Happy Thanksgiving Week (aka LosCon Countdown Week)

Hi darlings.   And a happy week unto each of you.  I am happily puttering through my short work week -- God Bless Thanksgiving holidays!  It is truly amazing how the promise of a shortened week can allow me to hold onto my chipper spirit in the face of one computer and/or office screw up after another.  Currently the tip of the ole work iceberg is that every time I print something it knocks my printer servers offline (as well as my Adobe) so I can do one print one item then have to wait for IT to come up and reset the servers.  I am scheduled to have my computer rebuilt this afternoon -- oh the joy!

At least while my work has not been productive my stitching has --

I realized I hadn't shared the Sampler Girl Hope piece all boxed up.  I for one feel it is lovely.  Now I just have to figure out where it can sit and what ought to go in it. The threads are Belle Soie -- Indigo I think and Noir,

And here's my Mary's Sampler progress.

Yes, of course I changed the colors and it is on a violet linen.   So far so fun!   Though I would like to know why my floss bobbins hide from me.  Does this happen to you -- you go to pull a called for color and it's not there-- even though it is one of those oddball colors that you just know you don't have in some project bag?  Seriously where does the, for instance, beaver grey medium dark go?  Or the oxidized mustard?  Have they packed up in a huff and gone to find someone who they think will appreciate them more than me?


This is ByGone Stitches' One Nation.    Ok, so I am a very, very slow stitcher!

But I am planning not only to make it my primary piece over Christmas at my sister's, but also I am taking it to LosCon (my Thanksgiving weekend tradition -- the Los Angeles area annual science fiction convention) so I should have good stitching during some of the panels though many of the ones I'm particularly intrigued by are JPL and NASA ones and they usually have the lights out -- all the better to see the stars by dontcha know.  Oooo, there is even a panel this year on Japanese fabric flower making -- I plan on being there will bells on!  

Now the real problem I foresee for the flag is the new bits that are calling to me -- like the following from this year's JCS ornie issue--

At least I am relatively lucky -- so far these are the only offerings in the magazine I really like this year.  Maybe I won't get in too much trouble while I am packing for the Con.  I would not, however, place a bet on that Gentle Reader.   You have to know these are not my only recent acquisitions, right?  I will share more another day.... I promise.

For those of you in the U.S., I wish you a very peaceful Thanksgiving.  Travel safely and please, may you lack for family drama!  When your cousin starts to drive you nuts, just go stitch his annoying self away!

Stitch well and be happy!

P.S.  For those of you picked int he great 2013 blogiversary draw your goodies are mostly sealed up and ready to go.   It may be they go out today, but it might not be until next week......   cross your fingers!

Finishing, Finding, and Starting Anew

Hello and happy Wednesday unto you and yours.  May it be peaceful and frog-free.  I am aiming to be happy the whole live-long day (despite what my corporate IT department may be doing to my server-- there's a story, but I can't even face it right now).

So, to go with the happy theme-- look who rustled up her pictures!

Here's Workbasket's Penguin Quaker back from the finisher  His backing is navy moire taffeta with burgundy, navy, and white cording.  He is, for the record a standing weighted piece, but I couldn't properly photograph him in Chez Hovel's light if I stood him up.

And Susan Roberts' Chef Nutcracker is home from the same finisher -- also standing weighted with a moire backing--

Another recent "finish" is Theron's Berry Bird from one of the older JCS ornament issues.  Now "finish" is iffy -- really he's a recent "find."  See I completed his stitching and put him someplace "safe" and "out of the way."  In Chez Hovel that translates to I lost him.  Once lost I could not remember if I had finished him or not, so he stayed on my UFO list.  Now that I look at him, he might not be done after all.  Please note:  now eye.  But it is not all that bad empty is it?   I mean it is just a little ornie who is, frankly, just going to spend most of his life in a box with other ornies. Do you think they will give him a hard time about being eye-less?  Damn.  I am NOT moving him back tot he UFO list!!!!!  He either goes without or gets fixed tonight.  Thoughts?

I have been having Fall cleaning season at Chez Hovel, and one of the beneficiaries was Tish's Ladies Day.  She got unearthed and hauled along tot he shop this weekend.  and she even got *gasp* stitched on!  I filled in the first part of the sand stitch in between the women shown --

But, before I get too congratulatory, I also started something new.  Well, I had to.  You all made me.  I started Plum Street Sampler's Mary's Sampler.  I am going with Sampler II on it and doing it on a plum linen.   Sure, I am changing some colors (mostly because they were not in the floss box when I looked for them) -- it would not be me stitching if I didn't switch some colors up.

