Category Archives: cross stitch

Feb21

About 28 yrs old

Posted on Thursday, February 21, 2008 by Dianne

This little guy was down the basement, covered with dust and grime! Even though he’s under glass, the fabric is showing signs of foxing. Though dirty, he made me smile. I probably stitched him back in 1980 when the Phillies won the World Series. I brought him up and cleaned him up, but I guess I should wash the fabric too. This is one of my earliest cross stitches.

And the ‘what is the world was my mom thinking’ department:

Jeepers! She bought this for herself-the squares of paper are only about 2″! I have trouble with the larger sheets of paper! I got ‘stuck’ with this, but I don’t know, I may pull my hair out if it’s too hard.

Did some cleaning as earlier mentioned (sorta), but my post nasal was miserable (I was wearing a dust mask). I also managed to disturb a large spider too! Not thrilled. I did stuff a bunch of stuff in the giveaway bag. I am finding I have too many plastic things for the kitchen (left over from the remodel almost 2 yrs ago!) like storage containers, cups with straws. Too many metal tins and Easter baskets.

Doing the above killed my back, but Tylenol, Icy Hot and finally the heating pad did their magic.

By the way, I tried to sell these on eBay, no takers-anyone need rubber stampers of animals skeletons?

These were Sean’s and he hardly used them. Let me know.

And for the ‘oh no, I thought I was through with the dentist for another 6 months’ dept-I chipped a tooth on the top right with a Necco wafer-darn! I hope I can get it fixed soon and it’s diagonal toward the gum like a sliver and I hope it won’t start to hurt.

Wish me luck. : )

Feb15

The day after

Posted on Friday, February 15, 2008 by Dianne

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Thought you’d like to see a photo of me and Valentino:

It’s a Webkinz ‘Love Frog’ from Brian! LOL Some of my tribe friends and my niece (big age difference there) collect these adorable critters. I bought one-the lion I named Lil’King as pictured below. You can adopt them online and give them rooms and earn webkinz cash to buy fun things. It’s a nice distraction from housework and the bleakness of winter (see my baggy eyes above)! Yeah, I know, I’m that old and playing on a website. I love Solitaire and Quizzy’s quizzes. : )

We also like to snap photos of them doing stuff around the house. : )

Here’s Lil’King checking out my yearbook:

‘Listening’ to James Taylor

And finally-for you cross stitch enthusiasts :

Checking out the DMC colors!!
I hope I made you smile. : )
Brian gave me a lovely card, a small box of Dove chocolates (never enough), and a Commodores greatest hits CD as I heard ‘Brickhouse’ on the radio a few months ago and thought it would be a great song to exercise too.: ) We went out to dinner and I had NY strip steak and Bri had lasagna.
Have a great weekend.

Feb12

So you want to be a designer

Posted on Tuesday, February 12, 2008 by Dianne

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I was seriously thinking about this today-being a cross stitch pattern designer. I have a few programs, but what is blocking my mind is what to design? Mushrooms, Amish or primitives are things that pop in my head. Mushrooms, because of where I live and there is a store in the next town that sells mainly mushroom related things (they are the ‘Mushroom Capital of the World’) and each year the Mushroom festival in September gets a little bigger. Tourists do check out the store. What to do? See…I get stuck. And I live close to Lancaster, PA-Amishland, but I know a few well known designers have Amish designs. I visit so many cross stitcher’s blogs and I notice what you like to do. I don’t want to copy anyone else’s designs (and I wouldn’t but I mean taking their ideas), but I know I can be inspired by century old samplers like they are. Any input would be appreciated. I think I could do this if I put my mind to it!

We are getting a bit of a snow event, not a foot or anything, but maybe an 1 inch with some ice tossed in. I worry about Brian driving around in it.

Tomorrow at midnight I pick my One World-One Heart winners!!!

~By the way~people have really been clicking the links on the left to help feed children to rescuing pets-awesome!

~Update-I’m calling it ‘Toss it Tuesday’. It’s our third week of trying to pare down the amount of unless, dusty ~~junk~~ boxes that are taking up valuable space in the basement. The problem is everything is covered with that cat litter dust. I had asked Brian to switch to something else and it looks like he is back to the dusty stuff! Arrghh! What I do is put a load of laundry in (I only do about 2 a week) and while that’s washing, I start digging through the stuff. I do need to save some of the boxes for eBay (hey I found a ton more!) My guys are great at tossing electronic equipment boxes down there and leaving them after the alloted 3 month time to keep the box is over! I’m not going to talk about magazines and baskets right now, or tins or stuffed animals….

Thanks for your input Jennifer, I’ll check out the various sites for inspiration.

Feb10

Two finishes!

