Marvelous Monday Update 8/31/09

My week of vacation wasn't as productive as I wanted. It rained most of the week so I was limited as to what I could get done outside. Add recovery time in (from the bicycle accident) and I was limited even more.

Speaking of... my face is pretty much healed up. Just residual "pinkness" where the abrasions were. My knee is a different story. Those abrasions were much worse and are taking their sweet time healing up. I'm afraid I will be adding another scar to my repetoire.


MORE ORGANIZATION
I managed to finish another project this week. Last year when there was an LNS in the area, the shop owner had some interesting spoon display cases. I found an inexpensive spoon rack at a thrift store. After some fresh paint, it now hangs in the spare room (formerly known as "That Scary Room"):



STITCHY STUFF
Another UFO to cross off my list! *Happy Dancing* I started this project circa four years ago. After all those confetti stitches, I'm glad to have it done.

Comedy Tragedy
Designer: Kyle Hollingsworth
Leaflet: Slice of Life
Fabric: 18ct Ecru Aida
Fibers: DMC

Introducing...

... The Stash Cabinet! Most of my stash is now unpacked and organized. Woo Hoo! (Can I claim THAT as a big happy dance?!?)

Here's an overall vew with the doors open:

On top are boxes I got for free at the local Aldi Foods. I covered the boxes and lids with adhesive paper I had laying around. These boxes store (top row) aida, linens/evenweaves-small pieces, linens/evenweaves-large pieces, (bottom row) stitchables, kits-small & medium, kits-large.

Inside the armoire on the left side, I put my fabric tubes and boxes. I've labeled the ends of everything so I can easily see what I have. Fray check and Tacky Bob is in the little basket. The purple can is spray super adhesive. Sticky stuff! Way in the back are bottles of sewing machine oil.

On the right side, the gray thing is a nut & bolt cabinet with various size drawers. It stores glue sticks, beads, buttons, etc. On top of it are containers of glitter, paint, ink, and brads. To the right of the cabinet are various large kits (mostly asian themed and dimensions gold) organized in plastic magazine holders. There's also T-pins (in a prescription pill container), glitter glue, regular white glue, tacky glue, and clear adhesive glue. LOL, that's a lot of glue! The ribbons are from past fair entries.



I wanted to be able to put hooks on the inside of the armoire without damaging the wood or making them permanent. 3M has wonderful removeable hooks for this. They're great for lightweight items. (I tried the ones for picture frames and the pictures fell off the wall... not good!)




Drawer One: More fabric, glitter, small ornament frames, crochet cotton (for lacing), plastic shoe box full of misc. threads and stitchy "stuff", mighty bright portable light (in brown zipper case).

Drawer Two:Plastic bin of various packaged fabrics (on the left), kits, and craft batting (on the right).

Drawer Three:
Specialty Floss, JP Floss, plastic jar lids, and RIT dyes.

Drawer Four:
Full size glue gun, various tins and wood boxes.

Surprisingly, none of the drawers are packed full or overflowing with coveted stitchy stuff!

Even though it's not part of the armoire, I wanted to show what I did with the various rulers I use for crafting:

Again, I used the 3M removeable (small) hooks. They're perfect for the little holes at the end of yardstitcks and quilting rulers.

Edited: Melinda asked if the filing cabinet has charts in it. The answer is noooo. There is no stash whatsoever in it.

More Stash Organization

Remember the closet in the "scary" room? (the little door between the dresser and the mattress, lol)

Since I don't use it for clothes, I decided to make it a bit more user friendly. This is what the inside looked like before I started my latest improvement on "The Homestead":

Ten days later after a trip to Menards, using my new jigsaw, some sanding, primering, painting, and drilling...

Ta Da!
Shelf One: The black box is my beading supplies. Beneath that are two storage cases, one with scroll rods and the other with stitchy fabric. The container in front holds my small charts and small albums with photos of the projects I've stitched over the years. To the left are my Jammer cases with my floss on bobbins (You can see it better in the pic below).

Shelf Two: On the left is a container with more stitchy fabric. Beneath it is a container that holds my large charts. Next to it is my full size sewing machine.

On The Floor: Bin with my winter clothing. Against the wall is my electronic typewriter.

The best part of these shelves is that they're removeable in the event the closet needs to be used to hang clothes.

Marvelous Monday Update 8/24/09

HEALTH
A few of you have inquired about my cough, so I thought I'd give an update. After four trips to the doctor, I got tired of going so I've been riding out the cough. I did do a 14-day self-treatment of Prilosec OTC because several of you indicated it could've been due to reflux with the symptoms I described. I don't know if it helped or not, since I still get a little cough (usually when the weather is hot and humid). Other than that, the cough is MUCH better and only rears its ugly little head occassionally. Thanks to everyone for their suggestions and concerns over this.

