out of the mouth of babes

So for the first four years of Luke's life, I layed (laid?) down with him every night until he went to sleep. Since then, for the past four years, he's asked me often to just stay with him for a little bit! Well, I'm scared to start it back, knowing where it will lead! But lately he's been asking more often, so I have maybe once a week or so.. Last night, he asked again and said, "Why don't you just lay down with me every Wed?" And I said, "If I do that, you have to promise to not ask ever during the rest of the week." He said, "Well try it for the rest of the month." And I said, "Isn't this the last Wed of the month?" And he just grinned! Smart boy!

Anyway, After I laid down with him he said this:

"Hey Mom! You know when you shut your eyes, sometimes everything goes black and you can see a picture? Well, when I just close my eyes I saw you. You had on your black vest with your purple shirt (which I wear often) and you were laying in the green grass flat on your back with your arms like this: (and proceeded to show me how I was laying in the grass with my arms straight out!) AND you had a HUGE smile on your face!"

Wasn't that sweet?! Ahh he can be sweet! I've got to add that to his journal! :)

SAL

As you might know, I am doing a SAL on the PS Nativity with Becky. I never did get around to posting my picture last week! So here's where I was before LAST Monday! :)

I only got to add baby Jesus last week.

This week I got to add most of Mary.


I was really hoping to a lot more stitched! But stitching over one is slow going and the past two Monday's have been crazy for some reason!:) I like stitching this piece, can't wait to get it all finished!

Stuff

I really need to post my SAL pictures! I never did post last week's progress, and still need to post what I need yesterday! I think the weekend away put me a few days behind in real life!:)

And I still want to tell you about the yummy hot chocolate drink I got at Borders Books a few weeks ago! It's a good thing that store is 30 minutes away, or I would have had way more than one by now! I keep trying to think of reasons to go back, but so far the $3 hot cocoas hasn't quite convinced me of the 30 min drive! It's close, but not quite! YUMM!

I've been keeping a journal for each of my boys since my oldest was 6 months. My youngest I have since his birth. At the beginning it was easy to write things, because stuff changed every day it seemed like! Then in the 2's-4's it was easy to write too because of all the crazy stuff they did and said! But now that we're to the 8's and the 11's, it's longer and longer in between writings. I try to jot down things that I want to mention, and that helps some. I used to write once a month, then it got to every two months, and now it's sometimes every four months. But I like to write in them and the boys love to read them. I was not going to let them read them until they were much older, but they really love reading about themselves!

I usually, now, right about issues they are having... how we deal with them, etc. Embarrassing things that happened to them, silly stuff too. So I decided that I'm not going to let them read their most recent journal. For my oldest I am on his 3rd journal, so he can read the first two. Stuff that I write about now will make them made if they read it! :) So we'll keep the most recent ones in secret for a while!

But I haven't written since school started, so that was the end of Aug.. so that means I am two full months behind! I'm going to work on them today!

And! Remember that matchbox exchange that I wanted to do with somebody? Well Marion said she'd do it.. and I can't wait to post pictures! She spoiled me and I just love how she put it all together! As usual I am a procrastinator and don't have mine quite ready, though I did make a craft store run today to get some stuff to finish it up. Hopefully I'll show pictures tomorrow!

The LOVELY Casket

Oh my! What a different skirtex is compared to interfacing! DUH! Note to self, READ THE DIRECTIONS BETTER! The Joann's we have doesn't carry skirtex, so it's really pellex. And I think it might even be thicker than it was supposed to be, but I wasn't taking any chances! See how much more life it has to it?! Nice and square! Yup, love it... much more like what I was thinking!

And I can't tell you how impressed I am with the designer! Despite being in a major time crunch to get new stuff to the publishers, she took time to walk me threw the HORROR casket! Great lady, can't say enough about her!:)

Look how much better my corners are!

I even added my button and made the cording this morning at 1am! :)

Now I'm just waiting on my grey fabric for all the stuff to go inside! Can you tell I feel much better about it?! :)

I finished two more JBW's over one. I took the picture with the fabric I am going to use for the backing. I love the fabric I found for the lark.

