A finish!

I finished Bloom this morning!  For such a small piece it seemed to take me forever to finish it!

Bloom (Cross Stitch & Needlework magazine)

Fabric: Lakeside Linens 40 ct. French Lilac

Threads: Crescent Colours, Gentle Art Sampler Threads, Weeks Dye Works

Started: 3/19/11 - Finished: 3/28/11

This was the view from our hotel balcony this weekend in Ocean City, Maryland.

And this was the view on Sunday morning when we woke up!  Overnight Ocean City received 3 inches of snow!!! We had to clean our car off before coming home!!!

BF having breakfast on Saturday morning at the hotel restaurant.

And this was me getting ready, hair still wet, in the process of putting makeup on.  BF thought it would be funny to get a pic of us in the mirror.  I guess he was getting bored waiting for me! 

We had a great little weekend getaway.   I did venture into Salty Yarns on the boardwalk but did not buy anything, as I have PLENTY of stash already.  I love just walking in and seeing all of the stitched models on the walls. 

In peace, love, and stitches,
Danielle

Bloom & New Projects!

Hello, fellow stitchers and bloggers!  Lots to tell and pictures to see! 

First up is one of my new projects, Blue Ribbon Designs Stop and Stitch the Flowers on Lakeside Linens 40 count Chantilly Creme.  I went to The Stitching Post to pick up the Crescent Colours floss.  They had all but one, or so I thought!  I was leaving the thread aisle when I just happened to glance and saw the missing floss, in the wrong place!  So, I scooped it up, and being the nice person I am, I put the remaining ones in their rightful place.  I would not want to see another stitcher go through that!

I also picked up a few of the mesh bags you see on the left-hand side.  Wonderful for storing threads and other doodads.

The BRD piece will be placed on an 11 by 11 Qsnap because of its size and I realized I was out of felt strips to place under the clips on the Qsnap.  I did not want to ride to Michaels to get one piece of felt, so I thought and thought, and voila!  An unused fleece blanket in our linen closet, from which I cut my required strips.

Here is my progress on Bloom.  As you can see, I am so close to being finished!!! 

Here is another project I have ready to go, iStitch's Sew A Brown Bunny, her newest release.  I picked up some 40 count white Newcastle linen and chose my own threads, HDF silk.  I usually fret at picking out my own colors, but I am just going with it and not worrying about it.

I have to pay homage to my Ginghers.  My stepmother passed these on to me.  They were her mother's, so very, very old.  They still work like a charm!  I only cut fabric with these, and it has been stressed to The Daughter and BF both, ONLY FABRIC!!!

This is a vintage lamp that my dad gave me recently.  They were redecorating their house and were getting rid of it.  I have always expressed great love for this lamp and told them if they ever wanted to get rid of, please give it to me!  And my time has come!

For all of you stepmothers out there I have found a wonderful resource, Stepmom magazine.  I came upon this by accident yesterday and it truly is a treasure trove of information.  And it makes me feel hopeful and know that I am not alone in my situation or feelings.  

BF and I are headed to Ocean City for the weekend at 6pm today!  I can't wait.   Enjoy you weekend, whatever you have planned.

In peace, love, and stitches,
Danielle

A New Start

First, my rant of the day.  There always seems to be one.  LOL.  Our plan was to go to The Olive Tree for dinner.  I could taste the spaghetti with meat sauce and salad and glass of good wine.  Alas, it was not to be.  We arrived at the restaurant to find that everyone in our city seemed to have the same idea, as the parking lot was packed.  Inside they said it would be 20 minutes, but I didn't believe it.  So, BF had the idea to go to a restaurant down the street, which I had never been to.

I decided on chili in a bread bowl.  The waitress comes back a few minutes later and says they have no bread bowls.  She says do you need the menu back?  Cue me taking a deep breath and internally trying to meditate, as this ALWAYS seems to happen to me.  Places are always out of what I want on the menu.  So, I order spaghetti and meatballs, warily.

The spaghetti was bland.  Like tasting nothing.  My spaghetti at home is better.  The meatballs, blah.  I took one bit and did not eat anymore.  Disappointing to say the least.  Today's lesson, kids:  MAKE A RESERVATION at the restaurant you WANT to go to!!!!!

Ok.  Now, with that out of the way, on to happier topics.  While grocery shopping today at Target I decided to get a mug I had been eyeing at the Starbucks located inside the Target.  I LOVE this mug!!!  Here is a pic of both the front and back of it.

I also was able to do some stitching. I restarted Lizzie Kate's Live Simply Quick It that I had originally started yesterday at Panera Bread with Jill.  I switched out the fabric from the Dark Chocolate Cashel to Toasted Almond Cashel and stitched a bit while watching The Craigslist Killer movie on Lifetime that I had recorded.

Now I am home with a glass of wine, my heated throw, my iPad and a cheddar cheese Ritz Crackerful, which is my favorite snack.  Yum.

I leave you with a pic of BF reading instructions to help The Daughter make a wallet out of zebra print duct tape.

Have a great Sunday, at least what's left of it!!!

In peace, love, and stitches,
Danielle

My Strange Addiction

I thought that title would grab your attention!  It's not about me, but about this new show on TLC.  It's called My Strange Addiction and it's about people with, well, strange addictions.  Last week's episodes were a 24-year-old girl who sucked her thumb all the time and a woman who ate toilet paper, like half a roll a day.  She said she liked the feel of it on her tongue.  Hmmm...  And then there was a woman who slept with her hair dryer next to her in bed because she liked the sound and the feel of the heat.  She even got burned a few times pretty badly by it.  And last night's episode featured a woman who ate Comet, the sink cleanser.  She said she liked the taste of it.  Meanwhile, it rotted her teeth like she was a meth addict, and she had to have dental work to the tune of $19,000!!!!  This show is like a car accident, you can't look away.  BF and I look at each other about a million times during the show with these dumbfounded looks on our faces. 

