My Stitching Has Increased!

McGlasson Wedding

Hello Everyone!

I hope everyone is doing well. The doctor has managed to get m y joint pain under control, thankfully! I still have the bicep pain that I have had   since a  fall I took in mid-January. I spoke with my doctor again about the pain and she has scheduled an MRI for me tomorrow morning at seven in the morning. Since my joint pain is under control though, I can stitch without pain! :) Since stitching is my therapy, so to speak, there is no way I would have stopped it anyway, just slow it down. I have managed to do quite a bit of  stitching lately.

The picture in the top left corner is my wedding present to my cousin's son and his wife on their wedding day in June 2014. I'd say I am at least 90% done with it. What I have left is the last section at the bottom that is of blue ribbon and bells  and a couple of small flowers and the bottom border line. I also need to backstitch page two and fix the "A" in RANDY. It somehow came loose at the top.

Rose Bowl Start

Another project I have been stitching on is the Rose Bowl for my Daughter-in-Law. A stitching friend who lives in the Philippians sent this to me. My DIL loves roses and I thought it would be perfect for her. When I ordered the new piece of  fabric to restart "Life's Little Tangles", I ordered a piece of light pink laguna material called 'Angel's Blush' and am putting the red roses pattern on it. Before I restart "Life's Little Tangles" again I am going to grid the pattern 100%, not just a page at a time. I actually started working on the roses just about three days ago.

I have not stitched very much on the wolf in the past few weeks, though I did get a bit done. I cannot show you it though in case the recipient pulls up my blog.

I have some good news regarding my husband! Three years ago he had to have the lower part of his left leg amputated because of a diabetic ulcer. The prosthetic leg that was made for him was very painful, so he used it very minimally. Recently he decided to try and go through the Veterans Affairs hospital to see if they could help him with a prosthetic that would fit better. They have been working with him, and the last time he saw them, he tried on the leg they made and actually took a few steps...pain free. He goes again in a couple of days and if everything goes right, he may leave this time with a working leg.

Sarah and Chance

Sarah has been doing very well in her classes and is now CPR approved. She has been making top grades in her class. Needless to say, we are very proud of her. Her hours at her job have increased, which makes her happy. The picture to the left is Sarah and the young man she has been dating since early February. He is a very nice young man and has done Sarah a world of good.

My younger daughter, Rachel,is doing well too. She asked Christ into her heart and she is keeping busy with school.

This summer Rachel went to San Antonio, Texas with the church youth for a youth convention. She had a great deal of fun. She was gone an entire week. While she was gone, Jack and I went camping for a couple of nights. That was the first 'us' trip we have had since our Honeymoon in February 1988. We had a blast!

Saturday night Jack and I had a candlelight dinner while Rachel was at a friend's. We decided we are going to start doing that more often.

Happy Stitching everyone!

It Has Been a LONG time!

. Hello, Everyone!

It has been a VERY long time since I have updated my blog, and I apologize for that. I have at least three drafts on my blogger dashboard of here I started to update the blog and then things happened and I was unable to post it that day. (GRRR!) I may take bits of info out of those started blog posts and make this blog complete.

I do apologize for not being around  for the past few months except an occasional post on a couple of my groups. Lord willing, that will change. :-)

I was working on the HAED project, ("Life's Little Tangles") for the longest time, trying to repair that what started out as a small hole. It wasn't working (the hole was getting bigger and bigger) and I was getting very frustrated with it. I finally put it down before I cut the project to shreds, unsure what to do. I started stitching on a couple of other projects and framed some completions (pictures will follow). I thought  maybe I could do "Life's Little Tangles" over one. NOT!!! I couldn't see the squares properly to even put my guidelines correctly, so how would I see to stitch the project? I had figured out I had enough of the 25 ct material I'd purchased to do it over one if I did it over one  instead of over two, but it was giving me a headache. I had only completed three pages of the twenty-four page project. Cross stitching, for me, is fun and relaxing and trying to put in the guidelines for over one was anything but relaxing and fun!! It meant I had to order a new piece of material the proper size, so I did that a couple of days ago. It should arrive by next weekend.

When I ordered the new material for "Life's Little Tangles", I also order a light pink shade to put a pattern I have been wanting to do for my Daughter-in-Law that Dickey from ILCS gave me called "Roses in a Black/Gold Cup". That project model picture is to the right. My Daughter-in-Law has no idea I am going to do this for her. I know she loves roses, so I thought this would be the perfect project for her. Thank you, Dickey, for the RAK! :)

I have been meaning to frame a couple of projects I did a while ago, and with Jack's (thank you, Sweetheart) help that was done recently. The poodle I did shortly after our  beloved Petro passed away. This picture looked so much like him, I could not resist! I now have it sitting atop my china hutch.

