Finally....

I am sure that by now you are sick to death of hearing about my red floor and this will be the last post about that, I promise. But.... I do want to show you how the room looks with all my stuff back in the room. It really is amazing how much you can fit in a tiny space. I have never been of the "Less is more" school of thought and that is clearly reflected in this room. Best to show it to you now before it gets REALLY cluttered (and messy).

This is what you see when you first open the door. The rest of the pictures will take you around the room and back out the door. The chair is one I moved from my family room to my craft room because (1) It's comfortable and (2) How could I resist throwing a small check in against the big check pattern? My mom slip-covered this for me a few years ago and I still love it!




The two thrift store finds are finished and in the craft room. Can you spot them? Here's a close-up of the little cabinet thingy:


I forgot to take a pic of the note pad holder but it's above the light switch as you go into my craft room. What do you think?
Anyway, I am heading down there now as it looks like it might start to rain.... I can feel my stitching spirit returning! First up - my April block on the PS stitch-a-long with Julie and then it's on to the ABC Hornbook. Elizabeth is being put away for a while - she's tired and needs a rest!

Finally, before I go for the day, I'd like to show you this sweet picture of a nesting family of sparrows we have in our back yard. The birdhouse has never before been occupied and we are all enjoying watching the mom and dad protect their nest. Not the clearest picture but can you see Momma heading into the house?
Have a great week, thanks for stopping by and for all your comments ~ I really appreciate them!
Peace,
Terri

I am Seeing RED!

I am seeing RED ~ in good ways and bad! First the good red! My craft room floor is done! The corners matched up and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out. Here's a quick pick of the floor.

I'll post a picture of the whole thing in the next few days after I get everything loaded back in there.

Next, I finished up the little BBD freebie/contest chart (I feel my mojo coming back!). The rules said you had to add a bird (I hope two birds are okay, and add a family name). I made mine a tribute to my Mamaw who was my mother's mom. She was a beautiful woman, with dark hair and dark eyes from East Tennessee. She had a hard life; she raised 5 kids, had a husband who could be abusive and she died young ~ in her mid 50's. I changed the sampler a bit because I wanted to include her birth year but keeping true to the original, I had her stitch this when she was 9 years old. I added the two blackbirds (from another BBD pattern; Where My Heart Blooms) because I liked the way they balanced the piece and I loved how the black popped against the reds. I stitched this on 30 Count R&R, Korty's Special Blend using NPI Light, Medium and Dark Clove. I stitched the last two letters of Henderson over one so it would fit on that line and I also stitched the birds over one as well. Thanks Barb and Alma; I love this little chart!



Thanks to all my new prim blog friends, I'm searching out the thrift stores with a new eye. Here are a couple of things I found today that I intend to paint and prim up. I'll show you the finished products when I post pics of my loaded (overloaded, really) craft room. The little book/drawer stand was $7 and the note pad holder was $2.



And now the reason I'm seeing RED in a not so good way..... if any of you have ever looked at my photo album on the right side of my blog you will see that I have had quite a few things framed. On Tuesday, Sue (my framer) called to tell me that the store she works in is CLOSING! Oh NO!!! They were all told on Monday night and she called me on Tuesday to let me know. I can't even give her the little BBD piece I just finished and I was SO looking forward to picking out the perfect frame for Elizabeth Savilles. Yes, there are other places that frame things but nobody had the frame selection Sue carried. I am sick. I am mostly sick about all the gals that are now out of a job. Sue, Andrea, Erin, Helen and all the others that work there are so wonderful and I feel so badly for them. This is a shop where they knew me by name and were always friendly and helpful. My husband could always go in there and they'd help him find the perfect gift (usually a bead for my Troll Bead bracelet). My husband thought that I was single handedly keeping them in business but apparently not. I'm not sure now what will happen to the cute downtown in which this store was located and not sure at all what I'll do for framing.......

It's a beautiful day here in SE Michigan - it's time to get outside! Have a glorious weekend!