Finally, because I know it is Fall in most of the country.  But here in sunny So Cal I'm looking at a 90 degree day.  Anyone want a few degrees?  In honor of my later summer, I bring you all some sunny floral thoughts ----

Now go have a peaceful day!   Thanks for stopping in.

Oh, and if you posted on my blogiversary post, check the post below this one to see if you are a winner!

Winner & Company -- and many thanks

Dearest readers -- thanks so much for waving a friendly hello for my blogiversary.  I hope you know how much I appreciate you all.  That being said -- let us make the BIG ANNOUNCEMENT.

The Big Winner is:

DJ of Tickled Pink Stitches
Thanks DJ!

But I could not just pull one name.   Oh no.  I pulled one for every year of blogging happiness.  So the following folks will get a little something by way of spreading my joy --
Teresa of At Willow Tree Pond
Karen of Stitching and Sharing.....
Marsha of Everybody Loved Clark
Mouse from Tales of a Stitching Mouse
Melissa of St. John's Stitcher
Cucki of Cucki Stitching Cove
Mii of Mii Stitch

So if you all could email me:   rbe hling 1916 at yahoo dot com    {erase the blanks and put in the appropriate markers instead of words)  with your actual mailing address I will get something on the way to you.

Once again, thank you all for years of fun and frivolity..... and stash enhancement.

Little Miss Happy Badger (who really wants a nap right now)

It's Blogiversary Day Here at the Den

Hello, Gentle Reader,   welcome to my blogiversary.

Frankly, I'm feeling rather muted today, but maybe a reason to celebrate is what I need.  I have been lolligagging in Blogland since 2006, and I have been lucky enough to meet a great number of really nice folks, so I consider myself quite lucky.

Thank you all for suffering through my silences and not judging me based on the length of my UFO list (mind you, that UFO list is at least 30% your fault!   If you stopped talking about and showing all the cool things you are up to, I would stop needing to join you!)   Honestly though, thank you -- you provide endless inspiration and encouragement, and my life would be poorer for not spending little bits of it with you.

So please help me celebrate my years as the Musing Badger and let this little, sometimes peevish, sometimes giddy badger say thanks to you for all you do for me.  If you leave a comment on this post I will have a drawing for something stashy.  No, I don't know what yet, but it will be better than junk mail -- and that's something, right?  Maybe I should solicit suggestions -- what would excite you most in an envelope:  threads, buttons/charms, beads, fabric, charts, or a varied collection?  Leave your answer to that with your comment on this post and you will be tossed in the hat for a Baderliscious (see, you are making my mood improve already -- you can always tell when I start making up words. --- THANKS!) surprise.

Have a beautiful and stitch happy,
ruth

I May Be a Lame Blogger, but I Do Have Finishes and RAKs!!!!:)

Our friend Lee (Lakeside Stitcher) posted wondering why we (many of us stitchy folks) were not blogging as we had been.   I, for one, hang my head in guilt and shame.  I have been a bad blogger.  But I did have a very good reason and one typical one.  On the typical front, I keep forgetting the pictures.  Yes, I know, I am lame.  But besides my typical lameness, I also have a very good reason for being MIA.....   My office moved..... again.  That's six space moves in three years.  Really?  And they wonder why productivity seems low.  Sheesh.   I still have plenty of move stuff to sort out, but my sanity deserves a little break.    So here we go with some bad pics (because I still can't find where the good ones are).

First of all -- get how lucky the move was for me.  Sure I had to do (and still have plenty left to do) bunches of heavy lifting and coworker wrangling, and prissy people soothing, but now I sit near the sample library for the architecture and interior design crews of my company and they have shelves and shelves of these:

And the counters are strewn with thinking-about-it collections:

Yes, gentle reader, it is awfully fun.  At lunch I can fondle fabric and dream of the day they need to toss some samples.  Mind you, not all of them are really usable for us. but there are plenty I would love to get my grubby hands on.

