Good Morning!! (side note: started this post yesterday and didn't get it finished)
It's back to work for me this morning. Don't have tons to do until tomorrow when my order arrives but I can putter around with a football jersey, stretch a couple of cross stitch pieces and catch up with MaryAnn since we haven't seen each other for a week.
I hope everyone had a wonderful New Years weekend. I spent most of mine doing laundry. Boat loads of laundry. But it's all done now and yesterday I only had one final load to do and the rest of the day was spent doing...pretty much nothing! It was awesome. I made some yummy homemade French Onion Soup New Years Eve and yesterday I made homemade Chicken and Dumplings. Haven't had much time to cook lately so it was nice to do a little of it over the weekend.
I want to say thanks for all the wonderful comments on my last post. I always hesitate to write about what really goes on in my life because usually its just one long list of things that have gone wrong. I don't want all of blogdom thinking I'm making this stuff up or that my family is a complete mess (it is but I don't want you all thinking it) but then I think maybe Julie's version of the Perils of Pauline will make someone else think that their life isn't as bad as it could be, kinda like soap operas do for me and so I go ahead and lay it all out there. I will try to balance this all out with good stuff as much as possible. Like telling you that my toilet is now functioning properly. This is a good thing because going up and down stairs really hurts my ankle and now I don't have to leave this level of the house to take care of business.
Also a big WELCOME to my newest followers. One of my newest visitors made a comment about being sorry for laughing at my various misadventures. Mary, I love to hear that I have made someone laugh or have brightened their day. Makes it all worthwhile! Don't be sorry about it. Anyway, thanks everyone for being such great ladies!
I think I might have mentioned once or twice that I really don't have a fondness for sports, especially golf and football so you might understand my reaction when Dan announced last night that he needed to be up and out of the house by 7:30 this morning to go play golf. GOLF??? In January. In NEBRASKA. Are you serious? I've known for a while now that golfers are a different breed of people. I will never understand the attraction but hey, whatever floats your boat, but Golfing in January in Nebraska is just insane! He must have realized I was getting ready to call the men in white coats because he quickly explained that they weren't playing outside. Nope. Not outside. Golfers have managed to come up with something called Virtual Golf! Apparently you stand in front of a net, hit the golf ball into the net and a computer takes over and shows you where the ball goes on different PGA courses. As he's standing there explaining how the whole concept works in an animated sort of way with hand gestures and everything, different thoughts were running through my head. None of them very nice and then it hits me. Before I continue with that thought you have to understand that IN MY OPINION, the only saving grace to the sport of golf is you get a nice walk out of it if you choose to leave the golf cart behind. What hit me was, OMG now you don't even have to walk! You can stand in one place and golf an entire 18 holes of golf without ever breaking a sweat! That's just wrong. In every sense of the word. But being the loving wife that I am, I only made fun of him for an hour or so before letting the matter drop and going to bed. Okay, so if it hadn't been bedtime I probably would've continued to tease him about it but that's beside the point. The real point is...there are no longer any redeeming qualities to the sport of golf and it can now become obsolete and all those beautiful open spaces can be made over into something better. Like a park or horseback riding trails or a shopping mall. UPDATE: Did you know you can pull your groin muscle while standing in one spot? I'm here to tell you it can absolutely be done and my husband did it!! Poor man is a bit sore from all that hard work! :)
I'm having a lot of fun reading all the posts for the 15 in 15 challenge. So many beautiful projects are being started. Does anyone know if there is a centralized location for seeing what everyone that is involved is working on? I know I'm missing some of them and I would like to keep up on it all. It's not something I could do, I have decided I really am a one project at a time person. My ability to rotate comes in at an impressive ZERO. Seems I get into one and don't move on to another no matter how much I tell myself I can do it. I'm resigned to it and that's okay. I'll just live vicariously through all of you that can do it. So if you are taking part or know someone that is could you mention it in the comments section please? Or if there is a central location post that site for me? Thanks!
Here's my update on Jenny Bean. As you all probably noticed, it looks somewhat different than the original. I would love to be able to tell you that this change was deliberate. Planned out. On purpose. Sadly, I would be telling a big ol' whopper of a lie if I did that. No, I mis-read the symbol and since I use a working copy I didn't have the colored picture to refer to at my fingertips and although I thought at the time, huh, somethings not right, by the time I realized my mistake it was too late. I wasn't going to frog the dang thing. I like how it looks enough to keep it that way. So, now I need to decide where to go with it from this point. That bright orange runs throughout the entire piece either in the houses themselves or in little details around the house. The way I see it I can either leave it out entirely and use the burgundy color in it's place, which would be the easier fix or, I can rip out the light grey thingamabobs that I have already stitched around the first house and replace them with the orange and continue on as charted. I'm waffling. Ultimately, I will have to decide (and soon) what I want to do but if you all would like to weigh in on the subject please feel free. My version:The original version:
I would also like to show you a couple of shop models just recently finished by my good friend Connie. As those who know me best know...I'm bossy and opinionated. That's part of who I am, I've always been this way and at this stage of the game it's probably not going to change. That doesn't mean that people always listen to me or that they always do what I want but in this instance, I get to tell Connie what to stitch and she has to do what I say. Isn't it great! LOL!! Seriously, I usually consult with her on what she would like to stitch and with any changes I would like made but ultimately, I have the final say. Blackbird Designs Snow Garden was one such chart. I loved the design but didn't care for how washed out it looked on beige fabric so when I chose it for Connie to stitch and then showed her the fabric I wanted it stitched on she gave me the fish eye, raised her eyebrows and said okay in that tone of voice that clearly said I think you're nuts Julie. But a week later she came back after starting it and told me she was pleasantly surprised and was loving the combination. She also said it was going to be hard to give this one up. I'm really glad she ended up liking it because it's hard to stitch something you don't care for and this isn't supposed to be a hardship and despite what I might think, my way isn't always the best or only way. Of course Connie's stitching is perfection as usual which is half the battle. The fabric in case anyone is interested is a 30 ct linen from Weeks called Dolphin and has a bit more green to it than it's showing in my picture.
