My stitching sister

You probably don't know, but Terri is my stitching sister.  We share very similar backgrounds - both of us were in the Air Force, we're both accident prone, we both have ankle issues, we're both going through graduate school, and most importantly, we both love to stitch.

Out of the blue a package arrived yesterday.  I wasn't expecting anything, so I was totally blown away when I opened it and kept pulling out item after item.  Terri had chosen to surprise me with the most adorable Easter bunny stitched over 1, and all sorts of other goodies.

You might notice 2 of the chocolates are missing.  Both parents were hovering as I opened the package, and chocolate was immediately consumed.

Terri - thank you so much for spoiling me!  Random surprises are the absolute best!

A few weeks ago I posted about a new blog, The Snowflake Diaries, and an adorable freebie on it.  I chose to go out of my normal comfort zone of 36 or 40 count linen and stitch on 28 gingham.  For some reason the pale green gingham screamed Spring! to me and seemed perfect for this design.  I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to be brave enough to sew this into an egg-shaped pillow, or if I'm going to try and find an oval frame.

Spring Bunny Love, stitched on 28 ct gingham with
Nina's Threads (slightly altered from charted colors)

Several months ago I posted about having artificial turf put in the back yard.  I thought I was going to hate it, but I have to admit, I love it.  I never did take a true "before" picture.  The one below is after we'd spent several days pulling up plants and cutting out bushes.  Its hard to see, but what's left in this picture are the root balls of about 40 bushes.  I spent an hour trying to dig one out without any progress.  The easiest solution was to rent a stump grinder for half a day to grind them out.  Dad was done in about 90 minutes.

And here's the after pictures.  The yard is just so open now, doesn't look like a total overgrown mess (only partly overgrown now).  Annie has gotten used to it, and we have a great area for me to throw a ball for her.  We're still working on the part of her bringing it back and dropping it for another throw.  She thinks the game is for me to chase her to get the ball.

Skunk 2, Princess Annie 0

Why do dogs always get sprayed late at night?  That one is easy, skunks are nocturnal.

Why does the freshly skunk-sprayed dog run straight to my bed to roll in?

That's all, back to drying the dog after her hydrogen peroxide and baking soda bath, then changing my bed linens.

Word Play

Its been a long time since I've really devoted any time to this project, and even longer since I've shown any pictures.  December Word Play was completed back in 2011, I worked on November all through 2012 and finally finished it this month, along with October and a start on September.  The whole series is being stitched on one loooong piece of 40 count Flax linen, which I gave a coffee bath.  For those of you that are curious about the specifics, it will be roughly 890 stitches lone (including 5 blanks between each month) and 129 wide.

And here's a pic of the whole thing as of a few days ago (there's been some progress on September since the picture).  Please excuse the wrinkles!

Its a bit strange working backwards, but I don't trust myself to count correctly up to the top, and I'm too lazy I don't want to take the time to baste in the lines.

I'll leave you with some pictures I took while we were at Sea World last week, taking advantage of local resident Fun Passes.  Mom rode the Manta rollercoaster with me, since Dad's back is a ticking time bomb for a 3rd back surgery.

Shamu show

Falcon used to scare off snowy egrets that steal food from the seal and sea lion area

Mom (and Dad next to her, but hidden) on the whirly-gig ride.  This is actually in the children's
area, but what the heck, the park wasn't exactly swamped with kids mid-week in March.

Harbor seal clapping to get attention and hopefully fed some
mackerel (assuming the snowy egret didn't steal it first).

Finishes

I was getting a bit depressed about the lack of pictures in my 2013 Finishes album, so I decided I'm going to count each of the Santa's Village houses as its own finish.  Cheating?  Maybe, considering I am stitching it all on one piece of fabric, but it keeps me motivated.  I swear Santa and Mrs. Claus's eyes aren't really as freaky as they look in the picture.  I took these outside in bright light, and you're seeing shadows cast by the itsy bitsy tiny beads I used for their eyes.

