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Thursday, March 14, 2013
Monday, February 25, 2013
Before February Ends......
I thought that I'd make a quick update about what's been going on around here!! Seems that my plan to post every two weeks isn't working!! But this is what I've accomplished the past few weeks.
Work on Ann Smith is progressing at a slow pace. I'm working on the over one scene and while not hard to do at all, it is very time-consuming. I'm not fond of working with a magnifier, but one-over-one on 35 count calls for it:
It's very easy (at least for me) to get off count when working over one. So I've found that I have to make adjustments here and there. I stitched all of what there is of Adam last night. It's amazing how much you can get done if you can find two interrupted hours for stitching. Around here, unfortunately, that doesn't happen very often.
This is where I was at the time of my last blog post:
And how it looks today. I managed to get in some of the section above the red verse, the red verse, sky and scene below that is all over one. Slow progress:
In the quilting arena, I have managed to get quite a few things done. When I've found a half hour or so during the day (not every day unfortunately) I've been working along on the Sylvia Bridal quilt and managed to get all 10 blocks for the month done before the next set of blocks arrived. Although, I got them done two days before - just in a nick of time. These blocks are what I finished since my last blog post:
And here's the whole group so far - I still have six more to go before the next month of blocks show up here about mid-March or so:
I love these blocks and I've learned a lot working on them. Probably more than I did with the Farmer's Wife blocks. Although if anyone has worked on this quilt before, you probably know that the directions for these blocks - or some of them - leave something to be desired. Blocks with five pieces are given directions to be foundation pieced, while blocks with 65 pieces are instructed to be pieced in the traditional way. A little wonky if you ask me! But still fun nonetheless.
If wrestling with those blocks and instructions weren't enough, I decided to finally make a journey into the land of Dear Jane and actually got one block finished! Woo Hoo! This project will take me years to finish as Jane is kind of a fill-in project, but one block down, only 224 more to go. Yes, I know - the men with the white coats will probably be arriving at my door shortly!!
Considering that these blocks are 4-1/2 inches at this point (4 inches finished), I think it came out pretty good. I won't mention how long it took me to put this block together though! This was foundation pieced and I should mention that it took me far longer to put together than it should have. I must learn to put the pieces on the foundation paper in the order that they are listed - not back-asswards like I did! LOL
And seeing as I don't have enough to keep me busy, I also jumped on the Scarlett Letter Manifesto SAL that some of us are participating in, although I didn't make much progress on it. I'm working on this on Wednesday nights when I have time. The past two Wednesdays have not worked well for stitching, but I got a little stitched the first night:
Another one of those BAP's, but I love it, and I've really enjoyed working on it when I've been able to pick it up (okay, it was only one night - but I liked it!!). I'm stitching it on 25 count Jobelan. Not a fabric that people use much from what I've seen, but it works well with this piece (and it's a way to use up 10 year old stash!!). I had actually thought of stitching this on 40 ct silk gauze. The idea being that you would do it in tent stitch and it would progress faster. But I decided that I don't necessarily want to go blind, so I shoved that idea in the drawer and I'll just continue with the 25 ct. Jobelan.
Then I joined in on the Sunday Santa SAL on Instagram (#sundaysantaxs). If you are on Instagram, look me up - I'm Threadgatherer (makes sense, right?). I didn't get much done on it at all, although I do have the star and part of Santa's face in at this point - just too lazy to take a picture. For a couple nights of stitching you would think that I would have more done, but unfortunately my brain seems to have a hard time wrapping itself around the thought of doing something small - like something that could be finished in a few days. If it's not a BAP, then my mind rebels and forgets how to count! I don't know why that is.
And last but not least - Baskets:
Nice, huh? Look closely. Do you see what I see? They're not done, they're just pinned waiting for me to pick up needle and thread and get going on these again. I hear that Siobhan is wiping my butt in the dirt with the baskets. I think that she's has over 90 finished and I'm still hovering around the 50 basket count. These were suppose to be my stitching project when DD did her three nights of dance - I would usually spend one night walking around the mall (exercise with some shopping thrown in - I walk fast around that mall, but not fast enough to miss a good bargain), one night of Zumba (conveniently located next door to the dance studio) and one night of stitching - but since she didn't dance this year, that idea got squashed. But now it's time to pick them up again!! The picture above shows about 50 of them prepped for stitching, so I better get moving!
Well, that has been my past few weeks!! I hope that everyone has had a great month for accomplishing projects and have managed to stay warm. We're still in the deep freeze here with another storm possibly predicted for tomorrow. I'd love one last big dump of snow, and then the sun can come out and it can warm up. I am going to be so happy when Spring gets here.
Thanks for stopping by and for your comments and emails. I love hearing from you!!
Work on Ann Smith is progressing at a slow pace. I'm working on the over one scene and while not hard to do at all, it is very time-consuming. I'm not fond of working with a magnifier, but one-over-one on 35 count calls for it:
It's very easy (at least for me) to get off count when working over one. So I've found that I have to make adjustments here and there. I stitched all of what there is of Adam last night. It's amazing how much you can get done if you can find two interrupted hours for stitching. Around here, unfortunately, that doesn't happen very often.
This is where I was at the time of my last blog post:
And how it looks today. I managed to get in some of the section above the red verse, the red verse, sky and scene below that is all over one. Slow progress:
In the quilting arena, I have managed to get quite a few things done. When I've found a half hour or so during the day (not every day unfortunately) I've been working along on the Sylvia Bridal quilt and managed to get all 10 blocks for the month done before the next set of blocks arrived. Although, I got them done two days before - just in a nick of time. These blocks are what I finished since my last blog post:
And here's the whole group so far - I still have six more to go before the next month of blocks show up here about mid-March or so:
I love these blocks and I've learned a lot working on them. Probably more than I did with the Farmer's Wife blocks. Although if anyone has worked on this quilt before, you probably know that the directions for these blocks - or some of them - leave something to be desired. Blocks with five pieces are given directions to be foundation pieced, while blocks with 65 pieces are instructed to be pieced in the traditional way. A little wonky if you ask me! But still fun nonetheless.
If wrestling with those blocks and instructions weren't enough, I decided to finally make a journey into the land of Dear Jane and actually got one block finished! Woo Hoo! This project will take me years to finish as Jane is kind of a fill-in project, but one block down, only 224 more to go. Yes, I know - the men with the white coats will probably be arriving at my door shortly!!
