In Stitches

Friday, March 31, 2006

Remember Those Ruby Slippers

The ones that I mentioned that I "might" need before long...well yesterday was the day! Holy Cow! The weather yesterday was INCREDIBLE! A huge storm blew through and I was on my way to a class when I got slammed by torrential rain walking out to my car. I was drenched in a matter of seconds! So I finish the afternoon class and head to the gym where I can watch tv while I work out (makes it easy to keep up with my soap operas ;D ). The news channels start going crazy saying there's a tornado warning up in Omaha, you remember, the place where *Greg* works. The worst part is that it's nearly time for him to *leave* work. I'm watching this worried about what he might be caught in and apparently I had good reason to be. (You can read about that on his blog.) This is what hit parts of Omaha yesterday afternoon:

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Yes people, THAT is a tornado! Some guy was driving along and saw it, jumped out and snapped a pic with his handy dandy cell phone. Now me, I would've gotten the hell out of there as I have no desire to meet little people with a fetish for lollipops and yellow bricks. ;D

Needless to say it's been a crazy couple of weeks, last week it's a freezing blizzard and this week it's tropical with tornados. This is the only place I've ever lived where you could wear a parka and shorts within days of each other. ;)

I have been a busy woman this week, had a lot of classes for work so I haven't been around my computer much. Honestly I only missed it a little. ;) And I haven't been stitching madly either, I think I'm in a bit of a slump. But I do have this update pic:

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I decided to change the letters in the banner from black to a nice red. Greg picked out a Weeks color, can't remember the name right now... And I'm also going to put in some Kreinik black #4 braid on another part of the project, just to jazz it up a bit. Hopefully I will get inspired, if I'm not hiding in the bathroom from another tornado!

Hope everyone had a great week and enjoys their weekend! Happy stitching!

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Can you say...

IRONY?

This is the *first* day of Spring:

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The first picture is of my car "after" the storm, based on the ruler there is 7.5 inches of snow on it. The second picture is from our front window during the storm, poor squirrel trying to look for breakfast.

We got a total of 13 inches of snow on Monday. This storm was so bad that they closed the place I work at for 2 days. I've worked here for 7 years and I have NEVER had 2 snow days in a row. Greg stayed home the first day. We live in Lincoln, he works in Omaha which is about 60 miles away. I just didn't think it'd be safe for him to drive to work on Monday. But apparently Omaha didn't get nearly as much snow as we did cuz his job never did close down. I-80 from the Wyoming border to Lincoln was *totally* shut down. I can't even imagine this, the WHOLE interstate shut down, that's like 400 miles of road. I guess we got all our winter in one fell swoop. LOL At least it's already melting and it's supposed to be up around 47F by Sunday, so the snow shouldn't last long. So how was *your* weekend? ;D

I also FINISHED Alice! Hooray!!! I finished on Sunday and am glad to be done. The last bit of Japan gold was a royal pain. But it looks so fantastic! I can't wait to get the frame done and see it all come together. :D

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I also started on the High Wheel bike for Greg. You can see the booklet on the left. Here is my progress so far.

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I have to say I'm quite proud of this, as I didn't have a copy to work from and I worked straight from the book w/out marking it. This is quite a deal for me as I have a hard time keeping track w/out marking rows off as I go. This pattern contains a lot of blended threads which are can be tricky as the colors are so similar. Greg is so happy though, cuz he really loves this pattern. :D

Hope everyone's week is going great! Happy stitching!

Friday, March 17, 2006

Celebrate the Green Day

Happy St. Paddy's Day! I was just thinking how funny it is that I celebrate St. Patrick's Day every year. I am part Irish (and German and British and Cherokee) but I don't think it's the fact that my grandfather was Irish that makes me love this day. It's the GREEN, definately all the green. After months of depressing grey outside, everyone (well most everyone) dons a bit o' green. And it's cheery and a reminder that spring is out there hovering around the corner with it's pretty pastels and lots and lots of GREEN! So even if you aren't Irish and could give a hoot about St. Paddy, who can resist the pull of the GREEN! ;)

I have been working away on Alice and sadly she's nearly done. I am down to the Mad Hatter and then the sporadic sparkles of color and it's all over except the framing. (big sigh) I will miss working on Alice. But I will be glad to move onto a different project. I was looking at the high wheeler bike that Greg would like me to stitch and it's a doozy. It's NOT as easy as it first appears, it's full of blended threads and the long stitches for the spokes are a bit daunting, but I know how much he will love it so I think I will start it next. :D Here's an update of Alice:

