Wyrd Needles

Halloween House SAL

2012-01-24T20:23:00.000-06:00

Linda at Stitching With My Furbabies is hosting a SAL for Halloween House. It is such a cute design, and Halloween is my favorite holiday, so I just had to join in. :o)

I started it as one of my Crazy January projects on the first Friday in January. I originally put it on 18 count Lambswool linen, over one.

Although I like the way it looks, it was misery to work on. Stitching over one on Lambswool linen just totally stressed me out. And the last thing my stitching is supposed to do is stress me out! So I will frog it and use this piece of linen for one of the monthly cottages I am stitching from Country Cottage Needleworks.

So I restarted it on some pretty green 28 count linen that I bought at the EGA seminar this past September. It is much more fun to stitch on now, and I love the purples and oranges on the green fabric. I spent my entire IHSW on it. Once I got in my groove, I just didn't want to stop. :o)

First TUSAL Post

2012-01-23T21:34:00.000-06:00

It is the first new moon of the year, so it is time for the TUSAL post. For those who don't know what that is, it is the Totally Useless Stitch-A-Long, and you can read all about it here. To participate, you save your orts from new moon to new moon, and add them to your pretty glass container each month. It is a fun way to record progress on projects.

So here is my first ever TUSAL photo:

Just a wee bit o' thread, but I am looking forward to watching my orts fill the vase! :o)

All of these orts have come from my Crazy January starts. As of tonight, I have started all 15 projects. I didn't manage to work on one every day for the first 15 days, but that's okay. They are all started now. I'm working on taking photos of each one. My camera died and I had to get a new one, which I managed to do this weekend. I've just not had the patience to get each project out, take its photo, and put it back, but hopefully by this weekend I will have all the photos done and posted.

Fun Give-Aways

2011-12-20T09:54:00.000-06:00

I have come across a couple of fun give-aways during my blog reading, and I thought I would share them with you, along with the great blogs they are on.

Seasons of My Mind is having a Pay-It-Forward give-away of 12 LHN Christmas Ornament patterns. You can find her give-away on this post.

Stitchers Anon (I love that name!) has a give-away here. Her blog is so positive and uplifting, I enjoyed going back and reading more posts.

So go check them out! :o)

Hermitting Weekend

2011-12-18T21:19:00.000-06:00

This weekend was the last International Hermit & Stitch weekend of 2011, so I took full advantage of it. :o) I stitched on the January Cottage from Country Cottage Needleworks, and it is a very enjoyable stitch. My progress:

I didn't want to quit stitching, but I have to get up and go to work in the morning. At least I have only a 3 day work week next week. :o)

I also worked on kitting up my projects for the 2012 Crazy January Challenge. That is a lot of fun too, and I'm looking forward to starting all of them! As soon as I get them organized, I will be posting about them.

Christmas Tree Grove

2011-12-14T21:45:00.000-06:00

I finished my grove of 40 Christmas Trees right on time last week for our Christmas party. Everyone seemed to really like the, which made me feel very good. :o) They were a lot of fun to make, although I must confess that I did get tired of them after a while. They took me about 4 weeks to make all of them. My husband made the little stands that they are on.

Here they are, cut out and sewn together, ready to be stuffed and put on their stands. I used a sparkly pom pom for the "star" on top of them.

Here they are, my mighty grove! They really looked pretty all together, all sparkly and blinged out.

Some close ups. Aren't the little stands neat? They are precut plaques from Hobby Lobby that my husband drilled holes in, put in a dowel, and then painted. He did a great job!

All boxed up and ready for the trek to my office. :o) (I hand to clean up that corner before I could take this picture.)

And here they are at the party, with the candy bags behind them.

I really am proud that I actually finished them on time without having to work on them all night before the party! LOL It felt very weird last weekend not having a Christmas tree n my hand, beading madly. But I'm glad to be able to get back to my other projects now. :o)

Progress from my Hermitting Weekend

2011-11-22T17:34:00.001-06:00

I got four trees done this weekend, so that is marvelous progress! I have 14 now, but DH didn't get any of my stands made. Sigh...I'm thinking I will have to get the whip out. :o)

Here are my trees from this weekend:

And I thought I would add some furbaby cuteness. Here is my lazy Lacey.

And my ever-happy Flea. I wish I could be as happy as she is all the time!

And His Evilness Himself, the Kitty Baby. He's showing me his belly with all the cute curls, just daring me to rub it. :o)

Hermitting and Stitching Weekend

2011-11-19T07:48:00.001-06:00

This is my first International Hermit and Stitch Weekend (IHSW), and I'm really looking forward to it. As if I needed an excuse to shut out the world and stitch. :o) It's a little cool and cloudy this morning, but we are supposed to have a nice afternoon. I may even take my hermitting outside for a while. :o)

I'm working on my grove of Christmas trees that I volunteered to make as happies for our office Christmas party. At my office, we have a "Gift Fund" that you can be a part of if you want to participate in birthdays, sending flowers for illnesses, and the Christmas party, and I am on the committee that plans all that this year. I thought it would be nice to have a better happy for the Christmas party than some cheap little thing from the dollar store, so I showed my fellow committee members a little handmade Christmas tree to see if they liked it. And they did, so I committed myself to making 40 of them. But they are really fun to make. I have 12 beaded so far. Here is my grove this morning.

I will be working hard on my trees this weekend. When finished, they will be on little stands and be about 6 or 7 inches tall. DH is helping me with the stands. Hopefully by the end of the weekend I will have a finished one to share!

We had our office sponsered Thanksgiving dinner yesterday. Everyone who wanted to participate brought a dish or contributed to the turkey. Then we brought our food back to our desks to eat. I eat with my office buddies in one of my friend's cubicles because she has a work table in her cube. I decided we should be festive, and her favortie color is pink, so I decorated our dinner table. :o)

And here we are enjoying our Thanksgiving dinner together. That's me on the right.

I am very thankful for these ladies, as they are good friends and make work a lot of fun! :o)

Happy IHSW everyone!

HAED progress

2011-11-10T08:38:00.002-06:00

I have worked on my HAED, All Hallows Eve, this past week. I am really close to having the first page of the pattern done! Since there are only 6 1/2 pages to this design, I'm very encouraged by that progress. :o)

I really wanted to keep working on it until I finished this page, but I have to put it aside for now. I volunteered to make the little gifts for our office Christmas party. I'm going to make little felt Christmas trees that are decorated with embroidery and beads. As soon as I have one done, I will post a picture. I have to make 40 of them by 12/2, so I have to get crackin'!

Fun Holiday Contest

2011-11-08T08:02:00.001-06:00

One of the blogs I follow, 1 Billion 2 Go, is having a fun holiday contest. She is multi-craftual ;o) and her blog posts are always a fun read. So go check out her blog, and enter her contest!

My Oldest UFO

2011-11-01T17:50:00.001-06:00

EvalinaMaria of This and That blog has posted an invite to do an Oldest UFO SAL. She has challenged her readers to dig out their oldest UFO to stitch on and post their progress on the last day of the month. Sounds like fun, doesn't it?

So I dug through my boxes of projects (6 very big boxes...sigh) to see if I could tell which was my oldest UFO. Now in my defense, not every project in the boxes has been started, so they aren't all UFOs. A lot of them aren't started at all, so technically they are stash. Hmmm...I wonder if that makes it better or worse? Anyways, I found ~~an old~~ a vintage Aunt Martha mushroom pattern that I started a very, very long time ago. When I picked it up, I had a flashback to sitting in my mom's living room with her and my aunt, talking about stitching the mushrooms to go in my mom's kitchen, and picking out colors. I was about 15 or 16, because this was before I started working at the Pizza Hut. That makes this UFO 33 or 34 years old. OMG Now I feel really old.

Here it is, complete, with yellowed masking tape around the edge and rust spots because I left the needle in the fabric.

I was going to make a set for my mom. Here are the other two pieces that were folded up with the one I started all those eons ago.

And look at the price on the threads at the bottom. 10 cents! And the brand is American Thread Co.

Yeah, I'm definitely feeling a little vintage myself right now.

So how old is YOUR oldest UFO?

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T19:22:00.001-06:00

I cannot believe it is already the end of October. Where did the year go? And I haven't blogged since January! Whoops! :o)

I have been stitching a lot, but not finishing anything. That means I have been making lots of new beginnings, which I am so good at! I am actually concentrating on three projects right now, so I thought I would post pictures of what I am working on.

I went to EGA's national seminar in September, and was able to take a class with Jane Nicholas, who is one of my all time favorite embroidery designers. She specializes in stumpwork. The class I took with her is called Wild Pea and Longhorn Moth. I just love it, and it is going to have the honor of being the very first seminar piece that I finish! :o)

Here is where I am at now:

These are parts of the main flower waiting to be attached and the other pea pod I have started:

And these are leaves that are ready to be attached:

The pretty ribbon will be the border around the piece. Jane had us do a little practice piece so we would remember how to do it when the time came to add the border. I HOPE I remember, anyways! :o)

I am working on my very first Heaven and Earth Design, called All Hallow's Eve (click if you would like to see it). It is one of their freebies. The following represents a couple of weeks worth of work. What you are seeing is the beginning of the moon. I very naively thought I would have this finished before Halloween. Not! :o)

And finally, I have also been working on a piece from an online Gay Ann Rogers class I took, called Echoes of Elizabeth Sewing Case. Here is where I am now; this is the front and back of the case. I still have to stitch the inside of the case.

I have a sad tale to go with my needle case. :o( Last night I started putting the beads on the side where you see the rectangle bead and the two little pearls. To me, beading on my needlework is like icing on the cake. It is my favorite part! So I start putting my beads on, sitting on the couch in my stitching nest, with my bead tray on a TV tray beside me. I lean over to tend to a dog, my knee hits the TV tray, and bead tray and pearls go flying. I let out a shriek that would raise the dead and scared my poor husband. So I'm fussing, swearing, wringing hands, and lamenting, on my hands and knees searching for my pearls. I find all but one. One lone, lost little pearl. I swept the whole floor, I moved furniture, I picked up the rug, I patted down furbabies...no pearl. And of course this was a kit and I had only 8 pearls of this size, no spares. So I will be making a trip to our bead store to see if I can find one to match. If not, I will be figuring out another arrangement of my pearls. :o(

Well, I hope you all have had a Happy Halloween! I will leave you with a photo of the Witch in residence at my house.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN AND BLESSED SAMHAIN!!

Castles in the Air

2011-01-09T16:49:00.002-06:00

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them. (Henry David Thoreau)

This is the inspirational quote on my calendar at work for the month of January. It has really touched something deep inside of me, and I have been thinking about all my castles I have built in the air.

First, let me tell you, I am a MASTER air castle builder. I can dream big with the best of them. What I have a problem with is following through on those dreams and actually accomplishing something. I tend to defeat myself before I even begin. So this will be the year I start to put foundations under some of my castles in the air.

As part of this process, I have been thinking about which of my castles I should begin foundation construction on. My health and my needlework are both near and dear to my heart, and I have decided to work on these areas.

I have already begun working on my health, and I use SparkPeople to set my healthy goals, including watching what I eat and exercising more. I am using Weight Watchers' Points Plus program to bring my weight down into a healthier range.

So that leaves my needlework. One of the things I want to become better at is finishing my projects. I start far more projects than I finish. So my overall goal for 2011 is to finish more projects than I start. I have looked through my WIPs and UFOs, and I have come up with a list to start off with. All of these pieces except one have due dates, so hopefully setting weekly goals and blogging my progress will help me meet these due dates.

1. Pilot for an ANG Chapter Book Project, due 3/15 (in process)
2. EGA retired GCC - White Queen, due 8/15 (in process)
3. EGA retired GCC - Swiss Sampler, due 8/15 (not started)
4. EGA retired GCC - Tiramisu, due 9/15 (not started)
5. EGA GCC - Silk Ribbon Pond, due 6/15 (not started)
6. Echoes of Elizabeth Sewing Case (in process)

I am also working on a Block-A-Month crocheted afghan through Ravelry, and I would love to be able to keep up with that each month. I have started the January block.

I am going to concentrate on the ANG Chapter Book project this week. My goals in minutes are:

ANG Chapter Book Project - 315 minutes
January block - 140 minutes

Setting my goal for exercise in minutes works for me to motivate me to exercise every day, so we shall see how it works for my needlework projects. Hopefully I will have progress to report next Sunday!

Sketchbook Project 2011

2010-05-28T11:01:00.003-05:00

I am participating in a very fun project - the Sketchbook Project 2011. They send the participants a sketchbook, the participant signs up for a theme and then fills the sketchbook with art interpreting that theme. The theme I chose is Under the Surface. I have lots of ideas swirling around in my little brain, and I'm really looking forward to doing this. :o) I have also enticed a couple of co-workers to do this with me, and I'm hoping my very talented daughter signs up too.

Winter Storm 2010

2010-02-12T08:03:00.006-06:00

I just love the dire names our newspeople give to our weather events. We are experiencing "Winter Storm 2010" today here in Jackson MS according to our local news media. :o)

Actually, it is coming down pretty heavy right now, and we have about 4 inches accumulated so far. It is beautiful! And I didn't have to go to work, which makes it even better for me! A four day weekend, woo hoo!! Lots of time to stitch!

Evil Kitty Baby was not impressed by the snow. In fact, he was quite put out with it.

I did remind him that he started out life as a wild cat, and he lives the cushy life of a domestic cat only because he allowed Megan to catch him when he was a little kitten. Therefore, he should put his big boy cat panties on and get out there in the snow. He gave me his Evil Kitty Baby stare, shook his tail at me, and stalked back into the house.

Honey is my little snow dog. She has such thick fur, the cold doesn't phase her a bit!

Of course the fact that it was up to her chin did not make her too happy. Flea, little thin blooded chihuahua mix that she is, wants nothing to do with this cold white stuff. She is buried under the covers in bed. Lacey, being much taller, had no problems with the snow.

When it got a little lighter outside, I snapped some beautiful photos. I can see several of them as inspiration for my needlework. :o)

I have been keeping to my 210 minutes per week stitching goal. I will be making a progress report with photos later. I'm off now to gather my puppies into a warm and cozy puppy pile on the couch and stitch, stitch, stitch!

2010 Stitching Goals

2010-01-15T09:05:00.002-06:00

I was so excited about finishing EGA Girl on time, that I went through my WIPs, prioritized them with due dates, and made stitching goals for the first half of the year. I really want to give my stitching a greater priority in my life, which means spending less time putzing around on the internet. I want more finished projects and fewer WIPs and UFOs languishing in my craft room.

I have made it my goal to stitch 210 minutes for the next week, which is an average of 30 minutes per day. That seems very doable to me. I'm hoping that I will actually find more stitching time. If I do, then I am going to increase my stitching time goal for each week. But I first want to see how much time I can easily spend stitching, because I don't want to feel pressured by that goal.

My project list for January through June is quite ambitious. We shall see how it goes!

Soldier Kissing Pillows, 1 per week, 30 pillow tops through 6/30/10
EGA Spadefish Stitching Challenge, due 2/15/10
City & Guild Stumpwork Course Lesson 1, due 2/28/10
EGA Crewel Mastercraftsman Program Step 1, due 4/1/10
EGA GCC Shading Stitches, due 4/25/10
EGA GCC Plum Blossoms, due 5/1/10
Biscornus, 10 due 5/1/10
MS NeedleArts Logo for EGA Banner, due 5/15/10
ANG CyberWorkshop Gathered In, due 6/30/10
ANG Mystery Stitch of the Month, monthly

Whew, that seems to be a lot of stitching! My eyes may be promising more than my fingers can deliver! LOL But we shall see where 210 stitching minutes per week gets me. If I start to feel overwhelmed, I will change my goals around.

