Flowers for Lindsay :o)

Lindsay wasn't sure what lantana was so here is a close-up. I wouldn't think it is a popular plant in England being a rather cool wet climate. Lantana thrives in hot, dry weather. It attracts butterflies and hummingbirds. Some winters are mild enough that it grows back next year but all of mine died out this year. It comes in two different varieties...upright and spreading and several different colors such as white, lavender, pink, yellow and orange. It makes a lovely display in mass plantings. I'll try to remember to take a picture later in the summer after it has filled in.

More garden party

This is the bed we finished this morning. Not much to look at but a baby shrub! There are flowers (moss rose and lantana) scattered about around the baby shrub but they aren't really blooming yet. I also planted some lavender in this one. I've always wanted lavender! Until planting this I never realized that lavender plants smell like lavender, it's not just the flowers!

Here is the rest of the back of the house.
Here is the front of our house. In the circle around the lamp is lantana. I plant flowers that attract butterflies and to survive the Oklahoma heat and drought. My dad asked me last Saturday as we were shopping, "What, more lantana?" I replied, "Yes...I love butterflies!"
By the way, all the pictures should be clickable.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my home!

Garden party

A few photos of what I have been up to since I've been stitching the exchange project and can't show you that...

I've been gardening! Here is Sheba refusing to look at the camera. This is on the back patio where we have been spending a good deal of time; the weather has been lovely!

The view from the dining table on the back patio.

Last Saturday I spent all day in landscaping shops buying plants and flowers! On Sunday Rick and I had a MARATHON gardening session getting them planted. I was so sore afterward but the results are very nice. Above is one bed we completely redid with new shrubs and flowers. I wish I'd thought to take some "before" pictures.
I moved some hosta from another bed into the one along the front of the house and also planted caladium bulbs which are already beginning to sprout up. Rick swears you could go out and measure their growth every hour.

Every garden needs a good guard gnome!

Floss Mom RAK

I have received word the RAK to my flosskid Clare has arrived so I can finally show pictures! I made Clare a scissor fob using designs from Cross Country Stitching magazine. It really turned out sweet. If this didn't have Clare's name on it I would have kept it for myself...lol!

Itching to blog but had nothing to post about lately.

I have been stitching like a fiend on my Fair & Square exchange...can't show that, yet. It should be ready to mail out soon...then I will post some photos when Joan has received it!

RAK from Crazybeads

There was a mysterious envelope with my name on it from 123-Stitch. What could it be? I hadn't ordered anything. Had I? I wouldn't be surprised to find myself ordering something and not remembering! I opened it up to find this...

The Prairie Schooler In The Woods

Barb, my flosskid in Australia, had seen this chart in my wish list and granted my wish! She wrote: "Just because you're my flossmom." I was speechless! How awesome is that? Jessie has already claimed the squirrel if I stitch it.

Thank you very much Barb! You are the greatest!

Fair & Square Exchange

I was starting to fix dinner and Rick came in from the mailbox with what Patternnuts calls a puffy! I had a puffy envelope addressed to me and it was my Fair and Square 4th of July exchange from Joan! Yippee!

Here are the wonderful squares she stitched. Look close at the way she stitched the personalised square...isn't it darling?
Here are all the lovely goodies...Joan made a project bag and tuck pillow with firecrackers. She sent some of the fabric used in these. She also made some teardrop floss holders and the cutest chicken pincushion ever! She sent a holiday pin and a flag-painted bucket, some York mints, sweet holiday ribbon and a sample of lotion.
A close-up of the tuck and chicken. Too cute! Wasn't I spoiled?

Thank you so much, Joan!

I've been working on my return exchange to Joan but I doubt I can top what she has sent to me. Oh...dinner was Chicken Parmigiana with spaghetti and steamed cauliflower. It was late but pretty tasty! Super easy too...email me and I'll send you the recipe.

Our Tulsa Talons won last night against the Manchester Wolves. It was a rough game, a comedy of errors to be exact but we scratched, clawed and bit our way to a last-second victory. Whew, I am too out of shape for that much excitement!

SBQ for 05/14/08

This week's SBQ is:

For seasoned stitchers: Define a stitching term or acronym for new stitchers.

For newbies: What stitching term or acronym would you like defined?

I like the term ORT. This means Old Ratty Threads...you know~the little thread ends you snip off. Some stitchers keep a container of some sort to put their ORTs in. I use a jar. There are even ORT containers on the market now!

Just for fun, that is my ORT jar above!

Do you keep ORTs?

AIRMAIL

I always love seeing AIRMAIL on an envelope! Here is my "floss" Mother's Day card from Barb in Australia. She stitched the card and made a little matching bookmark with the cutest little kitty. Can you see the teeny little bead eyes? It's in my favorite colors too! SWEET!