On Sunday, muscle pains and bruises showed up to keep the road rash on my face and knee company. As much as I don't want to, I'm going to have to go out in public so I can get my glasses fixed. Thank goodness I'm on vacation all this week -- I look like I had the crap beat out of me.


GARDENING
I harvested my very first tomato this year! It was a cherry tomato... and the piggy that I was... I ate it right away. It was SO good! Soon I will have a ripe regular size tomato. Can't wait!


COMPULSIVE MAIL CHECKER
How many can relate to the label "compulsive mail checker" when we know packages are on their way in the mail? I came across this cartoon and thought it was pretty funny. :)

The real reason for this "blurb" is to let several of my stitchy friends know that you have packages coming your way (or you've already received them by now). Recently, I sent out the prizes for the Amoire Contest (Sue V, Debbie M, CJ, and Joy) and the Mailart Contest (Shelley).


STITCHY STUFF
I decided to create more beaded scissor fobs last week. They look much prettier in person than my photo.

Other fobs I've made can be seen HERE.




GIVEAWAY
Mel from The Daily Mel is celebrating her 8-year/1000th post giveaway. Look at all the wonderful things!



MY STITCHY AREA
Due to a challenge, Sari showed what her stitchy table looked like. I thought it was a neat idea, so I thought I'd share what my current stitchy area looks like.



STITCHY PROJECTS
Trying to finish two UFO's before I start any new projects (except those for exchanges). Both were started over 3 years ago.

First up, Simply Elegant Scissor case:

When I took a photo of what was in my messenger bag above, I found the Comedy Tragedy Bookmark so I put a few stitches in it:

There are lots of confetti stitches in it. What a pain in the rear. So much fun!


YUM-YUMS
Pasta Primavera
Homemade Soft & Chewy Molasses Cookies

Scratch Proofing...

... doesn't work! JT and I went on a bicycle ride through town, out to the bike path that leads to the college. We took a lap around the college and headed back to my house.

As we were coasting down a side street at a pretty good pace, I hit a small pothole. JT said he turned around to see me lose control of my bike, hit the curb, bounce off and crash. Scared the the crap out of him, he said.

My account: pothole, lost control, pavement reaching up to grab my face, thoughts of teeth getting knocked out while kissing the pavement, hands slamming into pavement in effort to protect my face, glasses slamming in my eye, thoughts of glasses shattering into my eye.

As bad as it could've been, I walked away with abrasions on my right cheek and above my lip. I also ended up with a cut on the inside of my mouth where my teeth hit, and a badly scraped knee. The second knee was scraped, but not nearly as bad.

I didn't even notice my knee was scraped and bleeding until I was able to stand up. Surprisingly, I didn't injure my hands since I used them to break my fall. Well, them and my face. LOL

Since we were about 3 blocks from home, JT offered to go get his car so I wouldn't have to walk home injured. I managed to hoof it home with my face feeling like it was on fire, and my lip starting to swell. Hey... Women pay good money for the Angelina Jolie look! JT pushed my bike home, and let me push his since my tire was flat and harder to push. He told me there is no way that I am getting a scooter or a motorcycle (In the past, I mentioned I wanted to get a scooter).

If that weren't enough, my "new" bicycle was also injured. Bent front rim, flat tire tube, messed up seat (don't know how that happened!), and unaligned brakes. It's going to have to go to the bike shop to get repaired. :(

I'll have to make a trip to the eye doctor to get my glasses repaired. Not only are they bent...

... and as I said at the beginning, the scratch proofing I paid good money for, did NOT work!

I'm glad my glasses received the road rash instead of my eye. That could've been bad. It was bad enough that the lens was pressed into my eye.

Marvelous Monday Update 8/17/09

MORE POWER
Arr... Arr... Arr! Do I sound like Tim the Toolman Taylor? Anyone remember that show? lol


So why am I going on and on? First, I need to digress... When I was newly divorced 8 years ago, I had to invest in some power tools. One of my first purchases was this:


Mishaps and mayhem -- Oh if this thing could talk! Unfortunately, a 9.6V cordless drill is pretty lightweight for some of the jobs I do and have done. I've been contemplating an upgrade for a couple years. Let me introduce....

- 14.4V Combo Set -
MORE POWER!!!
Not only did I upgrade the cordless drill, but I also got a jigsaw (which I've also been wanting!). This set was on sale for less than $50, which is a *really* good deal, and there were only two left on the store shelf!

