Christmas Tree

We put up our Christmas Tree over the weekend. We were going to be busy for the next few weekends so I decided that we could go ahead and put it up. We go with the artificial trees. My old 5' one had pretty much bitten the dust last year. The cats liked to climb up in it and the limbs aren't meant to carry that much weight. We got a 9' tree this year. Yikes! Thank goodness for cathedral ceilings! I can't put the angel on top. LOL I need to figure out how I'm going to do that. (for you people that check out picture backgrounds, that's the tree box in the hall and the corner of Lady of the Flag behind the tree lol )

And I got myself a few peacock ornaments this year. Here's one that I think is really cute.

Pretty Peacocks

This was a quick stitch. About 3 days of stitching. Probably less if I hadn't been quite so distracted. It's Pretty Peacocks by Sallie Ann Designs. There are supposed to be beads in the tail but I'm leaving those out. I'm gonna use the band across a pillow. It's 27 ct. Natural Banding and I used 3 strands of...ummmm...it was a Thread Gatherer silk, but I can't remember which color it was.

Blogger

I love the new "Following" feature. That makes things soooo much easier! It's such a nifty little feature especially in the wake of Blogrolling apparently biting the dust.

Yesterday was Eva's 7th Birthday Party. She really had a lot of fun. A lot of kids showed up and and she got a lot of cute presents. I was a little worried whether or not she'd actually like the little purse I got her but turned out she really liked it. So Yay Me!

Now I need to start focusing on Christmas. I have the luxury of not having to worry about Thanksgiving. We're just a "show up" family LOL That's not true. I usually bring something, but it's not something that's usually a big deal to cook.

All Done

Finished the Twilight Saga. I read all 4 books in what? 2 weeks? LOL So they were pretty good. I really enjoyed the story. I found some aspects to be a little predictable, but maybe that's because I'm an adult and they were geared more towards teens. Not to give away anything but I kinda felt like the end left it open for another series to be created with 2 different main characters.

I got Sophia's RR in the mail yesterday for the band sampler RR. She's doing a TW theme. I'm gonna do the middle out of the Renaissance Bookmark. I've done that in the past when I was in a TWRR. It turns out beautiful.

Slow Day

Work is a little slow today. I'm feeling a little better. I knew it was going to be slow so I brought my active WIPs with me. I thought I'd share some pictures.

First...which really ought to be my priority...but I always seem to find something else to work on. Kaye's Mirabilia RR. That's Fairy Flora. Not too much left to do on it, but there are a ton of beads on there.

Next up is Violet from the Pixie Couture Collection. I have some negativity associated with this piece. If I finish it, it will be a miracle.

Something is going wrong with my camera and my fabric here. This is my start on "Something Wicked This Way Comes". The fabric is really dark brown. Not green. It's like dirt brown. In fact...it's from Silkweaver Secrets of Nature series called Earth. But it is heavily mottled as the picture indicates. I thought it was fitting for the pattern.

Finally I started the Sweetheart Tree Holly Fob, but I think I'll be using it for an ornament instead of a scissor fob.

Ink Circles Ornament

I have a terrible cold and an ear infection I'm pretty sure. However, I'm trying to tough it out and cut down on my antibiotic use. I'm doing a little better today than I was yesterday. I did finish up this little ornament this weekend. It's the Ink Circles 2006 Ornament. I'll send out the chart to whoever emails me (autumn dot crochet at gmail dot com) first. The fabric is 32 ct. Tobacco (I think) and the thread is Carrie's Creations Raven.

Peacock

I have a slight peacock obsession. Peacocks and Scissors. Those are my two "things". Generally I go for the graceful, elegant type peacock designs, but I ran across this kit on ebay and it made me smile. It only took about 2 days stitching. I used the thread from the kit, which wasn't DMC I don't think. It was actually a fairly nice thread. I wondered what it was but the instructions and everything was entirely in Russian so I don't know. I used 22 ct. hardanger fabric so it would be fairly small. It's about 3" by about 4".

Twilight

Well I read the first book in about a 24 hour time period. It's safe to say I'm addicted now LOL Dammit I hate when I get on bandwagons!

