Not gonna lie.

I kinda hate July a little so far. It's the weather. Ugh.

Too hot and WAY too humid to do anything fun outside. Or anything outside really. (You could swim.......but I don't have a pool.) I've been reading a lot lately. Which is good for working through the stacks of books (both paper and digital) that I have. But man, I hate humid. It turns me into a whiny princess. :(

Way back a couple weeks ago, before the dew point parked it's ass in the 70-75 degree range and refused to budge, I did manage to finish a couple projects.

Cookie A - Jubilee pattern

Yay! Socks! Only my second pair this year. NUTS. I am seriously lacking in sockitude this year because of my tendonitis issues. They are..........a little weird? They look massively big but fit pretty okay. Probably too thick to wear with lace up shoes but, as luck would have it, I tend to wear clogs more often than not in the winter around the house. (I contemplated doing the smaller pattern size but the gauge was telling me they would have been too small then so I didn't even bother to try it.) Cheetos-colored socks aren't for everyone though, obviously, so these I'm definitely keeping for myself. :)

That's it for me with knitting though until the weather changes. I started a scarf but it's too too too sticky draping over your legs, etc. to work on it right now.

Also finished, little L*K strawberry sampler that's......also a little weird? I had almost none of the hand-dyed threads it called for and the DMC conversions provided were........less than stellar. I'm not 100% on some of the colors, as far as them all working together, but, you know - it is just a little sampler. No sense in driving yourself mad over it either.

Do you know how hard it is to find collectables that have LIGHT-colored Himalayans in them? IMPOSSIBLE. Everything is done up with the darker Seal and Chocolate point Himalayans.  *pout* 

So I was SUPER stoked to find this original watercolor on Etsy with a Blue point kitty, just like my Mooshie. OH HELLO, I MUST HAVE YOU.  (The seller is Amble and Sing. SUPER cute stuff!) It's just about the most perfect thing EVERrrrRRrrrrr. *ahem* I put one of his favorite 'glitter' balls he loved to fetch with  it and I just love it. Makes me smile every time I pass it in the hall. :)

I'm really over how quiet the house is too. I had tuna fish for lunch yesterday - alone.
By myself. Do you know how sad that is? No one cared. No one came to sit with me. No one begged for a treat. It tasted like salty tears and disappointment. 

To remedy that, expect a can of whoop ass to be unleashed around these parts around mid-August. Hopefully. *fingers crossed*

Picture Post!!

The past week+ has been sooooooooooo busy and I have lots of photos. :)

Working backwards.....

 I didn't get this done for the 4th - I finished it up last night, if I want to be honest with y'all. 

I didn't have any 40ct. linen on hand to finish this kit as a 'box' finish but I wanted to stitch it NOW (I'm not one for waiting) so I figured it would be easy enough to stitch it twice. I'll just whip it up again for the box once I have the right linen, right?! 

Stuffing a star shape is...............interesting. If  'difficult' and 'annoying' is interesting to you. Probably should have thought that one out a little more before I settled on a star shaped pillow. lol So it's a little lumpy in areas and the chenille trim hides some of the evenness of the points, but it's DONE so I'm happy. :) 

No changes to it other than adding in the 2012 over one near the flag.

Walking along the path that runs right along the coast line in Narragansett, Rhode Island on the 4th. My mother lives about a 1/4 mile away so I got to take a nice long walk and soak up some ocean winds and smells. (I'm not one for beach lounging. Sand. No.)Very nice!! If I lived there I don't think I would be able to stop myself from taking hours and hours long walks every day.

