Sooo nice

The weather here is sooo nice right now.

Cool & Rainy. Just my speed.

I have decided that the last couple of posts are not going t be repeated again. This is a blog for me, my friends and family and sometimes I get a little carried away in the "ranting" venue. If I have something to say about local issues & politics, I will try to keep it at the end of the post.

Stitching:

On another note, I was saddened to read this morning on a message board that Nancy Wigman, the designer of 4 My Boys, is going to be retiring. :( When I got into counted cross stitch in 2000 or so, it was one of her designs that I chose to do. I had mainly only done embroidery (pillowcases, table runners) and some stamped cross stitch as a young teen. My Mom used to buy me the little kits at Wal Mart or something. I know that she said she never liked CCS because it was "too hard". She hated the counting and keeping place aspect. Anyway, back to my 4 My Boys story.

I was working for a local Dermatologist near a chic little shopping center back home and I had spotted a needlework shop. I decided one day on my lunch break to wander down there. It was like I had come home! So many models and charts & fibers galore. If y'all ever find yourselves in Rockford, IL, I highly recommend stopping by The Needle & I on Alpine Road in the Edgebrook Shopping Center. So, I found this design. I think it was called "Star light, Star bright". One of the shop ladies helped me out. I chose to do it exactly as the model on the chart cover was done. That meant doing it on 28 ct. linen (eep!) and all of the Weeks Dye Works and Caron Wildflowers. I think that I dropped $40 on that project alone. Which is alot to me now with all of the competitive online places and ebay. Especially for that little project. I do remember asking if I could just use "that floss you get at Wal Mart", and the sales lady looked almost snubbed. She replied, "Well, you could but it wouldn't be the same as how the model is stitched." Now each Weeks Dye Works was like $2 a skien and the Caron's were $4 (I think) so she knew I was going to drop a little $ by doing it the way the designer did.

And I am glad that I did. I have yet to finish this into anything. It sits all nice and pressed in my finish box, waiting patiently. I put this aside for a few years while I went through some painful personal issues and got discouraged by the 2 over 2 counting. I finally finished it last fall. I loved doing the Turkey Stitch on the ends of the scarf.



This is another one I did last year as a present for my Aunt and her family. I thought that the fabric was cute even though the bias tape edge was a struggle so I ended up hand stitching it. It was well received :)



I have a few more of her designs in my stash...not nearly all of the ones that I want to do though.

I really wanted to start on my 2 letters for the Rainbow Gallery SAL that I am doing with Carolyn & Jo, but in re-evaluating my 32 ct fabric stash, I decided that the first 2 letters should be done on more of an ivory like recommended and not a putty or a clay. So, I bought some off of ebay yesterday and it should be here hopefully next week. If it gets too close to our Aug 1 "official" start day, I might just do C & D first and then do A & B when the fabric arrives. Carolyn has a great start to her letters and Jo is patiently waiting for us to catch up.

Baby

Today I am 99 days pregnant. I can't believe that we are in the second trimester already. The whole conversion of months to weeks is so confusing.

Week 1-4 month 1
Week 5-8 month 2 >1st trimester
Week 9-13 month 3

Week 14-17 month 4
Week 18 - 21 month 5 > 2nd trimester
Week 22 - 25 month 6

I am still not up to the same weight as I was at my first appointment. About 2 kg short actually. But, I did gain a pound this last week that I had initially lost.

My next appointment is on the 20th and I am going to pray that we hear a heartbeat! Some girls have already had a few ultrasounds. I only will only have one most likely.

We have decided that we will start shopping for the baby stuff once we come back from our trip to Australia. No point in getting it now to sit here and wait for 5 months. And I have a list of things that I want to buy. This is something that I totally plan on buying. I plan on wearing our baby most of the time, especially when we are out. Who wants to carry around a giant carseat thingy with a handle on the top that is a pain in the neck and heavy? Not me. Besides, we are planning a bunch of trips and this would be so convenient. And I have read that babies like to be squished in and close to the body. Something about feeling like they are still in utero. Did I mention that it is convenient for nursing? There are just so many positives. I might just have to get DH one of his own so he can share the load sometimes (if I can stand to give up the baby). Something in a more masculine print. Doubt that he really wants flowers but knowing him, he wouldn't care.

Politics:

Anyone else quite concerned about what is going on in the Middle East? We don't get Headline News, only Fox News for the most recent news and I usually catch part of the O'Reilly Factor (insert groan) at some point in the day. Man, this guy is certain that we are on the absolute brink of WWIII. That is a very frightening thought.

There is a new schedule out for our power outages and according to the schedule I saw in the paper yesterday, we won't be affected anymore, WAHOO!!! But, DH told me at dinner last night that from what he understands, the rolling blackout thing will be continuing for another 3 months.

Here is the link to yesterday's front page

One of my favorite aspects of the daily newspaper is the opinions & letter to the editor section. I thought that this was a good opinion from yesterday that discusses "non-essential government offices". Kinda funny and thought provoking.

Did I mention that I rock? Yeah, I fixed the computer :)

Peace

Our computer has issues. This will be short and sweet, y'all.

I shook my head in disbelief when I read this article in yesterday's paper:

Reyes: Govt's retirement share will still go up (click on the link to read the article)

The government employs a HUGE amount of the local population. I don't know the exact figures but it seems that everyone works in some branch of island government or another.

So, if I am understanding this correctly, the government contribution to the employees retirement fund is currently at 24% and is going to go up to 29%?

Are you freaking kidding me?

Do you want to know how much the United States Coast Guard contributes to their employees retirement fund?

Zero, zilch, nada. Which is why we stopped contributing to DH's retirement through the USCG. Our money is better served in our Roth IRA's and a couple of other funds. Thank you Suze Orman for that tip.

This just floors me.

****************

Yesterday, I wrote about how the crying to Washington, D.C. for money would soon begin. Well, it did as I was typing my little blurb.

Feds' aid sought for CUC

The more I thought about the whole situation, it seems that it boils down to this:

1. The CUC (Commonwealth Utilities Corp, a government run business) has no money for backup.

2. Therefore, it relies on customers to make timely payments so that it can then turn around and hand over the money to big oil for more fuel to run the power engines.

3. Customers aren't paying their bills on time for whatever reason...maybe they can't afford it and only make minimum wage (which by the way is $3.05/hr).

4. The CUC is going to raise rates so that they don't continue to lose money because it actually takes more money to produce the power than what they are charging since oil prices have been going up.

Ya think that the people that can't afford to pay their bills on time now are going to find their money trees blossoming in their yards any time soon so that they can afford to pay the higher rates? It will only get worse. Maybe they should hire more government employees for the CUC since I think that their collections department is going to be very busy in the future.

And another round of the blame game begins. The island government needs to run CUC like a business. They need to realize that they screwed up and should have been adjusting the rates all along as they watched oil prices climb to over $70/barrel.

Seriously.

Peace

Oh Funding Fairy...we need you!

Want to know what has my panties in a bunch today? The power outages that is what!

Read about it here:

Power Outages to Worsen

I think that my favorite sentence from the whole story has to be this:

"Guerrero said their collections are low during certain periods of the month as most customers do not pay on regular due dates but rather wait until the day before disconnection."

And obviously, the government has no back-up plan other than to continue to tell the garment factories and the hotels to use their generators to provide power to their businesses. Oh, can't forget the plan to cry to their pals in Washington, D.C. that they are broke.

So, every day now (except Sundays) we will be without power at our house from 10 am to 12 pm. I guess it could be worse...I would be right pissed if the power was scheduled to be out from 8pm to 10 pm during the week. I like to watch "Hell's Kitchen" whenever I can catch it and am looking forward to "Big Brother".

If you want to see what the schedule looks like, click here

Come on privatization! I did not mind writing my monthly check out to Commonwealth Edison or Entergy when we lived back in the States. At least we had power every single day. Something needs to be done.

