Last finishes of 2012

Dad's birthday was on Dec 20.  Since I'm still unemployed, gifts this year were primarily handmade.  I took a $6 box from Hobby Lobby and transformed it with some paint, sandpaper, wax and fabric into something special for Dad.  From the first time I saw this Shakespeare's Peddler chart, I knew I wanted to stitch it for him.  I couldn't afford the gorgeous pencil box it was designed for, so I adapted the chart to fit on top of this larger box.  I thought it was perfect for his Navy heritage.  Another case of me adding alphabets to charts.

That mess in the background of the photo is Dad's desk, and I was happy to see he's already using the box.  I lined it with some padding and fabric.  He's always throwing his watches face down, and scratching up the crystal.  The watch you're seeing  is a very fancy Citizen watch they picked up on the last cruise and was his Christmas present.  We really don't want it getting scratched up.

Mom's Christmas present was an embellished wool applique piece, which isn't quite finished.  I still need to trim it and blanket stitch the backing on.  It was hard to find time to work on it without her seeing what I was doing.  My embellishments lean heavily toward beads, since I have so many of them, and they're easy.  I did do some bullion stitches (around the holly leaves on the right) and some challenged myself with learning drizzle stitches (the centers of the poinsettias).  Drizzle stitches are fun and easy, I'll be doing more of them.

Sorry about the quality of the pictures, I was using my phone and a new to me app called PicsArt.  I figured some pictures and a post are better than nothing, and I really didn't feel like taking the time to use the big camera or messing around for hours on the phone trying to edit and correct the pics like I normally would.  I haven't come down with the crud as bad as Mom and Dad did, but I'm still not feeling great.

The final exchange I did in 2012 was a Christmas exchange with Stitched With Love Exchanges.  I received the most adorable Rudolph ornament from Debbie, along with lots of other goodies.  She packed everything in a decorated plastic jar.  It was a great idea for protecting everything in transit, and was used to store Chex mix nibbles during the holiday season.

I chose to stitch 2 Santa ornaments for Melissa, finishing them with beaded edges and hangers, as well as stitching a decorative border for their backs.  The Santas were freebies from Gazette 94.  I'd really like to stitch them again for myself, doing the whole series, and maybe passing on the beaded edging.

One of the extras I sent was a chocolate advent calendar.  I have some very fond memories of these from when I lived in Germany as a young child.  Pretty crappy chocolate in them, but I still loved opening up the little squares each evening to get my treat.

I had mentioned in my last post I needed to find the picture I took of Delaney.  Just like I thought, it was on Mom's fancy new smartphone.  Delaney is 15, and has had a tough life.  Don't ask me what she's officially diagnosed as having, I just know she's my special cousin, suffering from both physical and mental disabilities. Its very frustrating for her trying to communicate.  She understands more than what people give her credit for, but she can't talk.  She definitely remembers Mom from the last time they were together, and greeted her with lots of hugs.  It took a few hours for her to warm up to me, but I got my fair share of hugs too.

While watching the Rose Parade this morning, I worked on some Ann Smith flowers.  I really felt the urge to start something new last night, for New Year's, but held off, instead just moving to a new section of Miss Ann.  Here's just a small snap of the top border flowers.

I'm still loving her vibrant colors.  I actually stitched that blue flower twice.  The first time was with some duller blues (I had originally adjusted some of the colors).  I decided to rip it out and go back to the brighter turquoise blue originally called for.  Its definitely mellower stitched and surrounded with the other blues than in the full skein.

A finish!

What do you do when you wake on Memorial Day to a power outage?  Yep, power went out at 1:48 am, and wasn't expected to come back on until 4 pm - some sort of a problem in the overhead lines.  First thing I did was roll back over and try to get some more sleep.  Once that wouldn't work I took my stitching out to the back patio and settled in.  The weather was gorgeous, and it was blissfully quiet.

I'm pleased to present a finished Jenny Bean Spring Sampler (or maybe we should call this the Margaret Leona Campbell Sampler).

For a picture of the whole thing, just look up on my blog header - I'm that proud of it!

OCD

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.  I think just about every stitcher must suffer from this to a tiny extent.  Admit it, it takes infinite patience and obsessiveness to sit there for hours making tiny little X's.  Maybe some suffer more than others.  I'll admit I'm probably in that more category.  I like things symmetrical.  If my trainer has us do an exercise for one side of the body and then moves on before working the other side, I'm the first in the group jumping up and down and waving my hands.  Ok, well maybe not jumping up and down since I'm probably sweating buckets, but I'm waving my hands and yelling out.

I also like things completed, although from the pile of unfinished WIPs you wouldn't know that.  Maybe not complete in reality, but the potential to be complete.  That's why something was bothering me about Miss Jenny's Spring Sampler.  OMG, the alphabet only goes to S!!!!  I can handle historic alphabets missing letters, that's supposed to be like that.  But only going to S bugged me.  So I fixed it.  We now have T through Z going down the right side.  I won't need to be sent to the loony bin with an OCD breakdown.