Peace,
Terri





It's a beutiful day here in Michigan and I must get back outside. Have a great weekend everyone!

What's wrong with this picture?

Honestly! I haven't stitched much lately and when I do stitch, I don't do it correctly. On Saturday, we were at my BIL's house and rather than play cards, I stitched. As I was stitching the flowers in the basket I just kept thinking, "Why in the world would Lizzy have stitched these petals in a cream color?" Even a young girl should know better - these look like they've died on the vine or been soaked in bleached and drained of all color. But, I rechecked the symbol and was certain I had it right so I kept going. Because I really can't count very well (I know - why in the world do counted thread embroidery if you can't count, right? It is a mystery, for sure!) but, because I can't count, by the time I finished the first flower I was off somewhere and wouldn't you know it, I was off waaaaay back at the beginning. So - a froggin' I did go. Of course, NOW would have been the time to re- question the awful flower colors, but did I? NO! So, I re-stitched the first one again, did the next two, finally started on the basket last night and THEN, looked at the cover pic! Lizzy wasn't dumb, I AM!!!! Of course she wouldn't have done beige flower petals - WHO would DO THAT??? They're UGLY!!!!! So, I'm about to go froggin' again. The petals are red! I know, I hear you; of course they are!!! I swear, I've lost my mojo and apparently, it isn't coming back - if you find it, please send it back because this is getting really distressing....
The good news is, my floor is almost done. I am going to go down and put one more coat of red on the last set of squares, then do some white touch up where the paint pulled up, then varnish the whole thing in the next couple of days and hopefully be done soon. How do people finish projects so quickly? Do they do them well? Do they have all the time in the world? I obviously do not use my time wisely or this would have been done. Unfortunately for me, each process was a long one but I am thrilled with how it's looking. Hopefully the full unveiling will be soon.

What do you think the odds are that the squares are going to match up corner to corner when I pull up the tape????

Peace,
Terri

Happy Fridays are Good Fridays!

This has been a fun day! I was off work today so Julie, her DD Meghan and I all met in Holly to go to Holly Hill Primitives! to shop at the most wonderful prim, antique store. I met Dawn via her blog and had such fun meeting her and her assistant, Debbie. You must go, if you ever get the chance!


Dawn is on the left and that's me, double chin and all, on the right!

Julie and I bought all kinds of goodies - it's probably a good thing for me that this darling shop isn't closer to me than it is.


That's BFF Julie on the left with her sweet Meghan between the two of us (I never realized I was quite as short as I am!). That big, kind of green, taupe colored quilt rack behind us came home with me. I LOVE it! It fit perfectly between the posts of our bed and I can't wait for Rob to hang it. I felt bad though because as they were taking it down, a candle got broken. Glad I wasn't the one trying to maneuver that thing off the wall.

I also bought this little footstool that will eventually make it up to my bedroom as well.



Those are the "big" purchases. I also came home with a few other goodies:

Another night light to add to my "collection" ~ I have such a "thing" for night lights....


a couple of cute bags to hand from my new rack:


an antique towel holder and a towel to go on it:



and finally, this cute little pin cushion, scissors holder that hangs around your neck! How cute is that? I can see making some of these with stitched pieces to give as gifts!

Here's a shot of the rack that Julie bought for her craft room. That's Meghan holding it - I thought she looked like an angel with big wings - a faceless angel, yes, but an angel.



Finally, here's a pic of Matt headed off to Spring Break. He's excited - I'm panic stricken. I don't know how I'm going to sleep for the next week - I may need some "mother's little helpers"....



So, while not much (any) stitching or floor painting got done, I had one heck of a Good Friday! I met a new friend, hung out with a best friend and her sweet daughter and spent money (that part I love, Rob - not so much)!

