Thanks!

It seems that when I write my posts, I never remember to thank all of you for your wonderful and encouraging comments. I usually approve them via email, and then write my blog posts later, so the two never connect.

Stitches'N'Stones left a comment with a suggestion about the project I mentioned earlier in the week. The picture on the page she sent me to isn't too clear, but I am going to study it and then try to make it work on my project. At this point, I've nothing to lose! I will keep you posted.

Introducing . . .

Please say hello to my new friend, K. B. He has come to me all the way from San Diego!Koalas hug trees, and sleep most of the day, awaking only to feed on eucalyptus, which is poisonous to other animals. I don't have a tree in the bedroom, but K. B. thinks the flexible arm of the lamp is just fine. Besides, he says he has a good view of my cross stitch from there, and can let me know about my mistakes more easily.

I'm not so sure about that, but I can't resist that face. Can you?

Finished + Cross Stitch Woes

At last - I finished side two of my proposed biscornu! I like the way it turned out. Next step is to find a tutorial and actually sew this together.
Tonight was our stitching time with our friend. After I finished side 2 of the biscornu, I pulled out French Country ABCs and after putting in a few stitches, realized that I was running short of fabric on the bottom. Sure enough, after carefully counting, there isn't enough. So what to do?
Here's a close up of the bottom; there are two rows beneath the "Q R" row.
Here's the picture from the front of the chart. Does anyone have any ideas what I could do? I hate to scrap the entire project as I've put a lot of time into it. I thought about stitching another piece of fabric onto the first one, something I've had to do when sewing. I know it might look strange, but perhaps if I frame the finished project, it wouldn't be too obvious. See that entire x's row underneath the S-V row? I could join there and cover the join with the stitching.This has happened to me only one other time, and then, I had just enough fabric to finish. It made the job of matting it a challenge!

Please, please - help me!!

More About Callie

Ever since I moved this kitchen bar stool/chair upstairs - I have Phil sit in it when I give him his injections - Callie has taken a liking to the space underneath. No one is certain why she likes it, but she spends a lot of time there, seeming to prefer it to the bed. In fact, the other day, I found her asleep, with her head on the fan platform (where her paw is on the picture directly below.) Yes, the fan was running.

Maybe she feels safe from the dog under there. But then, the dog rarely enters the master bedroom. And Callie's always been a little strange. Go figure.

Phil's Room - Finished!

On Tuesday night, Phil and I hung the last of his pictures on the walls in his room. Here are the after pictures.

This is the west wall. The model cars are ones he made as a youngster. See the tan mat that's leaning up against the wall (on the shelf)? In it is an article that ran about him and the company he used to work for (Harris/RF Communications) some years ago. The clock on the wall was woodburned by Grace. Finally, this wall contains the room's only windows, which remain curtainless despite the fabric that's neatly rolled in my sewing room.
Here is the south wall. At the right is the left edge of the left-side window seen above. On the shelf to the left is a lighthouse that Phil made from a punch-out, lightweight cardboard kit.
And here is the east wall, which also contains the wrought-iron daybed. Surely you've noticed the theme in the room - lighthouses! At one time, Phil wanted to be a lighthouse keeper, but those jobs have largely been eliminated in favor of automated technology.
This photo has long been relegated to the closet, but we found the perfect place for it: over the door leading to the hallway.
Lastly, the north wall. The door from the picture above is to the right of the pictures. You can see the edge of the 6' tall x 3' wide bookcase; to the left of that is the doorway leading to the closet.
We are thrilled with how the room turned out. It was a lot of work, but a good job done.

I'm thinking of tackling the master bedroom while our girls are in North Carolina at the end of August/beginning of September.

I must be crazy.

Cute Callie

Who can resist taking pictures of their feline friends?

This is one of Callie's favorite places - the master bathroom sink. She loves to drink from the faucet, which we allow only once a day (unless she's sneaky and convinces one of us to give her a second drink.) She also has her own cup of water to drink from. She refused to look at the camera. I surmise she was plotting how she was going to trick me into giving her a drink . . .
Of course, all that activity wears a cat out. Poor baby.

Sewing With Whimsy

Have you seen Kari Mecca's latest book, Sewing With Whimsy? What a delightful book, full of delightful dresses and pinafores for sizes 2 - 6; a few are sized for 18 and 24 months. Showcased are Kari's rickrack flowers, along with other embellishments made from the same rickrack and ribbons. Even though the only little girls I can sew for would be ones I adopt (my three young nieces get too many hand-me-downs,) I knew I had to buy this book! Here are a few of the projects.