Edit:  I received permission from Theresa to provide my charted changes to anyone that wants them.  Why would I need to get permission from you you ask?  Because I was polite, and I had reproduced a portion of her chart to provide frame of reference.

Or at least there will be T through Z when I get done.  Oops, the ironing board cover is showing through on the picture below.  I was so proud of myself for actually ironing this before taking the picture, then realized the light was getting bad.  Bad lighting would also be the reason why I had to do the auto-fix thingy and the red chimney is looking brighter than what it really is.

At least I admit I suffer from OCD, unlike my ex-husband, but that's a totally different story!  Come on, if your tooth brushing routine takes 10 minutes, and you get interrupted, then insist on starting from the beginning, then you have a huge case of OCD (and no, this wasn't a one-time thing).

There hasn't been any stitching other than Miss Jenny going on, and that's been limited to an hour or 2 most evenings. Am I actually turning into a 1 at a time gal?  I doubt it, I just want to get Jenny finished since she means so much to me, and I've promised the chart to a special person.

Mom and Dad got back from their cruise (which they loved) and Dad promptly went into the hospital for surgery, which was scheduled before they left.  What wasn't planned was the second surgery over the weekend to clear up some complications from the first.  He's a horrible patient and invalid.  At least after surgery #2 he seems to using a tiny amount of common sense and hopefully will have a prompt recovery.

I'll leave you with a few photos from the San Diego Zoo Wild Animal Park.  We went there for Mother's Day and only saw a fraction of the park.  Its really expanded from the last time I was there, over 10 years ago.  If you want to see the full 150 photos I took, they're in my Picasa Zoo album.

Lazy male lion

White rhino ambling down a road

Cheetah decided to get up and stretch at just the right moment

Not really a zoo bird, but he made the funniest sound
when he puffed up.

Smart guy to get his head and huge beak through the fence

This is one time I wish I had a video recorder, it was amazing
watching him stand on his hind legs to get at
the foliage

A House for Jenny

A house was built for Jenny.  Not sure which is worse, constantly re-threading a needle to change colors, or doing what seems like endless blocks of solid stitching.  I swear that house isn't very big, but it seemed to take forever to stitch.  Or maybe its just Princess Annie not leaving me alone for more than 10-15 minutes at a time. Either she wants out, or wants to play with her favorite squeaky ball, or she just wants some loving.  And of course I do whatever she wants.

Poor picture quality, but I guess that's the difference between a phone and a huge digital SLR camera, and the price to pay for laziness.  I've added in a few colors - I didn't want pink goose legs, or a pink brick chimney.

I've been waking up pretty early most of the time.  Usually I'd just read some then try to go back to sleep.  Nope, the Princess has decided that if I'm going to keep her awake by having a light on, then she can go outside.  She goes back up to bed, while I just sigh and make a pot of coffee and wait for the sunrise.  The one day I tried to go back to bed, she had stolen my spot.

These sunrise pictures were taken a couple of weeks ago, since then we've had nothing but fog, or as its called in San Diego, marine layer.  You can just barely see a thin layer above the lights.

Can't believe the moon showed up in this picture, and some moon phase experts will probably be able to figure out when I took the pictures.

Back to working on school stuff.  Just one more project to finish up for my Human Resources class, and then its done.  Its only taken me 4 months, which means I have 2 months to do 2 more classes.  Eep!

Creative Thinking

Yesterday was absolutely gorgeous, and after a week of crappy weather and feeling pretty crappy (cold going on its 3rd week, and my back acting up due to the weather), I finally got out of the house.  I ran some errands post office, library), pampered myself (pedicure) and grabbed some lunch at La Mesa's newest restaurant, Gingham.  Lunch was tasty, sitting out under an umbrella on their back patio was wonderful.

I still had time left on the parking meter, so I walked around the Village a bit, and browsed some of the stores.  I was beginning to give up hope of finding any deals in the antique stores, but then got lucky at my last stop.

Three small saucers

Chipped, cracked, stained, but wonderfully vintage.

Imagine each of them with a small stitched pincushion in the center, filled with crushed walnut shells.

I finally took some pictures of what I've been stitching on.  This piece has become very special to me.  I started it (yeah I know, I'm supposed to be refraining from new starts) on the day Grandma and I watched Casablanca together.

Shakespeare's Peddler jenny Bean Spring, stitched on
36 ct PTP Mello with overdyed cotton

Its done mostly in the charted colors, but I have swapped out a few due to the color of the fabric I'm using.  The PTP Mello seems perfect for this project.  Before stitching on it, I thought it was too orangey-yellow, too mottled, and something I'd never use.  I took a chance for this, and I'm loving it.  The threads are really neutralizing the fabric.

Cute little sheep and ducks!

Pigs or cows?

I love the flowers on the border.

Squeezing out a finish

Despite the illness (yes, mom did get me sick) and the holiday madness, I managed to squeeze out a finish and cross an item off my massive list of WIPs.  Well, I actually had to add it on first, since I seem to have omitted the "current" projects bag from that list.

