Busted and Birds

OMG!  I have been a bad blogger.  You know you've been a bad blogger when your son calls you and says, "So, you've given up on your blog huh."  Crap.  Busted.  And he isn't the only one dinging me about it.  Apparently, some actually miss reading it!     So here I am having spent my entire day off at the computer working on the information packet for retreat, my butt has already taken on the form of the hard oak chair I've been sitting on  all day so another hour or two isn't going to matter!  LOL!

Since Nashville was weeks ago already, I won't comment on it too much except to say we had a good time in spite of the passing of Mary Ann's mother the day before we left.  We drove straight through on that Thursday which allowed us to play on Friday a bit.  The best thing about the whole trip was this billboard we have passed by every time we have gone to market.  Now maybe I have a warped sense of humor but it makes me laugh every time I see it.   I have wanted to take a picture of it but I kept forgetting which town it was in and by the time I would spot it, it was always too late.  Not this time though!  We were on the lookout for it about a hundred miles before we actually saw it. Mary Ann spotted it before I did and pulled over to the side of the interstate so I could get a good picture of it.   May I present:  

 Just too funny! 

I know in my last post I promised to show you what Dan was working on.  Part of the reason I didn't post as soon as I got home from Nashville was the vendor I needed to buy from didn't show.  I have since learned they were ill and I ordered what I needed but I didn't get it until this past Monday.  I need to give you some background on this project before I show it.  My good friend Connie is an Etsy addict and she always finds the cutest little things there.  A few weeks ago she came to work with this little wooden folk art bird that holds a pair of scissors.  

The end of the scissors pops through and makes the beak of the bird.  I thought it was the cutest thing so I took it home to Dan  and said can you make me one?  He said sure, piece of cake!  However, Dan has a wee little problem.  We don't talk about it much but it still exists.  He has this insatiable desire to make things better than the original (sometimes he succeeds and sometimes he doesn't) Plus, he likes to give Connie a hard time.  So he took the above bird and he made it into what he has named:

The Eastern Nebraska Segmented Hardwood Scissor Beak Bird.

It started out looking like this.

I kept pointing out to Dan that Connie's didn't look that way.  He kept saying...I can make it better, stronger, fly higher and faster than the original.  And in the end, when he was done, it looked like this... 

But still the man was not happy.  No, he needed a wooden thimble.  And wood handled scissors.  I thought the man was losing it.  A wooden thimble sure, but Wood Handled Scissors?  Not gonna happen dude.   You're dreaming.  Pull that head down outta the clouds!  Except that fate stepped in and Sajou announced their new beautiful wood handled scissors that were to be available at Nashville.   And Dan was happy, estatic even.  So we waited.  And when I got home from Nashville, I had to give him the sad news that the scissors were there.  He made me promise to call and order them, which I did.  But no one answered the phone.  I left a message.   I waited a couple days and then I left another message.  Waited some more  and called again.   I got a man on the phone.  He told me they had all been sick but someone would call me back.  So we waited again.  No call.  I placed another call and SCORE!!  The nice lady said the scissors were in stock and she would send them out that day.    So we waited.  Monday the UPS truck pulled up at the shop and the nice UPS man got out carrying this little box.  I just knew it was Dan's scissors.  And I was right!  Now, eight different types of wood later, here he is in all his wooden glory...TA DA!!!

See the wooden thimble?  Connie donated it to him.  Even though Dan had to go and one up her cute vintage bird.  She's nice like that.  Plus I think she was worried about his sanity!  LOL!!

BUT!  The bird saga is not yet over.  I had an idea of my own.  I'd like to say I one upped Dan but I can't compare my efforts with his.  His bird is art.  My birds are craft.  But I think they're cute and others must think so too since I have had several requests from friends for one.  So here is what I call The Shabby Chic Scissor Beak Bird!

Shabby Pink:

and Shabby Red:

And now I am going to call it a night, go sit in my comfy stitching chair and work on the model of the chart Paulette designed for retreat.  It's gonna be here before I know it!

Have a wonderful evening, thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.  I love comments and would very much like to here what you all think of the birds!

Take care till next time!!

Julie

Projects, Jenny Bean and the Luck 'O the Irish!

Hello!  I wanted to post something before I head off to Nashville.  Things have been just crazy busy around here.  I know I keep saying that but it's true!  Broke my record of 24 framing projects by 2.  Yesterday morning I had 26 projects.  By the time I left work last night I had 9 fewer but today we have taken in another and I heard from 2 customers yesterday that said they have several they are bringing in.  Job security folks, that's all I have to say about that! I'm actually tickled pink about it.  I want this shop to be a success and stay around for a long, long time.