I did make some changes to the cookie shop, and turned it into a bakery by stitching a chocolate cake on a silver stand.  The cookie button is borderline too big for my 36 count fabric, but oh well.

For those that follow me on Instagram, these next pictures will be a bit of deja vu.  June, hold your breath, I finally finished Eve's Garden and the chart will be in the mail to you shortly.

Shepherds Bush Eve's Garden, stitched as kitted

The orange tree is absolutely loaded with flower buds, and smells heavenly as you walk by.  Just like a bottle of my favorite Jo Malone Orange Blossom cologne!

The lavender is coming into bloom as well.  If it were my house/yard, I'd have this all over the place.  Its beautiful and one of the best natural bug repellents around.  I had 3 plants right next to my small patio up in Utah, and could sit outside in the evening and never be bothered by gnats, no-see-ums, or any other kind of flying insect that tries to eat me alive.

I've totally gone California hippy with my breakfast.  Greek yoghurt is fine, adding homemade pomegranate jelly is delicious, the ground flax is healthy, but the hippy part was the local bee pollen I added.  Oh well, it fits in with the Birkenstocks I seem to live in due to my various ankle surgeries.

New Blog

Or at least new to me.  Thanks to Carol and Nina sharing the link on Facebook, I found this blog with an absolutely adorable free chart perfect for Easter.  In celebration of opening her new blog, Maja is posting a free chart each day for the first week.  Stop by The Snowflake Diaries and take a look!

Spring Bunny Love from The Snowflake Diaries blog

As for my own stitching, I should have some nice pictures to show soon.  Well, as soon as I get the camera out and take some decent ones.  Finishes deserve the attention of the big camera, and not crappy phone pics.

When the cat is away...

or in this case, when mom is away, what do Dad and I do?

Meet up with our friend that works on HAL Statendam when its in port and take her to the zoo.  Love my membership, especially since I can now take someone in with me for free.

Polar Bear Plunge

  While waiting for her we walked around the waterfront and I got a picture of The Kiss.  Some of you are familiar with this statue, for the rest, here's the condensed version.  Its inspired by the famous photo taken in Times Square and the original statue in San Diego was only a temporary exhibit, made out of fiberglass.  It started looking grungy so it was taken down, and a huge hubaloo broke out about the permanent (bronze) replacement.  The San Diego Art Commission rejected it, stating it was tacky and not the look desired for that area of town.  The Port Authority said screw you, we want it, go ahead since its Port Authority property.  The Midway was given 3 months to raise $1 million, which they did in 8 weeks.  Now we have The Kiss back permanently, and it has a 96% approval rating.  Take THAT San Diego Art Commission!

The Kiss

Star of India, part of the San Diego Maritime Museum

Princess Annie got a haircut.  This was only half of what got cut off.  For some reason mom likes her fuzzy, even though she gets dirty faster, she itches more, and is just generally harder to keep properly brushed and groomed.

I went to a Painting and Vino class and made a masterpiece!  Ok, not quite a masterpiece, but I had a lot of fun.  I learned I can't draw straight lines or make a balloon symmetrical if my life depended on it, but I do great with text.

And I've done some stitching.  Horrible picture of Santa's Hamlet, but you get the idea.  I think I want to make some adjustments to the cookie shop and make it a bakery.  The cookies just look strange.

CCN Santa's Village, on 36 ct Light Sand with assorted overdyed cotton floss

Jane Rees finally saw some progress as well.  Not a lot, but I've made it all the way across the top of the chart.  Obviously I was too lazy to take it out of the Qsnaps to take this picture.

Scarlet Letter Jane Rees, on 40 ct Ricamo with HDF silk

Thank you everyone for stopping by and a special thanks to those leaving comments.  I know I've been absolutely horrible about responding back to them.  Please forgive me, and know they're all read and appreciated.

Winter Exchange

I participated in the Winter exchange over on Stitched with Love.