Shakespeare's Peddler Jenny Bean's Christmas Sampler
stitched on PTP 40 count Legacy linen
with charted flosses (overdyed cotton)

I was pretty much committed to getting this finished this year once I stitched that date in.  Usually I do the date as the very last thing, as a just in case precaution, but for some reason I did it about halfway this time.  As you can see, I re-charted and took poor Jenny's name out, and put my own in with the current date.

Since Jenny's Christmas sampler is finished, I'm going to throw it into the Giveaway too.  Still plenty of time to sign up, assuming anyone is still reading blogs between gorging themselves on holiday sweets, battling crowds everywhere, and anything else holiday related.

I have another finish-finish to show off, and credit for this one really goes to Mom.  I stitched this piece back in 2008, and never did anything with it.  No clue why, because I really love all the specialty stitches in it.  Mom made it up into a small wall-hanging and its going to Grandma as a Christmas present this year.  Grandma is a total pink kind of lady, so that's why we went over-the-top pink with the finishing.

Ewe & Eye & Friends Rose House, stitched on
36 ct linen with HDF silk

I hope everyone is having fun and staying sane with the holiday season.  Our friends we spend Christmas with every year just arrived today.  Mary Lou and Jim had quite the ordeal getting here.  Yesterday they started the drive from their winter home in Arizona; Jim lost his wallet at Costco when they stopped for gas, but didn't notice it until they were halfway here.  They turned around to go back home to cancel credit cards and such, but on the off chance someone turned it it, they stopped back at Costco.  Luckily, a very kind and  honest Costco employee found the wallet, and turned it in.  Jim recovered everything, and didn't have to go through the hassle of cancelling credit cards and figuring out how to replace a Virginia drivers license from 3000 miles away 2 days before Christmas.

The population of the house is now 4 retired adults, 1 adult unemployed daughter, 2 golden retrievers and Princess Annie.  Absolute madness, but I love it.  Jim and ML are family to me and Christmas wouldn't be Christmas if they weren't here.  I've known them for 25 years, when all of us were living in England.  The golden retrievers have changed through the years, but there's always been at least one.

Final catch-up

First part of this post is long overdue.  I won a giveaway on Mel's blog a few weeks ago, and gave her my new address down in San Diego to send the surprise to.  It was a great welcome to see the brown envelope waiting in the pile of mail when I first arrived.  She sent me some great things.  First off was a really interesting chart by Raise the Roof I'd never seen before.  There was also one of the really cute Victoria's Sampler cottage series.  I stitched a few of these years and years ago, so it was nice to receive another chart in the series.  She included some 25 count fabric (perfect for those ornaments I've been wanting to do over 1) and some cotton flosses, and a beautiful card.  Mel, thank you so much for the wonderful surprise.  I know I sent you an e-mail right away, but you've patiently been waiting over a week for me to post a pic on my blog.

One of the first things I did when I got to San Diego was finish my iStitch Mystery SAL.  I still have no clue what I'm going to finish this as, since its really too big to be considered a "small," not really large enough I want to frame it, and I'm not sure I want a purple pillow.  Oh well, something will come along.  This was truly an enjoyable stitch and a very well run SAL.  Thank you Carol!

Some progress has been made on Lizzie Kate's 6 Fat Men, and actually more since I took this picture.  For now I'm not stitching the wording or any of the confetti stitches.  I have an idea floating around in my head with the song Winter Wonderland.

Here and there I've been working on some ornaments, and have another finish to show.  Not 100% sure since I can claim this one totally by myself, since I suckered my mom into doing the machine sewing herself "as a lesson on how to use her sewing machine."  Actually, make that a lesson on how to use one of the 3 machines she has (and I've actually used this one before).  It looks cute now, but this was one of those "never ever again" things.  Trying to turn a long and skinny piece, with curves, lined with interfacing, right side out was NOT fun.  It may not look like it, its stitched on 40 ct linen so was pretty tiny once sewed up.  Its an older Hands to Work design, which I don't remember the name of, but it was a chart with 3 different stockings on it.

Stitched on 40 ct linen with HDF silk
in Old Maid of the Forest and Examplar Crushed Berries

Now its time for me to admit a guilty secret.  I started Jenny Bean's Christmas sampler while I was still up in Ogden.  I just couldn't resist everyone else's beautiful pictures, and I had the perfect piece of linen for it, and the colors were just calling out to me.  Rarely do I stitch something in exactly what the designer calls for, but this is one piece I didn't make a single substitution on.  Not a huge amount done, and I  probably won't get it finished for this year, but that's fine.  It will definitely be done for next year.

Shakespeare's Peddler Jenny Bean's Christmas Sampler stitched on
40 ct PTP Legacy linen with the called for threads

We had a fairly clear day on Thursday, so I thought I'd make everyone that's shivering in snow a little jealous.  This is the view from my parent's back patio.  The islands are actually part of Mexico, and I can't remember their names.  Totally unedited photo, and no, that wasn't some super-duper zoom lens either.  Don't worry, its actually supposed to rain on Monday and Tuesday, so I do have to suffer some bad weather.  And it does seem strange going through all the holiday motions with it being in the 60s outside.  Dare I say it?  I might actually miss snow.