked. When we were at CATS this year, she wanted to purchase a new knob. I was buying the mini stand and she was telling the owner that she loved her stand but could not use it because of the cracked knob. Before she could ask to purchase one, he put one in her hand for no charge. I go to their booth every year and they always have something new I just have to have. I have a few other scroll type frames but there is no comparison. I am one happy customer. :)

I guess that is about it for today. I just wanted to thank you for the kind comments. Talk to you tomorrow.

Motivation

2006-11-13T09:32:00.000-05:00

After posting two pictures in one week of my progress on Rose, I realized that I kept going back to the pictures and seeing how far the project grew in one week. So it may bore you, but I decided to post a few pictures during the week to motivate me to get this project finished and off my list. I am anxious to be able to start something new off my challenge list in January 2007.

This is my weekend progress on Rose. I had lots of stitching time and it may not look like much but I am now 12 stitches away from the bottom of the design. Okay, the 12 stitches to the bottom is from the lowest stitch you see on the project. LOL I do admit that I am a slow stitcher and I have to watch this chart carefully. I also had to take time to blend more threads. I blended a bunch and then stitched away and I ran out of a few of the color blends over the weekend and had to combine more. But I did stitch a lot and plan on that during the week. I have to do this. I want you to see more and more of this Rose finished. You are my motivation. I want to show more and more finished with each picture I post. :) Also most of the last 12 rows is one color. I am sure I will have to blend some more threads but I will cross that bridge when I get to it. For now, I am trying to finish up the colors that are not dominate now. The weekend was wet and rainy and perfect for stitching and watching football. Jo, I am sorry about the Redskins loss to the Eagles, but we REALLY needed this win. I hope they get their heads out of the sand now and start winning.

Thanks for the well wishes for DD. She came out of school on Friday much better than when she went in. She was thrilled to help me make the pizza and we had a great mother-daughter time doing it. Everyone, including a friend of DS, complimented her (and me too) on great pizza for dinner on Friday night.

The weekend was fun and we pretty much did what we felt like doing. So that meant I did no household chores. Of course, I am going to pay for it today and probably the next few days but that is okay. It was more important to have quality time with the family and we all had a great weekend. It showed on everyone's face this morning when everyone had to leave for work, school and me facing the new mountain of laundry. :)

On Thursday, DS will spend the day at one of the two high schools he can attend in the fall. These are his two choices and one he will spend the day at and the other we will go to an open house and then he will make his decision come February. So of course he picked the one a little further away from home. It is only about 15 minutes to get there but I had no idea where exactly it was. I had an idea but I could not see it in my mind. So we all piled in the car on a rainy Sunday and took a dry run so I know where I am going on Thursday since he needs a ride. I wish I had my camera to capture DS's face. He was rendered speechless when we pulled into the grounds. The campus is huge and I love it. It is one of the newer Catholic high schools in the area. It is only 40 years old. There are lots of building, grounds and parking. I was impressed but I didn't think DS was prepared for the size. LOL So now I know where I am going and hopefully there will not be a ton of traffic come Thursday morning. I am still overwhelmed with this transition but I figure we are going to do it one step at a time and we will have time between for me to get used to everything. But of course, I still have the butterflies and I am sure DS has them too now.

I better get moving because I want to get all my household stuff finished this week before the preparations for Thanksgiving begin.

Have a great day!!

Another Progress Pic

2006-11-10T10:45:00.000-05:00

I really didn't have anything to blog about today. I am just doing normal everyday stuff and nothing has really happened of note to blog about. So here is my progress on Rose. I only worked two nights this week on it and I am pretty happy with how it is turning out. There is only about an inch and half more to do to reach the bottom so this may be finished in the next few weeks if I get some good stitching time in.
We don't have much up for the weekend. I figure we will take advantage of doing whatever because after next week, I will be thrown kicking and screaming into holiday preparations. Tonight I am making homemade pizza for dinner. I have my dough finished and just need to make the sauce. DD did not have a good night last night and I figure to cheer her up, she will help me make the pizza from start to finish. She loves to help me cook and this will be right up her alley and should bring a smile to her face. I can't wait to pick her up from school to tell her.

Have a great weekend everyone!

I Need More Hours

2006-11-08T09:28:00.000-05:00

Yes, folks, I said it!! I need more hours in a day. I know I am not alone but in the past 24 hours I decided that I need to do some major renovating of how I spend my time. I also know I do this every year because the holidays are fast approaching. I am not willing to give up some much needed downtime at the end of the day. What to do, what to do!!!!

I pretty much have a routine during the day but that changes when something unexpected comes up. But I can utilize it better. I also want to have my weekends free to do my shopping, baking, cooking, etc. But most important I want my weekends free to spend with my family. I can do this. I can do my normal stuff and squeeze in other stuff. I just need more hours. LOL

Anyway, that is what is on my mind today. Squeezing more stuff in the same amount of time.

Last night, DH, the kids and I went out. We finally bought end tables for our family room. We also picked out a coffee table and back cabinet for the bar/desk/kids' area. We found them at Ikea and DH will pick them up hopefully by the weekend.

DH is also giving a facelift to our main bathroom. If you saw the wallpaper on the walls and ceiling, you would think you need some special drugs to appreciate it. The bathroom is blue and the wallpaper was blue and metallic silver BIG flowers. Ick!! We bought paint and I picked out a pretty lemon yellow and we bought new light fixtures. That is about it for that bathroom. Now I will have to hang things on the wall. With the metallic drug-hazed big flowers, you could not put a thing on the walls. So while stitching on Rose last night, I decided that the colors are perfect for the facelifted bathroom. I will add another flower panel some time next year. For now Rose can hang on the wall near the door. It is a small wall.

So DH has these small projects and they could be done in the next couple of weeks because they are small and not labor intensive. It will make it much more pleasant when in the bathroom because I swear I would look at that wallpaper and say to myself "what were they thinking, if at all" when they chose that wallpaper. Right now with the plain white walls, the bathroom looks much larger than it is. It is our biggest bathroom in the house and it is a rather nice size. I will be sure to take pictures when it is complete. I would love to do the entire thing but a new tub, toilet and sink/vanity is not in the budget. But the pretty paint and wallhangings will give the room new life.

After these little projects, nothing will be done because the holiday hustle and bustle will be in full swing. So I guess that is what got me to thinking about needing more hours.

For the rest of the week, I plan on finishing all laundry and cleaning. I already straightened both kids rooms and will dust them tomorrow morning. After I get off here, I will tackle the load in the dryer and vacuum and straighten and dust the family room. I keep on top of this room because this is where everyone goes when they are home or when we have visitors. It keeps the living room/dining room neat. If all goes to plan, I will have a free weekend to enjoy with the family. I think I can do it. LOL Once my small chores are done for the day, I plan on stitching on Rose between laundry loads. I really would love to see this finished before 2006 is over. I "think" I can do it. I just hope I don't get bored and move back to Tesori or Coffee. Chances are Tesori will take a rest til the New Year just because it is so big and not easy to just put away when we have company.

I better go put my plan into effect. I want a free weekend.
Have a great day everyone!

Progress Picture of Rose

2006-11-07T10:49:00.000-05:00

Before I start, I want to let Cindy know that you were right in who designed the flag. We all said Betsy Ross, including DD's teacher. LOL I know when I was DD's age, I went on a guided tour of historic Philadelphia so I probably learned that little tidbit at the time. Since then, I have toured historic Philadelphia many times but not with a tour. So I didn't get all the little details. :)

Here is my progress on Rose. I have been working on the lower left and lower right sides since I picked it up last week. Just an FYI, it is all blended thread. The only threads that were not blended are the rose flower itself. This has been a challenge but it is turning out so nicely. It is so amazing to me that while I stitch, I am not really seeing the changes in color or the leaves of the flower. It is only by the picture that I am seeing it all come to life. Of course, after I see the picture I look at the project and go "oh yeah, now I see it". LOL

Last night, I attended an 8th grade meeting for DS. Too tell you I am overwhelmed is an understatement. I know back in July I was coming to grips with having a teenager. I know I mentioned it in my blog and have been saying it in real life too. But after last night, I realize that I am doing things with DS that are going to be his final time in grade school. ACK!!! No more comfort zone of grade school. The whole world is opening up again for us and it will be a real roller coaster ride from now til he actually sets foot in high school next year. I can't believe DS is going to high school. Remember what I just said. You will be seeing that sentence a lot in the next year as we reach more milestones. When I was telling DH about the meeting, I ended up crying because I will be doing things for the final time with DS in grade school. These eight years were not easy but I wouldn't trade them for anything and I wish I could go back to 1st grade with him yet again when he was still holding my hand. Now he is just about a hair taller than me. When the heck did that happen? By June, he will be much more independent and won't always be able to run to mommy or daddy to fix things. He will be starting to fix things himself. But believe me, if I can fix things, I will. He is still that little boy who used to hold my hand. :) In my eyes, he will always be that little boy and I am so proud of what he has accomplished and what he is accomplishing. DH and I are raising a wonderful young man. The teachers even commented on how much he has grown. He had these teachers last year so they see what DH and I are seeing. But again, I still see that little boy at my side afraid to enter the school way back in 1999 when he was in 1st grade. DS is looking to me for guidance. I hope he doesn't see that I am pretty much winging my way through. I hope we are making the right decisions and I was even in Church on Sunday telling God (yes I was telling not asking) that He have my mom whisper into DS's ear to guide him along his path to high school. She was and still is my sounding board. I just wish she would answer me when I need the answer. I don't have patience and to this day, I still need my mom just in a different capacity than when she was here in front of me.

So be prepared. My blog may end up being a place full of high school stuff. I may need your support and advice and probably a hug or two. I already realize that stitching is going to be my sanity so it will be only natural to have my stitching friends be there for the ride with me.

Have a great day everyone!!

A New Week

2006-11-06T11:12:00.000-05:00

Good Morning All!!

I can't believe it has been almost a week since I blogged. Life got in the way and there just wasn't any time to blog. Since Halloween, we have been busy but hopefully this week will be normal. I sure hope so because in just a few short weeks the holiday hustle and bustle begins with Thanksgiving preparations and goes all the way til New Years Day. I have a feeling those days are going to become a blur.

Anyway, Halloween was great and the night cooperated with being mild so we didn't have to bundle up.

The next day the kids were off for All Saints Day and I spent a good portion of the day with them. We did some running around and I realized that night that I never picked up a needle so that meant I didn't even relax.

Thursday saw the 4th grade going to the Constitution Center in Philadelphia. I was chaperone and I was thrilled to be with DD and her class. If you are ever in Philadelphia, please go to the Constitution Center. It was my first time there but what a site to see especially the original documents written over 200 years ago. Amazing!!!!

Besides the Constitution Center, we went on a Ride the Ducks tour. What a blast that was!!! It is a bus that looks like a boat and it goes both on land and sea (in this case the Delaware River). I learned things on that tour that I never knew and I lived in Philadelphia ALL my life.

Here is one thing that totally amazed us: Who designed the first flag for the original 13 colonies? You can leave your answer in the comments and no fair googling!! We didn't have computers on the duck!!!

Anyway, that was a great trip and I told DH that night that we really have to do that again as a family. I know he and DS would love it. And it is not like we live that far away. LOL

The weekend went by in a blur and of course today I had MEGA MEGA attorney work to type. I just finished and now I need to start preparing dinner because I have an 8th grade school meeting tonight at 6:30. It is the last thing I want to do but I may just get out of doing the dishes tonight. LOL That is always a good thing.

I haven't stitched all week but I hope to remedy that tonight. Rose is coming along great and tomorrow I will take a picture to show you my progress since I picked this up over a week ago.

Have a great day everyone!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

2006-10-31T15:41:00.000-05:00

Happy Halloween Everyone!!

I hope you all have a safe evening if you are trick or treating with your kids!!

The weather is going to cooperate here so it looks like it may be a long evening for me walking around with DD.

