Good Times, Noodle Salad

I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday weekend! We were out at the lake both Saturday and Sunday, soaking up some sun, lighting fireworks, and proving that it is indeed possible to survive for two days on hamburgers, hot dogs, baked beans, and noodle salad. (You need to say 'noodle salad' like Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets!)

I took a bazillion pictures while we were out cruising around the lake so I thought I'd share a few of my favorites.

There was an abundance of happy screams and giggles carrying out across the water from this small campground:

I love this house:
I'd go crazy with flags and bunting if I owned it!

These folks were getting ready for one heck of a party:

And here's the Rambler, Her Very Self, après noodle salad:
(I was attempting to suck in my chin and nose for this picture!)

Dinner tonight is ham sandwiches and potato salad because I'm still in that holiday frame of mind! Once I get some corn on the cob and watermelon in me I should be good!

Happy 4th of July!

HAVE A SAFE AND HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!

JCS Ornie Preview

It's time for the annual ornament sneak peek from JCS! Have you got your copy yet? We were up in the 'big city' (Kalamazoo) yesterday so I popped into Barnes & Noble and after minimal pestering managed to find an employee willing to dig through the magazines they hadn't yet put out for display. Hooray! The squeaky wheel got it's grease!


I couldn't resist picking up a few new cooking magazines, too. Those slick, shiny covers with their colorful foody photos are too much of a temptation! And Paula Deen always makes me smile!


We went out for broasted chicken dinners last night so lunch time saw me in the kitchen pulling apart our leftovers for chicken salad.


It's all sooooo good!

Killing Me Softly...

...with gravy!
This time it's chicken pot pie. Very yummy, and look! There's veggies! So it can't be all bad!

Finally!

Woohoo! I put the last white stitch in the house this afternoon! I'm so ready to move on to something that actually requires some counting! Luckily, I have plenty more little bits and pieces to finish on this one.

This weekend was the local Water Festival in Three Rivers. I was hoping they'd have a Tilt-a-Whirl which was my favorite ride growing up, but no such luck. I don't know if I would have paid $4 for a ride anyway. We visited the farmer's market and got some bread and home brewed root beer but that's about all that piqued my interest. I swear, I'm turning into such an old fart! A cheap one at that!

I hope everyone had a nice Father's Day weekend! We smoked a pork roast and made pulled pork sandwiches which we ate with cabbage, corn on the cob, and a most excellent orzo salad. Yum! (I'd post a picture if I had one, but y'all would just hate me, haha!)

Calling All Janeites!

I saw on Mary Kathryn's blog that there is a group read of Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice starting today. Check out Pride & Prejudice Without Zombies if you're interested in reading along. All of my books are still in storage so I dashed over to the library this afternoon and picked up both the audiobook and the LARGE PRINT edition. (Squinting causes wrinkles!) I'm planning to listen while I stitch, but I thought it might be fun to follow along with the book, too. I can even make a "beep" sound when it's time to turn the page!

Chapters 1-7 tonight! I have a busy night ahead! :-)

(P.S. Did anyone else have those read-a-long books that came with the records? I had The Jungle Book and practically wore out the grooves on the record, listening to it over and over and over. It was the only thing that got me to stop playing Yellow Submarine over and over and over.)

The Ugly, The Bad, & The Good

The Ugly: One beautiful Saturday morning in northern Indiana my daughter did this...

The Bad: I've been helping her shop for another car which means dealing with these guys...

The Good: We are very thankful that she was able to walk away from the accident with nothing more serious than some cuts and bruises. My pretty girl...
"Can I borrow your car, Mom?"

A Better White

The consensus here was that the Shaker White looked better on the house than the Oatmeal. (Although if you ask me, the Shaker White looks far more oatmealier than the Oatmeal does. Go figure.)

Here's a quick pic of my progress:

I hope everyone had a chance to relax with some stitching this weekend! We've been having quite a bit of rain here but managed to sneak in some grillin' out at the lake Saturday evening. Poor little me who doesn't like brats had to make do with a steak... darn!