I am off to stitch! :o)

EGA Girl

2010-01-13T16:34:00.003-06:00

I have had the privilege of stitching on a national Embroidery Guild project, and I am so thrilled! I finished my part of it today.

I stitched the hat. The beret is stitched with black pearl cotton in the woven stitch, and the stripes are stitched in raised stem stitch with bronze Kreinik braid. This piece is the largest project I have ever worked on, and the hardest part was finding a stand that would hold her so I could work comfortably on her! I ended up using my Japanese Embroidery stand. The thing I am most proud of is that I finished her on time! :o)

Snow Pictures

2009-12-05T08:12:00.006-06:00

I got up early this morning so I could get some snow pictures before it melted. It had pretty much stopped snowing by the time I went to bed, so we only got a very light snow. I'm watching the weather channel, and Georgia is getting our snow now. Virginia is also getting its first snow of the winter too, according to TWC. I really love snow, probably because I live in Mississippi where we don't get any snow and don't have to deal with all of the problems it can cause. As I sit here typing this, I am watching the snow melt and fall out of the trees.

So here is our snow for 2009!

I did get a picture last night in the dark -

Here is our world this morning. The front of my house -

The pond -

And my back yard -

All that talk of snow all day yesterday put me in the holiday mood, so on my way home from work I stopped and got some rum and egg nog, and we put up the tree as the snow came down. What a wonderful start to December!!

Snowing!

2009-12-04T22:10:00.001-06:00

Here it is the first part of December, and we are getting snow! I'm just so excited. I went outside in the dark and cold just to watch it come down. The world just seems so quiet when it is snowing. And I love the sound it makes when it crunches under your feet.

I love snow! I will go out in the morning and take pictures. Woo hoo!

Baby Snake outsmarts the Boy

2009-07-12T14:57:00.003-05:00

Megan's boyfriend Billy, aka the Boy (who's really not a boy, he's 24), found a baby snake when he was pulling grass out of the "garden." It is just a teeny, tiny little thing. Of course, my first question to him was did he know what kind it was, being just a little concerned that it might be a poisonous snake, but he just shrugged. So since he wasn't going into some kind of seizure or writhing in pain on the ground from being bitten, I assume it is not a poisonous one. :o)

The little snake really wasn't happy to be held by some great big human. First, he pooped all over Billy's hand. That made Billy put him down, but then he decided to pick him back up to take a picture with his cell phone to send to his friend. Evidently the little fella REALLY wasn't happy to find himself back in the hand of a great big human, because all of a sudden he appears to go into a seizure. He starts writhing around and curls himself into a snake knot, then he opens his mouth, lets his tongue fall out, and collapses like he is dead. Now I'm upset that Billy killed the baby snake, Billy is upset that he killed the baby snake, and his friend is on the phone going, dude, how did you kill the snake (he's talking so loud I can hear him)?

So Billy hangs up, and we are looking sadly at the poor little dead baby snake, when it all of a sudden unknots itself and slides under some bark to hide. I start laughing, pointing out to Billy that the baby snake outsmarted him, but he didn't see the humour in that. But I must confess, it was a very convincing performance, right down to the teeny-weeny little tongue hanging out the side of his mouth. :o)

Here is a picture of the little fellow. I uncovered him so I could take a picture of this emmy award-winning baby snake.

My finger is resting on the ground beside him to give his size some perspective. I'm not sure what kind of snake he is; I'm thinking maybe a king snake. I warned him about Evil Kitty Baby, so hopefully he will elude the master hunter and not fall into his claws.

Fabric painting, sewing, and stitching

2009-07-10T10:55:00.006-05:00

Last Monday I did some gel printing on fabric using house paint and leaves and feathers. Thank you Rhonda for demonstrating this technique with house paint!

First I practiced on some paper.

Then I printed on my fabric. I like the way both the paper and fabric turned out. Now I'm mulling over some ideas for more gel printing.

I also finished my quilt squares for the beginning quilt class I am taking through the MS Craftsman's Guild. I really love how they turned out, and I can't wait to see my finished quilt! :o)

This is my Shoo Fly square:

This is my Sawtooth Star square:

And this is my Log Cabin square:

I'm now working on the fourth square, which is a hand appliqued heart. What I found very interesting about my class is that we all included some form of green in our color scheme, even though the color schemes and prints chosen by my class mates are all very different. Green seems to be the unifying color! :o)

One of the groups I'm in on the stitchin fingers Ning group is redoing Sharon Boggan's Take a Stitch on Tuesday (TAST). They just started back up with Week 27, which is the bullion stitch. So I joined in, because it is always good to practice different stitches, plus I'm hoping to learn some new ones. Here is my bullion sampler. I used Heathway crewel yarn and Edmar rayon thread.

June - A Busy Fiber Month!

2009-07-05T08:55:00.005-05:00

June was a very busy month for me. The June Gathering for the Mississippi Quilt Association was the first weekend in June, TVR's Share-A-Stitch XXIX was the third weekend, and I also started a beginning quilting class. I had a wonderful June!

My poor dogs had a kind of tough June though. They are never sick, but all three of them came down with kennel cough. Kennel cough is a very infectious respiratory disease in dogs; usually they catch it when they are in large groups such as at dog shows. All I can figure is that Lacey brought it home from the vet's office when she had her teeth cleaned. All three had a terrible sounding cough, and poor Flea ran a fever. They had to be on antibiotics, and Honey (who had the worse cough) was given some cough medicine. It was Hydrocodone, which is the same kind I get prescribed when I have a cough (I even had to get it from the drug store). So I know how sleepy and out of it it makes me, and it did the same thing to Honey!

This was the only reaction I got when I snapped these pictures right in her face. Poor high baby. LOL

I took a hand applique class from Dorothea Hoffman at the June MQA Gathering. She was a wonderful, very laid-back teacher, and it was a great class! She showed us some of her applique quilts, and they are all so beautiful. Then we all set about cutting out flowers, leaves, and a flower pot to make our own small applique wall hanging. Here is mine, taken shortly after the class.

Please note the flowerpot - it is made of some of my rust-dyed fabric. :o) I am getting close to finishing it, and I plan to add some embroidered accents and beads to it. When it is finished I will post another picture.

I took a Silk and Metal class from Sandy Rodgers at SAS XXIX, which is the regional seminar of the Tennessee Valley Region of the Embroidery Guild of America. She is an absolutely fantastic teacher! If you ever have an opportunity to take a class from her, I highly recommend you do! Not only did she teach us techniques, but she lectured quite a bit on the techniques, which I found just fascinating. I am new to metal embroidery, and she made it seem very easy. I intend to finish this piece this year, so it is staying out with my other WIPs. :o)

The silver leaves were painted with a paint pen. That was a fun technique, and I plan on using it again in other projects.

The Mississippi Craftsman Guild had a fun July 4th day yesterday. Several of the members were doing demonstrations. I really enjoyed watching the wood carving and wood turning. Wood turning is almost hypnotic to me. The man demonstrating the wood turning gave me a little wooden acorn he made while I watched.

It is made of Purple Heart wood, which is a tree that grows in the rainforest of South America. The wood is a beautiful purple color, which doesn't show very well in my photos. The grain in this wood is beautiful.

He had a bunch of walnut shavings on his table. I thought they looked very interesting, and would make cool additions to some fiber art. When I asked him for a handful, he got a bag and gave me all of them! Aren't they pretty (this is just a little bit)?

Then Billy shot fireworks for us in the evening. That is always fun. So although it was just way too hot, I didn't hibernate in the air conditioning as I tend to do during our steamy summers, but still had a very good day! LOL I have Monday off, so I have two wonderful stitching days ahead of me. This is the way EVERY month should start! :o)

My Mandala

2009-06-01T21:41:00.004-05:00

On Saturday I went to a class on drawing mandalas at a local shop, P is for Primitive, which is a really cool folk art, antique, and gourmet food shop. Lisanne is a fabulous rug hooker who designs rugs and teaches rug hooking. She is also a fabulous cook, and one of the definite perks about taking classes at her shop are the wonderuf lunches she always serves! :o)

The mandala class was given by Stacy Wills, an artist who rents a studio above P is for Primitive. Her site is called A Magic Mom & Her Mandalas, and they are just beautiful - check the link out. :o) The class was wonderful! She gave a great lecture on the history and different kinds of mandalas. She went to see the Tibetan monks who created a sand mandala when they visited Millsaps, and she talked about what a wonderful experience that was. I would have loved to have seen them! Then we got to tour her studio and see some of her art in person. She also showed us some of her favorite paints, glittery glues, and other really cool artsy stuff. :o) After the delicious lunch served by Lisanne, we drew our own mandalas and started decorating and coloring them. We also got to experiment with making mandalas out of colored sand.

I just finished my first mandala. I really enjoyed creating it, and I find the whole process quite addictive. I am already looking forward to creating my next one! There is something so freeing and meditative about creating them. The mind just seems to float unfettered as the hands work. I think it is just amazing how pleasing our eyes and brains find these geometric creations.

So here is my first mandala.

And here it is shifted just a bit.

Cool, huh? I love it! :o)

Playing with fabric

2009-05-31T20:58:00.004-05:00

Today in my art quilt group we did some fabric painting. We were working with gel plates, but mine was just too mushy to give good prints. It did do some cool texture in the paint though.

This second one is my favorite.

Then I tried just rolling paint on the stamps, and that was fun too.

I really enjoy my art quilt group. I'm learning so much, and it is just such fun to see what all can be done with and to fabric.

I have also been doing some rust dyeing. I think they all turned out pretty.

Rust dyeing is so easy, and the patterns it makes on the fabric is cool. I think it is addictive. :o) I need some more rusty things!

Good morning on a cool, rainy MS morning

2009-05-23T08:04:00.004-05:00

This is the way (Evil) Kitty Baby starts out on a rainy Saturday morning. Don't you just love the way cats nap? :o) It looks like he may spend the whole Memorial Day Holiday weekend here, because the weatherman says it will be rainy all weekend long. Oh well, I wanted to stitch and sew this weekend anyways.

I am stitching on Moonlight Sonata, an EGA correspondence course I am taking through CyberStitchers. I am having a little trouble with my counting skills, however. I have had to take out and redo more stitches than I have had to do in a long time. I guess all the time spent with my surface embroidery projects has made the counting part of my brain lazy. Well, it needs to wake up! LOL

I have discovered art quilts, and now I am adding a whole new world of stitching to my needlework love. Not that I haven't been aware of quilts, both traditional and art, in the past, I just have concentrated on embroidery. So I seem to be diving headlong into quilting. I am taking a class on fabric protraits from Quilt University.

So this

plus this
is going to (hopefully) become a fabric portrait of my daughter.

Off to find some nourishment now. :o)

Star Trek movie

2009-05-19T21:56:00.003-05:00

I went and saw the Star Trek movie, and it was absolutely great! Fantastic! Wonderful! Can you tell I really enjoyed it? :o)

I am a die-hard Trekkie from way back, and although hopeful, I was prepared for a fail with this movie, but it did not disappoint, not one little bit. I love that the actors all looked like youthful versions of the originals, and even managed to get their mannerisms down. Now I'm ready for a new Star Trek series - Star Trek Alternate Universe! Woo hoo!

Live Long and Prosper!

Happy Birthday to Me! :o)

2009-05-17T21:48:00.004-05:00

Today is my birthday, and I had a lovely, quiet, contemplative day.

I decided to attempt to make my mom's chocolate cake for my birthday cake. Megan assisted. :o) Actually, it was the first time in her whole 21 1/2 years that she had ever witnessed a cake made from scratch, as opposed to made from a box. My mom's chocolate cake was the best ever rich, yummy chocolate sheet cake. It turned out okay, not as good as I remembered from when my mom made it, but not a total fail either. I will have to work on it.

There are pecans on only half because not all of my people like pecans and they whined when I told them they could pick them off. I mean, come on people, whose birthday cake was this?? Sigh...the things I do for my little and not-so-little peeps. :o)

Then, since I was evidently in a baking mood, I made my mom's peanut butter cookies. They are so yummy!

I felt close to my mom as I made these things from her recipes. It was a comforting thing to do on my birthday.

And then came the best part of cleaning up...

Yum! Yum! cookie dough!

I had an audience, just in case some wild cookie dough jumped out and landed on the floor. My ever vigilent pups, willing to risk life and limb and throw their bodies on that dangerous stuff to protect their mom!

And lest you think I haven't been stitching because of the lack of needlework pictures, here is my latest finish. It is Brazilean Dimensional Embroidery, and was a lot of fun. I haven't decided what I will do with it yet, but I think I might make a little sachet with it.

What more could a girl ask for on her birthday, chocolate, fiber, and fur babies? :o)

I have a tatoo!

2009-05-16T11:38:00.003-05:00

I have been talking for a long time about how I would like to get a tatoo. My daughter has several, and they are all so pretty. She also has multiple piercings. I really admire her free spirit, because I don't think I would have the confidence to carry all that off! Plus I work in business, where they kind of frown on personal expressions like that.

Megan has been encouraging me to go ahead and get a tatoo, but I have just been waffling and dithering about it. So for my birthday, she bought me one. :o) Her friend Ahza, who really does beautiful work, did it for me. I picked out a lotus with an om symbol on the middle petal, and Megan got one just like it the back of her neck. Mine is on my shoulder.

It didn't hurt at all, which surprised me. I was expecting pain, lots of pain. :o) Now that I have one, I just might get another one! :o)

Proud of my baby!

2009-05-01T07:59:00.003-05:00

Megan won First Place in the oil paintings AND Best of Show for the Hinds Community College Student Show. Her picture and a little blurb about her is on Hinds' website. The painting on the left is the one that won Best of Show. I just love her evil grin. LOL

We got snow!

2008-12-14T07:04:00.006-06:00

We got snow this past Thursday! It was quite exciting, because we just don't get snow in Mississippi this far south very often, especially before January. Normally we are still in shorts at this time of the year. And the strange thing is, areas farther south than us got even more snow. According to the news, Florence, a little town about 10 miles south of Jackson, got almost a foot of snow! Although I did talk to someone who lives in Florence, and she said she only got about 6 inches. Still! That's a lot of snow for us! LOL

At my house, Thursday morning started out with rain...a lot of rain. Then the temperature started dropping, so the rain changed to sleet and we started getting ice on our cars. Ice is not good! We do get ice here, and it always causes major problems. Ice was not what I wanted!

But then, fortunately for us, the sleet switched over to snow. Big fat white snowflakes! I was so excited! I grabbed my camera and out I went to celebrate the beautiful snowiness.

See what I mean about all the rain we got? The water is gushing up from the manhole thing over our sewer lines. I just refuse to believe that is sewer water though, in spite of what my husband says. I just believe it is run off rain water.

This is another one of those man hole sewer things, in the middle of some bushes. I thought it was cool - it looked like a waterfall in the middle of the woods.

The pond was flooding too!

The normal bank is on the other side of the grasses.

The other bridge had a raging torrent under it, almost ready to go over it. I thought it was quite exciting. :o)

And the path to the other pond was totally under water.

Look at those big fat snowflakes! And how fast they were coming down too! They weren't drifting lazily, they were coming down like rain.

