There's No Place Like Home

Those words certainly ring true with me today. After a rather "busy" day at work yesterday I am glad to be writing from home, even though it is very cold in here. For those of you who talked me through yesterdays little catastrophe, I thank you for your patience and kindness. I think I made a mountain out of a mole hill and needed to let the air out of my own hot air balloon a little bit. Last night was dedicated to stitching and I got a bit more done on the Jerusalem Sampler. All of the alphabet (or alephbet in Hebrew) is complete, so I may make it through with the bit of DMC 3807 I have left. The village surrounding the alphabet is filled with amazing colors. It seems I am re-threading the needle every two or three minutes with a new and brighter color then the previous one. A bit time consuming, but also uses up the DMCs I already have with no need to buy a whole new skein. I can't wait to put on the glittery gold and silver roofs that are on some of the houses. I am pretty sure who is going to get this gift. A dear friend, Becky, at the gym who has been my assistant with my junior group for several months. Her daughter, Callie, is one of the top girls in the group. I have always been fascinated by the Jewish faith ( in fact all religions, cultures, languages intrigue me) and Becky belongs to an interesting church, "Jewish Believers in Christ". Her dream is to travel to Israel some day so I think she will appreciate the meaning behind this gift. She is also expecting a baby some time in July. Our final class with this little junior group is in May. There is a large celebration performance of all the groups at the end of May and I would like to have the gift ready for her by then.
Some incredible wind last night, so I didn't get much sleep. I spent most of the night listening to things being blow around our yard and trying to guess what they were. Our front glass door was blow open and it hinges were bent, so it spent the entire night flapping in the breeze....although the "breeze" got up to 60 miles per hour at times. We have had some very high winds this year and it seems rather odd. The temperature dropped over 40 degrees last night and we are back to the 20'sF rather then the "Springlike" 40sF of Sunday and Monday. There is some nasty snow/rain/ice mix predicted for tomorrow night. So glad there is no competition to travel to this weekend. I am dedicating it to stitching.

.......and even calmer

Several post, numerous edits, a few additions, many deletions and one giant nervous breakdown later and I am back! Full force, no new blog, just the same old-same old with a little more forethought and tact. Thank you all for putting up with the ADD/OCD ramblings of earlier today. I think the problem is solved. I will stick to stitching, cats, doll clothes, general gymnastics stuff and a bit of the domestic life here at Strout Homestead. I'll save all the ranting, raving and overall angst for the private e-mails and letters to you poor unfortunates who are my closest friends. Now I need a break from the computer and time to stitch. This 21st Century stuff is really kicking my butt.

A Bit of Calm

This week started out as a stressful one, as I continued to dwell upon my loss of hours/$$$ and my Level 5 group. But I think I will let things take their natural course. I let the stress melt away and had the girls enjoy themselves a bit in trying new skills and making up some new routines. All of my groups are at the Compulsory Levels where they must do prescribed routines that are all alike at each level. Last night we "cut loose" a bit and I took a few photos as well. The last photo is of this weeks doll quilt. I hope to sell it tonight at the gym.

Rainy but not nearly so cold today. I wish it was snow instead though. Then I would be spared the Homeschoolers and only have my cute little group at 4pm. Still, it is an early night for me...home by 6pm instead of the usual 9pm. Maybe I can get in a few stitches on some of those UFOs.

The UFO Files

After 13 hours at a gymnastics competition yesterday my head is absolutely pounding today. I think it is a mix of the cold I am getting and the fact that these competitions filled with 90+ sniffling, sneezing and coughing little girls are a virtual "germ factory"! My Level 4 group took a beating. A well deserved one at that, since they were getting rather spoiled at always winning First Place. The top two girls were out sick and we were missing two others as well. I think it is good that they come off of their little ego trip for a while and get down to some serious work at trainings. Having to endure the marathon day and still plaster that pleasant little smile on my face was no easy feat. I played up the cold/illness thing to account for my lack of chatting and laughing. The coaches are usually a pretty tight-knit group of friends, but the boss has really pitted us against one another in a competition of our own for her good favor and enough work hours to support ourselves. It is rather late in the afternoon already and I still haven't managed to accomplish much at all today. I am just too tired. So instead of stitching, I broke out the numerous little bags filled with UFOs to give you a glimpse of things to come.

