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!

What Do You Get When...

You take...

a Toothbrush

PLUS

a Bottle of Brasso and Some Rags

PLUS

Two and Half Hours of Time

PLUS

Rosettes and Bails?

Yes, that's right! I *finally* found replacement bails for my armoire. After searching tons of websites, checking with antique malls in several states, and having my online friends look at flea markets, I found a set of 10 rosette bail pulls on eBay. Little did I know what I was to find out...

The hardware on my armoire is brass -and- the pulls I bought on eBay are also brass! I *thought* the ones I bought were painted. I decided to use the bails I bought with the rosettes that came with the armoire. Notice how different the rosette looks after using the brass cleaner on it?

Guess which one was "cleaned"?

After two and a half hours, my hands were black, three rags were black, and the end result was this:

Can you even tell that the bails aren't original?

Oriental Kimono

Oriental Kimono
Designer: Joan Elliott/Design Works
Fabric: 18ct fiddler aida
Fibers: DMC, Kreinik
Size: 2½ x 3¼", 6x8" framed
Date: 8/5/09

Mail Art from Finland!

In today's mail, I received a mailart from Mari in Finland for the Roses MA Exchange.


Thank you, Mari! You did a wonderful job on the MA.

Marvelous Monday Update 8/3/09

My Oh My! Where did July go? Summer is almost over. :(


ENTERTAINMENT
Until recently, I'd never heard of the comedian Jeff Dunham. Makes sense since I haven't had cable/satellite TV for almost 8 years. On Saturday night, I saw Jeff Dunham in action. He was indeed entertaining and funny! I think he created a new "act" on-the-fly, and while doing so he had a difficult time keeping a straight face and seemed to loose track of where he was at in the act. I'm just going to call it "Stinky Pick and Itchy Butt" LOL And the look on Guitarman's face was priceless (disbelief, too). In addition, Jeff donated $25K to the local food pantry before the show started. I thought that was really great!



I went to see the musical "The Producers" on Saturday night. For the most part, the play was entertaining. There were lots of costume changes and the sets were nice. What I didn't like was: Set changes occurred while the performers were still performing, dance choreography wasn't in sync, and some of the acts contained several songs being sung at the same time which resulted in a lot of distracting "noise".

The outdoor theatre is architecturally fabulous!


GARDENING
I haven't shown my garden this year because to put it bluntly, it's PATHETIC! None of the cucumber seeds I planted came up so there's a big, naked, brown patch in my garden. The green beans are trying to make their way up the trellis, but are having a difficult time. My second set of tomato plants (Yes, second... the first ones died!) are barely as tall as the cages. The lettuce, however, is an ENTIRELY different story. It's been growing profusely. One person cannot possibly eat this much lettuce!! Earlier in the week, I harvested and cleaned lettuce. It was a 2 hour ordeal project.

With the help of my handy dandy salad spinner, I was able to get most of the water off the leaves. Just like churning butter, LOL

(Brand New-In-The-Box Salad Spinner compliments of a freecycler several years ago)

My planters continue to do well. The mums I planted are getting ready to bloom for the second time, as is the rose bush I bought this year.

Other pics can be seen HERE.


SHOPPING
Have I shared lately that I really enjoy getting a bargain? Well, I do! Earlier in the week, I had some time to waste to kill on my hands, so I visited the local thrift stores. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. This time, I came away with several good deals:

Books were 50% off, so I got both the hardcover book and magazine for $1.75. The book has lots of great Victorian type charts in it.

This is actually a 5x7 framed artwork with a Kohls tag on it. It was new still in it's packaging. The original price tag was $14.99 and I got it for $1.49 -- I bought it with thoughts of framing Oriental Kimono. I didn't pay attention to what the artwork was. Take a look!

Too funny!

These curtain rods were donated to the thrift store by Target. Normally, they are $29.99 -- One had a price of $5.99 and the other $6.99 for the exact same rod. When I went to checkout, I questioned the cashier and she sold them both to me for $5.99 each. They are very similar to the ones I have in my bedroom, and my plan is to use them in the spare room now that I'm getting it organized and looking more like a useable room.

All holiday-themed items were on sale for 75% off so I was able to pick up three boxes of Christmas cards for 75cents!


STITCHY STUFF
This past week I was able to get quite a bit of stitching done on Oriental Kimono. I was hoping to finish it, but alas... it didn't happen. Here's progress so far:

More WIP pics can be seen HERE.

Last month when I bought the amoire from the thrift store, I saw a stitched piece with a price tag marked $6.99. At the time, I passed on it. It was still at the store when I went earlier in the week, but it had been re-priced for 99cents. Couldn't pass that up, could I?

This custom-framed piece was stitched in 1987 by someone named Megan (incription on the back). Anyone know the design or designer?

Close up detail with french knots