Considering that these blocks are 4-1/2 inches at this point (4 inches finished), I think it came out pretty good. I won't mention how long it took me to put this block together though! This was foundation pieced and I should mention that it took me far longer to put together than it should have. I must learn to put the pieces on the foundation paper in the order that they are listed - not back-asswards like I did! LOL
And seeing as I don't have enough to keep me busy, I also jumped on the Scarlett Letter Manifesto SAL that some of us are participating in, although I didn't make much progress on it. I'm working on this on Wednesday nights when I have time. The past two Wednesdays have not worked well for stitching, but I got a little stitched the first night:
Another one of those BAP's, but I love it, and I've really enjoyed working on it when I've been able to pick it up (okay, it was only one night - but I liked it!!). I'm stitching it on 25 count Jobelan. Not a fabric that people use much from what I've seen, but it works well with this piece (and it's a way to use up 10 year old stash!!). I had actually thought of stitching this on 40 ct silk gauze. The idea being that you would do it in tent stitch and it would progress faster. But I decided that I don't necessarily want to go blind, so I shoved that idea in the drawer and I'll just continue with the 25 ct. Jobelan.
Then I joined in on the Sunday Santa SAL on Instagram (#sundaysantaxs). If you are on Instagram, look me up - I'm Threadgatherer (makes sense, right?). I didn't get much done on it at all, although I do have the star and part of Santa's face in at this point - just too lazy to take a picture. For a couple nights of stitching you would think that I would have more done, but unfortunately my brain seems to have a hard time wrapping itself around the thought of doing something small - like something that could be finished in a few days. If it's not a BAP, then my mind rebels and forgets how to count! I don't know why that is.
Red Santa
BOAF Designs
Mystery Linen and DMC
And last but not least - Baskets:
Nice, huh? Look closely. Do you see what I see? They're not done, they're just pinned waiting for me to pick up needle and thread and get going on these again. I hear that Siobhan is wiping my butt in the dirt with the baskets. I think that she's has over 90 finished and I'm still hovering around the 50 basket count. These were suppose to be my stitching project when DD did her three nights of dance - I would usually spend one night walking around the mall (exercise with some shopping thrown in - I walk fast around that mall, but not fast enough to miss a good bargain), one night of Zumba (conveniently located next door to the dance studio) and one night of stitching - but since she didn't dance this year, that idea got squashed. But now it's time to pick them up again!! The picture above shows about 50 of them prepped for stitching, so I better get moving!
Well, that has been my past few weeks!! I hope that everyone has had a great month for accomplishing projects and have managed to stay warm. We're still in the deep freeze here with another storm possibly predicted for tomorrow. I'd love one last big dump of snow, and then the sun can come out and it can warm up. I am going to be so happy when Spring gets here.
Thanks for stopping by and for your comments and emails. I love hearing from you!!
Monday, February 4, 2013
A Finish and Other Whatnots
Hi everyone!! I hope that you all had a great weekend! And that you're staying warm! We've been colder than anything around here lately. I'm hoping that the groundhog is right this year and Spring comes early. In my book, it can't come early enough. I'm sick of all this cold!!
I finally tamed the beast in the form of the mitered borders on the Cotton Club and it's finished. After months of putting the thing together and then another month (or two... or three) of stressing over the darned mitered border, I finally took myself by the arm, forced myself into the sewing chair and decided it was time to get it off the quilting WIP list once and for all. So thanks to those wonderful videos on YouTube, here it is:
Ahem...Bailey, do you think that you could move?
Hello? Bailey? Do you hear me? Hmmm, not listening, are you??? Darned dog!! No surprise there - just like my kids when they were little (well, they're still that way - who am I kidding?). Oh well, the lighting isn't good for a photo op anyway. So a couple hours later the lighting got better and I convinced Bailey to go outside (I told him that there was a kitty cat in his yard), and here is my finish:
I finally tamed the beast in the form of the mitered borders on the Cotton Club and it's finished. After months of putting the thing together and then another month (or two... or three) of stressing over the darned mitered border, I finally took myself by the arm, forced myself into the sewing chair and decided it was time to get it off the quilting WIP list once and for all. So thanks to those wonderful videos on YouTube, here it is:
Ahem...Bailey, do you think that you could move?
Hello? Bailey? Do you hear me? Hmmm, not listening, are you??? Darned dog!! No surprise there - just like my kids when they were little (well, they're still that way - who am I kidding?). Oh well, the lighting isn't good for a photo op anyway. So a couple hours later the lighting got better and I convinced Bailey to go outside (I told him that there was a kitty cat in his yard), and here is my finish:
The Cotton Club
(mitered borders and all)
I don't know what my big fear was with mitering those borders - it turned out to be so easy (although you'll notice the fabric tails at the corners that I can't bring myself to cut off until the quilt has its final pressing just in case). I'm so happy that it's finally done!!
In stitching news, Ann Smith is coming along although not as quickly as I had hoped. A few nights where stitching time was a big fat zero. But this is where I was last time I posted:
And this is where I was a couple days ago - Dear Son came home for a visit along with four friends from college this weekend and they camped out in our basement. Can you say Dorm party? Lots of cooking and washing (DS couldn't let an opportunity pass by without having mom do his wash) and laughing because of all the funny college stories they told and yes, there were a couple that I had to plug my ears - kind of - LOL):
The over one lettering and the sky just below that were the real time killers. That took so long!! But I'm loving her with her bright colors. Although by my next post I may be hating her. After this section, I have a whole section of over one. If you hear some screaming and a car furiously gunning its engine and the squealing of tires (that is if our roads aren't all iced over as they have been here for a while, otherwise you can envision me furiously doing donuts in the street), you can rest assured that it will be me trying to run it over!!
After finishing up the Cotton Club I decided to start on one of the quilting projects I picked for this year. Well, I lied. I actually started two projects. I started on Sylvia's Bridal quilt and got the first four blocks done. Dear Jane will wait a little bit as I think that I'm learning a lot with these blocks that will serve me well when it comes time for Jane. These are persnickety blocks - a little more detailed than the Farmer's Wife blocks. Or maybe not - I think that with these blocks I'm given less fabric to work with than with previous Block of the Month programs, so I have to really take my time in cutting out the pieces. The blocks will be a finished size of 6 inches.
Sylvia's Bridal Quilt BOM
I decided that since these blocks were rather time consuming I would also work on another quilt. One that doesn't require a lot of brain power and can go together easily. This was a kit from a local quilt store that I picked up during the summer and because of the fabrics - Blackbird Designs Antique Fair, I just had to have it. I only have three blocks together at this point:
Easy peasy blocks that I can practically do blindfolded....well, maybe not.
So there you have it. A little bit about what I've been up to since my last post.
So there you have it. A little bit about what I've been up to since my last post.
