The gang's all here.....

Before I get to the title of this post, here is my progress on Jane Atkinson.  I finished all those darned leaves!  Yay!  Been neglecting the over one as a result, but hopefully I'll get back to it now.

She's so lovely, Jane is.

In other news, we picked the girl child up from college on Saturday.  Forgot the camera, so no pictures.  But she's home!  Yay!  And not only that, but while we were down there, I managed to get the boy child to shop for the new shoes and summer hat he desperately needed.  And, the boys both got badly needed haircuts!  Remember how long the boy child's hair was in this picture from a few weeks ago?

Well now look at him!  And the length was his choice too!

Pretty amazing difference, huh?  I personally like it somewhere in between the two lengths, but this is good.  Knowing the boy child, he won't get another hair cut till school starts again.  lol!  Or maybe even after that!

Had to put that one in even though it's blurry.  It's hard to catch him smiling!

The two kids have been out with their friends a lot since getting home.  All the college kids are home now, so it's party time!  :D   This time of year is hard on the boy child -- the big kids are all done and home, but he still has school.  It would make it easier if all schools agreed on when to let out!  The boy child's classes don't end till June 11, and then there are 2 weeks of finals. 

Thanks as always for stopping by and saying hi.  I so enjoy reading your comments and visiting your blogs.  It's a great blogging world!  Enjoy the week!

See Jane's leaves

I decided after a few more flowers to tackle the huge mass of leaves on the tree in the middle of Jane.  I think I was dreading the leaves almost as much as the over one verse.  Huge masses of leaves are not my thing, either with cross stitch or with applique.  But I'm happy to say that the leaves aren't going to defeat me.  I'm currently on the second color of green in the leaves, so I'm getting there!  And I got that evil serpent outlined too.

Jane Atkinson by the Scarlet Letter

40ct Sugared Coffee from Sassy's Fabrics

Au Ver Soie Silks as called for in chart

I will be happy to get the leaves all done.  Once I'm through with them, I can get back to regularly scheduled stitching -- ie flowers, alternating with a line of over one verse.  And other matters too of course.  Like Adam and Eve. 

 

In other news, the boy child was off for part of the weekend on a trip upstate with his good friend and the friend's dad.  They were supposedly inspecting some fields on his friend's family farm up north for possible paintball scenario games in the future, but I think they also just had fun.  The highlight of the trip for the boy child was probably the "quad four" that he got to ride.  

No surprises -- he would love to have one now that he knows how to drive one.  lol!  Thank goodness there isn't anywhere around here that would be good for driving it.  Whoops, I hope the boy child doesn't see that comment.  :D  (Note the vintage Korean War helmet the boy child is sporting.  He got it at a local store.)

I think the boy child didn't get much sleep during all the fun.  Why do I say that?  Well, this picture says it all.

He spent a large part of Sunday sleeping.  lol!  I think he had a great time though.  And he got to experience the country life for a change.  He was amazed at how little traffic there was in that area of the world.  :D  

Thanks again for stopping by and saying hi.  It's always fun to visit with you all.  Hope you have a great week!

Flowers, both stitched and real

Jane Atkinson is coming along.  I'm even doing well on my promise to myself to stitch a line of verse every week. 

In the next picture, the right hand leaf is a problem.  I stitched it in the color marked on the chart, but when I looked at the picture on the cover, I saw the fill in color is actually a light green.  I have yet to decide whether to frog it out and redo it or not.  Sigh.

I got distracted by the ant and the little critter on the right side.   Don't you love them?  I ended up stitching away on the right side because of the cuteness, and then continued on until I decided I'd better catch up on the left side.  Jane was nice to me -- the two sides, although similar, aren't exact copies of each other.  Yay! 

In other news, my father type gave me some wonderful presents for Mother's Day.  He vacuumed and mopped the house for me!  Yay!  And he also gave me some flowers.