We also finally framed the project I did for my step-son and his bride shortly after their marriage three years ago. I wanted to give it to them framed. (Pictured Left) I know especially the one I did for John and Denise is rather blurry, but I do not know how to fix that.

I also framed the completed "Zoo Babies" for my great-nephew. He will be two in December, but his mom has seen pictures of it and understands. (Thanks for your patience with me Danielle). I don't have a picture of it framed. :(
 
The two projects I have actually been stitching on lately is a wedding gift for my cousin's son, who is getting married summer of 2014 and a wolf for my daughter, Sarah's, boyfriend. What is pictured to the right here is the wedding gift with page one completed. I had started page two and probably had it 1/3 done. The part of page two I had completed was a row, all the wat accross of pink roses with green leaves. I realized as I put in the last couple of stitches of this section, I had put it over one square too far to the left, so it would not be centered (GRRR!)  I am sooo very glad I got the boo-boo brush and scissors and soft pick! It took me a good two days to get all of the roses section frogged, but I did it with no

harm to the material at all. I got those either for my birthday or with my birthday money. I have the roses about a third stitched again already. 

The wolf is a small project in comparison to the wedding project (8 1/4 x 11 1/2) and the roses
 (12 1/4 x 15.50). It is 7 x 7 1/4.

 Sarah's beau, Chance, is a very nice young man. Jack and I are very impressed by this hard working young man. This past week he repaired the walls of our shed. Two walls had gaping holes in them and needed replacing. He replaced all the walls so it would look uniform. and repaired the roof of the shed as well. The materials were not that much. He will put new doors on it soon. After that he will paint the whole thing. We also had a problem with the van this week and he helped Jack with that. What was wrong was the power steering pump went  out. Fortunately the van had just pulled in the driveway when that happened so everyone was safe.

Today, as the van arrived in Hoopeston to go to the Sweetcorn Festival the coolant hose went out. We had to have the car towed home. Being Labor Day, no one is open. Jack will fix  that tomorrow. Sarah and Chance had asked if they could take the van, since it gets better gas mileage than her pick-up.

I have been working steady at my self-employed house cleaning. I have gained a couple of clients, which is good, but what is even better I received a call from the printing company, at the end of last week, to which I'd turned my card into to get on the list of people who want to be printed on the paper place-mats that go to various restaurants in the area. As of yesterday, I am on the place-mat! Now, hopefully, my business will pick up even more clients!

Winan Baby Bib

Now to give you a summary of what I'd started to post earlier. I finished a baby bib for Wes's sister and gave it to her a week before her son was born in late May. I do not know why the picture of it is sideways here when on my pictures it shows from the top.

Sarah graduated from High School and Rachel was promoted to High School. School started for both of them last week. Sarah is at the Junior College, studying to be a CNA and Rachel is in ninth grade.

We planted several types of flowers this spring and a few small pine trees. The yard looked wonderful when everything was at its peak!

Sarah is showing her love for animals. A couple months ago, she told a woman who is having medical issues she would take care of her cat for her. The woman thought about it and had Sarah get the cat. The cat, who evidently was suppose to have an issue with men, doesn't anymore. Sarah has a couple of young men as friends, one of which is her boyfriend, and that cat jumps from lap to lap, purring the entire time. She also found a puppy in her neighborhood who was lost. She brought it in her house, bathed it, and looked at its tags, which had the owners number on it. Sarah kept it safe in her house until the owner returned home from work. She also has a dog of her own.

We has the largest snowfall in a single storm as Winter was arguing with Spring about what season it

should be. In a big snow storm for us we average four to five inches. We usually get one to two though. The final storm of the season, Lord willing, was a whopping twelve inches in twenty four hours! I felt sorry for Babee Gurl, she was in it up to her belly and she hates snow! The snow storm happened in late March. This picture is the view out our back door. Fortunately it was gone in three days. (Now summer and fall are having that argument).

Jack replaced the bearings on both sides of the car this spring. He had to borrow our next door neighbor's pulley to get the part off and on, but other than that he was able to do it by himself. It took him a good part of one day to do the first bearing but the second bearing, done the next day, didn't take near as long, probably because he knew the exact steps better. We also got new tires and the car aligned this spring.

Rachel played softball this summer. She played first base and did very well. We were very proud of her.

