Almost a party......

It's my birthday tomorrow and I'm momentarily pleased with that. Yesterday I was nonplussed about it. Last week I was depressed about it. Today, kinda excited. My sister and BIL arrive tonight for a whirlwind couple days of festing. Plans are still formulating, but I'll be sure to catch you up on stuff (possibilities are narrowed down to: Anzo Borrego flower fields, Mission San Juan Capistrano, and the Huntington Library). Probably today's perkiness stems from the arrival of guest, but some it is no doubt due the the fact that I finally have clear-cut the area in front of my TV and now have ground in which to work. This means I can (or someone can) install the new TV a couple friends got me for Christmas. Yippie! No more occasional mystery flips to black-and-white viewing for me. Annnnd, I may even be able to connect both the cable AND the DVD (and maybe even the VCR) to the TV. It'll be a wondrous thing!

Anyway, I have a couple minutes here to try and catch up. Hmm.. I seem to be having to do that a lot. Wonder what that's about... oh wait! We're talking about me. lol silly girl

During and immediately post Olympics I was in a stitch anything phase. I was especially obsessed with my sister's Christmas stocking. First I struggled through the packages (note of warning to needlepointers: Fyre Werks' "hologram" line is not at all like its regular or soft sheen lines. The hologram stuff is stiff as a board, and therefore not in the least bit fun to work with. Sorry, Fyre Werks, you know I love you, but that holo stuff is a pain!) The Fyre Werks are the entirety of the green bow. The red bows are in Sprinkles (by Renaissance):

Once the packages were in I moved on to the carpet and that became a complete compulsion for me--

I'm doing it in a pair of Bella-something-or-others (sorry, I'll get back to you on that). They are thin merino wools that are absolutely yummy to work with. This pic doesn't show it, but the whole bottom of the foot is done and I've turned the corner up the back of the heel ... yippie!

When no obsessed with the stocking, I was obsessed with my Friendly Stitcher's ASAW. I got tired of putting in grid lines so I started filling in squares:

It's a garden-themed piece that in its original incarnation is absolutely lovely, but a number of the squares have no connection to gardens I have known. No offense folks, but I'm a West Coast girl. I can see the beach from my office. I never experienced gardens with snowflakes until my sister moved east. So I've been making some adjustments. This upper left corner that I started with is going to be my grandparents' garden-- so I started with the most prominent memory I have of their yard-- the GIANT apricot tree. Then there's the HUGE swing (well, it was really, really big when I was little. Maybe now it'd only be 10 or 12 feet tall but then I was certain it reached the sky). the square under the half done apricot tree (I kept leaving my beading threader at the office so I had to start something else instead of finishing the tree) is going to be a blue-purple bowl (like the one grandma and grandpa got for their 50th wedding anniversary) filled with elysiums.

Dang, how'd it get so late? Ok, I have to scoot. Go have a happy day for me, ok? A personal favor just for me. lol

Sure I've been stitching....

.. It's like I'm a girl obsessed. Not holding a needle? Well than I'm not happy. I must admit my progress has slowed with the absence of the Olympics-- afterall, I didn't have to keep changing channels in hopes of findign something entertaining. I never really realized how much time channel changing took up. Sheesh.

Anyway, my biggest problem of late is trying to decide which project to pick up. I want to stitch all of them at once. That neevr happens to me. Never! Usually there's one (not the one I'm supposed to be working on) that calls frantically to me. But these dys if it involves a needle then I want to work on it. I wonder if this is something I should wish will continue? Could be bad for all other aspects of life. Lord knows it's been really detrimental for those towels that are waiting for me to fold them and put them away. The laundry basket even fell over last night and all I did was shovel the towels back in and balance it back on the pile so I could get back to stitching. Bad girl. Bad girl!

Anyway, with all that stitching I should have much to show, and I do! But have I been uploading photos? Oh no. That would be too handy. At least this affords me the oportunity to work with some of the backlog of stuff I kept meaning to getting around to showing you.

We had out big, annual sale at my needlepoint shop and yours truly did her part. First, the frame collection--
From the Ewe and Eye frame collection-- I figure they will be perfect for some samplers:





And a few from the framers of LCN and CCN:




And you knew there's be canvases, right?
A dimensional swam from TS:

Some really cool tea cups with canvases:

A canvas of the Point Loma lighthouse (a personal fav of mine):


And my pieces from the TNNA show this year have started arriving--
First, my find of the show--a shell that your piece gets inserted into. Way cool, trust me--


Some ornies:


And think, this is the tip of the catch-up iceberg.

I should run. I have friends that want dining experiences, and frankly my brain is 35% engaged in noodling out a work problem. I'm the go-to girl for weird questions.... today's: calculating the economic and potential fiscal impact of over-freeway construction of varying types on both the construction site and on surrounding properties. Sure, I'll just find oodles already done on that. Uh huh.

A happy and productive stitching to you all! And to all a good night.