Someone in Kalamazoo won a $36 million lottery jackpot on Saturday. I had a momentary glimmer of hope because I'd given my daughter a dollar we'd found while shopping and told her to blow it on a lotto ticket. Alas, she hadn't bought one so there went my early retirement. And new car. And beach bungalow with a cozy stitching room. And stash. Lots of stash. It was mine in my head for about 30 seconds, though!

Thanks for visiting! I'll be back soon with another Winter Wonderland progress pic!

A Moment on the Lips

Tonight's wonderfully unhealthy dinner was biscuits with sausage gravy, courtesy of my son. His gravy is well worth the fat and calories. Mine, on the other hand, is better suited for patching drywall. The gravy gene must be one of those things that skips a generation because my mom could make gravy blindfolded with her hands tied behind her back. (Believe me, it was fascinating to watch!)

Thanks for your comments on my Winter Wonderland snafu! I'm gonna give myself a three day grace period before I make the decision whether or not to frog it. If I don't I know I'll just pick it up and start rippin' rippin' rippin'!

Bedfordshire is calling so goodnight everyone!

Awww Fuuuuuuudge!!!

I decided I needed some easy peasy mindless stitching to do tonight while I watched Bridget Jones's Diary. One needs to give a movie such as BJD one's full attention. Obviously. So I pulled a skein of thread out of my bag and commenced to filling in the white part of the house. Two hours later I had this:


Ten seconds after that I realized there were two different colors of white thread in my bag and I'd pulled out the wrong one. I can't decide whether to frog it or just continue using the wrong color. What do you think?

It's chilly here in my little candlelit hovel and I need my warm blankie so, as Bridget Jones would say, I'm off to Bedfordshire!

Lookie Lookie!

I have some stitching to show!

This is Winter Wonderland by Blackbird Designs. I love all the animals, although those big black birds perched on the roof make me think of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. Maybe Melanie Daniels is inside the house right this very minute leaving the lovebirds for Cathy!

Stitchy progress has been slow but thanks to a 40% off Hobby Lobby coupon, I am now the proud owner of a Mighty Brite floor lamp with magnifier! The ole reading glasses and desk lamp just weren't cutting it anymore. It's not as bright as my old Ott light but I like that the magnifier and light are all one piece. Very easy to position it just where I want it and the whole thing just swings away when I need to get up. With my Ott light I would always try to limbo in and out from under it so I wouldn't have to re-adjust everything when I sat back down.

The high here tomorrow in Southwestern MI is supposed to be 65 degrees. I was finally able to break out the t-shirts and shorts and now it looks like I'll be back in a sweater and jeans. This Southerner does not do well in temperatures below 80!

Time to shake out the covers and get some sleep! Thanks for visiting!

Blog Reboot

Figured it was about time I picked myself up, brushed myself off, and got back to blogging.

To celebrate my return I've spruced the place up a bit and slapped on a new blog title. I'm not 100% sold on it, but when you have a daughter who luuurrves alliteration and you text her with "Hey daughter, can you think of something to go with Rocky River for my new blog title?", it's almost a given she'll text you back with "Ramblings!" We'll consider this a test drive for now.

As to my whereabouts this last year, I'll leave it to your imaginations. Was I a contestant on a reality TV show? Did I spend a year among the Amish? Was I abducted by aliens? Or maybe I've been working on the screenplay adaptation of my Great American (unpublished) Novel?

I promise more to follow! Right now I have to deal with the spider that just crawled down my arm, jumped into my bed covers, and disappeared. There's been a proliferation of flies and ants in this house and now it seems spiders have joined their ranks. This is what happens when you refuse to have a fly swatter in the house! (I can't be the only person who thinks they're disgusting!)(I'll never own an electric can opener either, so yeah, I have issues.)

Let's Twist Again

Here's a quick pic of Monday's progress on Peppermint Twist:

Color me happy to not be frogging more than I stitch!

Rainy Weekend

It did nothing but rain all day Saturday and Sunday. Perfect weather for staying inside and stitching, right? Per my rotation schedule, I should have been working on Their Song and Peppermint Twist but I wasn't happy with the amount of progress I had made on my Village so opted to stick with it over the weekend.