If you would like to read today's development, click here. I find it funny that the island government has "reportedly exhausted its credit line with the oil supplier and has to pay in cash on delivery". Hmm, sounds like the people learned from their leaders in this situation.

Anyone got 2.5 million bucks laying around they can wire us before July 17 so that we can pay Mobil for some more oil?

Of course it would have to be Mobil that we get the oil from. The one company that DH & I avoid like the plague. Being the tree huggers that we are.

We do our part to cut energy consumption costs. We unplug our stove, microwave, any clocks that aren't being used, the tv and have replaced all of our bulbs with energy efficient ones that will probably outlive us, and I use the clothes line for 95% of our clothes drying. We average 450 kwh of consumption every month.


Peace

This is ridiculous!

I thought that I would like to get the BOAF "Grandmother Sampler" that I recently saw on ebay, so on the watch list it went. According to the auction, it was OOP (Out of Print) and rare. Last time I looked it was at $13. I guess I didn't realize it was $93 worth of rare! If I were the seller, I would have probably peed on myself. This is the link to the auction

Seriously, $93 for ONE pattern? Sounds like BOAF is starting to get like some of the older Prairie Schoolers. Wait until Christmas time and you will see the Prairie Schooler "Christmas Village" going for $40 or more. Thankfully, it is already in my stash. And the ugly Rainforest Afghan. My apologies and condolences to those that love it but I have heard of people paying $60 for the booklet for that.

If the designers (especially Prairie Schooler) would reprint some of these designs, they would be making the profit instead of stitchers that buy a bunch and sit on them for a couple of years.

I saw this chart at Shakespeare's Peddler the other day and thought it was so cute. DH has yet to do any diving here. MIL is going to be taking some lessons so that they can go diving when she comes to visit. DH used to dive all the time when he was stationed in Washington State. But, it is a totally different spectrum here. I guess WA is more cold water type diving. God knows that my behind is not going diving at all. Ever. It is all I can do to snorkel. That whole fear of open bodies of water thing doesn't work out so hot living on a tiny piece of rock out in the Pacific Ocean. Anyway, this is a new one by Raise the Roof Designs and I just think it is too cute.

I finished this little ornament last night. Actually it wasn't "finished" until today. I wanted to rinse & press it and then attach the JABC buttons. This was the SAL for the STO group I am in for May. We are doing one ornament from the JCS 2005 issue per month. I did this one on 32ct. linen, millenium blue. I kinda fell behind so I am working on making it up. Plus, I ordered the JABC buttons specifically for this so it wasn't like I could just forget about it. Those little JABC buttons are pricey. And I have decided that they really aren't worth it. The stars for example, I had to turn most of them over because there was a circle indent around where the button holes are. How stupid looking. Like they used some tool to make the button holes and it ended up getting pressed in too hard. The design is by Sam Sarah Designs. This month's design is the Shepherd's Bush one. I think that I will finish this one off like they did in the magazine on a piece of felt. I still have a nice variety of felted sweaters in my stash so one is bound to work well. I will post pictures again when I finish it into an actual ornament. I plan on having a "finishing" day one of these days. Gotta get the completed pieces made up into something.

Our power was out again for most of the morning. So, I sat down on the floor of our office/craft room and sorted through my fabrics and put the different counts into bags to clean up the fabric drawer. I have a ton of 28 count! And it is mostly ivory or cream color...blah. Very small variety of colors. Then I set about cleaning the room. I have a stack of charts that is about to topple over on my sewing table that need to be sorted and put into binders, but I have run out of plastic page protectors. :(

I was going to make brownies this morning...I so had the urge to bake but the power went out (and our stove is electric) so that put the kabosh on the brownie making. I'm not in the mood anymore.

Tomorrow I am going to sit and really read the directions for our Rainbow Gallery SAL. Thank you, Jo for pointing out the directions to me. I didn't realize that there were directions...I thought we had to wait until the stuff came out at the LNS for the finishing techniques. I have my biggest cuts of 32 ct set aside and will start looking at the different floss colors and see which cuts to make into the appropriate size for the book. I have a giant piece of millenium blue and am hoping that it works out to be able to use some of it for that. Not to mention the giant piece of Belfast natural in my stash.

Peace!

I want the rain to come back

I think that I would be able to live in the Pacific Northwest perfectly. I love gray, rainy days. We have been having that weather for the past 3 days and I was getting so spoiled. Plus, it was so nice and cool with the strong wind gusts we had been having. But, alas it is no more. Back to perpetual summer as I type this. The birds are chriping and the sun is beating down. I truly miss the change of the seasons. The weather here is just not natural for this Midwestern girl.

We didn't do a lot this weekend. Mostly just hung around the house which is just how I like to spend my time with DH. I did a tiny bit of cleaning and a little bit of stitching, reading, net surfing, and watching TV. DH had to go to work on Saturday for a while so I met him in there later in the day and we had lunch and did a little bit of grocery shopping. Love the frozen berries at Costco! Surprisingly, Saipan has a Costco. We don't shop there for much more than berries or cheese. Sometimes candy if I can sneak it onto the checkout belt. This time we also had to get a giant sized bag of Prunes. DH has decided that we need to get more fiber in our diet. I don't really think that I have a need for more fiber, but when analyzing our typical food intake for a day...yeah we do come a bit short of the RDA of fiber. I have yet to eat a prune but he did get me to eat some cracked wheat hot cereal with cranberries the other day.

I did order "Village of Hawk Run Hollow" and I got it cheap ! That was going to be the only way I could get it. Besides waiting for someone to hawk their copy on ebay in a few months for a couple bucks less than what it regularly goes for. I was stunned when I was looking at Stitching Bits & Bobs and a couple other sites by the prices of the Village kitted up with the NPI silk threads and fabric! Seriously, some of the places are kitting this up for $180 or so!!! I for one can not imagine laying down that kind of cash on one project. I understand the heirloom issue but I guess I will just use plain ole DMC and order a cut of 40 ct. linen somewhere. Plus, I like to rinse my projects when I am done and then press them on the backside on a towel so that the stitching stands up more. Especially if I have had it mushed in my Q-snaps or scroll rods.

I went through my fabric stash today and pulled out a couple of pieces that I am considering doing my "Mothers Tree" on. I might try to tea-dye some cream colored Monaco. Anyone know if tea dying decreases the strength of fibers over time? I plan on rinsing it thoroughly but am wondering if in 50 years it will have little holes in it or something from the tea dying. I am planning on gridding this because that tree looks menacing to me to begin with. I have never gridded before, so this will be an adventure. I am hoping that I can zip through Mother's Tree so that I can start Houses of Hawk Run Hollow before we go to Australia. Not that I want to take it with me. I think that if I at least have the tree done and have most of Enchanted Alphabet done, then I will start HoHRH before Australia. I need to spend alot less time on the computer though! I don't really need to have 3 BAP's (Big Assed Projects) going at the same time with not a finish in sight.

I also went through my stash with an eye to see how much 32 ct. fabric I have...pretty good amount to begin with for our SAL of the Rainbow Gallery Freebies. I think that I will start my first one sometime this week or this weekend. I am looking forward to seeing Carolyn's progress this month and then next month we actually start the SAL with Jo (who is 2 up on us).

I took a couple of naps this weekend and feel like I could use one today. This is our baby, Bella snoozing with me. She is the only one that likes to cuddle. I don't think that she cuddles DH though.



Anyone use Mozilla Firefox for their browser? I am thinking that I want to download and install it here. I read that you have less blogger-photo-upload problems with it. I tried to upload pictures for the last couple of posts but once I clicked "Done", nothing happens. So, I had to resort to Photobucket today. I looked in the HTML for this post and didn't see anything that remotely resembeled a photo code. .

Peace

4 Things & Such

Got this from Stels...consider yourself tagged!