Peek-A-Boo Dress

"Adorable You"

"Sunshine on My Shoulders"

I can see using these embellishments on a ladies' casual shirt or skirt, or even on home dec items. Such fun!

Painting Phil's Room

My husband has his very own room in our house. As long as he agrees with the ideas my daughters and I have for it, he's free to do anything he wants as far as decorating is concerned. So, with Grace away, which gave us a place to put a lot of the items from the room, we painted the room. Here's what we started with - lovely, off-white walls.
The first bit of paint goes up. Nice color!
Look at all this stuff I had to work around!
Two coats done here. It looks great!
Lots of sore muscles later, all four walls are painted, the carpet is thoroughly vacuumed, and the furniture is going back into place. Once we get it all back together, I'll snap more pictures.

What do you think - should I get the curtains made? We've had the fabric for months!!

Biscornu Progress

At last - side one of my first biscornu is stitched! I think I frogged every corner of the inner design, as is typical for me! I actually like it better after the frogging, as I was able to control the color variations more. I started the second side, putting in about 15 stitches. Wonder how long it will take me to finish it??

Thanks for the well wishes; I am feeling so much better! In fact, over the next several days, I will be painting Phil's office, a job that will be more difficult because of high temperatures and humidity. I will turn the air conditioning to a lower temperature, but I'm sure to hear complaints by anyone who is on the first floor as it will probably get cold down there! I am certain the end result will be wonderful.

18 Days

June 22 - July 9 have been some of the most exhausted days of my life. Yes, that's what I meant to say. I have been utterly and totally beyond exhausted. That's why I haven't been posting much. I think I have found the culprit and have taken steps to correct the situation. I am feeling much better, and pray that continues.

I finally convinced Phil to get some new lamps for our living room. Matching ones at that. It took a bit of talking to help him see that black would be fine as we have two floor lamps that are black, and the curtain rods are the same. So we went to WalMart, and purchased the ones below with part of the gift card we received for our anniversary.

You can't see from the pictures, but the shades are tan. They look great!

Clipboard

One of my pet peeves is all the stuff that accumulates on the dining table. Or at least all the paper. My solution was to purchase two clipboards from Stampin' Up! It's taken quite a while for me to get around to altering one of them (which I guess is the technical term for what I did), but finally I completed Phil's. It is hanging on the back side of the peninsula which separates the kitchen from the dining area. (The table is turned 90 degrees now.)

We will see how this works. And maybe I'll even get around to altering my clipboard. (But don't hold your breath!)

My First Biscornu

In the latest batch of charts from My Aunt's Attic, I found one that caught my fancy, and started stitching it during my all-nighter on Thursday/Friday. (Grace had to be at the airport an hour away at 5:00 am, so she, Sarah, and I stayed up all night, rather than just catch a few hours' sleep.) I am stitching this on the fabric that I dyed. I plan to turn this into a biscornu - my first.
I am using a DMC variegated thread, which I'm not entirely fond of as each colored section is fairly long. (I guess I'm quickly developing a preference for specialty overdyed threads!)

Great Find

Sarah and I went shopping Saturday afternoon. Among the stores we visited was Barnes and Noble. We only go there about once or twice a year, but they are opening a new store a 10-minute drive from here, so I expect we will be lured there more often!

One thing I like about Barnes and Noble is that they buy and sell used books. That section of the store is like a huge garage sale, although you do pay more than you would at one (but a lot less than what the book would cost new!) I found this cross stitch book, and snatched it up for $8.00.
A few of the projects that caught my eye:

Gardening

Wednesday was warm and breezy, but I did manage to get two pictures of flowers.

This first picture is of Calendula that self-seeded from last year's crop. I still can't remember what the pink flower in the tipped pot is called, though.
This is Sarah's Clematis. She has it climbing a section of lattice attached to the chicken wire fencing around her vegetable garden. I love the purple color!

Cross Stitch Progress

Despite my silence, I have been cross stitching! I have been terribly exhausted for about 10 days; I think I'm in a fibro flare, as those of us with Fibromyalgia call extended spells fraught with severe symptoms. Consequently, I'm not getting much done, since I'm spending half of each day sleeping!

This is French Country ABCs by JBW Designs. I am stitching this on white 28 ct. Monaco, in the suggested color - Weeks Dye Works' Periwinkle. Unfortunately, I have run out of floss, and a trip to my LNS is not in the foreseeable future (unless they get my chart in.) They might not even have the floss; their inventory was low when I was there a couple of weeks ago.
I have also been working on The Herb Garden from Shepherd's Bush. I love the colors the designer used.