Are you happy now?

First let me say I am dedicating this blog post to all the stitchers from our stitching group that dinged me unmercifully all day today. If I heard it once, I heard it a dozen or more times...When are you going to update the blog. Jenny Bean has been done forever! You all know who you are and I hope this makes you happy because God knows I live to make you ladies happy! NOT! LOL!!!

Second, let me apologize to my followers for being absent for so long. Life has a way of taking over and the 21 framing jobs that came in at once certainly took over! I have never in 8 years of framing had 21 jobs at one time and while I am in no way complaining about the workload, it did make it difficult to find the time for blogging. Or cleaning, Or cooking. Add in all the other things going on like surgeries, Dr. appt's., Adam being home, Amy being home, Thanksgiving etc. and of course this time of year there is always the Christmas village to work on before the open house so given all that perhaps you will forgive me. I'll try hard not to let so much time pass between posts.

As my fellow LSS stitcher's pointed out to me today, Jenny Bean Halloween has been finished for quite some time. I changed quite a few of the colors in this as I just wasn't liking the substitutes for the original limited edition thread pack and I'm very pleased with the result. To finish it off I've chosen a sweet little black frame with a raised leaf design on it but the framing will be a while as it has to take a back seat to customer orders, of which I still have 12 in the queue. For now I will just post the unframed finish.

After finishing JB Halloween, I moved on to Jenny Bean's Christmas. I am loving the whole Jenny Bean thing, can you tell?! I'm stitching her on 40 count R & R Americana Blend fabric with the called for fibers. Love this fabric color with the colors of the floss. My picture doesn't show the true color of it, although it's close.

Speaking of true color, have you all seen the new LHN chart called the North Wind? I adore this chart so as soon as the fabric information was released we hopped on the phone and called Lakeside Linens to order the called for Vintage Tundra. It arrived today and looks nothing like the picture. The picture shows a blue fabric and the fabric itself has more green to it than pictured. I have to say I was a bit disappointed, the fabric is beautiful but just not what it looks like in the picture. Just wanted to warn you in case you are planning to stitch this cutie and want it to look like the actual picture.

Finally, I also started the chart called Sweeping Snowflakes. It's by With thy Needle & Thread. Such a cute idea don't ya think?


There is a drawback to this chart though. I hate stitching with white floss. It just never looks good to me and on top of that I get bored stitching so much of it at one time. Needless to say, I am not making a whole lotta progress on it. But here's what I have done so far.


And with that I am going to call it a night. I didn't sleep well last night as I was thinking all night long about what in the world I was going to bring for a snack today at LSS. I just couldn't come up with anything that sounded good. I think maybe because we've had so much food around the house the last few days. Anyway, I'm tired, cold and plan to go crawl under a blanket and veg a bit. Tomorrow will be a very busy day of decorating the house for the Holidays.

Have a wonderful rest of the weekend everyone and take care till next time!

Julie

A very sad day.....

Hello!

It's a very sad day for me. I was planning to show you a scissor fob that my friend Merrilyn made for me. It was a beautiful beaded fob in shades of green. I even went out and bought a pair of scissors just to go with it. And then, at some point between bedtime last night and breakfast this morning, that no good, very bad Morkie, who attracted to sparkly things, got a hold of it and ate it! Not all of it, I caught her before she did too much damage but the fact remains, it can't be used any more. I'm going to hope that if I throw myself at Merrilyn's feet and promise to pay her for her time, she'll take pity on me and my darn dog and re-do it for me. And if she does re-do it, I'm going to make sure it's put up higher and not on the magnet that is on my Ott light. Apparently, it's not a Morkie proof place! Bad dog! Very bad dog!! I feel awful about the whole thing. I'm sorry Merrilyn! Here's a couple pics of the damage.


In other news.....Amy left for DC and the fall journalism convention on Wednesday. Her schools news broadcast was nominated for a Pacemaker Award. Only 10 schools across the US get nominated so it's a big honor. If you are at all interested, this is the show that was nominated. Anyway, the plane made it there in one piece but Amy is a little worse for wear. As they were descending into DC, the ride got bumpy and she was struck by sudden nausea and a horrible headache. She spent the rest of the day (DO NOT READ THE REST OF THIS SENTENCE IF YOU ARE AT ALL SQUEAMISH) vomiting and having the dry heaves. Can air sickness do that to you? That's what I am hoping it is. The report I got today from her was that she is very sore from being sick but feeling better.