Here is my house, all purtefied with the snow on the roof. :o)
And me, little snow bunny that I am. LOL

Unfortunately, not long after I took these pictures, the snow changed back to rain. And it rained and sleeted all afternoon, so it turned all of our beautiful snow into icey slush. I was very happy to remain inside knitting, cuddled up with my dogs and kitty baby.

The temperature continued to drop way down into the 20s Thursday night, so Friday morning we got up to ice. Even our pond ended up with a thin coating of ice, which I thought was very unusual. Just in the shallow parts though, the deeper parts didn't have any ice.

We got up to 50 on Friday, and it was 50 and sunny yesterday, so everything is gone now. And today we are supposed to get up to 65. Just gotta love our crazy southern weather!

What Tarot Card Am I?

2008-09-19T17:31:00.003-05:00

I love tarot cards, and I have quite a few decks. I love looking at the different ways artists have interpreted the cards. I also enjoy studying them. So when I saw this test, I thought it was a lot of fun. :o)

You are The Moon

Hope, expectation, Bright promises.

The Moon is a card of magic and mystery - when prominent you know that nothing is as it seems, particularly when it concerns relationships. All logic is thrown out the window.

The Moon is all about visions and illusions, madness, genius and poetry. This is a card that has to do with sleep, and so with both dreams and nightmares. It is a scary card in that it warns that there might be hidden enemies, tricks and falsehoods. But it should also be remembered that this is a card of great creativity, of powerful magic, primal feelings and intuition. You may be going through a time of emotional and mental trial; if you have any past mental problems, you must be vigilant in taking your medication but avoid drugs or alcohol, as abuse of either will cause them irreparable damage. This time however, can also result in great creativity, psychic powers, visions and insight. You can and should trust your intuition.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

No way to treat needlework!

2008-08-15T18:35:00.004-05:00

This is a piece of crewel work that I did for my mom when I was around 14 or 15...if I'm honest I would admit that was 31 years ago. Ouch...I would rather not do THAT math! LOL You can click on any of the pictures to see a bigger image.

Anyways, some of the wool has deteriorated and come loose, so I decided that I would take it apart and redo it. I was just horrified when I took the back off. This is a piece that my mom had professionally framed, and it is very obvious the framers knew NOTHING about framing needlework. This horrid foam stuff was under the embroidery and was glued to a piece of cardboard.

Then the embroidery was glued to the cardboard.

Then nailed with these nails, many of which are rusted.

Look at all this damage from the glue and rust. What a mess!

I am going to take all of the yarn out and wash the material. Fortunately it is some kind of heavy material. I hope I can get all the yuck out. If not, at least there is enough material that I can cut off the damaged part.

This just goes to reinforce the good advice to make sure any framer you take needlework to knows what to do with it! We put way too much of ourselves into our precious pieces for them to be treated like this piece was. :o(

Busy, busy me :o)

2008-08-13T22:58:00.004-05:00

I have been crafting, gluing, stitching, and embroidering up a storm lately. :o) I have several things to share with you.

I finished the embroidery for the Cottage Tree basket. I am in the process of putting it all together, but here are pictures of the finished embroidery.

This is a closeup of the cottage. It will be the top of the basket.

This will be the pin cushion...

The scissor case...

And the scissor fob...

I finished my Sunflower collage that I started during the Brett Barker workshop. I think it will make a very cool art quilt, and I have a definite vision in my head. This is the plan I will be working from. I went to kinkos and blew this up to 24 inches long. We shall see how it turns out. :o)

And I also made this cute little goddess doll the first of the month. She was lots of fun to make, but I am going to have to enlarge my pattern if I make some more. Her arms and torso are too small; it was very difficult to turn and then stuff her. But I love her, and Megan has claimed her. :o)

This is her front...
And this is her back...

Much fiber fun!

What kind of flower am I?

2008-08-12T00:35:00.000-05:00

I am a
Daffodil

What Flower
Are You?

You have a sunny disposition and are normally one of the first to show up for the party. You don't need too much attention from the host once you get there as you are more than capable of making yourself seen and heard.

Fearless Composition Workshop

2008-08-09T09:45:00.006-05:00

I attended a workshop through the Mississippi Quilt Association by Brett Barker called Fearless Composition. I had a great time, and I learned a lot.

We started off by using India inks and different tools to paint paper. I used various paint brushes, a wooden stick, a feather, and some sponges. It was such fun. I am going to try painting fabric using these inks too.

Then we cut out some kimono shapes and some rectangle shapes our of our paper.

This is my favorite rectangle. It makes me think of two moons over two mountains. I may have to do something else with this.

After we cut our our shapes, we had to choose one of our kimonos and interpret it with fabric. We glued the fabric to paper.

I used strings for skinny stripes, and it about drove me nuts because I had glue all over my fingers and the string wanted to stick to me instead of the paper. :o)

The next day we took our picture we brought several copies of and used it to make a collage. I had a picture of a sunflower. After we made our paper collage, the next task was to interpret it with fabric. It took me a while to wrap my head around using fabric to make the picture. I am so used to thinking in terms of thread and stitch techniques, my brain had to adjust to using blocks of fabric. Again, we glued the fabric onto our foundation.

I am having a lot of fun with this. I can see beads, stitching, and other embellishments on some of these pieces as I place them. I have already changed it up just a little, as I went fabric shopping and added some new fabrics. :o) I plan on finishing my sample and working it up into an art quilt.

We had a show and tell in the afternoon. Rhonda brought a lot of her gorgeous art quilts. I really love her work. Her friend Dorinda had lovely traditional quilts. I met a very nice lady from Brookhaven (where Mark and I are from, an hour south of Jackson), and she brought some pictures of her beautiful work. She had some landscape quilts that I just loved. Another lady had some beautiful paintings as well as quilts. I enjoyed looking at everyone's stuff. :o)

Brett is a very nice lady, and I really enjoyed taking this workshop from her. I am so glad I didn't get the job with Blue Cross, because then I would have missed this workshop. It all worked out for the best. :o)

I am a Goddess :o)

2008-07-31T22:01:00.004-05:00

Isn't my Goddess avatar just too cute? I love it! Grian at Panthea put this on her blog. You can go in to Panthea's Create-A-Goddess and create your own Goddess avatar. It's a lot of fun! I think she looks just like me. :o)

Weigh-In update - I forgot to mention that at my weigh in on Tuesday night I had lost another two pounds. That makes 13 in all! Woo-hoo! I'm so very happy about that! :o)

Finished Crewel Choices

2008-07-30T08:11:00.005-05:00

I finally finished Crewel Choices on Friday and got it stretched out. I will be taking our projects to the post office today to send to Judy Jeroy for evaluations. I'm very happy to be finished! :o)

Now I'm working on Cherry Tree Cottage basket, because I would like to be able to use it at the seminar the first week of September. Then next I have to work on the embroidered bear I agreed to pilot stitch.

I got home yesterday afternoon from the dentist to find visitors waiting in the yard. Evidently, they thought I should provide a snack for them.

They were just too cute to resist. I ran inside and got some bread and my camera. While tearing the bread for them, I dropped some crumbs on my toes and got nibbled on. :o) I really wanted to pet them, but when I tried to get too friendly they took their leave from me.

Megan went to a dance thing Saturday night put on by the local SCA. One of the requirements (other than your money) was that you come in costume. I think she looks beautiful.

I love the way she poses. :o)

Gentle Yoga Teacher Rissa

2008-07-23T12:28:00.003-05:00

Rissa taught the gentle yoga class today, and it was great! :o) I really enjoyed the class. She is a natural-born teacher, whether it is computer stuff, spinning, needlework, bellydancing, or yoga. Okay, I'm going to toot my friend's horn just a bit, even though she will pooh-pooh me. :o) She has so many talents, gifts, and skills, it is amazing. Everything she turns her attention to, she becomes an expert at. And she freely shares all her knowledge, all you have to do is ask. And a more humble person I have never known. I am so grateful to call her my friend. :o)

Anyways, in the gentle yoga class we used a chair to support and help keep our balance. I got a lot of really good stretching in, without having to worry about falling over. LOL I am finally getting to a place where I actually enjoy doing yoga poses. But the most useful thing I have learned is it is okay to come out of a pose when your body tells you to, whether the teacher releases the class out of the pose or not. That way I don't end up in tears and hating the my body, the class, the teacher, and yoga in general. I have learned my limits and how to GENTLY stretch them.

On the employment front, I heard back from Blue Cross on Monday. Although I scored very high on the tests, evidently BC has decided that rehiring former employees is not a good thing. So I am ineligible to apply for a job with them. Oh well. I guess that means I will be going to school with Megan this fall. Although hearing that BC didn't want me was just a little upsetting to my little ego, it makes me very happy that I will be going to school with Megan for one more semester. :o)

Sometimes I think too much

2008-07-17T12:12:00.003-05:00

Well, I may be going back to work sooner than I want to. I sent my resume to Blue Cross for a couple of positions they have open, and they responded back already. I was kinda hoping the jobs had already been filled. :o)

The good thing is, both jobs actually sound interesting to me. The bad thing is I wanted to wait until September to go back to work. But, I happened to look on their website, and the jobs are available now. So I had a telephone screening yesterday, and I will go take the personality test thing tomorrow. If I pass that, they will interview me. I do intend to go to national seminar over labor day week. I will discuss that with them, IF I get a job offer.

But now to the thinking too much problem....I thought myself into a mini-depression because I really, really wanted to take more art classes with Megan this fall semester. I can always take an art class later, but not with my daughter. I had a blast last semester in class with her. So I got up all depressed this morning, and there was Mark, sitting on the couch. I added anger to my depression. I got all mad at Mark. I know that is an irrational thing, but there you have it. I am mad at him because I have to go back to work. I know it's not his fault, but I'm mad at him anyways.

So, in tears, all sad and mad (with Mark asking, "what's the matter? are you mad at me?," which only makes it worse - makes me want to punch him in the face), I got dressed to go take a Pace Group exercise class at the Y. The pace exercise was actually fun! You go from exercise station to station. The stations alternate a different weight machine with either a step or a kind of bouncy platform, and you only have to stay on each one 40 seconds. I really enjoyed it, and the other ladies there were discussing Jackson's mayor, and all the political, legal, ethical, and moral trouble he is in, and that was interesting in a train wreck kind of way. LOL By the time the class was over, I was sweaty and tired, and my mood was much, much better. I guess what they say about exercise being good for your mental and emotional state really is true. :o) I feel much better now.

I had a visitor in my yard the other day. I took this picture from my studio window.

Isn't he cute? I love the little wild rabbits running around here. They really are fun to watch. They make me smile, even when I think too much. :o)

Bringing Width and Depth to My life

2008-07-12T09:58:00.004-05:00

I am using Spark People, a diet community, to help me in my effort to change my lifestyle. I receive perky little messages and recipes through my email from the site. The one for today really touched me.

“You can't do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth. Shira Tehrani

Life is like a marathon. We run and run, not knowing where (or how far) the finish line lies. We focus so intensely on prolonging the race but sometimes--despite our best efforts--the race is cut short. Too often we don't relish the path of and enjoy the details instead of just pounding the pavement of life. What personal boundaries can you expand to help you enjoy your life? Today meditate on the simple joys: a warm bath, reading a book to a sleepy toddler, or spending quality time with your family and friends. All of life contains bumps in the road such as losing your job or an unforeseen illness. But it is up to us to determine the quality of our lives. Remember, we don't always determine the distance, but we can determine the path."

To me, it’s saying you don't necessarily know how long you will live, so you shouldn't worry about that. Instead you should focus on the here and now, today, and enjoy it to its fullest, and live the healthiest that you can.

It also makes me think about not just focusing on the end of my journey, or reaching my goals. Like my weight loss goal...I have about 90 pounds to lose. I shouldn't let that be my total focus. Instead, I need to enjoy each step of my journey. I need to be proud of the fact that I am making the effort to learn about nutrition and proper food choices, and celebrate the good choices I do make. I need to enjoy learning about my body and exercise, rejoice when I take that morning walk, and take pleasure in the feel of my newly re-awakened muscles.

And the flip side to that is I don't need to be devastated when I think I have screwed up my diet. If I'm focused on the weight I have to lose, that can be discouraging. If I am focused on me, here and now, than I can enjoy whatever I have made the choice to eat. Savor the taste, the flavors, the sensation of eating it. Then recognize that maybe it wasn't the best choice, although an enjoyable one, and move on. Same thing with exercise. Some days I may not be able to get myself out the door. So I should honor whatever I am feeling. Perhaps I should just pamper myself by meditating, by allowing myself to get a little extra rest, or by giving in to my yearning to just putter around my nest. I should not berate myself for being a lazy fat ass.

To me, this quote is all about being in the moment, being present in my life right now rather than one year from now when I think I will have lost the weight. That is what will give my life width and depth.

This morning I walked to our pool. The water was heavenly! Just warm enough to cool me off from my walk over, but not devastatingly cold like the indoor pool at the Y. LOL I should have brought my camera, because on the walk over an egret let me get quite close. I would have loved to have snapped his picture. Oh well. I enjoyed the moment. :o) Then there were two toads in the pool, poor little fellas. I fished them out and put them in the grass, and nudged them towards the pond. I hope they will be okay; I know chlorinated water is not good for toads and frogs. :o( But getting them out made me feel good. I enjoyed the moments of my walk and swim this morning. Width and depth! That's what it is all about!

Weigh In Update

2008-07-08T20:40:00.001-05:00

I lost 6 pounds. Woo hoo! I'm doing the happy dance! :o)

Come Walk With Me!

2008-07-08T08:27:00.009-05:00

Woo hoo! This is the last day of the first week of my weight watchers diet, and so far, so good! I weigh in tonight.

Not only have I been dieting, but I have been forcing myself to get some form of exercise every day. On the days I don't go to water aerobics, I go for a walk. Would you like to come with me this morning? Come on, its a fine, beautiful Mississippi morning!

Here we go, leaving my garage. Damn, its only 7:30 and already hot!

But the birds and cicadas are singing, and I can hear the dull roar of Lakeland Drive ever present in the background, so come on. It will be nice.

Here is where we begin our walk, which is, coincidentally, right next to my house. :o)

The fence you see to the right is mine. And that is the back end of my husband's little fishing boat that I told him to put up days ago. Men! You just have to keep on them or they never put their toys up. Sigh.

The walking trail goes around the neighborhood pond. That's not a mist in the pictures, its a heat haze.

These are the good neighbors, coming to see if maybe I brought some breakfast along with me. I love it when they have little fuzzy ducklings. The ducklings are now all adolescents, and it is hard to tell them apart from the adults, but they are in there. (you can click to enlarge)

Onward, because we brought no food, and that tends to make them cranky!

Right before you cross the little bridge above is the path to the second neighborhood pond. It doesn't have a walking trail around it. It has been left more to its original state. In fact, last year the wildlife people caught 2 rather large alligators out of it and moved them to the reservoir. I will take you to that pond another day.

Path to the second pond.
After crossing the bridge, we come to the bad neighbors.

Mean, vile, nasty, evil-tempered Canadian Geese. I always thought they were such beautiful birds (and they are), but now that I have met a few way too up-close and personal, I avoid them when I can. See the evil fella still on the side walk? He wouldn't move, and hissed at me. So I walked in the grass, while we both gave each other the stink-eye. Doesn't he realize I could eat him?? Stinky bird.

