weekend update

it is only 2/3 complete, but it has been a good weekend thus far.

 

I stitched like crazy Friday and Saturday afternoons – such progress I made!

 

but alas, it is far from complete, and I had hoped to take it with me to my brother’s picnic today.  Oh well, I will keep working on it and send it along when it is finished.  So far I have found two places where I counted wrong.  One was bad enough to pull everything around i tout.  The other is one I think I can disguise when the rest of the background gets done.

 

Socks are coming along – I finished up the 20th pair in the car today (2.5 hours there, 2.5 hours back – long way to go for lunch!)

and cast on the 21st pair.

   

 

And that was just the start of it.  In addition to a healthy dose of yard work, I also finished cleaning out all the stitching magazines in the craft room.

 

Check it out!  That is a 2.5 inch binder, now full of clipped articles and patterns. It is all that remains of the magazines.  And all of those magazine holders which were jammed full are empty.  I have one that is less than half full of the things I saved.

Next up – knitting magazines.  I likely will not be as successful in emptying things, but I at least will get them organized and in date order. Then, a scary set – the paper crafting magazines. But lets not move too fast or it will seem overwhelming and nothing will happen.

But I have all week, right?

Other things that happened – we did go to my brother’s today – saw their brand new house, which they had built.  It is amazing to me how they got it all done before they moved in.  🙂  They have grass.  A paved driveway.  It’s a very large house – a bedroom for each kid – large ones at that, and a beautiful large master suite, with attached bath, dressing room, sitting area.  We lost count of the closets – there are dozens.  It is amazing.  And as Mom said “Well, it’s a nice house.  Not what I would choose, but it suits them.”  It has separate rooms for everything, where we have open space. But we haven’t got 5 people in our family.  🙂

Saw Dad and step mother S there – we rarely see them as they live so far away, but they came up for several days, apparently, and so we got to visit with them. They have Tigger’s two sisters, so that was a bit sad, hearing about them, and knowing Tig is no more. 

Also saw aunt V and cousins B and M, always fun to see them. They don’t live far away,relatively speaking, but we live very different lives so we don’t see each other often.

 

On the way home, we stopped in Augusta to shop at Staples – A needed a few things.  It happens to be right near AC Moore, so I had 20 minutes to race through the store.  I was really looking for a frame for the cross stitch – but I can’t do that in a hurry, I decided.  I did, however, grab a few small pads of 6 x 6 scrapbook paper for cards and a rubber stamp.  I also got 5 tiny little canvases for some multi-media art I want to try,.  We will see if it fares better than the last ones I did.

Tomorrow we hang about at home – if it is nice, A wants to go to the driving range in the morning, but otherwise we are home and puttering.  

One thing we are working on is technology.  We are actually going to hook up our wireless hub – no more long cords to the computers.  🙂  then the TV will be even more spectacular, and since DISH Satellite still has not resolved the contract issues with our local CBS, it will be great to be able to watch it online.

I did hook up an antenna to the TV up in the craft room, and so we do get the channel up there, but it is not comfortable for sitting and watching TV ( unless you are also crafting, of course!).  Not sure how we will resolve that, but we will before the new NCIS season starts.  Antenna did no good on the big TV in the living room, sadly.

I’ll keep  you posted on all  of our progress.  🙂

 

 

Craft room giveaway 2 winners!

Today I drew the names of the winners of the craftroom giveaway – it was pretty easy as I had 5 lots and only 3 entrants!!!! Clearly I have not developed a cross stitch following, but that is great news for my winners, they *might* get part of the other two lots. 🙂

So congrats to littleblackdogsa, saracrafts, and jenniesisler. Wish I could link to your blogs, but still having issues with many of my screens.

I’ll send off packages as soon as you send me your mailing addresses!

Friday list, last of August!

Well, A and I had all sorts of good plans for a week off at the same time this coming week. But now she has to work all week. Not just that, but on the road. Sigh.
I thought about going with her for a few days, but there is so much work to get done around here, that I think I won’t. Then, I didn’t finish all I had hoped to at work this week, so likely I will work some this coming week, too.

But not today. Today, I will:

have coffee on the deck and paint my toenails.
draw the winning names on the craft room giveaway and get those packages ready to mail.
work on my stitching
work on my knitting
work on my yard work – pool prep is STILL in process. Can I finish it this week?
a trip to the PO, the grocery store, etc.
laundry
catch up on my reader when WordPress and I figure out why it is BLANK and fix it. Really. WordPress comes up with something new for me each week. Crazy. Yes, I probably should get another browser, but I am lazy. I have my laptop from work, maybe I will see if things are working right on that, and if so, it gives a clue.

That’s it – a full day but not a lot on the list. 🙂

I hope you all have fun, productive Fridays to start off your weekend – a holiday one here in the US – yeah!

Last day to enter!

Today is the last day to enter the craft room giveaway part 2 – don’t procrastinate now, I’ll be drawing the winners tomorrow. You can see the prizes and learn more about how to enter here.

Good luck!

Craft room Giveaway – Part 2

This morning I sorted through a magazine box full of patterns of all sorts.

I rediscovered my extensive collection of cross stitch pattern booklets. I seem to have a huge collection of Paula Vaughn designs, with a few others mixed in. Clearly I had more discretionary income in the 90’s and thought I would have lots of time and wall space in my future. 🙂

Well, I went through them trying to be realistic about what I really will stitch, or what I could foresee myself stitching as gifts. After I set those aside, I had a large pile – too good to toss, too many to keep. That means – another giveaway!

