Category Archives: pals

Aug2

Friend hurt

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My mom and her boarder Jim went to the movies tonight. When they came home, he went back out in the dark to get something out of the car and fell down hard and injured his head and face very badly. They had to call ‘911’ and an ambulance came. My brother said there was a lot of blood on mom’s patio and some other graphic things about his injury that I won’t post, but he’ll need to be stitched up quite a bit. We don’t know if he lost teeth, etc. Earlier this year, my brother put in paver stepping stones and one was a bit loose. But he also lined them with biggish rocks on each side. I don’t know if this is where he went down, but there is insignificant light in that area. I was against the rocks from the first time I saw them and can not move them out of the way myself. Could you keep Jim in your thoughts and prayers? He is just short of 62 and is a good Christian man who almost died as a boy. He just helped Sean with a paper on the Vietnam era. We’ve know him for years and years, so we are all upset about him. I will probably go down to my hometown tomorrow.

Update 12:11 pm Sat-Jim had to have plastic surgery and had his nose reconstructed. He said the worst part was putting the needles in his nose. Not sure if he can come back to mom’s as she can’t take care of him properly. I didn’t go down as my #2 bro is helping mom out.

My older brother went to his friend’s funeral today. Bob requested that everyone wear a Hawaiian shirt, I guess he liked to wear them.

Jul21

Gift for a friend

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The Bluebirds of Happiness was received:

I added beads and sewed it up in a heart shape. I stuffed it with a little

Brandywine bayberry bought at Longwood Gardens. I don’t have the package out, but I bought the fabric from Carol S. : )

Thanks for your comments. : )
My mouth is still sore, but much better.

Update-listed some cute, almost brand new high heel sandals and 4 quilting books (in a lot) on eBay today. The link is on the top right under Moonlitstitcher’s eBay page.

Jul9

Trying for happy things

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Live Happy ATC, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

Just having some fun with ATCs the last few days-I sure needed to do something distracting. This one was a bit challenging, but the fun part is making something cute out of it.

I have to use a rinse for my gums, which I used before and if they aren’t better in a few weeks, I have to go back. Also got one of those rubber pointy things to gently push along that area so the medicine gets in there.

Since I was out, I went to Wally World and bought some more plants to fill in colorless spots. I bought a few different color marigolds which will last until the frost and some Coleus for near Bri’s hot peppers that are under the evergreen out front.

I talked to Karin, a mutual friend of Char’s. She was in disbelief. Char had just sent her husband a birthday card and them a 1st anniversary card. We are just puzzled. Kar had talked to Char many times on the phone. She was in tears a few times. I believe she will call Char’s CL husband soon.

‘Hurricane Schwartz’, our local weatherman, said it is going to be less humid tomorrow, so maybe I’ll plant my new things to spruce up the front.

Jul8

In Memorium

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This was the strangest evening…and very sad too. I had been at a cross stitch group’s website to see if they had any new kids to stitch charity squares for. I haven’t been visiting there too often as the summer is so busy for me. I left a ‘hello’ note and then got an email that a member had tried to phone me and didn’t get through and wanted to talk as it was urgent. I didn’t like hearing urgent, and I thought of one friend there who has been suffering with her back for a few years. I decided to call Vicki and indeed, my dear friend Charlotte from Ireland (but a native Austrian) had passed away. She was only 40, not quite 41. Vicki didn’t know what happened, but it happened about the 26th of June. Charlotte’s last message on the group was the 22nd. Charlotte absolutely loved stitching quilt squares. When she was flat on her back, she still stitched. The last few things I saw that she did were quite detailed with lots of color changes. I have a few things she made for me and a gorgeous hardback book she sent ‘In Praise of the Needlewoman’. If there was ever a needlewoman worthy of stitching in heaven, it would be Charlotte. I bet she stitched at least 200 charity squares if not more. She’ll be so missed.

Jun2

Tomato tepees?