Here is another neighbor. A beautiful great blue heron (you can click and enlarge the picture). We also have a white egret, but I didn't see him this morning. Blue was not happy with me for disturbing his breakfast, and sqawked at me. For such a beautiful and graceful bird, he sure does make an awful noise. LOL

Around the curve is the neighborhood's club house and pool. There is a second club house and pool, in the "new" section of Laurelwood. But this is the pool I go to, when I go. :o) I think the little light thingy-effect is kind of cool. I'm not sure how that happened though. :o)

Before we get to the club house though, we turn onto my favorite part of my walk. Its all nice and shadey. :o)

But it doesn't last very long! Here we are, through the woods and onto the road.

Now, down this street. Look, people have set their garbage out. Oops! Its garbage day, and I forgot! I hope they don't come before I get back! :o)

Turn and go down this street. Into the full sun, damn its hot! And not even 8:00 yet! My goal is that little patch of shade.

Whew! Made it through that street. Its the worst part. Now down this street, with a little more shade. And we aren't heading straight into the sun either.

Here we go, this is my street. Almost home!

Home! Yay! We made it!

And see, this is where we began. I told you the walking path was very conveniently located for me. :o) And I made it home before the garbage people came through.

Thanks for coming with me. I enjoyed taking you on my walk. :o)

"Before" the diet picture

2008-07-05T12:00:00.003-05:00

Okay, much to my distress, I forced myself to take "before" pictures. I just hope there are good "after" pictures. I was really, really depressed by my pictures, and I'm not posting them. I will post this one of me and Megan.

I really hate this picture of me.

Anyways, so far I'm doing very well on the program. I know, I know, it hasn't even been a week, but still, I'm doing good for me! LOL I'm also doing some exercise every day. I am going to deep water aerobics at the Y, and I really enjoy them. I'm walking on the other days, and I am trying to go to yoga once a week. I didn't make it this week thanks to stupid Bush, who evidently came through Jackson at the time I needed to get across the interstate to get to the yoga studio. It really pissed me off that I couldn't because they closed the interstate because of his stupid self. Grrrrr.

We didn't do anything for the 4th yesterday. Mark had to work. I thought about going to the reservoir so I could see the fireworks being set off on the other side, but I wasn't in the mood to deal with the traffic. Billy had a few fireworks, mostly of the loud variety. I did watch the ones that people in the neighborhood set off. That was nice. But mostly I read, stitched and watched the Jaws marathon. Poor Lacey and Flea were totally unnerved by all the noise of the fireworks around. :o)

Started Weight Watchers

2008-07-03T22:20:00.005-05:00

After much thought and penny-counting, Megan and I decided the diet program through the hospital would be just a bit more expensive than we wanted to pay. So we decided to join Weight Watchers, and my friend Rissa joined with us.

We joined at an evening meeting on July 1, so we have been on the diet for two days now. And so far, so good! I've spent these two days figuring out the diet, how to count points, and what I can eat. This morning Megan and I went to the grocery store and bought lots of good, healthy food. That means Mark will be eating healthier too. However, I don't know what Billy (Megan's boyfriend) is going to eat, since nothing green except Mountain Dew ever gets past his lips. LOL It amazes me how skinny that boy is, since all he eats is junk.

I went to Rissa's yesterday to stitch, and had a wonderful time. Her babies are just so precious. I love all the dachsund doggie cuteness. Even Princess seemed happy to see me, and greeted me with doggy love. :o) I worked on my Crewel Choices GCC. I am stitching on it madly, trying to finish it so I can send it in for an evaluation. I'm not sure I will make though, but hope does spring eternal in my little procrastinating heart. LOL

I have another crewel project I will be starting shortly. I am piloting a new Australian Wool Embroidery GCC. Its an embroidered teddy bear, made out of Australian blanketing wool. I didn't even know what blanketing wool was, and for good reason evidently. There is only one supplier that I can find in the US that sells it! And it is quite expensive. I am looking forward to experiencing stitching on this wool. :o)

Here is some kitty cuteness. Isn't my Evil Boy handsome? :o)

Rainy Day Dogs

2008-06-29T08:19:00.003-05:00

We had quite a bit of rain yesterday. For some reason unknown to me, Lacey and Flea have decided rain, just rain, is a devouring monster coming to get them. I could understand if they were afraid of thunder (and they are), but rain? They spent all afternoon under my feet. Here they are under my desk. Pitiful, aren't they?

I am going to be piloting a new GCC. I have piloted one other class, and it was fun! So I am looking forward to this one. It is an embroidered teddy bear. That's all I know, because I haven't received the instructions yet. I should get it next week. I'm so excited! :o)

I am going to be starting a medically supervised, very low calorie diet through one of our local hospitals in a couple of weeks. It also involves attending a group meeting once a week, and I am hoping that will help me address my food issues. I would love to lose 100 pounds, but 80 is probably more realistic. If I am brave, I may post a picture of myself before I start my diet. Maybe. :o)

Stitchin' In Memphis

2008-06-25T09:12:00.004-05:00

This past Thursday Rissa and I headed up to Memphis for the Share-A-Stitch Seminar. This is the Tennessee Valley Region of the Embroidery Guild of America's yearly seminar. (At the end of August I will be going to Louisville KY for the National Seminar.) It was great! It was only my second SAS; the first one I went to was last year in Knoxville. I started going when I won the position of TVR's Treasurer, and now I have to go, right? That's what I tell Mark anyways. :o)

The Hilton we stayed in was very nice. We arrived way before check-in time because as Treasurer I had three meetings to go to on Thursday. On the off chance that they might have a room they would go ahead and let us have, I went in to see if we could check-in. They graciously said no problem, and then they gave us a room on the 24th floor, a "special" floor. One of those floors that you have to put your card in the elevator to get up to. As I have never stayed on one of "those" floors before, I felt like a VIP. :o) The room was very nice, and the food in the restaurant was good and reasonably priced.

Rissa, Cynthia, and I all had the same class, and there were several other CyberStitchers (the internet chapter of EGA that I belong to) in our class too. And a friend I made in my very first national seminar was there also. She is an 87 year old lady from Tennessee who stitches wonderfully, and just got the Master Craftsman designation for crewel embroidery a couple of years ago. She is my hero. I hope I am half as spry at that age as she is! You would never know she was almost 90 years old.

The class we took was a crewel class from Barbara Jackson. I really enjoy her classes. Its called Cherry Tree Cottage, and it makes a sewing basket. The large design is for the lid of the basket, and the smaller designs make a little pin pillow, scisssors case, and scissors fob. My goal is to have it finished in time to use it at National seminar.

I really love Barbara's designs!

On merchandise night I helped Rissa man her table. It was a lot of fun. I like helping vend. I won't say it keeps me from spending money, because I still managed to spend too much (but all from Barbara LOL). A lot of the vendors are the teachers, and it is fun to get to talk to them and get to know them better. I also got to watch everyone come through, and that was interesting too.

Rissa is thinking about having a table at National, and if she does I will be helping her there too. At my first National seminar, I ended up helping my teacher at her table by accident. She was Danish, and having a little trouble with making change. Also, some of the people trying to buy from her were giving her a hard time because she didn't want to accept checks because she didn't have an American bank account. So I stepped in to try to help her, and ended up staying for quite a while. :o) She was very nice, and I didn't mind at all.

Here is a picture of my seminar bling. They are pins I have collected from the various seminars I have attended. Some people (like Rissa) have quite an imperssive collection! I'm working on it! :o)

See the little leaf on my name tag? That is a momento from Rissa's and my misadventure as we were trying to get the unsold stuff from merchandise night on a bellhop cart back to our room. Unfortunately, the ONLY way we knew to get to the elevators was through the dining room. Being the kind, considerate (and allergic to embarrassment) women that we are, we really wanted to find another way so we wouldn't disturb all the diners. There was a walk way outside that went right beside the dining room, so we decided to try that. Well, it was dark, it had been raining, I was pushing and Rissa was pulling. All of a sudden Rissa yelled stop! I tried but the cart had too much momentum, and the next thing I knew Rissa was flat on her butt, her shoes were flying across the walkway, the cart wheel was in a rut, and the top of the cart was stuck in a tree. Fortunately there was a little fence in front of the duck pond by the walkway, or we would have been fishing her shoes out of the water! So we gathered her shoes and our dignity, and went through the dining room with our cart. Hence the little leaf momento. :o)

Kitty Rescue

2008-06-24T11:01:00.002-05:00

Mark called me yesterday from work to tell me about a poor little cat that was hanging around their dumpster. He told me it was crying, had a hurt leg, and looked sick. Well, I envisioned a cat on the verge of death, all mangled and in pain. :o( So I went rushing over there with my carrier, trying not to think about how much in vet bills this could possibly cost me since the Animal Rescue League is closed on Mondays and there is no way I could leave an injured animal in pain.

Thank goodness, the little cat, or really a half grown kitten, was in much better shape than I imagined. He did have an injured leg, and what looked like bites on him. I think he had been on the losing end of a fight. He was also starvation skinny. What Mark thought was crying was really just him talking to any human who came near. He was so sweet. He came right to me and rubbed my legs. I'm sure he probably had an infection and worms. So I put him in the carrier and thought about what I could do with him until the rescue league opened. I knew that Merlin the Evil Cat would not take kindly to him, and that the dogs would drive him and me nuts if I took him home for the night.

So I called up my wonderful vet (I just love this man). He said I could bring the little cat to his clinic and he would keep him for me overnight, and feed him and all that. And he charged me very little. Megan thought he shouldn't have charged me anything, because it wasn't my cat, but I told her it wasn't his cat either. I certainly don't expect him to eat the cost of a stray cat I chose to rescue. I understand the clinic is his business, and he supports himself through his business. I would never expect a favor like that. Some people do, though. I have a friend who is working on having a needlework/fiber business (go Rissa! ), and there is a person who expects Rissa to just give her stuff without ever paying for it. Even when Rissa tells her what something costs, she just ignores her, or she says she will pay later, but she never does. That is just so wrong, and a terrible abuse of a friendship. I know it must get on Rissa's nerves, because it really irritates me when I see it happen. But anyways, I digress. I really appreciate Dr. Rumbavage giving me such a reduced cost for this little cat. :o) He has done that for me before, with other various and assorted rescues.

So this morning I picked him up and took him to the Mississppi Animal Rescue League. I love this organization. I support it with my donations, and I used to volunteer for it. It is an open door shelter rather than a no kill shelter. That means, it never turns down an animal, no matter what kind or what shape. They have had monkeys, and even had a tiger that some idiot was trying to keep as a pet for a while. What made me very, very sad was that I wasn't the only person there to drop off an animal that had been found. So many poor unwanted, abandoned, hurt, sick babies. It really, really pisses me off to see the way people treat animals, like they are just so much trash to be thrown away when they become inconvenient.

I left a donation to help cover the little kitty's medical expenses, and now I am hoping and praying he finds a good forever home.

What color do I need?

2008-06-18T22:20:00.002-05:00

You Need Some Black in Your Life

Black will make you feel powerful, in control, and not bound to what other people think of you.

And with a little black, you will project a aura of mystery, rebellion, and dominance.

If you want people to respect you, you've got to get a little black in your life!

For extra punch: Combine black with orange or red

The downside of black: People won't be able to "read" you - and may perceive you as more aggressive than you actually are

The consequences of more black in your life:

You'll become a figure of intrigue and speculation

You'll be better prepared for life's unknown path

You'll rest better and free yourself of expectations

What Color Do You Need?

Why I can never make up my bed

2008-06-17T10:39:00.003-05:00

From left to right, Honey Bear (pomeranian), Lacey (spaniel mix) and Flea (chihuahua/pomeranian mix)

The lump under the covers next to Lacey is Flea.

She is wanting to know why Mom took the cover off her head; she was sleeping just fine thank you.

What have I been up to?

2008-06-11T23:00:00.005-05:00

It has certainly been a while since my last post! I have been busy, busy.

School finished up the first week of May, and I was sad to have it end. I really enjoyed my two classes, and teaching the accounting class. I will be teaching Accounting 1 in the fall, and I am looking forward to that. I have also signed up for a full load of art classes, but I may end up having to go back to work. :o( We shall see...maybe I will be able to put off working for one more semester.

Since school ended, I have been stitching and knitting a lot. Sharon B started a new embroidery community, Stitching Fingers. I am enjoying being a part of it. One of the groups within the community is doing her Take A Stitch Tuesday from last year, and I joined it. Here is my first sampler - Herringbone Stitch.

Mississippi NeedleArts brought Barbara Jackson in for a crewel workshop. The project was Strawberry Trio, and I actually finished it! It was a fast and easy project, and I think it is just darling.

In addition to that, I have almost finished Oksana's Sampler, and when I do get it finished I will post a picture.

I started a new GCC, Crewel Choices. I have already worked two stitches I have never done before - Portuguese knot and twisted chain stitch. Fun!

On the knitting front, I have started two mystery shawl knit-alongs. One is fingering weight and one is lace weight. I will have to stretch them out and take pictures.

I am going to end this post by admitting to doing something TOTALLY out of character for me. I actually put my embroidery down to go to the kitchen to fetch a glass of ice water for a male. Oh, not for Mark, no way. If I did that for him, it would only be so he could wear the ice water for having the nerve to ask that of me. No, this male was way cuter, and more irresistible (sorry Mark).

Yes, I actually got up to get him a glass of ice water. He always has his face in my water glass, but this time I drank the last of it. As I was drinking it, he stretched out his little paw and tapped the glass. Who could resist??? Sigh...I am such a sucker for a furry face. :o)

To the Acorn - Finished!!

2008-03-23T17:32:00.004-06:00

I finished To the Acorn today. Yippee! I am doing such a huge happy dance. And I finished several weeks before our due date. :o) This was a lot of counting and a lot of stitching. I think I am ready to take a break from counted work for a while. LOL

I think next on my agenda is to finish Strawberry Trio, which shouldn't take long at all, then I need to get on my Phase 1 Japanese Embroidery piece. After that I need to get going on Crewel Choices, another EGA group correspondence course which is due at the end of June. And I also have Gracie and Florentine Christmas Ornaments, two other group correspondence courses that will be due around the end of August. These two have been retired, so if I want an evaluation on them I have to get them done! I just don't think I want to think about this any more. LOL

I had my little lambkin shaved last Monday, so now my little lamb is a lion. That's what they call this cut anyways. LOL Look at her poofy little front legs. I think she is just toooooo cute! :o)

Spring break and Art

2008-03-16T17:32:00.008-06:00

This is our spring break week, and I am going to enjoy it. I plan to stitch, draw, and paint, with maybe a little housework thrown in here and there, MAYBE. :o) Megan is going to Lexington KY to visit the University of Kentucky. That is where she has decided she wants to go once she has her AA from Hinds. A part of me is jealous, because I would love to go there and work on a fine arts degree. They have a fabulous art department. :o) But I am happy for her, and I hope her visit goes well. In the meantime, I will get to babysit rats and rabbit.

two of the girls - Pepper and Pipsqueak

one of the hairless boys

visiting bunny - I promise she's just sleeping and not dead :o)

Megan, Billy and I went and played golf frisbee Friday afternoon. I had never heard of such a thing! But Mark informed me it was an old game; he used to play it when he was a teenager. Just goes to show you what's been missing from my life! LOL But it was a lot of fun, and Billy was very patient with Megan and my attempts to throw the frisbee. LOL

We are working on ink washes in my drawing class, and I am enjoying working in this media. It's not easy, and I'm far from having any control of it, but it is fun. :o) This morning I went to the park and did an ink wash of the bradford pears that are in bloom. They are so pretty, with their white flowers contrasting with the dark trunk and branches peaking through. Here is a picture of my piece from this morning.

Here are a couple of my other ink washes that I did during various classes.

