Goodbye 2010.....

I'm so proud of myself -- I finally figured out how to do a collage!  lol!  If you squint at the collage above, you'll see all of my 2010 finishes.  Or at least I think they're all of my finishes.  While I was making the collage I discovered one finish I'd forgotten about.

Anyway, they are from top left: Jane Atkinson by Scarlet Letter, Know Ye by La D Da, the Family Sampler by Erica Michaels, directly below the Family Sampler is Margaret Harris by Blackbird Designs, Guarding Eden by Examplars from the Heart, Hallow Eden by Plum Street Samplers.  Second short row is Catherine Maudsley by the Drawn Thread and Freelove Hazard by Scarlet Letter.  Third row from left is the Richmond Sampler or Anne Maria Clarke by the Essamplaire,  Sarah Woodham by Shakespeare's Peddler, Margaret Pence by the Good Huswife, and Beneath the Waters by Carriage House Samplings.

2010 has ended with a bang.  Well, at least it was rather interesting around here.  As you might know, we've been waiting to hear when FIL's heart bypass surgery would be scheduled.  Well, it was finally scheduled for the 21st of December.  The father type wanted to be there to help out and provide moral support, so he flew on down there on the 20th.  That evening of the 20th after the father type had arrived, the doctors belatedly told everyone that no, they'd changed their minds -- now FIL was going to have a stent put in instead.   $%*?!  (So to speak.)

The 21st everyone waited around for more news, hoping that the stent surgery would be that day -- but no, of course not.  The final verdict:  the stent surgery would be on December 28.  A week from that day.  Ugh.  More waiting -- and more stress.  (I find what the doctors did to FIL unacceptable, don't you?  Aren't they supposed to be helping him and not putting more stress on him??)

So the long and the short of it is Christmas was spent without our dear father type at home.  That was more or less expected even if things hadn't changed.  We wanted to have things be as supportive as possible for FIL and having a whole swarm of people descend on one's house isn't exactly conducive to relaxation and less stress.  But having one's son around is.  So the father type was with FIL and his wife for Christmas, and also for the stent surgery which did take place on the 28th.  The good news is FIL is doing well after his surgery and says he's feeling better already.

The father type also missed out on the big blizzard of December 26-27.  Here are a few pictures of the snow -- we supposedly got a foot and a half, but since the snow got blown all over the place it's hard to tell for sure.  And it doesn't look like much from the pictures, but I promise, it was a lot of snow!

Please note:  these pictures are of a covered front porch.  There's a large roof overhead.  There has never been snow right up to the front door before.

Here's Mia being amazed at that white stuff outside.

Digging the car out was a job in itself.

Thank goodness the kids were home.  The boy child did the hard job of snow blowing and then helping with various shoveling tasks.  The girl child helped with the shoveling.  I dug the car out and shoveled.  Here are the kids working hard.

Later, the boy child wanted to go sledding with friends but his coat was still soaked from the snow blowing.  So he borrowed the father type's coat.  It's a bit large.  lol!

I think he likes it though -- he's been wearing it to go sledding ever since.

Once we were all finished with the shoveling and snow blowing, we got into the house and bam!  The power went out.  Yup, for about 6 hours or so.  Ugh!!!   (The wind was still blowing like crazy at that point, thus I guess, the power outage.)  My worst nightmare, and without the father type around to enjoy the madness!  The kids enjoyed it though.  The house got pretty cold until we finally gave up and started our little wood stove that we have for emergencies.

The boy child and I got the Christmas tree taken down yesterday -- I have this thing about having the tree down and out by the curb before New Years -- so that's all taken care of.  The father type will be home for New Year's celebrations.  I'm so looking forward to having him home again.  I think this is the longest we've ever spent apart in our married life.

As I'm typing this, the father type has started on his way home.  I should be picking him up from the airport this evening.  Yay!  And the FIL is doing great.  Thanks to everyone for their good wishes and prayers.

I have made some progress on Jane Tindall, but I'll save that for next time in 2011.  :D   I hope everyone has a wonderful, happy, prosperous and healthy New Year!