Another blast of luckiness in my life has been Stitch Specialists' (yahoo group) RAK group.  My little clublette includes Floss Bobbin (you should check out her cool patterns--- I'm loving her new robot!) and Janet (who is blogless, but then can't be harassed for feel guilty because she skips writing for months on end).  And, just as RAKs are theoretically designed to work, on two of the most miserable days of my moving adventures (when there were coworkers who were very lucky to go home without me knocking a few of their teeth out first), arrived packages of glorious surprise which instantly turned my day around.  Bless you Flossy and Janet!

From Janet came this bundle --

Yummy "Melon" floss from Victorian Motto, beautiful cream beads which I have a simply perfect plan for,  and the world's most perfect little snail tape measure.  Honest and true a tape measure.  You pull his little head out and press the center of his shell to retract.  He just makes me giggle!  Oh, and, truth in advertising, there was also a pack of M&Ms but those didn't last an hour.  I mean seriously, I am a *stitcher* after all.  lol

Flossy surprised me with a remarkable collection of Welsh goodies -- overdyed floss and fabric by Polstitches (from their Dragon line -- oh soooo appropriate for a dragon lover like myself) and a DARLING needlebook that Flossy herself made.  The dark chocolate with white chocolate elephant that graces the cover is darling and makes me think of a friend who passed away some years ago -- he totemed himself an elephant and he did so love chocolate.

And a finish --   I actually have many and I will be back with better pics, but for now we have to settle for the best my phone could do last night-- The bikers are back!

You can't really tell, but the cording is reversed on the two -- he has a purple sparkle and she has a green one.  Also, I shortened her bike shorts since actually my sister tends to ride in a modified biking/running skirt.  The bikes are colored to match their personal rides and her shoes got colored to match a pair Nike gave her for running a corporate team at the Nike DC Half Marathon this year.

Well, I am off to attack the world.... in a good way.  Happy Monday to you all and I PROMISE I will be back soon with pictures!!!!

Happy Dancing Again

The great stitching happiness of the finishes below almost-- *almost*  --balances the annoyance of having to shift offices again at work.  Sigh.   Ok, I'm going to focus on the happy (and damn the packing crates)!

First joy of the week:  The stocking is back from the finisher

He is lined with white velvet and backed and corded in red velvet.  And, as you can see, the back is embroidered with wishes from my sister to her grandson.

Also completed (last night as a matter of fact) is the partner piece for the green biker from last week.  They can now happily head off for finishing this weekend.

And just so my WIP/UFO pile doesn't feel bereft from all the finishes, these arrived for me.  Yes, I do believe I can get into some serious stitching-startitis trouble with these.  Mind you, does anyone else feel like these issues just are not as utterly cool as  they used to be.  Hmmmm.  Makes me want to do an analysis --- check out year vs. year how many ornies I fell in love with in the issues.  It just seems like 5-ish years ago practically everything called to me.  Now, not so much.

Here's to you having a wonderful day.... and me not throttling anyone at work.

Pumpkins for Cathey!

For our dear stitching friend Cathey who is celebrating her blogiversary today --- and is doing battle with cancer.  Give it hell, Cathey!

These are actually mini pumpkins I decorated at an office party -- in the background you can see a picture that says "HOPE"-- it is of a fight cancer rally that my friend, Karen, in NY took part in for my Mom.

Bless you Cathey and Karen and all the fighters and their supporters!

One Weekend, Eight Finishes -- No Lie!

I have owed you this report for a couple weeks now.  What can I say -- life has been nuts... and it is hay fever season.  Really?  Did I need this?  What, was Kleenix loosing market share or something?

Anyway, two weekends ago I sat my fanny down in Chez Hovel, turned off the TV, turned on the audio books, hunted up all those little things that needed just a little effort to finish (nope, I have no idea why I could not have done this sooner), and settled myself in to be accomplishful.  'Lo and behold I was!  In spades!

Here is Blackbird Designs -- Spring House.   Colors changes, of course.  It will be an ornie.

Doodles -- Holiday Sprinkles -- I bet you can guess it will be an ornie.

Brittercup -- Christmas Pup -- colors changed as per usual (Hey, So Many Books -- do you think you will be surprised when you get it?)

I can't remember at the moment who the designer is on this, but I seem to recall it is called Fat Dog -- on ornie (yes, So, that's your Luke!)

Bent Creek's Snowman House -- this is a Zipper kit which I just ignored the nasty, giant burlap fabric they think I ought to do it on

Sampler Girl -- Hope Perches -- sorry for the wrinkles.   I did iron it before I sent it off to the finisher's to be put in a box.

