Category Archives: pals

Aug8

Mini altered book

Posted on Wednesday, August 8, 2007 by Dianne

My pal Angela gave me the cutest accordion book, about 4″ x 4″. She had added lots of cute friendship things to it, but I just didn’t know what else to add…so I altered it. I saved lots of the things she included, but it’s a fun and daunting task at the same time-there are 40 pages to fill! It’s good to print out favorite pictures you like and want to look at a bunch. I have one tip, don’t use anything but a glue stick or tacky glue. A glue gun leaves the page lumpy.
One of the covers: new background, photo corners and butterfly and rider print. Kept flower and jewel.

My Mom mom as a girl graces one page:

I had to have a cross stitch page with real aida cloth.

I worked on this during those dog days when it was so hot. I hope Ang likes it as much as I do and you aren’t even seeing half of it. See a few more pages here plus a few more items I made in the last few years.

Thank for the comments. I didn’t actually make the book itself, but I did find a tutorial as I want to try making more.

Aug2

Hey I’m a Rockin’ Girl Blogger!

Posted on Thursday, August 2, 2007 by Dianne

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Thanks to Barbara for tagging me and leaving me such kind comments. She is definitely at the top of my list, but can she get ‘double dipped’ to rock twice as much? ☺ Barbara is a friend who has lived a pretty cool life first in Maine and now in the Netherlands. But she is moving back to Maine one of these years. She’s smart, a brilliant writer, a caring wife, mom and daughter. Her stitching is amazing for someone who just started stitching within the last decade. My jaw dropped when I saw she had listed over 125 projects on Cyberstitchers.com (where we met). I can’t wait to meet her twins due in December!

I crown Zoey at Perennial Passion secondly. When I was a new blogger, she came to visit and left comment after comment. She’s an amazing gardener and has inspired me in my own gardens. Don’t get me started on her quilting-she’s gifted to the core.

Carole/Pea at Pea’s Corner is a doll. We have a lot in common, height, all brothers, my middle name is Carol, but she would be the bestest next door neighbor and someone to go on daytrips with. She always shows us her adventures, even in movies. Thanks for being a dear too.

Nancy over at Cross stitches and Kitty Kisses rocks big time! Well they broke the mold when Nancy came along. She and I share the same maiden name of Knowles, so we swear we are related. I’ve known her a long time too. She’s been through a lot with her health and eyes, but her dead pan humor surfaces all the time. She loves kitties and cross stitching. And she’s a wonderful grandmom too.

And I’d like to combine all the wonderful ladies who I met on the Neighborhood Round Robin project-Annemarie, Rachael, Carol, Su and Veronica (and Helen too). I’m so glad to have met all of you and stitch on your projects and get to enjoy your blogs too. All are very giving people. I have a feeling we will be pals for a long time. Thanks everyone and you’re all tagged!!!!

By the way, all the above mentioned bloggers are pretty good with the camera too. I appreciate good photos and I’m always in awe of the shots of their yards and homelands and of course kiddos and kitties, etc.!

Jul31

Run around

Posted on Tuesday, July 31, 2007 by Dianne

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Not much new here. Sean had to get his license renewed early as he won’t be home in October when his actual birthday rolls around. We headed 15 miles down to Oxford and now Sean has an official ‘legal’ license instead of a junior’s license as he’s almost 21. We took a drive through the town to see if we wanted to stop anywhere and passed Brian on the road who had just had his last day in that office. Bri turned around and followed us to a grocery store parking lot and we chatted a little and then took off, Bri to Kennett and us to Jennersville where we hit both Blockbuster and Dairy Queen. I told Sean he and his pals should be hanging out at that DQ because of all the young ladies there. He bought the second Pirates of the Carribean movie and the Illusionist at BB.

For dinner I made a few ham steaks, fresh green beans and Parmesan couscous, the left over squash souffle and biscuits (that had been frozen). It was a quick dinner, the best kind.

After dinner I did some mail art for the ATC cards I’ll send to three of my friends. The ATCs are calling cards. I like the way they turned out! The mailart (the envelopes) were decorated with images, places and wording from a Brandywine Valley tourist book from 2000. The envelopes are in my flickr album if you want to see!

I went through my cross stitch stash and want to do a Christmas ornament for the blog I joined and haven’t followed along with- getting an ornament a month made (I think that’s it!) I settled on a The Prairie Schooler design of two cardinals in a evergreen tree. I want to do a few more cardinals that I have in my stash anyway. I did get to the post office (thanks again to Sean) and mailed off Veronica’s NRR to her daughter Helen for safe keeping. The mail clerk handed me a rather small mailer and said that’s what they are using for Global priority now. I told Helen she may want to open it and give it a nice press for her mum. The clerk was a little grumpy and I asked her if she wanted squash and she took two of them.

