I Saw Miles and Miles of Granite

(Alternate title: Why I Still Haven't Finished Spring Has Come)

Saturday: Look at granite...


Monday: Look at granite...


Wednesday: Look at granite...


You can't imagine how difficult this is! After yesterday's trip to Chicago, I think we are finally making some progress on our final selections.

Tagged for the laundry room and powder room...

Chocolate Bordeaux
Tagged for the kitchen island (which is so big I think it qualifies as a continent!)...

Typhoon Bordeaux

Tagged for the downstairs bar...

Cosmos
Tagged for three bathrooms...

Another (bazillion pound) slab of Chocolate Bordeaux (dangling from a tiny clampy thing on a skinny cable)
We still haven't settled on what we'd like to do in the master bathroom and are second guessing our tile choice for the shower. It's enough to make one want to beat their head against, well, a slab of granite.

Today I am committed to settling my derriere in my stitching chair and finishing (yes!) Spring Has Come! I am embracing my inner Little Engine That Could! I think I can, I think I can, I think I can!

The Green Grass Grows

I spent the better part of yesterday filling in the "front lawn" of my Spring Has Come house. I'm doing the alphabet last so the stitches don't get lost in the grass. I really hate it when surrounding stitches swallow up inside stitches and something that's supposed to pop out gets buried.

If all goes as planned, I should have a finish to share tomorrow!

(And, yes, I'm already thinking about what I'm going to work on next!)

The Beat Goes On

La-dee-da-dee-dee, la-dee-da-dee-da. I'm still working on Spring Has Come, but you can see I'm getting close to the end. I'm holding off on filling in the house for now. It's supposed to be white but I'm considering going with something that will add a little more color to the piece. Besides, I'll go cross-eyed trying to stitch white on white and end up in bed with a migraine for two days while they uncross!

Last night's dinner was homemade pizza. Food pictures have always been a challenge for me, but Phil got me a fancy pants camera for Christmas and I think I'm getting better results with it. My son was the 'photog of record' for this one here. He was also the executive pizza maker so I had a night off from kitchen duties. Woohoo!

Looks like today is going to be a errand running, taking care of business kind of day. We have rain in the forecast so I'm hoping it holds off until I'm back home and safely tucked into my stitching chair. I love a good storm as long as I don't have to be out in it!

Thanks for popping in to visit! It was great seein' ya!

My First IHSW

I had some extra time on Friday so I decided to participate in the International Hermit and Stitch Weekend. Don't you just love Hermie!

My project of choice for the stitch-a-long was naturally Prairie Schooler's Spring Has Come. My time Friday was spent stitching those floating trees to the right of the floating roof. I had more stitching time on Sunday while watching the season finale of Downton Abbey (Am I the only one who wants a Chatty Dowager Countess doll? Snarky remarks at the pull of a string! I love me some Maggie Smith!) and was able to get those long brown stringy bits to the left of the roof done. I am very tree-challenged but I think it's a willow tree?

My other sewing task on Sunday was re-stitching a pocket onto one of my daughter's sweaters. I was so happy with how perfectly aligned and unpuckered I got it despite the stretchiness of the material, and then I realized I'd sewed the front and back of the sweater together! At least I got a good laugh when my daughter went to try it on! (And after spilling an entire spaghetti pot full of water into my kitchen utensil drawer, I needed a good laugh!)

Can you believe it snowed this morning? I realize it's February and I live in Michigan but still... snow?? Color me spoiled by this mild winter! Happily, it's already melting and I won't have to dig my ugly snow boots out of the closet!

Phil and I are going to make our final flooring selections for the house this afternoon. I keep thinking we're at the end of all this picking and choosing and matching but then we'll get a call asking for grout color choices or which switch plate covers do we want and we're back to debating and second guessing. Phil is adamant that we never build another house!

That's about it for my Tuesday! Thanks for stopping by and a big Howdy! to any new folks who have found my blog through the WIPocolypse or IHSW! I sincerely appreciate your comments and look forward to getting to know some new-to-me stitchers!

PS Progress

Despite some snow and cooler temps this last week, I'm still thinking Spring here! The bunnies and birds are just about done on Spring Has Come, and I'm working my way down to the big house at the bottom. It's almost solid stitching down there so it's going to take me a while to finish. There's an alphabet scattered in the house's 'front lawn' which means I'm going to have to start paying attention to what I'm stitching! I do love the splashes of lavender and turquoise in this sampler... very Springy!