FYI, DD is going to be a Vampiress and DS is some type of dead punk rocker (at least that is what the wig reminds me of). I just have to keep fingers crossed that DH is home in time to do their "make up". Left to me, and it will be a mess. LOL Sometimes DH wonders how I do my own makeup. LOL

Have a great Halloween!!!!

Tesori Region Happy Dance

2006-10-26T13:00:00.000-05:00

Just minutes ago, I put the finishing touches on the Puglia region in Tesori. I am absolutely in love with this piece but the red gets very monotonous (sp?) sometimes. I was going to continue with Tesori but I decided to switch up and then in a couple weeks I will go back to Tesori and do two more regions. I may see a 2007 finish on this one!! :)

Anyway, here is a picture of the entire project finished to date. It really looks great in person with the little gold touches I added here and there.

And here is a close-up of Puglia. I can't wait to show DH when he gets home from work. DH was born in Trani which is located in the Puglia region. In looking at the motifs, Puglia is famous for olives for olive oil, the sea which is absolutely beautiful, figs, and some beautiful pottery. I am the proud owner of some pieces of pottery.

I decided to go back to Rose which I was doing way back in November of 2005. I put it away at the half way point so maybe, just maybe, I can have this done in a few weeks. That would be cool and could open up another spot for me to start something off of my multi-project challenge. I think that would be a great reward for finishing something that has been sitting for a year.

Have a great afternoon everyone!!

P.S. If you look at the bottom border, you will see the extra space that caused me to frog two sides of the border to get it right. When I did it, I didn't look at the chart and just did one space. Of course, there were supposed to be TWO spaces. :)

After 6 years...

2006-10-24T19:11:00.000-05:00

I can finally report this gingerbread boy FINISHED!!!! I had a few minutes after school and decided to add the charms and assemble it. It is now ready for Christmas decorating time. :) Here are the details:
Sweetest Wishes from Lorri Birmingham
Started: 11/26/2000-11/28/2000
Picked Up With Just Border, blending filament, charms and assembly: 10/13/2006-10/24/2006

In terms of the 25-project challenge this is 3 of 25 finished.

As far as 2006 finishes, this makes #7 for the year. That is much better than last year when I had about 3 finishes for the year. It is also a good number as the majority of my projects are HUGE!!

Edited to add: I just looked at the picture and noticed dark spots. The fabric kept fraying and I couldn't trim anymore so I added a little fabric glue. It was still wet when I took the picture. Looking at my ornament now, you can't even tell there were a few dots of glue. Sorry to have posted the picture when it looked less than perfect. I was tired yesterday. :(

This, That and The Other

2006-10-24T09:11:00.000-05:00

Good Morning All!!

I really don't have lots to say about one thing but I do have some smallish stuff that could make up for a blog entry. LOL

The weekend was good but started out with a bang. Our power went out because of high winds. This started at 1 PM on Friday afternoon. Sometime between 4-5 AM on Saturday it went back on. What a mess that was!! We lucked out though. We spent time at the mall and when we returned home and saw we still had no power, DH went to his sister's house and borrowed their generator. They had power. They live one block from us. Anyhoo, the generator got hooked up to the fridge, t.v. and a lamp in the hallway. I went to sleep with the loud sound of the generator which was located somewhere underneath my bedroom window. Saturday I was like a zombie most of the day.

I didn't get much stitching done Friday or Saturday because of said power outage but I made up for it on Sunday. I am a few motifs away from finishing Puglia on Tesori and it is looking great. I am hoping today to get more done or maybe even finish it. I didn't stitch last night because I was busy after dinner.

I am working away on my snowman ornament which is my car project. I have decided to change it up a bit and instead of a mini wall/tree hanging, it will be a cube or maybe even one of those flat fold things I have been seeing on people's blogs. Pretty cool!!

I did finish up the gingerbread boy and just have to attach charms and then assemble it into a mini bell pull. I am still debating on whether or not I need my sister-in-law to sew anything for me. I may be able to fudge it with a few tacking stitches here and there. I will get to that later. I don't want to ruin it as it really turned out pretty. I will have a photo of it soon.

The weather feels like winter has arrived. It is freezing and I am finding that I need to just keep the heat on. Lately, I usually turn it on in the morning and as soon as the house warms up, I turn it off. Well yesterday and now today it needs to be on all the time or else the house gets chilly rather quickly. I guess winter isn't too far away.

In a little bit, I plan a run to the grocery store for veggies to make my first pot of vegetable beef soup for the season. I have been making chicken type soups lately but not veggie. I figure today will be a great day for soup. It is also easy. Once I do the slice and dice of the veggies, it can simmer all afternoon and make the house smell warm and inviting. My kind of smell. :) Tonight I just plan on getting some stitching done.

Well I guess that is about it from here. I am sure I have forgotten something but I can always add to this post if I want. Like I said earlier, there is not much to say but lots of little things I wanted to get out.

Have a great day everyone!!

Darn Rotten Frog!!

2006-10-19T12:34:00.000-05:00

For those who don't know, the term "frog" in stitching means to rip-it, rip-it, rip-it!!! And rip-it I did. Last night, I was happily stitching the inner border on Puglia with the hopes that it would be finished LAST night so I could start motifs tonight. I was watching Dancing with the Stars and merrily going about my stitching business. I glanced down at the chart to count out how many 2 stitch places there were and then looked at what I had already stitched. Somehow something looked off. Well after some colorful words and the look of horror on my face, I realized I made a mistake. A mistake with RED floss on WHITE fabric!!! Sigh... At one point and one point only this Italian designer skipped a stitch around that damn inner border. I KNOW why she did it. She did it because I have yet to stitch whatever region will go underneath Puglia. Those regions are going to have to match up eventually. But at the time, I just stared and cursed that extra space in the border. I started to rip out the stitches last night taking care not to get any red fuzz on the white fabric. About 10 minutes later, I gave up and went to bed. YES I went to bed at 9 PM.

When I woke up this morning, I barely had coffee before I was sitting ripping out the rest of the stitches. Lucky for me, there is no red fuzz and it ended up only being one side (bottom) of the border. But I couldn't go about my business for the day til it was ripped out. So hopefully later this afternoon or this evening, I will redo that darn border and hopefully will be able to get at least ONE motif started before bedtime.

I hate frogs (real or stitching), I hate bugs and I hate snakes. There I said it and it makes me feel better...

After the frogging of the border, I managed to fall clean my dining room. As I type, my tablecloth, table runner and curtain are hanging on the line. It smells good in the house and will smell even better with the fresh table linens. Tomorrow I get to tackle the dust bunnies under the sofas in the living room. This is seriously cutting into any afternoon stitching I get. Whoever invented fall/spring cleaning had serious issues. I see nothing wrong with a few dust bunnies.

Have a great day everyone!!

Tesori Update

2006-10-17T07:30:00.000-05:00

Blogger is finally cooperating and I am now able to post my pictures of my Tesori. The top row of regions is finally finished. I am so in love with this piece but it does get tiring with just stitching with red. But on the up side it does stitch quickly. I started the motifs of Veneto on Friday and they were finished by the end of the weekend. I just needed to add a little gold backstitch for some sparkly around the hearts. I did that yesterday afternoon.

Here is the photo of the completed top row:
Here is the close-up of Veneto:
I started the next region which will go under Calabria (the first one on the right). It is Puglia and it is very near and dear to my heart. My DH was born and lived there til he was 5. My brother in law G also comes from that region. Last night I started on the lacy border and my hope is that I have the inside border finished tonight so I can start on the motifs.

I didn't get much done with the baby yesterday. Poor thing was so tired that I swear she was using toothpicks to keep her eyes open. :) But I didn't mind as I love helping out my friend. She is doing fine and other than some soreness, she should be out and about by tomorrow.

So today I plan on doing laundry (it never ends...sigh) and I need to vacuum and straighten up the family room. Tomorrow I will get my other housework started so that as the weekend approaches I can get ready to enjoy a non-busy weekend.

Have a great day everyone!!

Monday Mumbles

2006-10-16T09:29:00.000-05:00

I wasn't on too much during the weekend as I was either (1) busy, (2) stitching or (3) DS was playing a new puter game.

It's another Monday morning around here and it seems like nothing wants to work, move, etc. I tried reading blogs but it is hard because something is up with blogrolling. Like what else is new!! I so have to look into something else. I more or less clicked on blogs to see if they were updated and some have been updated regularly so I spent a good portion of my morning reading through blog entries from days ago for some of you. Sorry if I didn't comment, it is just I had lots of reading.

I have been up since 5 AM because I am watching my friends' baby. My friend K is having surgery this morning and I am watching her 2 year old. I love the baby, she is so sweet but not today. I guess she is just as crabby as me having to get up at dark o'clock in the morning. It looks like she wants to close her eyes but they are wide open. Thank goodness for Playhouse Disney. I am so hoping she will doze off soon.

It was cold here all weekend. I nearly froze my butt off at the wedding we attended Saturday. Of course when I bought the dress, it wasn't supposed to be cold. But we had a great time and most of the women were underdressed like me for the weather we experienced this past weekend.

The rest of the weekend was spent with DH and the kids and I did lots of stitching. I finished Veneto in Tesori and will take a picture later. I can't do it right now with the baby at my side. I don't want her to touch the camera or worse the computer while the pictures are loading. She doesn't realize the CPU is in a cabinet and I want to keep it that way. :) Next up is Puglia which is my husband's region of Italy. So I think I will probably finish that one before I move onto another project for a break.

I am still blending filamenting the gingerbread boy. Sigh...it is slow going but the effect is so beautiful. I hope it shows up when I finally take a picture of it. If the baby goes home before I get my kids, I should have 1/2 hour to stitch on the gingerbread boy. If not, it will have to wait til tomorrow.

For the rest of the day, I will play with the baby and try to get maybe a load of laundry done. I don't see it happening unless she falls asleep. Thank goodness I had the thought to straighten the house and such this weekend so it doesn't look like a bomb went off today. :)

Hopefully later I will be able to share my progress photos of Tesori.
Til then , have a great day!!

Yeah!! The Weekend!!!

2006-10-13T08:33:00.000-05:00

This week seemed to drag on. I don't know why as I was busy all week and it should have flown. I am so happy to see it is now Friday and an easy Friday at that. My kids have 1/2 day of school today and it will be so nice to pick them up at 12:30 and then be home the rest of the day. A great start to what is going to be a busy weekend.

On Wednesday night, I went back to Tesori. My goal is to finish up the Veneto region and then make a start on the next region which will be the start of the second row of Italy regions. It is looking very pretty and I am loving Veneto. It is home to Venice and I love the motifs.

I also pulled out my little pouch with my car projects in it. Yes projects. There are two in there. One is the snowfolk ornament hangie thing and the other is the gingerbread boy. Yesterday while waiting for the kids, I pulled out the gingerbread boy and worked on that.

I found him in the bottom of one of my stitching supply drawers when I cleaned out my stash. I have no idea why I put him away. When I put him away the entire gingerbread boy was finished. All that was left was this green border and some charms which I finished yesterday. I was so happy and came home and decided to finish him. Well I think I realized why I never finished him. Uh-oh!! I am not done stitching. The entire gingerbread boy has to have a half stitch of Krenik blending filament to give it some sparkle. At the time I put him away, I must not have had the blending filament and it ended up in the drawer. So yesterday afternoon I pulled out the $@#@#@ blending filament and started the half stitch on my gingerbread boy. As I was doing this, I started to think about when exactly did I start this. I fully remember buying it at a CATS show. It was a freebie by Lorri Birmingham and for a few dollars you could purchase the bell pull, tassel, linen banding and charms. It was a great show deal and I did purchase the little kit. All I had to supply was the threads. I tried going back in time and figured it was about 4 years ago that I purchased and stitched the gingerbread boy. While digging for my blending filament, I also pulled out old stitching journals (before I blogged). Well I was shocked at when I stitched this. Are you ready for this? After going through 3 journals, I found my answer. I started stitching him on November 27, 2000!!! SIX YEARS AGO!!! I finished him a few days later. Then I am guessing he got put away as I was probably in the midst of decorating and preparing for Christmas that year. By January 1 he was forgotten because Christmas was over. He was really forgotten because until I found him a couple months ago, I didn't remember even stitching it. I just remember buying it. So now I am hopefully going to have him finished and ready to display for Christmas 2006. I am not the biggest fan of stitching with blending filament even though I adore the results. It is a little slow going but it should be finished some time next week. Hopefully by next week I will have some progress photos of Tesori and another finish off my 25-challenge list. :)

Hopefully I will find some stitching time this weekend. I know I will today but tomorrow night we have a family wedding to attend and then on Sunday a new chapter in our lives is starting. My DS along with DH, DD and myself will attend an open house one of the high schools where DS may be going next year. I am excited and nervous at the same time. I can't believe my baby boy is going to high school next year. I will post all about it either Sunday or Monday. It is something I am looking forward to. I can't wait to experience it through the eyes of my DS.