 

We had our cat, Rascal (AKA Stinker) neutered a month or so ago. He was one year in April and had been spraying everything! We took him to the low cost vet place in town and we were able to use some of my house cleaning earnings to take care of the cost. Rascal is the gray one, Boots is black and white. Boots is recovering from a sore of unknown origin.

 

Well, I believe I caught you all up on the happenings around here. Please let me know what you think of my projects or whatever else you feel like commenting on.

Stitching News and Other Stuff

Hello Everyone! Once again I took longer than I intended between updates but I believe I have made a decent amount of progress on "Life's Little Tangles". I apologize if the picture is a bit blurry, but I think you can see it better if you click on it to make it bigger. Not sure about that though. I am nearly done with page three. I'd guess I have somewhere between 625 and 650 to complete page three. I only have 14 more stitches wide to go, and from the bottom to where I started easing over on page four for the repair is about 5 squares of 100 stitches each. I feel pretty good about how its looking and I believe I'll be able to finish repairing the patched area without a problem. I think with me tackling that area from the bottom up it will work great. At least that is my hopes. My mom told me last week she and dad are amazed at my stitching. I didn't really respond to her at the time, but  am thankful they feel that way. I love stitching so very much and it relaxes me beyond belief!

I haven't touched the other project I am working on for a couple of months, even thou I'd say I am somewhere between 85 and 90% done. That is a bib I am doing for Wes's sister who is due to have a baby this spring. I guess I have been putting all of my efforts in the repair of "Life's Little Tangles" so that one just got put down. Maybe I'll start working on it again soon. I really did want to give it to Wes to give to her before the baby is born.

Sarah has put in some projects for request that she wants me to do for her house. There are a total of four; all of them with someone riding a horse: barrel racing, roping, and so forth. She said If I get all four pattens, she will stitch two of them. I taught her how to stitch several years ago. She does have several projects 'under her belt' completed, but has not stitched in a few years. I know she will do great on them. She absolutely loves horses!

I also taught Rachel to cross stitch a few years ago. She hasn't done near the number projects as her sister, but Rachel asked me last week if I had something she could stitch. I told her I had several kits, which meant it included everything she'd need. She looked through my kits and found one she liked. She became a bit frustrated trying to separate the threads out, similar colors and such, but I ended up helping her with that. She started on that project that night, but I don't think she has touched it since then. I am hesitant to ask, because I don't want her to feel nagged into stitching. Maybe now that Easter Break is here, she will take some time too stitch on it.

 This meat grinder is a gift we got Jack for Christmas. He is a very good cook! Jack is the kind of cook that can 'taste' how the meal will turn out in his head. He has been wanting one of these to make his own sausage and such. A few weeks ago he used this and made some boudin with chicken. That one he did follow the recipe in the Cajun Cookbook he has. I have not eaten much boudin over the years, but I'll have to admit this was very good! I am so lucky to have a wonderful cook as one of the many qualities of my husband! For Saint Patrick's Day he did make Corned Beef and Cabbage too. He didn't make a very big batch of it though because he knows that is not the girls and my favorite. I think one of my favorite things he makes is buttermilk biscuits and sausage gravy. He make a wonderful pizza as well!

I have been hitting the neighborhoods again because I have lost some house cleaning clients for various reasons. A couple people said they'd call me in what is this coming week. I sure hope they do because our car is having bearing problems. We need to figure out a way to get it fixed because it is getting to the point of unsafe to drive. Please pray that these new clients come through. Between yesterday and the day before that I probably handed out 200 fliers introducing myself. It is suppose to be warmer (a bit anyway) Saturday than it is today so will probably walk again then. I thought about walking today after completing my client this morning, but then realized the temperature was 31 and with the wind it
felt like 22. Too cold to go door to door. But spring is on its way. It snowed a bit last night, but by mid morning the only places there were snow was in the shady areas.

Back Yard

We are talking about putting on a Customer Appreciation Bar-Be-Que in May to show my customers how much we appreciate them. We are discussing inviting even the couple of clients who had to cancel because of circumstances beyond their control. We won't invite the two jerks that I ended up quitting. One I just could never please no matter how hard I tried and the other was coming on to me, which made me very uncomfortable.

Our last  'big' snow storm here was at the beginning of the month. In this storm Chicago got nearly a foot. We are 139 miles south of Chicago. We got 3.3 inches. The top picture was taken from inside my house during the storm. I was looking out the window on the back door. The picture below was taken from across the street from our home. The picture is our

Front yard and house

humble abode.