I just pre-ordered Pine Mountain Designs Frame Up for February called Love Whoo You Are (and, yes, that's how they spelled it because there is an owl in the chart!)  I love the fact that it comes with everything, including the frame!!!  For $20 you can't beat it.  And the saying is something I attempt to embrace every day as I feel very different than those around me sometimes, well, a lot of the time. 

I see some of us have been collecting McDonald's most recent Happy Meal toys, Only Hearts Pets.  There are 12 in all.  I just discovered this link where you can actually buy them all instead of taking a chance at McDonald's.  Here is a pic of the ones I have so far.

 
I still need the following:  bear, cat, elephant, panda, monkey, lion, bunny, tiger.  I MUST acquire the bunny.  And I guess I can buy it if I don't find it at McDonald's, but to me the fun is seeing what you get in a Happy Meal.  It's like Russian Roulette.  LOL.  But if any of you acquire an extra one off my list you don't need and wouldn't mind sending it my way, please let me know. 

I neglected to mention here that BF's divorce is final, finally.  BF has been married twice.  The first time to The Daughter's mother, which lasted 10 years.  The second to another woman, which last six months.  Yes, I know.  Apparently her child and The Daughter did not get along at all and it made it very difficult.  Well, the one year waiting period of separation required in Maryland was up January 1, 2010.  By this point BF and I had been together 10 months and were living together, so it was serious.

I assumed, albeit wrongly, that BF would be chomping at the bit to file the divorce papers.  We had talked about it briefly and we decided that I would do the papers myself, as I had filed and handled my own divorce back in 2002 with no problem.  BF had no children and no property left over with the second wife, so it would be fairly straightforward.

Well, a few months came and went, and it was mentioned in passing, and then a few more months passed and it was mentioned again in passing.  In October of this year, one night before going to sleep, BF mentioned that we needed to file the papers.  I told him I was just waiting for him to tell me to do it.  I am not one of those women who nag or cajole their men.  If he wants to be divorced, he will take the initiative.  Well, the next day I file the papers and he is to meet with the second wife the following week to get her to sign the papers, which will save us getting her served with them and will save time.  I mention that I'm not that thrilled with him meeting her, but I know it has to be done.  Well, this sets off an explosion of him saying he is feeling pressured by me to do this, blah, blah, blah.

Needless to say, I was shocked.  I NEVER pressured him to do this, although I felt that he should be divorced and why wasn't he more forthcoming in getting it done if he was with me?  BF has made it clear that he does not want to get married again and I'm fine with that.  I don't need to be married.  But he should be divorced.

So, we get in this huge fight and it was just so ridiculous, but apparently everyone at work and his sister and so forth had been asking constantly when he was going to get divorced, none of which I knew until he exploded.  Well, all in all, the whole process took two months and $400.  Not bad.  And we received the papers a few days after Christmas.  So, it's finished, but, boy, what a process.

On a much happier note, I have started collecting snow globes.  BF bought me my first one this Christmas.

 
Last night he suggested we should buy a corner curio cabinet for the basement to display them all in.  I love that idea!  And this week at the Hallmark store I saw a Cinderella snow globe that had the slipper on a pillow inside and the saying on the outside read something like "Miracles take time to happen," which I just loved.  Check out Paulette's (Plum Street Samplers) daughter Sophie's snow globe collection here.  I love it!

And here is my progress on Where's The Party?  I was up WAY early this morning, so was able to stitch for the longest I have stitched, well, in a long time.  LOL.

I am babysitting my sister tonight.  Not too thrilled, honestly.  I love my sister and my mother does not ask me very much at all to babysit, but it's Friday night, after a long work week, and we have The Daughter, so she will want to go, and my mom has two Chihuahuas who are beyond hyper, and then there's my sister, who is 5.  And did I mention that it's Friday night and I've been awake since 4:15 a.m?  So, you do the math.  And BF?  Well, he'll get a free night to himself!  Blah!

But you have a fabulous Friday!  Hopefully with some stitching somewhere in there.

In peace, love, and stitches,
Danielle

The Clapper

 
I am pretty sure I mentioned on here that I bought BF The Clapper as one of his Christmas gifts.  The Clapper was for our bedroom.  Well, BF is like most men, in that he does not like to read ANY directions that come with anything.  I don't get this.  I read the whole manual on my new digital camera and my iPad so I could know everything about each item.

So, Christmas night before bed we decide to hook it up.  I pull out the manual, which only includes FIVE steps, and no sooner do I read "Step 1, take the Clapper out of the box," than BF has it plugged in and is clapping!!!!!  WTF?!??!  So, of course, it doesn't work.  So, we unplug it and I actually go through all five steps, and it still doesn't work.  And by this time I'm so mad that I say I can't deal with this now.  We need to let The Clapper reset.  I'll do this later.  And I'm thinking to myself I will hook The Clapper up myself tomorrow when BF is busy.

Well, the next day it's hooked up, and it works, and then I tell him how I really felt the night before, and we have a good laugh, and we still laugh about it now, but the lesson here:  READ THE MANUAL.  READ THE MANUAL.  READ THE MANUAL.

In peace, love, and stitches,
Danielle