We have done a variety of things in my design class, all in black and white tones. Here are a couple of pieces from that class.

This first piece is a drawing I made from a collage. I found the picture of the bones, and I worked and worked until I found a composition that worked for them. :o)

And this piece is an ink drawing. We had to form our picture using letters instead of lines. This was an exercise in texture. I made a B on it because I got the horse too black - you can't see any texture in him. But I don't care, I like the way this looks, and I am going to frame it when the class is over.

I'm off to stitch now - I am almost through with To The Acorn, and I am determined to get it done!

On the Knitting Front

2008-03-12T22:18:00.005-06:00

I have been doing a little knitting in between my embroidery and art classes. I have decided to participate in two mystery shawl KAL's. I know, kinda crazy, huh? I discovered that I really enjoy knitting lacey shawls when I did the Mystery Stole last year, so I joined up for every stole and shawl KAL that I found. So far, I have only saved the patterns. But two that are starting up this month caught my imagination, and I have decided to try to keep up. Both of them are in the swatching phase, and I have them both swatched.

The first one is the Secret of Bad Nauheim, a mystery shawl by Moni, who designed the Secret of Chrysopolis. She is a German designer, and a very talented lady. I love her designs. I knitted this swatch in Graceful Lace Yarn that I bought at ROC Day. It is actually closer to cobweb lace than regular lace, so I'm hoping it doesn't drive me batty. But my swatch turned out to be close to Moni's swatch size, so I'm going to give it a try.

The second one is Mystic Light, the second of a series of designs by Anna Dalvi. The first in this series was Mystic Waters, which I also joined but haven't knit yet. I have that pattern saved on my computer, and I do plan to knit it. The theme of this mystery shawl has to do with fire and light, so we are supposed to pick a color that represents fire to us. I picked a variegated red. This shawl I'm knitting out of Fleece Artist's Sea Wool, which is 70% Merino and 30% Seacell. I first saw this yarn at our new knit shop, The Knit Studio, and I was dying to try it on something. So when I discovered Mystic Light's recommended yarn was between fingering and sport weight, I decided to try it and see if it would work. My swatch turned out gorgeous! I love the feel and drape of this yarn. It is going to make one yummy shawl. :o)

So, at this moment in time, I am officially up to date with my two shawl KALs. It probably won't ever happen again. :o)

Stitches and Snow

2008-03-09T07:47:00.012-06:00

Wow! It has been over a month since my last entry. Time certainly flies by when you are having fun, and I have been having lots of fun! I am enjoying my art classes so much. I will do a separate post about them, and share some of that work. Teaching is great too, and the preparation for my class has turned out to be quite time consuming. And I have still managed to work some stitching and knitting into my life. Unfortunately something had to get shoved to the back burner, and evidently it was my computer time. ;o)

I have more progress to report on To the Acorn. I finished Lesson 5 last weekend, and I am working on the last lesson. I am so excited that I am actually going to finish a GCC in time to turn it in for evaluation!

Yesterday Mississippi NeedleArts had a crewel embroidery workshop with Barbara Jackson. I thoroughly enjoyed it. There were only 6 of us, so it was very cozy and intimate. Barbara is a nice lady and a great teacher, and I love the project. But it does seem that I am actually learning things in my art and design classes, because I looked at the design with different eyes. I could see things I would interpret differently, ways I would use the shades of colors differently, and a couple of other changes in the stitches chosen that I would have made. I am very happy that my efforts to educate myself on design are paying off! :o)

I will be taking another class with Barbara at the TVR regional seminar in June, and then two more with her at national! Its a good thing I like her designs and teaching style! LOL I really am looking forward to the classes. :o)

We got a "dusting" of snow, as the weatherman called it, on Friday night. So yesterday morning I got up and took pictures.

So we have now had two snow events this year. Woo hoo!!

Here is what Flea does when it snows.

Actually, it is what Flea does when it doesn't snow. :o)

Tuesday Twitterings

2008-02-05T08:14:00.000-06:00

I taught my third class last night, and it definitely is getting easier. I am beginning to feel less nervous about being in front of all those people - okay, only nine, but when you are in front and all eyes are on you, it feels like "all those people." LOL I have thought for a long time I would like to teach, but then I would wonder if it would make me miserable because I do not like being the center of attention, and I am very shy when it comes to being on stage. However, I am finding that once we get into it, and I am busy sharing my knowledge, it doesn't feel like I'm on stage anymore. My lectures are getting better also because I'm not so nervous. I have already agreed to teach Accounting I in the fall and Accounting II next spring. She asked if I could teach Accounting II in the second summer term, but that would mean July, and I have way too much going on then! I will be in Louisville for the Master Crewel Class, and then at the Japanese Embroidery Center in Atlanta to start Phase II.

Rissa took pictures at the Blackhearts Ball Saturday night, and she got one of Megan and Ariellah. She really is a beautiful dancer, and Megan enjoyed her workshop and learned a lot.

Lacey, my 9 year old springer spaniel mix, had surgery last Wednesday to remove some tumors in her mammary glands. She had a lot in her hind tit, and then they were evidently starting to spread up into her others. I am happy to report that she is feeling much better now. In fact, by Friday she had started to bounce back to her normal happy self. I am waiting to hear if they are benign or malignant, but I am intending that they WILL be benign. She really is such a sweet baby.

We had some weak storms and heavy rain move through Sunday. Evidently, something has made Flea very nervous about thundershowers. Maybe a bad storm moved through while we were all gone to work or whatever, I don't know. But now every time it rains heavily and/or thunders, Flea gets all spastic and nervous. Sunday she had to sit in my lap all afternoon. Who could resist this pitiful face?

And I have progress to report on To The Acorn! I have finished Lesson 4, which is filet work. It was lots of fun to do. I really enjoy drawn thread work - I think it is the adrenalin rush you get from cutting the threads. LOL

Blackheart Ball and Gothic Bellydancing

2008-02-03T08:36:00.000-06:00

Missihippy's Blackheart Ball was last night at Hal & Mal's, and Megan and I went. It was great! Ariellah was here teaching a workshop yesterday, and she performed at the Ball, along with several other very good local dance troupes.

Megan took Ariellah's workshop, and she seemed to really enjoy it, although she did come home a little sore. :o) The whole experience has strengthened her desire to move to Lexington KY, which has the University and a very good art school, but also evidently a very strong belly dance community. Hmmmm....maybe I can go with her and take the costume making classes at the university, and make her and her troupe's costumes. :o) What fun that would be! LOL

Watching all the dancers last night makes me want to continue to try to learn to dance myself. I just love the way the dancers have such wonderful control over the movements of their bodies. I go to belly dance classes at Butterfly Yoga just enough to feel like a total dweeb, but I don't go enough to get any better. So maybe its time to get over myself and really try.

Sunday Morning Musings

2008-01-27T09:05:00.000-06:00

I love quiet Sunday mornings when everyone is still in bed. I've been piddling on the internet, reading my email, reading blogs, and my house is so peaceful and quiet. :o) I really need to get my butt in gear and open my mail and pay bills. Ugh. I just hate doing that, probably because I let it stack up and stack up until it is a massive job.

But that is because I have so many other, more fun things to do! Like, work on a quilt!

I finished my quilt top in the quilt class on Thursday, and I picked out the material for the border and back (the reddish-orange floral material), and for the binding (the brown material).

I took the class at Quilt Arts, our new quilting store here in Jackson. It is a very nice store, and the owners are so helpful to newbies like me. :o) The class was a great experience, and I plan to take more classes from them. Rhonda Blasingame teaches there also, and I would love to take one of her classes.

I will end this post with a masterpiece I call Boy in the Kitchen. Billy, my daughter's boyfriend who lives with us also, was left to my tender mercies on Friday night as Megan took their one car to work. Due to my insistance that the only things I cook are frozen cheese pizzas and meatless spaghetti, poor Billy was forced into the kitchen to cook him some meat.

Actually he cooked hamburger helper, and Mark happily helped him eat it. I had cheese pizza. :o)

Busy week

2008-01-24T07:15:00.000-06:00

It has been a very busy week for me, or rather a week and a half now since it is already Thursday!

I started school last Monday a week ago at Hinds Community College. I am taking a drawing class and a design class, and they are both great classes. Megan is taking them with me, and we are having a blast together. We have been working on contour drawings in the drawing class for the past week, and I already have noticed a difference. Where before I saw simply a curved line, now I can see all the different directions the line or surface actually has.

I am taking a beginning quilting class at our new quilt shop, and it started last Thursday. It was a lot of fun also. We cut out our strips and started sewing them together on the first class. The second class is tonight, and we are supposed to learn how to put it together with the batting and the bottom, how to quilt it or tye it down, and how to bind it. Those are the things I really want to learn, so I need to finish piecing it together today so I can work on those things tonight.

And the best part of the week was on Saturday, when we got snow!! This was the first time we had any snow in about 7 or 8 years! Although it didn't stick, it was very exciting while it lasted. :o) I know, I know, I am a silly southerner.

Here is the pack out in the snow:

Snow on the husband

Snow on Honey Bear

Snow on Lacey

Snow on Flea

Notice, no snow on Evil Kitty Baby. He just thinks we are all silly to be out where that stuff can get on you. You just gotta love cats! :o)

Its Official!

2008-01-13T08:32:00.000-06:00

Its official, I'm a teacher! I will be teaching Accounting at Hinds on Monday nights, starting tomorrow night. I went to the new teacher orientation yesterday morning and got my gradebook, and instructions on how to use Black Board (which I looked at but can't log in to yet because I don't know my number), and lots of encouragement and pep talks. I am so excited! I have always thought I would like to teach accounting at the college level, so now I get to try.

I also start my art classes at Hinds tomorrow. I am just so excited! I can't wait for tomorrow. And this is the first time that I can ever remember looking forward to a Monday!

We had the Embellishment Workshop with Rhonda Blasingame yesterday at Mississippi NeedleArts. It actually started at 10:00, so I missed half of it because of the teacher orientation I had to attend. But I showed up after lunch with my little crazy quilt block and some "stuff," and Rhonda brought me some more "stuff" and showed me some great embellishment ideas and helped me get started. It was such fun! And we had several people there too, which was wonderful. Cass, who is a fabulous crazy quilter, was working on a mardi gras wall hanging, and it was absolutely beautiful. Rissa, who is just an all-around fabu stitcher, was working on a really cool bellydancing hip belt, which had a picture of her great-grandmother on it, and lots of sparklies. I wish I had pictures of their work to share. I have got to start remembering to bring my camera with me. I need to find some deep red beads to go on mine, but here is my progress.

Spinning woes

2008-01-09T20:53:00.000-06:00

I got my spinning wheel fixed, I think. The foot part no longer falls off anyways. But I am having a hard time spinning. When I am just pedaling without trying to spin fiber, I can keep my wheel moving so smoothly. But when I try to pedal and spin the fiber, I cannot keep my wheel moving to save my life. It halts and I have to spin the wheel to get it started again. Then I start getting all uptight and irritated, and my thread gets crinklier and crinklier. I'm beginning to wonder if I have the ability to learn to spin. But I am trying to remind myself that this is a NEW skill I am learning. Maybe I feel this way because I am tired and just don't feel good. I put my wheel up for the night, and hopefully I will feel better about it in the morning.

Rissa tagged me for the Make My Day Award, which was so sweet of her! :o) I will post my list of 10 blogs in the morning when I feel better.

Happy Happy Joy Joy in the Morning

2008-01-08T07:19:00.000-06:00

This is Flea in the morning, every morning. She is always so joyous, so happy to greet a new day. And she joyfully greets each and every one of us every morning! As each member of her family wakes up, whether human, dog, or cat, she tells us good morning by wagging not just her tail but her whole body, until she is just overcome and goes into her twirling dance of ecstasy. You just have to smile and feel happy yourself. I am going to open myself up to her joyful energy and carry it with me today, and pass it on to others.

I snapped some more pretty cloud pictures last night. I'm not sure exactly why I am so fascinated by them lately, but I am enjoying taking the pictures and seeing how the colors come out, and how the light and shadows contrast with each other.

ROC Day 2008

2008-01-06T20:40:00.000-06:00

I went to my first ROC day yesterday, and I had a blast! I went with Rissa, and we met Brenda there. I also saw the lady who taught me to knit, which was very nice. She lives in Kentucky now, but still belongs to the Chimneyville Weavers & Spinners Guild, so she came for ROC day.

I brought my poor spinning wheel to the spinning wheel clinic because the drive belt kept coming off, and I had no idea why. Terry the Wheel Doctor gave it a good once over, and tightened several screws, told me to buy my own electric screw driver that I never ever let my husband use, and check the screws every so often. But he also said my wheel is warped. This is a testament to the humidity of Mississippi, folks. I bought this wheel from a lady up north, and it was not warped when I got it. My wheel warped this past year sitting in my living room. Now that is some humid weather we have! But after he tightened everything up it spun correctly. And this is what I spun yesterday at ROC day! I'm so thrilled, even though it is either lumpy and underspun or too tightly spun. I still did it!! :o)

Brenda sat beside me, and watching her spin was very helpful.

And here is Rissa and Brenda :o)

There were several demonstrations that I enjoyed. The first one was by Hazel, who is one of my favorite members of the Weaving & Spinning Guild. She knows how to do everything! She demonstrated Inkle Looms.

Lisanne from P is for Primitive demonstrated rug hooking. I have taken her beginners rug hooking class, and it was a lot of fun. I haven't worked on my rug since then, but it is on my list to do!

Rissa demonstrated needlefelting. I just love her little animals she makes. I have never tried to needlefelt, but one day I will give it a go.

And of course I couldn't be around all that fiber without buying something....okay several somethings!

Lace weight yarns for all the shawl knit alongs I belong to:

Sock yarns for my addiction:

And beautiful supersoft silk rovings to inspire me to keep practicing my spinning so I can spin these:

This very interesting Etagere was in the lobby of the Craftsman Guild, and I just thought it was so pretty and funny, so I had to snap a picture of it. :o) Who would have thought I would ever see Barbie immortalized on a piece of wood furniture?!

January Take It Further Challenge

2008-01-03T21:17:00.000-06:00

The concept for January is the feeling of admiration for someone. I have been thinking about people I admire. The first person who came into my mind is Debra Boswell, one of the founders of the Mississippi Animal Rescue League. She has dedicated her whole life to the welfare and care of unwanted animals here in Jackson, and I think she is a wonderful woman. I thought about my two friends, Katie and Rissa, who are both very strong, forthright, and caring women. You always know where you stand with them, but neither would deliberately hurt someone. :o) I thought about my daughter, who I admire for having the gumption to leave home and move to Kentucky for a year, and who came back home an independent young woman. I thought about Shekhinah Mountainwater, who followed her heart to work as a Priestess, reaching out to woman with her gentle Goddess teachings. Masa Tamura, who founded the Japanese Embroidery Center in Atlanta with her husband, is a wonderful teacher, and is someone else I greatly admire.

So now I am thinking about what all these people have in common, the qualities I admire in them. I have come up with: devotion to a cause, dream, or art form, compassion, courage, tenacity, and an ability to speak what is on your mind without caring what other people think.

And what does this admiration feel like to me? It is a warm feeling inside, a bright, energetic feeling, a feeling of inspiration.

Now to translate these thoughts and feelings to a design that can be interpreted through fabric and embroidery. :o)

Brrrrrrrrr Cold!!

