And then there were 2

Happy Hump Day!

It's scary to think  we're half way through November already.  I need to get going on my Christmas shopping or I know some people that are gonna be mighty disappointed come Christmas Morning! I'm going to have to give up my Wednesday thrift shopping and concentrate on gift shopping for the next little while.  But not before one last trip today.  I didn't find much, just a headboard for Abby's room and this piece.

Which just happens to match a piece I found a month ago.

And since Terri  of Chocolates for Breakfast, Stitching for Lunch fame was kind enough to send me some frogs not too long ago, (thanks again Terri!) I had a frog that would fit in it just right.

I guess I better get busy buying some scissors to fill these babies up!  There are a couple of pair of Sullivans scissors that I've had my eye on,  but feel free to make suggestions.  Christmas is coming and Dan needs some ideas!

My stitching has been hampered somewhat by a rather large object that has taken up residence on my chest/lap in the evenings.  Rags has decided that's the best place to lay and stare at me.  She puts both front paws on my chest and then places her head between her paws.  Since my chest is where I prop my stitching when I stitch, you can imagine my dilemma.   Push the new pup away and hurt her feelings or don't stitch.  So far I have chosen not to stitch.  She moves on her own after about an hour so that's not too bad.

My Strawberry Hill Sampler is coming along nicely:

As is my Peace Sampler:

Roxy, I'm working really hard to get everything done you said I needed to have done before Last Saturday Stitching but I don't know if it's going to happen!

The shop received the new Barbara Ana designs a week ago and I just had to start one of them.  I wanted to start 2 of them but so far I've managed to talk myself out of doing that.  This is what I have done so far on Merry Christmas:

Adam has been in town this past week and a half for training so I've been cooking a lot more than I do when it's just Dan and I.  Dan has been pretty funny about it.  He'll come out to the kitchen to see what I'm doing and when he finds out what I'm making he gets a big grin on his face and says, "I love Adam."  I think I've heard that one line at least 10 times.  Marcia, Adam's fiancee was here over the weekend.  Adam wanted to take her to a Nebraska football game.  The weather was beautiful on Saturday and they had a great time!

Tailgating!

I mentioned briefly in my last post that Adam had a fiancee now.  He proposed to Marcia about 3 weeks ago.  He rented a cabin in the mountains, hired a chef to come in and make supper for them and then proposed to her after their meal.   When he told me this I said WOW Adam, you went all out, to which he replied, "She needed a good story".   My boy is big ol' marshmallow romantic!  Marcia is a lucky girl.  Adam is lucky too.  It's obvious they adore each other and we wish them a lifetime of happiness together!

The Cabin in the Mountains

The dinner

The ring!

The Happy Couple!

And on that note I believe I am done.  I could rattle on for another paragraph but I need to make something for supper and then try to get some stitching time in.

Take care till next time!

Julie

Reflections Retreat Recap and an addition to the family

Happy Halloween!

Let me begin by saying that my thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected by Hurricane Sandy.  I am lucky that everyone I know was spared the worst of Sandy's wrath.  I know that the days and weeks to come will not be easy but I also know that we as a people are at our best when things are at their worst.  I pray the road to recovery will be as smooth and as quick as possible.

Meanwhile, back in Nebraska,  things are as dry as they have been all summer.  The weather has turned cool and downright nipply at times.  More so than I would like but we at least have power to keep us warm and our homes are not flooded.

The McConnell house is in it's usual state of home improvement.  Dan has Abby's room painted and will hopefully finish the headboard tonight.  I found one nightstand today while I was out thrifting and hopefully I will find something similar in style sometime soon!  Adam will arrive on Sunday and although I doubt the room will be completely finished, it should at least have a bed in it by then!  

