Hoarfrost!!

It was a beautiful drive to school today! I wish I could share the beauty with you but by the time I got home, grabbed the camera and went back out, most of the beauty in my hood was already melting. Apparently, the term for this is Hoarfrost! I just thought it was cool! All the trees had this beautiful white coat on today and even Amy, who is normally still comatose on the ride to school noticed. I commented to her on how pretty the trees were and she said, "Yeah, I was just trying to remember if they always looked this way in the morning." Great powers of observation ya got there hon. So my pics aren't the best but I thought I'd share anyway.


Yesterday, on her way out to the car, Amy slipped on the ice. She does this at least once a winter. Normally it's her knees that take the brunt of the fall. She's had 3 knee scopes and still has pain and swelling that bothers her all the time. So yesterday when she knew she was going to fall she tried to save herself by sticking her arm out to prevent hurting her knee. That didn't work too well for her. Both her wrist and shoulder are messed up. One is in a sling while the other is in a brace. I don't think she broke anything but she did severely sprain the wrist and dislocate the shoulder.

Missy pup is still not doing well. I hope the meds kick in soon. I feel so bad for her.

Abby has been complaining lately that there are birds in the attic above her room. This is not the first time she has had this complaint. For years she complained about it and Dan and I ignored her and made jokes about Joe the Hobo that lived up there. She continued to complain until finally, I sent him up there to see what he could see. After he reported his observations back to me I sent a camera up so he could take a picture. She was right. There were birds living above her room. We fixed the problem, cleaned up the mess and went about our business. Until the next spring when she started complaining again. Up Dan went. This time, I scrapbooked the whole thing. (click on picture to make larger)

The boys promised me that this time they had fixed it for good. No way were any birds getting in there again. They were wrong. We've never had them in the winter though so I guess we know which bird it is. The doves aren't here this time of year. Not sure what we will try this time but Dan says he's not going up there until the weather warms up a bit. Abby is just going to have to live with the chirping till spring.

I did not hear from Candi so I asked Adam to choose a number between 1 and 38. He chose 15. The 15th person to post on that thread was..... Meari! So Congratulations to Meari!! I have emailed you!

And finally, here is my progress as of last night on Quaker Diamonds.


Still liking this project a lot! Tonight I'll work on the Princesses again. But first we're going to take my Texas Roadhouse gift card and go out to dinner. I was with a customer today from 11:45 until 3:30 and I never got lunch. This means, I can eat tonight and not feel guilty! It's about time to go so I better get ready. Have a great weekend everyone!! Thanks for stopping by!

Stitching updates

Happy Hump Day!!

The sun is shining this morning which is wonderful with one exception, on my way back from taking Amy to school this morning I absolutely could not see anything in front of me and had I been an inexperienced driver I would have creamed the line of cars that were stopped at the stop light. Lucky for them I have been driving this same route for 7 years now and know the road so I was smart enough to slow down considerably until I could see what was ahead of me. Which was an accident. Apparently not everyone was being careful. Didn't look too bad thankfully.

We've been busy at work planning things for this year. We are heading to Market in February, March we are going to have a weekend stitching getaway and April will be the Cross Stitch Exhibition at the shop. Along with those events we are booking some trunk shows, and scheduling some classes. In the fall we will have our 2nd annual Fall getaway to the Sister's House in the sandhills. Currently I am working on a monthly newsletter. Should be a busy year for us!

I've been doing some stitching in the evenings while watching TV and movies. Have ya'll seen The Ugly Truth? Cute movie I thought but not for kids under 15. I have been trying to work on both the princesses and Quaker Diamonds and so far I have stuck with the rotation. I am quite proud of myself for doing so as I have tried in the past and failed miserably!