And I have an apology too. One of my plans (not a resolution, but a plan) was to post more and also comment more in 2013. I have seriously lagged in the commenting department and I'm sorry for that. It seems that I've needed a slight break from commenting because of things that have been going on around here - nothing bad at all, just the kind of thing where you need to put attention to other things for a while. Seems that once I got through my craft room, I proceeded to go through the house with reckless abandon cleaning out things. I don't know about other people, but I get a huge sense of "Ahhhh" when I get things cleaned out. I'm happy, the Salvation Army is happy, but it hasn't left me with much time to comment - and when I've had time, I put it into sewing as a reward for cleaning things out. We're also gearing up to do some inside home improvements which means I'm driving around in my car looking for paint colors, bathroom vanities, etc. BTW, did I mention that I hate looking for paint colors!!
So, I'm sorry and hopefully I'll be back to commenting more soon. I think that my husband is getting a little worried that I'm going to empty out the entire house and buy all new things! Well, it's been a thought! Not really - maybe some new stash - but definitely not a whole house of goods.
Have a wonderful week and thank you so much for your comments!! They truly mean a lot to me!!
Monday, January 21, 2013
Just a Quickie Post
Hi everyone. I hope that everyone's New Year's has gotten off to a great start!! I did not make Resolutions this year, but I had a Plan (those are easily changed) to try to blog more frequently. Well, we're looking at January 21st today, so that makes it three weeks. I was going to try for two weeks - that was the Plan. Obviously I didn't stick to that very well.
One of my plans though was to join Nicola's Scarlett Letter Challenge this year. I felt that it was a great reason to finally stitch one or two of the samplers that I had hidden in stash. I've done them before (like Ann Medd), but seemed to pass Scarlett Letter pieces over for other things. This time I'm glad I didn't because I'm in love with this sampler. This was my New Year's start (pics are clickable). I'm a little further than this, but the camera is dead and I didn't feel like fooling around with the phone camera:
The box was full of so many goodies, the Little House Needleworks chart and the linen, ribbon trims, a stitcher's mug, some wonderful Christmas far quarters, chenille trims, a needle minder, note cards, tissues, a christmas towel, prickly pear jelly (yum) and chocolate! Thank you so much Shelly.
One of my plans though was to join Nicola's Scarlett Letter Challenge this year. I felt that it was a great reason to finally stitch one or two of the samplers that I had hidden in stash. I've done them before (like Ann Medd), but seemed to pass Scarlett Letter pieces over for other things. This time I'm glad I didn't because I'm in love with this sampler. This was my New Year's start (pics are clickable). I'm a little further than this, but the camera is dead and I didn't feel like fooling around with the phone camera:
Ann Smith
The Scarlett Letter
AVAS and 35 count Magnolia linen
I love the bright happy colors of her. What I don't like is all the over one. I usually avoid over one like the plague, but finally broke out the magnifier and I'm so happy that I did. The magnifier and I have become good friends. The letters are full cross over one and the sky below that is tent stitch over one.
The Cotton Club isn't finished yet. Just the borders now and it will be a wrap. My 'plan' was to have it finished last week, but then I had forgotten that my daughter only had half days for most of the week due to semester finals, so that cut into my sewing machine time. And I also got into a huge stash room clean out. But while thinking about the end of the Cotton Club, I went back and forth about what to start next and it came down to two quilts. In going through my stash, I decided to work on one old stash piece and one new piece. And yes, I should have my head examined because in addition to trying to make progress on my basket blocks with Siobhan, I'm going to work on these two:
I have had this quilt in my stash for about 10 years. Just about the time I stopped quilting for a while when I became busy with PTA activities at my children's school, this BOM starting showing up in the mailbox. I just filed them away and didn't look at them again until last year. This one will be a challenge, but for some reason working on those baskets with Siobhan and actually appliquing has given me the courage to work on this. There will no fast results with this one - it's going to be slow going as a lot of it is not only appliqueing, but also paper piecing and I'm not the quickest nor best paper piecer in the world. I'm planning for two blocks a month - not a lot, but we'll see how it goes. Maybe a block a week....maybe!!
The other quilt will be more straightforward, but another one that I've loved for a long time:
I don't know what my obsession is with quilts like this - it's very reminiscent of the Farmer's Wife, but I'm really looking forward to working on this one. The colors are different than the Farmer's Wife and I think that is what I like about it - different blocks and different colors. The BOM has 10 blocks each month so between the two of these quilts I've got my work cut out for me. And besides these two, I want to get working on Phebe - I actually have a couple pieces ready to go, just have to applique them down. So it looks like I'm going to have my quilting work cut out for me (well, no, I'll do the cutting - LOL) for the next year or so.
New Year's started off on a really great note for me. I won a couple of giveaways and wanted to post to thank each of the girls that sponsored them. Before the New Year even started I won a giveaway from Lisa from a Southern Bell Misplaced in Michigan. I found out that Lisa lives not all that far from me and hope that I'll be able to meet with her soon:
The red fabrics immediately went into the pile of reds for my baskets and you can't see them, but there were two stitching wallets - one plastic and one mesh that I'm already using. And the pillow (a favorite of mine) is backed with a Fleur de Lis charm. UGH, I can't find the picture I took and the camera battery is dead. But it was so sweet and thank you so much Lisa. I hope that we can meet up soon.
Right after the New Year I won another giveaway from Shelly of the Arizona Stitcher:
The box was full of so many goodies, the Little House Needleworks chart and the linen, ribbon trims, a stitcher's mug, some wonderful Christmas far quarters, chenille trims, a needle minder, note cards, tissues, a christmas towel, prickly pear jelly (yum) and chocolate! Thank you so much Shelly.
The next giveaway I won was from was Becky. She held a stitching challenge last year and I won! The prize is a $100 dollar gift certificate to the LNS of her choice. I can't wait to get that in my hot little hands and have some fun spending it.
Which means that I will acquire more stash. But quite frankly I need to get rid of some stash. Right after the New Year, I got on some kind of cleaning tear and really went at my craft room. The closet is so clean and organized right now:
Everything in it's place (well almost, I just noticed the green top of the thread keeper system laying not where it should be) and things labeled, but.........this isn't the only closet that my stash is in. It's also in two other closets, three cupboards and quite a few Rubbermaid bins in the workroom. You can accumulate a lot of stash when you stitch, quilt and knit. I think that I could easily be shown on an episode of The Hoarders. My husband definitely thinks so and you probably would too if you saw pictures of the complete mess. So I'm thinking of posting some of my stash on this blog or another one. I actually thought of doing this a year or so ago, but hesitated thinking that people wouldn't want half of the things that I would get rid of. And they might not, but I thought it was worth a try seeing what people would want and the rest I could possibly donate. So stay tuned. I hope to get a new camera battery tomorrow and have things put together by the next time I post.