I introduced you to Babee-Gurl and Captain, our dogs last entry. Babee-Gurl hates the snow. She is our Boston Terrier. When she goes outside to do her 'business' she finds the spot with the least amount of snow possible.

She is actually very lucky to be alive. Last summer when we let her out to do her night-time 'business', she went a did a very goofy thing. She went and chased a car and ran into it and bounced off the car. We took her to the emergency vet and it turned out all that was broken on her was her pelvis. No surgery need. She stayed in the hospital two nights and then was able to come home. Now she has a weak bladder, so she needs to go in the middle of the night, but if we keep her in our room at bedtime, she will wake either Jack or me up. If we don't, it is possible that she did an oops in the kitchen or dining room.

Captain and Babee-Gurl both turned eight in December. Babee-Gurl was born in early December and Captain was born right before Christmas.

Captain is very loving yet protective. He will give you a kiss and come to you for hugs and petting but if he senses that someone is going to hurt his humans, watch out! We have discovered over the years to listen to Captains instincts about people. There was a couple of times we were talking with someone in the alley behind our home and we could tell he was not happy. We went ahead and looked up these people's names and discovered they were criminals!!

Fun and Crazy Month!

Hello, Everyone!

My daughter, Sarah, bought me a new phone! Thank you, Sarah! I love you! Sarah's phone stopped functioning correctly, so while she was waiting for her new phone to arrive, since her phone was still under warranty, I let her use my cell phone. A problem came up with my cell. Sarah took responsibility and replaced it. She got me a new phone, one with a camera, so now I can share all goings on with various things in and of my life! Maybe, this blog will become more interesting! That is my hope, anyway. I told you in my last blog about me getting several different stitching related items for my birthday. I received alot of then from my on-line birthday club I was a member of last year. Last year's club ended with my birthday. I chose not to rejoin the club this year, not because I did not want to, but because things are so tight financially, I did not want to be considered a tricky trader if I was unable to fulfill my end of the bargain. Other things I bought myself with some of the money my parents sent me for my birthday. Here are pictures of the stitching supplies and kits I received. I have misplaced the list of who gave me which item, sorry! What I bought myself, courtesy of Mom and Dad, I LOVE YOU, was the pressing cloth, the needle keepers, (one I am keeping beading needles in and the other my usual stitching needles), the orange highlighter, cross stitch gauge, cross stitch hole counter, soft touch thread pic, sea turtle magnetic needle minder, hummingbird fiber hider, split handle magnifying glass, a snag repair needle, scissor sheath, bird and flower magnetic bar, beading needles, round frogging box, traveling ort box, magnetic board w/ magnets and stand (showed w/ pattern sheet page 3 on it), pattern tamers, the magnifying glass cleaner and the box which I can place a picture, the soft pic and beading needles. With some of the money my parents sent I was also able to get a laptop computer.EVERYTHING ELSE – the kits, the pattern books, the needles the thread to do the pattern, “Footprints”, a gift certificate which I used yesterday to buy eighteen skeins of 3371, a color used a lot in “Life's Little Tangles”. I am on page three and just started working with my third skein, which is the last one I had here. Even if I don't use all eighteen on my project, 3371 is a popular enough color that I couldn't go wrong by having a bunch of it. I also received a tacky bob, some beads, material, material scissors with safety case, a counting pin, stitching tape, the blue highlighter, counting guide thread, bobbins, floss box, clear view stitch counter, a stitching gauge, a Lizzy Kate CD with several patterns, (no picture), a pattern from Little House Needleworks called”Bear Tree Forest” (no picture), more needles (no picture), frey check, the orange highlighter, the red and white washable lint roller, the boo boo brush and boo boo scissors. Evalina, for some unforeseen reason I did not open the bag all the way so I ended up not noticing everything you gave me until today! I feel like a dummy! If I actually missed listing something you all bought me, I apologize. I know I got pictures of everything, except what discovered today have been stitching on "Life's Little Tangles" every chance I get. I have about 75-80% of the patch covered. I know last blog update I said I wanted to wait on a picture to show you until the patch was completely covered. I have changed my mind. Part of the patch is in the upper left corner of page four of the project. I was getting a bit confused, so I decided to halt on the patch area for now and work on completing page three. I think once I complete page three that the upper left corner of page four will be easier to complete. I like the progress I have made on page three since I stopped focusing just on the patch area. What I may do, as far as completion of the patch area, is go down far enough on page three that I can tackle the area by going from a section below the patch and work my way toward what I have stitched. The area you see sticking out by itself of the light color is the beginning of tackling it that way. The red guide thread really does help a great deal on this project. Since I took the time to add the guide thread, it seems like I am moving faster on the project. I am till not as far as I wanted to be by this date in working this project, but I am trying to remember that I did lay it down for a bit because of the uncertainty of handling the hole and then the hole getting bigger and bigger. :( Then there was the fact that I had a good amount of work there for awhile, the holidays, and more!