Dan and I have been working on a couple of crafty type things that I just can't wait to show you but sadly, we're all going to have to wait a little while longer.  I absolutely can't show it until after I get back from Market.  A critical part of the whole design needs to be purchased there.  So make sure you tune in next week to see it.  Dan is so thrilled with his _______.  OOPS!  I almost typed it!

I've also been working on a peyote stitch fob.  I bought the kit in St. Charles last fall and it has taken me this long to get up the guts to open the package and give it a try.  I've never beaded like this before and I have to tell you, I think my brain has atrophied in the last 10 years.  I read the directions about a billion times and I might as well have been reading Greek.  None of it made sense to me.  Then I googled Peyote stitch and read about 15 different websites on how to do it until I finally found one that sort of made sense to me.  I am now at the point where I need to attach the clasp and I am in the same boat as before. I have read and re-read the directions, for a week now I have been reading the directions and I am still clueless.  I think in another 10 years I will most likely be a blithering idiot if this is anything to go by!  I still haven't opened my knotwork chart that I bought in St. Charles  How long do you think it will take me to figure out a colonial knot?? UPDATE:  Sad sad news.  I was cleaning up the kitchen when I got home from work and knocked my fob off the counter without noticing.  The fricking fracking dog that shares space with me  decided it looked like something to munch on.  I will need to repair it so you don't get a picture of it mostly done.  Instead you get a picture of it half way done. 

Jenny Bean is coming along slowly since I have been doing some other crafting as of late. Progress has been made but not much.

I've also stitched up Lucky from Plum Street Samplers.  I plan to make it into a pillow when I get back.

In Offspring News...

Talked with Adam on Sunday.  He's doing well and is ready to leave Utah.  There isn't much work for him to do anymore so he's a bit bored.  The latest news is he will go to either D.C. or Orlando.  I'm voting for Orlando.  I"ve never been to Disney anything and would love to go sometime before I die.  This would give me the perfect excuse!

Abby is doing well.  She and the boyfriend are getting along nicely.  School is good too with the exception of one gal that hates her guts.   I would say there might be some merit to her complaints if any of the other supervisors in that place had a problem with Abby or if any of the supervisors in the other rotation hospitals had a problem with her but they all have given her glowing reviews.  This particular one  has ripped her to shreds three times now.  I keep telling Abs that she is going to run into people like that all her life and there isn't a dang thing you can do about it but she still cried on my shoulder for an hour.  Makes ya just want to go find the woman and bitch slap her!

Amy quit the newspaper at school.  She just couldn't handle the fact that her performance was based so heavily  on other people returning her emails and phone calls.  She was getting migraines and stomach aches and finally could not take it any more.  She's much happier now.  She's still planning a journalism degree but now wants to add pre-med into the mix.  She and her friend Rose have decided to room together next year and were hoping to get into one of the suite style dorm rooms but they didn't get chosen so they will stay in the dorm they are both in now.  I'm thinking that's not such a bad thing.  4 girls in one space is 2 too many!  

Finally I will show you another of my thrifty finds.  This time it's a sewing box.  Paid a whopping 5 bucks for it!  Dan will pretty it all up for me and I will either take it to the shop or use it here at home.  I'm not sure yet.

And now, I best get my rear in gear and get my packing finished.  Mary Ann will be picking me up at 8:30 in the morning and away we will go.  Don't know if I will be able to check in at all while I'm away but I'll try.

Take care till next time!

Julie

My Almost Dead Family, Paulette Stewart, Jenny Bean Update and a thrifty find

I have to tell you that I almost killed my entire family when I came downstairs last Tuesday. If you read my previous post you will know that the last thing I said to them before heading to bed on that Friday was do the dishes and wipe off the counters. Can you believe that when I came down I found that not only had the dishes not been done the entire time I was sick but the counters were never wiped off either! I know I raised the kids to do their chores and when I tell them specifically to do something I expect it done. Somehow, now that they are grown they feel that it is no longer necessary. I'm not sure how that happened but I made damn sure everyone in the house knew I wasn't happy. I must have made my point because everyone, including Dan has been very good about cleaning up this past week. They better not slip back into their old ways either or they may wind up dead anyway!

Last Friday Paulette Stewart of Plum Street Samplers came to the shop to discuss our retreat. For those that might not know, she is designing a special chart for our retreat and will be also be attending the retreat for part of the day, most likely the Saturday. This was the first time I had met her in person and I must say she is delightful! I'm sure many of you have seen her soon to be released chart called "The Flood". Paulette brought her model with her to show us and I have to say she has outdone herself with this one. It.Is.Stunning!!! And I am not a Noah's Ark fan! The picture doesn't do it justice but I swiped it from her facebook anyway. 