New Glasses

Eva failed her eye test at school so we made a trip to the eye doctor. Poor kid was fairly blind. Fortunately the doctor said that aside from having astigmatism, he felt like her other problems would eventually go away through further development of her eyesight. So we picked out glasses. She looks so adorable in them. They're black, but they have a thin purple line around the edge so it makes them look dark purple and the color is really flattering to her. Thankfully she really enjoys wearing them and loves all the compliments she gets on them.

Lauren of course had to get in on the picture taking. That child is a camera hog.

And just to make sure all is fair....here's a picture of Maria and I

I'm dealing with a personal difficulty, that I'd really rather not discuss, but it's a frustrating situation for me. I'm trying to bury myself in anything that might take my mind off of it. Any new books or movies I should watch? I still have so much stitching to get caught up on, but that's just not doing it for me right now.

Sweetheart Tree Round Robin

Ok, this was a round robin from a while back. I think it was stitched in 2006/2007, but since I actually finished it up in 2008 I thought I better put that date on it. Wouldn't want to cheat or anything like that LOL Sorry about the wrinkly fabric. I don't trust my iron right now. Until I get a new one there will be no ironing of stitching.

What Have I Been Up To?

In a word (or two) not much. I don't think I've finished anything since E. I've been working on Mirabilia's Violet pixie. I got a little burnt out on it though. I'm doing another round robin. Any designer band sampler this time. I got a pretty good start on it. Enough to send it out anyway. First mailing isn't until the 29th. I also started Beloved but I can't decide if I'm happy with it. I'm using one strand of Belle Soie Noir on PTP 36 ct. Fog. I'm debating whether or not I like the coverage.

E Happy Dance

Stitched on 28 ct. Bo Peep Pink Linen

Home

We're back. Our power came back on far earlier than expected. We theorize it's because we live almost across the street from the elementary school. We did all our grocery shopping in Mississippi so I think we're in pretty good shape. I shopped anticipating a hit from Ike as well. Very few perishibles and lots of comfort foods LOL Hubby registered us with FEMA while we were in Biloxi so if we need to leave again we can stay in an approved hotel for free or at a reduced rate or something. Here's a picture from our back yard...

Before

After

And my most favorite little hangout/restaurant/bar/boat launch...pretty much destroyed. The river is extremely high right now. I've never seen it so flooded.

evacuation

we lasted about 48 hrs with no power and hauled ass to biloxi. hubby and i have taken two trips to beau rivage casino this summer. he called yesterday morning to see if they were open and they were so he made reservations until sunday.

we fared well through the storm. no damage to our house or any other relative's house. the damage in the area is extensive. it was worse, far worse, for our area than katrina. whenever the electric company guy for our area comes on the new he says we need to expect weeks and not days in terms of being without power. that's highly distressing.

anyway we're all doing ok for now.

Gustav

Looks like Gustav is indeed gonna hit S. Louisiana directly. If anyone is curious Google Port Vincent, LA and that's pretty much where I live. We were advised to evacuate this morning via Community Alert, but we're staying here and my parents are staying here (and they have the RV...and the generator). I've been in my "Impending Crisis Mode" all week so I think we're pretty well set. We're well stocked in terms of food, batteries, water, etc. I'm not so concerned about the storm or flooding directly, mainly just being without power for an extended period of time. The representative of our electric company was on the news this morning and he said that we could possibly expect outages in terms of weeks. I was sitting there thinking "Don't say things like that you bastard!!" LOL Anyway, we did ok during Katrina and Rita, while I expect this to be worse, I'm sure we'll come through this one ok too. We'll likely lose power tonight or early in the morning so I'll check back in on the other side.

Oh and on a stitching note I started Eleanor or "E" from Letter's by Nora (aka Mirabilia) and I'm about half through already. Might be done before the hurricane is over!

Anagram Les Ciseaux

Another finish! I don't have the picture on this computer, but here's a link to the Mirabilia Board where I posted a pic last night.

Linky

And Here She Is

Watch this Space

I should have a Halloween Fairy HD soon...

Progress

Well, I stood in my stash closet for awhile and stared at everything. I shifted a few things around but it didn't necessarily get "cleaned". After much deliberation I pulled out my Mother's Tree. I got about 2 numbers of one date stitched and decided that was enough of that. No, not really, I got distracted by the stuff I always get distracted by...kids, housework, internet...