Vacation, an update and an excuse

Howdy!!

I hope everyone had a great holiday. We had a good time! It was great to be out of the city and to see family that we only get to see once a year. We had 9 adults and 4 dogs in our little 750 sq. ft shack so it was close quarters at times but we managed. I don't know what we would have done without Dan. He spent the entire time keeping Ben (the 3 yr. old) happy. They played in the dirt out front.


They watched the parade together.


They did the slip and slide together. Ben didn't quite get how to do it. He would do the army crawl down the length of the slide.

Dan finally took to throwing him down it. Gently and with love of course!


They made roads in a dirt pile at the end of our street.


They swung on the tire swing that belongs to the nice lady a couple houses down from us. I think she must have felt bad for Ben playing in the dirt pile all the time so she walked over one day and said she'd be happy if he would use the swing as her grandkids are all too old to use it anymore.



They launched a giant water rocket together....




They even made ice cream together.....


In fact, poor Dan had to read Ben his bedtime stories too. The only time Dan was without his shadow was at night while Ben was sleeping, when using the bathroom, and when he went to the stock car races with Adam, Abby and Sydney! Don't know what we would have done without him!

Meanwhile, the rest of us kept busy with Katie and various other activities, like playing dominoes and going to the swimming pool. Getting a soda from the old fashioned soda fountain. Shopping at the neatest gift shop and also the scrapbook store. Reading was on the agenda also. Stitching however, was not. At least not until the last day I was there. I'll explain why in a minute, first let me post my progress. Before I left:


After:


close up:


And here comes the excuse part of the post. The first day we arrived at the shack I was trying to open a window in the bedroom. The windows are big and heavy and you have to prop them up with a stick to keep them up. I got that part done just fine but I was in an awkward position and I was trying to get the storm window up and then I saw a spider in the window, panicked and bumped the stick keeping the heavy window up. It came down and smashed my hand. HARD. My holding the needle hand. For a while we wondered if it might be broken, lots of swelling and black and blue, very painful to move. But most of the swelling is gone as is the bruising and I can use it again so I think it was just badly bruised. Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

I could go on and on about vacation, but I'm sure you must be tired of reading about it by now. I'll take pity on you and go do something constructive with what is left of my day. I'm going to leave you though with a few things heard during our vacation.

I don't know what it is, but I don't like it! ~Sydney
There's a big ass spider in my purse, BIG ASS! ~ Amy
Lets not panic! ~Ben
I'm ruined! ~ Ben
It won't eat me, I'm an expert!~Ben
The girls need to be pumped!~Mel
I'm gonna do something loud and ugly to your nightmare! ~ Ben

Have a nice night everyone! And thanks for the comments on my last post. I love comments.

Finally back!!

The computer is finally working a bit better. Adam still has some work to do on it. I'm really going to have to do this post quickly. It's after 8 and I am leaving on vacation in the morning. Now ask me if I've packed. NOT! Haven't even started. I have shirts to iron. Laundry to finish. Stitching to pack....you get the idea. But I couldn't leave without updating the blog and saying goodbye! The shack is calling my name though so I better get this done and start doing what I need to be doing!

I promised in my last post to share some pictures from Last Saturday Stitching. We had such a good time. There were 11 of us this week. The food was good, the company better. Those that couldn't come were very much missed and hopefully we will see them next time. Here's a pic of the entire group. You can click on the picture to make it bigger