 .We have two dogs and two cats. We can tell that our cat, Charlie, who disappeared in February of 2012, right after he turned This picture is of our youngest cat. I was gathering laundry to wash and he decided to play in the pile as it was being gathered. We went through a few names before we finally settled on Rascal he was born in April 2012 and we can tell Charlie is his father. We have seen Charlie around the neighborhood, but we cannot get him in the house anymore. That makes us sad, but at least we know he is alright. Charlie is the gray and white cat in picture of the two cats . He is with Boots, our other cat. Charlie and Boots had a neat relationship. I am uncertain how old Boots is. We got him from the Humane Society four, maybe five, years ago and he was an adult then. Charlie was born in my bedroom closet. His mother had come in our basement to get out of the winter weather and then couldn't get back out because she was near the date she would birth her kittens. When we found her, Sarah was on the back porch, heard a cat meowing and looked at Boots because he was there too. Boots mouth didn't move but Sarah heard another meow. She opened the basement door and there was this very pregnant female cat. We could tell she had come in the basement window to get out of the cold and snow. We decided to allow her to birth her kittens here. We discussed keeping her but getting rid of the kittens, once weened, but chose to keep one kitten instead because the momma cat would attack, with not being provoked,  would attack the other animals we owned. She had six kittens all together. They were all her coloring, except Charlie. Every other kitten was black and white. Charlie was the last one born. We gave all the kittens away when they were weened, except Charlie, and took the momma cat to the Animal Shelter. Boots allowed Charlie to nurse on him, and they cuddled often, but now  Charlie is having too much fun being an outdoor cat to come home!I,

 Sarah and a good friend of hers had been talking about splitting the cost of an apartment or house. They started looking around in December and started gathering the things they would need. In late January they signed a rental agreement on a two bedroom home not too far from our home. There were some issues right away, because the basement flooded, causing the heater to need repair and the landlord tried to say it was Sarah and her friend's responsibility. Sarah knew better. She asked her dad what to do. He told her to tell them she was going to get hold of an attorney and gave her the name of a firm. Sarah did that along with giving the landlord dates when things happened, on paper. Suddenly, the landlord took care of everything properly. Imagine that!!!

Jack and I celebrated our twenty fifth wedding anniversary on Valentines Day. First we went to Champaign and bought me a new dress to wear to dinner. He and the sales lady at JCPenny looked around and found a very nice dress. When we came back to Danville, we went home and Jack started getting ready for the evening and I went and got Rachel from school. When I got back with Rachel, Jack was rea dy for the most part. When he was completely ready, he and Rachel went and picked her up some Chinese food (she loves it) and rented a movie. Shortly after they returned I was ready to go. Jack got a big box he had hidden away and we took it to dinner with us. We went to Montana Mikes and both had salad, baked potatoes and steak. We also had a glass of wine, in the glasses Jack brought in that box – absolutely gorgeous – and then shared a dessert called a Rocky Mountain Mud Slide. It was delicious. We then went to the lake for an hour or so and reflected back on the last twenty-five years and necked. When we came home, Rachel was asleep and we ended up staying up til midnight, talking even more and cuddling.

The glasses Jack purchased are Champagne flute style. They are clear glass on top with silver stems and base. He had the store engrave entwined hears on them, inserting my name in one and his name in the other. He also had the date we married (2-14-88) and the twenty-five year date (2-14-13) and 25 years engraved. I had no idea he had done this but was very happy! I can honestly say I have been married to Jack for half my life – being that on my birthday in January I turned fifty – and I am very happy!!

Baybee Gurl and Capain are our dogs. Baybee Gurl is the Boston terrier and Captain is the Shar Pe. I downloaded a couple of pictures of them, but I will tell you more about them next time.Happy Stitching everyone!

Catching Up

Hello, Everyone!

I am so sorry for not updating in so long. I have had major computer issues as well as working like crazy! My desk top computer had become very slow and in mid-December decided it wasn't going to let me bring up my dashboard to update my blog, Facebook to say, "hello" to anyone or even my groups. Not that I spend near the time on my computer as my daughters do on theirs or even my husband does on his, but I was getting to the  point I was about ready to completely give up on computers all together!!