4 Things

4 places I have been on vacation:
1. Disney World
2. Thailand
3. St. Lucia
4. Phoenix

4 things I could not live without:
1. My DH
2. A way to communicate with family & friends (phone, net, letters)
3. Ice water
4. Any kind of craft project

4 of my favorite foods:
(being pregnant, my tastes have changed)
1. Fruit
2. Cookies
3. Hamburgers
4. Green olives minus pimento

4 places I would rather be right now:
1. Illinois with my family & friends
2. South Louisiana with my friends
3. St. Lucia
4. Cape May, NJ visiting Katie & Jamie

4 bad habits of mine:
1. Picking out spelling mistakes that others make
2. Swearing like a sailor
3. Procrastination
4. Inability to turn off the brain at night and get some decent sleep

4 people whose advice I would trust on just about anything:
1. DH
2. Grampy
3. Dad K.
4. Staci

4 things I wish I would have never done:
1. Sabotage friendships back in the day
2. Quit ISU
3. Waited until too late to order my "perfect" wedding dress
4. Let others control my life for so long

4 things I hope to see/ do / accomplish before I die:
1. Celebrate 50 years of marriage to DH
2. Meet and love my grandchildren
3. Spend another Christmas in New Orleans
4. Live debt free and off the grid

4 of my favorite smells:
1. DH's aftershave
2. Bread baking
3. Fresh sheets on my bed at Granny & Grampy's
4. Lilly of the Valley

************

In my post on June 30, I talked about the felted heart that I made. It is a fun craft for people of all ages to do. Also great to recycle old stuff. Here is how you felt things:

Felting is easy once you know how. You may have already done it and not known that you did it!

Basically it is throwing a woolen or cashmere sweater or blanket in the washer on the hottest setting and washing it, then throwing it in the dryer on the hottest setting until dry, be sure to clean out the lint trap every now and then, there are a lot of fuzzies that come off while drying. What you end up with is a much, much smaller version of the original.

I like to go to secondhand shops or thrift stores and get sweaters and blankets very cheaply to use for felting. Once I have washed & dried it (felted it), then what I do is just cut it apart carefully at the seams trying to maintain as much of the "good" material as possible. I typically discard the cuffs, waistband and neckband since they usually contain some type of elastic material. Then just use the "good" material any way you want to.

Voila! That is felting. :) The felt is a bit thicker than the kind that you can buy at the craft stores but it holds up better in the long run. I have made the hearts, pincushions, pet beds and am going to make a small hanging pillow and affix a cross stitch piece to it soon.

Vicki at Turkey Feathers did a project where they felted balls last summer to use for various craft projects. I highly recommend visiting her blog as it is filled with "use what you have" type of crafting. It can take a little while to upload though. She is doing a whole bunch of projects using an old wool blanket.

*******

So, it looks like it will be me, Jo and Carolyn doing the Rainbow Gallery Freebies as a SAL. Ladies, I will email you in just a minute and we can figure out the details. I think that Carolyn & I may have some catching up to do to get to Jo, she is already done with "B". Jo, it looks like you are doing them on the same piece of fabric...? What count are you using? I was thinking of switching mine every now and then as long as they are all the same count, I guess it wouldn't matter.

******

I finished "Angels & Demons" by Dan Brown (of The Da Vinci Code fame). It was a good book, not quite as controversial as the ideas he put forth in The Da Vinci Code. He must have a thing for Catholicism, I must say. Again you will find the Church at the center of this book. I do have "Deception Point" on the bookshelf here as well, but I want to wait to start it for a while. So, I started "The Shunning" by Beverly Lewis. It is about Amish Life so far and is fiction. I haven't read much of it.

I would like to recommend a great book to anyone that is looking for a financial plan for life. It is "Automatic Millionaire" by David Bach. It basically spells out for you the steps that you need to take to gain financial freedom. DH & I read it while laying on the beach in St. Lucia. When we got home, we put the steps in motion and also bought another one of his books, "Smart Couples Finish Rich". It was a little difficult at first but now, I forget that we are even on our way, it's automatic. For us, it isn't about "finishing rich", it is about having financial freedom. We want to retire in our 40's and own our own home mortgage free before we are 50. If you follow David's steps, you can really do it. It is all about compounding interest. We also watch The Suze Orman Show every week. Yeah, she can be a bit obnoxious at times and most of what she says doesn't apply to us, but we have learned alot. Like stop contributing to your 401k if your employer doesn't match any of it. If you want more information, just email me or let me know.

*****

Thanks everyone who said a little prayer for my Grampy. From what I understand (thanks again, Stels for checking for me), he had a stent put in one of his arteries. And he will be going home tomorrow as long as he does okay tonight. That's all I know. I am a bit disappointed that my Mom has yet to call me about any of this especially after the tirade that she was on when Granny went into the hospital. C'est la vie. I am just so happy that he will be okay. My Grampy means the world to me.

Peace :)

Quick note

Just a quick note from me.

Grampy is now in the hospital. He was having chest pains and so Granny took him to the ER. His blood pressure was elevated and he failed a stress test so they kept him and are doing some other tests. DH was funny last night when he said, "Don't those 2 know that they need to stick around for a while...they have a great grandchild on the way?". Pearls of wisdom, I tell ya! So, please say a little prayer or whatever you do for my Grampy as well as Granny. They are actually pretty young, late 60's & early 70's. I still have great grandparents alive, and my great great grandma died about 16 years ago...I met her once in Florida. They lived in Sarasota. Longevity is in the family.

This is important:
Head on over to Saipan Blog or even to Save the Grotto Blog and help us out a little bit. In a nutshell here is the deal:

1. Saipan depends very heavily on tourist $$. Mainly Asian tourist $$.
2. The Grotto is the #2 SCUBA diving spot in the world.
3. There are approximately 100 stairs (or so) that you have to walk down/up to get to the Grotto proper. *oh no, stairs*
4. Some entity has decided that it would be beneficial to build a monorail that carries 5 people down to the Grotto and charge them each $10 a trip.
5. One argument is that the monorail will help divers that aren't physically able to carry their equipment down/up. Seriously...if they aren't physically adept at handling the equipment (I know it is heavy I have this 2 sets of this junk hanging in my spare closet), maybe they shouldn't dive...just my thought.
6. Instead of trying to compromise the integrity of the environment of the Grotto area by building a monorail, why not charge an admission fee to dive there? We had to pay an admission fee at every one of the 12 National Parks that we went to last year, Disney doesn't let you in for free either. Let the tour companies work the price into their SCUBA package (as long as they are honest and give the $ over to the government)

Problems are:

1. The environmental impact. Not just pollution of the water from the grease and possible fuel spils but also noise pollution and the impact that the building and installation of said monorail on the fragile enviroment around the Grotto area.
2. When (notice I didn't say "if" because it will happen) a big assed typhoon comes and destroys the monorail, leaving it a mangled mess half hanging in the water, who is going to fix it, clean it up and repair it or will they just leave it that way like they do other things (I read about a broken bridge in the Grotto somewhere but I haven't actually been down to see it)?
3. People with disabilities may want to cough up the $$ to take a ride down there but what happens when said person in a wheelchair or whatever gets a little too close to the water and falls in? It isn't like there is a Park Ranger sitting there making sure everyone is safe. Common sense people! I blew out my ACL on my knee 14 years ago while downhill skiing and have had reconstruction surgery...you don't see me trying to hot dog down some double black diamond trails anymore do you? Accept it, there are some things that you can't do in life.
4. I know that there are other problems, but enough of my ramblings...get over to Saipan Blog or Save the Grotto Blog and please sign the petition. You can read more about it there.

