I'm not sure if "swimmingly" is the right word.

But there was some progress made on MOTDB over the weekend...

(Pic is from Flickr, once again stoopid Blogger is trying to rotate it.)

Last night I started another small project, some ornaments for the nephews and nieces. I have some patterns from Better Homes & Gardens titled "Mini-Sprites" -- they are cute little country-style kids in Santa hats holding stars, trees, wreaths, and bells. And they are perfect for the family of one of DH's step-brothers, since there are 4 boy patterns and 4 girls....the family has 3 boys and one girl. (I just hope if they have any more, they are girls!! LOL)

The trouble with mermaids

Having completed everything else on my monthly goals list, last night I forced myself to haul out Mermaids of the Deep Blue. *sigh* And don't get me wrong, I really love this pattern.....but here are my issues.

1) The beads. Gobs and gobs and gobs of 'em. They're beautiful. But this is the first piece I've done with so MANY beads! And I don't know exactly how to handle them. I started thinking I would do all the beading last...but then I realized just how many beads that would entail and how frustrated I was sure to get. So I started beading as I went. Now the beads are making the piece "buckle" funny on my scroll rods, so I cut them all out. And the dilemma persists.
2) The scroll rods. I bought my lovely new floor frame specifically for the mermaids....and they refuse to cooperate (see buckling issues mentioned above). I've resorted to 11"x11" Q-Snaps, but they slide out of the clamp on the stand and are uncomfortable to hold for very long.
3) Mermaid hair. Dude, I'm a swimmer, and I can assure you that underwater, hair does not behave the way Nora Corbett seems to envision her mermaids. I have long hair, and if I'm not wearing a cap, I look more like a flailing seaweed clump than a mermaid with tresses wafting gently in the waves.

So last night, I stitched exactly one length of mermaid hair.

New blog, same projects

As you may have noticed, I decided it was time to update the look of my blog last week...this template makes me very happy (for the time-being, anyway!). I hope it is displaying correctly for everyone else. Also, I lost my "blogs I read" list, and am doing my best to recreate it -- bear with me if you've "disappeared."

In honor of the new magical look around here, I worked on the mermaids this weekend.They really ARE coming along....I added some more beads to the lower tail bit, plus more blue-green fins.

And here is Cathy's RR. I'm hoping to get this finished up next weekend, as it needs to go in the mail by the 15th of November.
Just a bit of grape vine and the house to finish (plus my location, of course)! I think I might add a skinny tree on the left, and maybe a stone path in front of the house....

Making Peace with Beads

Today I worked on MOtDB for a while...not sure what inspired that, but hey, why fight it??? My "need to bead" won out, as you can see...I added just a few! I hate wrestling with the invisible beading thread, but the results are worth it. And I've also given up on getting all the beads on the piece exactly where the pattern shows they "should" be. The darned things are SO tightly packed, and on 32-ct. fabric they just don't fit. So I'm guesstimating and putting the beads on as they fit best. Giving up my perfectionist tendencies actually feels good.... LOL

Crazy, Lazy Weekend

Ugh, why can't I ever have a couple days to just relax?!?!?

Just before lunch on Friday, my husband called and told me he was on his way to the ER with "really terrible stomach pains." When I didn't hear from him again, I called down to the hospital around 2 -- thinking by then he'd be in a room, right? WRONG. I didn't get any real answers until about 5:30, when he finally called me as they were discharging him. Have I mentioned that hospitals suck? Yeah. As for what was wrong with him....he got hit by a really nasty flu bug. And after 6 hours in a triage room with nothing to drink, he was weak and completely dehydrated. When he got home, he pretty much passed out in his recliner. I ran to the grocery store for "sick groceries," and poured Gatorade down his throat whenever he was conscious enough to swallow. He's better now, but it was definitely a weekend to sit around the house and do nothing....

...so I stitched. And I stitched and I stitched. Because stitching is silent and non-intrusive to sleeping sick people. First I worked on the Mermaids.

And then I pulled this teddy bear kit out of the work basket. I can't decide if I really LIKE this little guy, but I hate to toss it at this point. It could make a cute pillow to give as a gift....I have plenty of friends who are still having kids, and it never hurts to have potential baby gifts on hand...

Things are looking....swishy.

I wanted to work on the Mermaids this weekend, and was evidently obsessed with metallics....I worked all the way down to the "S" curve of L's tail! (For some reason, I love getting down to the very bottom of a design. Then I'll work my way up...)

Also, here is the little freebie I'm doing. It is about 4 inches square. It is from Cyberstitchers.com, and I think the designer is Jodi Watson/The Golden Hoop? Anyway, I love both the design and the sentiment.

Starting off 2008 with a plan...or goals, at least

Happy New Year, everyone! Thank you all so much for dropping by throughout the year -- your comments and kind words are always appreciated.

Without further ado, let's get to the monthly recap.
DECEMBER GOALS:
1) Keep working on the Mermaids. Yep.
2) Finish the "Worst Enemy" dragon, so he can be entered in the Silkweaver Showcase. Done!
3) Make a trip to the LNS to have the baby gift framed. I'm waiting on a few special-ordered items, and I need some invisible thread for beading, so hopefully I can kill a couple birds with one stone and not have to tempt myself TOO many times! Check - both the baby gift and my sister's Christmas gift were framed AND picked up, and I got the invisible thread.
4) Lay out and start stitching on the next Neighborhood RR square. No. Sadly, I still haven't received anything for this round of the RR. Right now, there's no way I'll be able to mail anything on January 15.

JANUARY GOALS:
1) Mermaids.
2) Neighborhood Round Robin -- assuming something arrives?
3) Work on/finish the freebie design I started last month.
4) Possibly start a new small something-or-other.

