Less You Think All I Do Is Stitch

Nope! I clean too! This weekend we actually stayed home, yup for the whole weekend! Luke had his first flag football game, they lost. They are in an age group of 5-8, but they split into two divisions, 5-6 and 7-8. Luke is 8 1/2. Somehow they gave us a few really young kids, more like 6 I'd guess. But the team we played was all tall, thin, knew what they were doing kids! Some of our kids were more worried about waving at mom and sitting on the bench as soon as possible! Luke on the other hand, though this is his first year, is a die hard! I was really proud of him for not falling apart when our team lost! Good for him! Maybe we are making progress!

I read in a parenting book (How to Behave, so Your Children Will Too) to make a little graph to record the behaviors that you find distressing in your children. To only list a few, 3-4, and then for five days keep a tally mark of how often that behavior happens. Then do whatever you plan to improve it and keep track again, so you have a visual fact of if there was any improvement. Like the author said, if they do something 5 times a day and then two weeks later they are at 3 times a day.. even though you feel like nothing has changed, there really has been improvement.

So Fri, I listed four behaviors that we find quite distressing in our wonderful child Luke! So far, there's only been one tally mark per day?! Hmm.. I thought it was WAY worse than that! I think when the problems start, they are so huge and overwhelming that it seems like it happens all the time, and in reality maybe it doesn't happen that often! It was over a weekend, so I'm interested to see how the week goes.

I haven't finished the book, but so far it's a good read!

So we painted Luke's room, set it all up nicely, organized toys and closets, etc! Then I went to Andrew's room (11)... oh my heavens, he is a junk hoard!! So it's all cleaned up, after about 3 hrs! I'm telling you.. it wasn't dirty, it was just cluttered horribly! I still need to do a few more things in there... so it can get back to the point where he can handle the upkeep himself!

We painted Luke's room RED and Starcommander BLUE! :) He loves it.. it's very wild! But the red, for some reason, was very thin paint! I wonder if all red is like that? We used a really quality paint, but even after three coats, and the entire gallon on two walls...I think we're gonna have to do another layer. Luke's overhead light had a few bulbs burned out when we were painting, so after we were all finished, DH replaced the bulbs! Oh my word.. the paint looks much brighter! I'm gonna have to get some dimmer bulbs! haha

I did stitch a little bit. It's the pattern "What Happens at Grandma's" by Waxing Moon. I'm stitching it for my mil for Christmas, so changed it to Mamaw. She'll love it! I need to get some buttons to go on it too! I am working on the door of the house, besides that all the stitching is done, well I think I have some backstitching on the windows!

So I need to take a picture of that.. did I ever post a picture of the finished Spring Bellpull? I can't remember.. I'll have to do that too!

It's only 10:30 and I've already sent two kids to school, went grocery shopping at two stores, put them away, called my grandma to say hi, started two loads of laundry! See...so productive I am! :) Now I'm going to restraighten the boys' rooms, fold some laundry, clean some bathrooms, and hopefully finish up the pattern for my MIL before I have to get my oldest from school! :)

Have a good day!

A Big One

Here's what I've been doing all week! I started it Saturday afternoon, after the mail came with my floss and finished it last night. A friend stitched it and shared her pattern with me. We used the same fabric, but she stitched in a really pretty navyish blue and of course I stitched it in red. I used a handdyed floss from a new lady. Gaby from Germany had sent me the threads in an Fair and Square exchange. When I contacted the lady who made the floss, to get more for this pattern... turns out she is in Illinois! How funny is that? From Illinois to Germany back to North Carolina.

This was a really easy stitch. Except for two darn rows. They gave me a fit, and the row with the cross shapes I ended up stitching THREE times! It was supposed to have eyelet stitches, but by the time I had to frog the eyelets twice, the fabric was looking quite stretched out and weak. And I accidentally snipped ONE fabric thread! AGH! So I changed it to smyrna stitches, so it would hold that one loose thread better! So far so good!

The neat thing is that I'll be able to use lots of the motifs in the sampler for little fobs and needle books. I did change the first A, it was supposed to be that fancier A that is in the first row of alphabets, but I couldn't hardly tell what it was, so I used the more simple A.