Posted on Sunday, February 10, 2008 by Dianne

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Since it was such a brisk and good day to stay in, I made two flat holds out of cross stitched projects. I will post Ground Hog Day and my works in progress (Giggles in the Snow and Zebra) throughout this post. Watch for the other hopefully in the next week or so! I will say that I keep Von’s tutorial for making these up on the screen so I could refer to it many times. I can’t wait to try her other items! Please visit her at The Twisted Stitcher to see the awesome basket she just finished off!

I made little messes in almost every room, even Sean’s as his dad needed his bank statement for his taxes. Sean has the exact statement they need up at school with him and his dad needs it now. You have to do your income taxes before you can apply for grants, etc.

Speaking of Brian, he went to visit his dad on this freezing, blustery day. I made some meatballs as I had defrosted the ground turkey over the last few days. I’ll eat some tonight and tomorrow with him! I have some lobster ravioli I’ll toss in the hot tub! (Rachael Ray’s expression)

Last night, I watched Casanova, a movie that Heath Ledger starred in about 3 years ago. I had only seen him in Brokeback Mountain. He was so talented and had so many more roles to fill-so sad.

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For Erika, a little sick girl I read about on a Flickr group who would like some fairy art. My little calendar had fairies on the 5th, so I turned Becky Kelly’s fabulous watercolor into an ATC for Erika.

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A little bit ago, I answered the phone and it was a lady from a breast cancer org. I think they have been calling here for weeks and then hanging up! There is no number displayed on the caller ID. Does anyone else have that issue? I asked how she had gotten our # (unlisted) and she said the computer dials until they get a connection! So I heard BC and I told her about me and how we are paying a fairly large sum out of pocket for my procedure. She asked if I was ok and I said yes. But I did say that I click on the BC link on my blog everyday so women can get free mammograms, my little way of helping out.

Feb7

New Specs

Posted on Thursday, February 7, 2008 by Dianne

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I got my new glasses today and I really like them! They are more of a rectangular shape, a brownish pink and have some neat swirlies on each corner. I didn’t have Brian take a photo of me yet as I wasn’t ready to pose-ha!

Television was actually good tonight for a change. Survivor is back with a twist-Fans vs. Favorites. I guess I can say that I wasn’t surprised that the less than favorite John Dalton aka Johnny Fairplay almost begged to be voted off first. What a piece of work he is! I think he just wanted a little screen time so people would remember him and give him a job. Then the second week of Lost aired-gee, I’m really confused now. They keep hopping back and forth or forth and back. One week doing fast forwards and the next week doing flashbacks. I go on tribe.net to the Lost group and see what everyone there thinks.

Then there is a new program called Eli Stone that follows Lost, so it has a good lead in audience. So far I am enjoying it and it’s star Jonny Lee Miller. For the life of me I knew I had heard that name before and here he is the ex of Angelina Jolie! And he is British and hiding his accent too. He has the biggest blue marble eyes. : )

Stitchingwise, I picked up a UFO ‘Giggles in the Snow’ to take a few days break from the zebra that still isn’t matching up quite right. I’m about to leave it be as it really looks fine and the little boy isn’t going to know that I was a stitch off or whatever. It took me a few minutes to acclimate to where I was with the little snow angel boy, but I got it. I’d like to finish that one up and soon.

I’m trying some multivitamins and calcium, so crossing fingers with those. I may take them alternating days, so my tummy won’t complain. I remember when I was pregnant, I took my prenatal vitamins every other day. This is all thanks to Dr. Oz on Oprah.

Feb6

Can it be?

Posted on Wednesday, February 6, 2008 by Dianne

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There is a hint of spring in the air on this, the 6th day of February! It’s 66 degrees right now. That’s the only nice thing about the day so far as it’s been gloomy.

I finally packed up Sean’s Valentine Day goodies-had to use the box my tea kettle came in! Funny thing, everything fit in perfectly! While I was getting the box, I did a little power cleaning for an hour in the basement-ugh. I was also looking through my old papers in hopes that the autographed John Travolta photo would pop out! It didn’t. Darn. I did find some journals I wrote and will check them out to see if I’ve changed that much in 30 years! ~LOL~ And don’t worry, I had a dust mask on, but my eyes were suffering. Brian has a nice pile to add to the trash this week including my old biology papers! I can’t seem to part with the Early Childhood Education papers yet.

We are suppose to get some bad weather that effected the southern states overnight (tornadoes down there). Since it’s Ash Wednesday, I requested pizza. We decided to try to give up McDonalds and similar places for Lent, but figure Subway is ok. Bri mentioned pizza, and I said it was too much of a staple during this meatless Friday time. I don’t agree with that, but go along with it. My thing during Lent and throughout the year is doing things for those who are less fortunate.

Still working on the zebra cross stitch (which is a charity item) but had to rip out his butt section as I was making him too short! His body is white, off white, dark brown and medium brown and it’s easy to mess it up. His head wasn’t that bad to do. And to think I have his little brother next to him to stitch too!