Looking back at 2007, I really didn't get as much finished this year as I'd hoped. The wedding projects -- especially the Celtic knotwork piece -- really consumed my stitching time. Looking at my Project Challenges in the sidebar here, I think I finished about a dozen projects, starting with the "Fairy & the Swan" piece. Not TOO bad, but I'd like to have a few more finishes this year. Stitching has to be fun, though, and that's the important thing!

As far as "New Year's resolutions" go....my big "life" goal is to be more organized. As in, I won't let 3 months worth of bank statements pile up before I reconcile my checking account. And I've already downloaded some software to record and chart my blood sugar readings. Stitching-wise, I want to finish the Mermaids this year. Here they are, after some New Year's stitching.

Pics, pics, pics!

Here you go...the results of a weekend spent at home next to the heater....

1) Finished - baby gift for my friend's new son.

This came out smaller than I'd thought -- it is only about 4"x6". But it will still make a nice gift for the little guy!

2) My "Worst Enemy" dragon. I finished the first line of the quote, and a bit more of the green plus some backstitching.

3) Finally, the Return of the Mermaids!
I made some progress on the right-hand mermaid's tail...and I *blush* cut out the line of beads I added months ago. I've decided I'd rather use invisible beading thread instead of matching DMC colors, which is what I did when I started.

Alright, I'm off to spend the rest of my Sunday night working on an "impulse project"...I felt the urge to do something Christmas-y tonight, so I started the Santa ornament designed by Knotted Tree in this year's JCS Ornie issue. He's very cute!

Lonely Weekend

I've lost my DH to computer games this weekend -- he plays City of Heroes, and evidently this weekend is some kind of "double experience points" event. I must admit, he isn't a stereotypical cave-dwelling, Dorito-munching, Mt. Dew-swilling gamer....and I don't really begrudge him his playing time. Besides, work has been a bit stressful for him lately, and his classes this semester aren't incredibly engaging, so taking the weekend to blow off some steam is probably a good thing for him. And it gives me some time to stitch, watch MY movies, and get a bit of cleaning done around the house!

This morning I put in Pirates of the Caribbean and stitched on the mermaids (appropriately, I think!). Here they are, complete with the spattering of premature beads....
(The beads are on the left side of the left-hand mermaid.) I actually got quite a bit done, mostly on the tail of the larger right-hand girl.

Tonight I broke down and started something new, too.....Cricket Collection's "Old Books" sampler. After a floss toss on a couple different pieces of fabric, I finally settled on a Silkweaver solo that I've had for ages. I think I got it on eBay back when I was looking for a fabric to stitch Butternut Road's "Once Upon a Time" on, but decided this one was too splotchy - it kind of reminds me of an Appaloosa pony. It does, however, work with the bright colors of the Cricket design. I've changed a few colors -- most out of necessity -- and I'm using hand-dyeds where I didn't have the called-for DMC. I didn't make a lot of progress yet, but I'll try to share a pic in a day or 2!

Winter Wonderland

Well, it looks like winter is here in earnest, finally....we have enough snow on the ground to cover the grass in most places, and I'm sure there is more to come! That's what happens when you live on the shore of a Great Lake - until the lake freezes, we'll probably get a few truly horrific blizzards of big, wet and heavy snow. I don't mind it too much, though.....once the shoveling is done, there's nothing to do but curl up and stitch!

Last weekend I got around to putting up the Christmas decorations - our little wall tree and some garland around some archways. I'm not a big Christmas decorator, sadly....although I do love stitching Christmas ornaments! Oh, and on Friday I got a lovely RAK from StephanieC over at the Wagon. She sent me Whispered by the Wind's "Dance of the Autumnal Equinox" and some Piecemakers.

Before I started gift wrapping/packaging the other day, I took this picture of all the little goodies I'm giving away this year. I'm quite proud of myself!


It was a lot of work, but I enjoyed it so much more than shopping......I am NOT a shopper......

After the decorating and wrapping was done, I dove into the Mermaids for a bit - to keep up with my monthly goals. I'm not sure how much more attention they'll get this month, but I made some significant progress in the past few days (I think). My last progress pic was from back in October, if you're keeping tabs!!

Mermaids, Pirates & Stash, Oh My!

Here is your long-awaited updated pic of MOTDB. I think it was Karen who asked about the fabric I'm using - it is a 32-ct. Silkweaver solo lugana. I stitched on it this evening while we watched Pirates of the Caribbean (it was on one of the networks, but we put in our DVD instead!). I really love that movie.....the music is great.

Also, I took pics of the stash I've gotten over the past month (I left out Shepherd's Earth, though - I know I've posted it here before, anyway).

First is Vermillion Stitchery's "The Maiden and the Unicorn" and "The Reading Sampler" from the Cricket Collection. I want to do the Reading Sampler for my mom - the verse about "having a mother who read to me" is VERY appropriate!

The second pic is Just Nan's "Creativity" sampler and a Leisure Arts book called "Special Effects with Ribbons and Beads." I bought the Leisure Arts book because the designs are by Tina Richards of Shepherd's Bush before there was a Shepherd's Bush! There are a couple little "pudgies" that I think are too cute - the peasant man and woman in circles are sweet.

Finally, a bit of the other project I've been working on when I'm not stitching -- a scrapbook for my mom. I'm trying to use pics of her and I and match them up with quotes from books we read when I was small. We read LOTS of books, too....this has turned into a real homework project, as I've been re-reading piles of kiddie lit!! (good stuff, though....Charlotte's Web, The Secret Garden, Stuart Little, the Little House books) I used a Shel Silverstein poem for this page, and I love how it turned out.