2008-01-02T21:15:00.000-06:00

It was so very cold this morning - down to 24. And even colder tonight - down to 18. Now that is what I call winter! Okay, maybe I'm a little sorry I whined about having no winter weather. But never fear, we will be back in the 70's by Monday.

Poor little Flea, my short haired part chihuahua furbaby, really does not like the cold. I had to drag her out of bed this morning. Everytime I uncovered her, she would only tunnel deeper under the covers. It was a fun game, but I finally prevailed. I don't think she has forgiven me yet. :o)

When I got home this evening and let the dogs out, I watched our sunset. It was quite beautiful! This is the tail end of the sunset.

I spent the evening all comfy and cozy under my blanket with my stitching, watching Ghost Hunters. I really love that show. Secret confession time - I want to run away and join the TAPS team. I think it would be so cool to be a ghost hunter, exploring spooky old buildings! :o)

New Year's Day

2008-01-01T21:36:00.000-06:00

What a wonderful day today! I worked on all my creative projects - I stitched, I drew a little and started working with Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, and I started on my novel project with my writing group. I wish every day could be like this...oh wait, soon they will be! :o)

I had a fun New Year's Eve last night, even though I didn't make it to midnight. I am such a sleep weenie. Katie came over, and I made tacos and rotel cheese dip, and she brought a cheesecake. We watched movies, and then drew a word to contemplate on and work with for 2008. My word was health, which is a good word for me to think on, and definitely something to work on! With that in mind, I got up this morning thinking I would go for a walk around the pond.
Well, I didn't get very far - the wind was cold and blowing right through me, so I headed back to the warmth of my house and the comfort of my stitching nest. Oh well, at least I got out there. :o)

And look who was waiting for me to come back to my stitching nest. This is my baby Honey Bear, with her head on the Never-Ending Black Socks, wondering what her crazy momma is doing outside in the cold.

Sharon B posted our first Take It Further Challenge on her blog. We are to work up a design based on a feeling of admiration for someone. I'm going to be mulling this over until the weekend, and see what idea percolates to the top.

Peace Be The Journey

2007-12-31T07:15:00.000-06:00

I joined in on the World Healing Day peace meditation this morning, which I originally read about on Lunaea Weatherstone's blog. I actually woke up at about 5 this morning and couldn't go back to sleep, so I got up and knitted on the sock for my sock class until 6:00 a.m. This kind of knitting is very meditative to me anyways, just knit knit knit, around and around, so I was in a nice contemplative mood at the beginning of my meditation. :o)

My peace meditations always end up focusing on my hope that one day we will learn to live in peace not just with each other, but with Mother Earth. My prayer for 2008 is that more of us will learn to live gentle on our Great Mother.

My title for this post comes from the movie Cool Runnings, about the Jamaican bobsled team, which is one of my all time favorite movies. A strange fact about me - no matter how many times I watch this movie, I always cry when they pick up their bobsled after their wreck and walk across the finish line.

Peace be your journey for 2008!

Sweeney Todd

2007-12-27T07:19:00.000-06:00

We went to see Sweeney Todd last night, and it was an awesome movie! Definitely creepy and gory, but funny as only Johnny Depp can be in a creepy character. It was also very interesting to see him singing in a musical. :o)

Why is there always at least one of THOSE people at horror movies?? You know, THOSE people who must talk constantly through the whole movie, getting all upset when there is blood and gore? I just want to take them outside and slap them. There were two of them last night, all shocked at the amount of blood, and every time Sweeney Todd slit a throat and blood spurted, they were just horrified, screaming ewww, ewww, ewwww. Hmmmm, lets see...the story is about a serial killer who is a barber, who kills by slitting his victims throats. Then he dumps them downstairs into the meat pie shop where they are made into meat pies. And it is directed by Tim Burton, who has a wonderfully creepy mind. And it is rated R for violence and gore. Come on people, get a grip!

Anyways, if you like horror, and if you like Johnny Depp, you will LOVE this movie! What a delicious combination! :o)

Sock Class

2007-12-24T07:20:00.000-06:00

I am so excited! I'm going to be teaching my very first knitting class next month! It is a beginner sock class, just a plain cuff down sock using Opal yarn. I will be teaching at a shop called P is for Primitive, which is where I also took the beginner rug hooking class with Rissa and Cynthia. I will be teaching over three sessions two weeks apart - the first session we will cast on (which can be intimidating sometimes when you are casting on with all those double points for the first time) and start the leg, the second session we will do the heel flap and the third session will be the toe and kitchener stitch, and we can also cast on for the second sock during that session. I am really looking forward to it.

I am knitting up a sample sock for the class out of Opal Frosch, which is the blue frog colorway. Here is my progress so far. I want to finish it this week so I can take it to the shop to hopefully help attact attention to the class. :o)

I have weenie southern dogs. Our temp dropped to 26 or so last night, and we have a beautiful hard frost on the ground. My thin blooded weenie house dogs stuck their nose outside and promptly returned to bed. I had to pick them up and tote them outside so they would reluctantly do their business. Currently, they are all back in bed under the covers with my husband. Sad, so sad.

No, what is really sad is that I have to go in to work for a few hours. That just sucks. I don't know why they couldn't just let us be off today. We aren't going to do anything anyways! Of course, I could be mean and just refuse to go, after all, there isn't much they can do to me now that I have quit. LOL I am so ready for them to start interviewing to find someone to take my place!!

Dab of winter

2007-12-19T19:04:00.001-06:00

Well, we had a tiny dab of winter that lasted about 2 days. Monday, we actually had a frost on the ground! Today, the temp was in the lower 70's, and it should hover about there through the weekend. I wish we got just a little bit more winter weather here in Mississippi. Sometimes I get so tired of warm, humid weather, and I long for snow, and for air so cold you can feel it in your lungs.

I did document our frost, so I could turn the A/C way down, look at the pictures, and at least pretend its winter!

And here is my poor little Flea, wondering why her grass is so crunchy and cold. It was hilarious to watch her try to hover over that cold grass and pee! Although from the look she gave me, she does NOT appreciate my humor. :o)

This and that

2007-12-15T07:48:00.000-06:00

Most momentous thing going on in my life right now - I turned in my resignation at work last Monday. I am taking a year off from work to devote to my embroidery. I am going to work on developing designing and teaching skills, and I am going to explore the possibility of opening my own needlework shop. I am taking a couple of art classes (design and drawing) at a local community college, and I will be going to several embroidery classes throughout the year. I am very excited!

Another dream of mine is also coming to fruition next year. Not only have I enrolled as a student at Hinds Community College, I will be teaching there as well! They called me out of the blue a week ago to see if I would be interested in teaching the night Accounting II class. I have always wanted to teach college accounting classes, so now I have my chance to see if I enjoy it. I am just thrilled about this too! I told Mark, depending on how much I enjoy it, I may become vvveeerrrryyyyyyyyyyy interested in pursuing a docotorate degree, which I have made noises about off and on for several years now. :o)

I have never been so excited at the beginning of a new year in all my life! :o)

I have been making progress on To The Acorn. I finished the reversible blackwork band. And it is reversible! :o)

Here is the front

And here is the back

The next band is cut work, and I have my box basted in and I'm ready to cut threads. That is always a heart-pumping, adrenaline filled moment. :o) Although I have already learned (guess how and why!) how to rethread threads cut in error. LOL I enjoy filet work, and I'm looking forward to working on this band this weekend.

Megan, Billy and I went to see I Am Legend last night, and it was great! Very spooky and creepy, with lots of heart pounding suspense, but it made me cry at spots too. I highly recommend this movie.

Not a happy post about an abandoned dog

2007-12-02T07:56:00.000-06:00

Friday, when Katie and I were going back to work after lunch, I saw some people abandon two small dogs. It was on a cut-through road that goes from one busy road to another. They were pulled over at this gravelly spot, and I saw two little dogs running around, then I saw the car leave. I told Katie that those people had thrown out those little dogs, and I turned around and went back, passing the bitches on the way back. Sure enough, there the little dogs were, looking confused and lost.

Katie and I stopped, and another lady who had turned around and came back pulled up too. I got one of them to come to me - a little male red pomeranian mix. I handed him to Katie and went after the other one, who was very shy and wouldn't let me anywhere close. The little cut-through road is very busy, so I kept jumping out in the road to make people slow down and stop so he wouldn't get hit. He looked like a little chihuahua mix, and those dogs can be so nervous. I was so afraid for him.

When it became very obvious we weren't going to be able to catch the other little dog, the other lady said she would take the pom mix if I didn't want him. I told her to go ahead, and she left. I just couldn't bring myself to leave the other little dog. I called the Flowood PD, and an officer responded even before I got off the phone. But he couldn't do anything either, we couldn't even get close enough for him to be able to use the noose thing to catch him. So I gave up and went back to work.

Once there I called the MS Animal Rescue League, just to see if there was something they could do, but there wasn't. I knew that in my heart. I was so upset I just cried. I couldn't help it. Everyone at work knows I'm wacky when it comes to animals - I made our runner take a turtle that one of our trucks ran over to the vet a couple of months after I started working there. (And the turtle was fine - the vet was able to fix his shell and let him go.) I worried and worried about the dog all afternoon.

When I went home, he was still sitting there, watching the cars. I really wanted to stop and try to catch him again, but I knew that would be very dangerous for both him and me in 5:00 traffic. :o( It just broke my heart, because I know he was sitting there waiting for his owners to come back and get him. I really hate those people who did that - three young women in a silver car. I wish I had gotten their tag number, because Flowood enforces its animal cruelty laws. I worried because it gets cold at night, and I worried that another animal would come and get him, and I worried that he would get in the street and get run over. I worried and cried so much that Mark finally offered to go look for the little dog in the dark. :o( But there are no lights in that area, so I knew that was useless. I told him I was going back in the morning, and he said he would go with me and help me.

So yesterday morning I took food, water, a leash, and a blanket with me. And this story does not end happy. He didn't make it, he had gotten hit on the road. I feel awful, like I failed him, even though I knew I did my best for him. And I really hate those horrible bitches who abandoned him. I wish I could find them and tell them what kind of people they are. There is no reason to leave a dog on the side of the road. We have an open-door shelter that will take in anything, no questions asked, no cost to the person turning the animal in.

I just don't get people who view animals as so much trash to be disposed of at will. Animals are sentient, thinking, feeling beings just like humans. They deserve respect, and they deserve to be treated with respect. Sometimes I am really ashamed to be a part of the human race because there are just too many people who don't give a shit about Mother Earth and our fellow creatures who inhabit her.

Yes, I am very angry. And I am grieving for that little dog, and all like him. I light a white candle for him, and I know that his spirit is in the arms of the Mother Goddess, and I take comfort in that.

Project for next year

2007-11-30T07:23:00.000-06:00

I have signed up for Sharon B's Take it Further Challenge for 2008. You can read about it here http://sharonb.wordpress.com/take-it-further-challenge/#comment-16041. I am excited to be participating because I think it will help me get my creative juices flowing and start developing some design muscles. She will be posting a key concept at the beginning of the month, and the challenge is to develop the concept into a design by the end of the month, and to blog about your process. I think it will be lots of fun.

I haven't been blogging, but I have been stitching. So some progress photos. :o)

I have been working on To The Acorn. I must get it finished this time if I want an evaluation of it, because this is my second time to sign up for the GCC. Here is my progress through 11/18, when I finished Lesson 2.

The next band is a reversible blackwork band. I hope to have that finished this weekend.

I have also been working on a needlepoint christmas ornament. It is an EGA petite project that we did through MS NeedleArts. I will finish it before year end. I'm not sure what I will do with it, since the whole chrismas tree thing is really just a pain in my butt, but maybe I will give it to my daughter Megan for her tree. She's young and still enjoys putting up a tree. :o)

MS NeedleArts Meeting - our outreach project

2007-09-16T08:57:00.001-05:00

We had our MS NeedleArts meeting yesterday. It was a great meeting. We are stitching the Kissing Pillows project for the Yellow Rose Chapter in Texas, and we invited everyone to come stitch with us. We had several people show up, which was great!

The Kissing Pillow is a small cross stitch motif pillow that is given to the child of a soldier being deployed overseas. The soldier kisses the pillow and then gives it to his or her child to keep until they get back. I think it is a lovely outreach project. My father went to Viet Nam when I was about 9, and I remember what a very scary time that was. So I like to think I am reaching out to children like me, to give them a little bit of comfort during such a frightening time.

I have four motifs done:

I finished one yesterday, and we had two other ladies finish one at the meeting. There were three or four other ladies that took theirs home to finish. And everyone took a couple of extra kits. We also had a young girl show up right before our meeting ended. I took a few minutes to show her how to do them, and she took hers home with her. I wish she had come earlier so I could have had more time to teach her. Rissa has nine or so finished, and Cass has five. I volunteered to stitch them into pillows. So I will need to get started on that. :o)

That Needlin' Town - Chicago - Seminar 2007

2007-09-16T08:30:00.000-05:00

We got back from Chicago last Saturday night. I had such a wonderful time!! It has taken me all week to recover. LOL The Marriot was very nice, and the area we were in - the Magnificent Mile - was absolutely beautiful. It is the nicest downtown area I have ever been in. We were on the 38th floor, and had a very nice view of downtown. However, I wouldn't want to live in Chicago. Way too many people for me! And it was never quiet, even though we were on the 38th floor. I think Jackson is as big a place as I ever want to live in.

The seminar was wonderful, and I loved all three of my classes. Here we go with pictures. :o)

My Sunday class was The Flower Show, ribbon and brazilian embroidery, with Jane Ellen Balzuweit. She was such a sweet teacher.

First is the picture from the instructions:

And my piece:

My Monday/Tuesday class was Down the Garden Path, a counted work sampler, with Barbara Rakosnik. Another great teacher - so sweet and very funny.

The picture from the instructions:

And mine:

My Thursday/Friday class was Say It With Flowers, surface embroidery on a canvas, with Marnie Ritter. This one was lots of fun. First we painted our canvas with flower petals and leaves, which was very cool. And the piece uses beads and ribbon, which are always fun to work with. And Marnie Ritter was a hoot.

The picture:

And mine:

Mark and I went exploring on Wednesday. We went to Millenium Park and the Navy Pier, and then took a boat cruise up the Chicago River to look at all the architecture. I also wanted to visit the Science & Industry Museum and the Field Museum, but I just didn't have time.

Here are a few of my Chicago pictures from Wednesday:

The Chicago skyline from Lake Michigan

From Millineum Park

Mark inside the metal sculpture thing in Millineum Park

Pretty rock garden on the street

Wading pool at Millineum Park

We had a great time. I am now looking forward to Louisville!

Mystery Stole #3 - Finished!

2007-08-29T21:02:00.000-05:00

I finished my mystery stole today! It is my first lace shawl/stole project that I have actually finished, and I am quite in love with it. :o) It is not perfect, but I don't care. I didn't look for my mistakes, and I can't tell they are there anyways. I'm very happy with it! It is now blocking.

Here is a closeup of the lace. It represents the swans of Swan Lake.

And here is a closeup of the swan wing. I love it! It turned out very light and feathery looking.

And to go along with my stole, I got this beautiful swan pin.

I am very excited about wearing it to the banquets! :o)

On the personal front, I'm happier with my hair. It has finally relaxed a little. Although I am still very angry at the stylist. He never called me back, but he certainly cashed my check.

I have had a bout with my heart these past couple of weeks. I've been having chest pains, trouble breathing, and irregular heart beats. I decided that before I go across country from my heart doctor I should probably have it checked out, so I saw him yesterday. He put me through all kinds of torture, including a stress test which I hate with a passion because it feels like they are trying to kill me. The results are my valve problem hasn't changed, and my arteries aren't clogged. His diagnosis - stress and anxiety, which are exacerbating my irregular heart beats. I am very relieved at that. The stress and anxiety I can fix. A heart attack I can't.

