Serendipity and Other Sagacities

While looking at Clarelis' site (love those butterflies!), I followed a link to blog de valy and thereby discovered The Butterfly Project. I am totally commited to completing some butterflies for this project, and am sending info to my DGS's teachers about the project and learning opportunities there. Deadline for the museum to receive the butterfly projects is 30 June, 2011. I'll be sure to post some pictures here.

You know that I love reading - right? I was checking out the blogs of other participants in le-marquoir-de-sophie, and saw a name I recognized from the Tiny Treasures - YoYo of Dragon my Needle. Of course I had to hop over and check out her blog - some loverly stuff there. And while I can't quite recall how I started from there and ended up at Tonya's blog (I spend way too much time cruising - lol!). I'm glad I did. Look this Friday for my post on:


There's a neat giveaway over at Ginny's Quilts that I ran across this evening - of course I'm entering for the giveaway!

Health issues continue to occupy most of my time. Mama is now in her 5th week in the ICU. Tomorrow there are plans for a couple of procedures that will hopefully improve matters - say a little prayer for her and all of us, please.

The frog has been visiting me regularly, and I was fairly confused about why - until I realized that four to five hours of sleep per night is leaving me chronically sleep-deprived. Automatic stitching is the result. So I'm going to close this and get into bed with a final reminder to myself and anyone who happens to read this that healthy living relies on four major factors:
Healthy Air (breathing)
Healthy Water
Healthy Food and
Healthy Sleep.
Good Night!

Another Freebie Site Found!

I was actually googling for cross stitch lap stands when I ran across Better Cross Stitch Patterns . com. Well worth your time to check it out. Be sure to read the About Us page - Katherine and Allen appear to be very sweet people.
Enjoy!

New Craft Creations Magazine Download Available

A real quick post to let you know there's a new issue of Craft Creations Magazine available for downloading: Issue 48
And wait until you see the Easter Surprise! It is too cute!

Mama Update: Please continue to pray for her - we're now in the fourth week in the ICU, and she's having problems weaning from the ventilator.

CDB Update: She continues recovering from her hospitalization last December / January - but has contracted mycoplasma pneumonia (which is responding well to treatment) - a very big warning that her health is still very fragile!

My meditation for today is on Psalm 18:32-36.
"It is God who arms me with strength,
And makes my way perfect..."

Keep Looking Up!

les Pyrénées

I was browsing through some blogs this evening and happened upon le blog de fanou and in particular the article les Pyrénées - some absolutely stunning pics there! Very nice blog, Fanou!
But I have to confess the silliest question occurred to me - wonder what made the builder of the home in the fourth photo choose that particular spot? It appears to be a random choice, but wouldn't you like to know why?

Mama is still in intensive care, and we still don't know why she's ill - it's so frustrating. The good news is that various tests show she doesn't have a host of diseases (including uterine cancer!) . The bad news is she seems a little worse every day - she's very difficult to rouse, and she does not interact very much at all. The doctors tell us she is getting a little better every day, based on blood counts and such. Please continue to hold her in your prayers.

I must share a funny little story. Saturday was my eldest grandson's birthday, and in the interest of ease of serving, the beverage we offered was Capri Sun (a juice drink in a disposable pouch, in case you didn't know). They come with a small straw attached, and you have to pierce the pouch with the straw. My 5-year-old grandson was having difficulties with the operation, so I offered to help.
"My teacher can do that," volunteered the little angelic DGS.
"Well, I'm having a bit of a problem with it," says I.
"My teacher isn't old."
splert!

And life goes on....

My Mom and Pics to Share

My life - it's a soap opera - and a very badly written one at that!

Last week, my mom was admitted to the hospital - she's stable for the moment, but still in intensive care - please remember her in your prayers. I've been spending every available moment at the hospital with her and Daddy - and trying to follow the admonition in 1 Thessalonians 5:17.