Can you tell how small these are? Here's a picture with a ruler.. no more than 2 inches! Sorry for the glare on the ruler!

I'm gone until Sunday. Dh is doing a youth retreat at a beach this weekend for 300 youth! :) Thankfully their leaders will all be with them! :) We decided late last night that he'd take our youngest with him, and we just let him skip the day of school. I'll pick up my oldest at 2:30 and head down, it's about a 2 1/2 hour drive. So I've been by myself since 7am! :) That was a nice break and surprise! SHH...I'm still in my jammies!

Stuff

We squeezed in a trip to the NCState fair this weekend! DH had a meeting in Raleigh, so the kids and I went with him and went over to the fair after his meeting. It was a long day for Luke, he had spent the night at a friend's house and they were up VERY late! So by the time we were on the way to the fair..it was way too much for Luke! :) Thankfully during DH's meeting he calmed down a LOT, and we managed to have a great time at the fair. We gave them each an amount of money they could spend and let them make their own choices! They both decided that 5 tickets at $1 each for a ride was way too much! They managed to make friends with an older guy at a ring toss game, and spent $2 and ending up having 200+ chances to toss the rings! They were supposed to have ten chances! Course they didn't win anything, but they had a blast trying!

Check out these pumpkins! That biggest one was 600+ pounds!

Check out these piggies! Weren't they cute??

Andrew decided his $5 was well worth the jump on the trampoliny thingy! I wish my camera took better pictures in the dark, but with all the lights, etc. it was hard to get a good picture! That's him way up high in the red shirt!

This is Luke with his Dad at the end of the day! I love this picture!


After the disasterly finishing job on the coffin, I decided to finish some other stuff! :) These are by JBW, stitched over one on 32 ct. I just really love them! I have another tree ready to do the finishing, and a lark too! I've got about twenty stitches left on a stocking.


I'm not sure who this is by..my friend loaned me the pattern. I was just going to put cording on it, but while I was putting pins in to have the cording dry...I decided I liked the pins! So I left them in there! It's supposed to have one leg in a boot, and the leg with the shoe is supposed to have a knobby knee...But I like my stuff symmetrical! :) So I put matching shoes on her!

And after a few rounds at Fair and Square, I finally decided to finish one. Okay, so all the pins need replaced.. I was just trying it to see how it worked! I know I have to cut off that trim (duh) but how do I finish it off, w/o it unravelling or looking bulky?

It looks a little crooked, but it's not in real life.. it must have been sitting funky on the table!

Last Friday was Luke's last football game. He was very happy with his trophy!

And last, but not least I forgot that Monday was really Monday! And on Monday's I do my SAL with Becky! So basically my real Tuesday was my pretend Monday, and I stitched on mine on Tuesday. I have Joseph and baby Jesus stitched..it is so cute! But I forgot to take a picture..duh! Oh well, I think I had enough pictures for this post as it is!

Just to Clarify

For all you stitchers out there...

The casket PATTERN isn't a HORROR.. my abilities to put it together are the HORROR!

If I had read the directions correctly the first two times I read it, there wouldn't have been any problem! I didn't want to discourage anybody from buying the pattern itself. In fact the designer has been kind enough to reply to me emails three times. Each email was long and detailed and took way more time than she needed to give me due to my own mistakes!:)

The casket is currently disassembled! Amazing how long it takes to put together and how quick they come apart. Each individual piece is still connected, I am going to take apart one side, and slip in two pieces of Skirtex. I tried it with one piece and it will work fine. I'm a little worried about the sections where the fabric is cut close, but I'm just gonna do it one at a time and get it done! Slipping in the Skirtex was the designers idea! Why didn't I think of that one?! :)

I took a break and stitched a few little christmas patterns by JBW over one! I even finished them into ornaments, just to remind my self I can finish something correctly! :) I'll show pictures tomorrow.

DH has dinner on the table... he grilled some steaks! I'll come back later.

