Saturday, November 29, 2008

stitching for a cure

I came across a request to stitch ornaments for an auction to raise money to cure cancer. Here is the site with more information. Be sure to check out the sidebard which has the patterns to use. I am going to make some in the coming months. We have 48 weeks till the auction-I should be able to stitch up a few! We've all known someone who has been touched by cancer. Please check out Donna's site! http://stitchingforacure.blogspot.com/2008/11/nov-4th.html

Friday, November 21, 2008

I hit the jackpot!!

The unit I work on is quite acute and I'm not as rested as I would like. I got up and was ready to leave for work around 11:45 pm and saw a box addressed to me! I recognized the sender and as excited as I was, I decided to wait until I got back from work and use this as a reward. Well- as my post says "I hit the jackpot!" Here's what was in my box- it was a blogoversary drawing I won from Daffycat and I could hardly believe my eyes! Note - the fabric is part of the bonanza!


Look how adorable the buttons are!


I have never used tassles and now I have them - I have ideas already. I'm all excited to use all my new toys. Thank you Sharon!!! This was a wonderful surprise. I told Sharon in an email how I have read blogs and have seen all the wonderful packages people have received. Prior to this, I had received my PIF from Staci which was wonderful and Sharon's was my second package from a cross stitcher. Seeing people's blogs never conveyed to me how exciting it is to get a surprise in the mail. So, thank you once again for making my day! Happy blogoversary to you once again.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!



Our city has an extensive family service center (Hillside Children's Center) which includes residential facilities for teens, emergency housing, crisis intervention, family services and group homes. Many of the residents have been patients on the floor where I work. Each year they run a program called Special Santas to help the 4,000 families they serve (approximately 6,000 individuals). The ages are typically 11-18 years old - and often a forgotten group at the holidays. Everyone loves to buy for the little ones and teens are lost in the shuffle. This is a program we like to support and we can chose names of kids who have their requests written on cards. We had a ball doing some early Christmas shopping!! Here are the gifts all ready to be tagged and delivered!

Monday, November 17, 2008

Monday, Monday

How can it be snowing and it's only November??? It's ROCHESTER NY- that's why! I tell you - we have more winter than I can stand. It starts now and ends sometime around May. See the sunshine in the photo? That was just a tease!! Clouds came right over and started dropping snow.....

Here is the progress I'm making on my Cattitudes. I changed the colors on the kitty to make it more like Sweetie. I am going to try to make some progress on it in between doing my day off chores.
Have a great day! Enjoy any nice weather you are having for me! I appreciate your comments- thanks for being great blog friends.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Almost Friday

I didn't think it was this long since I posted, but I have decided that I can't take good photos to save my soul. I use a Kodak Easy share and it seems like when I photograph stitched pieces, they come out with weird lines and some of the fabric looks distorted. I have tried using museum setting and it isn't much better. I see other people's photos and they're so perfect. I need to have a tutorial. My son said maybe I'm too close. I'm just baffled. Consequently, there will be no pictures in this post until I am less aggravated with my camera.

I've gotten in the cooking mood - have been making meatloaf, homemade spaghetti sauce with meatballs, banana bread and right now a banana bread with chocolate chips is in the oven. The day after the first banana bread was baked, my son announced - I'm eating the whole banana bread today! I guess the new recipe I tried is a good one! I've been looking for a really good banana bread. I won't make it for a long time and then forget which recipe was good. The fact that I was still looking probably means I didn't come across the perfect one. This one's a keeper - very moist and dense. YUMMY!

I am plugging away at my Cattitudes. I started adding some of the face and eyes- the cat looked demented. I was going more for a sweet look. Ripped out the face- the kitty is much cuter now. Since this is a piece I'm actually keeping for myself, I had to have the face one I wanted to look at without saying "the eyes are weird!". I have succeeded. Now that the cat has a face, it has some personality and I want to keep going to get it finished soon.

I dragged out an old piece I never framed. I guess I'll post the horrible photo of it if my camera cord will allow me to upload. Much to my horror, there was a big stain like a water stain on much of it. I have tried soaking and various products to remove the stain. It's faintly visible in the photograph. It won't show in the frame I have. There is also a little rust spot or some foreign spot on thereflection and I might just pull out the stitches and redo it if I can find a matching thread. The piece is the skyline of Rochester NY where I live. It was going to be for my husband (many years ago......) Why oh why didn't I frame it when it was intact??