Starting with the lady in red, that's my boss and friend Maryann. Maryann is working on an Ink Circles design. To her left in the white T-shirt is Mary, she was working on Just Nans Floral 15 Biscornu. That is one gorgeous pattern! She also brought her finished Red Thread Sampler in to be framed. It was beautiful! Then we have Mary's mom Lois. Lois is one of our oldest stitchers. She was finishing up LHN Traveling Stitcher. You can just see Linda's head peeking out from behind Lois' head. She was stitching little tiny house things but I'm not sure what she was going to do with them and I don't remember now who they were by. ( its almost a week later, we've established before that my brain leaks like a sieve! I'm doing good to remember their names! LOL!) Stacy is up next. She's the baby of the group. Let's see, what was Stacy working on... I remember! She's working on a spool tree for a Christmas present. That blank spot with the big ass mug in front of it is me. I love my mug. Deb is to my left, she's our newest member. I can't think of what she was working on. She brought in a beautiful piece to be framed also. Stephanie was sitting next to Deb and I can't remember what she was working on either. It's entirely possible that I never saw what she was doing. Carol is the one smiling. I don't think I saw what she was working on either. You can just barely see Nancy, she is the least experienced stitcher and is very insercure about her stitching. We keep telling her she is doing just great. And she is! Nancy is stitching a little poppy design. Finally we have Doreen. Once again I don't know what she was stitching. Doreen was so impressed by Marys Red Thread Sampler that she had us order the charts for her.

Below is Stephanie, Carole and Nancy


Doreen and Maryann


Lois and Linda


Up next is the picture stitched by one of my favorite customers. Pat brings her stuff in, lays it on the counter and says "Call me when it's finished!" This is a double edged sword. It puts it all on me which is fun! But it puts it all on me which is scary. I always worry she won't like what I choose or that I have spent too much money. So far so good though. I really like how this came out. I hope you do too!


Finally I have my Chatelaine wip to show you. I have been taking a break from the Princesses for a couple of weeks. This was before stitching on Saturday.


The After:


Doesn't look any different does it. That would be because I only put 4 stitches in. That's right, 4 stitches the entire 6 hours. F-O-U-R. I'm a failure.

Do I redeem myself a little if I show you this? I've done this since Saturday.


Not tons done but remember, I'm getting ready to leave on vacation and I've been busy! Well, it's now 9 and I am no further along with my packing. While I would love to try and make this a more interesting post, I just don't have the time. I hope you understand. I will be gone until the 11th. Unless my nieces and nephew drive me nuts and then I will be home sooner. I'll take some pictures to share with you, but don't expect much. When I say shack, I mean shack.

Thanks for hanging in there through this long and somewhat uninspired post. I will try to do better when I get back. You all have a great 4th of July and I will see you when I get back.

TTFN!!!

A Post without a Picture is like...

Cake without frosting. It's good but not great. :( Adam brought my new computer today. Only he forgot a couple of things. Like the ability to get pictures from my SD card to the computer so I can post them . Bad Adam! He also skimped on the graphics card and I can't even describe what my Zuma and Luxor games looked like when I tried to play today. Bad Bad Adam.

I was going to write about Last Saturday Stitching and post some pictures I took but now I can't. I was going to show you the progress I didn't make on my Chatelaine wip. But now I can't. I was going to show you a cross stitch that I framed for one of my favorite customers. She picked it up Saturday. But now I can't. That will all have to wait for another day.

In the meantime, may I just say that I now know how the little red hen felt when she wanted to make a loaf of bread and no one wanted to help her make it but they all wanted to eat it when it was done. I was at the grocery store at 7:00 this morning. Came home, made dipping eggs, sausage, toast and grape juice for breakfast. Started baking and cooking for vacation and I've been at it until about 6 o'clock tonight when I sat down to eat the supper I made for Dan and I. Not once did Amy offer to help. I know darn well she's going to want to eat what I made. And I find myself feeling a bit resentful. And not one bit inclined to share that which I worked so hard to make.



On that note, I'm going to go sit down and stitch for a bit. Maybe I'll feel better.

Till next time!

A Finish!!

TGIF!! This week has been a slow moving one for me for some reason. I really need the weekend to go slow too. I'm leaving on vacation next Thursday and I have a ton to get done before then! There is cooking so I don't have to do it while I'm there, laundry, packing, stash packing, cleaning so I can come home to a somewhat clean house, (Dan's not going so I never know what it will look like when I get home), getting the dog to the vet for shots, checking out a photography studio for Amy's senior pictures, not to mention I have to work today, tomorrow and next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Wish me luck!