It's by Mary Garry, I think the title of it is A Pattern For Sewing Well.









The lighting was horrible! But I was trying to get closeups, and sort of holding it in my lap while taking the shot, etc! At least you get the idea!

A few smalls

I'm not the world's best finisher.. but I've been making a smalls basket and wanted to add a few more things to it. The fob has lots of neat specialty stitches...including the pinwheel stitch! Very fun and not to hard! It's in the four corners of the fob. I used a hand-dyed thread called Vineyard from my friend The Dye is Cast. :)

Then this little birdie was in a magazine that I've wanted to stitch for a while. It was to be done on 9 ct. fabric. Well I stitched it on what I had, which turned out to be 7 ct. So the darn thing is HUGE! Those blanket stitches don't hold too well, when it's so big of a stitch count. So I had to put some of that fray check stuff around the edges. Then I decided i didn't like that so much, so I stitched one on 32 ct! :)

What are they?! Well a needlebook of course... The poor little birdie can barely hold ONE petite john james needle! Oops..forgot about that part!

Then I wanted to do some floss tags. Darn, if it doesn't help to read directions first. I almost ruined the humingbird one, cause I didn't make the hole first and it sort of messed up!:) I just added another little metal thingie to the other side and it worked out fine. On the bunny one, I made the hole first and then put in the metal thingy and boy that works much better! :)

Looking at them now, I wish I would have made the W bigger on the hummingbirds... the W stands for Wilma, my grandma who loves hummingbird! Oh and yes, the one on the back is on upside down! I looked at those birds 50 times and finally decided there was no up or down.. but oh yes there is! Oh well!

I went to Walmart today and was going to pick up the rings, but I forgot! I even stood and stared at the craft section and thought..don't I need something?! And walked away! So maybe tomorrow!

I made a list of different finishes I want to try! :)
altoid tin, flat fold, cube finish, and I can't remember the rest! But boy it was a long list! I want to make a pinkeep thing.. I did make one, but gave it to my friend Eva. I want to make another for myself, plus make one that has a place to hold scissors on the back. Oh, and a 15 sided biscornu, have you seen those? I'm not going to make it with beads though, I'll just stitch all 15 squares! What to stitch though?! Plus maybe that color wheel that was in a cross stitch magazine lately!:) And an ort bag standup thingie! And some day I really want to make one of these pillows!

Now.. somebody come clean my house and make dinner and raise my boys, so I can do all that! :)

Am I too young to retire?

It was almost a major problem!

Okay, so are you ready for this one?! :) I take a friend (who doesn't drive) to a doctor's office about 45 minutes away with her 3 yr old and 4 month old. The 4 month old was a less than 2 pound premmie and her chubby cheeks she's got now are adorable! She's a whopping 6 .5 lbs, but I saw her when she was just a week old and she looks HUGE!

Anyway... on to the almost major problem! So the 3 yr old on the way home is mumbling about McDonald's. Now my friends are Hispanic and only speak Spanish.. I speak NO Spanish! Always makes for interesting conversation! :) So on the way back, about ten minutes from her house, we pull into McDonald's for lunch. I have to go to the bathroom. (can you see where this might be going?)

While in the bathroom, I try my hardest not to touch anything.. and while I had my purse with me, for some random reason.. I was holding my keys in my mouth by biting one of those little shop discount cards.

I finish, stand up and turn to flush the toilet! (see where it's going now?) Like normal, I stand on one foot and use the other foot to push down on the plunger thingie to flush the toilet. Meanwhile, said keys are still in my mouth... As I'm pushing down with my foot somehow my teeth decide to let go of my keys... (see where it's going now!?)

It all took about 2 seconds, but it went by quite slowly! There I am 1/2 bent over, keys hanging out of my mouth, standing on one foot and I feel my keys slip out of my mouth...see them dropping towards the toilet...see the toilet water swirling down the toilet...and the thought crosses my mind...

"Uh-Oh!"