Thanks so much to all of you who leave a comment ~ I so appreciate it. I hope you all have a wonderful Easter full of blessings!
Peace,
Terri

Odds and Ends

Hey everybody! Happy Tuesday! It is so cold here in Michigan - the flurries are flying right now and we still have snow on the ground in many areas. I, like everyone else I know, will be so glad when Spring finally gets here. We have had snow on Easter in past years - I can remember more than a few egg hunts where Matt and Ty were traipsing through the snow to find eggs. Lime green eggs don't hide nearly so well in snow as they do in new, Spring grass!

Today, I actually had some time to stitch at lunch and wouldn't you know - I forgot my stitching bag at home. I talked Julie into running over to our NSLLNS (not so local local needlework store) and a two hour lunch later - this is what I came home with.

Oh, this is not even what I ran to the NSLLNS to get - I went there to get some more floss for Lizzy but found this stuff too! I've been wanting to get this issue of S&NQ because Jennifer Core has a great article about Tennessee samplers in it and there's even a wonderful chart of a Little Dog Sampler called the 1831 Sarah Harriet Stephenson Sampler. This is a sampler found in Middle Tennessee; I'm originally from East Tennessee but I'd really love to add this to my sampler collection one of these days.

You will notice that I added another chart from The Primitive Needle to my collection. Love, love, love Lisa's charts! When I'll do these isn't the important question! The important question is, why did I wait so long? I wish I stitched faster ('course if I'd get off this computer, that'd help)!
I also added the LHN From Sea to Shining Sea (Sea2Sea) charts as well (the first two, anyway). I fell in love with these when they first came out thinking they'd be perfect for my office. Watching Sabine
stitch this - I finally gave in. But, I was initially put off, and still am somewhat, about the way these are priced. By the time you buy each and every chart, you've invested a lot of money. The main problem I have with this is the chart is not much to speak of - the paper it's printed on is nothing special. You do get the silks but only enough to stitch with one thread over 2 on 32 count linen. It looks to me like the pricing on this could have been a lot better - why not throw in the border chart, at the very least? Am I the only one that's annoyed by this kind of pricing? I don't mean to rant, and I did cave and buy them in the end, but I just don't think the pricing is exactly fair on these. So, what is a girl to do but this: When I'm done, I'll be giving them away as a group - maybe a little drawing here. Don't hold your breath for that though - this'll take me a while to stitch and buy each house chart! Okay, I'm done ranting!
I also bought some fabric to stitch Sea2Sea on, 32 count lambswool - 'course that was before I realized I'd only get enough floss to stitch this with one thread - ARGH!!!! Oh, wait, I said I was done ranting......
I also added a lovely little La-D_Da chart to my stash that I'd like to stitch for us one day. This looked like a good traveling piece so next time we go to Virginia, maybe I'll take it. You can see it HERE Isn't it cute!?

What else, the floor's still not done - won't be done this weekend, I'm afraid either. However, I did get some painting done - nope, not the floor but this little cabinet:



It used to look like this:

I love how it turned out! I've got the blues 'cause I'm not getting much stitching done but I've also got a case of the "reds" apparently!

This is my miniscule progress on Lizzy - not much, as you can tell but it'll get done eventually.


That's it for now! Thanks for stopping by and for all your wonderful comments! Have a great week and a lovely Easter!
Peace,
Terri

Running, Taping and Painting - Not much Stitching

I have to tell you all about my dad! He just ran his first 10k marathon in Richmond, Virginia last weekend. He'll be 73 on the 8th and he ran it in 1 hour and 20 seconds! He was a bit disappointed in his time as he was hoping to break an hour but I say Whoo Hoo to you, Dad! Very impressive for someone who has had a quadruple bi-pass, followed by angioplasty and has never been a runner until recently. I'm very proud of you!! It's just downright impressive - it might kill me. If it didn't kill me, my legs would be so sore the next day I couldn't move. He started working for the Petersburg YMCA, part time a few years ago and became a certified fitness instructor. He's in better shape now than he was 40 years ago and jumping out of airplanes. If you're in the Petersburg, VA area, stop in the "Y" and say hey! Tell him Terri sent you!

Click to see a bigger image of this handsome man!