Connie also stitched By the Bays Winter Cove for the shop. We chose a Picture This Plus Fabric called Tarnish in 16 count Aida for this one. I love this design and wouldn't mind stitching it myself.
Finally, I finished the framing on Jenny Beans Halloween and thought I would share a pic of it. Looks a bit crooked in the picture but it's not in real life.
As usual, I've written a small novel and since it has taken 2 days to get this far I think I will stop here and call it good. Have a great week everyone!
Take care til next time!
AT LAST...STITCHY PEACE
9 hours ago
15 comments:
Hey Julie! I was thinking our hubbies could golf together, but I don't want my husband to know about the inside golfing. He's played them before, but never an entire 18 holes! More of a bar game or something.
I hope you get some great ideas for JB. I love the way the Halloween piece turned out. Beautiful.
TTYL!
Doreen
Very pretty frame on Jenny Beans Halloween Sampler! I like your choice of fabric on the BBD Snow Garden, too.
I say leave your colors as is.....orginal!~
As for golfing...I live in golf country...Pinehurst NC...so it is ALWAYS golf time here.....at least that it is what my hubbie and 2 sons tell me!!!
Take care and love the shop models!
Faye
I like your changes... even if they were an accident!
Great framing on the other projects and the BBD finish is great on that fabric!
Happy stitching on Jenny Bean...
I like the changes/mistakes on Jenny Bean too...it makes that section look more autumn-ish.
Snow Garden is amazing!it just pops on that green linen. I am stitching this now and it's frustrating. I am following the model more than the pattern.Love the other projects too!
Oh wow, it was so nice to know that someone actually read a comment I made.
Now my first instinct was to charge right in and say leave your stitching as is because it looks great, but then I saw that you mentioned 'light grey thingies' and since there was nothing grey on my (old)screen, decided to back right off. All those pieces looked pretty good to me and I loved the frame on Jenny Bean's Halloween. We don't see those wide carved frames so much here - probably becasue they would be too expensive to import.
I do hope hubbie's injury will be mended soon, although I dare say his pride will take a bit longer, even without anyone mentioning it occasionally.
I'm with you on the Crazy 15 challenge - I would have loved the courage to take it on but I guess I am just too darned old to be taking on long term projects. I would, however, love to watch everyone's progress, so I am hoping someone will fill us in on that.
Cheers
Mary
love all your finishes (and Connie's) but love JB! The framing is beautiful.
Gorgeous finishes!
I like your version of JB. Very golden-brown. Wouldn't have known it if you hadn't said anything.
I'm with you on the golf! I have a coworker who will golf in the frickin freezing cold weather that you and I share. Crazy people!
Your WIP looks good, and the models are really pretty in those frames!
Julie, Thanks for the shout out of my stitching..I appreciate it! Of course they are enhanced by the wonderful framing job that my bossy professional framer did!! I will have to be sure and take photos of all the models that I have done to put in my album so I can look back and say..see I did stitch in 2010!! LOL!! I think you are on the right track with your changes in the JB. Is this the last JB in your stitching pile or do you have another one planned?
Golf...I can't say too much against it because as you know I LOVE playing golf...disc golf...not ball golf! Don't think there is an indoor version of it yet. Dan's injury sounds painful..poor guy!!
okay..not sure why my comment came up anonymous...but yeah..it's me .....Connie!! Going to try this again and see if my name will come up like it's suppose to
I love your idea of stitching Snow Garden on the dolphin. Now I want to stitch it, whereas before I was kind of meh about it. I wonder how many nice projects I've passed up because I didn't think about making a tweak that would change it for the better. I read your comment on Cari's blog about the gauze, and as an experienced multiple project stitcher, I can tell you that if it takes any preparation at all, I'm not going to fuss with it. So, I don't want to have to attach the gauze to something else in order to put it in the q-snap. Same reason I don't use stretcher bars, even though everyone seems to love them: too much hassle--I just want to pop it in the q snap and go. Lazy is my middle name.
all of your pieces look great. Indoor golfing? they need that here in western NY for the golfers lol.
I am a golf widow. My husband chose this house for the proximity to the golf course; I chose it because I love the house. The parents of my childhood bestie are huge golf nuts and I always swore I'd never end up with a golfer. Some how I did... but he knows my stitching is to me what golf is to him and so we get along well. ;)
I love your Jenny Bean... I think go for it, keep it as is, make it your own and all that. It looks really good. Love the models that Connie stitched!
Love the jenny bean finish!!
We used to be big golfers. Dh was one of those rain or shine golfers but wouldn't golf if it was under 65 degrees or so. I was a fair weather golfer. Not too hot....not too cold....and certainly if it looked like it was going to rain.
And then little league baseball took over. :0)
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