Peace

:)

Not very exciting here

We had a nice 4th of July. Hung out at the house most of the day and went down to Garapan for the fireworks. They had a little carnival and some local food vendors there. DH got a plate full of food for $4.50. I think that his ribs were actually dog though. And the barbecue sauce looked radioactive. I couldn't find much that looked good to me right now so I ended up with a chicken on a stick...cut up chicken pieces that is barbecued like a shishkabob. Total waste of $1 since it was mostly bones and fat yuck! I also got a piece of local style coconut pie which was quite tasty. Then we went up to DH's office directly across from the festivities. We were 5 floors up so we had a great view of what was happening. After a while we meandered up to the roof for the fireworks. I was impressed with the little show that they had. Much more than what I was expecting. I took tons of pictures (when it wasn't pouring on us). I also told DH that someday I want to watch the fireworks in Boston or Philadelphia.

Here are a couple of my favorite shots:

And the lovely traffic during the fireworks. This is looking north from the roof of DH's office building.

I am thinking that my camera hasn't been functioning to capacity ever since DH slipped off a rock on the Than Sadet beach and accidently got it wet. If you ever get the chance to go to Thailand, I highly recommend going to Ko Phangan (Phangan Island), north of Koh Samui and hanging around there for a few days. The royal waterfalls are really pretty in Than Sadet. Maybe later this week, I will post more pictures of our trip to Thailand last November.

I finished my Patriotic piece. It is "Pray for Peace" by Birds of a Feather (BOAF). I haven't rinsed or pressed it yet. I was going to yesterday when I finished it but of course...the power went out for a couple of hours. By then I had lost the ambition to do it.

My Granny is home from the hospital and doing okay from what I understand. I haven't had a chance to talk to her yet. I did talk to Mom yesterday for a bit. She says that the Radiation is much harder on her mentally and physically than the Chemotherapy was. Plus they have her on all of these medicines to help her feel better and I don't really think that they are working. She is holding nothing back telling people how she feels. I just listen. She now knows about my youngest cousins pregnancy. The one that was supposed to be a secret. I guess that one of my Uncle's ex's is friends with one of Mom's friends and blabbed it. She is pretty disappointed right now in many things, so I will continue to pray for strength and acceptance for her. Not much more that I can do from here.

Jo if you are interested in picking up the Rainbow Gallery freebie series again, I would like to start stitching them also. I would need a couple of weeks to get caught up to you though: ) Do you know how often they are being released? That way we could figure out some kind of a SAL schedule or night. Anyone else interested in doing this? It is a really cute book once the series is done. Each page is a letter of the alphabet which has a different type of specialty stitch that matches the letter of the alphabet. If you want to see a picture of the stitched model with some more info, click here.

I called yesterday to set up my next OB appointment and found out that my OB's last day was yesterday : ( I am seriously disappointed. He was a very nice guy and I was thinking ahead to the whole labor & delivery scene and loved the fact that he had small hands and fingers. So, I don't know who my new doctor is going to be but as DH said, "That's nice *sarcasm*...well at least it happened now and not further down the road." Too true, honey! Just hope that it isn't a revolving door at that hospital since it is my only choice here.

Peace

Happy 4th of July!

I hope that everyone is having a safe and happy holiday. Please take a minute and remember the people who have fought and are fighting for the rights that we enjoy every day.

Happy birthday to Kaitlyn...you were the cutest baby I have ever seen and I am so glad that I am related to you. I would post her picture here, but I respect her & her parent's privacy and don't know how they would feel about that.

Say a little prayer for my Granny. Grampy had to call 911 last night as she had a reaction in the middle of the night (she has been a diabetic for probably 40 years) and is having a bit of a heart issue. She should go home from the hospital tomorrow.

We are off to watch the fireworks tonight. I am going to try to take some pictures. I am thisclose to finishing my BOAF piece that I started the other day. Watch for a HD tomorrow!

Be safe everyone!
Peace

I think my DSL farted

I had a nice post all ready to be saved as a draft and once I hit "save as draft", I got the "page not found" so I hit my back button...no luck. That's island life for ya.

I tried to insert a picture from our webshots album into the top of the blog, but it didn't work. *sigh* eventually I will get it. Thanks for the comments about my "new" look ; )

I finished the first half of the alphabet on Enchanted Alphabet:
So I let myself start a new one, something small in honor of the holiday. It is "Pray For Peace" by Birds of a Feather. I think that it is appropriate. I think that it is a 28 ct. evenweave, ivory color and I am using DMC.
Good thing that I wasn't able to post my last post. I was venting on other military wives that disrespect their DH's, their Country and their DH's boss, the President by voicing their belligerent opinions about the state of the Union and the war in Iraq. And I am a Democrat. I am all for freedom of speech but as a military spouse, there are certain subjects where we should tread lightly.

Anyone stitching the freebies from Rainbow Gallery? I was thinking about doing them as a SAL...any takers? I am hoping to turn them into a book type of thing, they are really cute and introduce you to a new stitch with each letter of the alphabet. I have A-E printed out so far. I am not Mrs. Gottrocks so I can't afford (or really justify) laying out the moolah $$$ for the Rainbow Gallery fibers so I will be using DMC. Ooh, I was just there and saw that they now have the "F" chart up. Wonder if "F" stands for french knot? My arch nemesis...I'd prefer to do the Colonial knot but in the spirit of learning, I will do french knots if it calls for it. That was one of the first embroidery stitches I learned. That and the lazy daisy. Mom used to buy me pillowcases to embroider. I loved doing them!

I need to sell some stash. I want to sign up for the automatics from Elegant Stitch for the Esmeralda's Friends monthly series. It is for a good cause, breast cancer charities. Hmmm, wonder if it could be considered tax deductable? : ) That would be a way to get DH to let me do it. I just have a hard time spending, spending, spending when I am not working. I will have to put together a comprehensive listing. I have some in my photobucket account, but I need to take more pictures. If you go to photobucket, my name is curlystitcher.

Well, I have almost all of my chores done and it isn't even 10 am. One more load of towels to go and finish the dishes. I change our bed linens and towels every Monday, a habit I started once we got married. Helps me feel domestic. Gotta go put the linens out on the line, I don't hear the washer running anymore.

Peace

I have been inspired!

And it started with Jenn. She posted about changing the look of her blog. I have been reading the comments and have looked at a couple of sites. Then I go to Plush...WOWSERS!!! Love the flower at the top. So, I figured I would start small. See if I could handle a change at a time...I will work on changing the picture at the top later. I kinda like it for now. It looks like it is lonely and needs a hug.

I found this template at this website: Pannasmontata Templates

Now, I just need to figure out how to make all of the fonts non-bold. Especially on the sidebar.

Thank you, Jenn for inspiring me :)

Peace

So glad I stocked up

I am so thankful that I stocked up on solid colors of fabric before we moved out here! We had a Hancock Fabrics where we used to live and they had a big sale about 8 weeks before we moved. I remember going in there and piling up the bolts on the counter of all of these solid fabrics (and other colors) and telling them I would like 2 yards of each. I now have a use for them. Baby bedding! I have a quilt that I would like to make based on the picture below (sorry it is blurry, it is a picture of a picture in a book). I am also going to make the bumper for the crib using the same technique. With a twist. A bumper is basically 2 long pieces for the sides and 2 short pieces for the ends. I will split the long sides in 3 sections and the short sides into 2 sections. I will make it so that one section is the piecing like in the quilt and then the next section will be either a solid color chenille or a solid Minkee fabric and then the next section will be the piecing again, continuing to alternate. Anyone ever use Minkee? Should I use Minkee or Chenille? I have only seen Minkee in the Hancocks of Paducah catalog and on ebay. I might use a bias tape or a ribbon to seperate the sections...undecided on that so far.

These are the colors that I am going to use. The ones taped to the sheet are ones that I would like to order and the solids are from my stash. I still need to get a lime colored solid though. I am going to mix in solids with the prints to break it up a little bit. I am trying to not be over the top girly just because we don't want to know what gender the baby is. They say that bright colors stimulate a baby's eye and brain development more than neutral ones do.