 

I, admittedly, hate gardening but I know how to grow these. One of my favorite flowers. My blue ones are doing great but my purple ones? Not so much this year. :(

No cuttings from those because there is nothing to cut. *sad*

 Road trip to northern Massachusetts where I couldn't help but swing by WEBS (America's Largest Yarn Store!). I had a gift certificate from Christmas that I've been hoarding, waiting to spend it person vs. online so I could pet everything first before buying. Can't do THAT when shopping online. lol

Also part of the road trip: a stop by Yankee Candle's flagship store. You can lost in there for hours, it's so so so so so big. Like a whole village of shops under one roof! They had tons of clearance tables out and you won't get me to admit (in public or otherwise) how much I spent. Nope! I'll take that one to my grave, or at least I will when I can destroy any evidence of the bank statement once it comes in. lol (I should probably note that at least I don't use credit cards. I take my financial lumps up front, thankyouverymuch. Credit cards are too easy to use.........and scary. lol)

Not pictured: 

2hr. 'road trip' to movie theater to see movie - only we bought the tickets for the wrong theater for the wrong time, oh, and we would have been late anyway because we got stuck in a hailstorm on the way, so the movie was not to be. *sniff*

Tried again a couple days and managed it much better. Prometheus. Good. Creepy. If they don't make a sequel I will punch someone (I DON'T KNOW WHO YET BUT I'M LOOKING AT YOU, LINDELOF) because that's just cruel to end things like that. *stare*

Lots and lots of knitting after logging lots and lots of time in the car. Almost done with my Dragonflies. 

All caught up now! Whew!!!!! Summer's going by fast, isn't it????? :)

Weeeeeeeeeeee!

 Lots of new adventures this past week in the form of: BICYCLING.

The husband recently got one to use on the hiking trails in the woods down the road from the house and then he talked me into getting one too. (With CONDITIONS. Like: bike paths only, no woods, no roads, etc. I'm a diva like that. :))

Mind you, I haven't been on a bike in OVER TWENTY YEARS so this past week was *quite* the hoot. You don't TOTALLY forget how to ride one. You basically remember enough not to fall off it - while looking/feeling like a complete moron for awhile until it fully comes back. There was bunch of pushing around with one foot like a scooter until my brain kinda connected with the fact that you have to, you know, PEDAL. Hahaha! We've gone out a few times and it gets easier, as far as handling, each time. (Because physically? Exhausting. And I've been REALLY good about getting in my exercise 5-6 days a week this year so that doesn't seem fair. *pout* I feel like I should be in better shape?) This week has been nothing but rain but hopefully the weekend will allow for a couple more 'sessions'. :)

In other news, Shepherd's Bush was really great about sending me some more chenille trim to finish my pillow. While waiting, I stitched her face again, this time with random Crescent Color floss in a Xmas theme. I think it will make for a cute ornament finish. (Carrot nose has been ordered.)

 It fully hit me that I have a STAGGERING amount of smalls to deal with now (to me) when I went to store that pillow until holiday time so I buckled down this week to at least get my Halloween designs finished.

Turns out if you do one each day it's not super overwhelming. I would cut/pin them while waiting for my kiln to heat before working, do the sewing after I was finished work, and then stuff/close up at night while watching tv.

 It feels good to get these 'done done' now so I can use them this fall. I have four times as many Xmas ones to finish though so....................hold me. The end is no where in sight. lol

New new new.

Firstly, I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day. :)

I'm not a mother but I didn't want to feel left out so I made myself a nice home-cooked 'mother's day breakfast'. lol (It was YUMMY too!) And then I was busy for the rest of the afternoon doing lots and lots of housework and food shopping. Hmph. (That part wasn't as fun.) The weather was just PERFECT perfect perfect though and I did manage to enjoy a bit of it out on the deck, doing my nails and chillaxing with a book.

I also finished a new stitchy!

This was the Shepherd's Bush kit that came out a couple months ago. Quick stitch and even quicker to finish. I went digging in my fabric stash and, shockingly, found something that closely matched the chenille trim that came with the kit. (Shocking because I don't have too many fabrics in the purple-mauve-plum tones in my stash.)

Not too cool? The chenille trim didn't fit the piece. 

!@#$!@#!@#$!@#!@#!@#

Disappointing because the kit instructions call for cutting the square to 8 inches and I actually cut it to 6 - so by my reasoning I should have had EXTRA trim, not fallen an inch short of it. Grrrr.