Adam is leaving for Las Vegas tomorrow night. He and some buddies are going for the weekend. This means I get to worry about 2 of my kids flying this weekend. I'm a terrible worrier. I won't rest easy until they are both home safely Sunday night.

The schnauzer's gave Kallie their cold. She's having a terrible time with the sneezing. About half the time she does the reverse sneeze thing where it sounds like she can't breath or is having an asthma attack. Totally freaks Gracie out which stresses the reverse sneezer even more. What possessed me to have 3 dogs? I must have been out of my mind!

In village news, the layout is finally decided on and now construction will begin on the landscaping. this will be a long process. My group of friends that I write the racy village stories about are chomping at the bit for a new chapter. I'm not sure if I should give in or make them wait till the village is done. It's kind of like Brigadoon, the village goes to sleep after the holidays and doesn't wake up for 9 months. Therefore, there wouldn't be any new stories to tell till the village is all done right? So I'm thinking they are just going to have to be patient!

I finished Give Thanks. Have yet to decide what I want to do with it though. It measures approx. 2 x 2 3/4 inches. Is that too big for a floss tag? Again, I haven't ever seen one so I am not sure how large they are supposed to be.


That's about all I have for today, I probably won't blog again till next week as Adam is taking my camera with him to Vegas. Plus, we have to have the shop all ready to open up for business on Monday which means I am going to be very busy this weekend! So have a great weekend everyone! Thanks for stopping in!

Almost Halloween!

Happy Tuesday!!

I got home from packing up the shack late Sunday afternoon. It was a sad weekend but I am at peace with the decision and am ready to move on to other things. One thing that happened while I was packing up has probably scarred me for life. I was cleaning out the pink bedroom's closet. Dan had a basket in there full of tools, screws and crap so I was sorting it out and tossing that which wasn't going to come home. There was a gray piece of fluff that was in the way of my picking up screws and nails so I picked it up to toss it and discovered the dang thing had legs! It was a mouse!! A dead mouse but still a mouse. Ew, EW EW!!!
Got my heart pounding I tell ya.

Can you believe that Halloween is just a few short days away? I don't think I am ready for November to be here. Fall has been non-existent in this part of the country as I believe it has been in most places. I still have a dead pine tree that needs to be removed, a garage door to replace, a sliding glass door that needs to be replaced, and hostas to cut back.

The largest project however is the building of the village. We have a large Christmas Village that we set up every year and then we host an open house so people can come and view the village. I also write risque stories about the villagers that live in our village with my friends as the stars of the stories. It's a regular Peyton Place I tell ya. Last year after Christmas, one of those friends called to say that she was at Goodwill and they had buildings there. I had to go check it out of course and brought home 6 buildings. This wouldn't have been a bad thing for me to do except our village was at capacity. Our dining room was full and it wasn't going to expand to accommodate the new additions. On top of that, I bought a new ON30 scale train for Dan's Christmas present. It wouldn't fit through the HO scale mountain. A decision was made that the village was going to need a major remodel and a new location. This remodel should have already been underway. It's Not. I had trouble deciding on a location. The family room would have been great except then we would lose the use of it for almost 4 months. The basement would work but we are hardly ever down there. I don't know about you but if I'm going to spend weeks building the darn thing by gum I'm going to want to view it on a regular basis. So you can see my dilemma. Use the family room and go downstairs to watch tv or use the basement and make a conscious decision to go downstairs every day. The other problem with the basement location is the open house. We'll have people on both levels which means one of us will have to be upstairs and one downstairs during the open house. Not a big deal but something to consider. After much flip flopping, (think a fish that's been thrown up on the dock) and frustration on Dan's part, we decided this week to go with the basement location. Losing the use of the family room for 4 months was the deciding factor. So, first thing Sunday construction will commence. I'd start Saturday but I'm hosting Last Saturday Stitching this Saturday and it's going to be a mess down there for a while.

I did some stitching this weekend in between packing. Here's the update on Signs of Fall as of last night.

I have to go pick up Amy's senior pictures today and run to Sam's Club. I haven't been there in almost 2 years so I thought maybe now would be a good time since I'll be over halfway there. When I get home I plan to unpack the rest of my car from this weekend. I still haven't finished that little chore. Maybe if I'm feeling really ambitious, I'll scoop the back yard. It's been so wet that I haven't done it for quite some time and I'm sure it needs doing.

Have a great day, thanks for stopping by and extra thanks for leaving a comment if you do!