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!

I have new Stash!!

Good Morning!

It's a cold wet dreary day here in Nebraska. I am not enjoying it at all but at least it is NOT at this time snowing. They have mentioned it might do that tomorrow. I hope not as I am headed up north to pack up the shack and sign the closing papers. I'll be glad to have this done but very sad to be doing it. In a perfect world, I'd have enough money to make it look like I wanted, and enough time to go up there more than once a year. BUT, this isn't a perfect world so I'll just keep all the wonderful years of memories close to my heart and bring them out when I need a little bit of soul soothing.

Mary Ann came over a couple of days ago and she brought my stash that I ordered. I should be cleaning the house since my in-laws are coming at 1:00 today, but instead I am procrastinating. I took pictures of my stash. Just.For.You. And to waste more time since I don't feel like cleaning!!

First up is Quaker Diamonds by Rosewood Manor. Love, love, love this chart and the threads are gorgeous! I've never stitched with Valdani threads before, I hope they are worth what I paid for them. I'm itching to start this one but I promised myself I wouldn't until after I finish Signs of Fall and another project for my daughter.

Next up is Christmas Sampler by Stoney Creek. I think this is so pretty. There is another Christmas Sampler just out by Sheperds Bush that I think I have to have too.

I first saw this next chart on Margie's blog, Three Cool Pugs and Me. I thought it was such a cute stitch that I had to get it. Not sure when I'll get to it but it'll be here when I'm ready!

This next one by Lizzie Kate is so dang cute! I can't wait to stitch this one and finish it up cute like the picture! I can see all kinds of ways to display it, can't you?

And finally, I thought this new one by Sweetheart Tree was too cute to pass up. Not sure if I will turn it into an ornament or what but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

I think I will leave you with the view from my front door this morning. The fall color is gorgeous right now, wish it was warm enough and dry enough to go out and enjoy it! Well, I have procrastinated long enough and they will be here before I know it. Have a great weekend everyone and I'll see ya when I get back! Thanks for stopping in!

FIRE!!!

Happy Monday Everyone!

The sun finally came out around these parts on Sunday after almost a week straight of gray clouds! Today is supposed to be nice out and I intend to go out and get the stink blown offa me!! I was planning to do it yesterday but it was too windy out there. Guess that really would have blown the stink off if I had gone out yesterday huh. I should have thought of that then!

Today I tried to burn the house down. All I really accomplished though was a fire in the toaster, traumatizing the dogs and a smelly house. I'm not sure what went wrong. Same setting on the toaster that I always use, same english muffin I always toast but for some reason while I was sweeping and it was toasting......FIRE!!!! At least I know the new smoke alarms work! Don't think I will be using that toaster anymore. Got the mess cleaned up, the alarms shut off, the smoke aired out and the dogs calmed down. I don't think they suffered any permanent damage do you?

Top to bottom: Gracie Lou Freebush, Kallie Josephine, and Missouri Primrose, (Missy)

Been doing quite a bit of stitching and have made good progress on Signs of Fall. This is as of last night:


Looking good I think. Still, I doubt that I will get it finished in time to display it this year. But ya never know.

Well, I need to go vacuum the carpets. I just did it yesterday but I noticed this morning when I came down that someone (Dan) tracked sawdust all over the floor. He's working on a project for me so I guess I can't complain too loudly but really, vacuuming two days in a row is wrong! That might just really traumatize the dogs! Especially on top of the smoke alarm. Now all I need to do to guarantee total and complete insanity on Kallie's part is to start up the lawn mower. She's terrified of the lawn mower!

Till next time, may your days be bright and sunny! Thanks for stopping by and commenting. Oh! did you see I have 41 followers? I was amazed! I think when I hit 50 I'm gonna have to have a give away to celebrate!

18 years ago....