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Halloween Finish

2006-10-10T20:15:00.000-05:00

Well I finally bought and finished a Halloween design. I can't believe it. I loved stitching this. I bought it less than 2 weeks ago. This has got to be a record but as you can see it was an easy stitch.Here is the info for my Halloween finish:
"Witches Brew" by Pine Mountain Designs
Stitched on pillow sham with 16 ct. Heatherfield fabric insert
DMC Floss with three cute star buttons
Started: October 1, 2006
Finished: October 10, 2006

According to the multi-project challenge this makes TWO (count 'em two) finishes since September 1, 2006. I am very proud of myself to have a holiday finish for the holiday of the year I started. :)

I have decided to go back to Tesori and finish up the Veneto region I was stitching before I took a break this summer. I will work on that at night.

My car project will go back to my snow family ornament but I may just finish the border on that gingerbread boy ornament that I started years ago. I still can't believe I put it away with only the border left to do. How pathetic is that? I will decide on that tomorrow.

Have a great night everyone!!

TGIF

2006-10-06T08:05:00.000-05:00

I am so glad today is Friday. This week has been brutal with my DD's school work. She has had a major test every single day this week. I can't really blame the teachers (well I can but I won't). It seems that every end of chapter occurred last week so the teachers scheduled tests for all this week for those biggie tests. She does really well and so far of all the results I got back the lowest was a 95. I am very proud of her but very tired today. I am so looking forward to the weekend. I will be very happy when we are all home today.

DH plans on renting some movies and we plan on vegetating in front of the t.v. tonight. I do have to run to Target later to get birthday gifts for two parties my DD is attending this weekend, but that is all I am doing tonight. I have a date with my family, the sofa, movies and of course my stitching.

I managed lots of stitching yesterday on "Witches Brew". I not only had my school wait but DD had gymnastics last night so I got a great uninterrupted hour of stitching at the gym. While I was waiting for DD to finish her lesson, the next class started coming in. As I was putting my stuff away I noticed a woman cross-stitching. I can't believe it. There are actually 3 stitchers in my burb. (the first two are me and dear sis in law). She was working on a Stoney Creek sports design for her DD. It was very nice and I look forward to seeing her progress next week.

Of course I stitched during Survivor and hopefully today or tomorrow I will finish up with Witches Brew.

On the agenda for today is laundry. The weather is rainy and damp and chilly and since I did the majority of my household cleaning yesterday, I plan on doing laundry and stitching between loads. I also need to vacuum but that can wait til later.

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Tweeked Project Challenge

2006-10-03T14:54:00.001-05:00

I have been giving some serious thought to the multi-project challenge the past few days. I could easily expand this to 25. It is not like I can't buy stash as one of my exemptions is going to CATS and then being able to purchase any threads, beads, fabrics, etc. for something I already have in my stash. It is just the buying of patterns, kits, etc. between now and CATS that I won't be able to do. Can I do it? Sure. Will I do it? I will try my hardest.

Face it, I am in this for the long haul. Tesori D'Italia is not going to be done any time soon. This is a HUGE project and I can see me still working on it 2 years from now. I am being very realistic when I say that. When I am still working on Tesori, I know I will have the support of many stitchers. They will give me the motivation to move on so that I can go on an all out budget-blowing pattern shopping excursion outside of any CATS/stitching show. Even if I don't buy another chart for 2 years, I have PLENTY in my stash to revisit. I have many "have to have it NOW" charts in my stash. A year or two later and they are still sitting there some even still in the bag. Pathetic!! Don't even get me started on magazine patterns I want to do. I have tons to keep me busy and like I said, I do have the exemption of being able to purchase any supplies needed for patterns already in my stash drawers. When I need a cross stitch pick-me-up, I can order supplies for an up and coming project on my list. That will satisfy my need to buy and I will be able to throw another pattern into the so-called rotation I do.

The more I thought about it, the more I thought that doing just a 10 project challenge is not going to work for me. I almost baled out but after CATS. Then I realized how much I have in my stash. Trust me, I saw finished models of stuff I bought last year and two years ago. Mine are still in project bags, fully or partially kitted or not even kitted at all. In some cases, it is lots of money sitting there doing nothing. So the next logical step is to move up to 25 projects. DH kinda just stared at me when I commented about not buying anything significant til I finish 25 projects. I already told him I am one ahead already. LOL I think DH didn't realize I have 25 projects I can do right at this moment. (Shhhh...I could easily do 50 or more projects if you count all my magazine/freebie/charts in my stash).

So without further ado, here is my revamped multi project list. It has what I think to be a great combination of small, medium, big and HUGE projects. They are in no particular order. I am not actively working on all of them at the present time. These are just the things that are kitted, partially kitted or bought this past weekend at CATS and I want to do them soon. This time I took care to list my finish as #1.

1. 12 Days of Christmas by Hinzeit (finished Sept. 8, 2006)
2. Tesori D'Italia
3. Coffee by Mystic Stitch
4. Rose Panel by Heritage Stitchcraft UK
5. Gingerbread Boy Ornament
6. Snowfolk Ornament
7. Coffee (Charmed mini-sampler by Hinzeit)
8. Witches Brew by Pine Mountain
9. Dear Santa by Glory Bee
10. 8th Grade Graduation Acknowledgement for DS (from Stoney Creek Magazine)
11. Recipe for a Scarecrow by Pine Mountain
12. Yummy Christmas by Stoney Creek
13. Child Proof by Glory Bee
14. Cafe Walk I by Mystic Stitch (artwork by James Lee)
15. Witchy Washy by Raise the Roof
16. Santa Clothes by Raise the Roof
17. Espresso from Coffee Mini Series in Stoney Creek Feb. 2004 issue
18. Cappuccino from Coffee Mini Series in Stoney Creek April 2004 issue
19. Caffe Mocha from Coffee Mini Series in Stoney Creek June 2004 issue
20. Latte from Coffee Mini Series in Stoney Creek August 2004 issue
21. 2 Bookmarks for DD from Stoney Creek Leaflet Bookmarks for Everyday
22. Spot of Coffee from Little House Needleworks
23. Cookies for Santa from Brittercup Designs
24. Haunted Halloween from Brittercup Designs
25. Ornament from any JCS Ornament issue

My exemptions are:
1. Attending and buying at any CATS/Stitching festivals
2. Purchasing any fabric, threads, beads, buttons, etc. needed for any project listed above.
3. JCS Ornament Issue
4. I don't know if this falls within the rules but if I should finish the list and the remaining projects are Tesori, Coffee and Cafe Walk I (my three largest projects), I will add some small designs so I can have travel/car projects. These projects will be added from my stash.

So there you have it. The list is scaring me as I even have a few other things I could have listed but I wanted a good mix. But it was fun putting this together and revisiting stash that I forgot I had. About 1/2 of the designs listed here are already kitted or partially kitted. There are about 9-10 that need to be kitted completely. Those will give me my stash shopping fix when I need it.

At the rate I have been stitching since I got home from CATS, I may even have finish #2 of the challenge to show you by the weekend or early next week. :)

Have a great day everyone!

Back from CATS

2006-10-02T07:32:00.000-05:00

Well, I am back from CATS. It was such a great time that I wasn't ready to leave when we did. Our trip to Hershey took forever. What should have been an hour and a half ride took around 3 hours. There were accidents on the turnpike and we were stuck for an hour or so and at that point we were only about 15 minutes from home. But once we got to around Downingtown, it opened up and about an hour after that we were in our hotel room ready to have a very late dinner at Friendlys. On Friday night we never made it to the Lodge because dinner was over around 10:30 so we just went back to our hotel and chilled out after our very long ride to get to Hershey.

Saturday was the best. I have to admit that the shopping mart was much smaller than it was 2 years ago. That was really my only disappointment. I bought lots of goodies and here is the picture to prove it.
Here is the run down of what is in the picture:
Three Stoney Creek Magazines (April, August and October 2006 issues)
Just Cross Stitch Ornament Issue
Image Stitchery Mini Mini Lap Frame
4 different sized plastic project bags (I just adore these bags and buy a couple every year)
Hob-Nobb Designs Doodles "I Love You"
Hob-Nobb Designs Doodles "Greta the Witch"
Picture It Plus hand-dyed fabric "Shadow" for when I get to Witchy Washy
Stoney Creek Button Embellishments "Yummy Christmas"
Pine Mountain "Recipe for Summer" Kit
Pine Mountain "Witches Brew" Kit
Pine Mountain "Recipe for a Scarecrow" Kit
Glory Bee "Dear Santa"
Glory Bee "Child Proof"
Lorri Birmingham "May Scissor Fob"
Brittercup Designs "Haunted Halloween"
Brittercup Designs "Cookies for Santa"
Las Vegas Stitching "Forever and Always"
Stoney Creek "Bookmarks for Everyday"
Ready made scissor fob (I don't remember the booth)
and
Little House Needleworks Coffeetime (this was the best as it was a gift from Cathy. Thanks again Cathy!!)

There were a few other things I would have liked to have bought but they were sold out and I didn't feel like ordering them. That wasn't the point of CATS. I wanted to come home with the stuff.

The best highlight of Saturday was getting to spend time with Cathy and Jo. I also got to meet a few other bloggers who I now consider friends. Us stitchers are a great bunch. I also enjoyed spending some time in the Stitchers Lounge with Jo and admiring all the works in progress being stitched. Saturday went by too quickly for my taste. I would have loved to have stayed longer but we wanted to be on the road while it was still light. As of now I am looking forward to next year and seeing everyone again.

Yesterday I started "Witches Brew" because it will be quick and it will be the first time I have stitched a Halloween design. Yeah for me!! I finally bought some Halloween charts. Cathy was starting to feel sorry for me that I didn't have any in my stash. :)

I bought enough to keep busy and now I have to rework my multi-project challenge. It shouldn't be too bad because I know what I want to add to the challenge and I know what can wait til I have openings from all the finishing I plan on doing. LOL Since I broke the budget, I will only be purchasing any threads or fabric needed for a design. I have to save my pennies for next year's CATS.

Have a great day everyone!!

One More Day

2006-09-28T10:39:00.000-05:00

Woo Hoo!!! This time tomorrow, I will be getting my stuff packed and ready to go for CATS!! YES!! I am now getting very excited about going for a "girls weekend" with my sis-in-law and niece. I can't wait to see my many blogger friends and I can't wait to shop til I drop. It has been a long time coming since I never made it there last year.

I managed the majority of my cleaning and today I am pretty much taking it easy and doing laundry so I don't have major laundry to deal with on Sunday. I also have a few errands to take care of when DH comes home including DD's gymnastics so I figure I will take it easy during the day and then stitch tonight during Survivor.

I will make sure to give a full report and maybe even get some pictures. I always take my camera and forget to use it.

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Getting Ready

2006-09-26T08:43:00.001-05:00

Only a few more days til CATS!! I am nowhere near ready but it is not like I have to pack up the family. It is just me and my WIPS and what I plan on stitching on. It shouldn't be a problem because I am taking my WIPS with me. I just have to decide on which thread tote comes with me. I am getting excited but between now and Friday afternoon I have lots to do around the house.

