Category Archives: cross stitch

Apr27

Chasing my tail!

Posted on Sunday, April 27, 2008 by Dianne

Yep, what to do, what to do? Do I continue outside because that’s what I really want to do or clean my house? There’s so much to do in both locations. I did sort through a huge pile of junk mail, but I should have done that Thursday as Friday is recycling day. Now it will be sitting around all week.

My gardens are getting there. We had a cooler day and a little rain last night, so I was able to get to the lilies. There are so many weeds in there, I chopped off a few lilies by mistake. I do that every year!

I got my first iris today! It’s a pretty all white one! A few dianthus are blooming too. We went to Walmart and I must say their flowers and veggies are pretty decent this year and I bought a bunch last night. I planted more dianthus (Sweet William) that are named ‘Diana’ something. The ones from last year are coming along nicely.

Heard brother #2 has been planting a bunch of things at mom’s. This is good, but I use to help her with that. He also found her a nice used bed set (with a double bed) on Craig’s List and they went and looked at it and bought it! She has been sleeping on a twin bed and couldn’t stretch out right. I hope she is sleeping now as she was exhausted getting the room tidied up for the new additions. She is suppose to have a cat scan tomorrow and wants me to go along (I went with her when she had an MRI a few years back and waiting freaked me out a bit as I knew she was in that closed machine all that time). The weather is suppose to be rainy too.

That’s about all the news. I did sit after dinner and make one ATC! I haven’t made one for weeks. Speaking of dinner, I made the Rachael Ray turkey burgers which are so good! All you do is grate a small white onion in the ground turkey and toss in some seasoning like parsley and poultry seasonings. Next you make the patties and roll them around in pecan pieces and instant potato flakes and fry them up!

I am doing a little cross stitch at night. I am trying to finish off a Christmas ornament that I started back in ’05. I have to do birds over one stitch and it’s hard! Plus the design isn’t right at the top, and I can’t figure out why. It’s pretty though.

Apr25

Ahhhh Lilacs!

Posted on Friday, April 25, 2008 by Dianne

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Happy Arbor Day!

It surely is spring when the Lilacs are blooming! We have an ancient bush next to our driveway that we were trimming back last year. Unfortunately, the blooms are way over my head as the top wasn’t trimmed off! I had to bend a few branches to get theses. Usually Lilacs remind me of May as that’s when they usually bloom. The Azaleas are getting ready to burst open next! I have one bush that looks like it is about to bite the dust as it is so scraggly looking. I’d love to tear out a grape arbor that is mainly covered with weeds and do an area of Azaleas.

And here’s an update on Plant Kindness:

I had this on the back of the sofa, so looks a bit bumpy. I am not happy with the legs of the chairs, but have given up on them! I figure if someone is using chairs to hold flowers, then they are too rickety for human derrières!

I may be going to Longwood…we’ll see. My allergies are behaving better today.
Mom can call here again! I guess me calling Comcast did the trick. : )

Apr8

Head spinning

Posted on Tuesday, April 8, 2008 by Dianne

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I’m so excited about crafting things, that I want to do about 10 projects at once! My partner is putting together the most adorable fairy kits for you to assemble. I’m making art pieces out of Altoids tins and will probably make other things from them. I have 3 almost finished (thanks for prompting this post Sharon!) It’s the ‘finishing touches’ part that is holding me up. I have a few other tins bookmarked on flickr to help me out. People have such great ideas! I will say I painted the tins and they resemble the photo below featuring Cate Blanchett.

Have a few appointments set up this week and one more next week. I hope that is it for a while! Still waiting on the blood work results-a week now. No news is good news, correct? I have to be more optimistic now! ; )

Off to wrap some birthday gifts.

I took some photos and thought I’d share:

I keep my Art Trading cards in a notebook and use baseball card plastic pages.

I just got this Mona Lisa rubber stamp and whipped this ATC up right away! I also was in QVC outlet store and they had this big pack of letters on different backgrounds that you just punch out. I think there were 10K of them!

Here’s a kit I had started and pulled out last night. I am so sorry I didn’t change out the fabric.

I finished the first African violet ‘Nancy Reagan’-only 6 more to do. I am all purpled out and put this aside for a few days.

Mar31

Last day of March already!

Posted on Monday, March 31, 2008 by Dianne

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We had such a busy month, it just seemed to go quickly. Having Sean home in the middle helped with the winter drudgery feeling. I just got a phone call and the lady said my eye appt was moved to the 9th as the machine is down. Maybe Bri can go with me since it’s late in the afternoon.

