still alive!

And feeling *almost* brand new! After the back and teeth issues, a lovely little cold hit me and after getting no better for five days, I went to the doctor. Turns out I had a nasty sinus infection. Well duh on me, that's what was aggravating my teeth! So after a round of antibiotics, I can finally breathe and my teeth aren't hurting. Yippee!! And just for the record, Mucinex DM is my new BFF, love that stuff!!

Thanks for the bed recommendations! We tested out many, many and ended up getting a Simmons Beauty Rest "Treasured Spirit Plush", and it is an absolute dream! I really wanted the Tempurpedic one to work out since we'd heard such good things about it, but every time I tried it out, my back would scream murder! Drats. Well, anyway, we've had it for over two weeks now and it's been wonderful. The pugs almost broke their necks the first couple of days because it's higher than the old bed, and instead of using the little ottoman we keep at the foot of the bed for them to get up there on, they'd jump off the side. But they've figured it out now and all is well. Yes, we let our pups sleep with us, shame, shame ;-)


Not sure if I've shown this little finish thing on this blog before, but since I have been such a wreck and haven't finished anything new to show, here it is again:



The design is from Birds of a Feather, and is called Bloom Where You're Planted. I stitched it forever ago and then found this perfect little frame for it at Hobby Lobby for about $6 on sale. It fit perfectly and remains one of my all time favorite cheap finishes!

Speaking of framing, I have a question. Those of you that take your finished samplers to Joann's or HL or Michael's....do you know, or ask them how they attach your piece to the foam core? Like by lacing or pinning? Back in the early 90's I took some things in to Michael's and that was back when they used the sticky board, which I've heard is a big no no, so I stopped taking my things there and always had my LNS's frame things. Well, it's interesting to me that a couple of pieces that were framed that way, on the sticky board are still in perfect condition, and they've been on that sticky board for almost 20 years! So I'm just curious, since I've seen such gorgeous framing on some of the blogs and they're from Joann's or HL, etc. Maybe I should give them another try? It is cheaper there with the coupons or do they jack up the price in the first place so you're just paying about the norm when it's all said and done?

Have a great week everyone! Thanks for visiting me and I hope to return soon with some good stitching to share :-)

just nothin'

There are no stitchy photos for this post because lately I have issues and haven't stitched anything. Looking through old files on the laptop, I came across this one of the Astro Dazzle when he was just six months old. Aww!! That face! So kissable, dontchathink? :-)

So yeah, no stitching because....I'm a wreck!. And when you're a wreck, you find stitching unappealing. Trust me. I think this happens to me annually. Pretty sure. Anyway, on the Saturday before Valentine's Day (which was our 28th anniversary), my dental problems returned, and because I think my dentist is not very competent in what's going on inside my mouth, I keep putting off going back to him. The problem with this is that this dentist is on my "dental plan" and to change where I go for treatment is a huge ordeal and will take 45 days for the paperwork to get transferred, etc. Hubby wants me to just go to another dentist, outside of our "plan", pay whatever it costs to get it fixed right, but of course that would cost more than THE PLAN and let's just say I squeak when I walk, so it's pretty difficult for me to just pick up the phone and call another dentist. Yes, it's hurting, but paying more than you have to or should, well, that hurts more. Plus, we need the extra $$ for something else (see below). So there's that issue.

Another contributing factor to the "wreckedness" of me is that I threw my back out of whack on Monday and the misery over the dental problem paled in comparison to the unbearable back pain. My back is getting better, and long story short, we think a new mattress will definitely help so we're going to go this weekend and get one.We need a really good one, for people with lower back pain. Any suggestions?

Guess we'll see what shape our pocketbook is in after that... I will either go to a new dentist who will fix me up good, or back to the old one where I may or may not get fixed. And how about suggestions on how to tell a dentist that you think he's wrong about something? And have him listen? Because ticking off one's dentist before he goes digging around in their mouth with sharp instruments is probably not a smart move.