I do want to share some pics of the Christmas present I received from my younger DDThis is her first attempt at satin stitch - don't you think she did a wonderful job?
Must share her story behind making this: Several months before Christmas, she mentioned to me that she to do a pattern that called for satin stitch, and she wasn't sure how to do it. "That's OK - just bring it here, and I'll show you", says I. Consternation! - lol! Obviously, she managed to figure it out.
After Christmas, she told me she worked on this while watching the Alabama (ROLL TIDE!) games each Saturday . How she managed to concentrate during the games is beyond me - Alabama football last year was intense!

On other fronts - CDB continues to recover and is trying to move on with her life. The DGS are settling in to their new school, and making new friends. DH has been ill for several days, but appears to be on the road to recovery. And I just keep on keeping on.

PIF

I've published a PIF (Pay It Forward) on my other blog Finishing Ideas for Handcrafts, and I invite you to come and join the fun!

CDB is Home!

My elder DD, whom I’ve always called CDB, was admitted to the hospital on 4 December 2008 with critical and life-threatening illnesses. CDB is the mother of our two grandsons. We prayed and solicited prayers from our friends and family for her recovery. Folks all over the world prayed for our precious CDB (our most sincere gratitude to all whom prayed with us for her healing!) Through the healing grace of God, she is recovering, and we brought her home on 9 January 2009. We brought her to our house so that I could continue to give her care while she completed recovery and regained her strength. We rejoice!

I solicit your prayers again – for strength for CDB and us all. Her marriage has been troubled for a while, and on 12 January, her husband brought their two sons to our house and left them, telling CDB he wanted a divorce. He did not bring any of the boys’ personal belongings. Over the next week, we managed to recover most of their belongings, and transfer the boys to a school near us (they lived almost an hour away and transportation to their school would have been very difficult, if not impossible). CDB has been far more gracious to her husband than I would be, allowing him to see the boys on Sundays. He has a long history of not keeping a job, and has not worked at all since sometime in December (and prior to December, had not worked for many weeks), so he tells CDB he has no money he can give her. DH and I are taking care of our daughter and grandsons, but it grates on CDB’s sensibilities that right now, she can’t contribute anything to their support. So please pray for CDB’s emotional health, for our dear grandsons and for us, as we manuever through this difficult time.

Happy Birthday DGS

Yesterday we celebrated my DGS's 8th birthday. He's Star Wars mad - so deciding on a gift was easy - found this costume online and ordered it from http://www.buystarwarscostumes.com/ (not affiliated in any way - just a happy customer). Here is DGS in his costume:

He also had a special request for his cake and called me a few weeks ago:

"Grandmama, can we make a Buzz Droid cake for my birthday"

"Sweetie, I don't know what a Buzz Droid looks like,"

"I can draw you a picture!"

So he did:

And here's my interpretation:

DGS: "It's pretty good - but you got the colors wrong."

Memo to self - figure out how to convince my dear grandchildren that "Grandmama can do anything!" is not a true statement.

BTW, the cake tasted delish and was enjoyed by all - even though it was the wrong colors!

Quaker Giraffe

I just finished stitching this Quaker Giraffe (from http://www.aurytm.com/). I love all her Quaker motif animals, but when she published this, I just had to stitch it first - it called to me.

It's stitched with 2 strands of Weeks Dye Works 4101 Trick or Treat on 14 count white aida.It turned out about 7 X 7 inches. But now, I don't know what to do with it! I love the colors for this, but it matches nothing in my house - oranges and browns are not really my colors. So I'm soliciting finishing ideas - what would you make with this?

This was my first time using WDW floss. The colors available are fantastic - but I didn't like the stiffness of the floss - guess I've been spoiled by my more recent experiences with silk floss. I also am not used to using these smaller skeins of floss - this one had five yards, and it took almost the entire skein for the giraffe :-( I did take steps to untwist the thread as I worked,, but the free end seemed to tangle and knot frequently.

All in all, I think the stitching turned out well - but I'm going to wait a while before trying another of the WDWs (I have another 23 skeins in assorted colors in my stash - so I will use it sometime - lol!)