It looks like we’re going to get rain sometime this evening.

Feb3

Craftiness abounds

Posted on Sunday, February 3, 2008 by Dianne

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Most of what I am showing below were made from recycling or from a sheet of $1 stickers, etc. I got 40 paper heart doilies in one package!

For my niece-a butterfly angel with a vintage little girl

This is suppose to be a cake! I made it out of a tea bag cylinder-there is a lid under the frill!

This is for my mom. It has a plastic heart ‘cover’, meant to be like a ‘snow globe’ with loose hearts inside. That is my favorite rubber stamp.

Some of this ATC is made from an old magazine of my mom’s (Oriental rug and Cherubs)

I got a Valentine’s Day card making kit at Big Lots and promptly added my own things. I made 3 for the Make A Child Smile kids

Found this kicking around my mom’s -it’s a key chain box about 3″ long. The bottom slides open to put some change or something small in it. I added some Wizard of Oz images from junk mail, some ribbons and charms. It’s for my niece.

And finally, an ATC on a quilted hot pad Zoey over at Perennial Passion gave me for Christmas!

Feb3

Ground hog day times 2

Posted on Sunday, February 3, 2008 by Dianne

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I’m about to go to bed, but I wanted to stop by and say yes, I did almost finish the cross stitched Ground hog Day freebie-he just needs some beads around his head and I also watched ‘Groundhog Day‘ on VHS-wow, seems so different watching it that way (and it’s taking forever to rewind-urgh).

I haven’t watched it for ages-it’s different, weird and funny! Definitely one of Bill Murray’s best. I remember the bed and breakfast where Phil Conners (Bill in the movie and Brian had a teacher by that name who came to my high school-ha!) was really in the Chicago area. Brian asked if Bill was about 70, he’s only 57-ha!

One of my favorite scenes and quotes:

Rita: [Phil has described several people in the diner] What about me, Phil? Do you know me too?
Phil: I know all about you. You like producing, but you hope for more than Channel 9 Pittsburgh.
Rita: Well, everyone knows that!
Phil: You like boats, but not the ocean. You go to a lake in the summer with your family up in the mountains. There’s a long wooden dock and a boathouse with boards missing from the roof, and a place you used to crawl underneath to be alone. You’re a sucker for French poetry and rhinestones. You’re very generous. You’re kind to strangers and children, and when you stand in the snow you look like an angel.
Rita: [in wonder] How are you doing this?
Phil: I told you. I wake up every day, right here, right in Punxsutawney, and it’s always February 2nd, and there’s nothing I can do about it.

I’m thrilled with all the comments I’m getting for the giveaway. I love new visitors and hope my friends will comment too.

Jan28

A few shares

Posted on Monday, January 28, 2008 by Dianne

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First, I would like to thank Jennifer for her thoughtful comment. I do wish there were more things like the meat grinder, but mostly what she has are just ‘things’. A while ago, I brought home my grandparent’s marriage license to copy and still have it. When mom’s place gets cleaned up more, I’ll put it in a nice frame for her. : )

Here’s part of one of the two Mountain Zebras I am stitching for a quilt. I have to mark it off as I go or I’ll get the stripes mixed up! I like to backstitch as I go.

Brian brought home this photo of his parents (probably in the late 40s as he has his military shirt and tie on). The were engaged before the war and got married in 1950. Brian didn’t come along until 7 years later and was the only child. Don’t you love my late mom-in-law’s hair! She had pretty green eyes too. Brian’s dad will be 85 in June, but he won’t admit it!

Tomorrow is my eye pressure recheck. I’ll do some deep breathing exercises!

Jan22

Finally

Posted on Tuesday, January 22, 2008 by Dianne

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I was happy to hear that my friend Carole finally received her birthday gift-almost 2 weeks after I mailed it. Her birthday was in October, but my crazy life (LOL) got in the way (and it was more involved than it looked), so I finished it up this month and off it went. She really liked the flat fold (the first one I ever made). It was made to commemorate her special birthday last year. Thanks to Vonna over at The Twisted Stitcher for the tutorial. : )

Design-The Prairie Schooler-Seasons-Book #50. Changed the top-it was suppose to say ‘autumn’ but I put the year instead.
Side view:

This is the 100th project listed in my Cyberstitchers gallery!

I just noticed that when I was adding these photos that WordPress has now given us 3 GBs of photo space! Yeah. : )

Have a pleasant Tuesday. I’ve been dusting and tidying up. Seems the old drywall dust has settled all over the house. I felt like I was getting my cold back last night and it occurred to me I didn’t use any form of nasal spray yesterday. Bad girl! Brian is still coughing a lot, mainly in the morning. I’m calling out ‘Chloreseptic’ (sp) which helped me. Oy!