(And yeah, I probably shouldn't post when there's no stitching to show and all I do is whine, but thanks for listening anyway! Hopefully normal programming here can resume soon. If not, I'll just get some cheese and crackers and keep the whine all to myself)!

PS. Did anyone notice how much Tiger looks like his mother? And how his mother barely looked at him during his "press conference"? And does anyone really care about all of that anyway? Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I wish people would just keep things like this to themselves...we as a society shouldn't be all up in people's personal lives like we are. Let's hear it for keeping things behind closed doors and heck, even sweeping things under the rug or yes! skeletons in the closet! Keep them there, I loved those days.....

"Snowtorious B.I.G." visits Dallas

Those of y'all that are 55 inches deep in snow probably will laugh your tushies off at this, but for us Dallas folk, this is a LOT of snow! Over six inches in our area and more to come! We haven't had this much snow since the late 80's!

Here's the cute little snowman I watched my neighbor's kids build while I was in the kitchen this afternoon:



The corner of our house (on the left) where the dining room and kitchen are:



a big bush:



and here's what I was up to in the kitchen:



DE-FREAKIN-LICIOUS! It's Cinnamon Bun Bread and you can find the recipe HERE. You should make them ASAP! It was super easy and worth the very little time it took to make them. Yum!



I also made a HUGE pot of pinto beans and filled my iron skillet with cornbread and made mini pecan pie muffins for dessert, but we kinda ate it all before I could get pictures.
Now we're all stuffed full and some of us {ahem} found all this extremely exhausting and needed a nap ;-)



A couple of you have asked about Astro's bump on his face I'd posted about last month. I'm happy to say it was just a little cyst and it's totally gone now :-) Thanks for asking!

And more good news, the work is almost done in the laundry room! The tile is down and we should have the washer and dryer moved back in by tomorrow, providing the roads aren't icy enough to keep the guy away. Cross your fingers for me, I go through a LOT of dishtowels around here, lol!

Stay toasty!

home of a needleworker (too!) and a winner

This past week, I managed to finish this little design




from Little House Needleworks, it's "Home of a Needleworker (too!)". I'd always loved the first one but never got around to stitching it, and then when this one was released, I knew I had to do it instead :-)



This was stitched on 40 count Vintage Examplar from Lakeside, with Crescent Colors threads, one over two.



And I couldn't help but think of these ladies while I was stitching this. What do their homes look like? Is their home even still standing? I know their lives are so very different from mine. Yet, they are stitchers, needleworkers, crafters, just like me and that makes us sisters in spirit. I prayed for them, their family, and for their homes, which are the homes of needleworkers, too. :-)

Thanks to my readers that posted about the Haiti by Hand craft supplies drive.
There were five ladies who did and I entered their names in the random generator thing and Angela came out on top, so the needlecase goes to her :-)
Hope you like it Angela!

La Belle et la Bête (and a prize)

(more about this needle book at the end of the post)


or, as we say in English....

The Beauty...


(Take one lovely design from the wonderful Blackbird Designs Joyeux Noel book)...



(add some delicious Belle Soie silk threads, and some hand dyed fabric, and you have a beauty of a sampler :-)




and The Beast...



(Where we've taken one hot water pipe leaking under the foundation and added one "highly recommended but turns out to be maybe fairly incompetent plumber" who thought it was alright to pile mud three feet high in our laundry room entry way without the benefit of LARGE plastic drop cloths, and not forgetting of course, the inches of concrete dust over every inch of the house, and you've got one big P.I.T.A)

So anyway, the pipe is fixed, the dirt is all back in the hole now, after sitting out for four days, now we're waiting on it to settle a little before he pours in the concrete and re-tiles the floor. All along with promises that he's going to make it all look "Brand New". And if you think I believe that one, well, I gotta bridge I want to sell ya ;-)

But, really? It's all OK. Because even with such a mess, I'm very aware of my blessings and have refused to get all flustered over the situation when there's such hurt and devastation in other parts of the world, and by that, I mean Haiti. I came across this blog last week, hearing that they were seeking donations of the crafty kind for these women in Haiti. HELLO?! Threads? Oh, you bet, got that! Here's the thing...you can clean out your stash, the items don't have to be brand new :-) They need lots of different things, not just thread, check out the list to see! The address you mail to is posted at the bottom of the list.