So that's it in my part of the woods!! It's cold and snowy here today - a great day to hunker down sew and put a pot of soup on the stove. Hope everyone has a wonderful week!!
So that's it in my part of the woods!! It's cold and snowy here today - a great day to hunker down sew and put a pot of soup on the stove. Hope everyone has a wonderful week!!
Monday, December 31, 2012
Happy New Years and a Year in Review
I know that I have been the worst blogger lately, but there is no time like the present to try to rectify that, right? I thought that one of the best ways to get back on the blogging wagon was to just start off with posting the Stitching/Quilting Year in Review. 2012 wasn't the best for accomplishing much, let alone blogging, but it was filled with other great things that ended up taking up my time. Sometimes stitching tends to take a back seat. If I tried to talk about my two month absence from blogging we'd be here all day!! (Wow, where did that time go type of thing). But 2013 is a new year and hopefully I'll get back into the blogging and stitching swing for 2013. I'd make it a Resolution, but I stink at Resolutions, so I'll just say that I'll try my best!!
I recently had a couple finishes so I'll start with those and work my way down the list. As I said, this hasn't been a stellar year for finishes, but at the same time, it's still been a good year.
Like a lot of other people, I joined Nicola's Scarlett Letter Challenge. As most of you know, she's celebrating a milestone birthday and wanted to make it memorable. I don't think that she realized what a overwhelming response she would get to her challenge. If you're interested in joining, walk don't run. There are some wonderful prizes each month and what I'm sure will be a wonderful gallery of finishes as the year goes along. How fun this is going to be! It is so exciting to see all the projects that people are working on while celebrating Nicola's birthday. Being a huge fan of The Scarlett Letter, I knew that I had to jump on board (and the fact that when I went through my SL charts to pick out a "few", I discovered that I had a ridiculous number of their charts)! And no time like the present to start actually stitching some of those babies!! The first piece that I chose was Abigail Gould's Sampler of 1796. A small one (what a concept - I actually stitched something small), but so much fun to work on:
This is what the original sampler looks like:
At first I was a little concerned about the colors of mine, but Marsha of the Scarlett Letter commented on my post on the SL Challenge blog that she charted from the back of the sampler where the colors haven't been affected by sunlight and the elements. I love how dear Abigail ended up. I've already picked out a "few" that I want to work on in the coming year and one of them will be my New Year's start.
The only deviation from the pattern that I made was to not stitch in the background with wool. I like to stay true to a reproduction and not change things up too much, but the thought of filling in that background kind of threw me over the edge, so I chose a linen that I thought would be closest to the color of the wool. She was such a quick stitch.
Next up - Charlotte Clayton - how I love her (those cats look like they could make a snack out of dear Adam and Eve):
And last, but not least, probably my favorite of the whole year:
I love Ann - and even with those over one sheep, I loved every minute of stitching her. Seems that I've had a real Adam and Eve theme going on this year. Just to mix things up, I've pulled some non-A&E themed samplers for 2013.
On the quilting end - even though I have a few projects in the works, I only finished one - The Farmer's Wife. The Cotton Club is waiting for borders and that's it. Hopefully, that one will make an appearance in the next couple of weeks.
For all the headaches this quilt sometimes gave me, I love it so much!!
There were a lot of projects that I didn't finish this year - I'm a great one for WIPs, but I'm going to try to make 2013 also a year of finishing up those WIPs. We'll see how that goes. I always have grand ideas as the New Year starts and flounder by the end of January. But it's a goal to shoot for - mainly to finish up these babies:
Only 39 in the photo, but actually 46 finished. This project was going to be my take along project while my daughter danced. Her broken foot put a kabosh on that idea, but I think that she'll be starting up again in January, so there is hope for making a huge dent in these beauties. I have about 100 of them prepped and ready to go. Just have to take needle and thread to them.
And there are a couple cross stitch projects that I'd like to finish up this year - both Scarlett Letter pieces:
I recently had a couple finishes so I'll start with those and work my way down the list. As I said, this hasn't been a stellar year for finishes, but at the same time, it's still been a good year.
Like a lot of other people, I joined Nicola's Scarlett Letter Challenge. As most of you know, she's celebrating a milestone birthday and wanted to make it memorable. I don't think that she realized what a overwhelming response she would get to her challenge. If you're interested in joining, walk don't run. There are some wonderful prizes each month and what I'm sure will be a wonderful gallery of finishes as the year goes along. How fun this is going to be! It is so exciting to see all the projects that people are working on while celebrating Nicola's birthday. Being a huge fan of The Scarlett Letter, I knew that I had to jump on board (and the fact that when I went through my SL charts to pick out a "few", I discovered that I had a ridiculous number of their charts)! And no time like the present to start actually stitching some of those babies!! The first piece that I chose was Abigail Gould's Sampler of 1796. A small one (what a concept - I actually stitched something small), but so much fun to work on:
Scarlett Letter's Abigail Gould's Sampler of 1796
DMC threads and 35 ct. Mystery Linen
This is what the original sampler looks like:
At first I was a little concerned about the colors of mine, but Marsha of the Scarlett Letter commented on my post on the SL Challenge blog that she charted from the back of the sampler where the colors haven't been affected by sunlight and the elements. I love how dear Abigail ended up. I've already picked out a "few" that I want to work on in the coming year and one of them will be my New Year's start.
The only deviation from the pattern that I made was to not stitch in the background with wool. I like to stay true to a reproduction and not change things up too much, but the thought of filling in that background kind of threw me over the edge, so I chose a linen that I thought would be closest to the color of the wool. She was such a quick stitch.
Next up - Charlotte Clayton - how I love her (those cats look like they could make a snack out of dear Adam and Eve):
Charlotte Clayton by the Northwest Sampler Guild
36 count Meadowrue and NPI Threads
Ann Hall by The Scarlett Letter
35 count Legacy Linen and DMC Threads
Martha Jones 1972
36 ct. Vintage Examplar and DMC Threads
Ann Rayner
32 Count Legacy Cafe Au Lait Linen and DMC threads
On the quilting end - even though I have a few projects in the works, I only finished one - The Farmer's Wife. The Cotton Club is waiting for borders and that's it. Hopefully, that one will make an appearance in the next couple of weeks.
The Farmer's Wife Quilt
For all the headaches this quilt sometimes gave me, I love it so much!!
