Space Invaders, Stitching and more Tooth Drama

Well, it's been one of those weeks! The space invaders I'm referring to are DH and the kids - they were home all week. Talk about cramping my style! LOL Well, not really - we've had a good time going to movies, out to eat, etc. DH and DS have gotten in some quality golfing time and DD and I have gotten in some quality shopping time. Shopping with a 12 year old is like being put into a revolving door whose speed has been stepped up to warp speed. Man, can that girl shop! LOL Makes my head spin!! She's adorable though. She'll hold something up to me and say, "This would look good on you mom" and I have to laugh under my breath because I'd be lucky to get my right breast into it! LOL It has been fun, but not a lot of stitching time for me (or as much as I would have hoped).

I worked a little bit more on Cape Cod Girls. Siobhan blew me out of the water on this one! Working on this gave me a little bit of heartburn because it wasn't until I was on the "they have" line (and seeing Siobhan's finished one) that I realized that I did a major screw up on the top. The background under the curley cues at the top were suppose to have alternating colors - one for each curley cue. I'm using the creative license thing and not changing it!

April 15th was looming so I started on Block 3 of Houses to fulfill my monthly requirement. Have I ever mentioned that I hate stitching with white thread? Yep, I do. But the house is coming along. I've really been wondering if I'll actually get through this entire thing. I wouldn't place any bets on it. I love the design and hope that by treating each block as a small project, I'll make it through. I had a wee bit of incentive the other day to keep going when I received my sampler guild's newsletter mentioning that Kathy Barrick is once again coming to our Guild next June and teaching another class! This coincides with when we were suppose to have our respective HoHR pieces finished. But again, a small incentive for me - would love to have it finished, but would not suggest anyone place bets on me getting it done.

During the week while the kids were off with my DH, I started actually going through my craft room and purging out what I know that in a million years I will not use. My tooth had started acting up again, DH got the kids out of my hair because I was just a miserable grump, and I had to find something to do. My dentist has now recommended me to a periodontist. Looks like the tooth is going to have to be pulled. But here's the kicker. It seems that there has been an inflection in there for quite some time and has disintegrated the bone. I never felt a thing - the tooth never swelled up around it, never hurt or anything. How my old dentist missed it would be interesting to figure out. The root had cracked and infection set in. The new dentist asked me if I was going to be in town for awhile! Yikes. Sounds like I did something crimimal and can't leave town. Well, seems like I'm going to have the tooth pulled, bone grafts done and an implant. Six month of extreme fun! NOT! Wednesday is my first appointment with the periodontist. Wish me luck!!

Anyway, while I wasn't feeling too good and the house was quiet (before the penicillin kicked in) I decided to get into that craft room. First thing I'm tackling are my bookcases. These are before my attack - you don't want to see what it looks like now - I've got a huge mess going on:

This cabinet holds all my quilting patterns, Sew News magazines (which are going to go to a good home), and miscellaneous things - decorating books, etc. Just spending a little time down there I found some great things - like old issues of Folk Art Magazine that I didn't know I had (and don't even think they're publishing it anymore), great papercutting patterns (something I keep saying I'm going to try), rug hooking, oil painting books (yeah, used to do that too). I really wish I'd gone through these last fall - I could have spent our nasty winter holed up actually trying out some of this stuff.

A few of my first, rather primitive attempts at oil painting.

Then we have the second cabinet (need to lose the ironing board in the picture). This cabinet is filled with cross stitch, needlepoint and knitting and crochet books. I seriously need to downsize. All the binders hold cross stitch patterns. I would be embarrassed to reveal just how many are in there (and there are quite a few, well more than a few, that still need to be filed because I ran out of binders and space). The top shelf of binders hold the cute, but no longer on my radar screen, Alma Lynne, Gloria and Pat books - you know, those cutesy country patterns. DD is going to go through them and then rest I'm going to donate or Ebay. Haven't decided what to do. To the right of the cupboard is a walk in closet. You don't want to see that - there is a whole other thing going on in there.

So anyway, I have a lot of stuff to do. I'm revamping the room, but figured it was best to purge first, before I have to completely empty the room and paint, get my worktable in there, etc. I know it's going to take me a while, but it has been fun finding treasures I forgot I had.

So that was my week. Hope everyone has a great weekend and gets a lot of stitching done!!