The gap is on the bottom so it's not really noticeable but it's going to bother me knowing...it's...there...mocking....me. I'm going to email them and see if they can send me out another piece. If they don't have any extras, I'll hit up the lovely Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe for some other chenille trim. I'll get 'er done one way or the other. :)

Also new, some new beads are up on the shoppe pages and Etsy:

(Plus others.)

I also spent a little time redoing the front page of my web site. Always good to spruce things up once and again. I get bored with it so I have to think OTHER people get bored with it too. lol

There's more work to be done to it, I think, but I'm done with it for the moment while I think on it. I'm no pro when it comes to html and style sheets and blah blah blah geekspeak so I have to move carefully and slowly and to get where I want to go and my brain is melted after this first go round.

Happy May Day!

 In my usual scan of various news sites and blogs this morning,  I've already come across that May is the National Burger Month, National Mental Health Awareness Month and National Masturbation Month. Sooo..........yeah. Busy month, it seems! (One of those came from Bobby Flay's twitter feed............I'll leave it to you to guess which one it was. lol)

Things have been busy busy the last week! Not much time for projects and that sort of thing I'm afraid. I did manage to grab The Most Awesomest Sneakers in the world though. I'll show them to you but, first, put on a pair of sunglasses.............ready?..................

Oh yeah, baby! 

The color isn't *quite* right there though...........

Yep. That's more like it. 

If you think I don't plan on wearing these with my equally-eye-searing neon orange capri jogging pants..........YOU WOULD BE WRONG. (That's me - standing up for the unloved colors with PRIDE.) They are light as a feather - literally. Just 7.6 ounces! I've already put about 12-15 miles on them and it's two thumbs up all the way. Sorry to be so EXCITED but I literally can't remember the last time I had a pair of 'regular' sneakers. Ages and ages and AGES. I usually go more for the hiking/trail type shoe or sandal. Plan on wearing them out with the walking. Zoom, zoom, zoom!

Got those when I was SUPPOSED to be shopping for wedding clothes. My bad. Easily distracted shopper here. *waves arms* Did manage to get an outfit though and be properly dressed in the end. 

The wedding was in Boston, which was a treat as I haven't been to that city in yearsssssssss. Easily over a decade! The ceremony was at the Public Gardens by the Swan Boats which was pretty but, New England being New England, the weather wasn't ENTIRELY cooperative. (It was about 50 degrees and SUPER windy. Brrrr!) Strangely enough, I have *ANOTHER* thing to go to this week in Boston as well. Funny how that works! Haven't been there in ages and now I'm going twice in one week! 

 I managed to score three tickets for a Red Sox game this week so we have that on Friday. FUN! I've been to a ton of 'farm team' games (grew up within a stone's throw of McCoy stadium) but I've never been to FENWAY. I don't actually watch baseball or, uhhhhh, know any players names or anything but I always LOVE going to see something live regardless. I'm weird like that. There's something about the 'realness' of it that I find  immensely entertaining, while on tv it just bores me to death. lol 

HUGE THANKS to Carol and Lori for the gifties that I received from them in the last week!!!!

 I won this adorable little bunny chart from Carol..........

And the yarn was a wonderful surprise from Lori. (Which I immediately caked up and started working on, as you can see.)

THANK YOU BOTH and *MWAH*

Glad to see...

I'm not the only one hating on Blogger this week and the new word verification craptcha thingy-majiggy. Bleh. :(

Sore subject..................moving on...............

Well, it was a busy week trying to catch up on things and get back to normal after being so hurl-a-licious last weekend but I managed to finish up two more WIP's while catching up on TiVo stuff at night.

 Death by Candy Corn by Scarlett House.

I had started this one last fall when the pattern was released but those 'over one' candy corns threw me off and I put it aside after doing just one. Bad me. (I didn't like the 'half' stitch the pattern had for them, at least not on this linen, so I changed it to a full stitch, thereby increasing the work for them.) I can never, ever decide what color order I like the candy stripes to be so I switched them back and forth here to keep me happy. The glass candy corns I do are the same. Sometimes I like orange in the middle better, sometimes the yellow...........I've been making them for 10 years now and I *STILL* can't decide on the color order! lol

 This one is by The Trilogy, yes?