Next?

Yes, I finished Guarding Eden.  I love it too!

Guarding Eden by Examplars from the Heart

40ct Mello from Picture This Plus

called for GAST fibers

I'm happy with how it came out!  

I did start something new as well.  Here it is.  Can't tell much yet.  Do you know what it is?

 

It's Jane Tindall!  I'm using the called for 40ct Confederate Gray fabric from Weeks Dye Works and the called for AVAS and Gloriana Florimell.  I like the Florimell better than the regular Gloriana.  This is a fun stitch so far.  Except for the one stitch off when I got the border to meet at the end when I had to rip a bit.  But the green of the border meets and I'm happy!

Mia is all recovered from her surgery.  It was a gradual process, but by the end of the week, she was back to her usual bouncy, lovely self.  I just hope she doesn't go back to climbing the curtains!  lol!

Mia likes to help with the groceries by checking out what's in the bags when I get home.  She also likes to go in the bags (I use reusable bags) when they're empty -- or not empty.  Here she is helping with the groceries.

Mia also manages to get all her toys stuck under one of my stitching stash drawers.  We always have to retrieve them for her and then she is happy.  After one of these toy recoveries, the boy child decided to put all Mia's toys around her while she slept.

Can you tell she loves balls?  lol!  She has other toys as well, but these are the ones that got lost.  

In other news, the girl child got home last night.  Yay!  We all trooped out to pick her up at the train station, then we were off to her favorite Italian restaurant.  It's a bit dark, but here are the kids at the restaurant.

Aren't they cute?  :D   

I wish everyone a very happy, wonderful Christmas.  Belated happy Hanukkah too!  Thanks for stopping by and saying hi!

Convalescent

After all we've been doing, I sort of feel like we're all convalescing.  lol!  But it's Mia who is the convalescent.  The poor baby had to have her spaying Friday.  It was so hard to leave her at the vet's.  I was crying, couldn't help it.  She had to stay overnight there -- standard procedure.  I picked her up Saturday morning, and boy were we happy to see each other!  The poor thing is definitely convalescing.  They don't give her pain meds so that she knows how she's feeling and knows to take it easy and not bounce off the walls.  She's gone from a bouncy kitten to an old cautious codger, poor thing.  Hopefully she'll be back to normal soon.

But before we get to all of the Mia pics, here is Guarding Eden.  First a pic where it looks like it's done.

Ah well, you can see a bare corner there. So thus you see it's not quite finished yet.

It's getting there though, slowly but surely.  Thank goodness for audiobooks and Christmas music to push me along!   As you can see, I decided I needed to do the fill in around the verse.  I'm glad I did.  I like it with the fill in a lot better.

On Saturday, I stayed home with our convalescing Mia to make sure she was ok (she'd just gotten home from the vet's) and the two boys took off north to our favorite Christmas tree farm and cut down our Christmas tree.  They were aiming for a modest sized tree this year and they succeeded compared to other years.  But it's still a nice size.  We got it all in the house and decorated, Mia being very curious the whole time.  Here it is all decorated with a large boy child standing in front of it.  (We left the breakable decorations off this year just in case.)

(Yes, the boy child is wearing one black sock and one white.  He's decided he likes to wear mismatched socks.  lol!)

Here's what Mia was doing during a lot of the tree decorating.

Poor baby needs her rest.   But she does take time to do some of her usual activities.  She loves the father type's coffee.  Unfortunately for her, the father type's mug doesn't allow for very good licking.

She's so cute!

I won a couple of prizes recently -- both were comment number 3, so I guess 3 is my lucky number.  First from Bunny Hill Designs I won some charm packs of Anne's new Lily and Will fabric line.  Anne also sent some yummy candy.  Mia wants some.  lol!  Thank you, Anne!

Next, from the Thread Gatherer, I won a lovely stash of Cecelia's yummy products.  Look at all the wonderful things!

I have to find a use for them all!  Thank you, Cecilia!