We had a storm roll through here the other day. Nothing too serious, I managed to make it home and in the house with about 30 seconds to spare before the hurricane force winds blew through. After the storm, I looked outside and saw this lovely sight:



I finished the new freebie by Paulette at Plum Street Samplers. It was a quick stitch and so cute. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with this piece when I started it.
A flat fold, a small pillow, frame it.....then I got it off the q-snaps and it hit me, a brick!! It was the perfect size and shape to put on the front of a brick! It would make an awesome door stop! So yesterday when I should have been framing customers projects, I worked on mine instead. Here is the finished piece. I haven't done something like this before so I wasn't sure how it would work. What do you think?





I like it. A Lot! Can't wait to show it at Last Saturday stitching tomorrow. Speaking of stitching, why didn't someone out there in blogdom tell me what the thread pack for the Peace Sampler by A Stitchers Hand was going to run me? $240.00!!! Are you kidding me?? How am I supposed to justify that expense to Dan? He's a pretty understanding man but come on...$240.00 bucks! Even he will sh*t a brick on that one! :) Sorry couldn't resist the pun.

Well friends, I best get a move on. I need to eat breakfast, check out blogs, make a grocery list, clean up the kitchen, figure out what to make for supper tonight and head to work. You all have a great day and a fantastic weekend if I don't talk to ya before Monday. Thanks for stopping by and an extra thanks for posting!

Thrifty Finds

Happy Tuesday! I thought I would share my thrift store finds from Saturday since I don't really have any stitching to share today. I've been too busy to stitch a whole lot. First, let me say that thrift shopping with my husband is always an experience. He digs through every little thing, every box, every bin. He looks up high and way down low. Which I guess isn't a bad thing in a thrifting partner except he has a tendency to find the strangest, most oddball things in the store and then he wants to bring them home. To my house. Like I don't have enough crap of my own, now I have to find a place for his latest gonkculator (his word) or doodad. There was this one item he wanted at the first store. He wanted it baaaad. I wouldn't have given it a second glance. But Dan, he takes it down off the highest shelf, starts playing with all the parts, ooohing and ahing over the thing like it's a newborn baby or a cute little puppy. I left him to his fun and went to browse the books. Pretty soon he calls me over and says I want to show you something and he takes this tall piece of metal down off the shelf and asks me what I think it is. I got nothing. Finally I say, is it a drill press?? Giving me a disgusted look he rolls his eyes and says no, it's a wine bottle opener. Wouldn't it be great for mom for Christmas??? It would look so cool sitting on a bar. Sure Dan, except your mom doesn't have a bar. "Does it even work?" I ask. The excited look fades from his face ( it's kind of like kicking a puppy) and he shakes his head no and says, I don't think so. But he starts showing me how it would work if it did work. Yeah, that's cool Dan, come over here and look at these old smelly football cleats. Aren't these sweet? Reluctantly, he put the cool wine bottle opener back up on the shelf and came over to check out the cleats. I checked the internet when we got home and found something similar to what he was looking at. It's actually an expensive little item. If it worked, and his mom had a bar to sit it on it might have been a great Christmas present. Here's a picture I found of Dan's treasure:


If you read my previous post, you know our mission for the day was to find a bed frame, headboard and possibly a footboard for Abby. We didn't find that at the first store we went to but I did manage to find these there:


The amber plate and pedestal bowl caught my eye. I'm a sucker for glassware and I thought they would look great in my diningroom. Here's a shot of the whole area. Not sure if this is where they will stay but for now it's all good.


I also found this little silver dish. No particular need for it but I thought it was cute and so I brought it home with me.


It's currently in the kitchen hutch. The general consensus is I should use it for mints or jewelry.


You can almost see it there on the middle shelf. If you have your readers on and enlarge the picture anyway!

