Doing a drive by here

So much to tell....been a busy little bee.....don't want to spend too much time so I will give you the Reader's Digest version.

Continued the sorting and tidying frenzy all week by spending an hour or so in my craft room each evening.   Down to two boxes that contain 38 years of paperwork history.   Going to use the same method....an hour each evening and *POOF* before you know it  it will be done!

So because my craft room was all spiffed up, I work on finishing the Candy Corn piece I finished  stitching earlier in the month.  I usually don't use pins but I think finishing needlework is an exception.   I seamed it up, turned and stuff and all need to do is a few hand stitches to close it while watching TV tonight and I will be done.  I will post a pix at my next post.

Took all the February decorations down and did up my tree with snowflakes.   I girl can dream of snow can't' she?

I repotted two of my orchids last week and they were looking desperate pitiful afterwards but I now think they may make it.   My third orchid is getting ready to BLOOM!  Yeah!

Spent a little bit of time this morning on my Christmas Tree Farm Sampler and I can hear it calling me right now.

 Of course I didn't follow the straight and narrow and complete the entire band before starting the next one but I have a good reason.   I worked on this at stitching group the other night and there was no way to do the continuous counting for the random evergreen stitches and chit chat too so I had to lay in the field of little feather stitched trees.    My pledge is to complete the top band and do all the specialty stitches, except for the beads of course, and then move on to the next set of trees.   They are Queen stitch...maybe the reason I am delaying that band.

Since my craft room/sewing room was in working order, I started to seam up the baby quilt I am making for my great nephew.   I had pretty much cut everything last summer but never started it.   The fabric is adorable.   His daddy is a heavy equipment operator so the front end loaders  and cement mixers are perfect.    I did sew the first two of the seven rows together but I deleted the pix.  Oops!

So much for the Reader's Digest version.....I'd hate to know what the unabridged version would ook like.  It was great having a Saturday with nothing to do and no where to be.   hmmm....is this what retirement will be like?   Again, a girl can dream.

Squirrel!

Ever see a dog get distracted by a squirrel?   Well that is totally me.  I didn't work on my craft room yesterday as I had planned (and boy does it NEED it) but rather I just HAD to start putting everything back in my freshly painted closet.  On the left starting at the top: wrapping paper and ribbons with a couple 'emergency' hostess type gifts; next my hand weights and some of my children's childhood story books I just can seem to part with; yoga mat and yearbooks on the next shelf; and last on the floor, all the family photos and photo albums. 

Now to the right from the top down:  all the games; next some of my cardmaking and paper stamping supplies with some of my basket supplies; followed by two more shelves of basket supplies!  These shelves are two boxes deep!  OMGosh.....I could make a basket for every household in town.  It might look messy in the photo  but  trust me, in person, it is a glorious sight to behold.    All like things are together and organized!

I finished the room by wiping down baseboards and just generally cleaning the room.  Room is all ready for me to pull out that yoga mat and do some exercising or more than ready for a weekend visit from one of the kids.

My children are redeemed.   Below are the only things in the closet that were 

theirs with the exception of the games and some stuffed animals.  

This the stack o' stuff that I need to get to Goodwill or somewhere!   The boxes under the desk have been sorted and inventoried.   What is on the top is yet to be done.   I wish I knew someone with booth at a consignment shop because some of this is too good for a thrift store donation.  Mr. W. said put it on eBay or Craig's list but I don't want to add one more thing to my list of things to do.  Maybe  I will make some calls this weekend to see if the local consignment shop will make me on offer on the lot.   OK, one room down and 6 more to go (plus the attic and the two sheds)  I think I just signed up for 8 more three day weekends of work!  If one room neat and sorted makes you feel good; then a whole household sorted and decluttered will be a fabulous feeling. 

I did take a couple of time outs during the day to add some trees and finish the cabin on my Christmas Tree Farm sampler.   The cabin still gets some icicles using kreinik floss and beeds for christmas lights but I will wait to add them last.   I did run the snow across the bottom to the right to the end of the band so I am over halfway across the first band!  Yeah!

I ended by day with a fabulous dinner out in Old New Castle with my sister and brother at a 300 year old tavern.  Great atmosphere and delicious food and much laughter.  I think a 3-day weekend once a month should be a law!  

