I'm a murderer!

I confess. You all are the first to know my dirty secret. I am a murderer. This morning Abby came in to the bedroom complaining about the ants on the front porch. She said they were everywhere and it was gross and disgusting. I of course, knowing my daughter's skill at blowing things out of proportion, just rolled my eyes and told her I'd check it out when I got up. Did I mention that this was at 6:00a.m.?? Of course, having been rudely awakened I was unable to go back to sleep so I was up, showered and downstairs by 7:00. Knowing that I had forgotten to water my flower pots last evening I made my first priority to go outside and take care of that little bit of business. But when I opened the front door I stopped cold. The front porch was literally moving. Little red ants were everywhere!! It was so gross and disgusting!! For once Abby hadn't been exaggerating! I didn't see any reason for them to be there either. Sometimes someone will dribble his pop on the cement and that will bring the little buggers out but there were no telltale brown dribble spots to be seen. As far as I could tell there was no reason for the invasion. I needed to get out there to water the hanging baskets as they were on their deathbed and screaming out for relief but there was no freaking way I was stepping out there amongst the critters! Let me repeat myself......NO FREAKING WAY!! So I did the only thing any self respecting creepy crawlie hater could do and I went and got out my handy dandy can of Raid ant killer. I sprayed those babies and watched them scatter trying to avoid the death spray but in the end I was the victor. Did you know they get smaller when you spray them? After about 5 minutes, this was all that was left....

Doesn't look too bad in the picture but trust me, this was just a teeny tiny little 2 inch spot of the porch. As I stood there watching them die I was struck with remorse. I was single handedly responsible for wiping out an entire colony (or so it looked) of ants. I was a murderer. I felt bad for the ants left behind. I wish I had taken a different route to get rid of them. I could have hosed the porch off if we didn't already have water in the basement that is coming in from somewhere in the vicinity of front porch. I could have used the broom and swept them away but then I'd be afraid they would get all up in my broom and come into the house and we certainly don't want that. So in the end I will have to live with the guilt. Please don't hate me. I'm really not a bad person.

While I was outside trying to save my hanging pots, I thought I would take a few quick pictures of my flowers. While they are still around to take pictures of. Seems as though I am not the only one that is a murderer. Signs of death were everywhere!! This used to be a large daylily.

And this is what is happening to my oriental lillies:

Stripped of their leaves and snapped off halfway up. Pesky wabbits! It's my own fault. I said just the other day....gosh, the rabbits haven't been feasting in my garden this year. Yep. Shoulda kept my big mouth shut! I cursed myself.

I took a few pictures of some of my favorites while they are still alive, here's my Clematis. I'm thinking of cutting it back to the ground when it's done blooming. Pretty much it has quit blooming on the lower half of the plant. It'll either make it healthier or it'll kill it. Might as well add another murder charge to the list!

My favorite lily, love the color of this one:

And my Red Lillies, if you look hard, you can see all the dead stuff towards the top right in the picture, that's the bottom of my clematis. It looks like that from the ground up to about 3 feet:

I'm making progress on my family room re-do. I've shopped my house and have pulled about all I can. It's time to start spending money now. One thing I knew I had but couldn't find was my shaker boxes. Looked everywhere for the darn things. Knew I had seen them somewhere recently but just couldn't locate them. Yesterday, I had an epiphany! I had taken them to the shop and was using them to display reading glasses! Duh! I'll have to bring in a basket and swap it for the boxes. Found curtains that I can live with. I also bought a table lamp but it was kinda pricey and I wasn't in love with it so it's going to go back. I found a lamp base at Scummart Walmart that I like so maybe I can find a shade I love somewhere and save a bit of money. So far I like what I've done. Abby hates it. She hates country style period. Amy doesn't give a flying fig, Dan keeps saying he's not seeing the vision yet and Adam on skype the other night asked what had I done to the family room? I don't think they can "see" the whole picture. I keep telling them to be patient. Decorating takes time.

I have done some stitching on the Wise Men. I am very close to being done. I tell ya, my picture of this just doesn't do it justice. You have to stitch this one to see it in it's full beauty. Trust me.

Not sure what I want to stitch when I am done with this. Need to work on Golden Ice for a bit though. If I can stop myself from starting something new.