She also brought Hare's Autumn and Hare's Winter. Both are adorable and must haves for this Hare's fan!

I promised to share my thrifting treasures with you in my last post. If you have been a long time reader of my blog you might remember this post about thrifting with my husband and you also might remember that thrifting with my husband is something of an adventure. He makes up stories about every item he picks up, and let me tell you, he picks up everything. I warned Connie about this before Dan joined us so she wouldn't be taken by surprise. To my surprise, Miss Connie jumped right on the band wagon and started making up her own stories! I was outnumbered for sure! Thankfully I was able to talk to the two of them out of the leather water flask that supposedly came from Morrocco, the railroad spike that was the very first spike used in the transcontinental railroad, the pottery that was from Pompeii, and a Peruvian something that had been dug up by the Indians in the Andes mountains. So what did we come home with?

The first item is a silver teapot that according to Dan if you rub it a genie will appear and grant you 3 wishes. I've rubbed the dang thing off and on since Saturday and so far, no genie. But that's okay cuz I really like it, genie or no genie! 

And here she is with all her tarnished friends:

I'll share another of my finds in my next post.

I haven't done a ton of stitching since recovering and nothing while I was sick but I did finish filling in that middle part of Jenny Bean and I have another of the houses done. I changed the colors of the house as you can see. I sure hope when I get this finished that I like it! What do you think? 

I need to mention that Cranberry Samplings is having a wonderful giveaway to celebrate her 300th follower! Quite the impressive feat! Congratulations! Head on over there if you haven't already!

That's it for today folks. Thanks for the get well wishes on my last post, I am feeling better every day.

Take care till next time!

Julie

Rejoining the land of the living!

Been a while hasn't it? In my defense I do have a good excuse. I was sick! Sick as a dog sick. Took to my bed for 5 days sick and I never go to bed when I am sick. Sicker than I can ever remember being sick. I started feeling bad on January 20th. Had a tickle in my throat during the day but by that evening I felt like I had been hit by a truck. Went to work briefly on Friday to do a couple of framing jobs that needed to be done and then went home. Made supper that night and went to bed, told the family to do the dishes and wipe down the counters and that was it until I stumbled down the stairs on Tuesday afternoon. I vaguely remember going to the doctor on Saturday, missed my birthday entirely on Sunday the 23rd and on Tuesday when I came down the stairs it was to head to the Dr. again. I couldn't stand not being able to take a deep breath and when I was breathing I was also squeaking. Having 2 kids with asthma has taught me that the two symptoms are not a good sign so I took myself off to the Dr. where after listening to my litany of symptoms both past and present, he stuck a long q-tip up into my brain while saying, this is going to hurt a bit, not only did I see stars but I swear I saw horns sticking out of the mans head and heard chuckling while he was wiggling around up in there. The verdict was I did not have influenza but pseudo-influenza. Looks just like the real thing only not. After refusing a shot of steroids, apparently I wasn't so sick that I would willing submit to that, he gave me an inhaler and told me to hang in there, it would all be over soon. I wasn't sure quite how to take that but opted to believe he meant the being sick would be over soon and not that my life would be over soon. Went back to bed and by Thursday morning I was up and sorta recovered enough to go to work for a few hours. Worked a short day Friday too. In fact, it wasn't until just yesterday that I could take a deep breath without pain and a coughing fit. So what did I do? I went thrifting! And then I paid for it last night with several bouts of coughing throughout the night. I mustn't be as recovered as I would like to think. But it was worth it. I took my friend Connie with me and Dan joined us later and the 3 of us had a great time. Found several treasures that I will show you over the next few posts. I could write a book today if I wanted to but I think I will keep it short since I should be doing things like the laundry, the grocery shopping, cleaning the house etc. etc. etc...

Take care till next time!

Julie

Addiction, Stitching updates, Guessing game and Framed finishes.

It's snowing again. I was hoping the weather guy was wrong but nope, the little white stuff is once again falling out of the sky.

Today was laundry day. I had intended to stitch between loads but somehow I never got as far as my stitching chair. Zuma Blitz was calling my name. Have you played it yet? If you haven't, don't. It is waaaay too addicting. If you have, you know what I'm talking about. You keep playing and playing trying to better your score until you run out of mojo. Then you quickly run upstairs, grab a load of laundry from the bathroom floor, rush back down, switch the load in the washer to the dryer, hang up what can't go in the dryer, toss in the new load and run back to the computer to see if your mojo has reappeared. It's insanity. Then if your son happens to play the game, and he gets a better score than you do and he calls and says Bwwaahahaha and hangs up, well then you have to run to the computer to see just how bad he's beat you and then of course you have to try to beat him back so you can call him and go Bwwaahahaha back and hang up. Guess I can always finish the laundry this weekend.