With school in full swing, I can't really think about it because the kids have tons of tests and quizzes this week. That is not counting regular homework. YUCK!!

Then there is housecleaning. Sigh... I hate this job anymore but it has to be done. No one has ever found my maid. I am starting to think I made her up. :)

DD's room is finished and looks great. Looking right next door to DS's room is like a before and after picture. His is worse than hers. He is a slob and I told him I am now taking matters into my own hands. I think he is a little worried about coming home from school today to see how many trash bags I have lined up outside. LOL I figure today is the dejunking of his room and tomorrow the cleaning. Then on Thursday I will give a quick once over of the house so that I can go away on Friday without worry. Of course, I will come home to a mess on Saturday but it won't be that bad if I get everything done before hand. Easier said than done.

I never put a stitch in this weekend and last night it felt great to stitch while watching t.v. I am making great progress with Coffee but tonight will be a real test. I am up to more coffee beans and you know what that means. It means one stitch here and one stitch there and two stitches here and so on. Yes those coffee beans are made up of about 15 colors but the end result is so worth it. It is just I go to bed after an hour or so of stitching and it doesn't look like much. But once those are finished, I will make great progress through the rest of this page of the chart and the next page. Cool or what??

After CATS I will be getting back to Tesori. The weather is getting cooler and it is not so bad to have a ton of linen on my lap like it was in the heat of the summer. I figure I will do a region and then move onto another project. Sort of like a rotation but I am not commiting to a rotation. You know me and rotations are a bad thing. :)

Not much else going on. So I best get my day started and start dumping out my son's room.

Have a great day everyone!!

Multi-Project Challenge

2006-09-21T06:09:00.000-05:00

I have been reading with great interest at one of my favorite bbs about this Project Challenge. It seems easy enough and the more I read about it the more I want to do it. It seems like a great motivator and also a way to have finishes. It is also a way to stop buying and kitting things up only to have them sit for months or even years. I really want to see more finishes but I can't do that as I keep starting new things because I keep buying new things. You can read about it here: 10/25/50 Project Challenge There is no end date so there is no pressure to rush through my stash. This is meant to have fun and enjoy my hobby. It is also a way to get motivation needed from other like-minded stitchers. :)

It is simple enough. I will reduce my stash and after I do my set amount, I can buy new things or add things from my stash that aren't even kitted or partially kitted. I can even have exemptions. Of course I need an exemption because I am going to CATS and there is no way I can't shop at CATS. I wait for this all year and of course I wasn't even there last year so I have to make up for lost stash shopping time. :) Since this started September 1, I already have a finish with my "12 Days". So I am already ahead of the game.

At the moment, I signed on for the 10 Project Challenge as the majority of my projects are HUGE!! I have a feeling once I go through my stuff and go to CATS that I will increase the number to 25. I want to make sure I have a good mix of stuff in there. I also think I will get some of these big things done because I will want to start more big things (think Tesori).

Here are my 10 choices at the moment. I will be modifying this after CATS.

1. Tesori D'Italia
2. Coffee by Mystic Stitch
3. Rose by Heritage Stitchcraft
4. Gingerbread Boy Ornament (I bought and started this 4 years ago. I put it away with just the border to stitch. How sick is that?)
5. Snowfolk Ornament (my current car project)
6. Coffee (another Hinzeit charmed mini-sampler)
7-10. To be announced. I have some stuff kitted but I want to wait for CATS where this list could go to 25.

My exemptions are as follows:

1. CATS festivals
2. Floss, speciality threads, beads, etc. that I need for WIPS and some partially kitted stuff.
3. Fabric for my newest Mystic Stitch charts and maybe a few that I started to kit. I have to dig in stash to make sure.
4. JCS Ornament Issue (I buy this every year).

My first finish is "12 Days of Christmas" finished on September 8, 2006. I did not include that in my initial list.

So there you have it. I will probably do a little tweeking of my lists and exemptions but by October 1, it will all be modified and already well underway.

As soon as I figure it out, my projects will go in my sidebar. I am so computer illiterate, it ain't funny.

Christmas Finish!

2006-09-20T06:51:00.000-05:00

The past few days have been hectic here and I have barely put in any stitches in Coffee. Hopefully tonight, I will be able to sit and stitch those one stitch here and there and then move onto one of the bigger color sections that are next. But I did have the time yesterday to finish 12 Days of Christmas into a cube. I am quite proud of myself with how it turned out. This will sit on our new mantle at Christmas time. I will be sure to take a picture when Christmas decorating time rolls around.

Here is the front:

And here is a picture of the back. I really like the fabric I picked out and have some left if I decided to do anymore Christmas cubes this year.

Things are starting to settle down with school and stuff and we are slowly getting into a routine. Now I can concentrate on getting my house in some type of order. My plan for today is to start de-junking my daughter's room. I bought her new bedding and we decided to make her room more pre-teen so today I will be packing up her special stuffed animals and DH will put them and her rocker into the attic to make more room for maybe a bookcase or something else in her room. I know this is going to be at least a 2-day job. Everything has to be cleaned out and that includes closets, dresser, night table and so on. Then I will start DS's room next week. We are going to be buying him new furniture in the near future so I want to start clearing out his room for that. I have a feeling in the coming days I will need my stitching to keep my sanity.

Have a great day everyone!

Stitching Stuff

2006-09-14T19:31:00.000-05:00

I just had a chuckle at the title of my post. Since my kids were old enough to talk and understand, they knew not to touch mom's stitching stuff. LOL It's a great memory especially since DS at the age of 2 highlighted my chart and linen on "My Lady's Garden" by Mirabilia. It is hanging on the wall and I can still see a faint line though most of the purple highlighter was covered in stitches. :)

Anyway, as promised here is my stitching post I promised yesterday. First off, thank you so much for the kind comments on my 12 Days finish. I also thank you for the comments on Coffee.

For those of you who asked, Coffee is a chart by Mystic Stitch . It is from the Artwork of Karen Bates. I used to have a picture of the the artwork on the computer but since we got the new computer, I have yet to get another picture. If you go to the Mystic Stitch site, you can click on Karen Bates name and see the finished piece there. It is really looking like the artwork. I am in love with this piece.

I haven't had a chance to pick it up since the weekend but I made great progress last weekend on Coffee. I plan on that again on Saturday and Sunday. I will hopefully have a progress picture to show you either Sunday or Monday.

It has been a busy week. That is why there is no stitching. On Monday there was DD's first day of gymnastics and then Back to School Night for DD. Tuesday was The Who Concert. Yesterday I so had to watch the finale of Rockstar. No way I could stitch. I am so glad Lukas won!!! Looks like me and DD will have white streaks in our hair for the concert. Tonight DD had gymnastics again (Thursday is now her regular weekly lesson) and Back to School Night for DS. I should still be at school, but I know two of the teachers from last year and figured I rather be home. I have had too much going on this week and I have had enough and am ready for the weekend.

Have a great evening everyone!!

Mom! You Rock!!!

2006-09-13T07:35:00.000-05:00

3 Concert Tickets: $300.00
Concert T-Shirt: $35.00
Parking: $10.00
Son's First Concert Experience: PRICELESS

Last night was the opening show of The Who's World Tour. It is awesome in itself to see The Who still performing and still rocking after all these years. But what is even more awesome is taking my son to his first concert and to see the look of awe on his face that he was actually sitting in Section 116, Row 18, Seat 10 at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia. Okay, he stood the whole time and really got into the show but that is okay. His mom and dad were on either side of him rocking right along. The kid couldn't believe I knew all the words to the older tunes. I realize I am older than dirt, but hey, I love a good rock show. Roger Daltry is older but still looks hot. As for Pete Townsend, what can I say? The man can play guitar and sing and jump around like he is still 20 when he is really 61. I hope I have that much energy when I am that age.

I can't describe in words how I feel at this moment. I shared yet another milestone with my now teenager. Going with him to his first concert. He loves the music we listen to so I am happy to oblige when someone comes to town. He had such a good time and I had an even better time standing beside him. I have to tell you that there were many children my son's age at this concert. He has been bugging to go to a concert for ages now and we just didn't know what to do. We have been in his position in a different time and hey, I am a MOM first. I know what goes on at concerts. So when we saw that The Who was coming we knew this would be the perfect first concert for DS. We love The Who, we knew the crowd would be our age and older and we also knew that there would definitely be some children in the crowd. It couldn't have been more perfect. I even made friends with the two boys in front of me. They were in their 20's and kept turning around and talking to me. They became my buds and I enjoyed watching them rock last night too. DH thought I was about to adopt them at the end of the night. He said they took a liking to me. Cute but I digress.

Leading up to yesterday, DS warned me to not sing, dance or otherwise embarrass him. What? Moi? Embarrass him? Nah...okay well a little. I think by the second song, he was singing and dancing right along with me and not once did he roll his eyes or move away from me. LOL How great is that?

It was a great night and we are looking forward to our next concert. Yes there is another concert coming up. This summer, DH, DD and myself have sat glued to the t.v. watching Rockstar:Supernova. I just love bad boy Tommy Lee of Motley Crue fame and the other members who will make up Supernova. (they are Gilby Clarke of Guns N Roses and Jason Newsted of Metallica). A few weeks ago, they released their tour dates and yep you guessed it...We have 4 tickets to see Supernova in January. DD can't wait and now DS can't wait. I love concerts as does DH so we have something to look forward to on a cold winter night. DD and I have decided if Dilana wins the lead singer spot tonight that we will have a pink streak in our hair on the night of the concert. If it is Lukas, it will be white. Both DH and DS have rolled their eyes at us but hey, I have been told I ROCK!!! So come January my 9 year old DD will have her first concert experience. Hopefully, DS will still think I rock when that concert rolls around. LOL

P.S. I will have a stitching post tomorrow because I want to provide the info on Coffee. Have a great day!!

TGIF

2006-09-08T15:54:00.000-05:00

Happy Friday and Happy Weekend Everyone!!

I am so glad it is Friday and also a weekend where we have no major plans. YES!! It has been a long time but we so deserve to do what we want this weekend. Especially after the first days of school. Of course I have books to cover and some paperwork to do but I will think about that either tomorrow afternoon or Sunday afternoon. Til then I plan on enjoying my weekend even though it means I have to do some housework. Yuck!! But if I get it done, I can start tearing apart DD's room next week and not have to worry about any major type cleaning.

This is what I plan on working on this weekend and probably for the next couple weeks. Earlier when I finished "12 Days" (post below this one) I couldn't decide what I wanted to do. I stared at both Coffee and Rose and this one screamed the loudest. I figure after I finish the half a page of chart that is left for that new section you see, I will move onto Rose and maybe even see that finished.

I have such an itch to start something new but I don't want to until I go to CATS at the end of the month. I am sure I will see something there that is going to scream at me. :) I also want to see my WIP pile get a little smaller before I sink my needles into yet another biggie project. In the meantime, I will wait for sales on floss and just kit it up til I have everything ready.

So my plan for the rest of the month is to work on Coffee and Rose and then by the end of the month or early in October, I will throw Tesori into the mix. It will be a rotation of sorts but not a written in stone type of rotation. I will either set some goals or finish pages of a chart, or a region of Italy and move on. Hopefully there will be some small finishes because of my car projects and maybe even a big finish before 2006 ends.

Have a great weekend everyone!!

5th Finish-12 Days

2006-09-08T15:44:00.000-05:00

I finished the stitching on this last night and attached the charms this afternoon. I love it. I was so excited that I ran to Joanns to buy my finishing stuff to make this into a no-sew cube. Some time this weekend, I plan on finishing it and will take another photo of it finished. Here are the details:
"12 Days of Christmas" Charmed Sampler by Hinzeit
5th Finish of 2006
Stitching time: 11/25/05 to 12/26/05 and 7/24/06 to 9/8/06
Stitched on 28 ct. Beige Jobelan over 2 with Gentle Arts Sampler Threads
Will be finished into a no-sew cube for holiday display. YEAH ME!!!!

