Catching up... a little

I'm still missing many pics which, I would like to point out, I could swear I had  (dang computer gremlins), but I can bring you a few little updates --- otherwise next thing I know it will be August and I won't have posted, and then I'll need to post a proof-of-life document just so you believe it's me.

So, item one-- I have made some progress on my Chessie and Me "In Virtue's Ways" which I have turned into a piece to commemorate my childhood love of Laura Ingalls Wilder---

All the stitching that has happened since our last visit is the windows and the grass, but I put in hours of research picking a verse and charting it  (mind you, in fine Ruth style, now that I know what I want to say I wish I had put the Big Woods title on the bottom and saved the top for my verse.  Sigh.  Nope I ain't ripping it out--- just another learning experience).... maybe you will see that next month.  If I were you, I would not hold my breath.

Ethel got two more sheep-- these a little "dirtier" that their buddies.  I think they are adorable if I do say so myself. (And I even finished the headgear and hair, but I have no pics of that... yes, I'm sorry!)

I had a birthday (no, I'm not particularly happy about the passage of time, but I hear the alternative sucks if you aren't Merlin).  My sister made sure I was well sugared with chocolate cherries and strawberries...... they looked much better before I attacked them (I did let some office buddies help-- otherwise I might still be buzzing around downtown with the sugar rush).

And my totally awesome sister reminded me (not all that gently) that several years ago she gave me a trip to Ireland for Christmas, but I was so freaked out by the extravagance of the gift to pick an itinerary.  Now we ARE GOING in 2016.  We ARE!   Seems perfect -- just in time to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Easter rising.

I will be living through my Pratchett memories for a while so you are just going to have to  muddle through with me.  I've always loved this quote -- it makes me giggle.

Sally forth and have a wonderful rest of your day!  Yes, it is an order.

Stalled in Stash... oh wait, that's not what it's supposed to be called.......

... STITCHING from Stash... that was it.  Funny.  That does not seem to apply to me.

The March Report (pathetic little bugger that it is):
Month:  March
Spent:  $0.00   -- honest and true, nothing.  Nada.  Zippo.  (Do NOT be proud.  I was just too busy to shop.)
Allotted:  $25
Earned:  $8.00  -- (2 small ornies... without pictures still.  Sorry!)
Subtotal of March's accumulated earnings:  $33.00  (minor proud moment, but wait for it.....)
Holdover from last month:  -$72.40  (and the other shoe drops)
Ultimate March total: -$39.40  (Sigh.)

This all means that in two months I might be in the black.  Oh, did I say that hinges on me not shopping.  Go ahead, take a good guffaw break.  I can wait.   No really; go ahead.  I'll wait.   Would you like a glass of water and a tissue to help you regain your composure?


I will be back to discuss stitching soon, I hope.  All I will say now is that I miss Terry Pratchett.  If you have not read him, for shame -- go forth and do so post haste.

RIP Sir Terry.

Admissions, or How Success Can Be Deceptive

Dearest Reader, it is confession/realization Friday.  

Being ever so shamed by my dismal SFS campaigning thus far, I was about to crow with delight at announcing that I had not spent any stashing money this week.  Only after a moment's pause I realized that it wasn't that I exercised backbone or anything even resembling restrain;  it is just that I wasn't at the shop last weekend.  Sigh.  So much for my glorious "accomplishment."  Maybe I get half a kudo for not doing anything untoward online this week?

What I *have* done since last Friday is some stitching!   I know, a miracle, right?  Two more and someone will have to cal the College of Cardinals.

First off, there's one of Ethel's flock of sheep.   One of my stitching Country Club sisters suggested that I ought to vary my flock's colors so I made this guy a little darker.  I'm not certain I'm sold, but So Many Books, who Ethel is for, likes him so that will have to do.

Hi fellow flock mates look like this--

Since I finished Ho Ho Ho (sorry some idiot forgot to take a finished pic--- I can't imagine who could be that lame!), I started another ornie.  This little guy is called Golden Manse I think.  He's from one of those 365 really cool seasonal things to stitch in a hurry.... I my world that means I'll get it done in under a month provided I don't lose it.

Santa got a red velvet coat in brick stitch and stain stitched red velvet cuffs --

The Engineer got his trousers partially outlined and his eyes put in --

And I completed nearly a whole row of baseballs.  Why is it that basketweave goes so danged slowly?????????

I know it isn't a patch on what I aimed to get done and what I ought to have gotten done, but I'm reasonably pleased that I accomplished this much what with the naps and laundry that interrupted me last weekend.... what's a girl to do?   [Note:  What I didn't do was work on Ellen's flag or Serenity Harbor at all, and they really need attention.  Maybe this weekend!]