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Today I was planting zucchini and beans in one part of the garden. I would like to toss a few gourd seeds in there to ‘ramble’ and to see if they amount to anything. I then tried to make the tomato tepees as strong as possible by adding metal poles I had. It’s a process. I hope it works. I think you have to keep the tomato vines as sucker-free as possible because they usually get heavy. I’ll add a photo if all goes well and they stay up.

Things have quieted down over at my group. I posted a blog comment over there (not here) about possibly leaving and mentioned indirectly who was causing me to think this way, no names. So the lady giving me the grief posted the first comment revealing the who, what and wheres of the situation. She then went on to publish it in two more places until I took the original off and she did hers. I read her grandfather was having surgery today, so I wished him well in a note to her.

It drives me bonkers though when someone completely ignores my point of view-like my brother did. The cons for this trip outweighted the pros. If you are thinking about having a get together with blog pals, research the travel options first. Make sure everyone is on the same page. My friend didn’t want to travel at all, not to even meet us half way someplace. She also didn’t want us to go to the tourist attraction, but to spend 4 days with her exclusively. How many of you would want to spend 4 days with someone you really don’t know that well? These are my thoughts.

With the cost of gas, we won’t even be traveling that much this year!

Off to the store in a few, though Sean is taking me. I have a tire that keeps going flat on the van! Bri is going to get that taken care of tomorrow.

I was so out of sorts yesterday, I could not get the fountain fixture in the pond to stay upright and to keep the tubing to the waterfall attached to that. I waited until the water settled today and it dawned on me that the tall plastic container that my water plants came in would be more stable. It worked! I was so happy. And happy that the changing mushroom solar lights came today too!

Jun1

Never hit your elbow into a brick wall

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Like I did last night! I’m a leftie and why I sat at the table in Perkins next to the wall is beyond me. Well my ‘funny bone’ went right into the brick and the pain was terrible. I put my head on the table a few times. I then felt a bit queasy (empty tummy) and then I had to get up because I broke into a cold sweat! I have ‘experienced’ hurting myself  like this at home a few times, but never in a crowded restaurant! Thank goodness the ladies’ restroom had the air blasting and it revived me. Needless to say, I ruined dinner. The above happened over the course of say 5-8 minutes. So watch your precious, bony elbows!

Kinda blue as a bunch of pals and I were planning a get-together and decided on a southern state next year where one lady lives as she doesn’t travel well. We were all getting excited until we looked at the flight schedules. For me to fly from Philly down to our proposed meeting area would be a 9 hour day with a couple of layovers and finally flying into a dinky airport. That completely soured me on it. Then another friend said if we went to a major city and tourist attraction, it would be a direct flight (3 hours for me!) We threw this pass the one lady and she got completely insulted as she thought we were more interested in sightseeing than being with her for 4 days. Now we had planned to rent a car and overnight in her town and spend at least 1.5 days with her. We were doing all the running around. She dropped out of our group over the above. Dropped like a hot potato! Her profile said she was ‘calm’ today. I haven’t been calm because I feel like I lost a friend. Hope she goes from mad to glad again soon.

Anyway, I am hoping to get out west to see 3 other friends in 2010 in celebration of the big ‘5-0’. Never been there. I have roots in Oregon. Bri suggested this. I hope we could stay for a while, heading from San Fran up to Oregon. We’ll see.

Not much going on today. It’s nice out though!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my pal Barbara over at Mainly Stitching and my friend Carol’s friend Steve! (so what if I’m 5 months older than Steve-lo)

May27

Promised ATCs

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It’s nearly 80 degrees out and a bit humid. I went out briefly to plant a couple of perennials in the pond garden (which needs major weeding) and I got warm and came in. It’s not even sunny either. I planted Lupine and English Daisies. Seems my color theme there this year is pinks and purples.

Here is the Food challenge card I made for Emily over at ‘The Floss Box’.


I have all these sheets of letters in different papers that you punch out and am glad at the chance to use them.
Then I was clipping magazines and ran across this angel statue and decided to start a ‘Butterfly Wings’ series. The butterfly wings are from wallpaper border. The pretty white wings are from some papers I just got from Creative Papers online (love them!)