After the first store, we headed over to the Salvation Army. Browsed that store for a long time and I kept pointing out things to Dan and saying, ya know that would be really cool if we painted it up nicely. Whereupon he would show me some freaky little item he had found and say, if you decide to buy something here I'll get this too. Back went my cool little find cuz no way was his freaky thing coming home! No bed to be found at the SA so we moved on to Thrift America. Lots of neat furniture items and shelves there and two 4 poster beds in the correct size. I called Abby to get her opinion on the 4 poster style. "I was thinking more of a sleigh bed mom." Right, at the thrift store. Are you kidding me?? Bought some books for vacation but passed on the 4 poster. Off to another GW to see what they had. This store was busy. Really busy. I sent Dan over to the furniture area while I started perusing the glassware. Pretty soon he comes over and wants to show me something. "They have a bed?" I ask. No, they have a neat old dresser with a mirror and a rocking chair but no beds. OOOKay.....you were supposed to look for a bed. What do you want to show me this time. He takes me over to the small appliances, bends over and picks up this brightly colored box. It says Rival Ice Cream Maker on it. I see. What are you going to do with that I ask. He says he thinks it would be fun to make ice cream when we go on vacation. But I'll only get it if you buy something here. So now it's on my shoulders. I finishing browsing the store quickly, hoping that nothing catches my eye and then just as I was about to say lets go.....I see a white basket just the right size and shape for holding cross stitch charts at the shop. Crap. Taking the basket, I tell Dan to go get his ice cream maker and to meet me in line. You would think I had given him a hundred bucks or something. Doesn't take much to make my man happy. This is Dan's treasure for the day.


And this is Dan using his treasure on Sunday:


The ice cream was delicious btw but I have no idea where I am going to store the thing!

By this time it is getting late and I have a hair appointment I have to be at so we decide to head home. I tell Dan to take Abby back to Thrift America and let her decide whether she wants the 4 poster or not and I head off to my appointment. When I got home, Dan was in the garage. He was already painting the bed. Did you take a before picture sweetie? No, I didn't think about it was his response. So, I'm sorry but you will have to imagine the cream and gold french provincial look it had before it's makeover. This is what it looks like now.


and....


Looks pretty good for $60.00. We also fixed the lamp that Abby found for free when she was out with her friends garage saling. It needed a new cord. Pretty cool light I think.


That's it for our weekend of thrifting. Dan is still talking about his wine opener find. I'm not sure we've seen the last of that one.

Gotta head to piano lessons with Amy so I best get a move on.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Bad Dog!

Meet Kallie. Kallie is the baby of the family. She's 4. She's spoiled. And she's trouble. You might not think so at first glance. You might think she is a sweet little loving maltese/yorkie mix. You might. But you'd be wrong....
Kallie's favorite toy in the whole wide world is a pop bottle. Big ones, little ones, doesn't matter to her. If it's plastic and it has a hard lid on it, she wants it. If you are sitting on the couch minding your own business drinking a soda, Kallie is right there watching your every move. Sometimes, there is even a little bit of drool coming out the corner of her mouth as she watches you. Her eyes following every movement you make. Bottle goes up, Kallie's head goes up. Bottle comes down, Kallie's head comes down. Whatever you do, don't set that bottle down and walk away. Because it most likely will not be there when you come back. Adam discovered this the other day. Our dogs are allowed on the sofa, they sleep with us every night. BUT.....they are not allowed on the tables. Period. No.dogs.on.the.tables. They know this. They know they will be in deep hooey if they get up on a table. Or so we thought. Adam thought he was safe because he put the bottle away from the edge of the table. Adam was wrong! I caught this when I came into the room.





This bottle still had a good amount of pop in it so she was having trouble picking it up and carrying to her kennel. It also had the lid on, which was a good thing cuz we would have had pop all over the place otherwise! And I would have had to do something ugly to Adam for leaving an open container where someone could get to it. This is what happens to the pop bottle after about 15 seconds.


another 15 seconds later and this is what happens......


