November 08, 2009

Sing, Sing, Sing

Thank you all for your well wishes during last week's stomach ailment--I'm much better now and tearing around in my usual scatty way. I've given Sarah McP a little vacation because I got tired of looking at all that pink and green and yellow. Plus I wanted to do something a little more Thanksgiving-ish, but without the turkey specifically, since I'll finish the sampler long after that holiday is over (it's in a little over two weeks! Can you believe it?) So I restarted the Plymouth Sampler by Brenda Keyes of the Sampler Company. This is about the 4th time I've started this. I've tried it over one with cotton (too hard to work on), over two with cotton on a couple of different fabrics, and didn't like the effect. Now I'm doing it over two on 40 count Graziano linen (puro lino, it says, stamped in gold on the selvedge; it's a very heavy, luxurious fabric, and it's thick enough to conceal any carrying of threads across the back), with NPI silks from my stash that I'm converting on the fly.

Here's the photo--I'm sure you've probably seen it. I purchased it at the Sampler needlework shop in Plymouth, Mass. a few years ago, literally just down the street from where the Pilgrims landed the second time.


I've been listening to some alternative music lately, and particularly, a song by the White Rabbits called Percussion Gun. It features a pair of drummers. I love good drumming, and they're ok, but nothing like Gene Krupa of Benny Goodman's band. Now that man could drum. (Photo courtesy of www.drummerworld.com.) The White Rabbits perform in hoodies, rather than suits or dinner jackets....



"I think that the White Rabbits is an excellent name for a band."


I'm off to find some appropriate music to play while mopping floors. Happy week ahead, all!

November 01, 2009

The Apocalyptic Invasion

Yesterday I awoke a 4 a.m., uneasy. Half a second later I realized: Whoa!! Sick! BF has it too: his started just a few hours after mine. So far, we've skipped both versions of the 'flu, either version A or version Swine, which rage on around us at work, on public transportation, in the grocery store line, causing us to consider friends and neighbors as carriers, but this stomach thing has embraced us in its greasy arms. Ugh. It's not completely debilitating, but it certainly is depleting; I was able to stop briefly at the mall yesterday afternoon to do an errand, but I held my breath and scurried past the food court. Why, oh why, put a Wendy's and a Chik fil A across the aisle from each other in an enclosed, badly ventilated space? And I stopped to pick up something I'd ordered at the lighting store across from my LNS, so I dropped in for a quick visit but was too tired to pick up the two cute Christmas designs I briefly considered. One was Just Nan's Christmas ribbons (came with the beads), and the other was a Christmas sheep thing. I didn't need them anyway, but too tired to shop for needlework? Definitely sick.
Just Nan:


Post Halloween, since we still have lots of candy around: when I visted In Stitches last time, they gave me this freebie by The Cricket Collection. This is the finished model in the store, and while you normally stitch the "Kisses" tag, someone at the shop had inserted a paper tag. It's stitched in DMC and Kreinik braid. I love the expression on the little frog's face.


More on Sarah:


Elvis suggests taking to bed with a book; here he's working his way through The Apocalpytic Invasion, which is somehow appropriate.


Happy, healthy week ahead!

October 25, 2009

Vacation's End

I am glum today because my vacation is ending and I'm headed back to work tomorrow. There's so much that I didn't have a chance to do! I did stitch some more on Sarah McPhail. I put some stitches into Christmas at Hawk Run Hollow, but not enough to show yet.

On Friday I made it to In Stitches and picked up some threads I needed as well as a few charts. This is "The Governor's Palace," a Williamsburg design by Homespun Samplar. I first saw it on Tanya's blog.

This came as a four-pack of Sampler and Antique Needlework Quarterly magazines. The four magazines had the "old Aviary" series of charts, which I'd like to stitch up some day. I have no immediate plans to do so, but there's no guarantee that the magazines will be available when I'm ready, since they're already a few years old. Of course, I'd like to stitch this cover project as well.

This is a cheery framed model in the store. I don't know if you can tell, but the stuff bubbling out of the pot and the lettering over the pot are sparkly fibers. There's nothing like a framed model to suck you in--I really wanted to get it, but realizing Halloween was only 8 days away made me rethink that.

Diana has a hilarious video of her bunny, Amelia, devouring a pumpkin. Go see it! Inspired by that, I bought our bunnies a pumpkin. No devouring ensued.
"Are you out of your mind? What is that!? Go get the phone so I can call for a pizza!"

Happy week ahead!

October 23, 2009

Foliage and Waterfalls

Foliage (the entrance to my neighborhood):

Foliage (Sarah McPhail). I had to frog out a couple of the smaller bright-green trees, but no matter. Onward.