Despite my addiction, I have been stitching although it feels like I've been stitching in place. Filling in that big center block is going to be the death of me.

In fact, I'm so bored with it that I decided to start something else just to give myself a break but it's not much better at this point! Bad choice on my part. Anyone wanna guess what this chart pictured below is? First follower to guess correctly will win a prize. Not gonna say what it'll be yet, I have a couple of ideas but I haven't quite decided.

Have a couple of framed finishes to share. I don't think I ever showed them framed up. The Stitching Lady by Homespun Elegance
And Holy Night from Shepards Bush


American Idol is on now so I think I will make this a short post for once and go sit down, watch the train wreck and maybe stitch some. Have a great night everyone!

Take care till next time!

Julie

It's cold, Jenny Bean update and bad framing

Hello!

As my dear hubby would say, it's colder than a witches tit in an iron bra out there today! Personally I would think that anyone's tit in an iron bra would be just as cold but apparently not!

I heard on the news last night that there is now snow in 49 of 50 states. Quite an accomplishment for ol' mother nature! But enough is enough Mom and it's time to loosen your grip and let some warm air in to melt all this stuff away!! At least around here we are not dealing with the ice that those in the south are dealing with. I hope it warms up there soon or my friend Debi and her dogs are going to be awfully hungry. She said this morning she only has 2 more days of doggy food left.

We took Amy back to school on Sunday morning so we could avoid all the weather that was headed our way. We timed it pretty well, as we were leaving Lincoln it started snowing there pretty good but we drove out of it and had clear roads most of the way home. Amy is mad cuz they canceled school Monday and Tuesday and she doesn't have classes on Wednesdays. She could have stayed home in her nice comfortable bed for 2 more days!

Yesterday while at work, I had to take apart a cross stitch picture that was brought in on Saturday. The picture had been professionally framed at Ben Franklins at least 10 years ago and the frame was coming apart. Our customer wanted to know if I could fix the frame for her. I explained to her that the frame was falling apart because it was not a hefty enough frame for the size of the piece. I could certainly glue it back together but the same thing was going to happen again.


She decided to choose a new slightly larger frame instead. Knowing my customer the way I do, I know that she wants her stitching framed in a manner that will preserve them for as long as possible so I then pointed out to her that the matting on the piece was not acid free.

Orange/brown bevels = acid mats. She was horrified that the mats were acid. Why would her old framer use acid mats she wondered? Now I happen to know who the old framer was. I'm told she was a very nice woman and everyone always says what a wonderful job she did with her framing. I'm not trying to diss her in any way. But I have re-framed quite a few pieces that she had framed and none of them were framed with conservation in mind. If it's a throw away piece it's not such a big deal but on an heirloom piece it can ruin it. Part of the issue might be that in her day, acid free was not generally thought to be important, it was more expensive and fewer people were really interested in conservation framing. What ever the reason, I thought my customer would want to know. The decision was made to re-mat the piece. Knowing from past experience what I might find when I opened up the old frame, I brought my camera to the shop yesterday so I could document what I found. I was shocked and surprised when I opened up the back and found what I did though. Masking tape on the cross stitch fabric...


mats taped to the front of the stitching...


rusty pins and of course acid foam core. The foam core I expected. The faded mats I expected too as there was not conservation glass used.

The masking tape and mats taped to the front of the piece I did not. There is some damage where the masking tape was and a bit of discoloration where the tape was holding the mats to the piece but the new mats will cover that up.

I'll cut the damage from the masking tape off so the acid cannot leach any further into the fabric and it should be good to go after that. So all this is just to say...if you had something framed 10 or more years ago that you wish to keep around for a while, it might be in your best interests to have it checked out to be sure that everything was done with conservation in mind. Check your mat bevels to see if they are discolored as that is the first clue that there might be a problem. We'll now return you to your regularly scheduled programming...

I'm coming right along on Jenny. Still trying to decide if I like the burgundy chimney. I think so but I'm reserving judgement until I get further along. I've changed a couple of other things as long as I am at it. The door is supposed to be mustard seed and I just wasn't digging it so I changed it to Toasted Barley and the little hanging fruit things were supposed to be caramel corn but I changed them to Grape Arbor. So...what do you think?

I've managed to waste most of my morning off playing Zuma Blitz and chatting with friends on facebook so I better finish this and go do something productive with my day. Not sure what that might be but I'm thinking huddling under a blanket while stitching sounds like a good idea! Maybe I'll put a pot of soup on for supper while I'm at it. Or not. We'll have to see. Thanks for stopping in and commenting!

Take care till next time!

Julie

Jenny Beans, Shop models and Golf

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!