Rooted in Mississippi

What does that make me? OMG…I swear, we would have fewer disruptions if the neighbors were running a meth lab. They were fixing the cabana/outdoor kitchen by the pool when it came crashing down.

When it happened, I thought they had driven through the fence again, but the giant dust cloud was a sure sign that something major had gone awry. I grabbed my cellphone and ran over there, worried that someone had been hurt. Luckily, everyone, including the parrot, is fine.

I am guessing no one used cement or mortar when they built it in the first place. It sure was sad to see all that broken ceramic roof tile. And..if you guessed that it affected the fence again…you are right. We now have two sections leaning into our backyard and the nails are ripped out of the wood in places.

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I did finish the Elizabeth Designs Dragonfly, which will eventually the top of a biscornu. Yeah for the small things!

It seems like it has been ages since I signed up for my classes and we made plans to attend the EGA National Seminar in Chicago. I have printed out some signs, so that when we congregate, other members of CyberStitchers will introduce themselves. Seminar is much more important for establishing relationships when you are a on-line chapter.

I plan to dress even more casually than in times past. I am one of the few people in this world who does not find blue jeans comfortable. So, I am seriously thinking about wearing yoga clothes to my classes. After all, that is what I wear almost exclusively at home, even on the days when I don’t have a yoga class!

So if you are in Chicago and happen see a crazy looking fat chick in yoga clothes toting a CyberStitchers sign, either walk up and introduce yourself, nod knowingly, or feel free to roll your eyes.

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I met Lisa for lunch at Keifer’s, then made a trip to Joy’s to get a skein of Needle Necessities to finish off the other side of my Dragonfly biscornu. As usual, I found a few things on clearance that I thought I could use. This picture is of my haul over the last week. Everything, except for that one skein of Needle Necessities, was at least fifty percent off. I got a variety of odd cuts of linen in different counts and colors, which will be good for stitching smalls.

I am looking forward to EGA National Seminar, in part because my stitching enthusiasm is back. Also, Cindy found me a Gazelle 2 floor stand in Chicago! The timing is good too, I need something to distract me and keep me interested in needlework. It is hard to believe it has been two years since Katrina and National Seminar in Atlanta.

Now for the requisite doggy cuteness. This was actually taken a few nights ago. Princess has been modeling Louie’s behavior; when I get up, she sometimes sneaks into my spot on the sofa.  I am currently working on the project sitting on the TV tray table.

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My friend Nora is not doing very well. Before she went in for abdominal surgery, I promised her that I would make sure that CQMagOnline would continue without interruption. She is home and healing from her surgery, but it was not completely successful. I am going to take over the magazine now, so that she can devote her time and energy to battling her cancer.

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The color is hard to peg on that green AIDA, so I took a couple of more pictures, one with the flash and one without.

I went to Michael’s to ask them to post a sign about our upcoming stitch-in for the Kissing Pillow Project on September 15, 2007 at the Flowood Library, but they were not interested. Then I spotted the “retro” and “nostalgic” candy on clearance for a quarter a piece and bought the remainder of the box. This is NOT going to be good for my diet! Sugar Daddy Milk Caramel Pops are my one candy weakness.

Then I took a notice about the Kissing Pillows by Joy’s and rambled through their clearance bins. I found another Elizabeth Designs pattern that I liked and some odd cuts of linen. I plan to start working on the Dragonfly one from an earlier post sometime today.

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I just finished another biscornu pincushion. When I saw this bright green AIDA, I knew I wanted to use it as a base for a biscornu.  I found the pattern somewhere online, but I can not remember exactly where right now.

It always feels good to really finish something. Which brings up a quote that came to my attention recently.

Don’t be afraid to give your best at what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones will tend to take care of themselves.- Dale Carnegie

So, there, a little justification for my recent interest in small projects!  Next up, one of the designs I bought at Joy’s.

On the dog front, Princess spent the whole night in the bed last night, without any problems or accidents.  We also bought a wagon, so that she can come along for walks even though she refuses to actually walk.  My husband is her official liter bearer.

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There was a challenge over at Create a Connection to try to make a photo collage. Since I was in the mood to play with pictures, I decided to do it. I managed to get lots of things in there: reminders from the summer, my friends Lisa and Cyn, the babies, and my husband. I did a bunch of photo collages for A Colorful Life meme some time ago.

Now for the shameless dog portion of this post. This is a dog who clearly loves her daddy, almost as much as she loves food. We have to work hard to keep her out of everyone’s bowls until the others are done.

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So my husband and I were driving down Ridgewood Road, just before Northside Drive, and I spotted this.

It was far enough away from the road and high enough that it looked like a REAL snake. My hubby wanted a picture, so I grabbed my camera and went back. When I used the zoom and started taking pictures, it became clear that it was just a plastic blow-up snake stuffed into the attic vent. I just can not figure out why someone would want to do that. I mean, I get putting one out to scare the birds away from your fruit, but why stuff one in your attic vent?

Anyway, I started to resize the photos my husband took earlier to show off my newly whacked bangs and I went for a funky look. The irony here is that I never edit pictures for my blog, except to crop them. I am not sure what possessed me to do it; maybe it was the faux snake incident and maybe it was because I looked sick. After a few days of a persistent sinus headache and an almost migraine (I warded it off with Excedrin Migraine), I looked tired and a little scary, even with cosmetics. Either way, the picture clearly shows my self induced haircut, which was the whole point of this exercise.

Is that good enough for you Cyn?

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I wrote up an article about biscornu pincushions and included photos of the actual construction, even though there are a couple of sites out there in French and English already. Check out Bicornu Basics.

I also just finished wrapping a hoop for Cynthia to take with her to EGA National Seminar in Chicago. I decided to stick it in with the patterns I bought at my local needlework shop, Joy’s. I am definitely on a biscornu kick and this is the first time I have bought a cross-stitch pattern in twenty years, so I thought it deserved mentioning here.

I was excited when I found the Elizabeth’s Designs “Dragonfly” on clearance, because I saw it on this blog and thought it was lovely. I am not likely to have her problem, since I tend to be generous with my fabric allowances and I overcast my linen, even on small projects. Anyway, maybe I will get around to stitching it soon.

Edited to add:  Raised by Poodles restitched and finished the Dragonfly pattern and has posted it on her blog.  It looks FABULOUS!  Persistence pays off.

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This is literally a get of bed, read some email, cave in to your friend, run a brush through your hair, then take a self portrait kind of photo. That is the shirt I slept in folks!

Maybe I will get the gumption to actually do my hair and let my husband take a picture sometime this weekend, so you can giggle at my bang butchery.

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