Well, I have a shop newsletter to write yet and a cross stitch to stretch. I want to organize the charts here at the shop too plus place my orders so I best get a move on. But first let me ask you....when you go to a LNS, how do you like the charts to be arranged. By designer alphabetically? By Subject? I gotta admit I struggle with this one. I'll take any help or advice you wish to share.

Have a great week! Thanks for stopping by and a big Hello to my new followers. I think it might be time for a giveaway!!

Take care!

Julie

Broken Hearts Suck

Today I am sad. It is so hard to see one of your children hurting and right now Adam is devastated. The girl he has been in love with for years is now engaged to be married. Don't get me wrong, she's entitled to get married if she wants, but she shouldn't have strung Adam along all this time if she had no interest in him. She shouldn't have called him when she needed something done, she shouldn't have hung out with him watching TV, she shouldn't have gotten jealous when he would go out with another girl. Mostly she should have been honest with him when she started dating someone else instead of insisting she wasn't and she should have had the decency to tell him she was engaged instead of letting him find out from someone else. This on top of being homesick has really got him down in the dumps. He needs to get out and meet some people his own age in Salt Lake. Sadly, he is working so much he has no time to do so. I wish I could do something to make him feel better but he's just going to have to work through this on his own. Knowing this doesn't make it any easier on his momma though.

This past weekend, I got a wild hair and emptied my family room of all the decorative things that were in it. It's been 6 years since I last re-decorated and I was tired of it plus I want to put my Antique Key's and Locks piece that I stitched in there and I want it to be happy in the room. I can't afford to replace the furniture but I can shop my house and bring other things in and maybe pick up a new piece here and there as I find them. I have a bunch of lace curtain panels that I think I will coffee dye or tea stain and see how they look on the windows. I brought great- great grandma's rocker down and an antique sewing machine up. Still needs lots of work though so no pics until it's looking a bit better.

Our friends from Wyoming stopped in yesterday on their way to Michigan for a wedding. Last time they stopped in was 6 years ago when I was redecorating. Barb thought it was funny that I seem to redecorate every time they visit. It's a good thing we only see them every 6 years, Dan might object to my redecorating more often than that! Barb brought me a little present she found while thrifting. 2 frogs!! I think she paid .25 cents for each of them. I'll have to go vessel hunting tomorrow on my day off! She loves to hunt for things and get them for a bargain. I love to have her hunt for things cuz she always gets them for a bargain! It's a win-win situation. It was so nice to see her again and I do wish we could get together more often.

Amy is having a hard time adjusting to being out of school. She's looking for a job but so far has had no luck. All this laying around is driving her a bit bonkers since she is so used to having too much to do. I've been leaving her lists of things to accomplish while I'm at work and so far she's doing pretty good at getting them done. I did discover one thing though, she will not do anything outside like pull weeds or water flowers. Guess I'll continue to do those myself. Tomorrow she goes to Lincoln to register for classes. She's pizzed because she took the math placement test and they put her in Calculus!! She is determined to somehow avoid taking it as she hates calc and would much rather take Statistics. Personnally, I wouldn't touch either of them with a ten foot pole!

I didn't stitch at all this weekend. I was busy cleaning in anticipation of Barb and Ray's visit but I stitched some towards the end of last week as you can see from the picture.

Guess that's about it for today. I hope you all had a great weekend and will have a fantastic week! Thanks for stopping in and commenting.

Take care!

Julie

A froggy makeover and Ornament update

Happy Hump Day!

We had some severe weather blow through last night but today it's sunny, there's a slight breeze and it's absolutely gorgeous out! Not much damage in our part of town but lots of power outages, downed trees etc. across the metro. Abby was driving home, or trying to anyway and she finally called and asked if maybe she should pull over somewhere as she couldn't see. Gee Abs, ya think?? Sometimes, I just gotta wonder about that child! She pulled into a parking lot and sat there for a bit until the tornado sirens went off. Then she called again. What should she do? I had her head to Gram's house as it was closer than home. But I forgot to mention to her that she should not drive through any areas with standing water.....they had been showing lots of cars on the news that tried to drive through water thinking it wasn't very deep and they ended up floating away, flooded or stalled in the middle of the intersection. My bad. She drove through standing water and got some inside the car. At least she didn't get stranded but really, at 22 I shouldn't have to remind her of these things! Haven't checked her car out yet but she says it got hammered by wind driven hail. Never a good thing.