October 14, 1991. That was my due date. I had a doctor appt. that day at 1:00p.m. Much to my dismay the Dr. said she expected it would be another week before baby girl McConnell was born. I can't describe the utter depression that invaded my body at that point. I was never one of those "Happy" pregnant people. In fact, I hated being pregnant. Love the whole labor and delivery process, hate the preceding 9 months. It could have something to do with the 9 months of non-stop belching (think construction worker after downing a cold 6 pack in 10 minutes), that always started within 8 hours of conception. Or perhaps it is the fact that I knew the instant I got pregnant. And I mean the instant. I swear I felt that little spermie hit the Amy egg and the resulting fireworks that followed. I even told Dan within minutes that I was pregnant. He laughed and said I was nuts. Until the next morning when I started belching. Then his face lost all color. He'd been scheduled for the little clip clip appt that week. Best laid plans and all that. God has a strange sense of humor. It's amazing that it even happened if you think about it. 3 different forms of birth control and yet still a baby was made. I've always said God really wanted this baby to be in my life. She was destined for great things! Anyway, I digress. Back to October 14, 1991 and my depression. After receiving that news from the Dr. I did what any self respecting pregnant woman would do and went shopping. The panacea for all that ails you. I was browsing Shopko when the first labor pain hit. Hmmmm, what was that? Then another hit. Hmmmmm, maybe I better head home. By the time I got to my mom's house 10 minutes away the pains were 5 minutes apart. Called Dan, went home got the kids bags packed, picked them up from school and got back to my moms house by 3. Dan arrived and off we went to the hospital. Arrived at the hospital with the worst pains shooting down my legs, got my epidural (gotta love an epidural!) and Amy was born at 5:59 p.m. Ha! Take that Dr. H. That'll teach you to say things like it'll be another week!

Here she is the week of her birth.

and just the other day when it snowed.


HAPPY 18th BIRTHDAY AMY!!!!

Progress on Signs of Fall has been slow the last few days. Actually if you count all the ripping I did trying to get those darn background triangles to look nice I've done alot. Ripped those puppies out 3 or 4 times and I'm still not sure I like how they look. Originally, the triangles were supposed to be done in shades of dark green but the cover picture looks like they are black and that is what I wanted. But there were 3 shades of green involved and when I substituted the same colors that were in the pot it just looked too bold. After trying several different things, I decided to just use 1 strand of floss and that seems to be better. What do you think? Does it look okay?


I guess I best wrap this up and head to the grocery store. Amy wants ham, hashbrown casserole, whipped jello, corn, rolls and ice cream cake for her birthday dinner. I have none of that in my house at this time.

Thanks for stopping in and wishing Amy a happy birthday! I'll talk at ya all soon!

S Happened!!

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Here's two thousand words then....


The leaves have just started changing. Madness I tell you, M.A.D.N.E.S.S.

Progress on Signs of Fall:

The "S" Word

I hate the "S" word. Well, hate is pretty harsh, let's just say I dislike intensely the "S" word. I know, it's only 4 letters. But they are 4 very ugly dirty letters and they make up an ugly little word. Some people love the "S" word and think nothing of throwing it around like confetti. I just don't happen to agree with them. Those that use this dirty little word are not my favorite people in the world. In fact, I have been known to use a rude hand gesture when people on the TV use that particular word. And last night was one of those nights. Every other word out of their mouths was the "S" word. Didn't matter what channel my TV was on. There it was. Nasty.dirty.word.

My one daughter had a 5th teacher that actually banned the use of this word in her classroom. If the students used it, they had to write an essay on the word. At the time I thought that was a bit harsh, I mean you can't go around banishing a word from the English language just because you don't like it. Flash forward to today and I find myself agreeing with her. More and more all the time. This teacher requested the children use an alternate word for the "S" word. Her preference was "Frozen Precipitation". I don't know though, frozen precipitation man just doesn't roll off the tongue like snow man does. Neither does frozen precipitation storm. That's right folks I am talking about snow. The dreaded white stuff that falls from the sky, makes the road slickery and generally means the temperatures have to be below 32 degrees. Which means, it's cold out. I do not like the cold. I will never like the cold. That's why I designed this cross stitch piece. So everyone knows how I feel. In case you can't read the little sign the rabbit is holding, it says... somewhere else. I don't mind the snow so long as it is somewhere I am not.