Please check out the links I've posted above and see if your heart is not touched by these beautiful women. And then please post about this on your blog too and help get the word out, let's show some stitchy love to Haiti, whatdayathink?

If you do help spread the word, via your blog, facebook or twitter, please post the link (to the post you made) here in the comments on this post and I will enter your name in a drawing for this little lovely:



A brand new needle book from The French General! You may have seen a little bit of mine in this post. It was a gift from a dear stitcher buddy. I liked it so much, I wanted to share one like it with one of you. But the catch is, you have to post about the Haiti by Hand blog somewhere to be entered to win!

Thanks so much :-) You have ONE WEEK to get it done and let me know about it, I'll draw a name on Wednesday, Feb. 10

PS. Um, you don't have to post about this to comment here, I really love hearing from you, even if you don't want to enter for the drawing :-)

dusty tuesday

Broken hot water pipe under house + twelve inches of foundation to jackhammer through + TONS of concrete dust over every available surface in house = ONE BIG HEADACHE! Oy.
I'd just done a major cleaning after putting away Christmas stuff. And that my friends, just proves my theory that housework is a complete waste of time!

Remember, too much housework, when done correctly, can KILL YOU.

Make it your motto!
Oh well! With not much else to do, I am camping out with the Pugs in the bedroom, as the workers jackhammer away across the house, in the laundry room. The noise is only mildly ear piercing from here. I am keeping the doggies calm by using Cesar's advise of being the strong and confident pack leader, but all this licking they are doing is almost driving me insane!! What is it with Pugs and licking, anyway?! Dang it!

No stitchy news this week, since with all that cleaning, and subsequent shower of concrete dust,the conditions are not that conducive. I was working on the big beautiful red cardinal from the BBD Joyeux Noel book (what's he called?) but put it away so all the lovely silks wouldn't get covered in dust. Meanwhile, here's something I got back from the finisher back in December I think.

It's an old Ewe & Eye & Friends design, and if I recall correctly, from an old JCS magazine, but it's been so long, I can't say with certainty.


I'm really very, very picky on how I like my things finished, so this was the SECOND time I had to pay for finishing....



but at least it's right this time.



So the lessons today are these. The housework thing...remember, it kills. And Pugs lick a lot, even when they're remaining calm. And be careful who does your finishing for you the FIRST time, or else you end up paying twice for it, like me. And that's just silly!

stitching too!

So now the cake is gone (anyone make it or have plans to?), I have some stitching to share....



From the Blackbird Designs Joyeux Noel book



the Joyeux Noel reproduction sampler (my first finish dated 2010!)



stitched on 30 ct. Lucky Penny linen with the called for Gentle Arts, Weeks Dye Works and Crescent Colours overdyed threads. I did sub DMC for the CC Petite Maison, as the skein I had just blended right into the fabric and couldn't be seen.



What a joy this one was....well, except for that four-sided stitch, could've lived without that as it took me FORever to do! But, it's a neat look for a change and it's over and done with, so I'll quit whining about it ;-)

Oh, and I did finally finish stitching that last stocking from the BBD 'Tis Halloween book, called Enchantment...



on this one I used DMC 3371 for the CC Blackbird and DMC 3856 for the CC Copper Penny. Come to think of it, I never used Blackbird for any of the other stockings either, but the DMC instead. It made me happy to use what I had on hand :-)

Thanks for stopping by! Hope y'all have a great week!

cake!

There's a cute blog I read called Cherry Hill Cottage, have you seen it? No one can get us all in the kitchen quicker than Tina when she posts one of her recipes!
She makes her pineapple upside cake very similar to how I make mine, and since we hadn't had it in a while, and it's one of my hubby's favorites, I got busy :-)



Here's what ya need:

1 stick butter, melted
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 box yellow cake mix
3 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable or canola oil
1 20 oz can pineapple slices (drained but reserve juice, see below)
1 cup pineapple juice
maraschino cherry halves (or just use the whole thing, without the stem and pit of course!