I wish you all happy stitching and extra-special-sale shopping!  And a special thank you for your kind (and laughing) comments.  It is heck on wheels at work and it's good to be reminded that there are nice people out there...... probably stuck in a snowbank.

SFS February: Forecast dismal, but stash acquisitions on the rise!

Due to the continued influence of the 80%-off bin at my shop, I continue my dismal Stitching from Stash trend from last month --

Month:  February 2015
Earned: Monthly allotment = $25;
Earned by stitching = 0 -- not a darned penny/farthing/rupee/yen
Spent:  $25.40
Hold Over from last month:  -$47
Grand total year-to-date: -$72.40

Anyone want to take odds on March being a better month?   Yes, I don't feel it is a very safe bet either.  

But, Gentle Reader, I may be a shopper, but I have also been a stitcher lately.  I got a whole bouquet put in Ethel courtesy of embellishments and beads by Sundance--  and I plane some serious hours this weekend on the sky, the remaining sheep, and possibly the head scarves.

I finished the stitching on a king from Boothy's Kings and Queens (and I just might feel his backstitching and a buddy for him coming on for this evening!

a couple rows of penguin fanny happened on one ornie --  this is by Vee and Co and I call it "big tree"-- as it nears completion, you will see why.

I worked out what to do with Mrs.' uneven bands of pink  (some of those vertical stripes are 4 across while most of them are 5-- vexing, I tell you, vexing!)--

This ornie by Full Circle Designs "Ho! Ho! Ho!" was going to be my "earnings" for finishing this month, but as you can see, that didn't happen.  Oh well-- leg up on March I guess!

And then there was my downfall..... The Dreaded 80%-off Bin.  Frankly I am beginning to think of it  as The Badger''s Play Bin because I have such fun in it.

I picked up this Ruth Schmuff piece with stitch guide (which, yes, I shall probably stalwartly ignore).  I plan on doing this as an ode to my reading "club" that went on the Bouchercon adventure with me last year-- So Many Books, Elaine, and I.   It might be a pillow eventually or possibly a bag insert.

I also picked up this scissors case from the bin.  I'll be switched if I can remember at the moment who it is by.  I plan on doing it as a pair of especially sparkly ornaments like shields in honor of my friend who lost her battle with leukemia last year.

I also got 2 identical little yellow chick canvases (if I have one, my sister will want one too), but the picture once again INSISTS on being sideways.  Maybe this weekend I will be able to work out why this is happening, or, more likely, simply retake the pictures that are behaving badly.

I wish you a happy weekend filled with stitchy joy.  I have big plans to lounge about, clean, stitch, read, and generally do my best not to get out of my PJs.  I hope I'm more successful at that than I am at cleaning my desk or winning the lotto!

Hey, just for laughs and because I'm in one of my list-making moods, let's see how I do.  Here are my hopes for the weekend:

1. cleaning
2. chili or spaghetti making
3. 4 books finished 
4. 2 ornies done   --- I'm aiming for Ho Ho Ho and one of the LKs I have started but currently can't find (see item #1 on this list!)
5. progress on:
• Ethel
• Ellen's flag
• Boothy's Kings and Queens
• Serenity Harbor
• the needlepoint flag

Cross your fingers for me and I'll see you next week!

Stuff has been accomplished... just not nearly enough. (or, What Was I Thinking)

Hi all -- happy Year of the Sheep, though by The World's Most Important Calendar, that of Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld, it is the Year of the Spinning Mouse.   All hail the Spinning Mouse.

I know this will come as a shock to you, but, honest and true, I have been stitching.  Just not fast enough to suit me and my GIANT list of things to do.

Last night I unearthed my Carriage House "A Mind Independent and Free" last night.  It's over-one in Vicky Clayton silks, Belle Soies, and some Thread Gatherers on some evenweave--- why, yes, it has been a long time since I started it, how could you tell?

Want to know why I unearthed Independent and Free?  Well it is/was a confluence of two Ruth-isms. 1.   I downloaded my sidebar WIP and UFO lists into Word to make a table and made the mistake of letting Word number the entries.  OMG, I have 59 things started!   And that's not even counting ones I probably forgot to put on the dang sidebar.  Fifty-nine!!!!!!   Sheesh.  That shock caused me to really look at the lists and remind myself of how cool I thought all of those 59 items were and how much I wanted to get back to work on them.
2.  I saw how short my WIP list was (defined as anything worked on in the last two months) and how few cross stitch pieces were on there. This caused me to think especially fondly of all the xs pieces on the UFO list.
#1 + #2 = I unearthed Independent and Free.   One last confession -- it got unearthed because it was the first of the UFO xs pieces I could find in the piles of Chez Hovel.   I am figuratively hanging my head in shame for my lack of order.

I also found these beauties near the to of the piles this week and got them out for some stitching time.