Woo hoo! Chicaco here we come! Just 2 more days. :o)

Hair Trauma

2007-08-19T17:04:00.001-05:00

I have had a miserable week at work and home, and it was topped off by a poodle perm. :o(

My intention was to get a spiral perm, and I envisioned lovely, loose corkscrew curls. Hah! What I got looks like the perms my mom used to give me when I was a teenager in the 70's, which for then was an okay look. But not for now.

Next comes major whining and venting, so if you don't want to hear my hair woes, scroll down and see my Swan Lake - Mystery Stole progress. Much happier stuff.

The jerk who gave me this mess, and his name is Chris Thomas and I will never never go back to him to say the least, was first of all 30 minutes late showing up to the salon. Then, he cut someone else's hair before me, so I'm now an hour late getting started. So he rolls me up, and while doing that took a call from a friend, and he told them he would take a break in an hour and come see them then. Okay, cue the horror music. After he finishes rolling my hair, he abandons me to his shampoo girl to process my hair. She puts the stuff on my hair and disappears. Twenty minutes later I'm getting ready to go find her, and she shows up. My hair takes a perm very fast and easily, and doesn't require that long to process. She unrolls me, sends me back to Chris' station to wait for him. Ten minutes later I go looking for him, very pissed off. The guy at the desk says they can't reach him on his cell. So I leave, with my hair wet and not even combed out. And to top that off, he cut my bangs uneven.

I went home and immediately shampooed and conditioned it. No relaxation whatsoever. I put deep conditioner on it yesterday and today, and still tight poodle curls. I am so very unhappy with this shitty perm. It looks awful. I left a message for him, but he hasn't had either the professionalism or the balls to call me back yet. I am thinking about getting it straightened back out.

This is the first time I have ever had a hair stylist bail out in the middle of a perm. In my book he is an insensitive, uncaring, unprofessional, piece of shit.

Mystery Stole Progress

2007-08-19T16:42:00.000-05:00

I finished Clue 4 last weekend, but I just haven't had a chance to post the picture I took. This is the end of this part of the stole.

Clue 5 begins the "wing." This is an asymmetrical stole, and I really like the way it looks. Here is a picture of Clue 5. It is hard to get it stretched out since I'm working short rows.

I just hope I can finish it in time! I want to wear it to the EGA banquets, so I need to be done knitting by a week from this coming Wednesday so I have time to block it, which will be a new adventure in itself! LOL

Mystery Stole #3 Progress - Clue 4, Chart E

2007-08-05T10:38:00.000-05:00

I finished the first part of Clue 4 yesterday morning. Here are my progress pictures:

The theme for the stole was announced Friday, and it is Swan Lake. The other end of the stole it going to represent a wing, and I am very excited about knitting it. It will contain short rows, and the direction of the knitting is supposed to change. I can't wait to get to that part! Melanie keeps saying trust me, it will work, just knit it! I have a feeling it will be like magic, like the first time I turned a sock heel. LOL

The MS MS3-Me2 group is meeting this afternoon. I can't wait to see everyone's progress!

Monday from Hell

2007-07-30T19:18:00.000-05:00

It has been a hellacious Monday, just the total pits. Yesterday Mark had a flat on the van, and he couldn't get the lug bolts loose, so I had to let him use my car this morning. For some reason, that just made me irritable. I'm not sure why.

As soon as I got to work, I had to rush into a stupid meeting. Then we had to have a construction meeting. On my way back to my office, I got handed all kinds of stuff to do, on top of my normal month end work. I was just so overwhelmed, I didn't know where to start! And it went downhill from there. There were notes on my desk, sqabbles in the office, I had nonstop phone calls, and my irritation level went up, up, up.

Now I'm home, and I still feel all blah and yucky. I can't even work up any enthusiasm for my knitting or stitching. I just want something ooey, gooey, and chocolate to soothe my little nerves.

Tomorrow WILL be a better day! (Or I will thump some heads.)

Camera Woes and Furbabies

2007-07-29T16:45:00.001-05:00

My camera gave me much grief yesterday, but Rissa came to my rescue. It is an older camera she so kindly gave me (a VERY nice camera!), but my laptop for some reason wouldn't read the memory-flash thingy. So I couldn't download my pictures. It was very traumatizing.

I called Rissa to see if she could help, because she is a computer whiz kind of person. She knows what the real name for the memory-flash thingy is, so that makes her a whiz in my book. :o) So she fooled around with it, and came to the decision that there must have been some kind of update to Windows XP which was preventing it from reading the older card-thingy, because my camera could read it just fine. I bought a new card-thingy, but it still had the same problem. So she swapped me the new one for a not-so-old one, and voila, it works now. At least for now. I guess I should prepare for buying a new camera when this quits working.

While she slaved on my camera-computer issue, I got to play with her dogs. They are just so sweet.

Here is Rudy, her new adoptee. He was a rescue dog, and he has such a wonderful, sweet, loving personality I just can't imagine why anyone would through him away. But don't get me started on that subject, it really pisses me off.

And here are Rudy's older brothers Oscar (the red one) and Louie (the black and tan one).

And here she is with her pack. :o)

And here is my pack. :o) The cat is Merlin aka Kitty Baby aka Evil Kitty Baby when he is doing baaaad things. Honey Bear is my little black and tan pomeranian, and she is Queen B. She is definitely the Alpha Female. Lacey is a springer spaniel/cocker spaniel mix, and then there is Flea, a pomeranian-chihuahua mix. They were only sitting together so nicely because they were waiting for supper. LOL

I really love the furbabies!

Mystery Stole #3 Progress - Clue 3 Done

2007-07-29T16:25:00.000-05:00

I finished clue 3 Friday night. So right now I am actually working on the current clue. Yeah me!! :o) Of course, that won't be the case come this Friday. LOL

I am having such fun with this mystery KAL, I signed up for Goddess Knits Mystery Shawl KAL (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mysteryshawlgroup/), which started today. I don't even have the yarn for it yet. I know, I know, I'm crazy. But before you judge how crazy, let me admit to this: I have signed up for the Hanami Stole KAL (http://hanamiknitalong.blogspot.com/) and the Icelandic Shawl KAL (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IcelandicLaceShawl/), both which start the first week of September. I am also ordering yarn for the Heartland Shawl (http://buffalogold.net/store/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,54/ and scroll down), KAL to be announced, and I'm thinking about ordering the pattern from Triinu for the Lacey Shawl Group KAL (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laceyshawl/), which will be starting in September too. Wait, I'm not done. I have also ordered the Bee Shawl Kit, and I am going to be joining that KAL too (http://beefields.blogspot.com/).

Wait, I'm still not done yet. That doesn't count all my embroidery projects and group correspondence courses I signed up for through CyberStitchers (4, count them, 4 six month courses). I don't think I will list those now, I don't think my heart can stand the strain.

Okay, not only am I crazy, I'm certifiable. :o) I keep telling my husband I don't have time to work!

MS3 Gathering of MS3 KAL

2007-07-22T20:27:00.000-05:00

That is, the Mississippi 3 gathering of the Mystery Stole 3 KAL. :o) We also go by MS-Me2, because everytime someone shows a picture of another shawl they want to knit, our response is Me too, me too! :o)

Here we are, from left to right, Brenda, Chanda, and me:

This picture was from our cast on get together on June 29 at Borders. Chanda got a nice teenager to snap this picture of us.

We got together this afternoon for our second KAL. They each brought something mindless to knit on so they could chat and knit at the same time. Not me. I decided I could knit on my stole and talk at the same time. Wrong!! I got halfway though the first row, did a quick count, and you guessed it, I was off by one stitch. So I just put it down and chatted. Now I have to figure out where I went wrong and tink it. Next time, you can bet I will bring some mindless knitting!

Here is our progress. Brenda is furthest along, hers is white with clear, sparkly beads. Mine is the cream one. Chanda's is the other white one. She isn't putting beads on hers. She originally started with some very pretty variegated yarn, but didn't like how it was turning out. So she frogged it and ordered some other yarn. That's why I am ahead of her. I'm sure she will be zooming past me, because I am such a slow knitter, especially with this lace! I have to count and count again on each row. :o)

I'm off to do some tinking. Stay tuned for our next MS3 Gathering!

Visiting Turkey

2007-07-22T20:22:00.001-05:00

Mark was out mowing the front hay field I mean front yard this morning, when he spotted this visitor.

I wish you could see him better, but he is a young turkey. He just strolled on up the walking path from around the pond, and he got quite close to us. I've never been that close to a wild turkey before. It was a cool close animal encounter! I just wish I knew how to make my camera zoom for a better picture. I guess I should read the instruction book. LOL

Mystery Stole #3 Progress - Clue 2 Done

2007-07-20T06:46:00.000-05:00

I finished Clue 2 of the Mystery Stole #3 last night. I stretched it out this morning so I could take pictures. It looks much better stretched out! I hope to get better stitch definition when I actually block it.

Here is a close up of the beads. This is the first time I have used beads in my knitting, and I am enjoying the process. I look forward to the rows with the beads on it! LOL They add a little sparkle to the stole.

I intend to weare this stole to one of the banquets at EGA's national seminar in Chicago in September. So onward to Clue #3!

Japanese Embroidery

2007-07-18T06:52:00.000-05:00

I had a lovely time at the Japanese Embroidery Center. Rissa and I left last Tuesday, and stayed with her mom in Atltanta. She visited with family (and shopped) while I was at class. When I came home, we made some lightening fast excursions so I could shop, and ate lots of good food! Being the kind soul Rissa is, she took me to - count them - 3 different pizza restaurants!! They were all soooooooooo good. (For those of you who don't know, to say I love pizza is an understatement. I even enjoy the 99 cent Totino pizzas.) And for the other two nights, we ate at Ippolito's, a yummy Italian restaurant. I fell in love with their raspberry-white chocolate cheesecake. MMMM MMMM GOOD!!

We went to Abecedarius needlework shop. It is a very lovely shop! She specializes in reproduction samplers. I drooled over all the beautiful linens and threads, and came out with quite a haul (and dent in the pocketbook). I didn't have as much time as I wanted (thank goodness seeing what I bought in the short time I was there), so we are planning on going earlier the next time we go to Atlanta so I can have more time to look around. The owner of the shop is a very nice lady too. She and Rissa discussed what it was like to grow up as a doctor's daughter, trying to resist becoming a doctor's wife. Evidently she resisted, Rissa finally fell into that trap. ;o) But a nice trap for Rissa; her husband is a wonderful man.

I made wonderful progress in my stitching. After an irritating first day, where I worked on the orange and white flower ALL day, stitching and ripping, I finally figured out what I was doing wrong. The other three days were very enjoyable, and I learned a lot. Masa-san gently chided me for ripping out too much. She doesn't believe that every piece of work has to be absolutely perfect, and that beauty is found in mistakes and growth. Although I think that is easy for her to say, since her stitching looks perfect to me. :o) I love the philosophy and spirituality that is blended with the stitching at the Center. I am making Nuido, the way of embroidery, my way of life.

Here is my progress picture:

My goal is to finish this piece by the end of the year so I can begin Phase 2 in January.

What is my inner color?

2007-07-07T22:43:00.000-05:00

I saw this when I was reading Rissa's blog. This is my result.

Your Inner Color is Purple

Your Personality: You're a dreamer and visionary. You believe you were put on this earth to do something great.

You in Love: You're very passionate but often too busy for love. You need a partner who sees your vision and adopts it as their own.

Your Career: You need a job that helps you make a difference. You have a bright future as a guru, politician, teacher, or musician.

What's Your Inner Color?

Sunday walk around the pond

2007-07-01T09:12:00.000-05:00

I know I need to me be more active, to add some steps to my basically immobile days. So I am making a goal to take a walk each morning this week, starting today. So off I went early this morning, leaving dad and dogs snoozing in the bed. :o)

Our subdivision has two lovely ponds, or lakes, as my husband INSISTS they are. But to me a lake is the size of the Reservoir that Jackson, Madison, Ridgeland, and Flowood sits by. Anyways, our house sits right by the walking trail that goes around one of the ponds and leads to the trail that goes to the other one. That's really the reason both Mark and I are reluctant to sell our house and move to something smaller. I got out there around 7ish this morning, and it was still pleasant, although quite warm.

We have a flock of resident Canadian geese on the back pond, and a huge flock or maybe several smaller flocks of resident mallard ducks. I always enjoy them and their antics, especially when they have little ducklings. Here is a picture I took earlier this spring when the ducklings were a little smaller:

And although in this one you can't see the ducklings very well, it shows the pretty pond:

And here they are a little older, although fewer in number:

I do enjoy being by the water. It is such a peaceful and healing place to be. The ocean is nice to be by also, but it has a different feel to me. It is so vast, and so powerful. I much prefer quiet ponds, lakes, and streams nestled in the trees. And the water doesn't have to be clear either. I find beauty in muddy waters that are a joining together of the water and earth elements, a balancing of the emotions with the physical body. That makes a rich environment that can't help but bring forth life and creativity.

Here is my favorite lunch spot, at a city park called Crystal Lake.

Not many people come here at all. This spot has saved my sanity on many a chaotic Monday, including those other days of the week that seem to be Mondays also!

Mystery Stole #3

2007-06-30T18:27:00.000-05:00

I belong to the yahoo group Mystery Stole #3. There was a Mystery Stole #1 and Mystery Stole #2, and I belonged to both of them also. I started #1, but didn't finish, and I never started #2. I do have the patterns saved for my "one day I will get around to it" stash.

There are two other ladies in the group from around here also, and last night we had a cast-on get together at borders. One is from Vicksburg, and one is from Brandon. It was great! They are so nice, and I enjoyed meeting them. We chattered in between bouts of silent concentration. :o)

This stole has beads on it, and I have never knitted with beads before. Hmmmmmm, this is turning into the year of beads for me, as I just took a beading class at the TVR EGA seminar, and I'm hopefully taking a Japanese beading class at the national EGA seminar. :o) The beads are really pretty in the lacey knitting. My stole is being knitted from Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud. The color is called Sunshine, but it is more cream/tan than yellow. But very pretty nonetheless!

Here is my progress from last night.

And a closeup of the beads:

I'm so very glad we had our get together last night! Otherwise I probably wouldn't have started. I want to finish this one, and wear it to the banquet at the national EGA seminar in September. I better get to knitting!

Catching Up

2007-06-30T17:57:00.000-05:00

Thank goodness today is Saturday! Although I'm not really feeling well today. I think I have a Benedryl hangover. I am battling poison ivy gifted to me by my cat. I am so allergic to it that I don't have to be anywhere near it to get it. My animals or husband can touch it and then bring it to me. Sigh. Anyways, I have been battling it for over a week now, and it is still spreading, so I have been taking benedryl to see if that will help, on top of my topical medicines. I took 4 last night, after I got home from the Mystery Stole Cast-on Get Together, and I really feel icky. I missed my meditation group this morning, and I have just moped around all day. Bleh.

I did manage to finish up my continuing education today though. I am a CPA, and we have to get 40 hours a year. Let me tell you, it is pure torture. I had to do 12 hours of self study to finish it up, and guess when I did it? Yep, you guessed it, yesterday and today. I am the QUEEN OF PROCRASTINATION! Every year, during the last week in June (because our CPE year ends on June 30th) I rant and rave and swear I'm letting my CPA license lapse. Every year (so far) I manage to get through with my CPE in the nick of time. Every year I swear I won't wait until the last minute. Do you see a certain cycle here??