There were a lot of projects that I didn't finish this year - I'm a great one for WIPs, but I'm going to try to make 2013 also a year of finishing up those WIPs. We'll see how that goes. I always have grand ideas as the New Year starts and flounder by the end of January. But it's a goal to shoot for - mainly to finish up these babies:
Trick or Treat Quilt
Blackbird Designs
(need to give this another name - it doesn't look like Trick or Treat to me)
And there are a couple cross stitch projects that I'd like to finish up this year - both Scarlett Letter pieces:
And All Was For An Appil
I don't know why I put this one down, but I'm going to try what Margaret did with hers and stitch the outlines of the motifs first and then do the fill in. I was green with envy when I saw Margaret's finish.
Susanna Lane
I don't know why I ever put this one down either - probably due to the fact that I'm a Gemini and am constantly getting bored with things. But she is so pretty in real life that I have to finish her up this year.
So there you have it!! 2012 in review. I have to admit that I've missed everyone and their posts. I've tried to keep up here and there, but since the time of my last post it seems like we've gotten from the end of October to the end of December at the speed of light!! I hope to do much better in the coming year.
Thank you for stopping by and I hope that everyone has a happy, healthy and wonderful New Year's!!
Friday, October 26, 2012
Stitchy Stuff and Homecoming
Thank you so much for treading your way through my last post!! I never thought people would make it through my rantings! I can't believe some of the comments and emails I got on that one! But being as most of us are moms, I know that we can all relate to those crazy moments where we want to slap someone, choke someone or lay ourselves under a bus. It happens - it's part of the territory, right? But it passed and all is well (at least until the next doctor's appointment in two weeks), and I'm not typing this with tire tracks across my body. And of course, Catie opted for the new dress over the dress that caused so much freaking out! Figures!
The Homecoming dance went well except for the fact that it rained cats, dogs and small children that day and night so we couldn't get pictures of the event outside with all the beautiful fall colors. But here are a couple of the cute couple taken at Max's house where everyone met. Catie had a wonderful time even with the boot and I think that it definitely was a time to remember. They didn't go to any parties after as seems to be the norm these days (praise the heavens above), but opted to play X-box instead. Gotta love them.
I didn't get the best pictures, but here are just a couple. The pinning of the boutonniere - get a load of that tongue. Reminds me of when she was so little sitting in the kitchen chair deep in concentration when coloring (when did you get so grown up?):
The boot doesn't look too bad, does it? She decided not to decorate it as she felt there was enough bling on the bodice of the dress - probably a good choice.
And Catie acting the fool, as always. Max has a look like, "Here she goes again!"
In other news around here - well not much - sad, but true. I honestly don't know where time goes sometimes. But once I got over my feelings of choking or doing someone bodily harm and felt that I could be trusted with sharp implements like scissors, needles, rotary cutters and the like, I accomplished a little bit on what seems to be the three never ending projects. Are you getting bored of these yet? But I'm having fun with all of them and haven't tossed them aside yet. Not that I'm not dreaming of what comes next and having moments filled with thoughts of starting new things, but I'm actually restraining myself - for once!!
First up - the Cotton Club - three rows down, two to go:
Oops - I shot this picture from the wrong end and it looks like I've got upside down basket blocks. Well you get the picture anyway. I thought that I'd fly through these rows, but not the case. Trying to put these rows together and then get them to match up where the red and brown meets the tan and pieced block is hard even on a good day. Don't know what is up with that.
Charlotte is moving along at a slow pace. Don't know what's up with that either. Well, yes I do, I haven't been putting as much time into her as I would like too. The only nights I seemed to get much done was during the Championship games and World Series games with our beloved Tigers!! Unfortunately, they lost the first two games in the World Series against San Francisco, but I've stayed up until the bitter end. Fingers crossed - there are more games to be played!! And while watching the games I made it to the half way point on Charlotte (with the exception of the over one words - I need to be in the mood to have my eyes cross for half the night putting those in).
I love that couple in Eden:
In fact, I love working on entire this piece, but made a major boo-boo. Am I fixing it - NOPE!!
It's the vase - it's levitating - and it's not suppose to. Guess I've been out of school too long and no longer seem to be able to count! When I got down to the bottom of the vase it wasn't sitting on the grass as charted. BUT, would you have known that unless I told you? Probably not (except for those of you who have stitched it), so this is my spin on being creative and making the piece my own. Sounds good, doesn't it?? And Charlotte will never know, will she? I just have to remember to do the vase on the other side of the tree the same way - better write a post it note so that I don't forget!
And then there are the baskets - the never ending baskets. I managed to get a few finished up over the past few weeks - only 16 blocks - but better than nothing. This tends to be my carry along project when I'm waiting on something - like doctors - so I don't get as many finished in a week that I had hoped to.
And all the blocks so far:
46 baskets out of......gulp..........about 300.......I guess I better get my you-know-what moving. But there are more waiting in the wings. I have about 40 baskets on backgrounds, probably 100 ironed onto fabric (maybe more) and some more waiting to be starched - it's quite a process, but so much fun:
I don't think I'll ever get sick of this quilt - I am just loving all the red fabrics!!
So that's about all that is going on around here. I did manage to get out for one of my fall road trips this week and spent a wonderful time at a new quilt store and antiquing, but you know, I can't seem to get the pictures to come over from my phone to the computer. Well, I can, but then I seem to be at a loss as to posting them on the blog. I'll have to wait for one of the kids to be around to post them. They've told me how to before, but you know.........must have lost some brain cells with my rage of a couple weeks ago!! LOL I'll save them for next time.
Again, thank you for all your wonderful comments. I truly thought that you would get bogged down in a quagmire of words! But I truly enjoyed reading each and every one of them. And I see that I have some new followers! Welcome! So happy to "meet" you and I have enjoyed making my way around to see your blogs. Always so much inspiration.
Well, the pork roast is in the crock pot, blog post done and house clean (somewhat), so I think that I'm going to go sew. I hope that everyone has a great weekend!!!
The Homecoming dance went well except for the fact that it rained cats, dogs and small children that day and night so we couldn't get pictures of the event outside with all the beautiful fall colors. But here are a couple of the cute couple taken at Max's house where everyone met. Catie had a wonderful time even with the boot and I think that it definitely was a time to remember. They didn't go to any parties after as seems to be the norm these days (praise the heavens above), but opted to play X-box instead. Gotta love them.
I didn't get the best pictures, but here are just a couple. The pinning of the boutonniere - get a load of that tongue. Reminds me of when she was so little sitting in the kitchen chair deep in concentration when coloring (when did you get so grown up?):
The boot doesn't look too bad, does it? She decided not to decorate it as she felt there was enough bling on the bodice of the dress - probably a good choice.
And Catie acting the fool, as always. Max has a look like, "Here she goes again!"