I did this pattern a couple years ago as part of an exchange, let me see I'm sure I have a picture here on Blogger for it deeeeeeeeeep in the blog innards........

Oh yes, here it is. But I always wanted to do it again for myself so now I have. Just took me a loooooooooooooooong time to get to it. :)

So yayyyyy for working through the WIP-bag! Very happy about this. All I have left now, WIP-wise, are three pieces................but they are all really big and involved so I don't expect I will finish them whiz-bang-like. I might need to..........mmm...........start a little something to keep me interested in the meantime. Just something small. Teeny tiny. Just one. (I can feel the WIP bag growing again as we speak! *sigh*) And I obviously have a lot of 'finishing' to do with all these new pieces but that will have to wait for the moment. My sewing table (if it's big enough to call it that) is a shambles at the moment and I don't have the heart to tackle it just yet. *ahem*

You know what February is?

It's the start of the Cookie A Sock Club!

Yes I joined again. I am weak and I REALLY liked the club last year. All of the yarns (6) and patterns (12) were pretty fabulous so I figured just one more year with it wouldn't hurt. 

 The first shipment is this luscious CASHMERE yarn. OMG SOFT! The only bad thing about it is that my camera is REFUSING to photo it properly. (And you can forget about *me* having the skills to do it on my own. Oh no, not happening! Point and click is my nickname. lol) It's a medium cranberry/magenta tone - none of this tomato red business showing up on my computer. Grrr! But I can forgive it, of course, because it's CASHMERE. :)

Okay, I'm tired of waiting around this afternoon for it to stop raining in Florida so I can watch the Daytona 500 so I'm outta here. (I was only half interested in it to begin with and the window has now closed and I'm over it. Going for a walk instead!)

Yay!

 I got the tree up this year before Christmas Eve! A WEEK AND HALF before Christmas Eve, to be exact. I'm so proud of myself. *pats self* 

I'm not going to bother to try and take a 'picturesque' photo of it though because it's impossible. Large sunny window + killer huge tv that can be seen from space on one side = no good angles for proper photo taking. Plus, I'm not dedicated enough to have a theme tree so I'm not sure how photo worthy it is anyway. I pick up a few ornaments every year to add to the mess, take out a few as the years go on...........it's a mix of everything and nothing but I wouldn't have it any other way. lol

Here a few new ones for this year:

How cute is this? I got this off of an Etsy seller. Looks just like the  hubby in his moon suit bee keeper suit! Super adorbs!

Simple ones from Target but I love their knitty-ness. They look/feel like they were fashioned out of old Fair Isle sweaters or something. Now THAT I can get behind.

And here are my kitties, in clay form. Robyn did a post last week showcasing a whole bunch of crafty kitty ornaments made for her by people and it made me pouty not to have any crafty kitties too so I found a bunch on Etsy and................good god I don't have $15 each to spend on crafty kitties on Etsy! They are lovely but no. Sorry. I'll have to plan for that during the year, one at a time. So when I was at Michael's last week for something else, I hit up the clay aisle and got some supplies to make up my own gang of kitties. For less than $15, I made up a Meisha, Mooshie, and Maggie kitty plus something else that can't be shown because it's a gift. :)

Meisha says: Uhhhh, like, my nose isn't pink though? 

Me: Sorry, bbs. I didn't buy any black so pink had to do. 

Meisha: Pfffftt!

Of course, now I have all this leftover clay because I only used up the ivory pack. What to do with it?!? lol My 'career' as a clay artist (sooooooooooooo kidding!!!) was short-lived because rolling out the clay balls DECIMATED my hands. My middle knuckle, palm side, was inflamed and owie for two days afterwards. No more clay crafts for me. It's now DAYS later and my inner palms, where the joints are, are STILL a little hurty if I press on it. :(

It's always fun to bring on the cross-stitch ornaments too, here are two are my favs, a JCS ornie and a L*K one:

I have so so so so many less than I would like to have though. I totally, miserably, horrendously FAILED on that front this year. Need to rethink crafty goals for next year. Hmm.........