I have been working rather steadily in my  house cleaning business, I am happy to report. I have a few new clients. Most of my clients are once a month, but I have a few that are every other week and even some weekly. I am happy.  I was praying it would do what it is doing...give me the funds to take care of things like groceries with the economy taking the nose dive it has. I have also been working with my in-home care client..

In early December Nordic Needle featured me in their news letter. I was very proud of what they said.. Thank you, Dawn. or giving me this suggestion. If you wanted to take a peek at the article, you can see it by going to: http://tinyurl.com/bhje8rt

I have been working on "Life's Little Tangles" as much as I could. I have the first three rows (2,560 X's) completed as well as the narrow column going down on the left side (4 stitches wide) all the way to the bottom of the page. This would be because of each square on the graph of the pattern being ten wide by ten high. It is the stitches that would make the previous page the ten by ten. I have also completed some on row four.  I need to take a picture of this project to show you, but I was hoping to cover the hole repair completely before posting another picture. I am working on the patched area right now. The hole was originally small, but became larger, unfortunately, as I was trying to attach the material for the hole. I am having to stitch a bit of the upper left corner of page 4 to cover the hole completely.  Jack and I were talking that because of the hole and repair, I shouldn't enter this into the fair, like I was  originally thinking, but the project would still work for the house.

My Christmas didn't start off the best because my older daughter and I were arguing, however, when the argument was over, I had my daughter back! She finally told me some things she has been keeping inside her for over seven years. Now we are finally healing! I am so happy to have her back! Christmas ended up pretty well. None of us got a huge number of gifts, but Jack and I have always told the girls it isn't about the number of gifts you receive. Christmas is about Christ and His birth.


In December my younger daughter learned a valuable lesson about honesty. I am just praying the lesson sticks. For those of you wondering about Rachel's arm, all has healed.

Sarah, my older daughter, has now completed High School. She only had to attend the first semester this year because she had the proper number of credits and thus did not need to attend the second semester. The first semester ended last week. She and a girlfriend of hers are going to be renting a home not too far from here. They have been gathering the things needed to have your own place. Right now she only has a part-time job, but I am hoping that she lands a full-time one before the move is official. She plans on starting college in the fall, studying first to be a CNA and then a RN.

Wes got home on December 31. He is now looking for work as a mechanic. He is helping Sarah move furniture and so on into her house.

Jack has been talking with the people from Hovaround to see about some sort of scooter for him. He has a jazzy now, but it is really on loan, so he wants to get one of his own.

My birthday was very special to me. I turned 50. I was spoiled! My husband cooked me a wonderful breakfast. I got cake and ice cream in the afternoon, along with a small party. I ended up getting tons of cross stitching related supplies. I belonged to a cross stitching birthday club that actually ended with my birthday on January 1. My parents sent me some money and I ended up buying even more stitching supplies as well as a laptop  computer!
 
i did take a bad fall; Saturday afternoon and could barely move yesterday. Am still sore today, but not nearly as bad as yesterday.

Well, that gives you the highlights of the past several weeks. I hope to have the patch completely covered by my next post. Happy stitching, everyone!

Slow Stitching This Time, but Good News!

I am finally getting around to updating you on my stitching and other things going on. Once again I have fallen behind on this job! I do so intend to update every week, but a lot of things have been happening and I just didn't get to my blog. Honestly, this month, I have not spent much time on the computer at all.

I was working on "Life's Little Tangles" and everything had been going great on it. Then, on Election Day somehow a hole got into the material. I was  absolutely devastated when it happened and have been raking my brain with ways to fix the hole instead of having to scrap what I have stitched thus far. First I took it and a piece of the same kind of material and count to a friend who sews alterations to see if she could put a piece in the hole. She did, and it looked fine, but when I got to the area of the piece of material it started fraying badly. I went ahead and pulled out her patch and frogged some of what I had stitched and have made a patch that I am temporarily attaching with cross stitch needles and as I get to the area will remove the needles one by one. One needle atop, one on bottom and one on each side for a total of four needles. This was the progress before the hole happened. The hole is actually in the area of page four, but I am debating doing much more on page three unless I can make certain my patch job will work. I am doing this over two and I know the fabric I originally purchased had a four inch margin on all sides and that the width with page three done is almost 200 with the total width being 450, so if I had to I'm guessing I could scrap what I did and do the picture over one instead. The problem is I remember trying to start this over one and I was uncertain how it looked. Maybe that was just because I am new at HAED projects? I don't know. We'll have to see how this goes. I want to do this pattern so badly!!