There's the Susan Roberts engineer nutcracker who got a cap and his train completed this week:

And Mrs come out to play.  I sincerely hope to have her done for Christmas this year.  Which means she needs to be done in September.  Dear Lord I just realized I'm going to need to get her her own suitcase to haul her to Christmas!   Why did this seem like such a great idea?????

It is easier to see her progress from the back -- this week her feet got finished as did the vertical black lines on her "skirt."

I made anti-progress on my By the Bay Serenity Sampler because the rose colors I picked did not work in the least when I got them stitched in.  The pink flosses in the picture below are what is called for, but I wanted red roses like the ones that grew over my Grandma's garage.  My new selection are the floss and the Splendors--

And there they are in.  I think they work much better.  Opinions?

I leave you with something that I am currently obsessed with -- this pigeon mural that is along my bus route in to work.  Before Christmas he appeared thusly:

Mid January he started morphing --

 And currently he looks like this --

What can I say -- growing up with a backyard full of pigeon coops with largely homing pigeons in residence makes me quite fond of the little blighters.  And this guy is just a homing pigeon extraordinaire!

Once again -- go forth and enjoy this second month of The Year of the Spinning Mouse!  Reading a Pratchett can help improve your day/week/month/year immensely.

Take care and happy stitching!

P.S.  For the record, I have refrained from buying that crow on a pumpkin canvas thus far.  Yes, I know, it is early days.  I have, however, visited the 80% bin again.  I would show you how bad I was, but the pics from that keep insisting on rotating sideways........ possibly a hint to me to stop shopping?????

Little bits (and fights with Blogger)

Dang Blogger.   I'm telling you up front that you would have more pictures of other projects, but Blogger has decided to flip the and not allow me to get them right side up.  Sigh.   I don't have time to deal with this nonsense today.

I have had progress on things that Blogger does not object to showing you in their proper alignment, including this old friend, the baseball flag --

Since it is hard to tell what is stitched on this without seeing the back.....

 I swear on all my stash that I have spent hours and hours on this and it goes sooooooo slowly.   It could be because it is 18-count basketweave, but sheesh.  At this pace it will be done in 10-12 years.

I have also done some small stitching on my other flag -- Connecticut is a little more present --

I hope to make major progress on this in February.  I need it off the to-do list.  And, joy of joys, when it is done I get to start another one of it for me.  Sigh.

Last weekend I had great fun with my shop owner pulling down all the canvases on the walls and putting up all new stuff.  Nothing like the joy of resetting all the canvases in the shop to get me all excited ----  unfortunately, I get all excited about stashing NOT stitching.  Sigh.

I am eager to get to work this Saturday and see how many of these beauties have found new homes.

Personally, I fell in love with this guy by Share One's Ideas.   Isn't he cool?   I am not a Halloween girl, but I do like pumpkins and he is a pretty fine bird-- not quite menacing enough for the average crow, but cool.

I almost want a round of applause, please.  I did NOT bring this canvas home.  I don't suppose I should get all that much credit since I have a hard and fast rule at the shop-- everything has to stay up on the walls for at least a month before I buy it because I want actual customers to have a shot at seeing how cool everything is.  After all, I know where the order books and the rolodex of designer phone numbers are.  My desire to call for a round of applause is also tempered by the fact that as we redid the walls, new things landed in the 80% off bin.  And, yes, gentle reader, your friend hopped right in there and brought MORE stuff home.  If I get sealed in my apartment by a snowmageddon, I may run out of food, but I have stitching enough to last me though at least 5 years of full time stitching. ...... hmmm-- I need to stock up on light bulbs and snacks just in case. 

Happy stitching to all and to all a good day!

SFS and Smalls Stitching (aka as Smalls to the Rescue)

Here we are -- it is both the final day for reporting January Stitching from Stash "accomplishments" and the January reporting check-in day for the Smalls SAL.  And, as luck would have it they go hand-in-hand for me this month.

SFS Report:

Month:   January

Spent:    $59   ( I CAN EXPLAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Earned:  $12

January Financial Summation:  -$47

Overall January Summation:  Sigh.

So, gentle readers, here were my shopping downfalls-- explanations will follow......  

You see my needlepoint store does one sale a year.  Just one.  365 days in a year and we have only 14 of them where we have merchandise discounted.  It is always just after TNNA, the big needlepoint/needlework tradeshow in January.  What's a girl to do??????   Usually I go to TNNA with the shop crew, but this year they moved the show up two weeks and I was still back east while they were glorying in the wonders of new stuff in Phoenix (apparently a lot of the wonder was that there was not a lynching of the guy who *had* to smoke in the men's room at the conference center, got caught, and threw his lit cigarette into the trash can thus catching the trash on fire and forcing the evac of the center and the extreme ire of the vendors who were in the middle of taking many orders).
So, usually I'm at the show and getting in PLENTY of trouble while I'm there, but this year I got in trouble in the shop at the sale.   All the above canvases were freshly dumped in the 80%-off bin!   Can you believe it?  I couldn't help myself!   Oh, come on!  You know you couldn't resist either.   Heck, that Ewe and Eye reindeer I actually already have as an XS pattern and still I couldn't leave it be!.... the stitch and thread options will be way cooler for it as a needlepoint anyway.