Back to School

2006-09-07T08:15:00.000-05:00

I tried to write a post yesterday afternoon but blogger was being a bugger with me and I lost the post. Sigh...so I just gave up for the day.

The kids went back to school yesterday and to say I was nervous was an understatement. We had so many unknowns going into yesterday. First, both kids were getting new teachers. I checked the website for over a week looking for at least an introduction from these teachers. I got nothing. Then there is this whole "I am the mother of an 8th grader" thing. I don't know why it bothers me so much. I look at my age as a number and I am young. But looking at my DS tells me otherwise. This year is going to be a year of change and transition. No more comfort zone of grade school. I am already getting recruitment letters from various high schools in my area. Then there is DS's grades. They are not the best. They are just barely average. He needs help and I can't do it alone. So I left them at school and was a wreck til 12:30 when I got to see them. Well I worried for nothing. Both of their new teachers are great.

My DD's teacher is very young and DD LOVES her already. This teacher is a lot like Mr. F, my DD's second grade teacher. And so she should be. She is a friend of Mr. F and now Mr. F is also teaching 4th grade and I know they will be teaching the same way with the challenges my DD loves. So I am happy for her.

DS came out of school and was so animated about his new teachers (one homeroom and one ILA-integrated language arts). I also got the best news that nearly made me cry. He will be taught math by the honors math teacher who is the best in her field. We are so lucky to have her at our school. He is not an honors math student but his math teacher from last year saw the need to have something done and over the summer it was decided that my DS and 5 other students will be with Mrs. G and they will learn the same exact work but on their level. Thank goodness because when I checked his math packet it took me over an hour. I forgot half the stuff from when I learned it and was nearly in tears trying to check his work and get the correct answers. It all worked out in the end but it put my concerns right in the front of my mind. He is looking forward to this year which is a big one for him. He told me last night as I tucked him in that he was looking forward to today. I have never heard those words out of his mouth about school. :)

This morning they were up bright and early and ready to start their day. I am happy for both of them and I hope that they are this excited months from now when we are in the thick of things. :)

Yesterday because of my nerves, I did nothing. I could not concentrate on even laundry. So today I am doing my normal household stuff and will continue after I get them from school at lunchtime. Tomorrow and the weekend will be the same. Next week I must start tackling their rooms because they are a mess and I want to get ready for the colder months ahead. I also figure stitching will be a good portion of my afternoon. :) I am almost finished with "12 Days" and would love to show you a picture. That could happen either today or tomorrow if I get my way.

Have a great day everyone!! I need to get some laundry hung out!!

Thank You and September Stitching

2006-09-03T13:41:00.000-05:00

Thank you so much for your kind comments about my grandmother's sampler. I will definitely show it framed but that is down the road. Don't worry about the framing. DH is a pro and we will be getting the archival information and supplies we need from our nephew who has a degree in Art. I am so glad I shared my legacy with you. I barely remember my grandmother but I can almost feel her when I touch her sampler. I also see her love of stitching in that sampler. It truly is a work of art.

Today has been the best day so far this weekend. The rain FINALLY stopped and it is sunny and cool outside. I love it. I love days that I can have windows opened with a fresh breeze blowing inside. It is a great feeling.

We really haven't done much this weekend. I think summer finally caught up with us. I have been busy though. Not so much with housework but with stitching. I am almost finished with "12 Days of Christmas". I have to finish up the number 12 at the beginning and then attach the charms. Be on the lookout for a picture later this week. I will then finish this into a "no sew cube" and it will be displayed this holiday season. I am excited about that.

I also picked out a small car project since school starts Wednesday and I will be spending about 1/2 in the car every day waiting on my kids. It is another Christmas design and it is a mini-banner kit I got at AC Moore. It is snowmen and says "Snow Place Like Home for the Holidays". Cute!!

After I am finished with 12 Days, I plan on working on Rose for a bit. It is over 1/2 way finished and I may see it finished soon if I can stitch like I did this weekend.

After CATS, I will get back to work on Tesori. I figure all the September hustle and bustle with back to school will subside by then and we will have a fairly regular routine. My plan with Tesori is to stitch a region and then move onto another project for a week or two. Chances are the other project will be Coffee. If I should finish Rose, I will start something new to take its place.

So for September, I plan on
1. Finish 12 Days of Christmas by Hinzeit and assemble into cube/rectangle.
2. Start car project and have it half way finished by the end of the month.
3. Pick up Rose again. It probably won't get finished but will be close.
4. Pull out Coffee from my WIP pile in closet.
5. Go to CATS and make sure I get some Halloween/Fall type designs and a sampler. After all, I don't have any of these in my stash. LOL
6. Most important, enjoy stitching and enjoy every day of my DS's last year in grade school. :)

Have a great day everyone and Happy Labor Day tomorrow!

Priceless Treasure

2006-08-31T12:13:00.000-05:00

I have been stitching for 13 years. Since my son was born. My obsession took over when my son turned about 2. My mom was my biggest fan and loved seeing what I was stitching. She was not a stitcher though she knew embroidery, knitting and crocheting. About 10 years ago, my mom handed me a bag she took out of her cedar chest. She said she had something that she treasured but knew I would treasure it always like she did. This is what I was given:

This huge sampler was stitched by my maternal grandmother back in 1903. My mother had it since my grandmother passed away in 1966. It had sat in my mom's cedar chest til the mid-90s when she handed it to me. To say I was speechless was an understatement. She said she realized I got my stitching gene from my grandma.

Now a little background about this sampler. My grandmother was born in the Abruzzi region of Italy in 1890. She came to America when she was 13. The sampler is signed and dated 1903. My grandmother was 13 when she finished this sampler. My mom felt that my grandmother started this as part of her education in Italy. My mom also felt that my grandmother finished it in America. The reason-well there is a piece of linen tacked onto the bottom of the sampler where her last row of freeform alphabet, motifs and name and date are.

The above picture shows the detail and the different alphabets my grandmother did. The linen has to be 40 ct. if not smaller. I should count it out but haven't done so. It takes my breath away every time I look at something that was stitched by a 13 year old. Amazing!
This picture shows maybe what was her family crest. I don't know. I really couldn't care as I am just in awe of the detail in this sampler. Someday I will look into this.

This is a close up of the middle of the sampler. Obviously this was something my grandmother made up or looked at someone elses (a teacher maybe?). It is freeform. Some time years later, my grandmother repaired it. You can see the brighter red in the "D". You can also see "lines" she stitched on. It is all cross stitched over 2 threads. The "line" you see is not seen on the back. It was stitched between the threads of linen.

Here is a close up of the date along with something that made me chuckle. This sampler is "perfect". Every alphabet letter is correct with the exception of the "y" above the date. It is backwards and the only letter done that way. Maybe my grandmother was taught that only God is perfect just like the sampler makers long before her time. :) Another tidbit is that she only has the number 0-9 on here once. The rest is alphabets and they are just beautiful. I forgot to take a picture of the back but it is flawless. Unless you are looking at the backward letters, you cannot tell the front from the back.

This sampler will be placed back into the cedar chest where it once was. The cedar chest is now mine. Once Tesori is finished, I will have both of these framed the same way. My DH will be doing the framing on both. I would not trust anyone with my grandmother's sampler. I won't even be washing the sampler or fixing a few loose threads I see now. I will probably just run the iron on the back of it and that is that. A few years ago, DH and I were going to have this appraised. At the last moment, I decided against it. It doesn't matter what the monetary worth of this piece is. I would never give it up. To me it is priceless and connects me with my grandmother who stitched something so beautiful 103 years ago.

Besides this sampler, I now have beautiful embroidered hankerchiefs she made for my mother. don't think my mom ever used them. Maybe she just kept them in her purse because they were all different colors and techniques on the edges. I even found a bag with the extra threads and some needles. My mom used to keep them in a triangular glass box on her bureau. I hope to find a home for them here someday. For now they are tucked away safe and sound along with that bag of thread and needles.

Thanks for letting me share my treasure today. I like to think that my stitching will be treasured by my children and maybe grandchildren and great-grandchildren years from now.

Stashaholics Anonymous Anyone?

2006-08-30T15:48:00.000-05:00

Does anyone know of a local chapter of SA in Pennsylvania? I am in dire need of it and it is all because I started organizing my stash this afternoon. Gosh, where did it all come from? I do not remember ever buying this much stuff. I think the stash fairy puts it there when I am asleep. Yeah, that's it!! Stash fairy!!! Must be because I know "I" didn't buy all this stuff. That is my story and I am sticking to it!! So :P~~~~~~

Anyway, it was a fun afternoon and of course, there is so much I want to stitch. I have tons of BIG projects that range from Mirabilia, Chatelaine, Little House, Silver Lining, Mystic Stitch and more. These are just the ones I remember off the top of my head. I have seen how my tastes have changed over the years and there are things in there I never would have thought doing. Of course, I am not parting with any of it. I plan to stitch it all and every thing else I buy. :) So I guess I better start now. LOL

The one thing I did notice is I could use more fabric and will remedy that at CATS and Silkweaver sales and so on. It is nice to open that drawer and be able to start something right away.

For the moment, I placed on top the things that really could have a home here. I have coffee themed things for my kitchen (once it is redone), house/villa type things for the living room/dining room, and florals for the living room/bedroom/hallways/powder room. Of course I have lots of Christmas charts and should do something about that. I have NO Halloween/Autumn stuff. Can you believe that? Autumn is my favorite time of year and I have nothing, nada, zip. I think that will be fixed at CATS or maybe I can leave a note for the stash fairy.

Right now I have a WIP for the kitchen, family room and powder room. They are Coffee, Tesori and the Rose (remember the white one with the blue background?). They are all HUGE and here I am ready to add more. Yes, more!! I am insane for even thinking that but yes I am. That is what happens when you open a drawer and find something or lots of somethings screaming to be stitched. Sigh...I need more hours, more arms, less sleep, a maid, a cook, something, anything.

Since summer is winding down, it is the perfect time for me to sink my needles into my bigger projects. But how? Do any of you have any ideas? Should I try hours? Daily rotation? HELP ME!! I have tried weekly and that doesn't work for me. I have no will power. I have rotated in the past but I can't find the perfect rotation for me. I am open for ideas.

For now, I plan on having Tesori, Coffee and Rose and will probably start something else because it is screaming at me. I will finish 12 Days and this little gingerbread boy I found that is ALMOST finished. It is a Lorri Birmingham freebie that I got at CATS like 3-4 years ago. I will also find a small car project. It will probably be a Christmas-y one because I have nothing Halloween (so sad about that). Coffee and Rose will see a finish hopefully early next year. I know Tesori is probably a year away from finishing unless I give up sleep. So now I will think about what I am going to do. Like I said, I am open for ideas. Hopefully I will have a plan in the next week or so. First, I have to get my kids back to school.

But it was a fun day. I still have magazines to go through. I am hoping for smallish projects I can file away for my car/travel projects. I am blessed to have a craft I enjoy and the stash money to do it. If worse comes to worse, I will call myself a "collector of stash". LOL

P.S. I want to buy a sampler. I don't have any in my stash.

Back from Club Tomato

2006-08-27T16:18:00.000-05:00

In a moment of silliness on Friday night, we dubbed our Friday night of washing 43 baskets of tomatoes "Club Tomato". LOL We had to do something to keep our sanity from washing huges tubs of tomatos and weeding out the bad from the good.

Yesterday bright and early on a very overcast day, the pots were turned on the first tomatoes were put in to boil and soften. Twelve long hours later, we were finished and sat down to a meal of clams, mussels and scallops over spaghetti with the first taste of sauce. It was yummy and well deserved after all of our hard work.