Thank you all for visiting and have a grrrrrrreat weekend!!

Happy Valentines Day!

I hope your day is filled with love and all things sweet!

February WIPocolypse Report

Can you believe a month has passed and it's time for another WIPocolypse report?? I feel like I'm in a Twilight Zone episode! I just home some creepy kid doesn't decide to wish me out into the corn field! (Although, if I can take my stitching with me and there's good lighting out there, it might not be so bad!)

Now on with the shoo...

I have one finish to share for the month... Block One of my Village of Hawk Run Hollow was completed on January 26!
Can I get a woohoo?!?! This is more of a finish within what will hopefully be a much LARGER finish by the end of the year. I have nine more blocks to go, but plenty of time to twiddle my thumbs and toes until it's the end of summer when panic sets in and I start making unrealistic stitchy schedules and planning rotations. Stay tuned!

Now, in my last report I said I wanted to finish up all the Garnet stitching on one page of Peppermint Twist. There honestly isn't much of it left, but did I finish it?
Of course not! I was distracted by the stars (oooh... shiny!) and wanted to get those done. Ever the futzy stitcher, I thought one of them looked like it was a different color than the rest so I ripped it out and restitched it. That made the next star look a little off-color so I re-stitched that one as well. Wash, rinse, repeat. Then it dawned on me I was using an overdyed thread which has a lot of variation in the color. I might be super dense but at least my stars match.

Feeling my progress on PT was much too slow (go figure!) I decided to pull something else out of my WIP basket. Considering our mild weather this winter I decided some Spring stitching would be appropriate, so here is Spring Has Come.
I've been working on the block with the house and bunnies and totally loving the 28-count linen after stitching on 40-count for so long. Plus Prairie Schooler is always a favorite!

We had an absolute blast watching the Super Bowl last night! Or the commercials, I should say. I made up Bingo cards with typical (and some not so typical) things you might see in a Super Bowl commercial. Think "girl in bikini" or "talking animal". It's utterly hilarious to have a group of people yelling "Come on! Say something!" at every dog or horse that shows up on the TV screen! I think we cheered louder when we finally saw a penguin than we did for any touchdown! (We are definitely an odd lot here!)

Thank you for the nice comments on Phil's house. His previous home was completely destroyed in a fire so the process of rebuilding has been bittersweet for him. It's looking more like April before it's finished but that'll be in time for summer on the lake. Let's get another woohoo!

And now it's time to kick back and enjoy the evening! Leftover enchiladas from last night for dinner, some Netflix on the TV, and my stitching! Sounds marvelous!

A Stitchless Week

I seem to have lost my stitchy mojo this week so I'll just share the latest pictures of the house.

The exterior stone is up and we're super happy with how it looks. Trying to get all the different elements to come together and look good is turning into a real challenge but we seem to have nailed this one. Woohoo!


Here's a view of the back of the house, deck railings and stairs in progress:

View of the lake, ducks, and one pesky, wire-chewing muskrat if you look close:

All the drywall is done inside and they've started painting. On the main floor we have the Great Room:

Kitchen:

Dining room:

Master bedroom:

Master bathroom:

Some views of the basement:



Looking down from upstairs:


At the risk of boring you further, I won't report on the weather or my recent trip to the gynecologist! But I swear if I don't find something on my WIP list that gets my stitchy motor running, I'm starting a new project!!

Block One: Done!

Village of Hawk Run Hollow - Block One
stitched on 40-ct. Pearled Barley linen
with Vikki Clayton hand-dyed fibers
At long last! It's done! Well... with the exception of one fish eye but for now I'm pretending he blinked when I snapped the picture.

Here's the whole she-bang so far:
Three down, nine to go! I've actually convinced myself I can have all twelve blocks completed by the end of the year. You'd think I'm positively delusional since it's taken me three years to finish these three, but, my dearest bloggy buddies, the model was stitched in 49 days! Crazy but true! 49 days! The least I can hope for is to finish it in 49 months, right?

Next in the Q-snaps is The Riddle by The Drawn Thread. I've been skipping all the specialty stitches because I'm a total wimp, I can't do french knots, and my queen's stitches looked like merde. This is most likely a huge mistake because all that will be left when I'm done with the Xs is the "hard stuff" and I won't want to finish it.