I hope some of you have some ideas on finishing - I need something to spark my creatitvity!

Pendibule

Have you seen a pendibule? They are neat little ornaments made by stitching a square, folding it into a triangle, stitching the two sides, and bringing the points together.
Here's one I made for an exchange on the EMS board - the theme was redwork:

Russian Magazine

On the EMS Cross Stitch Board, a link was published to this Russian magazine. There are dozens of very pretty cross stitch patterns if you click on "Embroidery"

The charts are not keyed to a specific floss. Instead, they appear to have generic names, like black, green and brown. I've spent some time with Google Translator, and here is a list of the Russian color names I've managed to translate:

Черный = black
Зеленый = green
Коричневый = brown
Коричневый темный = darkest brown
Коричневый cветло = light brown
коричневый средний = medium brown
Temhый = dark
Светло = light
Зеленый светло = light green
Оранжевый – orange
Бежевый = beige
Белый = white
Красный = red
красная вишня = cherry red
красный рождество = Christmas red
красный ясный = bright red
синий = blue
желтый легчайших = lightest yellow
желтого светло = light yellow
желтый = yellow
желтый средний = medium yellow
пурпурный = purple
фиолетовый = violet
серебристый = silver
серый = grey, gray
светло-серый = light grey
золотой = gold
бирюзовый = turquoise
голубой = light blue
ясные = clear
синий = dark blue
темно = dark
Золотой = golden

There are still more, but maybe someone bilingual in Russian and English will help us out - Hint - Hint!

Found this Interesting

I am not a Catholic, but I found this article very interesting.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080513/ap_on_re_eu/vatican_aliens

What do you think?

Vikki Clayton Silks!

I have just finished stitching my first project with Vikki Clayton's Hand Dyed Fibers! These are beautiful hand dyed silks, and are a joy to work with. This is Tales of Wonder, a freebie by Jennifer L. Aikman-Smith Dragon Dreams. I used a couple of the "dragon" colors, and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. (I also added a pennant to the castle - it just felt like it needed one!) Here are the HDF silks I used:

5143 Kodiak Bear
2125 Mermaid Blue
Mountain Shadows
Victorian Mint
3255 Luteous Green
Huckle Berry
Dragon Fire
Dragon Hoard (used for Herringbone stitch, Four-Sided stitch, Rice Stitch and Long Tied Cross stitch)

I used Mill Hill Petite Glass Beads (gold) instead of French knots for the eyes.

The fabric is a 36-count hand- dyed evenweave I received in an exchange, so I don’t know what the fabric or color are called.

I plan to finish this as a bell pull with gold hardware, if I can find a source that is not outrageously expensive (might be time to put on my crafting cap and figure out how to make my own hardware - hmmm?).

Next project for these silks? Don't let the Weeds.

Some last minute finishes

A quick note to show off a few last minute finishes:

Bookmarks for Daddy and Mama for Christmas

I charted Psalms 57 - the Dove is from "70 Christian Symbols", purchased from http://www.patternsonline.com/ and the Resurrection Lilies is a freebie from http://www.michaels.com/ which I changed slightly. The pre-finished bookmarks are from CharlesCraft.

My parent celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary this month. In honor of that, I did this small design from Carinne's site: http://users.skynet.be/bk236098/CARINNE/ (it's 21CoeurNoceArgent), again with a little change. The oatmeal color of the aida doesn't show up very well. I wanted to frame this in a square frame, set on point, but couldn't find one I liked, and ran out of time to make one, so it's framed in an 8x10 frame I found that looks kind of antiquey.

I'm doing the finishes on bookmarks for my DD this evening (she came down with the flu - poor thing). I designed the bookmarks for her, so I'll post a pic when I'm done.

Back to stitching....

Daisy Stitches Mail Art Contest

Well, I didn't win or place, but had fun, nevertheless. You can see all the entries at http://www.daisystitches.com/mailart.html, including mine.