I was away over the weekend at our Falls No Frills Retreat.  We had 27 attend this year which is up from last years 15!  As this is our No Frills Retreat we try to keep it low key and just have a weekend of stitching with friends.  Me, being me, couldn't quite make it entirely no frills though.  Several months back I was at Michaels and spotted some unfinished wood coffins.  I looked at Dan and said, I bet I could do something with those and he said yep, I bet you could!  So we bought 30 of them and hauled them home.  I had a vague idea in the back of my mind but it didn't become fully formed until Connie said something to me about putting a name on the front of the coffin.  After that it was just a question of pulling it all together and figuring out the best way to get the writing on the coffin.  It took Dan and I several false starts but eventually we were able to get a system down and we got them all finished the week before retreat.  Here's what they look like.

Connie added peanut butter eyeballs and gummy body parts to them and we put one on the bed of each person that attended.

I don't have too many pictures to show you from retreat.  My camera battery died and I forgot to pack my spare but here are a few of the ladies enjoying their weekend.

One of the gals that came brought a metal spooky tree that her neighbor welded for her.  It was way cool and many of the ladies wanted one so she took names and email addresses and was going to check with the neighbor to see if he was willing to make more.  Awesome, isn't it?

Cathi does such a good job with her finishing too.  Each item was  perfect!      

We also decided to have an ornament exchange this year.  Only 14 of us participated but it was quite fun and everyone did an amazing job!  Here's a shot of all the ornaments together:

This is the ornament I made:

This is the ornament I received.  Isn't it adorable?  The gal responsible for this one finished it up at 5 o'clock in the morning the day of the exchange!!  Nothing like a bit of procrastination to add to the fun of retreat!

I started 3 projects over the weekend.  Didn't get too far on any of them cuz I was too busy looking at what everyone else was doing and talking.  Lots and lots of talking.

I began the weekend with Peace by A Stitcher's Hands.  I'm stitching it on cream 40 ct linen over one using the tent stitch.  Doesn't look like much but I'm proud of how far I got.  The colors are gorgeous!

Next I worked some on Plum Street Sampler's 2012 Hare's Halloween Freebie.  I'm stitching this one on Picture this Plus 32 ct Dusk using the called for fibers except I am changing the hare color.  My skein of the color for the Hare's is pretty green and I only see green rabbits when I've been drinking too much.  No wait that's 6 foot Pooka Rabbits I see when I drink too much and that's only happened a couple of times.  

And the last project is Strawberry Hill Sampler from With Thy Needle.  I'm doing this one as called for except we didn't have Park City Blend so I had to use 35ct  Abecedarian.

One of the  gals attending Retreat for the first time was also cross stitching for the first time.  Usually Margaret crochets when she comes to our Saturday Stitching.  But she wanted to learn to cross stitch so Connie hung out with her and taught her how to stitch.  I think they both did an awesome job, Connie at teaching and Margaret at learning!  I'm cheating with this picture, Margaret lives across the street from me so I trotted my happy hiney over there tonight and took this picture!     It's a freebie pattern from The Workbasket I believe but don't quote me on that!

One final thought on retreat and then I will move on...Thanks to the staff at Calvin Crest for making us feel so welcome.  Retreat wouldn't be as great as it is without the wonderful facility we stay in and the good food they feed us.  The scones were awesome and I tried Curried chicken for the first time and actually enjoyed it!  Those that know me know what a rare event it is for me to try a new food, much less to like it!  Kudos to you all!  See ya in the Spring!!

And now I would like for you to meet Rags.

Rags is a rescue pup that Dan and I are pretty sure we will be adopting.  She has been staying with us the last couple of days and so far so good.  No dog fights with the other 2 dogs, no love yet either but no fighting is good and we'll take that. Yesterday as I got ready to leave for work I decided to put Rags in the bathroom and put the baby gate up so she could have more room to move around in than she would have in the kennel.  She could also see the other dogs so she wouldn't feel so isolated.  I put her food in there, her water, a chew bone and a blanket, put the gate up and placed her on the other side of the gate, turned around to get my purse off the table and turned back to head to the door and there was Rags, sitting behind me, tail wagging, looking like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth.  I didn't even hear her jump that gate.  Poor Rags was then banished to the kennel for the day.  Silly puppy!

I think that's all I have for today.  Thanks for visiting with me today and take care till next time!

Julie

      

What has been keeping me away

Hey all!