Finally a quiet week ahead.  Just a couple more weeks and the boy child will have Christmas break.  The girl child should be home this weekend -- but of course she hasn't told us her plans yet.  :D

A final picture of Mia.  Thanks as always for stopping by and saying hi.  I love our visits!

Loooooonnnng week...... All State!

First off, let me get any stitchy progress out of the way so those of you who aren't interested in family stuff can be happy.  Not as much progress as I would have liked.  It's been a busy week.  (That's also the reason for a Wednesday posting for a change.)  Anyway, here's Guarding Eden.

I have Siobhan to thank for stitching this before I did.  lol!  I read her description on her blog of how she stitched her grass (in tent) and followed suit.  After all, I had the same problem -- all my shades of yellow are very close and the only way everything would have shown up well was by doing the grass in tent stitch.  Thank you, Siobhan!!!!  :D   I know I would have ended up with more frogging to do if it weren't for you!  (Now I'm looking at my picture and wondering if Siobhan did tent over one.  Did you, Siobhan??  Ugh!)

I haven't decided yet whether to follow Siobhan's lead and not bother to fill in around the verse.  It's very very tempting.  :D

And now for the part that's musical.  Lots and lots of music this week for the boy child.  I took him to the bus for Rochester, NY at 6:30am in the morning Thursday (December 2nd) and he was off to All State!!  With bass shoved into the luggage compartment of the bus.  (The bus was for the kids from our county who were attending All State.)  Sounds like he had a wonderful time there.  He was a member of the symphony orchestra.  (There were around 9 different groups at All State: 2 jazz groups, bands, choruses, a string orchestra and the symphony orchestra.)

The father type and I left for Rochester Saturday morning.  Talk about long drives.  It always amazes me how big the state of New York is!  We stayed in a different hotel that was close to the boy child's and all the All State musicians' hotel.  Here's our view out the window.  (Note the snow.  More on that later.)

 Pretty thrilling, right?  Since we had to rush off to the theater first thing in the morning on Sunday, we splurged and had room service.  Such fun!

The theater that the All State concert was in was really pretty -- the Eastman Theater.  Here's the lobby.

 
Here's the line to get in.  lol!

Here's the proof that it was All State.

Some facts that I got from a very talkative mixed chorus member that sat behind us after his part of the concert was done.  Around 6,000 students from across the state audition for All State.  Only 900 are picked.  Most of them are seniors since it's their last year and preference is given to them over juniors.  The boy child said he was one of the only junior year bassists in the symphony orchestra out of 12 basses.

Blurry pic next, but it's proof he was there.  The boy child was pushed to the back so he's hard to see.  (He wasn't wearing his bow tie.   No one knew how to tie it.  lol!  I've since bought him a pre-tied bow tie.)

More pictures, both of the concert and of the boy child packing up after the concert.  (You can sort of see the boy child there on stage if you look carefully.)

 

 

The ride home was dreadful.  By the time we got on the road mid-afternoon, the snow was pretty bad.  Snow 2/3 of the trip home, spin outs and accidents all over, roadways sometimes pretty awful, visibility poor.   I was so glad to have my father type there to drive through it all.  I had the easy part of the drive home -- the tail end with no snow.  lol!

 

No rest for the weary.  We got home late Sunday night and the next day was school and then the last of the boy child's non-school orchestra rehearsals.  Last night (Tuesday) was his orchestra's winter concert.  (Their concerts are usually on a Sunday, but because of All State, it was on a Tuesday.)  More pics.  Better seats this time in the balcony.  (The boy child is 2nd seat.)

It was a good concert as well.  But we all agreed that All State was the best.  :D  We're hoping that the boy child will make it into All State again next year, but there are no guarantees.  So much depends upon the judge that year.  If it's a hard judge, no matter how good you are, you might not make it.  So fingers crossed!  The boy child loved the experience.  He says he's ready for college now.  lol!