Some more grass has grown, and the church now has a roof, door, and window frames. Just no walls. I forgot to put the doorknobs on the door so it's probably a good thing the walls are still missing. We wouldn't want folks getting trapped inside!

The rainy weather was also perfect for some baking. Here's a loaf of bread we made, ready to be popped in the oven.

And the results:
A little brown on top, but delicious none the less. We also made bagels but they weren't as photogenic as the bread. Ugly but edible, haha!

I got the last load of laundry in the washer so I think it might be time for a little stitching break. Wait a minute!! What's this??

You're in my spot!!
(This is Egg, by the way. She's Spitz's mother, and very spoiled.)

Remedial Stitching

It was inevitable. I had to have Elmo come over and tutor me in counting and colors. After an afternoon of connect-the-dots and color-by-numbers, I can now boast Mad Chart Reading Skillz. Plus Elmo says we're BFFs. How cool is that? (And just so y'all know, the wheels on the bus do indeed go round and round. All. Day. Long.)

Their Song found it's way out of it's project bag and onto my Q-Snaps for a couple of days. I got some more words done and started on the lower branch/leaves.


Ick! Not the best picture to show how gorgeous the colors are. You'll have to take my word for it!

Sunday and Monday evenings were spent working on Peppermint Twist. Unbelievable as it may be, I found more mistakes. This time I was using the wrong color. Luckily it wasn't too much to frog, and Elmo has me all straightened out as to which is red and which is green.


Can you tell I changed the position of the ornament and small tree? They aren't centered on the pattern and I knew that would drive me nuts later on. I might end up moving the E-A-C-E over, too. (I know! I'm way too fussy about having things centered!)

Tonight I'll be working on my VoHRH. I've also got it in my head to watch Lost from the very beginning of the series so I'll be starting that tonight. It might be kind of weird going back to hating Sawyer, though!

Oh, and before I run I'd like to thank everyone for their lovely comments! You are all such dears! May your thread never knot!

Now Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Program

At last, I've returned to the rotation I started at the beginning of the year. I wanted to get Peppermint Twist back on track before I worked on anything else. I had a feeling if I took it off the frame still in need of fixin', I'd never put it back on again.


I did decide to leave the blocks on the right the way they are for now. I can always rip them out later if they're bugging me, right? There's one little noticible boo boo I still need to fix, but I'm waiting until the next time I have that color of thread in my needle. I've told myself I'm being efficient but really it's just that I'm tired of ripping things out!

After working on PT, I started Block 2 of VoHRH Tuesday afternoon.


I filled in some of the grass at the bottom before finishing the border all the way around so I know it has to be right! I'll work on it some more today, and then tomorrow I switch to Their Song. Hooray for rotations! It really helps to keep it fresh for me!

I hope everyone is having a marvelous week and hopefully not too cold! Are we seeing any signs of spring yet?

A Stitchy Visit

I've been horribly remiss in blogging about a little excursion I took to LaPorte, Indiana a couple of weeks ago, home of House of Stitches. I met up with fellow stitchers Carol (aka Lelia), Karol, Coni and her sister Chris (no blog) for a little stash shopping followed by a yummy lunch and loads of stitchy chat! It's such a treat to talk to folks who speak my language! I bet we could have chatted all the way 'til dinner and then some!

I'm sure you all know that nothing compares with doing your stash shopping in person, and seeing all those beautiful fabrics and fibers! Isn't it pure heaven? Here's a quick pic of some of the goodies I brought home with me:I swear, I need to learn to stitch faster! I want to do it all! Alas, it'll have to wait. I have a bathroom to clean, laundry to finish, and a funny bunny who needs to visit the vet. My evening, however, is completely free! Hooray!

1-2-3-4

I'm learning how to count again! Who knew I'd have so much trouble stitching a straight line! But I am making a little progress. The peppermint stick at the top is now done, as are the last two snowflake blocks. Everything has been checked and rechecked and I've been given clearance to proceed. There's still more corrections to be made but I'm now leaning towards making some adjustments rather than completely ripping things out.

Hope the frogs are staying away from everyone else!

&@%#$!