I went on a spree at the thrift shop on base before we left Guam buying wool sweaters and felting them. I have made a bunch of these door hangers out of just 2 of the sweaters I got. This one is for Mom. I did it in just about 24 hours with copious slack time. I used DMC Perle Cotton in an off white or antique white for the embroidery and the blanket stitching on the edges. I used vintage buttons out of my Mason jars. I decided not to make the back too crazy and just put my initials and year on it.

I really miss the thrift shop. There were so many great bargains there. A lot of junk but one time I found a quilting kit that was from Joanne Fabrics. It was a block of the month kit and I got all 12 months and the setting kit for $5. I sold it on ebay for $74 without shipping! It had never been opened. Same deal with garage sales. The garage sale we went to here was nothing but overpriced junk. Seriously, $5 for a baby outfit that is nasty stained?! Guess that they wanted to keep it. My Grampy & I used to go garage saleing. A few summers ago when we were home, we went and I got 2 bags of bias tape and rickrack for $1. 90% of it was still brand new in the package. Loved it!

Can't believe that it is July 1 already!! Hope everyone has a safe weekend. Anyone have a 4 day weekend?

Talked to Dad & J a little while ago...they are ecstatic, they got their pillow in the mail. They might be coming out to visit us! Yay! I would love that. They were thinking about surprising me for my 30th birthday this spring, but it is kind of hard to arrange a surprise like that considering we are so far away. One of J's neices is pregnant as well. Then, I openend up an email from DH's Aunt, congratulating us and she tells us that her oldest daughter (DH's age) is pregnant again! This will be her 3rd baby. What a fertile time for people I know. The count is: 7 pregnant women (including me) that I am related to either directly (blood) or indirectly (marriage). WOW! J says she thinks it is the ozone since it can't be the water.

Peace

Back from Pissyville

Well, it is a good thing that I didn't post yesterday. I was rocking out in the tiny city of Pissyville. Population: Me. It wasn't like that all day...the morning started out well enough. A 6:15 am phone call from my Mom to get the day rolling. She had just received the grandparent pillow and is over the moon with joy. That gave me the warm fuzzies. It was a nice chat for the most part...until I found out that a couple of my cousins have also found themselves in the family way (about 6 weeks behind me), but they are in less than desirable circumstances and situations. In some twisted way, I still managed to find a little bit of jealousy hanging out and ran with it all the way to Pissyville. I prayed alot yesterday to work through this and have come to accept it. I have a great life. So what if my family is like 15,000 miles away and I won't get a baby shower? My life and my family is right here in Saipan. My Mother's nickname for me as a child was Pissy Missy. Coincidence, I think not.

As I was talking to my Mom, my Grampy called her and told her that they got my picture (their announcement) and Mom...who knows what she was thinking...says "Here, talk to Grampy". Now, I am on a landline talking to Mom on a landline. Grampy called her on her cell phone. It is virtually impossible to hold a conversation through a conventional sized phone handset to a midget palm sized cell phone to another person. I can just picture her holding the 2 phones together. I had to keep yelling to her that I couldn't hear anything. I ended up talking to Grampy later and got the, "I thought you said you NEVER wanted kids?!". Yeah, well I also said that I was NEVER getting married either. Ha! Guess I reserved the right to change my mind in plenty of time. Actually what I meant back then is that I NEVER want to have children that are obnoxious, misbehaved monsters with no morals, opinions or sense of responsibility. I can show you several examples in my family starting with the adults.

Mom started radiation. Every day for 20 minutes, weekends off. Until August 20 or something. They are radiating 9 spots. Plus according to her, they found a tiny spot on her liver on the CT scan so they are going to do a follow up in 3 months. God, let that not be cancer as well.

DMIL called me today...crying. I love her! She had just opened their pillow package and could hardly talk. She kept saying, "I'm so happy for you, you guys are going to make great parents". She was too cute. I wish DH would have been here to talk to her, but she will talk to him this weekend.

So, I am just waiting to hear from Dad & J.

Moving on....

This is a quilt that I sewed last year with the intention to send it to DMIL for Christmas. Well, the hand quilting wasn't done in time for it to be sent so I finished it, made the little pillow out of left overs and put it away for her birthday (next week). I was putting dishes away today and thought, "Holey moley...her birthday is next week...I gotta get that thing out of here!" It is the perfect size for one person as a couch quilt. Or a recliner quilt. The pillow is just decoration. I would say it is 5 feet by 4 feet or so. I think that I might make a childs quilt the same size.





The mail people have been good to me lately. Besides bringing me $ for stuff I am selling, I received the 2 books from paperbackswap.com and my latest ebay purchase, a hank of SSS Butterscotch. Nothing planned for the thread yet, I just couldn't pass it up. And it isn't varigated, yay! Oh, BTW, I finished the book "The Shop on Blossom Street" that I showed a couple of posts ago...what a great book!



This is the shawl that I have started to crochet. I call it "Chocolate Covered Cherries". It works up quickly when I actually sit down to work on it. It is out of the mystery yarn supply that Mom sent.




I did spend a little bit of time on Enchanted Alphabet last night. I am going to finish this part of the alphabet before I let myself do my July ornament SAL with the STO-er's.



We have decided that our big vacation this year will be only to Australia. We were going to go to New Zealand as well, but the places where we wanted to stay are already booked up. That's okay, it will be fun and I can't wait!

This weeks shocking shopping in Saipan moment:
We are going to make lasagna tonight or tomorrow so I went to Joeten to pick up some ricotta cheese. I also needed sour cream to have on hand for various cooking projects so I was standing there in front of the chilled stuff and there is a huge section of small sour cream containers next to the big ones. The little ones had a sign below them that said 50% off with arrows pointing up to them. Wanna know why? Because they expired on May 22, 2006!!! Gross gross gross! That is over a month ago and they are trying to sell them. We were warned about this when we got here so we ALWAYS check expiration dates on everything. I don't see how that can be legal, especilly since it is a perishable item. Blech!

Peace

P.S. Kim, we don't have the PnS here...least not that I have noticed. I was just going to make a cardboard template and use either a washable fabirc marker or a silver quilting pencil. Would either of those work for what I am trying to do? I have those in my stash.

Weekend Roundup

Kim is right, I have started a new quilt. Mom sent me a "kit" a few months ago (I think before we left Guam) and I decided that I am going to put it together. Basically it is just all of the fabric cut out. Here is what one of the blocks looks like. All the blocks are the same. I guess I like symmetry. I am thinking of drawing out a leaf shape, like a simple pointed oval and hand quilting it using that shape on the white squares with a little bit darker aqua thread. Is there a "best" hand quilting thread out there? I usually just order a spool of Guttermann from Hancock's of Paducah.



I am so craving a landjaeger...A really dry one. If you don't know what a landjaeger is, click here. Dad & J sent us a package of them last year and I took them out of the package and put them in the refrigerator in a brown paper bag...achieving the correct dryness in less than a week! I think that Landjaegers are a northern thing. Probably stemming from the immense amount of German & Swiss ancestry of where we are from. A vodka gimlet sounds pretty good as well. It has been forever since I have had one. DH will have a glass of wine with dinner some nights and he will pass the glass to me so I can "sniff" it. For whatever reason, his Cabernets, Merlots, et al have smelled so delicious to me lately. 6 months ago I wouldn't have drank them if the world went dry. Ahhh, a gimlet and a landjaeger.