My ANG class patriotic heart  -- in Splendor, Kreinik, and beads

Princess and Me -- Biker ornie -- a medley of floss, Silk Lame Braid, Neon Rays, Fyre Werks, Needle Necessities (I had some old skeins hanging around), and Sparkle Rays.  This guy will have a partner soon  .... I hope.

So all of those in one weekend (Saturday morning through Sunday lights out).  I think I also finished 2.5 or 3 audio books that weekend too.  Yes, as a matter of fact I am still smugly proud.

I know my productivity won't last -- after all, I'm nearly out of things that are close to being done, and I just found out that once again my office team is moving so I will lack all motivation and energy until we are settled again.  But they have succeeded in breaking me down -- 6 moves in 3 years and instead of being worried about everything and freaking out about getting ready I am so blase about it all.  Whatever-- that's my office word on the move.... Whatever.

Here's to productive and peaceful weekends for you all.

A Finish! Actually TWO Finishes!!!!!!

Please feel free to exercise your happy dancing genes with me as I finished the nutcracker this week AND last weekend I finished the stocking!!!!!  Yes, I am a happy needlepointer.

He's going to be finished as a standing, weighted piece so he can stand up with his wooden friends and decorate the house.

He's just basketweave; long-and-short; souffle; and alternating, off-set scotch stitches.  And his threads are floss, Neon Rays, Fyre Werks, Kreinik, Silk Lame, and Impressions.


The Stocking of All 2013 Happiness is off to the finisher (actually, he's probably not off to the finisher yet since the embroiderer has to do the back before it can go to the finisher).  However, for my work, he's DONE!

Now, I', just needling fairly faithfully on the Workbasket Quaker with moments of color supplied by forays into the first of a pair of Christmas ornies I also would like to have finished this year.   Mind you what I'm really itching for is a new start!   Ohhhh, it feels like I'm going to faint from the need for a new start!!!   Do you get like that too?  I'm almost twitchy.  I have to admit that the twitches are getting better.  When I first began the Great 2013 Christmas Campaign a few weeks ago, all I could do was think about stitching other things -- for a while the urge to start was a near compulsion.  Now it is easing off.  Now I keep making little lists of the in processes pieces that are close to doneness that I could (if focused) finish this year.

But right now, right this very minutes, what I want to do is stitch something with some of my mound of beads!

Don't they just call to you?  


I might finish my stitching and get to the beads faster save for my recent reading binge.  I have two t-shirts sporting the quote below and these days it seems like I ought to wear them every day because that's exactly what I want to tell anyone who bugs me.

For the record you can get these lovely Rex Stout gems from Murder by the Book Houston purveyors of everything wonderful in mysterydom.  And now I'm annoyed.....   when I went to get the link to their page I note that they have other versions of this shirt AND they are offering "team jerseys" for Miss Marple, Poirot, and Sherlock Holmes!   Mind you, I like my version of this shirt better -- I'm glad I got mine when I did.

Happy stitching!

Successful Hermiting Check In

Oh happy Monday!  Such a wonderful day!!   Yes, gentle reader, I am flushed with International Hermit and Stitch Weekend success. No, sadly nothing is finsihed, finished, but I made good strides.

The stocking went from here (includes a fair amount of Friday night stitching):

to here  (base stitching done, take-away rows started;  still to come -- outlining, highlighting, and embellishment):

Workbasket's Quaker went from here:

to here (for the record that's black Splendor silk on white opalescent lugana)::

Cheffie went from here:

to here  (a little more background done;  shoes and pot handle in):

And I was even non-stitchily productive.  Get this, I changed purses (pretty close to a full-on Spring cleaning for me).  Now I'm carrying this Madison Handbag beauty -- a present from my sister (she designed it for me as part of a Leukemia and Lymphoma fundraiser)

And, because I owe it to myself as incentive... what I want to be stitching on is:

You do realize when this big Christmas push is over I'm going to end up started 12 new things.  Sigh.
This is why I have such a long UFO list.   And I already know that when the above 3 Christmas bits get done that there are two others that I immediately start for this Christmas as well.

Does this happen to you?  You put the major effort into finishing 1 (or 3 projects) then you immediately hop into a bunch of new starts despite some logical part of your brain screaming "NO!  You have enough going now!"   It's not just me is it?