The HORROR Casket

Okay here are a bunch of pictures!:)
Step One: See how hard it was connecting black to black through black and with black?! :)

After I connected all the pieces to eachother, then I had to connect them to the base.

After stitching all that black and worrying how it would all fit, I decided to take a bright color thread and loosely sew it all together, to make sure it would fit. I used a million pins too!

Connecting the last section.

See this SPACE???? It is NOT supposed to be there! Everything is counted right, I've checked that a million times. But somehow, my sides were that much longer than the base.

and see how loopy and fluffy it is? It's not supposed to be like that. I think it's because I used the iron-on interfacing instead of the Skirtex.

If I pull the lower part of the coffin, with my hand..I can make it look really nice! By the way, those ties at the edges aren't supposed to be there, but it did make my coffin stay together better. I'm going to replace it with a very thin cording, I think!

See how nice it looks, when I am holding it just right?

But in REAL life here's how it really looks....

See all that space around it, and the long walls are loopy and soft and there is still about 1/4 inch at the most from the top and the base of the coffin. There is supposed to be a button there, and when I get that attached, that part will look fine. I just put a thread there, so I could pull it tight to see what it would look like. I just don't want to drive 30 min. for one black shank button! :) Maybe tomorrow.

Anyway, It's just a little frustrating that it didn't come out so great. I didn't dare to show you a picture of the edges on the base..that really looks horrid! Especially compared to the pictures the designer sent of her base! At first I said bottom instead of base, but reread that sentence with the word bottom instead! :)

I still have all the little things to put inside the coffin, but am waiting on fabric for that.
Come on people, MOAN with me! :) At least my little skeleton glows in the dark!

I don't dare take it apart to replace the interfacing with SKIRTEX...right??

In The Big Scheme of Things

I know this is of minor consequence!

BUT my coffin stinks! :) There were eight seperate pieces, each put together like a pinkeep and then all put together to shape the coffin. So I ironed on interfaced to each of the 16 pieces, and connected 2 of each, so I ended up with eight. Then I connected all that together. All in all, it was about a three day process. After a bunch of squeezing and rearranging and restitching, my coffin seemed too "fluffy"! So I go back and read the directions and I was supposed to use SKIRTEX! Duh, I read those directions twice! So now, my walls are kind of loopy and soft, instead of standing up tight.

The problem, is that the whole thing is black, black backstitching on black fabric connected by black thread. And then all that connected by more black thread. The problem is that if I take it all apart, there is a big chance that somewhere in there, I will snip black FABRIC. Plus I cut the edges of the fabric really close, so on some pieces the fabric might unravel before I get it all put back together!

UGH!

I've emailed the designer (before I realized the Skirtex situation) and she was so nice and helpful. I hate I messed it up! ARG! :)

The long side panels seemed too long, and even when she told me how she put hers together, they still seems too long for the piece, and I had to sort of pull and squeeze to make the bottom of the coffin long enough to connect without a space. Of course that meant my top is a little bit small too. I still need to add a button for closure on the top, and I think that will help a little bit. But it's just not nice and tight like I really wanted it!

I took lots of pictures, and once I get Andrew and Luke off to school, I'll try to upload some of them.

It's so frustrating when things don't work out like you picture!! I might be being a little to picky, but it is definitely more of a fluffy coffin than the pictures on the pattern!

When I was connecting each individual piece, like a pinkeep, I can't get my corners nice and tight. It seems like there is always too much bulk, no matter how close I cut the fabric or even if I mitre the edges. Then at the points where THREE corners were put together, it's just not nice and smooth at all!

Off to start my day!

That's really wierd

So yesterday I posted pictures of Andrew, and even though I had rotated them in photobucket, they loaded onto my blog sideways! Now I come back today to check the blog and there he is standing upright and I didn't do anything! Weird!

Andrew

Hmm! In photobucket he is straight up, but when I load it on here, it turns him sideways?! Anyway, he left so happy! He said all of his teachers were dressed up, and they had lots of fun playing the games! He said his strings class was a little bit difficult: trying to play the viola in a toga!

Drat that coffin!!