I didn't take an pics of the construction process, but this is not the last Mail Art I'll do, so next time, I'll photograph all the steps and publish them on http://jcbsleep.wordpress.com/, my finishing ideas blog

Currently reading: Innocent in Death by JD Robb

Currently stitching: scissors biscornu; Halloween ornaments for wXSw SAL, EMS Kitchen alphabet and last, but not least, Needle Guardian by Teresa Wentzler

At Last!

Thought I was gone forever, didn't you? No such luck - lol!

But I have put some content on my finishing ideas blog - check it out here: http://jcbsleep.wordpress.com/

More to come - later!

Our New Furbabies

Say hello to Annie and Nellie:
They are mixed breed 9 week old sisters. It has taken us a while to decide to adopt more furbabies since our beloved Dolly passed away. But Annie and Nellie have stolen our hearts.

I had forgotten how much energy puppies have - they easily wear DH and I out every time we play with them. They are very typical sisters - each wants what the other has!

They may look close to identical in this pic, but they are not: Nellie's ears are carried farther out than Annie's, and Annie has a broad white/black brindle patch on her chest, while Nellie has a small white patch on her chest.

Annie

Perhaps one day I'll be able to get a pic of them sitting or standing - right now the only time they are still is when laying down chewing on something, or when fast asleep.

Nellie

The Courtyard of Alhambra

Let me introduce you to a new designer: Lady Periphaeria. I’ve just completed the stitching on The Courtyard of Alhambra (PD- #4), and it is beautiful! I used 28 count natural linen, and stitched it with Caron Waterlilies® Arroyo. Check out her other designs at Periphaeria Designs.

Now to decide how to finish. Lady Periphaeria shows it finished as a biscornu (always a good choice), but I hate to cover up any of the design by a button or bead in the center. Perhaps a needlecase? Or the start of an accordion book, or a flat fold? Hmm, this is going to take some thought.

Currently stitching: A surprise for the One World, Many Cultures Exchange on the EMS Board
Currently reading: Owlsight by Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon.

Happy Birthday to me!

Received the nicest surprise today - my personalized bookmark from the EMS Cross Stitch Board Exchange. Isn't it beautiful?

I love to participate in these exchanges. I've made new friends from all over the world.

Yes, it is my Birthday, and I'm proud to be here. My life has been blessed, and I like to use my birthday as a very special time to thank the Lord for his many blessings: My beloved DH (and in 9 days, we'll celebrate the 36th anniversary of our first date, and in June, our 35th wedding anniversary), my children, my wonderful grandchildren, all of my family, and all of my friends, both in RL and virtual. Praise God for you all!


My DH is taking me to dinner this evening - and I'll have my once a year treat of Coca-Cola Cake with vanilla bean ice cream from Cracker Barrel. I promise I'll savor every morsel!

In other news, I've been thinking about publishing some tutorials, so I'll be looking for a site to do that on - cost is definately a factor. But I do love to create, and I love to teach - so I'll work on it and publish here when it's ready. I've already been taking photos and writing instructions for the first one - a covered Altoid box.


Currently stitching: Breadcloth for an EMS Exchange
Currently reading: Andre Norton's final fantasy Three Hands for Scorpio

January is almost gone!

I can't believe this month is almost over. Where did it go?

Thought you might enjoy seeing the finished presents for my co-workers. The baskets contain candies and a scented candle.

I've completed a biscornu and a bookmark for exchanges on the EMS Cross Stitch Board. Currently working on a breadcloth for another exchange.

Don't you just hate to get a brilliant idea and not have the time to carry it out? That's where I am right now - I've got to finish the breadcloth before I do anything else, but I've jotted down notes, so hopefully the brilliance won't fade - lol.

It's tax time again - Yuck! I hate filling out all these forms. Wouldn't it be nice if they'd just take the money through the year and then leave you alone? I know, I know, that's a simplistic view - but I think it anyway, every year!

Have lots of errands to do today, so this will have to end here. Take care, and God Bless!