Mother Nature Has Been Very Angry

I think someone took Mother Nature's PMS meds.  This has been one LONG winter.  Spring cannot come soon enough!

January 12:  Snowed most of the day. Roads were terrible.

January 19:  More snow.  Three hours of shoveling and snowblowing.  Even Tyra wasn't happy.









January 21:  Actual temperature -15F.  Windchill temp -20F  Brrr!

January 22:  25F warmer. Winter storm warning from 9am until 4am on January 23rd.  4-8" snow accumulation.

January 23:  Fog and -20 to -30F windchill temperatures.  We ended up with 5" of snow.  Two hours of shoveling and snowblowing before work and two hours after work.  The upside?  I racked up over 20K steps according to Fitbit.  Another 4-6" forecasted.

January 25: Actual temperature -18F with windchill temps of -20F to -35F.  28F below normal.  We had a windchill advisory/warning until Noon.  High temperature on this day:  2F.

January 26:  Actual temperature -9F.  Freakin' cold!!

January 28:  More snow.  My area received 6-8".  Took me three hours to clear my driveway before going to work.  The upside?  17F temperature. 

 After clearing the driveway and sidewalk, I came home to this thanks to the street department.  Grrrr!

There's a yard light in there somewhere!

In case you're not familiar with Illinois winter weather, here's some humor for you:

January 29:  Windchill temps of -26F.  The governor issued a State of Emergency.  Lots of businesses and of course schools closed.

January 30:  Windchill temperatures of -45F to -55F.  I stayed home from work.  I did not want to risk being at work and then not have my car start.  Instant brain freeze when I went outside.  I had everything covered except for my eyes and forehead.

January 31:  -35F actual temperature. These negative temperatures were getting SO old!

 

February 1:  Three more inches of snow overnight.  Actual temperature -1F.  I could only shovel snow for an hour at a time before having to go back in the house to warm up.  Two hours after getting to work, it snowed again.  Thankfully, the latest snowfalls have been light and fluffy.

February 5:  Freezing rain and sleet.  Another winter advisory until Feb 6th.  6/10th of an inch of ice.

February 6:  "Walk Like A Penguin" day!  I put down over 100lbs of salt in an attempt to get rid of the ice.  I wore my strap-on spikes.  They are worth their weight in gold to be able to walk over ice.  More freezing rain overnight!

February 7:  Power went out at work due to ice.  My backyard looked like an ice rink.  Another 100lbs of salt used up trying to keep the ice at bay on my driveway.

 

 

February 8:  40mph howling winds overnight.  Windchill temps of -30F.

Incidentally, one year ago today I cleared 9" of snow off my driveway.

February 10:  That ice rink I previously mentioned?  I fell and hurt my back and neck.  My clothesline was put up between the garage and tree in the backyard so that I can more safely walk across the ice when I take the dog out.

February 11:  Emergency visit to the chiropractor.  My neck and back hurt so bad.  It brought tears to my eyes when the doc adjusted my neck.

February 13:  More snow!  3-4" of the white fluffy stuff.  After I cleared the driveway, it sleeted, and then snowed some more.  Sigh.  I woke to 1/4" of ice topped with snow.  Had to chip away the ice in order to clear the driveway after getting off work.  Snowblower broke down.  Ugh.

February 15:  60F temperature change in the past 24 hours.  Valentine's Day brought a beautiful 40F weather.  Today it was -27F windchill temperatures.

February 17:  Two inches of snow cleared before work.  Three more inches when I got off work.

February 20:  We didn't get the snow forecasters called for which gave me time to scrape the rest of the ice off my driveway.  Once done, I created a message on my snow bank for passersby:

February 27:  More freezing rain!

March 4:  -25F windchill temperatures and gusty 25mph winds.

ONLY 16 DAYS 5 HOURS AND 4 MINUTES 
UNTIL SPRING!!

Until next time...

Marvelous Monday Update 7/2/2018

WEATHER

Whew, this past weekend was a scorcher!  Heat index temperatures were 110-115F.  The air conditioner in the house and vehicles could hardly keep up.  Thankfully, on Sunday a cold front came through and the temperatures dropped considerably.  At least for a few days...  Dog days of summer!

THEATRE
I almost had a fiasco on my hands.  Last month, I bought tickets to Of Mice and Men at a local community theatre for June 30th.  The local college was putting on Wizard of Oz so I bought tickets on June 22nd for the production on the 23rd... or, so I thought.

Arrived at the theatre on the 23rd all dressed up to find there were people in my seats.  There were 20 people in line at the box office and the lights were flickering to tell people to take their seats.  I figured part of the show would be missed if I had to wait until the line was cleared, so I went home.  On Monday, I called to see if I could exchange the tickets for the last showing of Oz on July 1st.  Instead of sitting front center, the only seats were in the last three rows a little off center.  Better than losing the cost of the tickets, I got those.  The production, like all the college's productions, was fantastic!  I'm always amazed at how talented the actors/actresses are and the special effects are always so good.

