Stitch-Along With Me!

I'd like to start a stitch-along. Nothing formal, since this is the first SAL that I have started and I'm not familiar with the rules of this. It will be a Tombstone SAL. Any tombstone design of your choice, by any designer. I have started on Carriage House Samplings "Susanna Goose" and I need some motivation and companionship to help me get it finished. I will display my progress here on Fridays and hope you will do the same on your blog. Leave a comment to let me know if you are interested joining this SAL.

More photos to post, but again I don't want to "upset" the computer, so I'll wait next time.

Liberated!

After some juggling of photos and files I am finally able to show a few recent snaps from my trip to New Jersey last week. Made a little tourist stop last Wednesday with my brother and his family to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. I hadn't been there in over 30 years! My niece and nephew had never been there and they only live about 25 miles away from Liberty National Park. Thanks to my cousin's partner Linda who works as a Park Services Director at Ellis Island, our group was given VIP treatment. We had our own personal Park Ranger guide, Dalia, who got us to the front of every line and speeded us through the lengthy security process. The lines to get on to the ferries and then to get through security at Lady Liberty were 2+ hours for everyone else. I'd always been the one to give VIPs the dirty look and now I was one of them! We also got the 40% employee discount on all our food and souvenirs.

Worked a little on my niece's dollhouse; the one I got her last Christmas. It hadn't progressed much since then and I think I rekindled her interest in dollhouses and miniatures.
I lounged around at the community pool with my dad. I even got my "feline fix" from my brother's cat, Mel.

When I returned last Thursday there were plenty of fresh veggies waiting to be canned-up as salsa. Joe and all the animals were fine. I missed them so much while I was gone. Now I miss my parents. It's such a vicious circle. I've been running on this wheel for over twenty years and I still can't seem to resolve my guilt at being in one place and not the other. If I could just situate the big white house next to the old yellow house things would be perfect.

Lots of stitching of various types and styles going on, but pics of those will have to wait. As I work my way through the tons of photos I've been hoarding up I'll be able to post a few more each day. I don't want to awaken the "Computer Troll" that seems to allow me to make only certain moves with certain files for certain amounts of time each day. Even though I am tempted to add about 20 more photo here, I'll be conservative, lest the whole thing come crashing down.

Some Pretty Fashion Ladies

Here are some lovelies that uploaded just fine. I think I've figured out the bug in this computer. It now hates my Kodak program and will not upload a single photo that has come from my camera. I will take some time (hours?days?weeks?) to convert my photos to another format and then maybe I can share a few. Until then, here are a few more fashion favoirtes.

Holy Crap!!!

Sorry for the profanity folks, but what is that I see..................a ph, ph, photo!?!?!?!?!?!?! Not one of my own, of course. It's Diana Chelaru of Romania at last months European Championships. Maybe that's why the photo actually loaded. Maybe it's because I fiddled with some settings and put my own blog address into my "trusted sites" folder. Maybe the planets are aligning and the seas are parting. Who knows, but it's a PHOTO!!!!!

Let's try this with one of my own............hold your breath now..............here it goes................

No, it's still hating my photos. Or maybe I'm just allowed one per post. Let's try another. Nope, not happening. It's the "timing out" thing, just like you said Barbara. It seems to have nothing to do with the size of the photo though. I do "shrink" all of my photos to get them to load faster and not go to that awful white screen with the "sorry, you suck" message on it.

Apparently, it seems to like gymnastics photos. This is Anamaria Izurieta of Spain. I'm going to fiddle around a bit more. Maybe if I move my photos out of the Kodak folder. Maybe if Hell freezes over..........................

Surrender?

I think it's time to wave the white flag on blogging. Not that I dislike it, not at all! I love it. I love to write here and to read and comment on all your blogs. I love discovering new blogs and to view all the incredible stitching, sewing, crafting, garage-saling, family and pet photos. But that's just it. My computer simply refuses to allow me to upload any photos. I did manage to get the "dwelling place" back up on to my banner using my dad's computer. I have tons of photos from my visit to Mom and Dad's to share, but it's just not happening. That takes all the fun out of blogging for me.
On a positive note, this does give me more time to read and comment on all the other blogs I like so much.

A Bit Of A Soapbox Moment

Raining, actually pouring, with thunder, lightening and wind. This all started about 7am and the electric promptly went off at 7:30am ( back on again by 11:15). I think our electric grid is made of popsicle sticks and twine. The slightest breeze and we go black.

Still made it to the Vet with Elliot this morning to get an update on his itchy skin. He's doing much better and stays closer to the house and actually comes inside without being carried in. He also has been kind to the screen windows and not ripped any out lately. He eats well and seeks us out for attention and petting. Before he was in some sort of self-imposed exile in the back yard.

Not much stitching at all lately. I am feeling some sort of "Seasonal ADD". Vonna has a great post about this topic on her blog. I keep cleaning, shifting and rearranging stuff, but nothing gets done. I've cut out a bunch of doll clothes, but haven't stitched any together yet. I've kitted-up three or four Prairie Schoolers to take with me to New Jersey on the 14th, but again, not a stitch taken on any other design. I wake up some mornings not knowing whether I should do Spring cleaning, dye Easter eggs, or set up the Christmas tree. These should be the joyous days of Summer. I remember August as a kid.....day after day of endless fun in the sun. Now it's just day after day of anxiety and confusion.
Speaking of confusion......still can't get a darn photo to upload here. I wanted to do another "Rain and Royalty" post and show some photos of an interesting and not-so-well-known Royal lady. I also have tons of photos of the animals and their latest antics, not to mention the new hardwood flooring we put down in the computer/craft room. Another "Freebie" like our vinyl siding. A neighbor, who has more money then sense, got tired of the color of the hardwood flooring in their house and hired Joe to tear it up and replace it with some bamboo stuff. Joe managed to save all the old ( but amazingly lovely) cherrywood and reinstalled it in our house. Our vinyl siding job of last Summer came of another neighbor's house who was tired of plain white siding. OK, maybe if I had money to throw around I'd tear up/off perfectly good household surfaces and redo them for no other reason then my own whim/boredom. And we wonder why our country is falling apart economically ( not to mention ethically!). It's just so against my grain to toss perfectly good items just to get the "new and improved" version of everything. I will use this soapbox moment to mention my annoyance with the whole conversion to HDTV thing. In the midst of the violent thunderstorm I go to check the weather radar on the little TV in the bedroom, knowing perfectly well that the satellite on the downstairs TV instantly fails as soon as a raindrop touches it. But guess what...no more upstairs TV, just the fuzzy, snowy screen because of the "big switch" to 'Bigger, Better, Clearer HDTV.' Who cares if it's clearer if I can't see a d#%* thing anyway when the satellite is out. So run out America, run, run run to buy, buy, buy a bigger and better TV or a converter box. Yes there's a recession ( and TWO wars also!!) but we need to upgrade our TVs to make the World a better place. There's something wrong here. Somewhere in Afghanistan Ben-Laden is laughing his ass off while we watch HDTV!