I really love this! Thank you, Barb!

A Day Off

I had the day off work. I had to visit the dentist but it was just a cleaning so no worries. I've lazed around all day enjoying having little to do! I even had a wee nap.

I've started my Fair & Square exchange piece for Joan S. I hope it stitches up quickly so I can send it soon. I have until June 2nd to send but I'm always too excited to put exchanges off! This ones was driving me batty having to wait until that pinkeep was finished!

Jess was quite miffed that I completely forgot to mention her Mother's Day giftie to me...a gift certificate to The Silver Needle! It's tucked into my purse ready for some stash shopping the next time we go to Tulsa. Which will probably be June 7th for the next Talons game. Who can afford the gas? Can I wait that long? It's burning a hole already!

Speaking of the Talons...we beat the Dorados. They gave us a great game too. Our record is now 7-0!!!

Happy Mother's Day

I've had a fun and busy Mother's Day. I had a card yesterday from Barb in OZ; I'll try to post a picture early tomorrow...it's really cute and I'm eager to share. Barb, I know I owe you an email but every time I think about it I'm already in bed and the computer is turned off! I'm writing myself a note...

I also had ecards and emails from flosskids and I just found out I won the Flossmoms Mother's Day giveaway! I was nominated by my flosskid StressedStitcher AKA Rachael. Thank you, Rachael! You are such a great kid too! Rachael and I both won gift certificates to Patterns Online! How cool is that?

We went to Edmond to visit with family and (of course) see my mom. She loved the pinkeep as I knew she would and we cooked out hamburgers & hotdogs. It was a really fun day.

I hope all you mothers out there had as nice a day as I had!

Pinkeep finish photo

Here is a picture of the finished pinkeep. I seriously need more practice at finishing...and a bit of photography skills wouldn't come amiss either! It was murder keeping the birdhouse poles straight and getting it centered. I think mom will like it and dad assures me she hasn't been snooping on my blog of late.

This cutie is from the Leisure Arts book Something for Every Season. It's the design Birdhouse Bookmarks (#2) by Jane Chandler. I stitched this in DMC on 32 count Belfast linen hand dyed by myself.

I was so freaked out by the spider last Thursday I completely forgot to mention that I visited vampires...I donated blood for the first time! We had a blood drive at work and we weren't very busy so I had a go. It wasn't bad at all~I am not afraid of needles or the like. The teeny needle mark on my inner elbow is nothing compared to the dark bruise on the back of my arm where the blood pressure cuff pinched the dickens out of me! I'll definitely go donate again.

It's another Talons home game Saturday! We play the Rio Grande Valley Dorados. I've no idea what a dorado is??? This will be our last home game until June 7th. I'm sure Rick and I will be in arena football withdrawal by then. We usually listen to the away games on the radio or watch on the Internet but it's still not as good as in person. A note on something weird; I told Rick that Jeff Hughley was my hunny and Rick said Hughley was his hunny too...

The house needs cleaning, a F&S exchange needs to be started, the cat needs feeding...

Quickie

OK, I have (just now) finished the pinkeep. It looks all right ~ it was good practice for my finishing skills but I do wish it were better. I am terrible at adding trim & bows! No photo yet. It's too dark to take decent pictures indoors with my camera. I should be able to get a snap up for you in the morning.

Yay, it's finished! Now I can work on my Fair and Square exchange piece. I've been wiggling to start it but the Mother's Day deadline was first up. I really, really like the chart I've chosen and I am sad I cannot show you pictures of the WIP. I will be sure to share when it's been received!

A not so nice surprise

Rick is doing yard work and I'm putting the pinkeep together when he calls me to the back door. I can tell from the tone of his voice that it's not just an "I wanna see you" type of come here. It was a "somethings wrong" kind. He'd moved some stuff on the patio and found this:

A Black Widow spider. Just what we want to see this early in the season! I still have the creeps and can feel imaginary spiders crawling on me!
Um, Rick took care of her; sort of...

I'm afraid we find these rather often around our house. Outside, usually...only once was the spider inside the house. Do you want to hear the story?

I used to keep a large aquarium and would test the water quality every week. The test kits were stored in a shoe box under the tank in the cabinet. The box had holes on each end and I'd always poke my thumb in the hole to lift the box. One Saturday, as I was getting the box out...I thought I felt filter floss (kind of like fiber fill) and kept wiggling my thumb thinking, "I don't remember putting any in here." When I got to the kitchen sink, I set the box down and opened the lid. Imagine my horror to find I'd been skootching my thumb all around in a black widow's web! The spider sat in the middle of the web; horrified itself by all the thumb skootching.