Today I am tired but a good tired. I did a little straightening and made a pot of sauce (I still have some of last years) for dinner. Tonight is ravioli. I think instead of blood we have tomato sauce in our veins. LOL

A little while ago, I picked up my "12 Days" and stitched for the first time in almost a week. It felt good and I can't wait to get back to it. Yesterday during our long day, my sister in law and I talked about trying to get together one day a weekend to stitch the afternoon away. We have so much stuff to stitch and so much we want to buy that we need a plan. Right now we plan on Sundays (one at hers, the next at mine) and we will stitch and then have dinner together. We have always gotten along so well and I have to tell you that she is not only a sister in law, she is my best friend. We always have had a great relationship with very few bumps along the way. :)

We talked about CATS and how we can't wait. It told her I am trying to get organized and how I "window shopped" the other night. You see, I also window shopped for her too. LOL It seems all the projects I want to do are so big and involved. Sigh... I really hope our plan works. I will really have lots of finishes if it works.

Today I did lots of thinking and decided to go ahead and buy what I saw the other night. My plan is not a rotation but a way to get stuff done. I am still working out the kinks on how I can accomplish this so I am not posting my plan yet. It will be soon. I need to go through my stash and my WIPS and see what I am going to do. I am hoping a light bulb will go off over my head when I get the "perfect" plan. :)

For tonight, I am vegging out in front of the t.v. and enjoying my stitching.

Have a great evening!!

TGIF

2006-08-25T07:58:00.000-05:00

Happy Friday and Happy Weekend to you all!!

I wasn't going to post but I didn't want you to think that the stash monster got me. In reality, I haven't started stash reorganization like I wanted to. Thanks for your tips in my comments section. I will be putting them to use probably next week.

We jar our own tomato sauce every year. By we, I mean me and both my sister in laws' families. This year we are doing 43 baskets of tomatoes. I don't think we ever did that many baskets and I am going back to when my dear mother in law was alive. I have been doing or helping with tomatoes since I met my husband. That is 23 years. I guess we are gluttons for punishment. It is pretty much a two day thing but I have spent the last two days preparing. I have gathered all my empty jars and washed them. I went through my lids and rings and bought extras. Right now my dining room looks like a mason jar factory. I also baked a cake and cookies for breakfast tomorrow morning.

Last night, DH and my brother in law and father in law went to New Jersey to buy the tomatoes from a farm. They unloaded them and tonight we will start the process of washing and making sure that we weed out the bad ones. Very early tomorrow morning the pots will be put on to start the cooking and we will process each and every jar. It is going to be a long day but well worth it when I open a jar in the middle of winter and smell summer. :) It is the best smell.

It is a lot of work and hard work at that but it is a day we spend as an entire family. We have lots of laughs and we play catch up even though we see each other regularly. We do this outside. We have these huge pots that remind me of witches' cauldrons. Over the years, we have perfected our technique and moved from the basement of my mother in laws house to the deck and driveway of my sister in law.

It is more about tradition than anything else. We don't have to do this. We choose to do this. It is keeping a tradition alive. I come from a Polish-Italian family where my mother bought her crushed tomatoes or puree to make homemade sauce. In the summer my mom took tomatoes from our garden and froze some for the winter. But my husband's family always did this. I fell in love with this many years ago before we were even married. I don't mind the work.

My children have been part of this since they were in diapers. Of course, they didn't have a choice back then. Over the years, my children have helped in small ways. Their favorite part is tonight with the washing of the tomatoes. They take any reason to get wet in the heat of the summer. Actually it is more my daughter who loves doing this. She is very excited about this weekend and while I told her she can sleep a little later tomorrow morning, she wants to be up with me. We don't have far to go. My sister in law lives just around the corner, so close that we could walk if we wanted to. She advised me in her 9-year old way that her Zias need her to prepare the lids. LOL Well excuse me!! But I like that she wants to be part of this. My son likes being around but he always wants to do the big stuff which makes me nervous. The pots and tomatoes are very hot and an adult needs to be around him. So more than likely he will end up playing with our nephew or getting together with his friends who live across the street. That is fine by me.

For today, I plan on doing some normal household stuff so I don't have to worry about it on Sunday. I am also hoping to sneak some stitching time in. Instead of reorganization, I have been on the web looking at new stuff and now I have this huge wish list for CATS. Not good for my wallet, let me tell ya.

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Where to Start

2006-08-23T07:23:00.000-05:00

I spent a good portion of yesterday thinking about my stash reorganization. I pretty much want it to be in a permanent location. As of now, it is everywhere but that is because of the remodeling of our family room and my purchases and pulling out of boxes (yes, I still have boxes packed). During that time, I put most of the stuff in part of our dining room closet (we have a big closet there) and the rest was put in the attic or in another closet. Hmmm...I haven't looked in the other closet yet. I wonder what is in there. LOL So at the end of the day, I still haven't decided where to start or where to put it all. I am thinking one of my upstairs hall closets (I have two or I may do something with the family room closet. The only problem with the family room closets is one is for toys and kid stuff and the other which would be perfect has the door leading to the crawl space under the house. Because of that, stash would have to be moved to access the door. That really isn't a big problem as I have one of those plastic filing cabinets with three big bins on wheels and could put that in front of the door and just wheel it out. Oh the decisions I need to make. What the heck was I thinking when I decided to get some organization with my stash? Anyway, that is down the road. The first thing I need to do is start going through stuff.

Thanks for the comments and encouragement yesterday as I start this reorganization. I think the motivation is I am seeing more and more stitchers organizing their stash and I want to be able to find stuff quickly too. I guess I am jumping on the bandwagon so to speak. But it makes sense especially with CATS around the corner.

Terri, I have to agree with you that Jan is the sweetest person I have ever met. She loves everything stitching and really loves her shop. It shows in how the shop is set up and in her staff. You should see the stitching room she has. She was having a Saturday Stitch-In and the room the stitchers were in looked like a living room. So warm, inviting and cozy. Like I said, I would have spent more but I really did get overwhelmed. I wish the shop wasn't two hours away. I know I would be there all the time. I can't wait to see her and her staff at CATS in September. I am sure she will remember us. We were the only customers in bathing suits and t-shirts. LOL

I do have an LNS about 30 minutes from here. I don't go there often because I never get a warm feeling when I walk in the door. Also my last time there about a year ago left a sour taste in my mouth when they wouldn't help me or accomodate me when I needed ONE skein of thread they didn't have. I was not happy after spending over $100.00 that day. To this day I still need that dang thread and I could have ordered it on Saturday if I thought about it. I guess I better put that on my list for CATS. Thank goodness for my blog. At least I am jotting down pieces of my list somewhere. :)

Anyway, back to the organization. For today, I have some regular household stuff to do and then in between I may start going through the magazines. That seems like a logical place to start and that box is in the family room so I can do laundry, watch t.v. and look at magazines. Sounds pretty good to me!!

Have a great day everyone!!

Organizing Stash

2006-08-22T09:39:00.000-05:00

I really need to reorganize my stash. It has sort of gotten out of hand in the past year. Why? Well I guess between shopping and not really having a place for it, made it go everywhere. Now that we are back in the family room, it is time for me to rethink my organization that I have had for the past two years.

The reason for this you may ask? Well over the weekend we took a trip to Camelbeach in the Poconos. My sister in law and I went to a great needlework shop Mimi's Attic and spent some time oohing and ahhing over everything. She has a website and the shop and staff are absolutely wonderful. I saw a great Hinzeit Coffee sampler there and had it in my hands. The more I looked, the more I thought I had that already. So I put it back. I did manage to buy a chart, some threads and fabric so the trip wasn't a total loss. I actually would have bought more but I was overwhelmed by how stocked the shop was.

Yesterday I decided to look for the chart I thought I had. Well after about 1/2 hour, I did find it. I was about to put it on my list for CATS when it turned up. Where? In my drawer with my fabric, in the middle of the drawer where it could have gone unnoticed for years. Sigh...

Now CATS is a month away and I have no idea what I have in the way of stash. The fabric part is not a problem. I can always use fabric but the charts?!?!? I really don't want doubles especially if it isn't something I can pass onto my sister in law or niece. So between now and CATS I plan on getting my stuff organized. Besides charts in the fabric bin, I found finished works in my thread drawer, tote bag, floss container. You name it!!

So some time between now and CATS, I plan on getting my stuff organized again. I have my mother's cedar chest to put my finished projects waiting for frames. Do you think I used it yet? Not a chance. I even plan on putting my fabric in there. Then that will free up a bin for more stuff. LOL I also have to take a closer look at my charts to see what exactly I have. I have 13 years of charts and some are still in print.

I also need to go through my magazines and weed them out. A 3-ring binder and hole punch and plastic page protectors should take care of that.

I think going through my stash will be worse than spring cleaning. But in the end I should know exactly what I have and it will have a home somewhere in this house. :)

If you don't hear from me, I may have been swallowed up by the stash monster that I am about to unleash. :)

12 Days Progress

2006-08-17T10:56:00.000-05:00

It has been awhile since I shared photos. This is my progress as of last night on 12 Days of Christmas by Hinzeit. I now have all the blocks for the days completed. It is a matter of filling in and finishing the lettering and adding charms. I am hoping to have this completed in the next couple of weeks. I have another Christmas one to stitch unless I find something else in the meantime. I also need to get back to Tesori. But I am waiting for cooler weather and less hectic times to get back to that one.

P.S. Today's post is underneath this one. Taking the photo just happened a few minutes ago.

Three Weeks

2006-08-17T10:17:00.000-05:00

Yes, folks, it is three weeks til my kids go back to school. In a way, I am ready for it but not in the way you think. Last year was a very laid back sort of summer that dragged on and we enjoyed it so much. This summer and the summer of 2004 just flew by at a rapid rate of speed. Why? Well in 2004 we moved, enough said. This year we have had parties and bbqs and bridal showers and events coming out our ears. I have had enough quite frankly. If I wasn't preparing for a party, I was attending a party, bbq, etc. During the week, I played catch up because I wasn't around most weekends. Don't get me wrong here. I enjoyed all the parties, bbqs, events, etc. It is just I spent the summer wishing for one weekend where we had nowhere to go or nothing to do. Just a weekend to recharge ourselves and spend it together.

In all honesty, my kids have had a great summer even though I was dragging them from event to event. There was the pool and get togethers with friends, their friends coming over and them going to friends. There was family and friendship and good times had by all. So why am I complaining? Well I want to have some lazy days of summer. Yes, we will still go to the pool but I really don't want plans for the weekends. Yes we have plans this weekend but WE chose to do that. We were not invited anywhere. It is just the first time that we have been able to do something as a family (DH is not scheduled to work). I think even DS wants laid back days. He is showing it but not wanting to go to the pool this week and just wanting to chill out around home. DD is not quite the same way but she is staying close to home and chilling out in the afternoons in front of the t.v.

I am truly blessed that we are so loved. So I guess I am not really complaining. It is more of a longing for having nothing to do or should I say time to do the things we want. So I told DH last night that I am done and for the next couple of weeks, we will go wherever the wind blows and I am not making anymore plans. I actually said as of Sunday morning that I am not hosting anymore events this summer at my house. I have had quite a few this summer and really don't want to do anymore til Autumn. I guess I just need a vacation from summer. :)

I told DH that I am going back to my normal routine and I am going to spend afternoons stitching or enjoying time with the kids or both. I am not going to worry about not getting housework finished or getting to the grocery store or whatever. I just want to have a little bit of summer that my kids have experienced. Just the joy to do whatever I feel and to go wherever I feel like going. :) I am hoping that the next few weeks just drag on by and I plan on enjoying every moment of it before I get thrown back into the hustle and bustle of school.

I hope you all find the time to do the same.
Have a great day!!

Too Busy

2006-08-14T09:45:00.000-05:00

This summer is flying on by and it is all blurring together. We have been way too busy and I am starting to long for some down time. The kids are enjoying themselves and I am too but school starts in just a few short weeks.

I haven't stitched in a couple of weeks and it seems that every weekend we have something to do.