I always make mine in an iron skillet, just like Tina, but if you don't have one, you could make this in any pan that the batter would fit in, or a 9x13 inch dish.



Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Take 3 slices of the pineapple and chop up (I do this because when making the cake in my iron skillet, all of the slices will not fit, there's always three left over and I don't like to waste them. You may want to see how many slices fit in your pan first, before doing this, or leave out this step altogether if you don't want chunks in your cake)
Mix cake mix with the eggs, oil and 1 cup of the pineapple juice. Beat on med-high for 2 or 3 minutes. Fold in pineapple chunks.
Put stick of butter in skillet and place in oven until melted. Then sprinkle brown sugar over bottom of skillet, top with pineapple slices (7 is all that will fit in my pan), putting a cherry in the center of each ring. Pour cake batter over slices and bake for 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Let cake cool for 5-10 minutes, then invert onto serving plate, let cool completely.

Enjoy!

Thanks Tina, for the inspiration! I hope I've inspired my readers too :-)

thank you!

Y'all are just the best! The tombies I was looking for have been found! Thank you so much (you know who you are ;-) ) I am so thrilled and excited to get started stitching them up!

And thanks for the well wishes for Astro! I think it may be a cyst, as it seems to have gone down some, but he's got an appointment for the vet next week and we'll find out for sure then.

Again, you all are the best! Thanks again for your help and for your friendship!

and so it begins...

..2010! I just love saying it, "twenty-ten". Don't know about anyone else, but I'm so over the "two-thousand and's"! GOODBYE! And as my sometimes crass hubby says (not to me of course) "and don't let the door hit ya where the Good Lord split ya"! Sorry. He's got a million of those, trust me!

Anyway. So Happy New Year! I'm a little late posting that cause things have been pretty crazy around here. That and I'm lazy tired. Since I always end up working on holidays (including Christmas Day and New Year's Day,) along with doing everything else to get ready for said holidays, by the time others go back to work, I'm about to need a nap. A week long one. But we had a good time, everyone got what they wanted and ate like pugs pigs and now the cabinets have been cleaned of all the sweets and treats and we're going to try and eat right for a while.

these piggies Puggies just want to know where all the ham went...



I have no real plan for my stitching in TWENTY TEN (squeeee!!) except to stitch as many tombstone samplers as I can get my hands on. I finished this one in December, but didn't want to post it then as everyone was in the Christmas spirit and all...




this is Tombstone Angel by Carriage House Samplings



the design was in the October 2008 issue of Just Cross Stitch Magazine. I stitched it on 36 ct. Pear from Lakeside with NPI silks, one over two. A very enjoyable stitch!



Now, you may remember, I have a slight obsession with morbid stuff. I know there are others out there that share this love of tombstone samplers. I've gotten my hands on a few of them, thanks to ebay and Kathy Barricks etsy shop, but still can't find
these four: Abigal Adams, Prudence Blackstone, Patience Ivy or Sister Spirit. I asked Kathy about them and she said they are from the Chartmakers line of designs, (a collaboration she did with Anne from The Good Huswife) which are all out of print, and those were Anne's designs, not Kathy's and they are not available for sale. Yet. Anyway, if anyone has any of these and would like to trade or sell, please let me know! I have several of the other tombie samplers I could trade for. Other stuff too. I could also beg. Oh wait, already doing that, lol!

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz oh sorry, I fell asleep for a sec there..

anyhoo....that's about all the stitchy stuff I have going on right now.
Now, for something completely unrelated, check out this thing growing on Astro's face.



If you click on the pic you will see it more clearly, to the left of his eye there (and please excuse the eye booger on his lashes, I didn't see it when I zoomed in for the pic). This thing just popped up and grew that big in a matter of weeks. Obviously, he's going in to his Dr. Jan (what he calls his vet), but seriously...it's very worrisome for his mother....what do y'all think? I'll let you know what the doctor says!

Thanks for visiting and I hope y'all have a great week!