If you're wondering about the plastic, it's because there was a freeze warning last night, and there will be another tonight.  Poor father type.  Anyway, these spaces on our front porch are usually empty and nonplanted -- neither the father type nor I are gardener types.  Last year, the areas ended up with long grass in them -- not exactly attractive!  Well, I asked the father type if he could get rid of whatever weeds or grass might be growing in them this year, and he did this!  He told me to come out to the porch to see his handywork, and there were the petunias.  Unbeknownst to him, petunias remind me of my mother, who used to plant petunias on our front porch when I was small.  So it was a nice way to remember my mother.  (It's been almost 30 years since she passed away.)  There's also a hanging basket with what we think are also petunias, but I neglected to take a picture of it.  Hopefully the flowers will survive the cold tonight.

I hope everyone who celebrated Mother's Day yesterday had a good one.  Thanks for stopping by and saying hi.  I always enjoy reading your comments.  Have a great week!

Blooms and music

Miss Jane is going well.  Except for a few cases of the frogs, which was quite annoying.  I'm trying not to look at how huge this project is!  lol!

Jane Atkinson by the Scarlet Letter

40ct Sugared Coffee by Sassy's Fabrics

AVAS silks

The over one letters are going to be a killer as usual.  I'm hoping to break them up with all the other stitching I have to do.  Hopefully I won't leave them until last like I did with Sarah Woodham!

 

In other news, various of you have been asking if the boy child's 99 NYSSMA score means he'll be going to All State.  Believe it or not, it doesn't guarantee that at all.  Since he has a 99, he will be in consideration for All State automatically, and he should be in Area All State for sure (I think).  But All State is really tough to get into.  For some instruments, even a straight 100 or perfect score doesn't guarantee that you will be in All State.  It will depend on how all the other bassists in the state fared.  We shall see.  The boy child's bass teacher said in all his years of teaching students, he's only had one go to All State.  And he's a good teacher.  But no matter what, I'm so proud of the boy child and his 99 score.  Just one point from a perfect score!

Yesterday was the boy child's non school orchestra concert.  He belongs to this orchestra which pulls talent from the county -- it's impressive when you hear the youth orchestra play.  Every year the orchestra has its final concert somewhere in New York City.  In the past, the boy child has gotten to experience playing at Alice Tully Hall and Avery Fisher Hall.  This year was the penultimate -- they got to play at Carnegie Hall.  How cool is that!  The boy child got to see the exhibits Carnegie has in their Rose Museum.  There he got to read about and see the program from the Beatles concert that took place in February, 1964 (the boy child is a Beatles fan like his mum, I'm happy to say).  And then of course, he got to play on the same stage that they played, in the original hall, Isaac Stern Hall.  And my gosh, what an experience!  Even the boy child admitted that the acoustics were extraordinary, and that it was a really wonderful experience for him.  And it was a wonderful concert!  It's funny, I had no clue what Carnegie Hall looked like -- it's very different from what I'd pictured!  lol!  But the acoustics!  And when the orchestra played, you could feel the music vibrating in the floor beneath your feet!  Fantastic!!  I was in heaven, and so was the boy child, for once.  Despite it being classical music.  :D  

Before the concert, the father type and I had lots of time to wander in NYC, so we decided to go to the American Folk Art Museum.  I'm so glad we did!  They had an exhibit there called Women Only: Folk Art by Female Hands.  It was a small exhibit (it's a small museum), but oh so spectacular!  I think this was my first time viewing antique samplers, and they were amazing!  There were 2 or 3 Rhode Island style samplers, and various other samplers as well, including a mourning sampler where the embroidery was so fine it was hard to tell it was stitched as opposed to painted!  And there were quilts as well, plus a hooked rug and various other wonderful pieces.  Not everything was needlework, of course.  Just a lovely variety of items done by the hands of women.  Wonderful!  And of course, the museum itself was wonderful too.  I was in heaven there as well.  

We had to wait for the boy child after the Carnegie Hall concert at the back stage entrance.  No cameras were allowed inside, so these are the only pictures we have.  It was the boy child's first bow tie concert.  Very formal!

I think he was ready to go home!  lol!  It was hot outside, but luckily nicely air conditioned in the hall.  All in all, a wonderful day.  And now orchestra is over for another year.  Yay!

Thanks for stopping by and saying hi.  It's lovely being a part of the blogging community.  Have a great week!