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We are supposed to get a mother of a storm this weekend. It's so unpredictable that the weather guessers won't even give a *hint* of how much snow we might get. LOL They just don't know. But if it is as much as they are "speculating" we just *might* get a snow day out of it. One last blast of winter and then it's SPRING! ;D

I hope everybody has a happy and snow free weekend! :D

Monday, March 13, 2006

A Little Alice

First off, thanks to everyone for their concern about my tire debacle. Fortunately I didn't get a flat! Hooray! And I have to give kudos to the apartment maintenance men cuz that smashed beer bottle was totally gone when I got home. Trust me that would've never been the case at the last place I lived.

I worked some more on Alice and now you can see her pretty face. Her face and hair take a long time to do as it's a few stitches here and there. So although it doesn't seem like I did much I actually worked on her quite a bit. I spent all Friday evening watching Sci Fi channel and alternately booing and cheering my favorite sci fi shows while I stitched on her. Friday night sci fi is Stargate SG1 and Stargate Atlantis and then Battlestar Galactica. I wasn't surprised by either Stargate finales, but was blown away by BSG. The thing I booed the most though was that instead of a July season starter for BSG they have pushed it back to October. I was most annoyed as I have quite enjoyed watching these shows during the summer when there is NOTHING on. I hope this doesn't mean that they are turning it into more of a "regular" tv show - like Lost. I really like Lost, but the programming schedule blows chunks. One week it's a new show, the next two it's repeats. It's been like this for months and it makes it hard to stay interested in it. On BSG it's been a new show every week till the season finale and then a break of 3 months and then start again. I hope they don't screw it up cuz it won't be the same if they are constantly throwing repeats into the mix. That said if you are a BSG fan how could you not LOVE this finale. It was mind blowing. :D

Now onto Alice:

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I finished her face and most of her hair. She has the prettiest face, so sweet...but not necessarily a 7 year olds, more like a teenager to me. Still I love how it's looking and next will be Mr. Mad Hatter. Then it's pretty well finished except for filling in the Japan thread. I am actually dragging my feet on finishing. Silly really, but I just like working on it. I haven't decided what to work on next, but Greg is pushing for this very kewl high wheeler bicycle pattern. So I may do that for him, his birthday is coming up in May after all. ;)

We had the strangest weather yesterday, lots of itty bitty hail. It was the strangest thing to see. Not damaging though, thank goodness. I think we are in for some wild tornado season weather. Maybe I should look into some Ruby Slippers. LOL, LOL

Friday, March 10, 2006

Looking for the Mad Hatter

I'm well on my way to finishing this project. The cat is done and I'm working on the lower part of the project. The rest of the face will take a bit as it's just small stitches of color. Then when I'm all done I will go back and add the random bits of color where the beads should've been and the Japan thread which I'm saving till last. I think I actually like the substitution of the Kreiniks for the beads as they have a more sparkly effect to them that fits this project very well. The cat turned out so fantastic. It's hard to see it in this picture, but he has this purply glow that's so kewl! :D

I have another of Lynne Nicoletti's patterns called Alladin that I am seriously thinking of stitching after I finish this one. It's actually not quite as complex as this one is, although it has loads of beads on it. But if I go ahead and stitch it it will be the last of her patterns that I have and sadly at this time none of her other patterns appeal to me. Plus I have so many other projects to stitch that it's hard to decide which way to go. ;)

Not much else going on...it's supposed to be quite warm today (62F), but by Monday we might have snow? That's spring for you. LOL

This morning as I was backing out of my parking lot, I hear this loud crunching noise. I look back and I see that someone has put a beer bottle right under my car tire. How *kind* of them...not. But I suppose if you sit on your brains all day it's hard to think straight from severe oxygen deprivation. ;p I am hoping that I don't come out to a flat this afternoon.