The weekend is upon us which means Phil and I will be off on yet another excursion to make selections for the house. Last weekend was countertops for the kitchens (yes, plural) and bathrooms which found us standing in a freezing cold workshop for over an hour, staring at slabs of granite and saying, "Eh... I don't know... what do you think?" about a thousand times. This weekend takes us back to the fireplace shop to choose mantles and hearth stones. More head shaking and nose wrinkling but at least it'll be warmer!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a fabulous weekend!

Two Wrongs

I thought I was on track to finish Block 1 of my Village last night but somewhere in middle of the river I made a mistake. After much futzing and fudging, I decided I'd just frog the mess and do it right. In the process of correcting Mistake One, I discovered Mistake Two. More futzing. More fudging. And then I realized it probably would have been faster if I'd just frogged everything and restitched it instead of spending two frustrating hours trying to work around the mistakes. Doh!! So I am pulling up my big girl panties, frogging the remaining mess, and I am determined to finish this tonight! Even if I have to stay up past my bedtime!

A Quickie Post

I'm still plugging away on Block 1, still trying to get over that river and to the village. I better get some water in that river, pronto! My poor little fish can't swim! (Not to mention he's missing his eye, but when have I ever stitched a critter and remembered to leave a space for the eye?)

Alas, I've made minimal progress on my Village. I was having severe frogging issues yesterday. Not because of mistakes but because I wasn't happy with the way my stitching looked. On the back. I was on the verge of re-stitching an area for the fourth time when I finally decided I needed to get a grip.

If only they made pills for this sort of thing!

Our mild winter weather is coming to an end. Snow is in transit and the forecast is for up to 10 inches. I'll be at the grocery store tonight buying toilet paper and extra batteries along with every other person in the blast radius of this storm.

WIProgress Report

Welcome to the January Edition of the Paisley Stitching WIPocolypse Progress Report!

A mere four days into the year I was able to scratch Lizzie Kate's Christmas Is Forever off my WIP list! (Check out my last post for a photo of the finished piece!) Since then I've been trying to put some Xs into a couple of bigger projects that have been haunting my WIP basket for a few years.

First up was Peppermint Twist from Blue Ribbon Designs. This one needed some serious de-cat-hairing because my furry friends think a basket full of linen is the most comfortable place to sleep in the house. (Apparently the only thing better is a basket full of clean laundry. Dirty laundry? Not so much.)
My goal is to get all the Garnet stitching finished on this one page. The 40-ct. linen I'm working on makes me cross-eyed so I'll probably take a break from it once I get this part finished.

Last night I parked my butt in my stitching chair while I watched Downton Abbey on Masterpiece Classic (Come back, Mr. Bates!). My Village of Hawk Run Hollow has been so neglected! I decided I just can't ignore it any longer!
I finished stitching some more of the letters on Block 1, and started filling in the big O. It was this first block that made me want to stitch this BAP to begin with. I love the river with its little fishies! I'm planning to stick with this one a while longer. Maybe even finish the block? We'll see!

That's about it for now! I'd mention the gorgeous weather we've been having over the last several days but I don't want to jinx it! Somewhere out there is a couple of feet of snow with my name on it, I just know it!

First Finish of 2012

Christmas Is Forever
2008 Special Edition Kit from Lizzie Kate
Stitched with Crescent Colours and DMC on 28-ct. linen
Woohoo! My first official Happy Dance of 2012 and my first WIPocolypse finish! Now it's time to decide what my next project will be. Something big and scary that will take me forever? Or a teeny tiny project I can actually finish this month? I've considered writing each WIP down on its own index card and having a random drawing but who am I kidding... I'd only keep drawing cards until I picked one I wanted to work on!

The sun is shining here in southwestern Michigan, the streets are snow-free, and I still have Christmas cash burning a hole in my wallet so I think we might be heading up to the big city to do a little shopping today. If I don't do it soon I'm going to end up spending this money on gas and groceries like I do every other year, and where's the fun in that?

That's all my news for now! Thanks for visiting and have a happy Thursday!

(P.S. A reminder to those of you in the states who got hooked on Downton Abbey last year: Season two starts Sunday on Masterpiece Classic!)

My WIPocolypse List

I dug through my baskets and bins today and came up with a list of WIPs/UFOs for the WIPocolypse challenge. This is by no means every project I've ever started and failed to finish, but I did try to stick to designs that still float my butter.