I'm just as bad in hardware/home improvement stores as I am when I shop for stitchy stash. I didn't stop at the combo kit. Oh no. Just so happened upon another sale. 20% off all clamps. I came home with this:

Everything in this set was sold separately at the store. A quick calculation told me that the two bar clamps alone cost as much as this entire set. When I got to the checkout counter, the clamps didn't ring up on sale. Manager was called. He checked the aisle. Clerk was told to give me the discount since the sign wasn't clear (sign said: All Clamps 20% Off). These will come in handy for SO many things!


STITCHY STUFF
I spent a little time last week working on this:

Check them out HERE.

I did get a little bit of stitching in last week. I actually had more of this done, but I ended up frogging it all because I put the specialty stitches on the wrong rows of the linen.

Simply Elegant Scissor Case


STILL GOT IT
Between Jr. High and High School, I took 6 years of typing classes. As you could imagine, I was a pretty fast typist. I recently took an online speed test for fun (I know... WHO takes a typing test for FUN?! lol). I was pleased to find out I still got "it". :)

89 wordsSpeedtest
OK, I don't know why it's not showing my "score", but I accomplished 89 words per minute. :)


UNBELIEVEABLE!
Twice I heard buzzing in the window behind/above the headboard of my bed. I pulled back the drapes and found this!

(YES, this was INSIDE my house.) Talk about freak me out! This mud dauber nest was BIG. I don't know how long it had been there. Luckily, I had a can of wasp spray in the basement. I saturated that thing! JT was nice enough to come over and remove/dispose of it. It was really disgusting! The cellular blind is probably ruined due to the big stain on it. I'm going to try and wash it anyway (even though websites say not to do that with cellular blinds) because they're about $130 to replace. Worth a try isn't it?


RANDOM ACT OF KINDNESS
I received a thoughtful RAK from Carla in Saturday's mail -- a little sewing box with heart shaped pins. Along with it, she sent the sweetest note.

Thank you so much, Carla!


ACCIDENT UPDATE
Police think a seizure suffered by one of the drivers caused the accident I talked about previously. The accident left three people injured (hospitalized, but not seriously injured) and caused major delays as police diverted traffic from four directions. At the time of the crash, a vehicle was stopped eastbound at a red light and another vehicle approached from behind. The person in the second vehicle allegedly suffered a seizure while driving, which caused his foot to push down on the accelerator and then rear-ended the vehicle stopped at the light. The collision caused both vehicles to spin out into the intersection, where they struck a third vehicle, which was turning through the intersection.

Just Down The Street

Why do accidents pique curiosity of people so much they walk for blocks just to be a spectator at an accident scene? Last evening, as I approached the intersection of where I live, there was a serious 3-car accident. No one was killed (at least I don't think so!), but I saw two taken by ambulance to the hospital. People flocked from all 4 directions just to see what was going on:



Since this intersection is a main through-fare, the police re-directed traffic from all four sides of the accident. I was on my way home from work coming from the backside of this accident and had to back up to go around. The officer directing traffic wasn't going to let me down my steet until I told her I lived three houses up from the accident.

An hour later, cars had been towed, emergency vehicles were gone, and the street had been cleaned up.

Insights On Stitching

Melissa at Musings From a 3-Bedroom Ranch posed these questions...

"Now, I have a question for all you cross stitchers, and yes, it's really specifically for cross stitchers and I'm honestly interested in your answers because we cross stitchers seem to be a misunderstood lot and that really, truly bugs me. I mean I wake up in a sweat at night pondering the issue of cross stitchers being misunderstood by major chain craft stores (and please don't yell at me for that, for some people, it's their only way to purchase supplies, even in this day and age there are stitchers don't know anything beyond the cross stitch aisle at Micheals, AC Moore or JoAnns, and I'm sure there are some yarnie folk that find those same stores their only source of knitting and crochet supplies) and publishers.

So here are some questions I'd love answered either in comments or on your blog and if you post your answer on your blog please leave a link in the comments so we can all read your insights."

1) Why do you stitch? I stitch because it’s a creative outlet that I really enjoy. It’s also a great stress reliever for me because I have to concentrate on what I’m doing so the frogs don’t come to visit. In the process of concentration, everything else goes out of my head.

2) On a scale of 1-10 with 1 being least important and 10 being most important what is your cross stitch passion level? I’d say it would be an 8. It fluctuates from week-to-week, depending on what's going on in my life. Life's responsibilities come first, stitching is always secondary.

3) If you're only option for cross stitch supplies and patterns happened to be the major chain craft stores would you just walk away from the little X? Kiss it goodbye? Nope. When I started stitching, that’s where I got my supplies. I still get things there occasionally. Mostly, my supplies comes from ONS.