Then I did a Butterfly Fairy. Her ‘crown’ is part of a raspberry from the wallpaper border.

Her banner says, I wish you love.
And for my stitching pals-Art and Soul:

I think Emily fits in this category too!
I have these chalks that don’t photograph well (her neck), but I also colored her in with pencils.

Feeling a bit in a funk from not sleeping well last night. I was restless, it was stuffy in the house, I turned the air on, ate something around 6 am. I guess we all have those nights. I hope to do a bit more outside, but here comes Mister Sunshine!

May19

Magical Flowers

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Thanks to Gary over at tribe.net for animating this for me! He’s a wonderful photographer in California and good at animation too. It’s not working unless you click on the picture-grrrr!


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Today it reached 60 and was so chilly. I went outside and ‘high tailed’ it back in again! I do have things to do inside, no problem. My allergies were in a tailspin and I saw Bri looking for Claritin. Sean cut the grass around the house for the first time in a while and Bri finished off the long part. We’re still trying to get the yard work under control. If you could see the pile of debris you would wonder where it all came from!
Tomorrow seems like it’s going to be a repeat of today. Oh, more clutter control will be under way!
Reached my ‘half’ birthday today-oh joy!

May1

It’s a favorite childhood toy party!

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Thanks to Scrappy Jessi for hosting this fun event.

Ok, when I was really little I loved my Thumbelina baby doll. Here I am with her and my mom (with the funky 60s do with the faux braid and me still parting my hair on the left!)

And here she is about 41 years later, a little worse for wear:

The poor thing needs a good scrub, which I will try to do if I think about it, but I should ‘honor’ her presence, since I have had her this long. I had cut her hair and chewed on her fingers back then. She’s been through a lot with me.

Here is a photo of my brother and I at Christmas playing with our Flintstone building blocks. We use to fight over them:

When I was a little older, I started to love Barbie and her friends:

They could also do with a little sprucing up. Poor Barbie’s fanny is peeking out of the lace in the back! I also have my original case and a few others dolls (somewhere). And I do have some newer collector’s Barbies in the guest room. I was wise and kept most of them in their boxes. My favorite-the Van Gogh Sunflower Barbie and the Vera Wang bride.

I also loved my coloring books, crayons, markers, drawing pads, chalk boards, books, Silly Putty, Fuzzy Wuzzy soap, Lite Brite, Spirograph, play dough, two wheeler bike with the banana seat and monkey bars, board games like Mouse Trap and Monopoly and even checkers! I could go on!

I wanted to add a few of my son (21.5 yrs old now) :

Here he is with his dad using his magna doodle board.

And here he is showing us his creation (he’s about 3 here):

And last but not least, his favorite bears Snuggle and Boo (very well loved):

Apr24

Hoping for new flowers

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My friend Zoey over at Perennial Passion blog was nice enough to send me a package of Rose Campion seeds last year. I figured since the Lilacs are blooming and the Lily of the Valley are unfurling their leaves, I might as well plant the seeds. I planted them in three different areas to see where they would do the best-near the pond, in my grass and lily garden and in the iris bed. All between sneezing and blowing my nose. My neighbor has a ton of flowering trees and I guess they are bothering me, but I guess a ton of things could be outside! I also threw in some flower seeds I had gotten from eBay last year-Butterfly weed, Bee balm and Columbine. If they come up, they come up-they hardly gave me any! I was going to start them inside, but I have had Columbine that has spread by itself.

Thanks to Barbara for defining the difference between ‘affect’ and ‘effect’ in the last post. I had to chuckle because a local tv ad for a dept. store says ‘Did you Boscov today?’ They are using a noun in a verb position!

Here’s an odd thing-my mom can’t get through to me on the phone, but I can call her! It’s been like that for a few days now. We both have called our respective phone service (we use Comcast VOI) I even had her dial my next door neighbor and it went through. She can call me on her cell phone, not her land line.

I really wanted to go to Longwood Gardens today, but too much of the nose problem. Maybe tomorrow. I can do everyday if I wanted with my pass. (There’s a tv commercial for Longwood on right now!)