This past weekend was a great one though. Our DD turned 9 on Saturday and her party started at 1:00 pm with her "girl party" and then went til 11 pm with the family party. I was exhausted yesterday but I had to do something for my girlfriend's birthday and had her and her DH over for dinner. Am I a glutton for punishment or what?

The important thing is we are having fun but I just wish we can have a few lazy days of summer before September hits.

In the past week, I have bought school supplies and labeled and packed them in their respective backpacks. I don't want to be like I was last year with the last minute stuff. Some time this week, DD has to try on her uniform so I can see if I need to purchase anything. DS needs new trousers, shirts and ties. I knew that before school even ended. The boy is growing like a weed. :)

Today I wanted to go to the pool but in the last hour or so I realized I need to be on top of things before they get out of hand. So I figure today will be spent getting my everyday life back together and then starting fresh tomorrow. To say I am exhausted is an understatement and I need today to recharge the batteries.

It felt good this morning to read a few blogs. I haven't read them in awhile and it is nice catching up with all of you. I am so hoping to get some sort of routine so I can enjoy my mornings and then spend the afternoons and evenings enjoying the rest of summer.

Our weather has been beautiful. I haven't had the AC on for quite a few days but I think today it will be back on. We are supposed to get hot and muggy again. But it has been enjoyable with the weather lately.

Hopefully I will return to some type of normalcy and even have a picture to share with you in the next few days. :)

Have a great day!

August Reflections

2006-08-02T10:55:00.000-05:00

It is hotter than Hades with our 102 temps (supposed to be the high today) and 115 heat index.

I do not feel like doing anything because of said heat.

I am soaked walking from the house to the car or the trashcan or to get the mail, etc.

I do not have the luxury of doing nothing as I am the maid, cook, driver, shopper, laundry person, etc.

It is HOT!!

Okay, now that is off my chest, I can update you on Casa di Mia. I can't believe it is August. It seems like we just got off school weeks ago and here I am on August 2 and so far, I have purchased DD's lunch boxes and both kids' backpacks. Sigh...I need more time for summer. One more month is not enough.

We have been busy this summer and that is why time is just speeding on by. We have had places to go and things to do every single weekend. I am lucky if I can spend either Saturday or Sunday at home all day. Lately, I have not been around either day on weekends.

During the week, we have been going to the pool during the day and then in the evenings, I am playing catch up with laundry and food shopping, etc. With that said, my stitching time in the evenings is practically zero. I am so hoping to remedy that before the beginning of next week.

So we have one more month of summer. To date, my kids still need to finish up summer reading and math packets (DD's is HUGE) and I need to purchase school supplies and uniforms and shoes. I am just not ready but in the next couple of weeks, I will have to get my rear in gear and get it done.

For the rest of August, I plan on enjoying these hot days either home in the wonderful air conditioning (I am so grateful for that) or at the pool. We are planning a weekend getaway, and then there is DD's 9th birthday party and a few other get togethers for the remainder of the summer.

In stitching news, I am hoping to get back to Tesori by the end of the week. I have been too tired in the evenings to even pick it up. I have managed to do some on my 12 Days of Christmas and it looks like it will be finished for Christmas 2006. I am so happy about that.

Since the heat is so bad for the next couple days, we are not going to the pool. Yesterday, while our temps hit 100, the kids wanted to leave the pool by 2:00 PM. I was shocked, but they said it was just too hot to even stay in the water. It was also crowded at the pool and shade was at a premium though I lucked out with getting a spot under the canopy. So since we are sticking close to home, I plan on getting all my cleaning done, most of my laundry caught up and staying away from the stove. As I type, I have a roast in the crock pot. All I need to do is make an extra veggie for dinner. I also spent the morning working for my attorney and I will probably work again tomorrow as I think something he gave me just didn't sound quite right. It probably is okay but he didn't give me the usual background on the documents I needed to prepare.

I hope you are all staying cool if it is hot where you are. I will try to be better in updating. Hopefully soon I will have some pictures to share.

Have a great day everyone!!

The Flip That Flopped

2006-07-24T15:06:00.000-05:00

I can't find the post right now but remember when I said I was doing this and I didn't care if it was after July 4th that it was staying up all summer. Well, it is now in the trash!!! Trust me, I don't take trashing cross stitch stuff lightly but this really got the best of me. I had almost the whole flip flop finished when I realized there was a BIG mistake. I frogged the entire thing. There is nothing wrong with the chart. It is definitely the stitcher in this case. So I started fresh and restitched it. I....made....the....same....mistake.... TWICE!!! I cannot believe I did that. This pattern is not hard. I was even doing it on plain ole 16 ct. light blue aida. I lost my mind to have done it not once but twice. So on Friday when this happened for the second time, it was trashed and it went merrily with the trash men this morning. Good riddance!!

I was about to restart it with fresh aida but decided I am not going to chance it a third time.

Yeah, yeah, I know...third time could be the charm, but I have no desire to do it now.

Then came the dilemma...what am I going to stitch at the pool, park, car, traveling, etc. I cannot tote Tesori around with me. It is 4 feet worth of linen that I am not risking.

On Saturday I decided I wanted to stitch something for Halloween. I found a pattern. I found the material. I didn't have half the threads and was too lazy to go buy them. So I nixed that.

Then I decided to do a couple ornaments for gifts for Christmas. Again, I found the pattern, had the threads, but not the material. ARGHH!!!!

This morning, I realized at around 10 AM we were going to the pool for the day and I had nothing to do there besides vegetate when I wasn't in the pool. Not good!! I am on a diet and idle hands means, I am going to eat. So I did what any red-blooded stitcher does. I dug in the drawer of WIPS that has been growing for quite awhile. I only had an hour so I dumped the drawer and started digging.

Guess what I turned up? A Christmas project. I started this back in December with the intention of finishing it for Christmas 2005. It is 12 Days of Christmas by Hinzeit. It is the PERFECT project to take to the pool. Not big, not small and I can finish a number or two per day. I should have this finished in no time. There are other things in that WIP drawer that may see the light of day before the end of the summer.

I happily stitched on numbers 9-12 until my friend C came and we chatted for a couple of hours til I had to come home and start dinner. It turned into a really awesome pool day with my newly dug out project.

In a way, I am glad the flip flop flopped. I now have Christmas in July and some WIPS and small kitted projects that may be finished before school starts in September.

P.S. I am not giving up on my flip flop. The chart is tucked away for next summer when I will have hopefully forgotten what happened the first time I tried to stitch it. :)

Finish #3 on Tesori

2006-07-19T13:08:00.000-05:00

It is so hot again here today and after a full day at the pool and a full evening, we are just kicking back at home in our cool home. Between loads of laundry, I managed to finish the Liguria region of Tesori. According to my sister-in-law, the Liguria region is a tourist type region. I gathered as much as I stitched the motifs. Here is an up to date of what I have finished so far. I am really enjoying the stitching on this one.
Up next is the final section of the first row. It is Venuto or the Venice region. This one will probably take me a little longer because it is a corner and it gets a little fiddly with the scalloped border.

In looking at my material out of the q-snaps, it looks like I mismeasured. I have a feeling the cut was a little larger than what I ordered. I know, I know, I should have measured it first but I assumed (big word there) that it was the correct cut. I will have 4 inches on the right and about 4 1/2 inches on the left. But I have no worries as I will have more than enough to be able to get this framed the way I want.

For the rest of my day, I only have dinner to do, laundry to take off the clothesline and stitching. My kind of day!!

I hope you are all enjoying your day and staying cool if it is hot where you are.

I'm Melting

2006-07-18T07:26:00.000-05:00

Summer is here with a bang. Okay I realize it is the middle of July and by now we have these hot, hazy, humid, out of the ballpark type temperatures but I am just not used to it. With the heat, my energy has been zapped. It is almost like winter. I feel like I am hibernating but instead of a warm house, it is soooooo very, very cool inside. Thank goodness for air conditioning. I haven't really listened to the news, but I think we are in the soup for the rest of the week.

It has been pretty uneventful around here but busy. I have been going to the pool and when not at the pool, I am doing my laundry and other household things including having to work for my attorney half a day yesterday.

The weekend was fun but it went by too quickly. I was in Target on Saturday and ended up getting DD a new comforter/sheet set. She needs a new one but I never expected to get it now. The color was right and the price was even better. :)

The best news was this. First the background. DS has been bugging DH to take him to a concert. Well it is hard as some of the bands DS listens to we just don't think taking a 13 year old is appropriate. And don't even mention the fact that DH will never sit through a screaming session that the band calls rock. DH said if a good band comes along (he was hoping Dave Matthews) he would take DS. Well I chimed in that I love going to concerts and I wanna go too. Last week The Who announced that they would be starting their tour in PHILADELPHIA. How lucky is that. DH said he would love to see The Who and I would too. So at 9:55 in the midst of doing attorney work I logged onto Ticketmaster to wait for the tickets to go on sale. Approximately 20 minutes later and lots of refreshing I got us pretty decent seats. So we are going to see The Who in September. YAHOO!!! I always liked The Who but never saw them in concert. This should be interesting. The last concert I went to was Billy Joel/Elton John and before that one was Santana. After I ordered the tickets, I swore DD to secrecy and waited til DH came home from work so we could tell DS together. That happened around 5 PM last evening. To say the kid was speechless is an understatement. He stared at the order form and seating chart (I circled the section to show DH) for a bit and asked if it was a joke. He never realized I was doing this yesterday morning. Then we broke the news that there were 3 tickets and two of them were for his parents and parents only. LOL He didn't even care because in his words "I'm going to a concert" is all he cares about. I have a feeling we will now be hearing lots of Who in our house. It makes me wonder if DH had an ulterior motive. LOL But thanks to DH's influence, DS does listen to lots of what we listen too. His latest obessession has been Pink Floyd's "The Wall". I swear I am raising a little DH with the music we hear coming from DS's stereo.

Just when I thought I was done the fun "firsts" with DS, here I am going to his first concert with him. Pretty cool that he wants to go and hang with his parents for the evening. What a way for DS to start his teen years!!

In stitching news, I am still finishing up Liguria on Tesori. I have one more motif and part of another to finish up and then I will post a picture. I don't know if it will happen today because we will be going to the pool but I know I should be able to finish this up by tomorrow.

I better get moving. This was nice as both kids are still asleep.
Have a great day everyone!!

Ahhhhhhh!!!!

2006-07-11T11:32:00.000-05:00

That sound you hear was me last night sitting in my "new" favorite spot in the family room with my Tesori. I actually managed to do most of the border for the Liguria region and with any luck later this afternoon I finish up the little bit of border and start on the motifs. What a great stress reliever and well deserved stitching time after my past few weeks.

I have managed to tackle most of Mt. Laundry and am finishing up today. It is sooooo hot and humid and sticky here. But I have the laundry hanging and in a bit I need to fold a dryer load. If all goes well, the beds will be stripped and laundered tomorrow.

Bright and early (well for the kids anyway), the swing set was installed. By the time DD woke up, they were finishing up. She ran outside as soon as the installers left and played for all of 5 minutes. It was just too hot for her. LOL Hopefully tonight when the sun is not shining on part of the set, she will play a little more. It looks awesome. DH was in the area and came home to inspect. He decided to move it over a bit and will do that in the next few days. He needs room to build his shed. I guess that is our next project, huh?

I spent some time last night reading blogs and bbs and found that the designer for Tesori is going to have another design starting in September. I understand a few of the words but not all. Maybe Tina (Italian-Scot) can enlighten me. I am sure it may be another something that I have to do and cannot live without. LOL

I am also hoping to have either a progress picture or finish picture of Liguria later this week. If tonight is like last night, I should plow through another good bit of it.

I hope you are all staying cool if it is hot where you are.
Have a great day!!!

I'm Still Around

2006-07-10T08:08:00.000-05:00

I am so sorry for the lack of blogging lately. One, I haven't had the time. Two, I haven't picked up a needle in about 2 weeks and three, I could not blog about what happening til after the big day.

