Tyler, Marianne and The Farm

I don’t know how it’s possible that I can have a child that is 18 years old! Tyler turned 18 today and we are waiting for him to get home so we can celebrate his birthday. He and a bunch of buddies went to the Detroit Auto Show today (1/2 day of school) and, because of some unexpected snow, frozen roads and SLOW driving conditions, he was late getting home.

I remember the night he was born – it was Bill Clinton’s inaugural party and just before Tyler was born at 11:30 PM, we were watching Bill and Hillary, Al and Tipper dancing in celebration. I mostly remember thinking that Al looked pretty goofy dancing but then the contractions started and the laughter was pretty much over.

Fortunately, Tyler has given us much joy over the years and has made us laugh (and cry too, on occasion) a lot the last 18 years. One of my favorite memories of him is when he was about 6 years old. We went to VA Beach and he and Matt found a bottle in the ocean that had a treasure map inside. They grabbed the bottle, hiding it from all in sight and ran back to the beach to show their dad and grandparents. We immediately began searching for the buried treasure, obviously left by pirates long ago. The boys were digging frantically in the sand, beachcombers were gathering around to see what was going on and suddenly, the boys pulled out a chest full of glittering treasure! It was loaded with silver dollars, gold coins, pearls, chains and other treasures! The gathering crowd was astounded and the boys were jumping up and down with glee and Tyler exclaimed, “This is the best day of my ENTIRE life!” Pure joy.

This is not a look of pure joy:

Happy 18th Birthday, Tyler!

The bottle he found is, as you can likely tell, a salad dressing bottle that I had managed to hide in the back of my bathing suit as I walked into the ocean with the boys. I set it afloat and of course, Tyler found it. The map we had made the night before out of a paper bag we had crumpled and torn and stuffed inside the bottle. The chest was stuffed with coins, jewelry and other treasures from my parents. We still have all the “treasure” and Tyler still has the map and bottle in his room – a sweet reminder of summertime fun!

A message in a bottle.....

The Map:

I am still chomping at the bit to get started on Marianne. But, there was something bugging me about it. I was absolutely in love with the image I saw on the screen when I first saw that sampler pop up. But when I pulled the DMC threads, I just wasn’t feeling it. Could the colors possibly be that far off? They were not the rich, jewel tones that I love and that I felt like I had seen on the screen. I tried to make them work by pulling similarly colored threads using Weeks and GAST (see previous post), thinking the variation would help but frankly, I still didn’t like it. So, back to the drawing board I went. And, after about 1 ½ hours of playing with fibers, I THINK I have it right. What do you think?

If you’re planning on stitching this, let me know - I’d love to know how many of you, like me, just couldn’t stand it and had to stitch her. I’d also love to know how many of you pulled the DMC colors and thought YUCK!!!

One more note about Marianne: I’m waffling on the fabric – it is LL Navy Bean and while I like it; I’m not loving it. I think I may dump it in a vat of coffee and see what happens. Is that crazy? The fibers actually look really good on it but I don’t know if I really like the green/gray cast it has. I know I wanted something more vintagey looking and this isn't it. If I start stitching, it will be too late to do anything ‘cause the fibers will run if I try and stain it. I don’t know…. Someone tell me what to do! Maybe I should just order something else..... any suggestions? I hate not having a store nearby to look at fabrics.

Finally, I’ve made some miniscule progress on The Farm Sampler. Do you see the mistake? Yep, two E’s. Because I HATE frogging, I thought about leaving it but because there’s not that much to remove, I’ll frog it and be happier in the end, I’m sure. I thought the black letters were getting boring - just wait till I get to that over one grass!

Thank you so much for stopping by. I have a few comment questions to get to and I’ll try to do that this weekend. Thanks so much for leaving me a note – it really does make putting your thoughts out for all the world to see, worthwhile. Thanks!

Peace, Terri