 I have my first class at the Apple store tomorrow at 8 a.m. so I am writing my questions down.  I am getting used to my new laptop but still have some blogger and website issues to ask about.

Stay warm and dry all and may your stitches be plenty and your frogs few.

A Finish

but not of the cross stitch kind but one long overdue.  I have two  some things that I just need to spend an afternoon, a day or a weekend on so that I move them to the completed column.  I tackled one of those tasks list this weekend.    The closet in one of the bedrooms upstairs.   It seems to have been a catch all for anything I didn't have a place for.   It took Mr. W. some time but he finally re-did the shelving which meant I could paint the closet.   Not one to hurry into anything, Mr. W. did the shelving in fall but with the holidays and vacation and everything, I never got around to painting.

Painting meant everything came out of the closet.   How did all this junk my stuff fit in there?   It is a small walk in closet but I am still amazed at all that came out of the closet.   And in my defense, some of it is a left over from a kid or two that didn't take it with them.   

Painting lead to ripping out the last remnants of wall to wall carpet in the entire house. (Mr. W. is not happy......"I paid good money for that......"    as opposed to BAD money?   Seriously it was close to 30 years ago. Over the years there have been Barbies and Legos and prom gowns and hockey gear and soccer gear and a band instrument or two and Fireman's gear  but I am taking it over to better store some of my hobby 'stuff'.

I am glad it is done and as much as I want to put everything back - after of course some major decluttering - but I will let the paint cure on the shelves until next weekend.   What a work out pulling the tack strips and staples out.   My body is not happy about sitting indian style on the hard wood floor.   Even though I have my own personnal padding, it  didn't take long to have some sore sitz-bones.  Why do men put some many staples in the padding anyway?   Because they can!   

Yeah!  Last two shelves to paint.

So I finished up and cleaned my brush and roller and took the second best shower of a lifetime - the first best shower of your life is the one they finally let you take after pushing a tiny human out of your nether-regions.  I just let that water pound on my neck and shoulders and then took the time to sooth my dry skin with some great lotion.   Ahhhh.......

I made a casserole yesterday and leftovers for dinner are on the menu with stitching in the future for my evening.   I started Jingle Bells, Christmas Tree Farm from Victoria Sampler.   It is definitely not going to be a fast stitch.  I am about halfway across with this first band.   I am anxious to get the entire band done so I can use it as a gauge.  

Tomorrow is a holiday and I thought I would go into work anyway but I am having second thoughts.   I think I will tackle cleaning my craft room.   Another place that become a catch-all over the holidays!  And that won't feel like work at all as I sort fibers and floss and fabrics and window shop through magazines and patterns.

Happy Valentine's Day

I miss doing the fun things I did when the kids were little.   No one here to do that for now so I made heart shaped cinnamon buns for work today.   Yummo!    Need to do an extra mile on the treadmill tonight.

The Power of One

Another finish!  I've been know to be a bit of a project jumper.   Flitting from this project 

to that, good ole side track Robin.  Remember last year, I started the year with 25 WIP's/UFO's.  

So far this year, I have been working on one project at a time.   What a concept!   Sure can 

mark projects off the to-do list working on one at a time.   I may just turn over a new leaf!  

So, I finished this up this morning.

 Started 1-25-2013  

Competed 2-12-2013

With thy Needle & Thread's Candy Corn

Weeks Dye Works Linen 

Recommended Threads

Look at the difference in the appearance of the linen color.   The top was photographed in my sewing room and the bottom, on the kitchen counter.   The linen color appears closer to the actual color in the bottom one. I am going to need to spend some time soon finishing all the different projects I have stitched!   I hope to finish the Candy Corn first as a 'dry run' to finishing O' Tannenbaum.  I am sure this new found method of my madness will not last the entire year but for now, which project will I start on......hmmmmm.....decisions, decisions.  

PS - I managed all three of today's posts on my new MacBook!  There is hope for me.

  

Reading and Walking

I have been tearing up the treadmill and the pages of books at the same time.   I just finished my 5th book of the year.  So much reading that I had to up my reading challenge on Goodreads.   I just read the Promises to Keep Series by Shayne Parkinson.    First up Sentence of Marriage, then Mud and Gold, followed by Settling the Account and finishing the series with Second Chances.  They were quick, easy reads, that has the author bringing you in quickly and capturing your attention and your need to know what will happen next to Amy and her family.   I thoroughly enjoyed the series.