Today I have to return a movie, maybe rent another and buy some cards, one of which is an anniversary card for us! It will be 24 yrs for us this year! *Bowing* With Sean not home a lot now, it’s rather like the old days of keeping each other company. I find cooking for two a drag. Sean use to eat most of my leftovers, his dad doesn’t.

Here’s progress on The African Violet sampler plus a ‘happy’ real one close up. I think I’ll finish this one violet and then pick up a different project.

A few ATCs I made recently:
Made from mostly recycled things-part of a postage stamp package, a stamped image that wasn’t perfect….the glare is a hummingbird sticker

This one is called ‘Dress rehearsal’. I love finding these old images:

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Tip of the day-eat rice cakes! They fill you up and help like fiber does! Enough said. : )

Mar24

The day after Easter and Happy Birthday Brian!

Posted on Monday, March 24, 2008 by Dianne

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What I made for dinner Gramma’s Pineapple side dish:

This is similar to what my late mother-in-law use to make. I believe she used bread cubes, I cut up Pepperidge Farm white bread. Can you see the butter oozing on the top there? It’s like a stuffing for ham.

I haven’t made scalloped potatoes for a while. They were pretty good, I like them a little crisper on the top. I used fresh dill and dried parsley. I kept having to ‘zap’ them in the microwave because my mom was ‘hogging’ the oven with a 12 pd ham! So this presented a problem as we couldn’t wait until 6-6:30 to eat as Brian was taking food to his dad. So we sliced some off and stuck it back in the oven for a bit. I found a meat thermometer about as old as me and it said the meat was at the right temp to eat. I thought it was ok, a little salty. Mom didn’t care for hers and said she wasn’t crazy about scalloped potatoes. Spending Easter with people over 75 is interesting. We got to the point where my uncle looked up Bentyl (the med the dr prescribed for me last week that I didn’t take) in a ‘bad pill’ book. Said not to take it! And my uncle has a habit of lighting his pipe all the time and by the time we went home, I was really stuffed up. I’m not saying I don’t like to be with mom and uncle, but old habits sure die hard. I was glad to see him chow down. Mom hardly ate anything. We did sing ‘happy birthday’ to Brian and had some cake. We will go out to dinner later. Bri’s been in a funk, not sure what’s up-work, his car, his dad? He complains about holidays being a money making thing and didn’t want anyone singing to his when it wasn’t his birthday (before went to my uncle’s house).
Back to Easter-I spent an hour or so downloading mostly Sean’s photos to a keychain for Bri’s dad:

I guess he liked it (I didn’t go to his house), but his 1989 Lincoln is probably on it’s last legs and he was worried about that.

On the home front, I picked up an African Violet sampler last night to work on for a change. I was also looking at the real violets in the window and they need repotting and trimming. Many have flowers! A few are on their last legs and I moved them to the kitchen to see if I could maybe root any of their leaves. Also on the stitching front, I was looking at my neighborhood round robin from last year and I need to add another house, so that will be fun. I do want to get it framed, so need to save up for that huge frame.

Both mom and I have goodies for Brian, mostly things he needs. Something he asked for hasn’t arrived from Amazon yet-rats! I didn’t really wrap things but may do a bit of a quick tissue paper thing in a bit. I think he threw out all my saved gift boxes anyway.

A fragrant lily Bri gave me:

Mar17

Happy St. Paddy’s Day

Posted on Monday, March 17, 2008 by Dianne

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I wore green yesterday and may have to again today as I go looking for some corned beef. : ) The above faux carnations were about 29¢ each at Michaels. Pretty aren’t they? Irish heritage is rich on Brian’s side of the family. He is Brian Patrick! I have a drop of Irish blood in my veins from my maternal great grandmom Lillian Deere whose people were from County Cork.

Sean made it back to State College fine. The days he is coming or going set us on edge until we know he’s where he is suppose to be. We know the roads up there and you would worry too.

I didn’t realize how busy I was last week when Sean was home. I was on the go for 3 straight days and just pooped out on the weekend. I could have gone to bed at 7 last night. Mom just said I maybe shouldn’t be doing all that raking because of the procedure I had 3.5 months ago, but it needs to be done. Mom’s yard needs cleaning up too.

I pulled out this project yesterday, the DMC linen thread project Butterfly Heart :

The main butterfly is almost complete. Mom had given me the complete box of threads. It’s different from the regular DMC, coarser for one thing. I am liking it more as the colors fill in.