On a much more positive note, I went to the Tennessee Valley Region of the Embroidery Guild's seminar last weekend in Knoxville TN. It was great! Rissa and I went together, and we had a blast! I always have a good time when I'm with her. Downtown Knoxville was very nice, much different from downtown Jackson MS let me tell you! We could actually walk around, and it was so clean and pretty. There was an interesting market square with a very eclectic collection of shops.

I took a wonderful beading class with Carolyn Sherman, and the project is a beaded box called Smoky Mountain Wildflowers. I was a little worried about the class because I have never done any beading before. Cynthia in my local chapter showed me some beading stitches to help me prepare. But the class was a dream! The teacher was fabulous, and the project is beautiful. I am actually still working on it now that I'm home, and I'm determined to finish!

This is the top of the box:

This is the beginning of the band that will go around the lid of the box top:

And this is the band for one side of the box:

I enjoyed working on this class so much, I bought another one of her kits during merchandise night. It has a pretty yellow rose on top.

On July 10 I leave to go to Atlanta for my second class in Japanese Embroidery. I am looking forward to that also. I just love spending my days stitching, and being around fellow stitchers. Too bad I have to work. But maybe next year that will change. :o)

My own kimono

2007-06-18T23:04:00.000-05:00

My very good friend Rissa read my post about the wedding kimono, and she gave me one! I was absolutely flabergasted, and delighted beyond words! :o) It's a very pretty black one with metal embroidery along the bottom. Of course, I had to try it on!

And here is Geisha Mark acting as my kimono stand, so I could get a good picture of the embroidery at the bottom. :o)

I just love love love my kimono!

Stitching Finish - Artist Trading Card

2007-06-18T22:54:00.000-05:00

Woo-hoo! I finally have a stitching finish!

CyberStitchers has an annual President's Challenge, and this year (which is a continuation of last year) the challenge is to make an Artist Trading Card. So I finally made one. And not only did I stitch him, but I drew him too, so I'm very proud! :o)

I have always loved seahorses. I was bored at work one day and googled them. (Shhhhhhhhhhhh!) I found a site that raised them for aquariums, and they had them in all colors - red, yellow, even a white one with black spots. They were very cool! So I decided to stitch one as my ATC. He is stitched on Kona cotton with crewel wool.

Now all I have left to do is put a back on him.

Wedding Kimono

2007-06-04T19:51:00.000-05:00

Tashiro-san, who taught the Japanese language class I took, called me this weekend to tell me about a concert the Japanese-American Society of Mississippi is sponsoring here in Jackson. It is a performance by the Chieko Fukuda Ensemble, which is a trio of Japanese musicians who perform a type of Japanese traditional music called Sankyoku. Sankyoku uses 3 instruments - koto, a 6 foot long horizontal 13 stringed instrument, shamisen, a 3 stringed banjo-like instrument, and shakuhachi, a reedless end-blown bamboo flute. Mark and I are going to see them on June 14, and I am really looking forward to it!

Then she told me about a wedding kimono someone had given to her, and invited me to come see it. Needless to say, I accepted her invitation with alacrity, and hurried right over! She also let me take pictures. The kimono was absolutely stunning. The stitches were so tiny, Tashiro-san asked me if I thought it was machine stitched. I told her no, the Japanese Master Embroiders hand stitched those tiny, delicate stitches. The kimono is made of light blue silk, and it is embroidered with silk threads and gold threads. I am adding these images as big as I can so you can see as much of the exquisite detail as possible.

This is a closer picture of the top half. Not only is the embroidery beautiful, but it is rich in meaning. Everything embroidered on the kimono is symbolic. I wish I had more time to study all of the symbols in person. The cranes represent longetivity and new life. The red and white flowers are cherry blossoms, and they represent spring time. The yellow/gold and red flowers are sunflowers, and they represent summer.

This is the bottom half. The leaves represent autumn, and the snow covered trees represent winter. There are green pine trees above the snow covered trees, and they represent endurance, good luck, and happiness. The bamboo under the snow covered trees represent strength and honesty.

Those are just a few of the symbols I could pick out from my pictures. The embroidery tells a story and contains blessings for the new couple. I really wish I could study the kimono in person, and dig into all of the plants, animals, and objects on it. The rich symbology of Japanese culture is one of the things I love best about it.

She also had an obi on display. It is black silk embroidered with chrysanthemums. Rich, elegant, and scrumptious, isn't it?

I really want a kimono of my own. One day!!

Breast Trauma

2007-06-01T22:59:00.000-05:00

I was watching Penn & Teller tonight, or rather I was stitching, The Tudors had gone off and Penn & Teller came on next, and Mark was watching them, because I really don't like them. I think Penn is a jackass. But anyways, I digress. Their show tonight was about breasts, and whether breasts are natural, sex objects, or offensive.

The craziest thing I heard on the show wasn't said by Penn, which is highly unusual, but by a woman lawyer who is offended by breast-feeding women. She said that a child who sees a woman breast feeding her baby is just as traumitized as if that child was sexually assaulted by an adult. What????? Is that not the dumbest, most misogynistic thing you have ever heard?? I just don't get how any person, much less a WOMAN, can feel like viewing a nursing child is as horrible as being assaulted sexually. That woman has some deep issues. I wonder if she is offended by nursing puppies, or watching a calf suckling in a field, or if it is just the human female form that offends her. She needs some intensive psychiatric help!

Beautiful morning

2007-05-28T08:24:00.000-05:00

It is a beautiful morning. I've been outside knitting on my Berry socks. It started out kinda cloudy, but the sun is out now. It is so peaceful and quiet in the morning. I love to get up early and have some time to myself when everyone else is asleep.

Here is a progress picture of my socks. The pattern came from one of my sock groups, but I can't remember which one now. It started out as a mystery pattern. We were just given the stitch itself, and we had to figure out how many to do and how to repeat it. The stitch looks like little berries to me, so I call them my berry socks. The leg came out kind of poofie; I wish I could remember which group this came from so I could see other pictures of it. Oh well, they are my socks and I love them! LOL

My roses are blooming. My yellow roses are my favorites. They evoke all the good feelings of summer and sunshine in me. :o)

Wedding Vow Renewal

2007-05-27T08:05:00.001-05:00

My wedding anniversary is May 29, and we will have been married for 25 years this Tuesday. Yesterday Mark and I renewed our vows in a Handfasting Ceremony performed by Danny and Gwen, our very good friends. My daughter came down and was my beautiful bridesmaid. Lelon, another very special friend, served as Mark's best man. It was a lovely ceremony, made complete by our circle of friends. We said our own vows, and Mark simply spoke from his heart, while I had to write mine down so I wouldn't forget what to say. :o)

Danny's mother made our cake. It was gorgeous, and the best cake I've ever tasted!! My dear friend Katie did the beautiful flowers for me.

It was a wonderful day of celebration. :o)

Bird blessings

2007-04-16T20:37:00.000-05:00

We have had another beautiful, cool day today. I am really enjoying this weather!

When I got home from work, I went outside to meditate under my pine trees. I do this most evenings, it helps me to unwind and my head feels clearer. I was enjoying the breeze and all the bird songs (tuning out my crazy barking dogs), when there was lots of rustling in the tree above my head. I opened my eyes, and the tree was full of cedar wax wings! They were all chasing bugs, flitting from branch to branch. There must have been 7 or 8 of them. I had my head tilted back on my chair so I was staring straight up into the tree, and one of the little birds noticed me. He flitted lower, and tilted his head back and forth like he was trying to figure out what I was. He came lower, and lower, until he was so close I could look into his eyes. It was awesome! Of course, the thought of bird poop in the face DID go through my head, but only briefly. :o) I have read that when you meditate, empty yourself of negative energies, and focus on blending with the environment around you, you become less threatening to the wildlife around you. I do believe that is true. I hope my little friends come back for a visit!

Sometimes I wish I didn't have my cat. I would love to put up bird feeders and a bird bath, and invite all my feathered friends into my yard. But I am afraid if I do that it will increase the bird casualties. But, I can't be too mad about that, because I really do love my evil kitty baby.

Wonderful Weekend

2007-04-15T10:52:00.000-05:00

It has been a very nice weekend. Yesterday started out with a little stormy weather, which I love. We had a short thundershower roll in yesterday morning, to give us some much needed rain. I got out and tried to get a picture of it, although the picture doesn't really do the storm cloud justice.

Our weather has been so nice for the past couple of weeks - low humidity, temps in the higher 70's, lower 80's, with an occasional dip into the 50's & 60's. Everything has been so green. I just love spring time here in the south. My roses are starting to bloom.

I have spring fever, and I now want to plant some more flowers, and some tomato plants. I would also love an herb garden I have one bay leaf plant that has been hanging on for 4 years now, please its little heart. I always start out with the best of intentions, then the temperature hits the 100 mark, and I lose ALL interest in the outside! LOL Yes, I confess, I'm a high temperature, high humidity weenie.

We had our monthly MS NeedleArts meeting yesterday. It was our normal cozy core group - me, Cynthia, Rissa, and Gloria. Normally Cass is there with us, but she wasn't there yesterday, and she was missed! Cynthia taught a peyote or brick stitch beading project. It is going to be a cover for a bottle. I am having a lot of fun working on it. I think I will try to put a goddess design on it. Last month she taught me the Commanche stitch, and I am going to at least start a project using the Commanche stitch. Even if I don't finish the project, at least I will have practiced the stitch. This is all in preparation for the class I signed up for at the TVR Share A Stitch, which is the regional seminar. It is a beaded wildflower box. I have never done beading work, so I am really enjoying learning these new techniques. And just what I need, another addiction! LOL

We had lots of fun during the meeting. Gloria seemed to be enjoying the beading too. Rissa was her usual hilarious self. I'm afraid Rissa and I got just a little disruptive there at the end, but everyone needs a good belly-laugh now and then. :o) After the meeting, Roger and Ben, husbands of Cynthia and Rissa, joined us for dinner at Logan's. Poor Mark was working, so he missed out on a good steak. It was very good, and I ate myself miserable.

Then I went to the Saturday night group, and Mark joined me there when he got off. He brought pizza, which never lasts long! LOL It was a very small group last night, probably because of the drumming in Lena and the weather. So we just chatted and they ate (because I was still stuffed), then we did a little Reiki on Mark and Katie. It was a very enjoyable circle last night. Gwen and Danny are very special people, and I enjoy their company very much. Danny reached out to Mark while he was having such trouble in the past 6 months, and that means more to me than I can ever say.

Pick four meme

2007-04-15T08:47:00.000-05:00

Cynthia tagged me for this meme, so here it is.

Four places I've lived:
Florida
Michigan
Japan
Mississippi

Four places I have been on vacation:
Minnesota
Canada
Virginia
California

Four places I want to see:
Ireland
Scotland
East coast when the leaves change
Alaska

Four movies I could (and do) watch over and over:
Something To Talk About
Jaws
Star Wars - the old ones
Jurassic Park

Four TV shows I love to watch even in reruns:
Monk
Dresden Files
American Gothic (I miss that show, and I would watch it if it came back)
The Office (I really know, and have worked with, people like that)

Four websites I visit daily:
Google
My bank account
Crystal Ally daily reading
weather.com

Four bloggers I read regularly:
Rissa's Pieces
Dancing My Life Away
Pinkhead - Megan (my daughter, I have to keep up with her some way!)
inaminuteago

Four CDs always in my car:
one of Rob Zombie's
one of Cusco's
Little River Band's greatest hits
Moody Blue's greatest hits

Four songs from my teens/twenties I still love to hear:
Don't Fear the Reaper - Blye Oyster Cult
Hotel California - Eagles
Keep on Rocking Me Baby - Steve Miller Band
I'm Your Boogie Man - KC & the Sunshine Band

Four novels I like to re-read:
Jurassic Park - Michael Crichton
The Crystal Cave - Mary Stewart
All Creatures Great & Small - James Herriot
The Dragonriders of Pern series - Anne McCaffrey

Four books that changed my outlook:
Ask & It is Given - Jerry & Esther Hicks
Power of Intention - Wayne Dyer
Living with Joy - Sanaya Roman
Awake at Work - Michael Carroll

Four jobs I've had in my life:
Waitress
Receptionist
Bookkeeper
CPA

Four Vehicles I've Owned:
1975 Buick Le Sabre - my first car :o)
(can't remember the year) Mitsubishi Mirage
1998 Plymouth Grand Voyager
2005 Hyundai Tucson

Four Restaurants I’d love to eat at again:
Tex Mex
Macaroni Grill
Two Sisters
Keifers

Four of my favorite foods:
Chocolate
cheesy, spicy Mexican
cheese pizza
watermelon

Mystery Critter

2007-04-09T22:17:00.000-05:00

Here is part 1 of the mystery critter. I finished it! I have no idea what this might be, but my wild guess is maybe a butterfly. My crazy husband thinks it might be a monkey. Now who but a man could see a monkey in this little grub-like thing??

I think I didn't crochet it as tight as I should have, but the stuffing isn't coming out so maybe it will be okay. I'm still very proud of my first attempt at crochet!

Blah Monday

2007-04-09T18:22:00.000-05:00

I really hate Mondays sometimes. Having to go back to work after the weekend, especially such a beautiful weekend like we just had, is just a drag! I just couldn't get myself motivated today. So, shhhhhhhhh, I read knitting blogs all afternoon. I know, I'm so bad! But it did inspire me to give my blog more attention. We will see how long that inspiration lasts.

One of the blogs I read was a sweater KAL, where the participants are trying to knit a sweater a month. I do good to knit two dishcloths a month!! I can't even imagine being able to knit a whole sweater in a month. I would settle for a pair of socks per month! LOL The sweaters were all gorgeous too. One day, I'm going to get ambitious and knit myself a sweater. I don't want to now, because I'm afraid I won't like it once I get finished. I'm heavy, and I'm picky about what I will wear. I have to try things on before I buy them. But one day, maybe.

I've joined a really cool yahoo group crochet group - for little bears and other critters. They are just so cute! Of course, I'm just learning crochet, but this is really fun! And we are doing a mystery critter crochet along. In case you don't know, I am positively addicted to knit alongs, and if it is a mystery, that just doubles my pleasure. So now I am adding a new addiction - crochet alongs. LOL We get a part of the pattern each week. It just started last Monday, and it took me a while to figure out what I was supposed to be doing. But now I'm just crocheting along. I hope to be finished with this part tonight, and if so I'll post a picture. The address of the group is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tmcritters. Check them out, they are really cool!

I wish I knew how to post links and cool buttons like I see on other blogs. I could probably figure it out if I took the time to read the help files on blogger. But I would really rather stitch, knit, or crochet. Megan my little webnerd will be home next month, and I'll get her to help me set all that up.

Off to crochet now!

Dishcloth finishes

2007-03-18T13:37:00.000-06:00

I have a couple of dishcloth finishes from the Monthly Dishcloth KAL group. This first one is the mid-month cloth for February. I finished it a couple of weeks ago, but Mark had my camera showing off his fish pictures so I couldn't get a picture of it until now. The yarn is a variegated red, pink, and white - I think it is P&C Strawberry Cream, but I'm not sure because I lost the label.

This one is the March 1st cloth, and I just finished it. It is knitted on the diagonal, which I think is fun to do. The yarn is S&C Hot Green in honor of Spring and St. Patrick's Day. :o)