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!

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!

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!!

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!

Baseball and Boxes

He says he didn't touch Nelson Cruz's glove.
He says he didn't reach over the wall.

He also denies making obscene gestures towards Cruz afterwards but I won't post that picture.

Rangers went on to wallop the Yankees, 10-3, but I'm still livid about this call and will probably need a Valium to get through today's game. We lead the series, 3-1, so this could potentially be the last game and Texas will be heading to the World Series.

So my life has been taken over by baseball and boxes since we unloaded the big truck last week. Every day I unpack more stuff and find that I've grossly overestimated the size of this house. I also underestimated the size of my furniture and my armoire now sits outside my bedroom instead of inside where its supposed to be. There's no room for my desk and we can't sit at the dining room table to eat because the china cabinet is in the way. We've managed to redefine 'cozy'.

I haven't picked up any stitching since we've been back unless you count pawing through boxes of stash I haven't seen in over a year. It's quite a distraction when I should be doing more productive things. Like looking for the silverware. And hangers. And something to drink out of other than a coffee mug.

Eventually I will have everything sorted through and things will get back to normal, or as close to normal as we can muster in this household. In the meantime I'll keep tearing open boxes and unwrapping the contents like it's Christmas and shouting things like "Woohoo! A stapler!"

Have a great day, y'all, and LET'S GO RANGERS!

Happy Dancing on a Pumpkin

Perched on a Pumpkin
Blue Ribbon Designs
Stitched with DMC on 36-count Summer Khaki linen
I finished the border the other night while watching The Shawshank Redemption (which is easily one of my top ten favorite movies), so this guy now resides in the Fuppie Box. I'll have my sewing machine back in my possession in a couple of weeks so I'm hoping to get a couple of projects finished finished before Halloween.

I've had the Halloween stocking booklet from Blackbird Designs in my stash for a while so I think it's about time to pick one to stitch. I've looked through it a few times already and out of the 13 designs there's probably 12 I want to do. Suffice to say, it's going to be a hard choice!


House projects continue. We got the shelves cut and installed in the bathroom. At last! That was one of those projects which kept getting put off so it feels really good to finally have it done. All it lacks now is some trim work and that room will be complete. Oh, and a toilet paper holder that I like and is what I would call 'reasonably priced'. It's really hard to justify spending $21 for this particular item.

Here they are in all their glory:


And this is what lurks behind the wall:


We built this little cubby so we could conveniently pull electric lines and duct work to the second floor. The only heat up there was from it rising through grates in the floor which apparently was how it was done back in the day. I'm sure it kept it acceptably warm for most people but I can just imagine how hard it would be to crawl out from under the covers on cold mornings. This Southerner likes it warm and cozy so when we replaced the furnace we went ahead and installed duct work and vents upstairs. (And that, dear readers, is a horror story for another day!)

Thanks for stopping by! Have a happy Monday!

Worth A Thousand Words

Is this not the most cheerful looking group of children you've ever seen? We found this photo in one of the walls when we did our bathroom demolition. I intended to run over to the library with it to see if I couldn't find out more about when and where it may have been taken but it got shoved in a drawer and forgotten. I wish it was in better shape as I'd love to have it framed so I could display it as part of the house's history. Of course, if I did that I'd find out later that the photo had absolutely nothing to do with the house.

(Like my roommate in college who had the framed poster of New York City hanging above her bed because she looooved NYC. And she looooved her poster of NYC. Then I pointed out that the Space Needle was in the picture. The Seattle Space Needle. Yeah.)

Anyhoosie, still no stitching here, although we're this >< close to having the living room back together. Or as back together as it can get when 99% of your furniture is in storage.

Never fear! Come hell or high water, next month is Moving Month! Or my name isn't Nathan Arizona!

I Proudly Present...

My dining room floor!
Newly refinished, and once I get the closet door and the window trim painted, the trim installed around the light fixture, and a new grate for the cold air return, this room will be FINISHED! Or at least almost finished. The window will eventually need to be replaced and the inside of the closet needs a lot of attention but, hey, close enough!

In the meantime, look at this floor!


You might notice (or probably not, haha!) it's not your typical tongue and groove floor. These are locally milled slats nailed down to the plank subfloor below. Having nail heads every four inches ain't too purdy but I've been told it's "period specific to the home". Which is just a nice way of saying "yeah, it looks like crap but that's the way they did it back then."

You'll be happy to learn we did not have to sleep in the kitchen while the polyurethane was drying! We discovered if you held onto the top of the front door, you could swing yourself over to the steps to go upstairs. We had to have a step ladder set up at the backdoor so we could get into the kitchen and bathroom because we tore down the back steps several months ago. (The steps were extremely unsafe and an accident waiting to happen, and as an added bonus there was something dead under them. It was a bit 'Barnum & Bailey' with all the swinging and climbing but it sure beat camping on a cold tile floor. (We do have fun, don't we?)


In stitchy news, I picked up a copy of the JCS Christmas ornament issue last week while we were doing our best not to be home. My first reaction was sorta 'meh' but each time I go through it I find more I'd like to stitch. My favorite is probably the Christmas Robin from The Victoria Sampler. I do have a thing for birds. (And bunnies, but I don't think there are any in this issue.)

Sadly, there hasn't been much stitching done here in the last week. We're still working in the living room, trying to get it finished, so alas, my stitchy spot is no longer. I've set up my lamp and a chair in my bedroom but it just isn't the same. The chair is too hard and the lamp is on the wrong side and whine! whine! whine! I can't stitch here! Anyone else have that problem? You get used to a certain spot and nothing else seems to work? More incentive to finish the living room, I guess.

That's it for me! Thanks for stopping by, and have a Terrific Tuesday!

Me So Happy!

The Rangers swept the Yankees and......


The hardwoods have been sanded!

(I'm so easy to please!)