I sorted them into different lots, each with some variety, but none so big as to be completely overwhelming. there are five lots, pictured here. These are good quality printed pattern booklets, not copies. Here is a sample of what the charts look like:

Lot #1

Lot #2

Lot #3

Lot #4

Lot #5

Here’s how I will work it – comment here and I will put your name into a drawing for each lot. Want more chances? Share this post, and link back so I know you did it, I’ll give you five more chances – all on one lot or one in each, however you decide to split them up. I’ll ship anywhere, so no need to worry about that – if you get mail, I will get these to you.

All entries must be submitted by midnight Thursday night, August 28. I’ll draw the winners Friday morning.

Good luck!

Sunday afternoon

Where we were – A’s sister K has a camp by a lake for the week, and invited us to spend the afternoon with her. We were glad to do so!

What we did – all things water-related – tried out the new Kayak (that’s A speeding along!), went swimming, threw the frisbee countless time for the dog to swim and fetch.

It was a nice peaceful summer Sunday afternoon.

At last! Uploaded photos

Every day I look at this sign and laugh. I did not alter it at all. If, by chance, you wanted “Sumer tutoring” for your 4-7 year old, I don’t know how you would get it as there is no phone number or other contact info.

The stitching is coming along, but I don’t think I will get it finished by next Sunday, when I wanted it ready. Oh well, I will keep plugging away at it and it will get done eventually, right? I worked on it out on the porch today – natural light makes a huge difference in how well I can see it, I found. Even then, it goes slowly.

Then there are socks (number 20 since I started the Socks With Sarah Knit along) – they continue to grow on my needles. This yarn is from Cloudlover, “Mag Mell” is the colorway, and I love it. I wasn’t sure though, that it went well with this pattern, which has lots of texture. But seeing the photos, I have decided I do like it, and will keep going. I think when it is on my foot and the ribbing pulls out a bit, it will look even better. I’ll get photos when I finish, no worries. 🙂

I am also working on this shawl – I just love how the blues are looking on this – while it is hard to see any progress simply by looking at the photos I take, I feel better when I am counting the points – working on number 24 now. Not sure that I will get to the 42 the pattern calls for, I’ll just keep going until the ball is done. It is a Madeline Tosh, Tosh Light, in Betty Draper’s Blues. So soft and lovely. It is a single ply yarn, all wool, not as dense as the sock yarn. It is making lovely fabric.

That’s it – the photos I couldn’t load to the last post worked fine now. Thanks, WordPress!

WIPS and signs

So I have pictures to share! Socks and shawls, cross stitch, and a great sign I pass every day on the way to work.

But now that WordPress is back to letting me post and comment, it won’t let me upload photos. I know it is WordPress because I was able to upload photos to Ravelry. So, if you want to see my knitting progress, check out my sws #20 ravelry project, and my Hitchhiker ravelry project.

And I will keep working on this crazy WordPress problem. Because it is a hysterically funny sign.

Friday list

I was just sitting on the couch thinking about my day and realized I never wrote the Friday list!

Today is a different sort of day – I am meeting some other tax volunteers for lunch down in Castine. I am looking forward to the day, I love Castine, it’s a very pretty, quiet little town, lots of historically interesting buildings and good food. 🙂

After lunch, I’ll do a few errands like the post office and shopping, and then head off to Bangor for game night at A’s office.

I’ll take the knitting along on my travels as I always do. I am just turning the heel of my latest sock, knit with Cloudlover yarn in “mag mell” colorway. I like the color, but not sure it will really work out well with the prickly pear pattern I chose. They both are a bit busy. But I will finish the sock, then see how it looks on. I have found that socks on the needles and socks on the feet sometimes look different. 🙂

Other things that will fill the gaps in my day – laundry, of course.

Craft room magazine clean out – I am making good progress on it (got that, Crimson Crow? 🙂 ) I have been going through all the old issues, keeping projects that still appeal to me and tossing the rest. I hate to say it, but I am still working on the 90’s, lol. But I have filled one recycling bin and am working on a second. And so far I am still working on filling my first two-inch binder – so that means I am tossing WAY more than I am keeping. Which is the point of the exercise, right?

The next bin holds LOTS of cross stitch pattern booklets, I see a future blog giveaway in our future. 🙂

That’s about it – I should go shower and dress for my big social day.

Here are a few photos to keep you busy until I get back.

These are the last pair of socks I finished – Tosh sock “Spectrum” in the Hermione sock pattern.

This is where I was with Hitchhiker shawl last week – several more points are done now, so it is coming along.

And the three cards I made last week – a little fuzzy photo for you to try to see. 🙂

Can anyone lend me a wetsuit?

The ALS bucket challenge has caught up with me. Our Finance Director challenged me today. He is being gracious and allowing me until Monday to comply, so that I Can do it here at the office. So nice of him! He also challenged our Executive Director and another coworker, so it will be a “social” thing to do.

However – I am trying to think of a way to make it less painful, and a wetsuit would help.

By the way, since he so unkindly challenged me, I am putting this picture out for all the world to see. 🙂

That’s him, Kevin Bean. (I don’t usually name names on this blog, but, well, there you have it. We are a bit competitive around here, and he will pay for this one.) 🙂 That’s our Executive Director helping to pour the bucket on him. What Kevin did that was nice was allow us to gather donations for our school back pack program – he basically sold off the right to dump the water on him. The woman who won couldn’t lift that big bucket high enough, so she got some help. We raised enough money for 5 more backpacks, just from what we all had in our wallets today.

I hope the weather warms up before Monday, I don’t want to get frostbite…