This weekend was pretty uneventful. Did the usual stuff, got water, fought the crazies on Saturday buying groceries. I don't know why we go to the grocery store on Saturdays. Joeten always has a "Super Saturday" sale which is basically the same crap on "sale" every Saturday. Not like we go with a special list of "sale priced must-haves". I was really hungry for either Eggs Benedict or a waffle on Sunday so DH & I went to a local restaurant that seems to be a staple in the community. Before we came to Saipan, people on Guam said, "Oh, you have to go to (insert name of restaurant)." Honestly, I would give this place about 2 stars on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the best. We have been there 3 times and 2 of the 3 times they didn't refill our water (all DH will drink) until we were getting up to leave. I should have known better on Sunday though when we sat down and the lady asked what we would like to drink. I asked for a decaf coffee. Now, this place has some fancy schmancy espresso machines and seems to pride itself on an extensive coffee menu. Guess what she said? "Oh, I am sorry, we don't have decaf." Alrighty then. I guess I will just have cranberry juice. DH: water. At that point, I looked at the pathetic one page menu (half of said page was coffee drinks with decaf listed), the other half was about 8 breakfast entrees to chose from. No Eggs Benedict (fish benedict *gag*, yes) and no waffles to be found. I almost told DH, "leave $3 on the table for my juice and lets go". But, I decided to give it a chance. I settled on some crazy named blueberry pancakes.
It was not meant to be. Again, the waitress said, "Oh, I am sorry we don't have blueberry pancakes, we do have banana." Strike TWO sister! If I wanted a freaking banana pancake, I would have chopped a banana off my tree and whipped up some pancakes. Blueberries are expensive to buy, therefore I only eat the expensive to buy stuff when we go out to eat. I ended up with plain pancakes. :(

Saturday I made some homemade hamburger buns and DH grilled out some burgers. The buns were good, although a bit giant sized. It was my first time making them so I have some tinkering to do. I would rather make them than buy the ones in the store that have a million preservatives in them and God only knows how many roaches have crawled through the flour bins. I need to make some bread today. Nothing like homemade bread and it is so simple if you have this. I was lucky and DH bought me one for Christmas last year. It really isn't appropriate for whipping a meringue or some whipped cream, but for double batches of cookies and breads...this baby can't be beat! Every foodie needs one.

I finished my scarf. It is actually about 6 feet long. Used one skien of yarn. Now I started a shawl. I thought it would be good for the charity group that I am in...maybe one of the Moms watching her child go through chemo would enjoy it. Plus I get to use this yarn for something.



I want to figure out how to put little pictures in my sidebar of my WIP's and finishes. Anyone...anyone? Is it as simple as uploading to Photobucket, reducing size and copying the tag line into the sidebar code space? I am such a nerd that I made my buttons or blinkies "clickable" the other day. All except the flag. That one I couldn't decide on where to redirect it to.

Oh yeah, we sent the Granparent's Announcement pillows on Tuesday last week so hopefully they will have them by Wednesday or Thursday this week. I am so anxious to hear their reactions. Wheeeee!

Peace!

Yay! Fun Mail!

Ever since moving away from my family 3 years ago, mail has become a very fun time of the day for me. I do miss the home delivery we had in Louisiana and Guam, but at least we still get mail...most of it...the stuff that doesn't fall out of the Continental plane as it goes over the Pacific (I'm not kidding, it happened last year while we lived in Guam).

Yesterday I got some fun mail! I got my ebay wins, BOAF "A Very Fine Sampler" and Six Strand Sweets hanks in Organic Blueberry. I also got a few skiens of DMC metallics from a very nice stitcher on 123 as well as a baby stitching book that I want to stitch the pillow that says "Baby" from. And a couple of books from Paperbackswap.com . I love that book trading website. It is a pain at times because if something is mailed to me via Media Mail, it can take up to 8 weeks to get here and is kind of a hassle until you learn the system. I have received so many books from there all for the price of postage. If anyone reads this and wants to sign up, please use me as a reference... mhighfill@gmail.com . Once you post 9 books to swap, you instantly get 3 credits and I also get a credit. Love it!

Isn't this just a rough life? This is the baby, Bella. She likes to help me sew but it makes her sleepy after a while. Maybe it has something to do with the Pink Floyd I just downloaded that is playing. Nothing like "Comfortably Numb" to make you relax a little. I really wanted to get "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", that was the whole reason for logging onto the site today. Brought back memories of Dad & J and DH & I playing darts in Dad & J's bar downstairs last year. It was cute how they sang it to each other. Man, I miss them.



Okay, had to open up the Grateful Dead folder...got enough here to last the rest of the day. Back to sewing and singing along. If I hear "Shakedown Street" I will surely have to get up and dance like a true Deadhead. :)

Peace.

Lots of pictures

Yeah, I really haven't felt like blogging much lately. Haven't felt like doing much of anything honestly. It is so freaking hot here, all I want to do is lay in front of the fan with a glass of ice water.

Had my OB appointment Tuesday. There are 2 things that I have to say on this subject:

1. I miss home.
2. If the 9 am appointment is not the first appointment in the morning, then you can be sure that I will have the first appointment next time so that we don't sit there and wait for over an hour to talk to the doctor for 10 minutes.

He tried to hear the heartbeat with a doppler, but said that it is a tad bit too early...better around 14 weeks he said. I lost just over 1 kg, but that is okay. I get to go back in 4 weeks, yippee. He said that it was okay to fly to New Zealand later this year for our vacation.

On to other news, here are some pictures of things that I have finished:

Scarf crocheted with size H hook using unknown acrylic yarn Mom sent to me

Scarf started last night using Red Heart acrylic yarn Mom sent to me in color "Ocean", using size I hook. The color variation is so pretty in this one.

STO "Christmas in July" exchange:

4 My Boys design, turned into an envelope or a pocket for kleenex packs (looks strange because I have stuff inside of it).

Scissor fob is from HIH "Winter Fobs" stitched up in 1 day!

Crocheted dishcloth using Peaches & Creme color "Sea Mist" using size G hook (I think)

Update on Enchanted Alphabet

New start, "Twinkle, Twinkle" on PTP fabric

A sneak peek at a coming attraction:

The scarves are for a new group that I joined, CraftingForACause. It is a yahoo group that helps the UC Davis infusion center (pediatric) and the Pine Ridge Reservation. I wanted to find some way to donate my time and some use for the yarn that Mom has been sending me.

They take all kinds of donations as they are opening up a small store (they are non profit) and they also have craft bazaars that they participate in. There is also another charity they work with...the name escapes me but basically it is sending crafting supplies to young adults with developmental disabilities.

This weeks shocking shopping in Saipan moment:

We were at Joeten in Susupe and I saw bing cherries, a small package mind you, and I thought, "Mmmm...cherries. So they aren't Rainier, they would still be good." That is until I looked at the price...$11.99 per pound! Guess I won't be eating those anytime soon. We took a road trip out west last summer on our way to LA to drop off the car before flying to Guam. We were in Washington and found Rainier cherries for $2.50 per pound. I had to send Dad a postcard about it because he goes to the 320 store and buys them for $8-10 per pound when they are in season and just gorges himself silly on them. Hard to believe that was just one year ago.

I am so sick of our power going out. It went out 3 times yesterday, sometime after midnight...coming back on at 3 am, out again just before 1 pm, on again around 3 pm and then around 6 pm until about 7:30 pm. Grrr...it really gets old. We have a generator, but would rather use it for typhoons or long term power outages.

Lady doing what she does best:

Peace

I am so sick of blogger not putting photos in after I have uploaded them so I used my Photobucket account...sorry if they are huge but I have just spent 30 minutes resizing them and it still is wonky. I will work on it later. :)

10086 Sunset Boulevard

That is a house that I would love to have seen. Or at least the set. I was flipping through the channels and found "Sunset Boulevard" on AMC or something. Of course I had to watch it for the eleventyith time! So, there I sat, finishing the stitching for the backside of my scissor fob for the STO "Christmas in July" exchange, watching Norma Desmond make the complete transition to insanity. Strange thing is that I can totally see Gloria Swanson turn into this woman in real life. I believe that it did win an Academy Award but it didn't work to revive Ms. Swanson's career.


Stitching
I will assemble the fob tomorrow and post a picture. I used the HIH "Winter Fobs" chart and did the Christmas Tree one. I decided that the double Leviathan stitch is my new favorite specialty stitch. Replacing the Colonial knot. Our exchanges are a central exchange, meaning that we all mail to the same person every time and she mails out the items to everyone that participated. Works great! We never have anyone that is disappointed by not receiving anything. I think that I am going to make my "Bless Us" finish into a small envelope with a button on the back for stitching stuff and put the fob in it along with a dishcloth I am going to crochet. Thankfully the due date isn't until July 22, but I would like to get it all mailed out by next weekend. So, look for pics tomorrow.