Before I went to Last Saturday Stitching last Saturday, Dan and I went to the thrift store. I had been given a flower frog by a stitching friend quite some time ago and then a week later Dan bought one for me too. But they both needed little containers to go with them and this was the first chance we had to go together. It's always more fun to go thrifting with Dan than without Dan. He's always finds something to get excited about. This time it was the worlds fugliest lamp ever. We're talking so ugly it hurt to look at it. Dan was all, we gotta get this, we can make better, faster stronger than it was before....I just gave him "the LOOK" told him it was the ugliest thing I had ever seen and walked away. Trust me, there was no making this monstrosity better. I found two little vessels that fit my frogs or is it that my frogs would fit, so we bought 'em and then I went off to stitching and he went on home. But as we were leaving the thrift store parking lot, I saw this couple that had been nearby when I told Dan to back away from the ugly lamp leaving the store. You'll never guess what they were carrying......Yep! The fugly lamp. And it took 2 of them to carry it. I wish I had had my camera!! We were laughing hysterically as we left the parking lot!


Stitching was great as always except we had to say goodbye to one of our original stitcher's this month. Her hubby got a new and better job in Peoria and they will be moving there soon. Stacy is/was the youngest member of our group and she found us through Craigslist. I had posted an ad looking for people interested in a stitching group. Her husband was a bit leery of letting her go the first time but Stacy came anyway. Despite being quite a bit younger than us she had a good time and continued to come when the demands of young kids, a part-time job, the husband and going to school would allow. Stacy, it has been an honor getting to know you and teaching you that there are other materials out there than aida and dmc. Corrupting you has been a pleasure. My only regret is that we have not been able to corrupt you so thoroughly that you have stash (seriously, she buys one chart at a time and stitches it) or that you have more than one project going at a time. We failed at absolute corruption. Hopefully we'll do better with the next victim youngster to cross our paths. I wish you and your family great success and happiness in your new life and please come see us when you are in town. We'll miss you.

Returning to the frog story....I wasn't thrilled with the little vessels I found. They worked just fine but I thought they were lacking something. The silver vessel I had Dan paint with brown hammered metal spray paint. that was better but still not quite right. The clear vessel we sprayed with the spray that makes it look frosted. Again, that was better but not perfect. Down the stairs I went to the craft room. Which reminds me, I forgot to mention the movers came Friday and took away all of Adam's stuff so I can get in there again. I was sad his stuff was gone as that meant the move was really permanent but it only lasted about an hour before I was all good. Anyway, to get back to the story...I found some rub-ons in my scrapping supplies that I thought might just do the trick. I think they turned out really cute. How about you?



And here's an update on the Wise Men Ornament. I'm about half done now and thrilled with how it looks. Just too pretty.


That's it for now. Think I'll head outside, pull some weeds and enjoy the nice weather. You all have a great afternoon!

Take care,

Julie

Cool

Good Morning!

I am happy to report that the Gods were smiling on me Monday. Or more likely, my regular heating and cooling people decided that a new a/c unit that is blowing warm air sounded fishy to them and I received a call Monday afternoon saying they had a crew that could come out and check things over. As it turns out, the problem was most likely their fault to begin with. We had NO freon. None. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Which is strange since we paid for freon last summer. After testing the line and checking out everything else, they determined that there was not a leak anywhere and the most likely culprit for the problem was someone last summer did not tighten some doohickey tight enough and we lost all 4.5 pounds of freon. That's an expensive loss and really bad for the environment. Anyway....the upshot of the whole thing was they didn't charge me full price for the freon, or the labor which tells me they know it was their screw up. Some people have said I shouldn't have had to pay anything. I was just happy to have a cool house so (don't tell them I said this but....) I'd have paid full price just because I didn't have to wait until Friday. Ahhhhh.....life is good!

The moving truck is coming tomorrow morning to pack up Adam's stuff and haul it to Utah. They said he should have it sometime Sat. That's quick! Adam will be thrilled as he has been sleeping on an air mattress for 2 weeks and freezing cuz he's too cheap to buy any blankets and it's been chilly there. Silly boy! After the moving truck is gone I will get to work putting the house back to the way it was before he so rudely moved back in. We have friends coming next week to visit and I need to get things in order before they arrive.