All that means that by the middle of January I had ONLY spent $34 on three needlepoint canvases (yes, $34 for all three canvases!!!!!), and I was already over budget.  Those of you with keen eyes will note that the Thanksgiving canvas has an array of threads on it.  Wellllllll, there I was $34 already spent, and then I remembered that my friend, Jean, was working at the shop last weekend and she'd done this amazing Fall rooster, so I grabbed my new Thanksgiving piece and trotted it off to have her help pick threads because the ones on the stitch guide that came with the piece were just not going to cut it.   Cha-ching.... another $25 in threads for a canvas that I won't even start anytime soon (at least I think I won't, but I taped it so maybe.....).

I will fess up now that it would be even worse for me if it weren't for the fact that I pay wholesale for those threads.   Can you imagine how shamed-faced I would have to be at full retail?????

Now for the Smalls SAL Report -- Also known as:  Smalls to the Rescue!

 After the ramifications of my two week's of shopping adventures really dawned on me, I began a frantic (and doomed) rescue campaign of trying to get some stitching done to help counteract my spending.  In the last 10-12 days I have started and finished these darlings which will all become ornies for Christmas this year.:

The pair of bells is for me and my sister in honor of our mom who was in the church bell choir for years (so was I --- I miss those bells!).  The pattern is from one of those 365 patterns books... I'll look it up for you later.  They are done in Belle Soie save for the light red which is a Sampler Thread.  For the record this is Bell #2--

I think we probably all recognize the glorious fun that is a JBW tree.  In Belle Soies and it's all mine!   At least for right now I think I get to keep it.

Bell #1

That is what I have been up to.   I am now going in search of either Shopping Blinders or a spine to help me be more balanced in February.

Oh, on the reading front, I have to say that I am really liking King.  I'm shocked I tell you.  Shocked.  I was a fan of his stance in support of genre fiction (in the face of "literary" fiction snobs), but I was always certain he was not for me -- I have a very willing suspension of disbelief which makes me exceedingly prone to getting freaked by books/TV.  Mind you, it's early pages yet since I've been stitching nonstop, but I am happily impressed. 

Sally forth and have a great day!

Progress on many fronts and something ridiculous

Greetings gentle reader.  So good to see you.  I have resettled into life in the land of Really-This-Is-Winter?-Who-Knew-?!  Today we are supposed to hit 71F  This weekend we needed to air condition the shop. Honestly, last Thursday it snowed on me and now I'm trying to find light enough sweaters to wear to the office.  Oh well.  I guess I will just have to muddle through.

On to the exciting news ----   I stitched!   I know-- it is gasp worthy.

This weekend after the customer flurry left for the day (Saturday was the first day of my needlepoint shop's annual post-TNNA sale, and the shoppers were out IN FORCE!), my little stitching country club settled in for a get together and Ethel got all the leaves (Sampler Thread) in the uppermost basket and the flowers started going in (French knots in white Flair which may be joined by very, very pale blue and pale blue Flairs as well).  And, she also got a bit more sky because that's where I started only to quickly work out that to do any more sky I needed to rid myself of the waste knots  in my way and to do that I needed to get those threads running through the white flowers anchored.   If I had done a better pic you could tell that the Flair makes the flowers sparkle a bit.

On Sunday I hunkered down at Chez Hovel, put on an Agatha Christie audio book, and stitched and napped the day away.  It was blissful!   First up on Blissday was starting my By the Bay Serenity Harbor.  I am loving it.  

I am changing the roses in the border from pink to red.  As far as I can tell I have not messed up my counting yet, but I am accepting all prayers and good thoughts that not only is that assumption true but that they continue to be true.  I have a habit of just giving up on things where I get off in count and can't find the mistake in an hour of hunting.  It's a character flaw, but life it too short to be frustrated for long.

And Ellen's flag came out to play --

That's By Gone Stitches' One Nation -- and it got some new stars and an "O" in Connecticut.  I know, I know.  A 10-year old could stitch faster, but hey, I'm getting there.  

I am going to leave you with a little ridiculousness from DC.
Behold, Sound Suit by Nick Cave. (from the Smithsonian American Art Museum)

The front:

The back:

Details:

My first reaction was "dang it someone's grandma did those."  Eventually after circling the thing for a while I decided I might have to come back from the grave to shoot someone who did that to my stitching.