Enchanted Alphabet: I will post an update tomorrow. I haven't been meeting my goal of one letter a day :( I got very discouraged when I had to frog a large portion of the "E" and restitch it. But, I plan on putting some serious time into it tonight.

Food:
Anyone else out there just love Paula Deen on the Food Network? I swear she doesn't have blood in her veins, she has butter instead. I love her accent! I was watching a little bit yesterday and DH (who never really paid much attention to her...he's an Alton Brown & Bobby Flay guy) actually watched her with me. And guess who I caught watching her this morning...DH! I was talking to Stels on the phone and he was watching her cook a cow, I swear that is how big the steak was. So tonight, we are having some kind of grilled dijon chicken breasts with Cornucopia salad and baked potato with Ring Tum Ditty (sounds funky but looks deeelish). Find the recipe here for the Baked Potato with Ring Tum Ditty. We are using less bacon and cheese and no butter. The picture looks kinda like vomit, but it looked really good on TV. Can you believe that Oscar Mayer thick cut bacon is over $10 here!?!? I wouldn't have if I hadn't seen it for myself. Come on 2008!

So, I am feeling parched and need a dose of sweet tea...I will catch up with y'all later.

Peace

Post with no specific title...

While perusing the online sites this AM (God, I love me some internets) I came across a few new fantastic designs and accessories:

Warm Water Wash by Raise the Roof Designs

Halloween Elf Fairy by Mirabilia (kit)

And these fantastic little scissors, Louis XVI from The French Needle

The Village of Hawk Run Hollow from Carriage House Samplings

The Village of Hawk Run Hollow is a companion piece to "Houses of Hawk Run Hollow" which I can happily say is tucked away in my stash binders. Hoping to someday (sooner rather than later) be brought to life by my needle and thread.

I love the verse of Houses of Hawk Run Hollow...

"When I am dead and in my grave, and all my bones are rotten, remember me when this you see lest I should be forgotten. Remember me as you pass by, as you are now so once was I, as I am now so must you be, prepare for death and follow me."

Charming, isn't it?

*******

I really wish that they were showing "An Inconvenient Truth" around here. Gah, now I guess we will just have to wait until it comes out on DVD. I have read some pretty great reviews about it and I do hope that it opens people's eyes a little bit. Want to know more? Go here. I was suprised this morning when I read Trent's blog that he had been to see it and found it interesting.

*******

Angelo, we thought it was nice meeting you last night. Thanks for your smart ass comments :) Imagine my suprise, meeting a fellow blogger on this tiny little piece of rock. Oh, by the way...I really don't eat bologna, it was the only lunchmeat I could remember the price of. We did buy a fresh Tuna about 2 months ago...DH cut it into steaks and grilled it. Barf barf barf (the pregnancy hormones talking). And, being treehuggers, we don't run our aircon. Well, okay, sometimes I do only in the bedroom when I am having a lazy movie Saturday. Seriously, we only use something like 500kWh per month. Thanks again for the tips on where to find Old Man by the Sea.

*******

Okay, I am off to read for a while. Thinking of starting "Angels and Demons" by Dan Brown next (he wrote "The DaVinci Code") once I am done with my current Monica Ferris book. She is such easy reading, I think I need something a little more brain bending.

Peace

Hoffman's Freebies

Get them quick...who knows when they will be pulled.

Hoffman's SOS Freebies

I like the LHN Summer House, Crescent Colours Liberty Ewe, and Country Cottage Needleworks Bloom.

Okay, off to finish my morning rounds. If you haven't had a chance to take a look at Summer's blog lately, I highly recommend it. She doesn't leave posts up long, but she has some truly gorgeous finishing that she has done lately not to mention the pretty tassels that she makes. Check it out.

I might update later...if you are lucky :)

Peace

Angel thoughts and Ebay

So, I have been thinking more about the angel for my Mom. I think that I will do "In The Arms of An Angel" (on the right) . I already have this chart, the threads and the fabric. All I will need to order is the beads and the braid. And I know that if I order them from Joanne at 123stitch, they will get here lickety split.

If I do that one for her, I probably won't feel like doing it again right away for myself so I have decided that I would like to do "Mother's Bliss" (on the left) for me. Looks fairly simple and I really think that I can get this one done.

As each day progresses, I think of more projects that I would like to start. I have been thinking more about Christmas presents for our parents also. I was thinking that I would just order them something online and have it shipped directly to them. I may still do that! It just seems impersonal. Oh well, I guess that is how it may have to be this year since we are so far away.



Ebay Update:

• I still have not heard from the person that won 2 of my auctions last week...I emailed the bidder again and asked what method of payment they were going to use and to let me know if they have already mailed their payment. Guess we will see.

• I am so excited that I won some "hanks" of Six Strand Sweets. I know, I don't like overdyed threads but Six Strand Sweets are an exception. Plus, I love to give them to other people in exchanges. I got 3 hanks (25 yards per hank) of "Organic Blueberry" (like GAST "Coneflower"). I think that this is the color that I am going to do my "Lord's Prayer" in by My Big Toe Designs. Probably on a white or ecru evenweave. I can't believe that I only am paying 10 cents a yard for this thread!!! And I love the fact that it is solid so that I can stitch in Continental style to my little heart's content. Now to find more time to stitch...which in actuality shouldn't be a problem since I don't work. I had purchased "Lord's Prayer" with the thought that I would stitch it for my Granny since she is the most appreciative recipient of my stitching next to my Aunt J. Guess we will see how ambitious I am.

• I have listed some more shirts. We buy these shirts at the factory stores. If you see one that you like, email me at mhighfill@gmail.com and I can see if we have it in a size that you need. I like to do this for a little extra money (and believe me I am not getting rich here). They have tons of stuff at these stores...Abercrombie, American Eagle Outfitters, Field Gear (Marshall Field's house brand), Hollister, Liz Lange Maternity... The Field Gear sweatshirts are fantastic! And they are a real bargain. They are thick like the Champion sweatshirts and sell in the stores for $28.50 (some of them had the MF store tag on it)...we can get them for a fraction of that price! My ebay listings are here.

Well, I need to go punch down my bread dough and get it rising again and then into the oven. Tonight DH & I are going to some function that he has to do for work. I just want to go out for some KFC!!! :)

Edit: I couldn't help but take advantage of showing off a cute kitty pic...as I was walking out to the kitchen, I saw the girls snoozing on the bed. They must've had a marathon grooming session together and got tired. Here they are...Killer Lily is on the left and Isabella is on the right. In all their glory:

Peace

Twinkle twinkle

So, I have decided on a "theme" for the baby's decorations & bedding. Now mind you, the nursery will be in the guest bedroom that will also have a full size bed in it. I will just turn the bed against the wall to make more room as the rooms are kinda small.

Here is the inspiration for the nursery decor, I think that it is kinda gender neutral...maybe a teensy bit girly but cute nonetheless. It is called Twinkle Twinkle and it is by Pickle Barrel Designs.






I think that I am going to stitch it on this fabric that Kim sent me in an exchange. I don't know the name of the color but it is by Picture this Plus and the background is sky blue with some purples and pinks mottled in it...soo much prettier in person than what I can describe here. Do I just rinse this fabric and then iron it before using it? Is it colorfast? I really like to wash / rinse my finished projects and then iron them on the backside to make the stitching stand up more but I don't want the dyes to bleed into the stitching.