Another thing I noticed is my stitching isn't as even as now. It was an early piece and I used 3 strands which was too much and sort of distorted the buildings when I backstitched. I didn't think there would be a difference in my stitching then and today, but this is proof that there certainly is a difference but might not be as noticeable in the pic - of course the whole pic stinks, so what's the difference???



This brings me to another issue - do you wash your pieces before you frame/finish them? I used to always do that and recently I haven't. I am noticing that the hoop marks don't always seem to iron out and I think the real issue is the fabric is very slightly soiled inside the hoop area and it isn't creases at all. Maybe I'll go back to washing.

It's dismal here. It has rained for days and the sun has been behind the clouds with the reminder of how grey it is here for months at a time come fall/winter. It's downright depressing at times!

I hope your lives are happy and busy!! Thank you for stopping by! I love your comments so thank you for taking the time to leave one!

Monday, November 3, 2008

I did it!

I did it! I tried a new finish. It's my first cube and I really enjoyed making it. Now I want to make more of these. I like their portability. You can put it where you want and it is easily stored. I can't wait to make another. The photo doesn't reflect the color very well, but the fabric really is more purple than blue. My other pieces are now jealous and want to be finished.....

Sunday, November 2, 2008

I was tagged!

Shel tagged me - I have to tell you 6 random things about myself....hmmmm.....

1. I have never smoked a cigarette!
2. I never liked watching football until Doug Flutie became the Buffalo Bills QB. I thought he was adorable and have been watching the games ever since.
3. I have always wanted to learn how to do a cartwheel but never succeeded
4. I could whistle when I was only 18 months old.
5. I've never gotten a parking ticket.
6. I've never broken a bone or needed stitches.

I won't tag anyone specific, but I hope someone will choose to do this - I love reading other people's random facts!

Here it is!

Here is oldest son (and Sweetie) who had the photo transfer cord - he thought it was his MP3 player. Mystery solved. Amen.
Here is the lapghan I finished. Still not sure where it will end up ultimately!

Here we are able to get an extra hour of sleep changing back to standard time and I can't sleep!! I should be cross stitching, but I know what happens when I stitch in the wee hours!

Saturday, November 1, 2008

ARGHH!!

I have photos to share and my cord to transfer to the computer is gone. . I don't even know how this is possible as I live with ADULTS! Ok, I'm discounting the kitties as the perpetrators but maybe I am being hasty!

I'll update you anyway! My ARGH is twofold (the first you already know). The second is that I worked like a fiend to complete the lapghan for the Christmas project organized by Soldiers Angels due date. They requested 25,000 hand made lap robes to distribute to veterans at Christmas. I finished and called the local contact person and she said "We don't need any." Not only did they not need any, she was unaware that the Angels had this project going. On the bright side, I now have a little lap robe to wear when I'm sitting at the computer and the heat has gone off late at night! Most likely I'll take it over to the nursing home where my mother is living and see if they can use it. There are all sorts of charities that can use these items.

Today while I was at the grocery store, there was a woman sampling one of the soups. I immediately had to have soup! I got all the ingredients and got it going in the crock pot. Yum.... hamburger soup. It was lovely and warm for Halloween, but today it's brisk and definitely soup weather!

My day was so lovely - I just love days like these. I went to Curves first thing and that was great. I stopped off at the library and they had a book on hold for me - perfect. I also had a few interactions with some older folks and it was so uplifting. The library isn't a common place for people to strike up conversations. I also ran into a fellow teacher from the school where I used to work - that was fun, too. I got all my Halloween decorations put away and am on to Thanksgiving. I just love thanksgiving. My Halloween collection is witches and for Thanksgiving I have a nice collection of turkeys and pilgrims. I love Thanksgiving best. We are together with our loved ones and it's a no stress holiday in my opinion. I love Christmas too, but it comes with a lot of energy expended! How can you not love a holiday that has pies!

Hope you are all safe and happy! Thanks for stopping by! Love your comments!