I've managed to make a complete mess of Peppermint Twist! I corrected my last mistake without too much weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth. Only to discover yet another mistake, and this one's a biggie. It throws the entire bottom part of the sampler off by a row. My plan is to continue to work on the parts that are right (I hope!), and a little at a time start frogging and restitching what needs to be fixed.

Here's my fancy (haha!) edit of the above pic:
I really need to learn to count!

Slumpty Dumpty

My goodness! Has it really been two weeks since my last post? Well, I'm pointing the finger of blame at Slumpty Dumpty! He came to visit me and not only have I been in a stitching slump, but a blogging slump as well! What little stitching I've done this week I'm going to have to frog! This is my progress on Peppermint Twist:


See the lovely green border on the left? I got all the way around to the end only to discover I'm off by one thread! Needless to say, me and PT are not on speaking terms. Maybe we'll kiss and make up for Valentine's Day, but it's gonna take a lot of chocolate!

As for Slumpty Dumpty, he better pack his bags and hit the road! There's some lovely projects in my stash basket that have been whispering my name!

Cue Schroeder!

It's time for a Happy Dance! All twelve Monthly Manias are officially DONE!

Thank you to everyone who offered words of encouragement, and a bushel of hugs to Cathey for sending the "vintage" Sweet Potato that worked out perfectly!

Woohoo! I'm so happy to have this project finished!

Block 3: Finished!

Thank you all for your encouraging comments! Hip Hip Hooray! Block 3 is done! Village of Hawk Run Hollow
Block 3
Alas, I didn't get it finished over the weekend like I had hoped. Too much of the Other Stuff demanding my attention. Then yesterday was spent studying Physics with my son. (Let me tell you, nothing has ever made less sense to me! I may have done more harm than good, haha!) Late last night I finally picked up my needle and got back to work. TCM was showing Marty so I tuned in for the last hour of it. I kept on stitching through the interview with Ernest Borgnine, and then into The Last Command. The final backstitch went in about the same time Jim Bowie was negotiating William Travis' release from jail.

I missed my Peppermint Twist Monday SAL so I'll probably play a little catch up on that today. And Cathey came to my rescue and sent me a skein of WDW Sweet Potato to try on my October Monthly Mania. It's a pretty close match so looks like I'll be able to put that puppy to bed soon! That will probably be it for my January finishes. This month has flown by!

That's about it for now! Hope everyone's week is off to a great start, and you're finding some time to stitch!

So Close!

It's not coming off the frame until it's FINISHED! (Which better be today!)

Nashville Sneak Peek

Coming soon from Blue Ribbon Designs: It's Cold Outside

Hugs & Kisses

Read Between the Lines

Hurry February!!

Do You Want To Play A Game?

It's called Nappornot and the rules are simple: 1) you have to stay in your room, 2) you have to be quiet, 3) you can choose to nap... or not. This was a game I played with my kids when they were pretty much done with the whole nap thing, but mommy still needed some quiet time. I must have a case of the Winter Blahs because I've been playing quite a bit of Nappornot this week. Come 2:00 I'm crawling under the covers, not to be seen again until almost dinnertime. I know! It's pathetic! I have vowed that today I am getting out of the house and doing something. It's supposed to be in the 30s today so I can't use my "it's too cold" excuse. I won't even let the fact that my car is buried under a couple feet of snow deter me. I'm! Going! Somewhere!

(But I have to be back by 6:00 because that's when my Stich-a-Thon starts!)

Slow and Steady

Here's another progress picture of Their Song...
This is the first time I've stitched a Blackbird Designs pattern and I can tell there will be more in my future. Totally enjoying this one!

Another first...
I tried my hand at coffee dyeing a small piece of white linen yesterday. I followed the walk-through Vonna posted on her blog and have to say I'm pretty tickled with the results! I forgot to iron it while it was still a little damp to set the color, and baking it in a toaster oven that doesn't even make decent toast probably wasn't the smartest move. But still, I'm happy with my first attempt! I wish my picture showed the color better.

Did anyone watch the Cardinals/Eagles game on Sunday? Talk about a nail biter! I'm not a football fan by any stretch, but those red jerseys just sucked me right in. I can't wait for the Super Bowl now!