Lynda very obviously read and paid attention to my"likes."  The package was filled with gorgeous red things, and she stitched me a Blackbird Designs pin pillow in my favorite color.  I absolutely love the combination of red with the grey fabric, and the silvery grey ribbon trim.

Gorgeous pillow, so elegant with the colors an finishing touches

Look at all that red stash!

Just what the wooden pedestal bowl needed,
some red to break up all the pink.

Living in southern California can make it a bit hard to get into the "winter" spirit.  To make things even more difficult, I was mailing out to another Californian - Teresa.  Instead of going with an obvious winter theme, I chose to stitch with icy colors - overdyed Caron Waterlilies silk in Polar Ice and frosted beads that reminded me of icicles.  The design was one of Jeannette Douglas's Quaker Pincushions, which I finished as a box topper.

Box with matching fob

Navy blue paint and a coat of liming wax.  No, this isn't that disgusting 80's pickled oak look.  Hard to tell in the picture due to glare, but it turned out gorgeous and was hard to part with.

You can just barely see the magnetic needle minder I made to match the scissor fob and box.

Dare I say it?

Have I turned into a 1 (or 2) at a time girl?  I pulled out Eve's Garden because of the fabric count was easy on my eyes, but now I can't stop working on it.  First Elizabeth Burrows was a start and stitch until finished project, now its looking like the same with Eve's Garden.

Shepherds Bush Eve's Garden

Last weekend Dad and I went to a behind the scenes tour at the Midway, open only for museum members.  It was a lot of fun, starting out with coffee and pastries since we had to get there so early.  We were able to see 6 areas normally closed off to the public - fire room, engine room, arresting gear room, aft bake shop, damage control central, and I can't remember the last area.

Midway's Damage Control Central, with dad in the blue jacket on the right

Midway engine room

We still had some paid parking time after the tour, so walked around a bit.

Fantail Cafe on the Midway, seen from the shore

Huge private yacht, 1 of 4 owned by a Russian oil tycoon

San Diego tuna fleet - these guys have a lot of history and were drafted during WWII

The Kiss - its actually erected now.  There was a ceremony this morning

Stitching has been a bit slow for a few days.  The cooking gods decided it was time for a blood sacrifice to ensure my food is delicious.  I just wish it wasn't the thumb on my right hand.  Not a knife this time, just a cheapo mandoline since my good ones are in storage.

Dinner the night this happened (Wed) was seared pork chops with sauteed apples and a Calvados pan sauce.

#santasundayxs

Santa #1 is stitched (but needs finished)

Santa #2 is started

I love these Prairie Schooler Santas, and even only working on them 1 day a week, they still stitch up quickly.  I'm holding off on the finishing for now, since I'm stitching the whole series on the same piece of fabric.

Plans

My plan was to work on Jane Rees.

What actually happening is I'm working on Shepherd's Bush Eve's Garden.

My plan was to knock out my Social Responsibility class quickly.

What's actually happening is I'm taking lots of break from the computer and getting some stitched things finish-finished.

Why am I not sticking to my plans?  My eyes - they're bothering me again.  I can't handle 40 count linen right now, but Eve's Garden is on 32 count.  Reading on the computer monitor hurts my eyes after a bit, so I take breaks and try to work on the pile of stitched items that need finishing.

Charlene created a fantastic blog that has been very motivating - Stitched: Now to Finish

Valentine designs stitched last year, BBD stitched 2 or 3 years ago

With Thy Needle and Thread Home for the Holiday
stitched 4 years ago

Cuffed and lined stocking

I've also been painting my nails!  I ruin a manicure faster than you can say snap, so I don't usually paint my nails.   Mom hated this color (Orly Night Owl - a taupey-grey with some shimmer), I liked it.

I've also been baking.  Easy-peasy whole wheat bacon cheddar scones.  The weather was gorgeous on Sunday, so we had breakfast outside.

I'll leave you with a snap of "rescued" trimmings from the flowering apple tree.  Dad decided to scalp trim it.  I wasn't sure if the buds would open up, but they did.