In other news around here - well not much - sad, but true. I honestly don't know where time goes sometimes. But once I got over my feelings of choking or doing someone bodily harm and felt that I could be trusted with sharp implements like scissors, needles, rotary cutters and the like, I accomplished a little bit on what seems to be the three never ending projects. Are you getting bored of these yet? But I'm having fun with all of them and haven't tossed them aside yet. Not that I'm not dreaming of what comes next and having moments filled with thoughts of starting new things, but I'm actually restraining myself - for once!!
First up - the Cotton Club - three rows down, two to go:
Oops - I shot this picture from the wrong end and it looks like I've got upside down basket blocks. Well you get the picture anyway. I thought that I'd fly through these rows, but not the case. Trying to put these rows together and then get them to match up where the red and brown meets the tan and pieced block is hard even on a good day. Don't know what is up with that.
Charlotte is moving along at a slow pace. Don't know what's up with that either. Well, yes I do, I haven't been putting as much time into her as I would like too. The only nights I seemed to get much done was during the Championship games and World Series games with our beloved Tigers!! Unfortunately, they lost the first two games in the World Series against San Francisco, but I've stayed up until the bitter end. Fingers crossed - there are more games to be played!! And while watching the games I made it to the half way point on Charlotte (with the exception of the over one words - I need to be in the mood to have my eyes cross for half the night putting those in).
I love that couple in Eden:
In fact, I love working on entire this piece, but made a major boo-boo. Am I fixing it - NOPE!!
It's the vase - it's levitating - and it's not suppose to. Guess I've been out of school too long and no longer seem to be able to count! When I got down to the bottom of the vase it wasn't sitting on the grass as charted. BUT, would you have known that unless I told you? Probably not (except for those of you who have stitched it), so this is my spin on being creative and making the piece my own. Sounds good, doesn't it?? And Charlotte will never know, will she? I just have to remember to do the vase on the other side of the tree the same way - better write a post it note so that I don't forget!
And then there are the baskets - the never ending baskets. I managed to get a few finished up over the past few weeks - only 16 blocks - but better than nothing. This tends to be my carry along project when I'm waiting on something - like doctors - so I don't get as many finished in a week that I had hoped to.
And all the blocks so far:
46 baskets out of......gulp..........about 300.......I guess I better get my you-know-what moving. But there are more waiting in the wings. I have about 40 baskets on backgrounds, probably 100 ironed onto fabric (maybe more) and some more waiting to be starched - it's quite a process, but so much fun:
I don't think I'll ever get sick of this quilt - I am just loving all the red fabrics!!
So that's about all that is going on around here. I did manage to get out for one of my fall road trips this week and spent a wonderful time at a new quilt store and antiquing, but you know, I can't seem to get the pictures to come over from my phone to the computer. Well, I can, but then I seem to be at a loss as to posting them on the blog. I'll have to wait for one of the kids to be around to post them. They've told me how to before, but you know.........must have lost some brain cells with my rage of a couple weeks ago!! LOL I'll save them for next time.
Again, thank you for all your wonderful comments. I truly thought that you would get bogged down in a quagmire of words! But I truly enjoyed reading each and every one of them. And I see that I have some new followers! Welcome! So happy to "meet" you and I have enjoyed making my way around to see your blogs. Always so much inspiration.
Well, the pork roast is in the crock pot, blog post done and house clean (somewhat), so I think that I'm going to go sew. I hope that everyone has a great weekend!!!
Thursday, October 11, 2012
A Different Kind of Post (Mother Rage)
Okay, I just had to vent! You don't have to read this if you don't want to. But, the older I get the more crazed I become at the irresponsibility of businesses and doctors. But, just so you can see something creative, I'll show you my second Cotton Club row almost put together. I've been working on it today to calm myself down from all the stress of yesterday. But see the block second from the bottom - well, it's set going the wrong way. Am I changing it? NOPE! And just pretend I didn't say anything, okay?
So here goes the rant. See this dress - beautiful dress right (it's really beautiful on)? Well, getting this dress was an exhausting exercise. This is DD's Homecoming dress. Homecoming is two days away. Why are we getting a Homecoming Dress three days before the event? Well, this dress wasn't her first choice. And here's the story.
About a month or so ago DD borrowed another dress from a friend. She didn't want a new dress, she wanted to wear her friend's dress. It looked darling on her and I'm thinking I don't have to buy a dress - score!!. So I took it to the cleaners. It was due back Friday. I go in Friday and dress is not ready - hasn't been touched in all the time it's been sitting there. They say that it has to be spot cleaned. Please pick up Tuesday. Okay, but why wasn't I called about this? And why haven't you started on the dress??? No answers. Just some mumbling. I tell them that I have to have the dress on Tuesday. If there is a problem please call me.
So yesterday I pull my body out of bed (I've been fighting some kind of stomach virus thing and just wanted to sleep in yesterday) and I run to do a couple errands - produce market for reinforcements for the troops and lunchmeat for DD because she hates school lunches. I'm on a tight schedule that morning and my foot is tapping because I swear they could have sliced up a cow in the time it took to give me three packets of lunchmeat. I run and collect other things, but I think that the senior citizen bus had their weekly drop off and I'm dodging people all over the place - it takes me forever . Okay, I do the yoga calming breaths and just keep going! The scanner acts up in the check-out line - more deep breaths! I leave there - stop and fill up my gas tank (where I have to wait in line some more and take more breaths), and then drive to the dry cleaners only to be told that the dress can't be cleaned or even spot cleaned. Okay, now I'm having trouble doing those cleansing breaths. I'm starting to hyperventilate!! WE'RE FOUR DAYS BEFORE HOMECOMING PEOPLE!!! AND MAY I ASK WHY YOU DIDN'T CALL ME ABOUT THIS??? WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THAT LAST WEEK??? IS YOUR PHONE BROKEN??? (yes, I actually said that). I feel some kind of rage within me. Mr. Dry Cleaner says he'll try washing it if I sign off on it. I sign off, telling him I MUST have the dress like yesterday!! He tells me to call at 4:00 and I'm back in the car (with thoughts of driving through his storefront), fly into the house and am tossing lunchmeat and produce in all directions in the refrigerator because I have to pick up DD for her foot doctor appointment like five minutes ago.