Of Mice and Men was also very good.  It's based on a novel by John Steinbeck.  I've never read the book or seen the 1993 movie.  The ending was compassionate and disturbing at the same time.  I was sitting third row center so I experienced the ending up close and personal!

STITCHY STUFF
Happy Dance!  I finished Ode to the Ort Basket.  I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

Ode to the Ort Basket

Designer:  Brenda Gervais/With Thy Needle and Thread

Fabric:  40ct Vintage Pecan by Lakeside Linens

Fibers:  GAST, WDW, DMC, and Classic Colorworks threads

Basket is 2.75"W x 2.5"H x 1.5"D

Linked to: Stitching Lotus Smalls SAL

Soap box time!  The designs calls over-dyed threads so I bought them all.  I was very irritated that one color used only three stitches.  Since the design is stitched one thread over two, that means I used 1/2" of one strand of thread.  With the little amount of thread needed to stitch this project, the designer could've put in the small amount of threads needed and bumped the price up a couple dollars.  Okay, off my soapbox now.

Until next time...

Just Around The Corner...

... old man Winter awaits.  We received our first snowfall on November 11th.  It didn't last long and here in the Midwest, we've had a roller coaster of unseasonably warm weather, rainy weather, and today bitterly cold weather.  Yesterday, it was was 61 degrees with gusting southerly winds.  Today, it's 29 degrees with bitterly cold northerly winds.  Yep, Winter is a-coming!

First Snow of 2017 at The Homestead

I went to a retreat in October where I had two finishes.  One is an FFO (fully finished object) that I can show.  The other isn't finished yet, so no photos (sorry!).  The stitching fits beneath glass.  To finish the fabric, I had to learn the nun stitch.  It wasn't bad once I got the hang of it!  I really like how this turned out.

Design:  Full Moon

Designer:  The Drawn Thread

Fabric:  32ct Linen

Fibers:  DMC, GAST, WDW

The box above is one of the finishing alternatives shown with the chart.  It's by Cottage Garden.  If you are looking to use this box for finishing, SHOP AROUND!  I bought two of these on Amazon for $12 each.  The next day, the vendor increased the price to $20.  Some LNS sell the box for $28.  Prices on Amazon range from $15 to $20 and come in a variety of colors (black, white, brown).

I had another finish besides the two mentioned above.  I had a piece of pretty blue aida that I thought would work perfectly for this design.  Originally, I had intended to make an ornament but it turned out larger than I anticipated.  Hmmm... where have I heard that before?  That brings me to another thought:  Has anyone noticed that a lot of the ornaments in the JCS issues are way larger than one would expect for ornaments?  Anyway...

Design:  Outside My Window

Designer:  Diane Graebner of Lynn's Prints

Magazine:  JCS Ornament Issue 2005

Fabric:  14ct Baby Blue Aida*

Fibers:  DMC

Embellishments:  Handmade Cording, Pearl Rice Beads

Originally, I'd posted a fabric toss on Facebook asking for opinions whether I should use a red fabric or a blue one.  Overwhelmingly, the consensus was red!  However, one person suggested I use blue and put a red cording around the blue stitched fabric.  I took it a step further and chose the red of the birds and the silver gray of the stars to make coordinated cording.  It turned out so nice... I'm very pleased.

*I don't use much aida anymore although I have a boatload of it.  So every now and then, I pull a piece out and stitch something on it.  Stitching goes faster and it's easier on the eyes.  And, look!  I made a cute pillow... with aida!

Until Next Time...

The Great Flood of 2017 - Part Two

On July 24th, I drove around the city where I live and took some photographs.  Thing is... these aren't even areas that got the worst of the flooding.  I saw on the news today that temporary emergency aid offices have been set up at the local college.

These are photos from my early childhood hometown.  Businesses and homes flooded.  The supposed 100-year flood has happened at least 4 times in the past 10 years.  I don't know how these people deal with it... Carry on!

The next set of photographs are near where I work.  Even though there was lots of water, we weren't in danger of flooding.  Thus, work was not called of.  Bummer...

Below is one of the main highways that leads in and out of my city.  I live over yonder where the vehicles are.  For a few days, I had to leave the city and drive around it and come back in on the other side to get home.

 Thousands of acres of cornfields have been damaged.  No, mister, those aren't lakes... it's farmland.

 In the photo above, the green part between the
bodies of water is actually the road.

Most of the water has subsided since these photos were taken, but there's lots of clean up and water damage to be dealt with.  I'm just glad I had only 30 gallons to clean up.

At my parents' house, another huge tree was blown down by the storm.  We have been lucky twice that each time a tree has fallen, it's not hit the house or shed.  The shed was about 10 feet to the left.

