Confessions, WIP, and a framing disaster!

What a wonderful weekend! The weather was gorgeous, I stitched with friends, went grocery shopping and worked outside. Okay, I confess, mostly Dan and Adam did the work but I supervised and that counts as it was like supervising dumb and dumber at times. What person in their right mind would be standing on the top of a ladder, a ladder that is leaning against the tree you are trying to cut down mind you, and while standing on the top of that ladder, be trying to start the chain saw???? The ladder is swaying all over the place as Dan is tugging on the pull cord, the saw part of the saw is kicking up and Adam is standing right underneath it looking up at his father. Can anyone say "Accident waiting to happen?"" I must have yelled at him at least 4-5 different times that he needed to get down off the ladder to start the saw. One would think that after I yelled at him about it once that he wouldn't try the same thing again but he did. MEN!! No common sense whatsoever! The job did not get finished though. The chain saw gave up the ghost before the boys could cut the trunk down. God only knows how long it will take for the trunk to disappear. This dead pine tree, the second one of three, has been in the process of being chopped down for a year now. The last tree is just starting to show signs of the Pine Mold that will eventually kill it. I don't plan to wait that long. The dead pine needles are wicked evil sharp and the dogs are constantly bringing them in the house. No this is a project that needs to have a definite end and soon!

We added an extra stitching session at the shop this month since we were at retreat on our normal Saturday in March. We'd had several ladies ask if we would mind and of course we didn't but in a strange twist of fate, the ones that requested it were not able to make it. We missed them but it didn't stop us from having a good time.

Mary shared a finish with us. LHN The Library. Just beautiful. I must confess this is in my to do pile. I need to stitch this, sooner I hope rather than later.

I am still working on my Erica Michaels Papillon project but can see the end in site.


Being sick, and boy was I sick, put me a bit behind in my stitching. It was just too much effort to pick the needle up. Not to mention to keep my eyes open. Tuesday, I slept most of the day away in my chair. And I have to confess I don't remember the drive I made taking Amy to school that morning. Not a good thing! By Thursday though I felt like I could rejoin the land of the living and I went to work. And what I found when I went back to work was enough to bring me to tears. A soldier just back from Afghanistan had shipped a shadowbox stateside before he came home. The shadowbox did not make the trip in good condition and he brought it in to us to repair or re-do if necessary. As it turns out, this was a very good thing. The shadowbox had a folded flag, a certificate, and a couple of medals in it.


This is after I cleaned up all the broken glass, doesn't look too bad, frame is beat up pretty good and the joints were all loose, fillets are all scraped up, one medal has fallen off the other was rattling around in the back of the frame but all in all, not a complete disaster.

My first clue that things were going to be bad was the backside of the frame. It was cardboard held on with packing tape and a few staples. My antennae went up. I cut the tape and peeled the cardboard back to find more packing tape....wait for it....keep waiting....holding the triangular flag in place!!! You could barely see the flag through all the packing tape. The soldier had explained to Mary Ann how much this flag meant to him. Had it been left in the frame with all that tape, it would have been ruined. Maybe not next week, next month or even next year, but mark my words, it would have ruined the flag. Unless.....and this is a good possibility too, the tape dried out and then it would have fallen inside the frame and would have had to be re-done anyway but damage would still have been done to the flag. The next thing I found was hot melt glue. Really? Hot melt glue? Who framed this thing anyway? This explained why the medals were falling off. Hot melt is not a good option in framing. Ever. Add to this, acid mats, regular glass and a certificate that was taped all the way around to another piece of cardboard which was causing it to ripple ( the taping all the way around, not the cardboard) and you have a recipe for disaster! We needed to start this project from scratch. I put together a quote and we called the guy, explained everything that was wrong and the consequences of leaving it that way and gave him the price. As I suspected, it was going to be more than he could afford. He said he would have to wait until he was paid his extra pay for being in Afghanistan before he could afford it. He was clearly upset. I asked him who had done the framing in the first place. It was framed on base in Afghanistan. All I can say is I hope that isn't how they do things in all the base frame shops. Anyway, Mary Ann talked things over with her partner and they decided to give the guy a break on the price. He was so happy and grateful and so shocked by what he saw in the picture. I think he'll be happy with his piece when I am finished with it. I hope so anyway. Here's what I found in the frame when I opened it up.

And people pay good money for something like this.....makes me sick to see it.

Well folks, I need to eat my breakfast, brush my teethies and head to work. I want to thank everyone for all the get well wishes last week. I was feeling the love! Thanks also for stopping in, reading and commenting.
I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Take care till next time!

Julie