Sorry to have been absent for so long. With both girls moving out this summer, their bedrooms were left a bit empty.   Adam and his fiancee are arriving for a visit in November so we needed to get the rooms fixed up and beds in them.  Wait a minute...did she say fiancee?  Yes indeed I did.  Adam proposed this weekend and Marcia said yes.  No idea when the wedding will be yet.  Anyway, back to the bedroom situation.  We decided to start with Amy's since she actually took her bed with her and the room was empty.  Our plan is to move the double bed Abby left into Amy's room and get a queen set for Abby's so when Adam and Marcia come they can have a queen bed instead of a double. More comfortable that way.  I took some before pics but my camera ate them so I have almost before pics.  Amy had this lovely fuchsia wall in her room.  It was not my favorite.  After much thought, I had my plan in place and we started the transformation.

It was quite a job to paint the woodwork and  the book case white.  Glad Dan was the one doing all the hard labor!  Notice that lovely white and gold fan on the ceiling?  That's gone and replaced with this one.

The room is very hot in the summer as it gets the west sun. I wanted a chandelier but practicality won out.

After the painting was done we addressed the window coverings.  I originally wanted floor to ceiling white drapes for the window but since I am trying to do the rooms on the cheap so to speak, I nixed that idea when I priced them out.  So white sheers were purchased instead but they don't do anything to block the light.  My one big splurge for the room is this blackout cellular shade.  It will help with the heat issue and keep the room nice and dark in the morning.

We hung the sheers next.

I didn't care for them just hanging there.  I wanted a more romantic/cozy look to the window nook so we added in the tie back pieces.

That was much better and then I had a brilliancy!  I remembered the mini chandeliers that Hobby Lobby sells and as it happens they were 50% off that week.  I think it was the perfect touch and Dan thought so too!

For nightstands, I decided to use the two tables that I bought at the thrift store last year.  I think we paid $30.00 for the pair. They've just been hanging out waiting for me to decide what I wanted to do with them.

For this room they needed to be white.

But I wasn't quite happy with them being all white and I didn't think I should shabby them up so instead I added some fabric under the glass tops.

Next came the lamps.  Originally, I bought 2 lamps from Walmart.  But at $22.00 a piece plus the $15.00 for each shade I was thinking that was more than I wanted to spend.  That's when I ran across 2 crystal lamps at the Goodwill and I got them both for $20.00.  Dan sprayed the gold parts silver and re-wired them and after a good cleaning they just sparkled!

But it was hard to see the black lampshade against the black wall.  We tried a white shade but Dan and I both liked the black lampshade with the crystal lamp better than the white.  So I came up with the idea to put a mirror behind each lamp.  Now Dan wasn't really sure he liked that idea.  I had to convince him.  Finding 2 white mirrors for a price I was willing to pay proved fruitless.  Lucky for me a Kirklands opened up last week and I found 2 mirrors for $16.00/piece that when painted up white would work.  They weren't as fancy as I wanted but sometimes you have to sacrifice the image in your head for the reality that suits your pocket book.  

After seeing the mirrors in place Dan gave me a thumbs up.

And finally, here is the bedding that I got for a very good price.  Again, it was not exactly what I wanted but will do for now.  I may eventually replace it down the road with something a bit more sophisticated.   The white piece above the headboard is temporary.  I had it and when I decide what I want up there I will replace it. I'm thinking maybe a ceiling medallion or an ornate oval frame.  I saw one the other day at the thrift store and I should have bought it.  It would have been perfect.  But as Dan says, you snooze you lose and I am sure it will be gone by the time I can get there again.

I pulled some items from around the house to put on the shelves until I find the perfect pieces.

Here's a final look at the room from the hallway.

There is one corner to the right of the door that I have to decide what I want to do.  I was pondering a chair but a chest of drawers is probably more practical.  I'll let you know when I've figured it out.

So Amy's room is now basically finished.  We will be moving on to Abby's room next.  Have the bedding bought, the paint color chosen and I found a queen size headboard and bed frame for $50.00 on Craigslist last week so we have the basics ready to go.  I can't wait to cover up the purple that Abby had on her walls!!!

Take care till next time!

Julie