These first two(above) are Donna Vermillion Giampi designs....."Lemons, Limes & More" beautiful citrus fruits. This is going to be a pillow for my aunt who lives in Miami and has all of these trees in her garden. The second is "Angel Cats" that are made on clear 14 count plastic canvas. They are going to be made up as a wreath with miniature gold instruments and white and gold ribbon.

This guy is a seahorse, with the faint hints of a star fish in the background, that is going to be a pillow for my aunt and uncle that live at the New Jersey seaside. They host our family reunion (my dad's family) every August.

A lovely French sampler from a book of Barbara Ana's. She is such a good friend and also an amazing designer of cross-stitch patterns. She even has her own website and sells at the Creative Poppy website too.

Then there is Barrick Samplers "One Stag a Leaping" that I am making for my dad. I remember exactly when I started this. I had taken a bunch of kids from my old gym to a skating rink and sat on the sidelines stitching this while they skated......in 1999!

Cute little bird house designs that are going to be framed with vine wreaths, just like the picture in the magazine.

A freebie, from an Italian website, of planets. I just loved this hand-dyed fabric that I got from Barbara Ana. I have no idea if these are real planets or just an artistic interpretation. And lastly, a gymnastics photo from practice last Wednesday. This is the Level 5 girl, Brooke.

Yikes, 3807!

Am I dyslexic or just color blind!! Those of you who read about the "blue" scarf in a previous post will vote for color blind. The DMC I am searching for to work on my Jerusalem Sampler is 3807 and not 3708. This is just a small glimpse of the total backwardness that this whole week is coming too. I am freezing cold during the day and then burning up at night. I have a terrible soar throat which is always the first sign of a bad cold coming on for me. I keep starting new projects with no apparent direction or theme in mind.

Wishful thinking

Lately it has been a lot more thinking and a lot less doing! Today it will be a lot more pictures and a lot less writing. Some of the items on my wish list: "Duck" by Marjolein Bastin, "Taste of the Mediterranean" by Susan Inget, "Coffee Sampler""Porch Cats" by Debbie Hron, "The Stitcher II" and "Patriotic Landscape" both by Sandra Sullivan. All these I found in the latest Keepsake Needlearts catalog .

The next group of photos is of my junior group yesterday. These 6 and 7 year olds really show great potential.

Finally, the Jerusalem Sampler and an ornament finish. Keeping with an inspiring resolution I read on another blog, I am going to try to finish one Christmas ornie per month. I'm not too sure I like this one. I have also attached a photo of the original here. Because of my incredible knack to screw things up on linen fabric, I made the outside border one set of blocks too small. So I had to delete a reindeer and "invent" my way through the rest of the design. Joe say he looks like Scooby-Doo with antlers and I tend to agree.

3708

No, it's not some mystery code or reference to March 7th. It is part of my quest to stick with at least one of my New Years' resolutions. Remember that terrible one about not buying any new cross-stitch supplies? Well, I am trying so hard to keep up with it that I am requesting a favor. Anyone out there have a spare DMC #3708? I am starting a new project (no, I have still not finished the 5 or 6 other UFOs that are hanging around) and it calls for a large amount of DMC 3708. It is called "Jerusalem Sampler". I'm at work now on the wonderful hi-speed computer, but I am away from my collection of photos, so I can't share one of it right now. It is a rather modern and stylish take on a Hebrew alphabet framed by a stylistic rendition of the city of Jerusalem. All the colors are bold and bright. The entire alphabet and part of the framing is done in 3708 . I have about half a skein left and I know this will not make it through the whole project. I will gladly trade for something out of my stash. My long term goal is to make alphabet samplers in as many languages as I can. I have several designs for Russian/Cyrillic samplers, this Hebrew one, one in Chinese and even Sign Language! I am fascinated by languages, although I do not have much of a gift for learning them.
On the theme of New Years' resolutions...I have managed to stick with my goal and lose 2 pounds per week until I achieve my ideal(fantasy!?) weight. I feel as if I have cursed myself just by putting that down in print here, but I am rather proud I have gotten this far. I am loyal to my treadmill twice a week at the gym.....just got off of it a few minutes ago. I am also trying to be very careful about what I eat..................well, rather how much I eat. I really love fruits, veggies and whole grains, so that is not a problem. I just love everything too much!
Now I must tear myself away from this wonderful fast computer and get to work. This is my junior group today. I hope to take some pictures of them as they are the "chosen ones" that are expected to move up to the Team in May. Still lots of work to do as most are only 6 and 7 years old.