Don’t forget to play the ‘guess the squash’ game! I will make you a special prize if you win! I am hoping to have more than two comments when the harvest is done. I don’t know if it’s my blogs name, what I talk about or what, but I just don’t get a bunch of comments and never have. I do have a handful of special pals (thanks so much) that drop by to read my ramblings. If I had anything about just stitching, cooking or photography in my title, I’d probably get more hits, but that’s not my main intention. I have this as an informational blog for myself too. Also a place to add my photos and anything special I want to read about in the future. I will have my three year blog anniversary soon. Can’t believe it!

Jul28

Lastest project

Posted on Saturday, July 28, 2007 by Dianne

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I finished the last rotation of our Neighborhood Round Robin tonight. I decided to do a castle ruins as the owner of this piece walks her dogs near a ruins almost everyday-it said so on the postcard she included! I think it looks neat. I needed to add a bit more other than the ruins, so I added a barn cottage. Both are from an English stitcher Jane Greenoff. I have about 3 or 4 of her books. I hope Veronica likes it! It’s hard to see all the detail in this photo. The little sign says ‘tea’ as the square way to the left by Carol is a tea shop.

Jul19

Scenes from a wedding

Posted on Thursday, July 19, 2007 by Dianne

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My bride pal Karin sent me links to her wedding photos which are terrific! I can’t show you the proofs, but I can show you a few taken by Michael’s family …

Those are Michael’s co-workers and pals from North Carolina.

Yeah I look all giddy, but I was so tired! I had like 2 hours of sleep that night.

When I get my copy of the wedding photos, then I will share them with you.

Jul19

A sweet gift

Posted on Thursday, July 19, 2007 by Dianne

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I received an adorable little pillow from Barbara over at Mainly Stitching on the right there. It was a ‘pay if forward prize’ in my opinion. I love the colors of Barbara’s own choosing and the designer (The Prairie Schooler). I love how she finished it off too. Thanks so much!

The next few photos are of my JoAnn finds, the blue urn which I would like to get a couple more of, and some bells which I see need to be varnished.

Jul10

Out my window

Posted on Tuesday, July 10, 2007 by Dianne

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We had a wild thunderstorm pass through right after I caught this groundhog munching on the fallen apples from our tree out back. I took this through the dining room window with the zoom lens. I won’t eat apples off the ground because of all the critters that roam by. Isn’t he funny?

Apparently it rained right over our house and not a mile down the road where Sean was at the video store. He said about two drops came down! As long as I don’t have to drag around the watering can tonight!

And here is one of the friendly catbirds that kept me company and poo all over my outdoor chairs! I just found an illustration of one in my ATC stuff, so I think a card in honor of them is appropriate.

And finally, just my one pal and I are doing an ATC exchange on tribe.net this month as our other two pals are busy. I thought of the theme this month-‘Patriotic’ or red, white and blue. This is what I made for her…

Jul5

New header

Posted on Thursday, July 5, 2007 by Dianne

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Thanks to Su over on my side bar (Contemplating my needle and thread blog) for this neat idea. First I had to save every word separately and then tweak them in PSP7. Flickr is responsible for this idea. I really like Flickr a bunch!

Jun27

Foodie

Posted on Wednesday, June 27, 2007 by Dianne

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I have felt like I have been in a cooking slump. I get spoiled sometimes when I don’t make dinner for more than two days. One of those days was eating the perfectly presented and prepared wedding lunch this past Saturday.

My solution-get out my Everyday Food magazines-I have over a year’s worth (plus the paperback cookbook) and chose a few new recipes to try each time I go to the store so I can pick up what I need. You know it worked! I chose two pasta dishes, one of which I made tonight-Pasta with roasted asparagus and feta cheese sauce. It was easy to make and I really like the roasted asparagus! The top is sprinkled with fresh chives out of Sean’s garden.

It was really good and I feel inspired now. I know the guys will eat pasta in almost any form.

And just for fun-here’s one of the three Black & White cookies we bought in NYC. They are so good! They are more cake-like and the icing is firm.

So off this food talk and on to congrats to my friend Barbara and her husband Niek on her recent announcement that they are expecting twins in December. That will make 5 kiddos for them!

Be sure to check out my Vod:Pod videos as there are some ‘recuts’ of well known movie ‘trailers’, making them either funny or scary, but not what the original movie was at all! I’ve been sitting here chuckling the last hour or so.

Jun24

A whole new world

Posted on Sunday, June 24, 2007 by Dianne

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We had an awesome day yesterday! I’ll write more tomorrow as we got in a few hours ago and are tired. Karin and Michael are so sweet and I feel like I’ve known her IRL for years even though we just met. Unfortunately, my ‘inside’ photos of the wedding didn’t turn out too well, but Karin said there will be a website of the photographer’s collection. The photographer had a similar camera to us and said because of being inside and with the white clothing, something needed to be adjusted on our camera. The ship was gigantic! You’ll see the photos of us before the wedding took place. We had a gourmet 4 course meal starting with a crab cake salad, then a choice of appetizer, main course and dessert. I’m sure Karin will have a more detailed description as that is her thing being a chef in training. I had lobster/pumpkin bisque-really different and delicious and steak with peppercorn crust as my main meal. Here are some photos with more to come!

My guys on the deck of the Norwegian Star Cruise Ship before K&M’s wedding