4) Also are you so passionate about cross stitch that if indeed your only option was the major chain craft stores, would that inspire you to create your own cross stitch pieces because you have to stitch and you've stitched your way through the whole of Dimensions catalog--because you must stitch and the thought of life without a relationship with the little X leaves you feeling empty? Actually, the first piece I ever stitched I designed myself. I have enough stash to last several lifetimes, so I don’t think I have to worry about stitching my way through. LOL I’m creative enough that I wouldn’t mind designing my own pieces, if I wanted to.

5) Finally what do the cross stitch magazines on the market offer you? Do they relate to you as a cross stitcher? Do you look at them and think to yourself, who do they think buys this magazine? I guess what I'm asking, when you see the current cross stitch magazines do they make you feel like they know their readers or do you find it's more of the same? What could they do to be ambassadors for the art of cross stitch other than putting a sampler on the cover with "F-U" on it? What are we missing on a PR level that could change the opinion of cross stitch itself? Personally, I think the PR for cross stitch is lacking. I rarely buy magazines anymore because usually there is only one or two designs that I like and it’s not worth the cost to buy. I would never stitch the "subversive" designs, nor would I buy a magazine with F-U on the cover.

6) And finally, finally, do you do other crafts and if so what are they and why do they pull you away from cross stitch? I’ve done other crafts in the past and have those supplies, but I really only have time for one craft. XS is portable and easy to pick up and put down without having to drag out everything to create.

7) Are we cross stitchers just a different breed of crafter, do we take life slow and easy, does it mean we have this inner stick-to-it-tiveness that gets us through those projects that last not days, weeks, months but years? Yes, stitchers are definitely a "different" breed. I often have people tell me I have a lot of patience to stitch. The slow and easy lifestyles have gone by the wayside and have been replaced by working parents, on-the-go families, and kids who are involved in way too many activities. I think today’s instant gratification society has been detrimental to crafts that take a long time to get to fruitation. There's too much "me want-it-now!".

8) Who are we? Tell your story, fill in the blanks. I come from a family of somewhat ‘crafty’ people. Both my father and grandfather were woodworkers. My grandmother crocheted, knitted, and did ceramics. My mother crocheted and sewed. Hence, I have done all of those things and more over the course of my life. My first cross stitched piece was a birth sampler I designed and stitched for myself. So obviously, it was counted and not stamped. I was in my early teens. I had seen some motifs in an old magazine my mother had – Woman’s Day or Family Circle, something like that. I had found an old piece of knit basketweave-type fabric and a tangled up mess of embroidery floss in my mother’s sewing box. I untangled the floss and set forth on my journey to create a masterpiece. I still have that piece tucket away. Over the years, I've stitched various projects: ornaments, scissor fobs, flat folds, needlebooks, bookmarks, pillows, framed pieces, afghans, and pin cubes. The online stitching community has done a lot to expand my horizons into fabrics other than aida, fibers other than DMC, and shown me how to use embellishments such as beads, buttons, and cording. In return, I've shared my knowledge and taught online classes to stitchers.

9) How can we be Oprah for cross stitch? What can we do to make a difference? To spread the word? To funk up the little X? Good question. I think I do my part in sharing what I know with others, in addition to showing off what I make (lol).

Mailart Finally Arrived

I was close to sending a private investigator to find the postman to make sure he had plans on delivering the mailart I stitched for Margaret in Malaysia. Finally received word she received it. *Whew!*

I actually finished this on July 23rd, but couldn't show it until now because it was a "secret" exchange. The theme for the exchange was "roses" and this is what I came up with:


Design: Rose Monogram (Front)
Rose Garland (Back)
Designer: Alma Lynne*
Fabric: 28ct Antique
White Evenweave
Fibers: DMC
Embellishments: Pearl Snaps,
Rose-print Lining Fabric
Date: 7/23/09

*(book) Alma Lynne's Cross Stitch for Special Occassions ©1993

Marvelous Monday Update 8/10/09

WEATHER
Here it is August and we're finally getting July weather. I think Mother Nature has been on hiatus. She made up for it this past weekend, though. We had HOT and HUMID weather along with severe thunderstorms. Yuck. Since the storms have passed through, temps have cooled down quite a bit and the humidity has lifted some.


STITCHY STUFF




Thanks to Daffycat, I found out the name of my "rescued" stitched piece.... Welcome All, a Dimensions kit.





One day last week, I decided to go to the park on my lunch hour....


....and....

Stitch!

For other stitchy "news", I put in a few more stitches on Japanese Garden. (Thanks, Nancy!) I have about 20 more before *one* of the over-one storks is done. Then I can move on to more enjoyable stitching! No updated pics yet, but other WIP pics can be seen HERE.


GIVEAWAY




Lynn B of Happiness is XS celebrating her one year blogversary with three great prizes!