Speaking of stitching, please visit Stitch Pink for a chance to win these awesome prizes. (thanks for the link Barbara)

I asked Brian to trim a few bushes on Saturday (to get him moving a bit too) and why not use the new electric saw that Sean and I bought him last year for Father’s Day. To make a long story short, the chain came off and he was trying to put it back on and sliced into one of his fingernails, about half way down. Ugh. He is using that liquid bandage, but is keeping a close watch of it. I feel so guilty, but since it’s a Kraftsman, he could have taken it to Sears to get it fixed or wear gloves. Makes me think back when Sean cut into one of his fingers with the hedge clippers-not wearing gloves-but he went to the ER.
I need to do a bunch of things around here and hope my soreness from raking and hauling simmers down. There seems to be leaves from every yard within a 1 mile radius in our yard this year!
Oh, the forsythia may be blooming for Easter.

Mar14

Watch this space

Posted on Friday, March 14, 2008 by Dianne

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I hope by the end of today to get the zebras finished and posted-AMEN! What a chore they were, and I so dislike XS to be talked about in those terms. If I had just thought to do the darkest color first in the bodies, I would have saved myself much grief. The grass wasn’t easy either. I think they will be a nice addition to the quilt(s) for the twin boys. I can’t wait to do a few Christmas ornaments soon.

Sean and I enjoyed our afternoon shopping, though both of us have been ‘off’ in the tummy dept. Wonder what that was? We did go to Fridays for dinner as my friend Karin had given me a gift card for that restaurant. We are sitting there and a large group of people sit behind us. One guy said, ‘Save a place for Mike D!’ That’s Karin’s husband’s name! What a coincidence!

We got some nice things for Brian (can’t say what as I see him looking here) as his birthday is on the 24th. Need to look for one more thing.

I treated myself to a few things at Michael’s crafts and Kohls as I haven’t been to these stores for a while. Shopping is fun!

Update-no stitching today-yet. I decided since it was near 60 degrees I wanted to rake out a few more areas/gardens. I created about 6 huge piles and Sean helped me pick them up. I was so happy to get his help!

Then I was trying to do the Photo Hunt for tomorrow (I finally picked a few I will use) and took some extra photos for your viewing.

I took off the netting that was over the pond and thought this leaf looked interesting:

Part of my neighbor’s huge wood pile. Notice the older wood next to the newer.

These are wings from an angel lawn ornament that I was trying to take an interesting photo of. This is next to the pond and I photoshopped it. Notice the reflection of the barren trees in the water:

Mar5

No flower show….

Posted on Wednesday, March 5, 2008 by Dianne

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…yet.

Mom and I just weren’t up to trying to find a parking spot at the train station and fighting the crowds (bus day on Wed.). I had gotten down to her hometown at 10 to get my hair done at my sister-in-law’s house. I went over to mom’s house at 11:30 and she was still in her nightclothes. We are looking to go the last day-Sunday. That day there are more parking spaces! Maybe I can get Sean or Brian to go too. I don’t know how my mom is going to walk at least 1/2 mile from the train stop. We’ll see. She’s a bit slower this year but she will say she isn’t.

Mom came home with me in her car as my brother will inspect my van tomorrow. We stopped at Border’s Books and then I drove the rest of the way home. We did have a lovely lunch up the street from her house. It wasn’t a completely shot day. Border’s has a kit that I had to get- Reader’s Digest, The Antique Sampler set (how to design and cross stitch your own vintage samplers) by Alison Jenkins. I haven’t opened it, but it was only $5 ( has a price 0f $30 on it) and if it’s too amateurish, I can resell it.

Feb25

Going through the motions

Posted on Monday, February 25, 2008 by Dianne

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Things really seem in slow motion for me these last few days. Lots to digest, memories to push away. Mom is probably getting my father’s SS and will have a phone interview for that. My brother in Florida called the funeral home and they were glad to hear from him as no one had contacted them to give them permission to proceed-you can fill in to do what. Is that not so sad? My brother called for more information and got more than he bargained for! But at least it’s taken care of.

So I am trying to do a few things here and there, and mainly to finish up the little zebras’ quilt square that I must get to the quilter of the project by March 15th. I have to finish the second guy’s body and the grass they are in. I think I can do it. I’m a bit disappointed in this cross stitch group that organized the project. I try to drop in there a few times a month and left a message and no one replied to it! I think it’s time to move on. There’s about 10 of them who are really tight and go to IRL reunions, I can’t go to them! I would still be affiliated with Love Quilts and would do 1-2 charity squares a year. I’ve done over 40 in 9 years which is good for me!

I’m going to try and work on some crafts projects to finally sell on etsy. It’s by time! My head is full of ideas, just to get them made and up on the website takes a little doing.

Wish me luck!