DD and I drive to the doctors and I tell her about the dress. She starts freaking out. And I'm freaking out watching her freak out! This is her first real date - I want it to be perfect. We get to the doctors where we promptly wait ONE AND ONE HALF HOURS!!! We're both sitting there freaking out about the dress, mad at the doctor for taking so long and she's starving. We decide she won't go back to school (for which she was happy) and we would get something to eat and try to calm ourselves down. After waiting for ONE AND A HALF HOURS, I walk to the door, fling it open, take a step out and am ready to confront the first person that walks by the door with my teeth bared and an arthritic joint model in my hand (not really) only to just about knock the doctor to the floor. Neither one of are pleased at this event. There are no apologies on his part and I'm about ready to pick up one of those joint models and sock him with it (I must mention that I did pick it up a couple times and swung it around just to test the heft and weight while waiting for him in case I snapped and used it on someone).
Dr. Slower-than-Molasses shows us the MRI and it definitely indicates that DD has broken her foot. Prognosis - 4 more weeks in the boot and crutches. Her face falls because now she has to sport a boot for Homecoming. Her assistant at school who carried her books had thrown her a "BOOT the BOOT" party for heaven's sake. Tears form in her eyes. We leave there both upset and are still freaking out about the dress. And she's starving and I have a flipping headache.
We drive to a fast food place (no endorsements here because I HATE fast food) and the food calms her down. The Mountain Dew she drinks sparks her back up and she's freaking about the dress again. So, we drive to the nearest mall because, you know, if we don't find something, that darned friend's dress is going to disintegrate at the dry cleaners (law of averages, right?). Now the closest mall - well, it's about a mile long if you go the whole circuit - which we do - because we can't find anything. She's worn out - a mile on crutches is not a good thing, and my headache is about at maximum velocity. Did I mention that this dress had to be either black, white or a combination of the two? Because the other dress was black and white? We found a lot of wonderful things in other colors, but her date had already ordered her corsage - they were going to be color coordinated - they had ideas as to how they wanted to look - so only black and white would do. OY!
DD is disappointed and hesitantly asked if we can go to another store. I basically want to lay in the parking lot and let someone run over me before I drive to another store - preferably one of the shuttle buses - but I tell her okay as we really have no other choice, so we get in the car and start driving across town. While on the way her friend that owns the original dress calls and while talking to Catie tells us that the store that we're driving to is closed. OMG, OMG!!! But there is one down Hall Road. Well, Hall Road is like taking your life in your hands during rush hour. But what are you going to do?
So we brave the traffic, get to the store, look all over and can't find anything. But wait - mom is digging into this ridicuously stuffed rack of dresses and I find one. DD screws up her nose. I say PLEASE, TRY IT ON, PLEASE. (please try this dress on before I start overturning racks in here and completely embarrass you and get myself arrested for going on some kind of crazed rage). She does, and she opens the dressing room door and there is a big smile on her face - brighter than the beads on the dress. She loves it. And I'm almost on my knees thanking the Gods above. She looks so pretty. We actually get 20% off the dress because I'm cranky, really cranky at this point because 1) no, they won't hold the dress and 2) no, the dress is not returnable! I'm about ready to go for the poor clerk's throat. Do we leave and hope Dress #1 made it through the cleaning process and if not, Dress #2 will be there tomorrow? No, I'm not taking that chance, so I point out two beads that are loose - one hanging by a thread (which I can easily fix but you don't tell them that), they give me the discount and then we're out the door.
I'm both breathing a sigh of relief and girding my loins for the harrowing trip back home. For the past six hours we've been on the go - we're tired and worn out. But wait - then DD reminds me that it's Spirit Week all week at school and tomorrow is Yellow day and we have to go to Joanne's for yellow things and we need Bedazzle stuff to spiff up her boot and......well, you get the picture. Joanne's was basically in the same parking lot so I said yes. She gets her things and while standing in the check out line I think that the whole ordeal caught up with us because she spotted a pair of those wax fangs in the checkout line at Joanne's and started laughing - laughing so hard that tears were coming to her eyes. I asked her what was so funny, and when she could finally calm down she said that she wished that I had a pair of those at the doctors office. She said that she had a vision of me baring those things when I opened the door and almost knocked the doctor over. Well, we ended up laughing so much over that people were looking at us quite strangely, but it certainly relieved the stress and made the whole day kind of laughable.
I collapse in a chair later and wondered why I ever signed up for this mom thing. While DD and DH are eating leftovers (I cooked way too much food the day before, thank goodness) and I'm eating a plain omelet and dry toast to make up for the bazillion calories I ingested with that fast food lunch, my headache finally eases, but I'm still kind of crazed over the doctor visit and the stupid dry cleaners not making a simple phone call. But then after dinner DD puts the dress on to model it and everything is okay. She looks beautiful, she's happy, and the boot doesn't look bad after all - kind of a cute fashion statement. And I realize then why I signed up for the mom gig! Seeing her smiling face in that black dress was worth every exhausting minute. So I'm calm now.
But we see the doctor in a few weeks - I don't forget easily! LOL And of course, as luck would have it, we picked up Dress #1 the dress from the dry cleaners a short time ago and it came out perfect:
Now she doesn't know which one to wear. I vote for the black and white, but both are cute on her.
So rant over. We'll return to our regularly scheduled programming in a couple days. I know that this isn't my normal post, but I thought that it would be fun to record this on my blog and look back on this time at some point- a big time in my daughter's life - and smile again about the whole thing. A big thank you if you made it this far! I'll post pictures of her all dressed up and made up next week. I'll also have some more stitching and quilting things too. But I just had to rant!!!
So here goes the rant. See this dress - beautiful dress right (it's really beautiful on)? Well, getting this dress was an exhausting exercise. This is DD's Homecoming dress. Homecoming is two days away. Why are we getting a Homecoming Dress three days before the event? Well, this dress wasn't her first choice. And here's the story.
About a month or so ago DD borrowed another dress from a friend. She didn't want a new dress, she wanted to wear her friend's dress. It looked darling on her and I'm thinking I don't have to buy a dress - score!!. So I took it to the cleaners. It was due back Friday. I go in Friday and dress is not ready - hasn't been touched in all the time it's been sitting there. They say that it has to be spot cleaned. Please pick up Tuesday. Okay, but why wasn't I called about this? And why haven't you started on the dress??? No answers. Just some mumbling. I tell them that I have to have the dress on Tuesday. If there is a problem please call me.