I especially don't like the cold in October when we are still supposed to have 70 degree weather. But last night every freaking TV weatherman was talking about how we are going to have the dreaded "S" word this weekend. IN OCTOBER. If I'd have had a shotgun, I might have done some damage to the new TV my son bought us. Good thing all I had close to hand was my middle finger and my cross stitch needle. Neither of which did a whole lot of damage, but not for lack of trying. My only hope is that the weathermen are, as usual, wrong about the forecast. I'll keep ya updated. In the meantime, I have dug out my wool socks, my extra blankets, my hot cocoa and my chicken tortilla soup recipe in preparation for the big freeze. Let's all hope I don't need them.

In other news....anyone here play bejeweled on facebook? I'm an addict and they just the other day launched a new version. I think it has made it easier to get a high score than the old version. But since my score is now one of the highest in the world (their words, not mine) I've gotta say I like this new version! :) How I got a 300,000 plus score is beyond me cuz it wasn't anything I did but I'll take it!

The new TV season is off to an okay start. So You Think You Can Dance has been good. Looks to be another great season of dancing. I like the new Christian Slater show The Forgotten. I also like The Good Wife. But I have to watch that one online. It's on opposite The Forgotten I think.

While I've been watching the new season of TV I've been getting some good stitching time in. Here's the last couple of days progress on Signs of Fall. Which should be Signs of Winter I guess since we've skipped right over Fall!


That's it for today folks. I'll leave you with a picture of the sunset I took the other night from my front porch. I thought it was pretty. Have a great day, thanks for stopping in and commenting. I love comments! See ya soon!

Food, Decorating and Stitching....all my favorites

Happy Monday Everyone!

It's October. Already. Before we really ever got going on summer. The days are getting shorter and shorter, the temps have dropped to below my comfort zone of 75 by 20 degrees and everything is turning brown. Can you tell it's not my favorite time of the year?? So to cheer myself up, I set up my Halloween Diorama. It usually sits on the hearth in the family room but this year I decided to put it in the library so the piano students could enjoy it. I hope you do too!



I know, most of you don't like Monday's and I am the same 99% of the time. But today I was happy to see it. Do you ever have one of those weekends when your family, as much as you love them, drives you insane?? That's the kind of weekend I had. The girls couldn't say a civil word to each, they haven't done their laundry in I don't know how long and my upstairs smells like dirty clothes and then they were fighting over who got to use the washer. God knows we wouldn't want to cooperate and do our laundry together. Then there is the crap that over the weekend they have managed to spread throughout the entire house. We are not talking little kids here. No, everyone in this house is an adult and should be able to clean up after themselves. But it didn't happen. I counted the pairs of tennis shoes, flip flops, dress shoes and slippers that were left around. 10! Ten pairs of shoes. There are only 4 of us living here. And none of them belonged to me. The dishwasher is another bone of contention. How hard is it to open the door of the dishwasher and load your glass? It's not rocket science! The gist of this whole rant is.....I'm glad it's Monday. I don't have to see them or hear them until this evening and for today at least, that makes me smile with relief.

I'm waiting on the furnace people to show up today. I turned the furnace on Saturday and Sunday morning we all had headaches and queasy tummies. Shut the furnace off and opened the door a bit and we all felt better. It's probably nothing but better safe than sorry.

I've made some progress on my Signs of Fall, it's stitching up relatively quickly for me. At least it was until last night when I had to frog quite a bit of it. I need to spend less time on the computer and more time actually stitching or I am never going to finish most of what I want to stitch. But I'm sure I am not alone there!


Mmmmmm. Can you smell it? Come on, take a deep whiff....I'm sure you'll be able to smell the pumpkin loaf I made this morning. It's done and it smells delicious! The bread is glazed and is all ready for eating so come on over, we'll have a cup of tea and piece of pumpkin bread and talk stitching. I'll be waiting!


Thanks for stopping in and I hope you all have a wonderful Monday! See ya soon!