 Here's to hoping we're done with severe weather for a while.

Until next time...

Marvelous Monday Update 12/5/2016

WEATHER
On December 4, my area was greeted with the first snowfall of the year.  Mother Nature decided to bless us with 5.3" of very wet, heavy snow.  I went out twice to clear the driveway.  The second time, it took me two hours.  Welcome to winter!

 

STITCHY STUFF
I've participated in two ornament exchanges this year. Both of the ornaments I created for my partners turned out so good I wanted to keep them for myself.  Anyone else have this problem?

 

Design: Woolly & Cosy

Designer:  Valentina Sardu

Fabric: 32ct White Opalescent Linen

Fibers: DMC threads

 

I finished it into an ornament using a green fabric with tiny Christmas trees and swirling silver dots.  Red felt was cut with a pinking rotary cutter and sandwiched between the stitched design and the green backing.  A green satin ribbon topped off the ornament.  It was such a quick stitch, I'd like to do a couple more.

 

Design: One More Stitch

Designer: The Victoria Sampler

Fabric: 28ct Natural Linen

Fibers: DMC

Embellishments: Beads, Buttons, String Pearls

 

This design was featured in the 2014 Just Cross Stitch Ornament issue.  I took some creative liberties with finishing it.  Both the front and back are stitched on the Natural Linen.  The back is personalized with the recipient's name as well as mine.  I sent it to Deb H in TX as a Christmas Ornament Exchange.  Doh!  I just realized I didn't stitch the date.  Buttons and beads are on the front and back.  The edge is trimmed with string pearls and topped with a satin ribbon hanger.

 

Next up is what I received from Deb. It's called Snowy Owl Snowman by Jim Shore.  It's absolutely beautiful... both the stitching and the finishing!  She has a blog that shows lots of her other gorgeous finishes. If you're interested in eye candy, click on over HERE.



Thank You, Deb!

WATERCOLOR
I've been practicing my watercolor skills (or lack thereof) using YouTube videos. I recently did this barn painting using Shinhan Professional Watercolors. One of my classmates bought a set when she was in Korea. The paints work really nice and are very vibrant.

I wasn't real happy with how it turned out so I gave it to a friend who thought it "is awesome".  I am going to do another one and adjust the color values a bit.

I've made a bit of progress on the "masterpiece" as my instructor called our projects.  Once I get farther along, I'm going to set up an appointment to get some critique from him.

Even though my photo shows the dark bank on the left side, I'm not really liking how it looks. I'm going to try to scrub some of it out of there to make it lighter or a different shade.

GIVEAWAY
I'm going to put together a package of things from my stash for the person who can answer this question:  What does an Ott light, needle nose pliers, lighter, and wire have in common?  (Hint: a project)  Leave a comment with your guess.  Giveaway open to U.S. residents, only.  Sorry!

FREEBIE

 

First Snow by The Drawn Thread
Click HERE.

Marveous Monday Update 3/7/16

Hello Spring by Lizzie Kate

WEATHER
Now that meteorological Spring has arrived, I'm hoping *real* spring weather is following.  My area has had two snowfalls in one week. Lucky for me, they both were light fluffy snows... made shoveling so much easier since I'm still suffering from tendonitis in my elbow (thanks to that first horrendous snowfall back in November).  This week, temperatures are supposed to hit the mid 60's which is much better than the 20's we were experiencing  just a week and a half ago.  Hello Spring!!

HEALTH
A few months back, I developed a cold. It was followed by a cough.  The nagging cough is still hanging around.  I feel okay except for the persistent cough and feeling tightness in my chest.  Going to the doctor on Thursday because I'm just tired of it.

60TH CELEBRATION
Kim over at Wisdom with Needle and Thread is celebrating her 60th birthday this year.  To see how she's celebrating in a very special way, click on over to her blog.  Wish her a great birthday while you're there!

STITCHY STUFF
One would think since I don't have the commute, I'd have more time to stitch but alas... it hasn't happened.  I've been stitching here and there when time permits.

Part Three of Palko's Words 2016 SAL arrived at the beginning of the month. After stitching it up, I decided I didn't like the light purple I chose:

So, a froggin' I went and restitched it in a different shade.

Mucho better, IMO.  Since I photographed it in the dead of night, the fabric color appears gray instead of the dusty rose it actually is.  Here's a WIP photo of the entire project so far:

I've also been stitching on JG (are you shocked?!).  Here's what it looked like before:

and now after a few weeks progress.... I have finished with the lower right corner ornament.  Very exciting!

VACATION
Next week, I'll be heading to sunny Florida.  A week of sun, water, and sand.  I'll be meeting up with a special friend as well as hopefully, a stitcher.  Anyone in the Pinellas County area?

Until next time,