So all the stitching is done for the black part of the coffin. Can't wait to get it all put together! I figured I'd go ahead and start on the grey part: needlebook, pinkeep, etc. and put it together another day when it's not so late!

So I start on the grey and think to myself, "Self.. this looks too big"! Well, self soon realizes she bought 28ct instead of 32 ct! I even remember telling the lady at the LNS that 28ct would work fine. But guess what..it doesn't! Cause with 28ct it won't fit in the coffin! And fitting in is the whole point! :)

So anybody have any grey pearl cashel to trade?! I have a wonderful piece of 28 ct 13 by 18, I NEED a 32 ct 11 by 15!

That annoys me way too much! Oh well...Not like I don't have anything else I can be working on! Right? Sure wish my LNS's were closer! Oh, wait.. maybe not...my family has to eat!

On a totally random note, Andrew is going to middle school dressed in a toga tomorrow! To finish off their greek studies, they are having a greek festival tomorrow and extra credit goes to those who wear togas! He's thrilled to death.. I'm telling you this child is my OPPOSITE! I'd never go to school like that, espcially not as a 6th grader! But more power to him, right?! I'm proud of his confidence... even though it's annoying sometimes! I'll take a picture tomorrow! We've got to get up early to get him all dressed up!

Going to bed early since I don't have my grey fabric! :)

No pictures today!

A post isn't nearly as fun without pictures, is it?! I'm working on this pattern at the moment! I'm telling you stitching black on black isn't all that easy! Each section of the coffin is finished like a biscornu. (where you backstitch the edges and connect the backstitches) So that means each section of the coffin is actually two pieces. Then I have to stitch them all together. All the stitching is done for the top and bottom of the coffin, but now I have to do all the back stitching for all the little edge pieces. Not a big deal, but it's has to be counted just right!

It hasn't been as bad stitching on black as I thought it would be. But the fabric seems to be a little fuzzy, or maybe it's making my threads fuzzy or something. Know what I mean? :)

This is my main goal for right now. I've been on a Halloween kick lately, in all my years of stitching I've never even stitched any Halloween! But there's some cute stuff out this year. I need to get this done! Since it's not my "normal" style, AT ALL, I'm afraid if I leave it alone, I might not ever finish it!

Did anybody notice on the needle book cover it says, "Here Lay MYA needles" Why would it say MYA? I don't think I like that!

My good stitching buddy is at a retreat w/o me this weekend! It's the one in Myrtle Beach, SC! Then I heard another group of stitchers I know (though none local) are going to the stitching retreat in Chicago! BOO HISS SOB! I'm telling you... this is rough staying at home! :) I am getting to go to our annual weekend at Pigeon Forge this year. I've been the last five years or so, I guess! It's always a blast and I can't wait to get to that!

The boys have a 1/2 day today. That means Andrew is out at 11:00 and Luke is out at 12:45. So not much time to do anything today. I've decided I'm going to have my own stitching retreat and go stitch until Andrew calls here in 1 1/2 hrs!

Thanks to all who asked about Luke! He is doing much better. Still has a rugged, sort of cough each morning. He's taking his medicine so nicely. I tried a little bit of it and about gagged! Ick. But he goes and gets it every morning and evening! So nice! Now if it were Andrew.. oh my word! :) He hates any and all types of medicine! Hmm.. wonder where he got that from?! :)

Talk to you later. I'm off to stitch for a little bit!

My first SAL

I'm starting my first SAL! It's with Becky. I was looking at her WIP's one day and saw we were working on the same PS Nativity pattern. She started on the left and I started on the right, but we have about the same amount done. She is stitching over 2 on 32 ct and I am stitching over 1 on 28 ct. She's hoping to be done by Christmas... I'm just hoping to be done sometime!:) So we've dedicated Monday's to working on it. (I'll post pictures later)

Luke has been sick for a week, I finally took him to the doctor and guess what she said? "He's sick!" So he is on an antibiotic and hopefully he'll be able to kick it. He's staying home from school today, I let him sleep and he woke up at 9:45, for our appointment at 10:15. And guess what.. he was FURIOUS that I didn't wake him up and take him to school! I can't win with this one! :)

I got lots of cleaning done while was sleeping, so I'm going to go stitch for a bit. I've been feeling UGH lately... nothing specific, just not my normal self! I hate feeling like that. Stitching usually helps, we'll see!