Without further ado, I give you my official (yet subject to change!) WIPocolypse list!

1. Christmas is Forever - Lizzie Kate (I only need to finish the border on this one!)
2. The Riddle (aka Phil's Sampler) - The Drawn Thread (must must MUST finish!)
3. VoHRH - Carriage House Samplings (I'm on the third of twelve blocks)
4. Peppermint Twist - Blue Ribbon Designs (in need of some frogging which is why it languishes)
5. Better Not Pout - Shepherd's Bush (CJC fail!)
6. A Winter's Tale - Shepherd's Bush (another CJC fail...)
7. Big Blizzard Sampler - Heart in Hand (ditto...)
8. Sweet Treats - Country Cottage Needleworks (...)
9. Cupcake - Country Cottage Needleworks (...)
10. Cake - Country Cottage Needleworks (...)
11. Tart - Country Cottage Needleworks (...)
12. Pie - Country Cottage Needleworks (...)
13. Joyful Summer - Country Cottage Needleworks (...)
14. Create - Lizzie Kate (Living With Charm Double Flips started in 2008)
15. Live - Lizzie Kate (last one and this will be finished!)
16. St. Nicholas Needleroll - Shepherd's Bush (not sure if that's what it's called... need to find pattern which explains why I never finished it)
17. Into The Night - Shepherd's Bush (started in 2008 I believe)
18. Wee Autumn - Heart in Hand (last part of a bell pull I started back in the 90s)
19. Gentle Hearts Pillow - Shepherd's Bush (started back in the 80s... oy!)
20. Acorn Hill - Little House Needleworks (got buried in basket or it'd be finished by now)(yeah, right!)
21. Spring Has Come - Prairie Schooler (started in 2008?)
22. Summer Snapperlands - (only found the patterns and threads so I'm not sure how much I have left to do on this one... still have high hopes to complete the whole Snapperland series)(don't laugh!)

See? That's not so bad! Everything's been started so it should be easy peasy to finish each and every one of them, right? In fact, this list is so short, I think I'll make another list of projects I want to start in 2012!

Happy 2012!

Happy New Year to everyone, and best wishes for 2012!

My 2011 stitching quite literally ended in mid-stitch. Phil called to tell me he'd been side-swiped on the interstate so I dropped everything. Luckily, he'd been able to get his car back under control and wasn't hurt in the accident. The guy who hit him had rolled his SUV, landed on all four tires, and for some utterly insane reason kept going. We're just very thankful the only damage was to Phil's car.

Anyway, here is my progress on Christmas is Forever...
I am so close to finishing! I only have a little of the blue in the top motif, four more letters, and the border left to stitch. This will definitely be my first WIPocolypse project! (Which for me will basically be The Great 2011 Crazy January Challenge Do-Over of 2012!)

And speaking of the CJC, I've been doing some catching up on my blog reading and see it is in full swing for 2012. At my pace I can only allow myself to participate once every three years! I do hope to sneak in a few new starts in the months to come, but for the most part my stitching will be WIPs, WIPs, and more WIPs! I have at least four baskets full of them, although I think most might be considered UFOs. I'll just dub them WIPUFOs and that way I can quit scratching my head about the difference between the two and get on with the stitching! Woohoo!

A couple more pictures before I go...

We have most of the deck finished on the house, and they've started hanging the siding. They've also started hanging the drywall inside which is super exciting! The rooms are starting to look like rooms! Phil and I got down with our DIY bad self's on Sunday and sound insulated the downstairs bedrooms and bathrooms. I don't think we could have picked a more perfect way to start the new year than working on a project like that together. And Phil couldn't have put it more aptly: It's his house, but it's going to be our home.

So Happy 2012! Let's live every week like it's Shark Week!

A Little More Christmas Stitching

I am determined to finish Christmas is Forever before the end of the year. Only one more "moteef" left and then the rest of the verse. Highly doable, even at my slow pace, as long as I don't get too fussy about the umpteen thousand letters I have to stitch. I counted them all when I started working on it last night and realized I wasn't even halfway done. I also found a mistake so I'll be frogging two of them. I know that doesn't sound bad but I turn into Rain Man when I'm stitching a lot of letters like this, obsessively counting them over and over, adding and subtracting so I know how many I've done and how many I have left to do. If it wasn't for all my counting and re-counting, I might actually be done!