And finally, look at this super great birthday gift that Cookie A. sent me. A loverly skein of cashmere infused yarn and an organic cotton sock drawstring bag. So very very thoughtful of her to think me of like that when she's so busy flitting around the world doing super-important knitting things and..............OK so this is really just the last installment of the 2011 Sock Club......that was sent out to hundreds of people, not just me. A girl can have her delusions, right? :)

Halloweenie Stitchies!

...ignoring the fact that I was too busy to notice it's been over a week since I last posted.........*cough*

The fall leaves are terrible this year - truly terrible. They just dry up, turn brown, and fall. Not a single tree here has a color other than "hello, I'm dead-deady-dead" brown. It's kinda sad actually. (Is this because of the late summer storms and flood of rain? I have no idea, to be honest.) Oh well. There is always next year, right? 

Mmmmm! APPLES.

 One thing that is not terrible are the apple trees. They got hit hard by Irene, of course, but there are still plenty of apples for the picking. 

I love this place we go to nearby in Pomfret because the trees are short enough to walk up to and pick apples. (The places we always went to when I was a kid required some sort of long stick with a can/catch basket/clawed hand type of contraption for picking. It took coordination and patience, man!) We over-picked for 2 people - as usual. Twenty+ pounds! Might not sound like a lot to some but I, uhhhh, don't really bake. Cook, yes - practically every day of the week. Bake? Not so much with that. I think it was probably sometime around 2009 the last time I made a batch of cookies. I can usually put together a fairly decent apple crisp or dutch apple pie (provided I BUY pre-made crust, of course) so I just need to get around to doing that. I've been eating 2 apples a day since we went picking and I *might* just run of apples though before I actually get around to baking any. *snort*

Did anybody else fall under the spell of this booklet that was released last month?

Well, looky that! I guess I did because I managed to start AND finish a few projects from it within the last few weeks.  Gotta love a pattern that only calls for 4 different colors to work all of the projects. They just whip up lickety-split that way!

My first attempt at the Halloween piece though was...............not good. I had in mind to use some zig-zag trim I bought to use on my Death by Candy piece, as a sort of 'practice session' for figuring it out. (I am good at some things but straight up sewing is NOT one of them.)

Hmm. FAIL.

I basted the zig-zag down first so it wouldn't move around when sewing it to the rest of the place and.........it still did that. Some zig-zag areas were higher than others and the corners were so bunchy and icky it was painful. Back to the drawing board with this idea, I guess. I might have to shoot an email to Vonda to get some tips on this kind of finish. At least I was able to salvage the stitching part with some careful ripping and have enough to sew it into a tiny needle minder. So all was not lost. WHEW. :)

Deep breath.

Definitely been a trying week, you know? But I felt much better today so moving on..

 I went back to the project that I tried to start on Thursday, gotta get back on that horse you know......

Oh............my......

Yes the project that started all this was Death. Black Death to be exact. How prophetic. Or ironic. Or........something. 

It's Death by Candy Corn and why didn't I notice those cutie candy corns were over one before I started this? Holy lot-of-teeny-tiny-stitching-for-one-stinking-corn Batman! To be fair, the pattern calls for a half stitch for these but I couldn't see the damn thread when I did it that way so a full cross stitch it is. Oh hello, instant doubling of the time/stitches. *mwah*

I finished my-not-quite-August/not-quite-September pair of socks a couple days ago and aren't these the most ridiculous pair of socks you've ever seen:

Yep. Candy corn socks. 

I'm totally going to wear them with some Mary Jane-style shoes too and not care one bit how many crazy looks it gets me. So there.

I will be offline tomorrow because, quite honestly, I just can't handle the 9/11 coverage. Just a handful of it on the tv or whatever and I start to feel panicky and overwhelmed by it like it's happening all over again, even to this day. :(