Sorry for the long post and many many pics.  Told you it was a long week.  But I'm so glad to have the big concerts of the year over and done with.  Just the school concert left.  And that one should be fun -- not only will the orchestra perform, but it's the boy child's first year with the Jazz Ensemble.  The ensemble is an extracurricular group made up of a small group of kids that has to audition to get in.  The boy child is the bassist for the group.  They always go last -- and they're sooooo good!  I'm looking forward to hearing them!  (The boy child is getting into jazz now too, which is great!)

No Christmas preparations to speak of yet.  It's been hard to get into the Christmas spirit at this point.  Our poor Mia will be going in for her spaying on Friday.  Not looking forward to that.  Poor baby.  :(

Thanks as always for stopping by and saying hi.  I love hearing from you!  Happy hump day!

Monday Monday.......

Da daaaa, da da dada.  Everybody sing along now.  Anybody else have the Monday blues?  It was a good long weekend though.  Girl child was home for Thanksgiving with two friends from college so that was fun.  They went back on Friday so it was a short visit.  (Mia did not like having visitors around!)  Had that Richmond Sampler finish (see last post) which was also very nice!  Went to my LNS to drop Richmond and Hallow Eden off for framing and got a few things at the sale that was going on.  But it's Monday now.  Blah.

Blah also on the stitching front.  Didn't get much done on Guarding Eden.  Mainly because of that left hand border.  (Pic is to prove the darned thing is finished now.)

I managed to miscount up near the top of the darned thing and didn't notice till it was all done.  Argh!  Had to rip the whole left border out.  ARGH!  But it's redone now.  And just a small start on the tree.

It got interrupted when I noticed the problem with the left border.  Thankfully, Richmond came along to save me (ie take me away from the glaring problem).  Once Richmond got finished I was ready to face the huge "rip-off."  lol!

The father type came along one day and took these pics of Mia sleeping on my lap.  This is sort of a typical thing for us.  Different chair from my usual stitching spot (I was watching the ATP World Tour Finals (tennis) and thus was sitting in a different chair), but same idea.

She's usually more comfy when we're sitting in my stitching chair.  :D  And the laptop isn't usually in my lap too.

Thanks as always for stopping by and saying hi.  I hope everyone is excited about the holidays coming up!  Have a great week everyone!

We interrupt this regularly scheduled Thanksgiving day for a happy dance.......

I couldn't wait to post.  Just put the last stitches in.  Thank you to Margriet at The Essamplaire for being so generous and sending me the last lesson early.  Ta dah!  The Richmond Sampler in all her glory!

Sorry for the terrible pictures.  It's night-time, what can I say?

I stitched her on 40ct fabric that Margriet substituted for me (the kit comes with 35ct fabric) and the called for AVAS from the kit.

Hope you're all having a wonderful Thanksgiving!  We now return you to our regularly scheduled activities......

Thanksgiving is coming!

And I've been cleaning and straightening like a mad woman as a result.  Hopefully the house is looking almost perfect -- or as perfect as it will get for now.  I'll be doing shopping and other things to get even more ready.  The girl child is bringing home a couple of friends for Thanksgiving so it should be fun.

I've gotten as much done on the Richmond Sampler as I can at this point.  This is where I added more to the piece.

 

It's all the over one stuff that I didn't have instructions for.  There's still some over one in the border on all four sides, plus the over one berries for the bottom border plants,  and the over one dog and the two over one horsemen in the foreground.  I can't wait to be done with this one - it's so pretty!

Those over one berries on the vine are hard to see but they're finally there!  Love the flowers in the pot and the bird in the cage!

I decided to be naughty and start another sampler while I'm waiting to finish the Richmond Sampler.  It's Guarding Eden by Examplars from the Heart.  I've only been working on the border so far so I'll just show a picture from the designer's blog of the model.

Yup, another A&E for the A&E wall!  :D  I love this design!

Finally, here are a couple of pics of Mia being cute.

She loves to roll on the floor right in front of you.  Not sure why!

Have a great week, everyone!  For those in the US, have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!   And thanks as always for stopping by and saying hi!