For a couple of months now, my sister in law, brother in law, DH, father in law and just about everyone of the 12 of us have been planning a 50th birthday party for my DH and sis in law's sister. This was not an easy task. You see, R is their older sister and R loves doing things for us but never wants anything in return. Not even a party. So we have had lots of ups and downs because she knew something was going to happen. She just didn't know when. Of course we had the perfect excuse to have a huge party here. DS turned 13 and she knew I would do something special for him and probably wait for her. It was not happening. I asked DS if we could postpone his party to have his aunt's party first and close to his big day. He was great and said he didn't mind if we did Zia's (aunt) first.

So my sister in law and I have been buying, inviting, preparing, ordering food, shopping, etc. for awhile now. The party was this past Saturday and last week we were way over the top busy for the event.

R's husband, my DH and C's husband and my nephews and father in law made sure all the tables, tents, beverages, etc were set up just right and by 11 PM on Friday night all was well. It was just making sure she was here on Saturday that was our concern. But we really had nothing to worry about even when my oldest nephew (R's son) asked me if I had a death wish. LOL That wasn't about to stop me or C from doing something very special for R.

The party was a great success and I am still reeling from it all. It was worth every second of preparation and nervousness and anxiety that I have been experiencing for some time. Of course, the party happened all weekend because the family all came back (13 of us along with our nephews' friends and close neighbors of R) to watch Italy win the World Cup yesterday. What a game and it was so much fun to have a house full of family yesterday. That is when I really enjoyed myself. I think I barely ate at the party on Saturday so I enjoyed many leftovers with close family and friends yesterday.

Being an only child and now parentless, this is my family. We have our ups and downs but I have never been made to feel like an in-law in the 23 years I have known my DH. I feel so proud to be part of this wonderful family and I was honored to be part of a party for a wonderful woman that I call sister. I am tired today and need to go back to my regular routine (read that LAUNDRY) today. But it is a good tired and I plan on enjoying my day today. The best part is knowing that I don't have to run out for one more thing for the party. I am sure C feels the same way today. Only difference is she had to go to work today. I hope she is not as tired as me and her day goes quick.

In other news, the swing set we ordered for DD is being installed tomorrow. It should have been installed over a week ago but because of the bad rain we had, they were behind in their installs. So tomorrow my DD and probably DS will be happily swinging in the backyard.

I also plan on stitching today. I put it all away during my cleaning up for the party. I am anxious to work on Tesori. Now my niece wants to do it too. I can't wait to see the colors she picks out. We are hoping to get a nice piece of material for her at CATS. Speaking of which, I need to make our room reservation. Gosh, I hope they still have rooms available. I haven't had the time nor the extra cash to do the reservation but I plan on that today.

For the rest of the week, I plan on getting my laundry done as it has grown into Mount Everest, get the swing set installed and get to the pool with the kids. They have been great during the preparation for their Zia's party. They deserve to kick back and enjoy their summer now that they can get their mom's full attention once again. As for DS, his party will be toward the end of July but on a much smaller scale than his aunt's party.

Have a great day everyone!! I need to go sort that laundry and start my day.

To My Son

2006-07-03T10:30:00.000-05:00

On Saturday, July 3, 1993 at 4:44 P.M. I received the greatest gift and greatest and most treasured title of my life. I became a mother for the first time and a mother to the most beautiful baby boy. My life became complete on that hot afternoon in July.

From the start I knew our relationship was going to be special and something I will always treasure. You were very easy to take care of. You never cried and from the first moment you smiled, you never stopped those beautiful smiles. They went from the toothless grins to a toothy smile that still hasn't stopped to this day. We were never apart in those first years and I was your first love and first playmate.

It seems like only yesterday we were playing with blocks and cars and legos and puzzles on the family room floor. I know the movie Toy Story by heart because you watched it millions of time. Elmo became a member of our family and your most treasured toy was your "mown mower". We bought quite a few of them each summer til you were about 5. Daddy couldn't go to Home Depot without you. It was your favorite place to go because he would sit you on those big lawn mowers. Poppal would do the same thing at Sears. He didn't mind because that meant he didn't have to follow me and Granny around the mall.

When I look at you now I see the man you are becoming but when I look closer, I still see this little boy who held my hand and always had a kiss and hug and an I "wuv" you countless times a day. Of course I still get the hugs and kisses and the "I love yous" but they aren't as often as they used to be. That is fine. I have had to give you some wings in the past couple of years. You need to find yourself and become your own person. Just know that when we are apart, I worry til you are home again. That will never stop whether you are 13 or 70. I am a mom and more important, I am your mom and always will be.

It is funny, I don't feel like 13 years have passed. There are times when I feel that time has stood still but in reality, I blinked my eyes and here we are 13 years older and 13 years wiser. Lots of things have happened to change our lives. When you were 4, your sister came along and even though you don't realize it now, she loves you so much and has always looked up to you. You lost both of your grandmothers and one of your grandfathers in those years. I know today they are singing "Happy Birthday" to you with Granny's voice being the loudest. You are going to be in 8th grade. You will go off to school in September without even looking back when you enter the school. It was such a short time ago when you entered preschool and wouldn't let go of my leg. Yes, you were that short at one time. But through the years, we have grown and learned. That is what life is all about. I just hope that you spend the rest of your life growing and learning and remembering what I taught you from the very start.

So on this day I wish you the happiest of birthdays as you enter your teen years. You will have lots of fun during these next several years. Yes they will be challenging at times but always remember I am going to be right there with you. I have been there before you and it wasn't too long ago that I was a teenager. Nothing will surprise me so never hesitate to talk to your mom. You can always come to me and I will do my best to help you no matter what the problem. It is like that Vegas commercial. Whatever you tell mom, stays with mom!!! :)

Happy 13th Birthday Nick!!
Thank you for making me a mom and more importantly YOUR mom.
I love you with all my heart and soul!!

TGIF

2006-06-23T07:53:00.000-05:00

Happy Friday to all of you!!! It has been a whirlwind week around here. The only bright spot was that there was no school to think of. I spent most of this week trying to balance going to the pool club for the kids and trying to get my house back together. That leaves me with tons of stuff to do but I figure I will find my new summer schedule in the next week or so. :)

This weekend will be kind of laid back. Tomorrow my plan is to get my living room back to the way it was before we invaded it during the remodel. With us out of there it is already cleaner and I didn't clean it yet. LOL DH should be around tomorrow so he can help as he has offered because he sees me a bit overwhelmed the past few days. So that should only be a day job if he helps. If not, it will be two days. I am not going to get stressed out.

We are loving being back in our family room. It looks awesome and I will take pictures early next week to share with you.

The only thing I need now is to settle in my new stitching spot. It has not been easy. I do like sitting on the end of the sofa as we have the dual recliner things on each end. But then I don't know where to put my stitching supplies. I guess I need to buy those end tables very soon (maybe tonight). We do have another recliner chair that sits by itself but again, there is the table issue. I have managed to stitch a little bit this week but not much. I have been trying to get the house into some kind of order so I can enjoy the majority of the summer with minimal cleaning up. The kids are even under strict orders that once a room is finished they must pick up or else I am trashing whatever I see. I swear sometimes I live with pigs instead of children (and DH too). LOL

Now I must thank all of you who have commented on my progress on Tesori. I really am liking it and did manage a small start on the Liguria region which is the 3 panel/square whatever you would like to call it. I am hoping to spend some time on it this weekend.

Judy, there are 20 regions to stitch along with another central panel of the country of Italy. (21 sections total) Some regions have more stitching than others. Lazio was testament to that with lots of solid stitching. Liguria has lots of little motifs so I am hoping that stitches up quicker.

Cathy, yes I will be taking Tesori to CATS with me to show you and Jo and anyone else I may meet from the blogging world that knows "me". I won't be working on it but it will be packed away to show off. I can just imagine how it will look in the next couple months so it will really look like something then.

Concetta, welcome to my blog. I will be adding your blog to my side bar. To give you a little background, my DH and his family are from Italy, the Puglia region to be exact. He was born in Trani. DH and his family has lived in the USA for 38 years and my DFIL goes back often to visit his sister and her family. In fact, we have family visiting here right now. That is another reason why no blogging this week. I always wanted to stitch something for DH. He appreciates my stitching even though he feels I never finish anything. LOL I saw Tesori a few months ago when I followed a link that someone posted on a bb. They said it was a free pattern. Well of course I went there expecting something small to medium in size. I was amazed and fell in love with it. It wasn't til a couple months ago, that I decided to stitch it because we were redoing our family room and it would be perfect for the new room. Here is the website so you can see for yourself Tesori I am also part Italian as my mother's family comes from Abruzze. My MIL was Abruzze too so this is a great heirloom piece I am working on.

I am also working on my little flip flop design at the pool. It doesn't look like much yet but hopefully will be finished some time in July. I don't care that it says July 4 on it. It will be on display all summer in my house. LOL When I take pictures of the family room next week, I will take a picture of my progress on the flip flop project.

Well I better get moving. Lucky for me the kids are still asleep and I had some time to surf the web and check out some blogs.

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Tesori Update

2006-06-19T21:32:00.000-05:00

It felt so great to be back in our family room again. Okay it is messy and I have lots of work to do for the rest of the week but hey, new carpet, furniture and t.v. equals great stitching time in my favorite room in the house. LOL I finished up Lazio tonight and took a quick picture:Some of the motifs in this region are St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, the Colosseum and the Lupa Di Roma (a she-wolf statue in one of the plazas in Rome). I tried finding out what that worm-type thing is but no luck. I also don't know what the harp-like thing symbolizes. But it looks great and I am very happy with the color choices especially after stitching here in the family room tonight. This will be perfect when completely finished.

The next region is Liguria and from the chart, it looks like this is a vacation/beach resort area. A perfect chart to stitch during the summer. :)

Have a great evening everyone!

This and That

2006-06-19T14:29:00.000-05:00

Sorry for not posting sooner but is has been very busy in our household.

First off, I am now the proud mommy of a brand new 8th grader and a brand new 4th grader. No summer school for DS. I STILL do not know what his ILA grade was but he got a passing mark on his report card so I will take that and run.

Both of the kids are getting "new to the school" teachers next year. This should be interesting. I am hoping for the best.

The weekend was busy but I got some stitching in.

The best news of all...my carpet was installed today. YEAH!!! Now to get the freshly cleaned furniture off the patio and into this room. The carpet looks awesome against the walls and new woodwork. I am one happy person today. Little by little this week, I will return things to this room and get the rest of the house in order.

I just wanted to give a quick update. I have a few things to do before dinner. Hopefully in the next few days, I will have an updated picture of "Tesori" to show you.

Have a great day!!

4th Finish This Year

2006-06-13T08:49:00.000-05:00

I did it!!! YEAH!!! I stayed up a little later than normal last night and finished California Wine Sampler. I am really happy with the way it turned out. Sorry for the wrinkles but this morning I took it out of the q-snaps to take a picture to share with you. The picture doesn't do it justice but it is perfect with the hand-dyed fabric. Here's the info:
California Wine Sampler by Abbey Lane Designs
Started: April 27, 2006
Finished: June 12, 2006
Stitched on 32 ct. Country Mocha Vintage Linen with DMC 3740 and GAST Grape Arbor and GAST Grape Leaf

As soon as I get my AC Moore Ad this week, I will take the 40% coupon and get the frame.

In its place as car/travel project, I am doing the freebie I mentioned in another entry...Independence by Cross Eyed Cricket Collection. I will start that today while I wait for the kids.

I am desparately trying to get some household stuff done before noon when I have to pick the kids up. It is really hard to get a lot accomplished because it seems I no sooner bring them to school that I have to pick them up. Looks like my routine will be changing up a bit this summer when they are home full time. :) That is okay though because I am looking forward to the summer. All I want now is DS's exam grades. LOL If I get answers today, I will post again so as not to leave you in suspense any longer.

Not much else going on around here. I plan on going back to Tesori this evening and with any luck by the end of the week I will have the second section finished and the third ready to start.

Have a great day everyone!!