(updated)
Here are some pictures of my project. This is where I was when I started:

Here I am at the end of the day:

I didn't get as much done as I would have liked. Between sick kids, laundry and DH, there wasn't a lot of time for stitching! The "rules" are that we only stitch on Monday's..but see those itty bitty spaces in his robe and tunic that need finishing? I don't think I can leave that be until next Monday! Stitching over one is so slow going, but I'm gonna really like this when it's finished! It's funny how different the fabric looks! The last picture is probably closest to the actual color.

Here is where Becky is with her project. She hasn't had time to update it yet.

some finishes

Okay, so like I said I've been working on something top secret, so I've had nothing to show you.

Yesterday at Joann's I found this really cute red fabric with white snowmen. When I was describing it to my friend LindaP, she reminded me of a new ornament from this years JCS that would be perfect! I just stitched it quick on aida, and I really like it!:)

Then there are a few ornaments from the Halloween issue that I wanted to stitch, and LindaP wants to borrow them, so I stitched one up last night.

I'm working on the BritterCup one, but I stitched it over 2 on 28 ct instead of over 1! It does help to read the directions first! I was thinking it was looking awfully big!

Remember that fabric I got such a great deal on?! Here it is!

Here are the whites:

Here are the creams:

Here are the colors:

And most are great size pieces, most enough for a 5 by 8 picture at least!!

Remember my little needle book? Here it is all put together! The pattern was out of a magazine, I'm thinking it was Mary Cox, but I'm not 100% on that one! I've really got to figure out a trick with my corners. I mitre them, but they aren't making me very happy! :)


You can't tell it too well, but there are four pages for needles: 22, 24, 26 and sharps.

And last but not least, my parents were here for a few days! Apparently the jet lag from Alaska to North Carolina is a killer!
Don't ever tell my mom I put this picture on here, Lord she'd kill me for sure!! :) (that means YOU Rachel!) We had a great time together. Mom treated me to some shopping trips, including a big trip to the grocery store to stuck up on all the extras: laundry soap, shampoo, paper towels... all those things that are budget killers! She is very generous! We have one of those tiny Belk stores in town and she went a little crazy. (there are no clothing shops in the town she lives in) Anyway, she happened to shop on days where you could earn "Belks Bucks". Basically free money to use over the weekend. So Luke and I went back to Belks today and got a few little things for NOTHING!

Actually, I got a $40 pair of jeans, a purse for my MIL for Christmas, shorts for Andrew, some garish earrings that Luke picked out for my MIL (which she will love just cause he gave them to her), and two little toy sets for Luke. All total I spent $2.14 over my Belks Bucks!:) THANKS MOMMA! :)

Off to my hang with my stitching group tomorrow! Can't wait to go!

All Finished

Yup, finished something I've been working on the past few weeks. Can't show you a picture yet.. We've got to get the sewing part finished and then delivered...THEN I can show you a picture! Can't wait!

A lady on the 123mb was selling some fabric and I just happened to be online right when she posted. She sold it to me for $30... and when I got the package.. HOLY SMOKES BATMAN! It was crammed full of fabrics, mostly evenweaves, some linens. Really pretty light shades: pink, blue, yellow. A great mix of white, creams, tans and some neato handdyed too! She had given me a list, but I had NO idea! :)

I hadn't ever dealt with her on the mb before, turns out we live in the same state, and her dad lives in the same town we do! What are the chances of that, on an international board? :) Anyway, I am thrilled!