Progress is being made on my ornament. So far, everyone thinks it resembles a moth. I have to agree, it does look like a moth or butterfly from a distance. I am really loving this piece though. The shading is awesome and to watch it develop as I stitch has been a pleasure. Ya'll should run right out and get the chart. It's a beauty!



Our fall retreat was announced in the shop's last newsletter with registration opening last Friday. We booked the last 2 beds yesterday! It's not a large retreat, only 15 beds available and while I'd like to say I can't wait until September, that would be wishing away my summer and I do not want that but I am pleased that everyone enjoyed the last retreat so much that they want to do it again and I am looking forward to it. We are planning a larger retreat for next April. It's a lot of work as I want to make sure everyone has a great time. We are hoping that other stitcher's besides our usual Last Saturday Stitchers will want to come but I worry that they won't. At night I lay in bed and ponder different ideas. For instance, themed retreat or no theme. Classes or no classes. What types of goodies would the stitcher's want in a goodie bag. We will be taking stitching supplies and setting up a small shop there but do we need charts, fabric and floss or just charts and fabric. If we need floss do we bring all the different ones we carry and if so how will we display them. You get the idea. So much to think about.....

Well, I need to get a move on. Still need to eat breakfast, pack a lunch and head off to work. Thanks for stopping by and commenting! I really enjoy all the comments. BTW....I'm happy I am not the only one out there with a left shoulder bra strap slippage problem. I'm still lopsided, haven't had a chance to go shopping yet. But I will and I'll let you know if I find one that prevents the slippage problem. Anyone ever tried the Breezies brand from QVC?? They are supposed to have the straps angled to prevent that slippage but I'm wondering about the support for larger girls. IYKWIM.

Have a great day!!

Julie

Be careful what you wish for.....

I have been wishing and hoping for the last 6 months that hot weather would arrive. This past weekend, it did. With a vengeance. There was only one tiny little problem with the high temps and humidity. When I turned the air conditioner on, it didn't work. Oh it runs just fine. It just isn't cooling. At. All. Dan and the BIL did what they could to try and fix it to no avail. It got up to 90 degrees in the house both Saturday and Sunday. Factor in the humidity and you have all the makings for a thoroughly miserable weekend. I am hoping and praying that I can get someone to come out and fix it. But I am not feeling confident that they will. Most of the heating and cooling places in town have gone to what they call a contract. You pay them a set fee that is usually around $300.00/yr that is supposed to cover your spring and fall tuneups. Those customers with the contract get priority service, meaning they will get help first over those without a contract. Last fall my contract expired. I had requested they bring a contract with them when they came to check the furnace. They forgot. I thought since we had just replaced the inside a/c unit last summer and the outside unit 3 summers ago that it wasn't a big huge deal and we'd just take care of it this spring. See what happens when I think, wish and hope? Now we all suffer.

I have also been wishing and hoping for a weekend that I could just sit and do nothing. I'm happy to report that is exactly what happened this weekend. NOTHING! I couldn't even stitch because my hands were too sweaty to hold the needle. I think I will hold off on the wishing and hoping for a while. It's just not working out very well.

NO progress has been made on Golden Ice. I started an ornament and have been working on that. It's by Blackberry Lane Design. Beautiful ornament. Looks like this:

Of course, my version is not that beautiful yet. I started stitching this as it was called for. 40 ct. linen cross stitched 1 over 1. I did not like it......so I frogged it, and may I just say that was a royal pain in my behind, and then started over using the tent stitch 1 over 1 and I am liking it waaaaay better. Wha'cha think?


Don't go by the colors on the first pic. That lead wise man looks like he'd be fuschia but in reality he is stitched in shades of red/burgundy. Love the shading in this piece. And actually, the 40 count isn't all that bad most of the time!!

Update: I started calling heating and cooling places at 8 a.m. this morning. So far I have a bunch of we can't get to you until Friday or next week. Or leave your name and number and we'll call you back. Or I sat on hold forever. Or a busy signal. Looks like the dogs and I will go to work today. I can't leave them here by themselves. Yesterday it was cooler outside than it was inside.