So yesterday I pull my body out of bed (I've been fighting some kind of stomach virus thing and just wanted to sleep in yesterday) and I run to do a couple errands - produce market for reinforcements for the troops and lunchmeat for DD because she hates school lunches. I'm on a tight schedule that morning and my foot is tapping because I swear they could have sliced up a cow in the time it took to give me three packets of lunchmeat. I run and collect other things, but I think that the senior citizen bus had their weekly drop off and I'm dodging people all over the place - it takes me forever . Okay, I do the yoga calming breaths and just keep going! The scanner acts up in the check-out line - more deep breaths! I leave there - stop and fill up my gas tank (where I have to wait in line some more and take more breaths), and then drive to the dry cleaners only to be told that the dress can't be cleaned or even spot cleaned. Okay, now I'm having trouble doing those cleansing breaths. I'm starting to hyperventilate!! WE'RE FOUR DAYS BEFORE HOMECOMING PEOPLE!!! AND MAY I ASK WHY YOU DIDN'T CALL ME ABOUT THIS??? WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THAT LAST WEEK??? IS YOUR PHONE BROKEN??? (yes, I actually said that). I feel some kind of rage within me. Mr. Dry Cleaner says he'll try washing it if I sign off on it. I sign off, telling him I MUST have the dress like yesterday!! He tells me to call at 4:00 and I'm back in the car (with thoughts of driving through his storefront), fly into the house and am tossing lunchmeat and produce in all directions in the refrigerator because I have to pick up DD for her foot doctor appointment like five minutes ago.
DD and I drive to the doctors and I tell her about the dress. She starts freaking out. And I'm freaking out watching her freak out! This is her first real date - I want it to be perfect. We get to the doctors where we promptly wait ONE AND ONE HALF HOURS!!! We're both sitting there freaking out about the dress, mad at the doctor for taking so long and she's starving. We decide she won't go back to school (for which she was happy) and we would get something to eat and try to calm ourselves down. After waiting for ONE AND A HALF HOURS, I walk to the door, fling it open, take a step out and am ready to confront the first person that walks by the door with my teeth bared and an arthritic joint model in my hand (not really) only to just about knock the doctor to the floor. Neither one of are pleased at this event. There are no apologies on his part and I'm about ready to pick up one of those joint models and sock him with it (I must mention that I did pick it up a couple times and swung it around just to test the heft and weight while waiting for him in case I snapped and used it on someone).
Dr. Slower-than-Molasses shows us the MRI and it definitely indicates that DD has broken her foot. Prognosis - 4 more weeks in the boot and crutches. Her face falls because now she has to sport a boot for Homecoming. Her assistant at school who carried her books had thrown her a "BOOT the BOOT" party for heaven's sake. Tears form in her eyes. We leave there both upset and are still freaking out about the dress. And she's starving and I have a flipping headache.
We drive to a fast food place (no endorsements here because I HATE fast food) and the food calms her down. The Mountain Dew she drinks sparks her back up and she's freaking about the dress again. So, we drive to the nearest mall because, you know, if we don't find something, that darned friend's dress is going to disintegrate at the dry cleaners (law of averages, right?). Now the closest mall - well, it's about a mile long if you go the whole circuit - which we do - because we can't find anything. She's worn out - a mile on crutches is not a good thing, and my headache is about at maximum velocity. Did I mention that this dress had to be either black, white or a combination of the two? Because the other dress was black and white? We found a lot of wonderful things in other colors, but her date had already ordered her corsage - they were going to be color coordinated - they had ideas as to how they wanted to look - so only black and white would do. OY!
DD is disappointed and hesitantly asked if we can go to another store. I basically want to lay in the parking lot and let someone run over me before I drive to another store - preferably one of the shuttle buses - but I tell her okay as we really have no other choice, so we get in the car and start driving across town. While on the way her friend that owns the original dress calls and while talking to Catie tells us that the store that we're driving to is closed. OMG, OMG!!! But there is one down Hall Road. Well, Hall Road is like taking your life in your hands during rush hour. But what are you going to do?
So we brave the traffic, get to the store, look all over and can't find anything. But wait - mom is digging into this ridicuously stuffed rack of dresses and I find one. DD screws up her nose. I say PLEASE, TRY IT ON, PLEASE. (please try this dress on before I start overturning racks in here and completely embarrass you and get myself arrested for going on some kind of crazed rage). She does, and she opens the dressing room door and there is a big smile on her face - brighter than the beads on the dress. She loves it. And I'm almost on my knees thanking the Gods above. She looks so pretty. We actually get 20% off the dress because I'm cranky, really cranky at this point because 1) no, they won't hold the dress and 2) no, the dress is not returnable! I'm about ready to go for the poor clerk's throat. Do we leave and hope Dress #1 made it through the cleaning process and if not, Dress #2 will be there tomorrow? No, I'm not taking that chance, so I point out two beads that are loose - one hanging by a thread (which I can easily fix but you don't tell them that), they give me the discount and then we're out the door.
I'm both breathing a sigh of relief and girding my loins for the harrowing trip back home. For the past six hours we've been on the go - we're tired and worn out. But wait - then DD reminds me that it's Spirit Week all week at school and tomorrow is Yellow day and we have to go to Joanne's for yellow things and we need Bedazzle stuff to spiff up her boot and......well, you get the picture. Joanne's was basically in the same parking lot so I said yes. She gets her things and while standing in the check out line I think that the whole ordeal caught up with us because she spotted a pair of those wax fangs in the checkout line at Joanne's and started laughing - laughing so hard that tears were coming to her eyes. I asked her what was so funny, and when she could finally calm down she said that she wished that I had a pair of those at the doctors office. She said that she had a vision of me baring those things when I opened the door and almost knocked the doctor over. Well, we ended up laughing so much over that people were looking at us quite strangely, but it certainly relieved the stress and made the whole day kind of laughable.
I collapse in a chair later and wondered why I ever signed up for this mom thing. While DD and DH are eating leftovers (I cooked way too much food the day before, thank goodness) and I'm eating a plain omelet and dry toast to make up for the bazillion calories I ingested with that fast food lunch, my headache finally eases, but I'm still kind of crazed over the doctor visit and the stupid dry cleaners not making a simple phone call. But then after dinner DD puts the dress on to model it and everything is okay. She looks beautiful, she's happy, and the boot doesn't look bad after all - kind of a cute fashion statement. And I realize then why I signed up for the mom gig! Seeing her smiling face in that black dress was worth every exhausting minute. So I'm calm now.
But we see the doctor in a few weeks - I don't forget easily! LOL And of course, as luck would have it, we picked up Dress #1 the dress from the dry cleaners a short time ago and it came out perfect:
Now she doesn't know which one to wear. I vote for the black and white, but both are cute on her.
So rant over. We'll return to our regularly scheduled programming in a couple days. I know that this isn't my normal post, but I thought that it would be fun to record this on my blog and look back on this time at some point- a big time in my daughter's life - and smile again about the whole thing. A big thank you if you made it this far! I'll post pictures of her all dressed up and made up next week. I'll also have some more stitching and quilting things too. But I just had to rant!!!
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