I really need to find a support group.

Merry Christmas!

White Chicken Chili

Ah yes! Another post about food! But 'tis the season to eat, drink, and be merry and, by gum, I plan to do all three!

At the risk of repeating myself I have to say this stuff is gooo-oood! My sister-in-law, Tammey, introduced me to white chili a couple of years ago and, well, it had me at hello. Our "go to" recipe comes from Cook's Country magazine, and we pretty much follow it verbatim except for substituting chicken breasts for the thighs. I have an extremely low tolerance for dark meat chicken. We also leave out the fresh cilantro which I have an even lower tolerance for after having a job that required me to chop mountains of the stuff. One whiff of cilantro and I'm on the floor in a fetal position sucking my thumb. Luckily I don't have the same reaction to the dried, flakey variety so we use that instead. Now, this recipe has a secret ingredient that really sets it apart from any other recipe we tried: a can of white hominy, drained, rinsed, and pureed. It smells gross (oh ye of the sensitive nose) and pureed beans look exactly how you'd think they'd look (ick!), but it really does add a lot of flavor and helps to thicken the chili. Plus it's easy to deal with the hominy when the recipe also includes this:

Four chopped jalapenos! Hoo doggie! These bad boys should come with a warning label: Do not touch any part of your body for 24 hours after handling! No amount of hand washing seems to help, either. You just have to let it wear off.

Anyhoosie, if you're tired of the same ol' same ol' and want to mix it up a bit, give this white chicken chili a try! The recipe can be found online right here:

White Chicken Chili

Enjoy!

Peppermint Bark

Let me tell you, this stuff is goooo-ooood! Bordering on addictive! And it's so amazingly simple to make, I just have to share the recipe with you:

Peppermint Bark (courtesy of Miss Paula Deen)

1 cup crushed candy canes
2 pounds white chocolate
Peppermint flavoring, optional

Place candy canes in a plastic bag and crush into 1/4-inch chunks or smaller. (I smacked mine with a rolling pin. Quite satisfying if you're feeling a little Bah Humbug-ish!)) Melt the chocolate in a double boiler. Combine candy cane chunks with melted chocolate (add peppermint flavoring at this point if desired). Pour mixture onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment or waxed paper and place in the refrigerator for 45 minutes or until firm. Remove from cookie sheet and break into pieces.

Notes: I didn't want to mess with the whole double boiler thing so I just zapped my chocolate in the microwave, 15 seconds at a time, stirring until it was smoothy smooth. I also added enough peppermint flavoring to make my eyes burn but can't say that it made a huge difference in the final product.

And what would a stitchy blog be without some stitching! It's not much but here is my progress on Christmas Is Forever:

Good thing Christmas is forever because there's no way I'll have this finished before the 25th!

That's about it for me! Wishing everyone holiday cheer!

Holy Cow!

It is my honest belief that the cows that give the milk used to make Bluebell Ice Cream must truly come from heaven. It's that good! But how did this Texas girl end up with two half gallons of "Little Creamery" yumminess in her Michigan freezer?? I'll tell you how!! My boyfriend Phil (also heaven-sent!) made a secret trip down to Kokomo, IN (the nearest place to buy Bluebell) in order to surprise me for my birthday. He also brought back five different pints along with the two half gallons. It's like having my own Bluebell Ice Cream parlor! (One that doesn't bother with bowls... I confess to eating it straight from the carton!)

The ice cream was not the biggest surprise, however! Phil also gave me a traditional Claddagh ring he had made especially for me in Ireland!
It's not quite an engagement ring but it does symbolize our commitment to each other. The hands represent friendship, the heart love, and the crown loyalty. I feel so blessed to be the person Phil chose to wear this ring!

In stitchy news, I've been working on Lizzie Kate's Christmas Is Forever.
This is the special edition kit from 2008 so I figure it's about time I got 'er done. It's also one of my Crazy January Challenge projects, but we don't talk about that particular failure!

My son left me a note on the fridge reminding me that Christmas is 10 days away. I've done minimal shopping and decorating so it looks like it's time to push it into hyperdrive. My daughter's last final is today so I'm hoping we can meet her for a quick celebratory lunch before she has to go to work, and then get some shopping done.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit, and I hope you are enjoying the holiday season!