Here is an update on my WIP, Enchanted Alphabet by Lavender & Lace. Doing it in regular DMC. My goal is to stitch one letter per day so it is going well. I am doing it on an ivory linen...28 or 32 ct, I can't remember...I keep telling myself to measure it but then I forget. (edit: it is 32 ct)
I was thinking today about doing a MLI angel for my Mom for her 50th birthday in February...anyone have any suggestions? I am going to start "In the Arms of an Angel" next after Enchanted Alphabet for me and then I will go to Mother's Tree. (since I don't have fabric for MT yet and I do for ITAOAA) I thought about doing "Angel of Healing" but the face on her looks so morbid. So then I thought of "Angel of Hope" since "Hope" is a big hot word for breast cancer awareness but personally, she is kinda ugly. Mom's not feeling so hot. She has to have more surgery to remove the little bit of tissue left on her rib cage and then go through radiation every day for 20 minutes a day for 6 weeks. Poor thing has been through alot with this already. I wish that MLI would design an angel for breast cancer awareness...I can just imagine how gorgeous she would be with her pinks and creams...maybe holding a trailing pink ribbon that seems to be caught on the wind so that it is in the shape of the pink ribbon symbol (loosely). Anyone know how I can get in contact with her to tell her my ideas? I looked on the tiag.com website but didn't see any specific email address for her.

Peace!

5 Things & stuff

I am tired and about to go to bed, but thought I would get out a quick post. Today I mailed off a TON of stuff! Lots of ebay winnings and other stuff I sold (Kim your package is on it's happy little way). Plus about 6 books for paperbakswap.com and my Dad's Father's Day present (a bottle of Saipan honey since he is a honey freak) and some American Eagle Outfitters tank tops for Mom.

I am a little disappointed in one of my ebay sales. There is one person that won 2 of the shirts I had up and hasn't contacted me or made payment. I have already sent an invoice so I sent a message through ebay today. As I was thinking about it today, I checked said bidders feedback :( This person has about 4 negatives or neutrals out of less than 60 for never responding or paying. Makes me mad. Shame on them for being irresponsible.

I worked on Enchanted Alphabet today and will post a WIP pic for you tomorrow. My goal is to stitch one letter a day and I am doing well so far! I started to re-read the Monica Ferris series, starting with Crewel World. A lady from paperbackswap.com sent me 4 in the series and I had only requested one so I felt pretty blessed! I have read probably 4 or so in the series but I decided that I want to read them in order so that I can see more of the character development with each book. I am a nerd, I know. :)

I saw this on Jo's blog so I thought I would do it and I will tag Kim and Jenn (I was starting to wonder about you, Jenn...going to go read your post next)

5 Things:

5 things in my fridge

Baby Carrots
Eggs
Butter (the real deal here)
Milk from New Zealand that doesn't have to be refrigerated until you open it!
Home made bread

5 items in my closet

Rollerblades that I haven't used in 6 years
Shoes
Purses
Winter Clothes being stored
Head board & foot board to the antique guest bed (it is getting too rickety to use so we thought we would store it there...isn't that where everyone stores theirs?)

5 items in my purse (handbag)

Rosary (and I am not Catholic)
Wallet
Gum
Listing of birthdays & anniversaries in monthly order (not that I pay attention to it)
Glasses case

5 items in my car

Lots of canvas shopping bags for groceries. (we are treehuggers afterall!)
A lug nut remover that is shaped like an X
An emergency kit (don't really know what is in it)
DH's Oakley bag for his broken shades
I am sure that on my side (read: passenger) that there is a used kleenex or errant piece of paper in the door pocket...otherwise our car is clean.

Well, that is all I have to say about that so I am going to bed.

Peace!

Attention: people of Saipan

Since we have only just moved here a couple of months ago, I have some questions. And I know that people from the CNMI look at this blog, I can see it in my tracker on the right. So please, if you are reading this and from the CNMI, take a minute to answer my questions if you can. Thanks so much!

Question 1:

How do we get to the Old Man by the Sea? Last weekend we went the way that we thought, up past Kingfisher Golf course and at the end of the road it curved right (DH said that the road continued into the people's yard ahead of us, but I don't think so) so we followed the curve and went down a long, rutted, washed out road. We ended up at what we think was Talofofo Beach. The picture below is from that beach (I have tons more but I am irritated with Blogger). Directions to Old Man by the Sea would be very appreciated!



Question 2:

If the bills in Legislation do not pass in regards to providing financial relief to the CNMI govermnment, how much are they likely to raise our energy rates? I was half listening to the news last week and I thought I heard them say that they may raise our power rates to 66 cents per kWh! Can this be true? I realize that we aren't sitting on any oil wells or a mound of coal but if they were to raise it that much, can you imagine what the crime rate will go to, not to mention the cost of groceries (which by the way is insane...seriously...a package of Oscar Mayer sliced Bologna for $6.50 at Joeten)? We figured out that we pay approximately 15 cents per kWh currently which is alot more than the 4 cents per kWh that we paid in Louisiana 1 year ago.

Question 3:

Do the gas prices here ever come down? We arrived on island at the beginning of April. Gas (regular) was $3.04/gal. Here we are at the beginning of June and it is $3.45/gal. I realize that the price of oil is somewhere around $72/barrel but man alive... Good thing this island is small.

Question 4:

Anyone know where I can buy a container of cat treats? Like Pounce or Deli Slices? We look at every store we go to and have gone to the pet store on Middle Road with no luck. Oh, and while we are on the subject of pets...where do they sell Eukanuba food?

Well, I think that is all of my questions for now. We really like living in Saipan even though it costs an arm and a leg. I guess it is a tradeoff for the natural beauty here. That and the everyday sunshine. Anyone who has ever considered coming to Saipan, I would highly recommend it! Hopefully it doesn't end up like Guam in about 20 years.

Off to stitch~

Peace!

They're finished but it is still too early!

I finally finished sewing the Grandparent's announcement pillows today. The trickiest part was fumbling around with the 3 inches of edge that needs to be closed up once they are stuffed. Anyone got any tips for making the stuffing more uniform? Mine is a bit lumpy ( I like a very full pillow ) so I just kinda mush it around on my lap with my palms for a while, but then it gets a little compressed. I sewed the bias tape edging on by hand since I have yet to master that on the machine. I even put the zipper foot on for the first time to try it out but the pillow wouldn't cooperate.


So, now they are done. My next appointment with the OB is June 20 and I am hoping that we can hear a heartbeat. I know that they won't do an Ultrasound then, so I am hoping for a doppler to hear the heartbeat. I will be 11 weeks along and if they do hear the heartbeat, the risk of miscarriage drops to 3%. At least that is what I read on a website. My risk of miscarriage is 29% due to my age...geesh...almost a 1 in 3 chance. :( So, that is why we are waiting to tell the parents. I want to be closer to 12 weeks. I figure that once we have the appointment, then I can send them that week and they will get them the following week. I am also thinking about taking a picture of me in a plain t-shirt and having my BF's DH doctor it so that the t-shirt reads "Due January 2007", then printing that out (on regular paper) and enclosing it with the pillow. I would print out an extra one so that I could send it to my grandparents as well since we really haven't thought of a creative way to tell them they will be great-grandparents again. I think that it would be different if this was their first great grandchild, but sadly my cousin that is 5 years older than me beat me by 14 years to the punch. Hard to believe that my Granny was 32 when she was a grandma and 52 when she was a great grandma.

Here is my current (most pressing WIP), Enchanted Alphabet by Lavender & Lace. I intend on making the child's hair more of a brown color than the blond that the model was stitched with. But, I have a long way to go before I get to the child! (I will have to try again later to upload this picture, blogger is a bugger)



Kim- Mother's Tree is by Lavender & Lace as well, I really like the heirloom quality of this design. I plan on stitching it like the model shown but may use a lighter fabric. Here is a picture of what the model looks like. Many stitchers suggest putting the chart, threads and a note on the back of the frame as well as having extra fabric at the bottom tucked up so that it can be added to in future generations. I may do that as well. I do admit though that charting out the names was a true PIA the first time I tried it, but this last time, I just kind of "winged" it and I think that it will be fine as long as I take my time.




Peace!