Next up, The Dark Monk, second in the series after the Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Potzsch.
The Hangman's Daughter: Oliver Pötzsch, Lee Chadeayne, Lee Chadeayne: Amazon.com: Kindle Store »

February TUSAL

I have not been skimpy with threads this month.   Usually I stitch to the last little end of thread, conserving and treasuring my wonderful fibers.  But not lately.   That and changing colors frequently on my two projects has helped me add to my TUSAL - Totally Useless Stitch A-Long collection of ORTS.

I need to re-install the TUSAL button link.   May have to go back to my HP to manage that bit of blogging.

First Finish of 2013

Ta-da!   Last night I finished O Tannebaum by Pat Thode of Heart Strings.   This post has been interesting to say the least.   I took photos tonight and uploaded to my new laptop but alas, I cannot find them.   Seems the memory card in my camera - which I always click erase after upload - was not really empty.   I uploaded 1,469 photos - most of which duplicate photos I have on the Mac already.....or at least I think, unless this computer is smarter than the average bear and didn't duplicate photos already here since I don't believe my total photos numbers changed.    Enough....can't work on a computer all day and expect me to make sense of this at this time of night....

so I log off Mac
sign on though my old and trusty HP and voila! here is O Tannebaum.

I mentioned in an earlier post about this being a SAL.   Someone commented and asked me about it and forgive me....but did you know when you delete a comment accidentally, it is gone forever? I did that with a half a dozen comments when I was hastily going trashing the spam ones.   So sorry !-(  At any rate,   it was just four of us in our stitching circle that were working on it not some big organized Internet thing.   Three of us started January 1st with Diane starting shortly after our retreat last October.   Three of us are done but Carol is closing in fast.   I will get to see Carol and Pat's finished at EGA next week.  It was a really enjoyable project to stitch and now I must chronicle some finishing directions for the others to follow.  It is really funny but the packaging and photo was so poor I am surprised we even gave it a second look in the store but I am ever so glad we did!

Chchchchanges

I don't like them.   Real quick here since I am a bit challenged.   Mr. W. decided I needed a new laptop and since he is the IT person here I just go along with him.   If he says it is time, then I guess it it.  Well my new baby is a MacBookAir and it is a little different to get used to.  See, like a car where all I need to know is put the key in, put gas in and put Robin in, I don't need to know about tera bytes, giga bytes, client based, web based, Clouds and other stuff.   I just want my 'stuff' where I can find it and work with it.

But let me digress - Mr. W. who doesn't leave the house or yard except for work wanted to go to the mall to the Apple Store rather than order it from Amazon which is how he purchases EVERYTHING! Trust me there was no happier man in all of the mid-Atlantic states when he realized he could order his socks and underwear through Amazon.  The trip was worth it because I believe I saw Papa Smurf disguised as one of the salesmen and then there was the guy in the camouflage kilt.   I believe he was of the Macintosh Clan - get it - Macintosh/Apple store.  Oh, I crack myself up!  I wish I was savy enough to take a picture with my cell phone without actually standing and holding it like a camera and being oh so obvious.

I did manage to download a pix from the Internet and then find it in the strange array of what is now my files.    As for all my other photos......I know they are in there somewhere but they are no longer nice and neat in dated folders by category.   Maybe  I was a little OCD with how I stored them but it made sense if you were looking for Christmas 2005.......

Things are different like there is no right click of the mouse or touch pad.   It is control and touch the pad.  You can 'swipe' the screen and change pages and I almost lost this post that way.  So the learning curve is there and I have all my files but they don't seem to be in the same folder hierarchy as I had them before the migration.  So I am struggling a bit.   The screen is much smaller than my old laptop and I am hoping I can adjust to it.   I have two weeks to try it and if not satisfied, I can exchange it.   Wow.    Another Cool thing is they offer training classes and the first free Saturday, I am there!

Tomorrow - I hope to be able to manage a post on O' Tannebaum!  My first finish of 2013.   So excited and so pleased with it.    Until then I will be hunting and pecking about this new device to get acquainted.