Between when I was waiting for "Life's Little Tangles" back from Deena and stitching a bit on it, I started a baby bib for Wes's sister, Katie. I am working on the fifth animal right now. It is an elephant done in DMC 818. If I remember right, there are a total  of seven animals. Most of them are wearing diapers. I thought it was cute. I hope that she likes it. From what I understand she is due to have her baby this spring.

Good news on the work front! Which is a big reason why my progress is so small this month. But honestly, I am NOT complaining. We need me to work! I got a call a couple weeks ago from my in-home care client's husband. Remember, she went into the nursing home in mid=October due to severe weakness. Well, she came home the weekend before Thanksgiving! This means my four days on, four days off with her is back. Also this month on the house cleaning business front I have gained some more clients. I pray we can get the girls nice presents for Christmas!

Another bit of good news! Wes will be home before Christmas. Not sure the exact day, but know it will be before the holiday. He was originally hoping to be home for Thanksgiving, but that didn't work out.

A stitching friend, Mel, in Calgary Canada, has a giveaway going on right now.. You can see her blog and the details of the giveaway by going to: http://epicstitchin g.blogspot. com

Mel is one of the stitchers in a group I belong to that encouraged me to do the HAED pattern.

I was talking with one of my nieces out in California and asked her if she'd like me to do a cross stitch for her. She is a sophomore in High School and plays on the Varsity Basketball team. I told her I had a pattern of a cat with a basketball and wondered if she'd like me to do it for her. She said yes, then asked if I could make the cat the school colors. They are dark blue, light blue and white. I told her that would not be a problem, so now I have another project yet to do!

Rachel's arm has me worried. The doctor took the cast off and put a splint on. She goes back in mid December for a re-check, but her dad and I are worried that it just isn't healing. When she takes the splint off, which she is suppose to do, she complains of massive pain.

Everything and everyone else is doing great!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Once again, even though I have not been updating my blog (shame on me!) I have been stitching! The picture in the upper left I scanned in the middle of October. Cannot remember the exact date. The other picture of  "Life's Little Tangles" was scanned early yesterday evening. Then I began working on page three. The first column on page three is only three wide, as opposed to the usual ten. I am going to stitch that column completely from bottom to top and then work my way down from top to bottom on page three as I did on pages one and two. I am nearly done with that three wide column. I have figured out that when I do have that column done, I will have nearly three hundred stitches done on page three. I post a picture with page three on it next time.

I  also went ahead and finished the beading and French knots on "Zoo Babies". You may remember I started this one earlier this year to give to my niece for my Great Nephew, Caleb. I felt badly because the picture I did for his sister's room, a "Precious Moments" pattern, was quite a bit bigger, but my niece assures me that it is great and she loves it. Danielle had requested that I stitch a project with a giraffe in it for Caleb's room. I went through the books I had meant for young children and this was what I found.

I actually completed "Henry Basset" a few years ago. I did it because I love Basset Hounds. When I was growing up we had Basset Hounds and I loved them very much. Anabelle was the Basset we had when I was real young. She was a tri-color. When I was 6, she had a litter. We were allowed to sit quietly and watch the puppies being born. She had a total of 13. One did die, though all the others were fine. We kept one. A male that we named Dirkson. He was all yellow except for a small spot on his hip by his tail that was white. It was the shape of the Sun, so his AKC registered name was Sunshine. He crossed Rainbow Bridge when I was 13. A disc slipped in his back so my parents chose to put him down as opposed to having surgery because they were told it could very well happen again. Shortly after his death, my parents got another Basset hound. We named him Waldo. He was a tri-color of black, brown and white. He was the nephew of Dirkson. He passed away when he was eight. I do not remember why right now. That was the last dog my parents had. I think why I remember Dirkson's death so much better than Waldo's is that Dirkson died while I was visiting my Grandparents out of town and no one told me until I got home. When Waldo died, I was away at college, but my Mom called me to tell me. I have another Basset Hound pattern of a tri-color basset, the same colors as Anabelle and Waldo, and I think I will do it for my house, though not sure when.

I need to iron and frame "Henry Basset". I have decided I am going to give it to our vet this year as a Christmas present. It has been sitting in my "Done Stitching" pile and I keep talking about giving it to the vet. This year I am just going to! I have never given them a gift at Christmas, but I think a cross stitch of an animal might be a cute gift to them.

The next project pictured is also one I did a couple of years ago. I did it as what was meant to be a wedding gift for my step-son and daughter-in-law. They got married while they were here in Illinois. I honestly just got myself so busy I never ended up framing and mailing to them. My plan is to get it to them as a Christmas gift.