I'm lucky enough to get to gether with my stitching group this Saturday. I was supposed to be on my best behavior today and tomorrow, and guess what happened?! I took my parents to the airport, a 30 minute drive each way. I accidentally left my phone at home. Since I was on that side of town, I stopped by Joann's to look at fabric. They have some really neat new stuff, by the way!:) Anyway, by the time I got home, I found my phone and it had 4 voicemails..and 7 missed calls! OOPS! Turns out Luke was sent home sick, and DH had to drive from work (which was less than 5 minutes from Joann's) and get Luke and then drive back to work! I said sorry a lot of times....but at the moment he was a little annoyed! :) So much for being on my best behavior!:)

My group is the Tarheel's from 123mb, and we have a great time together. We've been getting together since 2000! My kids were 4 and 1 then...now they are 11 and 8! Scary! :)

Chocolate Chip Cookies! YUM

This was last Sunday, we made some cookies to take to church. Luke was loving the beater, so I made him stop for a second for the picture! Sure looks like he's loving it, doesn't it?

No pictures today!

Nope, no pictures today! Seems kind of boring without them, doesn't it?! My parents, who live in Alaska, are on their way for a ten day trip to Spain. On the way, they are making a stop over at my house for three days. They get in this afternoon, and will leave on Thursday. So there won't be much stitching around here for the next few days! I've been cleaning like crazy this weekend, and have the sheets washing to the beds where they'll be sleeping. Don't we want them to think we always live like this?! Actually, I wish we did always live in a perfectly clean, organized, and clutter-free house! It just doesn't seem possible with boys! :)

I've really been stitching a lot lately, but it's just not something I can show quite yet! Maybe by the end of the week, we'll see!

I read on Marion's blog that she has already started working on our matchbox exchange! Yikes! I've at least thought about it, does that count for anything? I saw it on another blog somewhere: they decorated the outside of a full size matchbox and then filled it with cross-stitch goodies. I think it's gonna be fun, and something really different! Marion and I were in an RR together, gosh almost five years ago! So it's fun to be reunited!

I'm getting to go to one of our Tarheel gettogethers this Saturday! By the way, I am never sure how to spell that word, should it be get-together? Or Get Together? or what?! Anyway, Luke has a flag football game that day, but I'm going to skip it. It will be the first one I've missed and his grandparents will be here, so it should be fine! Right? I need a mommy break ASAP anyway! It'll be a fun day. Linda and I will drive up together and we'll talk stitching talk the whole way, it'll be about an 1 1/2 hr. drive! She does the driving and I do the stitching!

I'll see everybody in a few days!

My Bunny Finishes

A few people have asked me the name of the pattern for the little bunny set.

It is Garden Party for Bunnies and Friends. Besides that it just says Norma Flak, Keepsake Stitches 2004. I have no idea if it's available any more.

Just Nan Needlebook

I found this at a LNS last week when a friend and I went shopping. It called for a lighter orange WDW fabric, but the shop only had pumpkin colored WDW. So we got that, and I think it works fine. The pumpkins might have been a little easier to see on the lighter orange, but it's still cute. We changed a few things.. You were supposed to tack closed the bottom two corners, but we didn't like that! So I put cording in all four corners, and just tied the bottom part shut and then did the bigger tie for the top half. Isn't it cute?! :) And I had some halloween printed felt, so for the inside I cut a tiny square of the felt that had a pumpkin on it, but I'm not sure you can see it in the picture or not. The finished size, when it is closed up is about 2 inches squared. When it's all open, it's 3 inches.

Bottom:






And just for fun: Andrew blowing bubbles!

2 1/2" scissors??!!

Where in the world do I find those? I searched google and came up with hardly anything. The Joann site had 2 for $2, you know those were good ones! But the shipping was $8 and that bugs me! Course they didn't have them in the store! I found some hobby ones, but not sure if they are for thread. (or if it really matters)

I don't want to get really expensive ones, but I do want some that will work for more than a week or two!

I have two finished things that need 2 1/2 inch scissors.

I finished my Just Nan halloween thing I was working on! Oh my gosh, it is the cutest thing! I'll take a picture to show off tomorrow!

My inlaws are here overnight. It's my FIL's 60th birthday. I made Chicken Pastry (for those none Southern readers, basically chicken in chicken broth with squares of thin dough.. YUM) And a from scratch chocolate cake with chocolate frosting! DOUBLE YUM