Progress

Isn't it about time I showed you some stitching? Earlier this month I finished the bottom row on Peacock Cypher. This is such an easy stitch...except for the fact that I'm stitching it in DMC instead of the called-for silks. There are a few different silks, all the same two colors, with different symbols for each in the pattern. When you stitch this with DMC it is just two colors but you have to remember that "these three symbols are all the same color" and then, we throw in some other stitch types, Smyrna & Mosaic ~ with different symbols yet. It takes some studying!

Some of you will be pleased to know I have been working on Snapper Year! I'm at least to the half-way point with the June block. Maybe I can catch up and have the months aligned? It was very relaxing to take a break from this for a few weeks. Now, I feel I have some enthusiasm for it again.

My mom is finally home from the hospital and doing well. I hear she feels better than she has in months and that is good news. Sheba had a visit to the veterinarian to look at her paw. The vet shaved the fur off so we could see the skin and it was healing. Sheba got an ointment called Lick~Guard that I put on her foot to help keep her from sucking it raw. (It kinda smells like dill pickles, except more stinky.) She has settled down now and save for rather scabby, bare toes she is fine!

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Short but heartfelt today. Rick & I are off to Tulsa for a romantic weekend. And I get to stash!

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Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

An RAK for me!

It's been a perfectly horrid week. How nice it was to arrive home one night to find a package in the mailbox with an RAK from Lei of And Sew it goes! Isn't this the most clever pincushion? And it's LADYBUGS ~ my favorite! This is so well put together and I can't even find where it was sewed together after stuffing. Magic, I tell you! This really & truly made my whole week, Lei. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I suppose I must tell you about this terrible week, since I've already mentioned it and don't want anyone to worry about me. Monday evening my mother was taken to the hospital having seizures. They discovered her potassium was below a fatal level. After a few hours she went into cardiac arrest and she was brought back with CPR and a jolt of electricity. They kept her in the cardiac ICU until Thursday evening and then moved her to a regular room. Now, we wait to see if they can discover why things went wrong and find out what's to be done. It has been a long week with driving to the city every day and spending long hours at the hospital. I was able to take a few days off work during the week so I could be there. My dad is just beside himself as you can imagine.

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I do apologise, the RAK in my last post has not gotten mailed yet. I will try to get it sent this week. The computer hasn't even been turned on until today. I have been moderating comments left on my blog from my iPhone and checking email from there too. If you are waiting on an email from me, I will get to it! It is going to be SCARY to open my reader; I am sure I will be overwhelmed with posts to read! I am going to try to get through a few of them today. You will excuse me if I don't leave many comments...

Poor Sheba has been bewildered with the stressful goings-on and I discovered a couple of days ago she has sucked her back foot until it is raw and bloody. She has always comfort-sucked her paws, just never like this! I have been washing it with a dab of shampoo in warm water, smearing it with antibacterial ointment and spraying it with bitter apple (a taste deterrent for dogs.) It looks a little better but she is fretting over it and I know she has still been sucking it when we are gone. I don't know how she stands the bitter apple! Pets are as bad as children when it comes to the worrying about them.

I will try to get back to my regular blogging routine as soon as possible. I really miss you all.

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

It ORT to be Autumn

Seriously? Isn't it time for Fall to be here? We had above average temperatures in April and below for May. Way above for June and so far July has been very rainy and below average, but still very warm. Up & down, up & down. Stop the roller coaster! I want off, already! I'm wishing for Autumn and cool temperatures. I love the colors and the scents of Fall, the cold nights and brisk mornings. Feeling the need for Autumn made me search out something to stitch that matched my mood. Then, when I saw this little crow & pumpkin, I knew it was meant to be an RAK! Yup, this pin pillow is being packed up and mailed this week to someone who reads this blog!

Edit: This RAK went to Lynn of Kearnel's Korner!

Design ~ Autumn Row (portion)

Designer ~ Bent Creek

Fabric ~ 28 count Lugana

Fiber ~ DMC

Finish ~ Pin Pillow stuffed with crushed walnut shells

On the back side, I stitched one of the crows over-one. The border of each side is Smyrna crosses worked over-four.