To top it all off I am feeling very lopsided today. In the midst of all the sweating going on this weekend, I broke the underwire on my last good bra. I hate when that happens. I have very short shoulders and therefore I have a terrible time keeping the straps up on the left side. Don't ask me why only the left side but if one falls down, it's always the left one. Anyway, I happened to find this one bra that this didn't happen so I bought a few of them thinking I would go back and buy a couple more the next time they were on sale. Nope!! Next time Kohl's had bras on sale they no longer had this bra. So over time, one by one the underwire has broken until I was left with this last final bra. And lest you think I have been running around wearing just one bra I do have others, it's just the straps all fall down or the underwire comes up so far on the sides that it pokes me in my fat underarms so I only wear them while the good one is being cleaned. So if you happen to be in Kohl's and see a woman in the bra dept. and one boob is nice and perky and the other is drooping, you'll know who she is and why she's crooked!

Have a great day everyone! Thanks for stopping in and commenting!

Julie

Endings, beginnings, a trunk show and a stitchy finish

My baby graduated this past weekend. For me it was a bittersweet occasion. As I have mentioned before, I'm thrilled to be done with driving kids to school. But it also means she will be heading off to college in the fall and she won't be home in the evenings so we can listen to her complain about being censored or about how dumb the substitute teacher was that day. Or talking about a test she just knows she failed and then later checking her grade online and finding out she aced it. She won't be home to watch our favorite T.V. shows together either. On the other hand, she won't be home complaining about being censored, stupid teachers or flunking tests. But that is not all that is over. Amy had her last piano lesson on Thursday. Her last piano recital on Saturday. While I won't miss the drive to piano lessons, a drive made more stressful this year trying to avoid all the huge potholes, I will miss listening to her learn new songs and mastering new techniques. I'll miss seeing her up on stage nailing that piece that she has worked so hard to perfect. And nail it she did! We are so proud of her. So while I am sad that once again life is changing, I am also looking forward to all the new experiences that are ahead of us. Amy will be the only one of the 3 kids that has gone away to school. She won't be far, only an hour away, but she will be off on her own and that is an exciting and scary prospect. I know she will be just fine, she's a smart and determined young woman. But I will miss her.

Adam is now living in Salt Lake City. Big change for him, big change for us. I've already informed the rest of the family that the large family breakfast we always had on Sunday morning will not happen every weekend anymore. I started that tradition when Adam moved into an apt. It was one way of guaranteeing we would see him at least once a week after he moved out. Somehow, I don't think he's going to come all the way from Salt Lake every Sunday morning for breakfast. The rest of the family would just as soon sleep in and I am good with that. I won't sleep in but I will enjoy a more leisurely Sunday morning. Adam is doing well, he found an apt. yesterday and will let me know when the truck will be coming to move all his stuff. I'll get my craft room back, a bit sooner than expected, I now have a vacation destination and the electrical bill will go back down so there are some pluses to the move. But I will miss him.

We're having a Rosewood Manor Trunk show at the shop this month. The models arrived last week and I must say, it's an impressive display! Stop in if you are in the area.

Not a ton of stitching has been done, cleaning the house and working kind of sucked all my free time up but I did finish Holy Night.

I'm trying to figure out how I want to frame it. I have it narrowed down to 2 different looks but haven't made a final decision yet.

I have a chiropractor appt. this morning so I need to get moving. I see I have almost 100 followers now, might have to have another give away here soon. I hope you all have a great day, thanks for stopping in, double thanks if you take the time to comment. I love comments and the lovely ladies that leave them!

Till next time!

Julie

Framed Finishes!!

Good Evening!

I hope everyone is having a great week. It's been busy around here getting ready for Graduation but I think we're on target to be ready on time.

Just wanted to share a couple more framed finishes with you. The first is Erica Michaels' Papillon. Stitched on 40 count gauze using the called for silks.

and a bit closer. If you click on the pics to make them larger you can see the debossed detail in the mat a little better.


The second finish is Antique Locks and Keys by Shakespeare's Peddler.



and here it is on display at the shop with the chart. Stitched on Brash by Picture this Plus using Briar Patch by Belle Soie.

That's it for tonight folks. Going to go stitch for a while and watch Bones. Have a great night, thanks for stopping by and for commenting.