I sat down right on the floor and called Jessie. She checked the box I was pointing at...I couldn't breathe...and was quite concerned I'd been bitten. No, I was just very faint. Once I could stand up again we took care of her, well, sort of! I never picked up my test kit box with my thumb again.

Wet & Wild Wednesday

It's wet because it has rained all day...wild because I made salsa. Care to taste? I also made faux fajita quesadillas for dinner. To go with the salsa, of course! Fake fajitas because I can't afford real fajita meat so I use fajita-seasoned ground beef. Hey, it works and turns out pretty darn tasty too!

Yum!

I am nearly finished with the birdhouses. There are now flowers and ivy vines going up the poles! No picture because I really need to get back to stitching...I'd like to have the pinkeep ready before the big day!

I sure wish you'd share this salsa with me...

WIP continues

MOTHER'S DAY

SPOILER ALERT!

Mom, if you are reading this,

please go away

for a few more days!

Here is where I'm at today. The design has only minimal backstitching so I should be able to finish the stitching tonight or tomorrow. Then, to assemble the pinkeep. I'll post a completed project picture when I'm finished.

Thanks for all the great comments! I've been really chuffed to post and itching to stitch the past few days and I'm sure it's because of your wonderful support.

***hugs***

Bloomin' Monday

Pretty flowers are in my garden for Spring. The hummingbirds have finally started showing up regularly. I still haven't spotted the oriole. It will soon be 100 degrees and I'll be wishing for Winter again but for now...it is nice.

Becky recently had a giveaway on her blog...stash to the first 30 posters and I was #30! Lovely stash arrived in the mail this afternoon.

Thank you, Becky!!!

Stitchy Sunday

First thing, let me introduce everyone to a new stitchy blogger! Meet Lisa! Please go visit her new blog and wish her well in her new adventure! BTW, She's got cute cows...

Today I plan to do little more than stitch. It was a very busy day on Saturday so I'm going to be selfish today. I finished most of my household chores yesterday morning so I wouldn't have all of it to do today! Just some laundry left to do...yay!

I made it to the Silver Needle for my needed stash. ~That answers Lisa's question!~ I picked up the threads I needed~not shown in the photo since they are for an exchange. I also got a few things that caught my eye...oh dear! The blue quarter of fabric is for the backing on the pinkeep in my last post...do you think it suits? I didn't think to bring my piece with yesterday... I couldn't resist the LHN charts after seeing them stitched up on others' blogs. The Trilogy charts are simply darling and I wants-ed thems. *grin*

I had to get the Knotted Tree's Star of David Topiary for my sister even though it's charted to stitch in silks~and I can't use silk. I am substituting the Silk 'n Color's thread Midnight Cobalt for Weeks Dye Works Father's Day. I hope that works! By the way, I am not Jewish but my sister is and I cannot resist charts that suit her!

After stash shopping Rick took me to the Olive Garden. Yum, we both ordered the Tour of Italy plate with lasagna, chicken Parmesan and fettucini alfredo. Best of all (well, not better than stash but...) OUR TALONS WON last nights game~woohoo! That puts our record at 6-0 as yet UNDEFEATED!!! ***happy dances around*** We finally received our Arena Cup Champions 2007 t-shirts last night. I'm washing them up right now.

Bye for now***I'm off to stitch. A big thanks to everyone leaving comments. You really, really make my day!

A new start

MOTHER'S DAY SPOILER ALERT!!! Mom, if you are reading this, please go away for a week. Thanks!

My mom has been asking for a little stitched something...inspiration hadn't struck until I spotted these little birdhouses. She keeps a little stand of birdhouses in her front garden that look very much like these! I started stitching last night and thought I'd give an update. Yay, I've been stitching! I think I'll finish this into a tall pinkeep.

I'm off to get ready to go to Tulsa. Hooray for STASH SHOPPING!!!

Friday eye candy

'nuff said.

Bit of a slump

I've hardly done any stitching the past ten days. I guess I'm in a little slump. One reason is I ordered a chart for an exchange and I'm really wanting to stitch it but it only arrived yesterday. I thought I had some threads that would work for it only to see the chart and decide I need different threads. Poo. I'm really excited to stitch this piece too!

I did put one full length into Peacock Cypher yesterday. Any progress is good, I suppose! No stitching yet today as life has gotten in the way. For example, I was dog-tired when I got home from work and took a two hour nap. Then, Supernatural is on tonight, another new episode! I luv this show so it's a must see for me; no stitching allowed...I'd either miss an important scene or end up frogging.

Saturday, we will go to Tulsa for the Talons vs. Battlewings game. A visit to the LNS will supply me with my needed threads and I'll start my exchange piece! My main problem will be not coming away with excess stash...