Here's the Princesses before:

and as of last night:

I am trying the method of leaving the threads and not cutting and starting and cutting and starting. Still a very slow go for me though. But progress is being made. I know some of you said you didn't think it would take me 29.5 years to finish but with 54 pages, doing 2 pages per year....okay I lied, it's only 27 years to finish. I will be 76 at that time. And blind. So that is why I am trying once again to do a rotation. Maybe I can shave 10 years off of that if I stick with it!

And here is Quaker Diamond before:
and as of last night:

I am loving this one. It's so easy to stitch, I can actually see what I'm doing!

I emailed Candi, the winner of the giveaway on Sunday but haven't heard back from her so I emailed her again this morning. Candi, if you are not getting the emails please let me know. If I don't hear from you by Friday morning, I will draw a new winner.

My Missy pup has hurt her back somehow. She has back problems anyway but has really done a number on it this time. Her back legs won't hold her weight when she tries to get up and the stairs are a major problem. Dr F. gave me some Rimadyl yesterday so I hope that will kick in soon and help. We have a lot of stairs leading to the back yard so going potty is not an easy thing. The other dogs will just pee and poo on the deck if there is snow on it but Missy is such a lady she walks out there and does this high stepping walk to avoid where the yellow snow is. It's funny to watch. Anyway, she'll hold it forever if someone doesn't come out and carry her down the stairs. Thank God it has warmed up a bit around here.

Meari, I think it was, inquired as to what the lighting problem in my family room is. This corner

of my family room is very dark and Amy is always complaining about it.. So I tried putting another end table on that end but that crowded the person at the computer. I would move the curio that is at the other end of the sofa, so I could slide the sofa down to make room for a table, but I don't have anyplace else to put the curio. I tried the floor lamp by the sofa as you see but that looks bad also. The upshot is there IS NOT any good solution for getting light in this corner and believe me, I tried a lot of different ideas! So...I think we will add a light kit to the ceiling fan, which I didn't want to do but I agree with Amy it is dark in that corner and it was all we could come up with that didn't offend my decorating sensibilities to the point where I want to gag when I am in there. Thanks for asking!

Well, that's enough for today I think. I need to eat some breakfast and head to work. Thanks for stopping in and commenting! Make today a good one!

Julie

And the winner is.....

Were you wondering if I was ever going to announce the winner? We took the Christmas decorations down today and I have been trying, without success I might add, to solve a lighting problem in my family room. A certain member of this family who shall remain nameless keeps complaining that their nest is too dark and they need more light to read by. I say, take your nest to your room and read there! I have tried everything to remedy this situation today but so far, I have been unsuccessful. I decided I have messed around with it enough and I am finished for the night.

Adam came over to do laundry today and eat breakfast. I made coffee cake which did not please the celiac that lives here but I didn't know she was going to get up at the crack of dawn and come home this morning. She stayed the night with a girlfriend last night and since they were at the bar I assumed, wrongly as it turns out, that she would sleep late and not be home till lunch time. Oh well, the coffee cake was really good!

Getting back to the subject at hand....

I put everyones name in a hat, a Cox cable hat as a matter of fact. It's never been worn and I didn't want you all getting dirty while being tossed around in a hat!


Then, since Adam was the only one of us that was dressed, I had him do the honors so as not to scare any of you with our rolled out of bed, gonna take the decorations down, not gonna shower or dress till I'm done look. It ain't pretty.


See that blank spot there under Adams arm? That's where one of the trees was. It's not always that way. The curio cabinet is there now. See?

What's that you say? You don't flipping care what's in that bare corner? You just want to know who won? Oh, OK! the winner is.....

wait, are you sure you don't want to see the rest of the room? Maybe solve my lighting problem for me? No? fine, be that way.

Without further ado, drumroll please......the winner of my very first give away is.....


Congratulations Candi! I will email you shortly for your address so I can get your package in the mail to you.

Thanks everyone for participating, it was fun to see all the new people and read the comments. I hope you come back again just because you enjoy the blog and not just for the next giveaway.

And now my friends, I'm tired and I'm dirty so I'm going to go shower and then stitch for an hour. Have a wonderful week!