Okay, it's Monday so I'm off to work on Peppermint Twist! Another slow and steady project, but we'll get 'er done!

WIP It Good!

In case I haven't already mentioned it, I'm TOTALLY LOVING my new floor stand!!

Here are a couple of pictures of my latest and greatest WIPs:
Check out my progress on VoHRH! I had to run a victory lap around the house when I finished the border! Well, more like a victory trudge since there's a good foot of snow on the ground. I may have to head over to the store and pick up a bottle of Asti Spumanti for when I finally finish the square. And if I ever finish the whole thing? I'm goin' to Disney World!!

This is my start on Peppermint Twist. I was only planning to work on it on Mondays but I think I might add Sunday too. That'll leave Friday and Saturday for Their Song, and Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday for VoHRH.

It sounds like something is trying to chew its way into the house so, alas, I better go investigate. I don't need people to help with my taxes, I need people for this sort of thing!

Their Song Progress

I worked on Their Song Friday night during the weekly Let's Stitch stitch-a-thon and again last night. I'm pleased with how quickly this one is growing. Nothing like making some noticable progress to motivate you to keep going!

Today I plan to start Peppermint Twist by Blue Ribbon Designs. It was one of my stashy Christmas presents, and since there is a group stitching this one together, I decided to join in. This was one of those love at first sight designs for me, so I'm looking forward to getting started on it!

I hope everyone's week is off to a good start! Is this month going by fast or what?

First New Start of the New Year

I'm off to a pretty good start on Their Song! Two leaves and three blackbirds!

Can anyone else who has stitched this design tell me how many skeins of WDW Moss you needed? I read somewhere that you need two, and since the two skeins I have look entirely different, I want to be able to run out and find two that are a closer match if I'm going to need them.

For the folks wondering what thread I need to finish my October Monthly Mania, it's WDW Sweet Potato. I've bought three new skeins from three different shops but all of them are way too dark. The DMC equivalent (301) is about as close as I've managed to get, but it's still a shade or two browner. Just enough for me to notice. I'm sure you all know how that goes! So right now I'm thinking I'll try blending a couple of different colors and see if that doesn't work. I'm open to suggestions!

Here's a couple "just for fun" shots from out at the lake on Wednesday:Three fellas were out ice fishing. Just sitting there in their frozen lawn chairs with what looked like little propane heaters at their feet. I'm thinking they must be crazy to be sitting out there, but as the saying goes, "a bad day fishing beats a good day working!"

Here's another crazy person, pretending she's ice skating. Wait! That's me!

It's snowing here A LOT today, with more snow expected tonight. We're stocked up on food and toilet paper so I'm planning to stay inside where it's warm and cozy, and stitch!

Nine Years Later...

I'm not quite ready for any strutting in the end zone, but I'm close! I put the last stitches in December's Monthly Mania Sunday night and, WOOHOO! Did it ever feel good! I was practically giddy! I'm still working on finding a suitable color match for the last bit of October's pumpkin. That's the only thing keeping this nine-years-in-the-making project from being one more for the win column.

Next on the Q-Snaps? Looks like it'll be Their Song from Blackbird Designs. I ironed the fabric for it this morning, then promptly misplaced it. You'd think in a 600 square foot house it'd be impossible to lose anything but when your trying to squash 1200 square feet of stuff into it, things start to disappear. I've assembled a search party, and as soon as we find the envelopes that went missing three days ago, we'll move on to my fabric.

Work has been slow since the holidays so we're taking advantage of the break and working on the house. Temperatures have been in the 20s but as long as it's dry enough we try to get things done. Yesterday was simply gorgeous! Heaven sent for those of us who needed some sunshine! We took a little stroll ON the lake, testing the ice, but didn't get far before we heard some cracking. You should have seen how fast I scurried back to shore! (Who me? Panic?) Our lake is spring fed so it doesn't freeze as fast as some of the others in the area. There's ice fishing 'hidey holes' set up on the lake next door. They look like this:
You really have to love fishing to sit in one of those! I'll stick to my stitching chair!