After that it just gets worse. The bright side of Kallie being addicted to pop bottle chewing is she will never have to have her teeth cleaned. Them babies are sparkly white! So now you know. If you come over for a visit sometime, don't leave your bottle alone, not even for a minute....ya never know what might happen to it!

I made a bit of progress on the Princesses. Doesn't look like much considering the amount of time I have spent on it but progress is progress and I'll take it. This was on the 9th.



this was as of ten o'clock last night. (click to make larger if you like)


So what are your plans for the weekend? Dan and I are headed out soon to pick up a bed frame for Abby. She doesn't like her antique bed and wants something new. Then we will scour the thrift stores for a head board we can paint black for her. After that there is mowing, cleaning, laundry and tomorrow the in-laws are coming back to take the aunt to the airport so they will be here. In between I hope to make some progress on the cleaning of my basement room that used to be my craft room/barbie room but was overtaken by my husband for his business he had. Business no longer exists so the clean up has begun. And we are talking a long hard clean up. But that's a story for another day....

Till next time friends and thanks for stopping in and posting comments!

Have a great weekend!

Geranium House is Framed

Good Morning! It's finally going to be a hot one today so I broke down and turned the A/C on. I could handle the heat and humidity but the rest of the people in this house are wimps! It's been a busy couple of days here, the in-laws were down to pick up Dans' aunt from the airport so the house had to be cleaned for that. I had 5 cross stitches to get done for a customer that is moving soon and wanted us to do the framing before she leaves. She has stitched the Sue Hillis maps of all the places she's lived. She has Nebraska and Hawaii yet to stitch and has said she will mail them to us for framing when she gets them done. Abby and her boyfriend could be broke up, she wasn't really sure the last time I talked to her. She went to a College World Series game last night after work and I haven't seen her yet to see if they worked things out. They both have some growning up to do in my opinion. Adam is taking Amy to a CWS game this evening. Amy has never been to one before and it was on her to do list for this summer. I made sure to tell her she was not to get on the bus with the team like her momma did at that age! Adam will keep her out of trouble I'm sure. I used to find that sort of thing fun. Not the bus, well okay that's a lie, the bus was fun but I was referring to the games. Now, you have to go so early, park 3000 miles away, people are rude, it's just not so fun anymore. Somewhere along the way I have become a fuddyduddy. Is that a familiar term to you? Or is it a family thing? What it means is, I am a stick in the mud. I have become what I swore I never would. B.O.R.I.N.G. I find I'm not really all that upset about it. Which makes it even worse. Oh, well, I am what I am I suppose. Maybe it'll swing back the other way when I'm 80 and I'll be one of those cool old people jumping out of planes on their birthday! Do you suppose they do that to make themselves feel young again or because dementia has set in and they don't know any better? Guess I'll have to wait 30 years and see!!

On the stitchy side of things, I started the new freebie from Plum Street Samplers. Paulette lives here in the Omaha area. We haven't met but I'm hoping she'll find her way to our shop sometime. I've talked to her about a trunk show for fall so we'll see. I've also been working on 12 dancing Princesses, darn confetti stitches take forever! I'll update my progress on that in a day or so. Finally, I've framed up Geranium House. Such a pretty chart!


I think it turned out quite well. I debated on the frame but stuck with my original thought on it.

So You Think You Can Dance is on tonight ! Just a reminder to those of you that maybe haven't tuned in. You really should. Oh! Did anyone watch the new show on TNT last night? Hawthorne was the name of it, with Jada Pinkett Smith. It was good. I'd watch it again. And lets not forget about Saving Grace. Or skanky ho cop as we like to call her. The new season started last night also. And The Closer started last week. I can remember when summer was a barren desert where TV was concerned. Thanks TNT. I appreicate having new things to watch while stitching in the summer! Keep up the good work!

Well, I best get myself moving here. Gotta pack my lunch, eat breakfast, brush my teeth and head to work. Amy needs the car today, she has a journalism meeting this morning so I have to go in a bit earlier than usual.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!