What will I do if my keys go down the toilet? DH works an hour from where I'm at at the moment, and he has the only extra key! He's always busy at work and a call like that would not thrill him I'm sure!

Anyway..as all that is happening I notice the keys land at the very edge of the toilet, thankfully on the floor edge and not the inside edge! :)

I start to laugh hysterically... and then realize that there is no way on earth I'dever be able to explain to my non-English speaking friend what just happened and realized I'd have to hurry home and blog about it!

Lesson learned?! Oh there are just too many to mention!!

Merry Cox

The problem with the internet is that you find all these really cool patterns that you love, that you can't get anymore! :) At the 123mb somebody posted about this neat needlebook they made, and it's probably one of the neatest ones I've seen. Come to find out it's a Merry Cox pattern. So I start googling around and find all kinds of patterns that Merry Cox has designed that I just love. But they are all from mid80's or 90's and about impossible to get! In my searching, I discovered I had already stitched one of her patterns, without even knowing it!!




And this was a random pattern I found in one of the bazillion free magazines at one of our Tarheel Retreats! I should have recognized her style! But I found all kinds of stuff I'd love to stitch by her!
Check these out!

And I REALLY love this one!

Guess I'll have to finish one of the hundreds on my to-do list already! :)

She's so cool!

Yup, my grandma is the most awesome person ever! We drove up to see her and our family this weekend. She turned 90 this June, and it didn't work out for us to go to Alaska where she had the party. So, we drove up to PA to spend the weekend with her. My mom flew down from Alaska and my Uncle and Aunt were there from Arizona.

On Saturday, we drove all over the town where my Grandma was born. She gave us a little life history and it was a blast! It's amazing how much she remembers! And the cool thing was, the more we drove around, the more she remembered!

Where it all began. Born and raised in this house, 90 years ago. She was pretty sad about how worn down it was. I was just pretty impressed that it was still there!

This was her high school, same building exactly...even to the grates on the airvents. Only it's the middle school now.. doesn't she look great for 90?

We got to see the church where she and my grandpa were married. They had just celebrated 66 years, the day before we went and visited the church.

Backside pictures are my absolute favorite thing!! I love how you can tell she's using her cane, and her shoulders are kind of squished up!

Three generations: Mom, Me, and Grandma. You can tell I get my height from my Dad's side!

I started something new!

I started something new! I just can't help it! If I get the fabric and the floss, I just can't stand to let it sit!:)

I've had the pattern for a while, and just couldn't decided if I liked it enough to stitch it! Then I saw it stitched at the LNS in Raleigh a few weekends ago and decided I would stitch it. Well it called for this Kansas-something fabric that was a bright awfully gold color and I didn't really like it. But after looking for forever at the LNS in SC, I decided against the yellow. Then Linda saw it framed on the wall, right when we were getting ready to finish up. And I liked it again.. turns out it was on the same yellow-Kansas fabric I thought I didn't like. So after much discussion AGAIN, I finally end up buying the Kansas fabric.

So today, a few days later, I decide to start stitching it! Well darn if the thread count isn't 30ct. I hate 30 ct! I didn't really want it huge and over 2 on 30ct. really makes it huge. So I stitch the wording (over 2), didn't like it..but then I did the circle, still didn't like it, and then did the red. Finally decided I REALLY wasn't liking it. So I frogged it all!

So now I've restarted it over one, which is much better on the 30 ct. BUT the whole thing when it's finished is going to be about the size of a dollar bill! That's not really what I had in mind either! UGH! Oh well....

The dumb thing, is when it finally came down to the decision I was deciding between 30 ct and 35 ct. and somehow the darn 30 ct. ended up in my bag. Oh well...

Dh and I are going to the opening NCState football game in SC tomorrow night. It's a 3 hr drive, and the game starts at 7:45 PM, then a 3 hr drive home. So we won't be home before midnight, that's for sure! Then Friday after school, we're heading up to PA for a short weekend. We'll be gone Fri-Mon. I've saved my 14 ct aida Spring banner to stitch on one of those rides! I just can't stitch the over one in the car.. makes me too sick!:)

Talk to you all soon.