Waterfall (more about that later):

BF and I drove to Richmond on Wednesday and shopped for furniture. Shopping for furniture for any couple could be fraught. Might be even if the couple is in agreement as to style, function, color. For us it's difficult: I am an ultra-contemorary girl; BF is a traditional guy. We've gingerly reached sort of a middle ground, in a furniture store called La Difference, in Richmond. La Diff, as it's called, is in the middle of the loft district of Richmond, where the old factories and tobacco warehouses have been repurposed into loft housing. It'd be perfect for us if only we could live in Richmond, something we're working on. For now we have a typical Virginia two-story center hall colonial tract home--on the outside. Inside I'm beginning to push the contemporary envelope after a lot of negotiation and some compromise.
I liked this. It's a chest of drawers, part of a bedroom set, green lacquer with glass applied over it. I can't describe how the pieces glowed in the light. BF pronounced it "awful."

I tried out this chair. Note: if your feet are higher than your head, it might be difficult to stitch.

This looks uncomfortable but was actually quite nice. I like the look. BF reminded me that six cats and their little claws don't work with white leather. Too bad--I saw a number of white leather pieces including a huge sectional and a round platform bed. He's right though.


Boing, boing, boing. Extraordinarily comfortable for a stool. We explored using them in the kitchen (they're office furniture really), but agreed that the price was prohibitive.


Here's our compromise: Shaker. Clean lines for me, nice wood for him. It's difficult to find furniture made in the U.S.; these pieces come from a company in Vermont.

Stash holders!

Another white leather piece, unfortunately. Because look at his face: no wonder we call it the "happy chair." I'd have brought him home simply because it cheers me up to look at him.

The waterfall: it seems we sprang a slow leak in the master bath shower. Drip, drip, drip. While we were away in Richmond, the dining room ceiling began to sag. Sigh. Today the plumber came and tore a hole in the ceiling to look up above. It was all too reminiscent of the great Pink Flood of 2007, where Pink chewed a hole in a pipe and flooded the bathroom, the guest bedroom and the kitchen. We've isolated the problem, fortunately and will have to have some work done up above. There's an opening around a tile in the shower where water gets underneath the tiles, so water has been seeping down and dripping on the ceiling. It could be worse, right Pink?

Peaches: "It's ok to come out, Pink. They know you didn't do it this time."


When the plumber left with his ladder, I headed up to In Stitches to pick up threads and more stash. I got some interesting samplers--all of them traditional, of course. This is a long and picture-heavy post; more about my trip Sunday. Bye!

October 20, 2009

Vacation III

I finished up my homework surprisingly early today, so now I'm free for the week. I celebrated by planting my butt on this sofa most of the day. Note the books, calculator, etc. Also note the stitching project bags. That's Sarah McP. in the center. And note my four stitching buddies (look carefully for the feet of #4 stitching buddy sticking out from under a table). Very peaceful, and very productive, but now I have that stale, unexercised feeling you get after eating a large meal or sitting all day. Plus I could use a shower.

I got a third rose completed on Sarah. I'm excited about getting to the river, but I have a large thicket of trees and bushes to pass through first. My goal by the end of the week is to splash around in the river.


I want to thank Kellie at The Stitching Post for alerting me to this sampler. It's called the "Swan Pond Sampler," and it's from the Knoxville EGA. It's particularly meaningful to me because I spent a very happy time at UT's library school. Even all these years later I hum "Rocky Top" in the fall. I'd love to retire in Knoxville or thereabouts. Anyway, Kellie and I purchased this from the Dixie Darlin' needlework store in Pigeon Forge. I called them, and they couldn't have been nicer. It's charted for DMC, but I'll probably do a conversion.


Off to take my shower!
"Phew. I smell something!"

Later!

October 19, 2009

Vacation II

Although I am not tired of stitching Sarah McPhail, I am tired of looking at her on this site. So she'll be back in a couple of days when I've moved away from the pink roses. I picked up a couple of things to work on last night before I went back to work on Sarah. This is English Whitework. It's fun to stitch, but it's definitely daytime stuff. And I can't get the color right with the camera--it's more purpley than this photo indicates.

And this is something I hadn't worked on for a while. Too Christmasy. Only, it's just two months away now, isn't it? The colors in this are great. I'm forgetting what I'm using on it--a Lakeside I think. Maybe pear. The colors in this photo are pretty true to life. This is almost done.


I've got just one more day of being housebound with my schoolwork, and then I'm free. We're planning a trip to Richmond to look at furniture and go to lunch at someplace fun. And come along with us to Maryland to Captain Billy's for a mess of steamed blue crabs. I'm planning a field trip to In Stitches, always good. And since it's supposed to rain on Friday, I'm hoping to set aside the whole day for stitcher numb-butt.

The bunnies' union says that the bunnies deserve a rest, and the cats' union wants to know why they're never featured here. This is Little Friend, saying good night.


Night, all!

October 18, 2009

Vacation

I'm technically on vacation, but it doesn't feel like it quite yet. Mostly I'll be doing homework this week because it's midterms, but I will carve out time for stitching and a couple of day trips. Here's a little progress on Sarah McPhail:



And for my bunny-blogger friends, this is entitled "The Hunt for Pink 'Tocktober."


Peaches: "How Dismaying. Here's a shot of the good end of a bunny."

Back to the books! Happy week ahead.