So happy weekend, hope everyone has a great time! :D

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

We're All Mad Here

The world is a crazy place, but fortunately we have each other for company. :D

Before I show my latest update I thought I'd throw out a challenge for those that are interested! I was having my cup o' tea the other morning and was thinking how we are all such unique and distinct individuals. We all have our favorite things that define a bit of who we are and I wanted to share with you the cup that I have my tea in each morning. If you are so inclined, show us YOUR morning cup or your favorite cup. Here's one of mine:

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And before you ask, yes I have a fondness for chicken related items. I used to collect loads of chicken related stuff, before I became overwhelmed and overrun. :D

Now onto my update:

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I am about 50% done with this project! Yippee! And last night I even managed to finish up most of the cat, but didn't have my camera for another pic. I love how this is going and I can honestly say I will be sad when it's done. I probably could've finished most of it by now, but find myself taking my time just so I can enjoy it. LOL This will be one project that I will always treasure. :D

The weather here is turning spring like, a bit warmer with rain predicted for today. But if it doesn't warm up a bit more it will more likely be light snow. ;)

I just read on the news that Dana Reeves has died from agressive lung cancer. She was 44. If you don't know who her, she was the wife of Christopher Reeves (aka Superman). She was such an inspiration to me, seeing how she stayed with him so lovingly during his illness. I remember when she announced she had lung cancer and I thought it was such a twisted irony, but had hopes that she would be treated and live many long years. I suppose her destiny was to join her husband. I don't know if I believe in an afterlife, but in this case I fervently hope that they are together and happy.

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

The List

I was actually surprised at how many of these things I could check. I guess my life hasn't been that *boring* after all. Well...mostly... I mean there's still going to Canada using a fake i.d. so I can sing karoke (and a few other things) left on the list. LOL

I got this from San

( ) Crashed a friend’s car
( ) Stolen a car
(X) Been in love
(X) Been dumped
( ) Shoplifted
(X) Been fired
( ) Been in a fist fight
(X) Snuck out of your parent’s house
(X) Had feelings for someone who didn’t have them back
( ) Been arrested
(X ) Gone on a blind date
(X) Lied to a friend
(X) Skipped school
(X) Seen someone die
() Been to Canada
(X ) Been to Mexico
(X) Been on a plane
( ) Set a part of yourself on fire
() Eaten sushi
( ) Been skiing
(X ) Met someone from the Internet
(X) Been to a concert
(X) Taken painkillers
(X) Love someone or miss someone right now
(X) Laid on your back and watched cloud shapes go by
(X) Made a snow angel
(X) Had a tea party pretend or otherwise
(X) Flown a kite
(X) Built a sand castle
(X) Gone puddle jumping
(X) Played dress up
(X) Jumped into a pile of leaves
(X) Gone sledding
(X) Cheated while playing a game
(X) Been lonely
() Fallen asleep at work/school
( ) Used a fake ID
(X) Watched the sun set
( ) Felt an earthquake
(X) Slept beneath the stars
(X) Been tickled
(X) Been robbed
(X) Been misunderstood
(X) Petted a reindeer/goat/kangaroo OR jackalope
(X) Won a contest
(X) Run a red light/stop sign
( ) Been suspended from school
(X) Been in a car crash?
( ) Had braces
(X) Felt like an outcast/third person?
(X) Eaten a whole pint of ice cream in one night
(X) Had deja vu
( ) Danced in the moonlite
(X) Liked the way you looked
(X) Witnessed a crime
(X) Questioned your heart
() Been obsessed with post-it notes
(X) Squished mud through your bare feet
(X) Been lost
(X) Been on the opposite side of the country
() Swam in the ocean
(X) Felt like dying
(X) Cried yourself to sleep
(X) Played cops and robbers
() Recently colored with crayons
() Sang karaoke
(X) Paid for a meal with only coins
(X) Done something you told yourself you wouldn’t
( ) Made prank phone calls
(X) Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose
(X) Caught a snowflake on your tongue
(X) Danced in the rain
() Written a letter to Santa Claus
() Been kissed under the mistletoe
(X) Watched the sun rise with someone you care about
(X) Blown bubbles
( ) Made a bonfire on the beach…at the lake
( ) Crashed a party
(X) Gone roller-skating
(X) Had a wish come true
( ) Jumped off a bridge

1. What time is it? 16.50
2. How much do you love your job? I LOVE IT
3. Ever steal any traffic signs? Nope
4. Favourite pie? Cherry
5. Favorite number? 3
6. Favorite movie? Shrek
7. Favorite brand of body soap? Dove
8. Toothpaste? Crest
9. Message to your friends reading this? Do the test too !
10. How do you see yourself in 10 years? Older
11. What do you enjoy receiving? My favorite collectibles.
12. What time is it now? 16.51