I made a pattern for Denise, my Daughter-in-Law, which she loved. It was of a bottle of wine, glass, and snacks on a table. I still plan on making her a pattern Dick from ILCS gave me of roses in a gold and black bowl. My problem, I guess, is that I don't know if I should put down "Life's Little Tangles" and stitch on some of these other projects, or should I just stitch "Life's Little Tangles" until it is done? Now that I think about it, I am going to have to put "Life's Little Tangles" down occasionally. I signed up for an ornament exchange in ILCS that is suppose to happen soon. I have not seen the list of whom I am assigned to swap ornaments with, but I think the list should be coming out soon. "Life's Little Tangles" is obviously going to take me several months to complete. Part of me is afraid if I put it down for too long, I wont get back to it, the other part of me keeps thinking about other projects I want to do. I have a baby bib that I want to stitch. Wes's sister is due to have her first baby in May, if I  remember right. I think I will work on that during the slow times when I am an Election Judge next Tuesday. Hopefully, we will be pretty steady, considering how important this election is, but we usually have lull periods, where we can do what we like as long as we do not leave our assigned precinct. I do not want to take "Life's Little Tangles" to the precinct. I'd rather have a smaller project with me. So maybe I'll take the baby bib and whatever ornament I am going to stitch. I have only done one ornament and that was in an exchange on this same group a couple of years ago. The recipient loved it. That made me feel good.


I have been working hard at trying to get more clients as a housekeeper. I told you that I have started trying to bring in extra money to help make ends meet. This is a copy of the flyer I keep on the computer. I go ahead and print up several and then cut the sheet in half so each sheet gives me two fliers. I then go around various neighborhoods and introduce myself. Most people have been very receptive. I do have a few more clients this month than I did before I started doing this. I am hoping to get even more though, because I did lose my in-home care client for awhile. She was becoming very weak, and so ended up going to the nursing home for a maximum of 100 days.

My daughter, Sarah, had her 18th birthday this month. It is so hard for her dad and I to believe that our oldest daughter is eighteen years old! She is a senior in high school. She will have enough credits to graduate at the end of the second quarter. She is wanting to take classes at the junior college after graduation, but because the semester will end in January this year instead of December, because school did not start until late August as opposed to mid-August, she won't be able to start classes at the college until the fall semester. The reason school started so late was because of construction on a school that neither of my girls attend, but is still in the district, so school was delayed for everyone! :( She still has the job at Subway and is hoping to either increase those hours or get a second job or maybe quit Subway after finding a full-time position somewhere. We are very proud of her. She is proving to be a very responsible young lady. She was our answer to prayer. We have had issues occasionally with her, but lets face it, who doesn't occasionally have issues with their parents?

Our younger daughter, Rachel had her fall concert at school last week. She has played the euphonium now for three years. We are hoping she continues it when she moves into high school next year and become a member of the marching band. We know that marching band members can get scholarships to college. Rachel has been on the high honor or honor roll every quarter she has been in school since kindergarten. It is really hard to believe that she will be a Freshman next year!

Jack's health has been good and he has been a wonderful support to me during my recent rough patch. The medicine the doctor put me  on seems to be helping a great deal. I am so lucky he is MY husband. He is definitely my better half! :)

I believe I have started losing weight again, which is not necessarily a bad thing. I had lost over 150 pounds and have basically stayed at that weight for almost two years. But, recently it seems like I am losing again. I still have about 50 pounds to lose before I would really be where the doctor wants me, according to his chart. The only place I really am carrying any weight now is my thighs, which is where I was the biggest when my weight was so high. The doctor also told me that he doubts that I really have 50 pounds  of fat because of my lose skin from my previous large weight loss. I do know I have stayed the same size for the last two years. If he is right and some of my weight is loose skin, I am either going to have to live with it or somehow work it off. I know there is the surgery to remove loose skin, but that isn't really an option for me because of the cost.

I am so glad that I watched the World Series this year and that the San Fransisco Giants were in it and won! I grew up a San Fransisco Giants fan and went to their games at Candlestick Park as a child. I remember my sister getting Willie Mays' autograph. I haven't watched much baseball as an adult, but I think I want to start watching again. I live a couple hours south of Chicago, so could see the Cubs. St. Louis is about 5 hours away, so could also see the Cardinals.

Well, I am going to sign off for now. I want to check my e-mails and I have some house chores to do, not to mention stitching I want to do!