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If you would like to be on my list for a possible RAK (Random Act of Kindness) one day, just email me your mailing address. There is a link to my email in my sidebar ~ find the post-box picture. Anyone, anywhere is welcome! Only...I can't consider sending you a surprise if I don't have your address, right?

It's that time again! ORT time, I mean! The TU SAL continues. My ORT jar got a workout this round. There are threads from Snapper Year, an exchange ornament, Peacock Cypher and the RAK. Alas, my frog jar has plenty too! These are all frogged ORTs from the Christmas ornament in my last post. If you would like to join us in the stitch-a-long, grab a Totally Useless jar, save those Old Ratty Threads and post a photo of your jar at the new moon! There is also a link in my sidebar for information about the Totally Useless SAL.

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Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

I got really creative!

I had the most difficult time trying to decide on a stitch for Conny for our Ornament Swap. Nothing I looked at seemed to jump out and scream, "I'm for Conny!" I take that back...one design did do that but it wasn't a Christmas design. Bent Creek's Plum Berry Sampler kept saying, "Stitch me, stitch me!" But, with a big blue bird and purple "fancy" stitches, this definitely wasn't a Christmas design. But it...could be...so I stitched all the letters first. In green. And...realized that ONCE AGAIN Bent Creek had put in the WRONG KEY so I frogged all the green letters and re-stitched in tan. (This filled my new frog-jar, nicely!) Then, I stitched the birdie in red and gave him a top-knot to turn him into a Cardinal (the USA's traditional Christmas bird) and stitched the "fancy" stitches in red as well. After looking at it, I decided to frog the "C" and the "S" (our initials) and stitch those in red as a "little extra." Tiny red buttons made holly berries and voila, a Christmas design! I found this black-and-red-checked fabric in the remnant bin and it was a perfect match.

Design ~ Plum Berry Sampler

Designer ~ Bent Creek

Fabric ~ 32 count tea-dyed Jobelan

Fiber ~ DMC

I was so thrilled with the finish on this one that I took lots of pictures!

You probably can't see very well in the photos but each little separation in the alphabet has fun stitches ~ Rhodes and Smyrna. The very center one was supposed to be Eyelets but after stitching over half of them I decided they were total crap...frogged...and did Rhodes instead! I know, I am a complete obsessive when it comes to my stitching! Can you tell how much I liked stitching and finishing this? I think this is my favorite project to date!

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Today marks the end of the Bad Hair Day giveaway. Thanks to everyone that entered! I went the lazy way and put the numbers through the random generator and it spit out #8. The eighth comment on that post came from a newbie blogger, Peggy Lee of Kentucky Sampler. Congratulations, Peggy Lee! As soon as you send me your mailing address I will get your prize sent!

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Thank you for visiting my blog today!
xox

UFO to WIP

Being eager to stitch something other than Snapper Year led me to pull out an old WIP (work in progress.) Peacock Cypher was my choice. I last worked on this in March of 2009! That was when I got all caught up in Crabby All Year and Peacock Cypher was relegated to a UFO (unfinished object.) This is a Just Nan design and is charted in silks but I'm using the DMC version since silk gives me an itchy rash. In fact, it was stitching this ~in silk~ that clued me in to being allergic to silk. I ended up having to frog the silk, wash the fabric and restart in DMC. This is the section I am currently working on...the very bottom row.

Then there are three rows left to do at the top. Isn't it pretty so far? I can't wait to do the beading! My favorite part about this design is the over-one letters ~ just so much fun to stitch!

After several concerned emails, it occurs to me I never posted results about the kid and the kitten. The ten days passed on the 18th and the kitten does not have rabies! Woo! Jessie was overjoyed to know she would not need injections. I was not too very worried as I knew rabies was unlikely. Rick, well he was simply glad his girls did not insist on keeping said kitten. He tolerates Taco but dogs are his joy.

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Don't forget...there is still time to enter my Bad Hair Day giveaway! See Monday's post to enter! Many thanks to everyone entered so far. Mary now has over twice the followers she had on her old blog and I'm sure that is a bit of comfort after the horror she endured! You guys are great!

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Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox