Oh my!

That's a lot of orts, ladies!

Update on the house: We had the inspection on Friday. They were here over four hours! We came back to find little orange stickers stuck all over the house. They irritated the heck out of me so I removed them. Saturday I met with my realtor to go over the list of repairs they'd like me to make. Considering the stickers, it was a relatively short list. I agreed to all but four of them, and we were pretty satisfied that they wouldn't object. So I get a call yesterday evening from my realtor saying they realllly want one of the items taken care of. This just happens to be one of those things that you just can't repair and have it be right. The whole thing would have to be replaced which I'm told they don't expect me to do. My response was no, based on the fact that I know they won't be satisfied with the repair. I haven't heard anything back, which I find odd considering everything has been rush, rush, rush up to this point.

Anyway, I have a certain sheep's blanket calling my name. I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!

Poor Charlotte

She's not very happy with me. Just look at that face.If I don't get busy, this is what she'll be stuck wearing to the monthly Sheep Social & Fashion Show.

I swear, that face! If she were a pig she'd be disgruntled.

Emotional Rescue

Things went well with yesterday's negotiations. We spit and shook hands on a selling price, and I initialed this and signed that until it was all official. We're having a home inspection tomorrow... cringe! Think they'll notice the crack in the kitchen light cover we just put there while changing the silly lightbulb? The inspection will take 3-4 hours so I'm planning to head out to a movie and make myself sick on "buttered" popcorn. Don't even try to stop me!

I had such an emotional crash and burn this morning. If there's such a thing as seller's remorse I had an acute case of it. So I did the only thing I could possibly do to feel better... I started a new project! I decided I'd join in the Happy Home Sampler SAL that BeckySC started on her blog. Even though I'm behind on my May goals, I needed something new to take my mind off this incredibly stupid thing I've just done (haha!). All that counting and recounting proved to be just the therapy I needed! Here's my start: I haven't done a stitch-a-long in ages, so this will be fun for me. I'm already looking forward to next Thursday, and to watching everyone's progress!

I Feel Like Singing!

Got an offer! Got an offer!
Got an offer just now!
Just now we got an offer!
Got an offer just now!

The last few days have been crazy and I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but I think we may have finally sold the house!

WOOHOO!!

I've Been Spoiled!

There's been no stitching for me the last couple of days. Why? Because I received the most wonderful Mother's Day present from my children! A laptop! I have no clue what I did to derserve this amazing gift but I am just tickled about it!! It's been so much fun learning how to use it, setting things up, making it my laptop. And I'm WIRELESS!! The freedom!! Now tell me why I haven't moved more than six feet away from the router?

I do have a finish the share! I put the last stitches in Lizzie Kate's "Listen" Saturday night after dinner.

I made a small boo-boo on the letter S, but I've left it for now. If I correct it I'll have to restitch the T-E-N as well. I'm thinking I can live it. Here's a photo of the whole thing so far...

Oh my! The wrinkles! Is there Botox for linen?

Enjoy your special day, Moms!

C-O-F-F-E-E!

I had to share this for any coffee drinkers out there!

Goals

Can you believe it's May?? Where did April go?? It seemed to blow through here so quickly, but I did manage to get a little stitching done! Here are my goals for April and how I did on them:

1. Finish "Season of Hope" by LHN. Check!

2. Start and finish "Give" by LK. Check!

3. Work on "Spring Has Come" by PS. Check!

4. Start "Village of Hawk Run Hollow" by CHS!!! Check!

5. One more attempt at the UFOs! Whoops! Forgot about this one!

Here are a couple of progress pictures that I've been meaning to post.

Spring Has Come! by Prairie Schooler

I have quite a ways to go on this one, but it's a nice break from the tiny stitching on VoHRH! I plan to keep working on it this month, so we'll see how much more I get done. These big projects kinda scare me but I'd hate to see this one become a UFO!

Village of Hawk Run Hollow (Block 3) by Carriage House Samplings

I started on Block 3 because I was initially stiching it without the Q-Snaps and I didn't want to be wadding up blocks 1 & 2 in my sweaty hand. I'm using Vikki Clayton silks and so far I love them! It's been a little rough working on the 40-ct. linen but my light and magnifier help tremendously. I'm taking it slow!

On to May goals!

1. Work on VoHRH.
2. Work on Spring Has Come!
3. Start and finish Listen (the next Lizzie Kate Double Flip).
4. Start and finish May Woolly Tyme Blanket.
5. UFOs!

Two littles, and two bigs! Perfect for me! And I can't forget my UFOs this month! They're getting sad!

Give

Give by Lizzie Kate
from the Double Flip series

stitched on 32 count linen with WDW & GAST fibers

Here's what the whole (wrinkly) thing looks like so far:

I am officially 1/3 of the way done! This is going to be one looooong piece once all twelve are finished!

P.S. I started VoHRH!!! Hooray!!!

Season of Hope HD

Season of Hope by Little House Needleworks

stitched with DMC on 28-ct. Antique Ivory linen

I've been on a bit of an internet diet this last week. We had a storm take it completely out, but once Verizon declared it fixed we were still staring at a dead modem. We're back up and running again, and I've been playing catch up on my blog reading. Please forgive me lack of commenting! I'm hoping to be back to "normal" soon!

I've been busy out in the yard, trying to stay ahead of the weeds. They sprout as fast as blog posts! If only there was a delete button!

I've also been getting a tiny bit of stitching done. I'm working on Give from LK and should have it finished soon. I need to tie myself to my chair tonight because I really don't have much left to do on it. Believe it or not, I still haven't started VoHRH! Why do I procastinate?!?!?

We went to our first Rangers game this season on Tuesday. My daughter treated us to some very nice seats, in the fifth row right behind the first base dugout. And who cares if we lost! The weather was perfect (remember last year's rain-out about this same time?), the view was ideal, the food was classic (hot dogs with grilled onions!) and we had a fantastic time!

Goal Review

A little late, but here is what I accomplished in March:

1. Start and finish "Remember" by Lizzie Kate. Yes!
2. Start and finish "Season of Hope" by Little House Needleworks. Almost...
3. Start "Spring Has Come" by Prairie Schooler. Yes!
4. Start and finish at least one of the bird ornaments from "Birdsong II" by PS. Yes!
5. Reduce my pile of UFO's! No... I guess that's why they're UFOs :-(

For April:

1. Finish "Season of Hope" by LHN. (I am sooo close on this one!)
2. Start and finish "Give" by LK.
3. Work on "Spring Has Come" by PS.
4. Start Village of Hawk Run Hollow by CHS!!!
5. One more attempt at the UFOs!

I have been such a lazy blogger these last few weeks. Maybe I should add "Be a better blogger" to my list! It's not that I don't have things to share, it's just that I'm woefully ashamed of my photography skills! I may have to turn that job over to my DD. She has a much better eye than I do!

You may have noticed VoHRH on my list. I finally broke down and splurged on the Vikki Clayton silks. I had the fabric and pattern already so now I'm all set! Woohoo! I'm excited but I must admit, also a little nervous. 40 count fabric?? Eep!

We've had a few more showings on the house but still no offers. I'm starting to get grumpy! Any happy thoughts, prayers, good vibes, rain dances, or whatever else you can spare would all be greatly appreciated!!

I hope everyone had a great weekend!!

Hand Dyed

Happy Easter!

Still Here!

And still stitching! I have two finishes to share! The first is the next installment in my LK monthlies, called "Remember". Here's how it looks so far:We're definitely having some issues with wrinkly linen here! And this is after I ironed it!

I stayed up past my bedtime last night and finished this little guy:It's the red-headed woodpecker from Prairie Schooler's Birdsong II. Instead of filling in the background with stitches, I cheated and used some light blue (okay, it was dawn grey!) fabric. See the line where the fabric was folded? It will not go away no matter what I try! Does anyone else ever have this problem with fabric that's been in your stash for several years? I have all these nifty little packages of fabric in my closet that I've been trying to use, but they all seem to have these fold lines. Any advice?

I hope everyone has an enjoyable Easter weekend! I will have everyone home tomorrow except my oldest son who is still in Korea. Now I'm off to boil a couple dozen eggs for the kids to dye!

Fear of Finishing

I admit it! I'm a finishing chicken! I'm terrified that I'll take some lovely piece that I spent hours stitching and completely ruin it by trying to turn it into a pillow or pinkeep! So I decided I needed some practice to build up some confidence. I pulled out an old round robin that didn't really have much of a theme (unless it was "Cross Stitch from the '90s") so the motifs didn't go together very well. I still cringed when I took the scissors to it, and cut away one of the squares; Victim #1 was in my shaking hands! With the hardest part behind me, I got to work making a little hanging pillow. I had to sew the entire thing by hand because my machine is still being cranky. And I learned some lessons. Number one: Don't forget your seam allowance! What a newbie mistake! My second lesson concerned the hanger part: If you want it to be on the outside when you're done, don't sew it to the inside! I'm also going to have to learn how to be neater about sewing up the "stuffing hole". It came out a little lumpy. Other than those few things, WOOHOO! I did it! And I have to say, I couldn't have done it without the inspiration I get from other stitchers who share so many lovely finishes on their blogs! Thank you all!