Sorry ladies - he's married!!!!

Most of the day today has been spent taping off my craft room floor so that I could paint. Not being a left brain thinker (is that right? Left brain is analytical, right?), this was hard for me to figure out. See, at first I just thought I'd tape the whole thing off, paint all the red squares corner to corner and be done! Julie (who is a left brain thinker) reminded me that the tape is going prevent the corners from being able to match up. DUUUUUUUHHHH!!!! Anyway, after much taping, hair pulling, tape pulling (and pulling up of white paint) and then more taping, I finally got started. There is definitely more tape on the floor than needed to be there but I only realized part way through that I didn't need to tape off every row since I couldn't paint that row anyway. Once all of these squares have dried and cured for a few days, I'll pull the tape (and hopefully not the paint) and then tape some more to do the final red squares. I had intended to make the squares a bit smaller but once I realized the amount of taping I was going to have to do, I changed my mind and went with a 12 x 12 inch "tile". Here are a few progress pictures.

Blue tape:

More blue tape:


This is what one coat of red paint looks like:


one more coat of red:


I'll add one or two more coats of red tomorrow and then let it dry for a few days. Hopefully by next weekend I can put a final coat of poly on it and be DONE!

During the drying period today I ran out to the thrift stores to see what I could find. Not much, but I did find this little piece that I think I'll sand, paint and use to store some of my stitching smalls. Hopefully it will look better than it does now. Of course, it was only 50 cents so not much lost if I do screw it up. I never fancied myself an artist and believe me, I am not - can't draw worth a lick and have no imaginative thoughts of my own. But, I can slap some paint on something and if it doesn't look perfect, I can call it primitive and be done!



Patti asked me a couple of questions on my last post so Patti, this note's for you!

The glass thingy holding my scissors is a flower frog. They are used to hold flowers at the bottom of a vase but now of course, I'm using them to hold scissors. Remember, I have no original thought so I can't take credit for this clever idea. I saw it, long before I started blogging, on a French stitchers blog, I think. I wish I could remember whom that was so I could give her credit. I found this one at an antique market but they're often on ebay and I'm sure you can find one from a seller from the UK.

The "white' heart scissor fob is actually a pink heart if I'm looking at the right one (just to the left of the big red and yellow bead?).
I bought the heart bead that a local artist made and then made the fob. I made all of the beaded fobs myself.

To paint those boxes is quite easy...... put your base coat of paint on the box. I use a sponge "brush" and use "Americana" brand craft paint. I'm sure any acrylic paint would work. Then, once that dries, I added my second color. While the second layer was still damp, I used steel wool to pull off some of the color. I tried sandpaper but it took off too much paint and I didn't like the look. After the steel wool, I used a craft varnish and called it a day. On a couple of the boxes I used an almost dry paintbrush to add some color. It's a play/learn as you go process. I also lined the inside with scrapbooking paper. I made one for a friend last summer, not quite the same technique, but close. I waxed hers rather than using the varnish and loved how that looked too but it took several applications and I'm into quick! The boxes are just those standard cardboard variety you can find at a craft store. Give it a try - it's easy!

Have a great rest of the weekend - blessings to you all on Palm Sunday and I'll check in again soon. Thanks for all your wonderful comments - I really appreciate them!

Peace,
Terri

Miniscule Progress

Well, I am plugging along slowly, very slowly, on Elizabeth. I just don't have much time to stitch right now so it's a slow go. But, I do love the colors and am now more excited about working on it. I'm still itching to get started on the The ABC Hornbook but am afraid that as soon as I start that, I won't pick poor old Lizzy up again. I can't stand having WIPs laying around and I don't do well with rotations, either. I guess, because of my work schedule, (I am generally at work at 6:30 AM and don't usually get out till around 5:00 PM or later) I just don't get to spend enough time stitching. Truth is, by the time I get home, prepare dinner (you know, stopping for pizza, laying it out on the counter and calling "Dinner's ready!"), do a load of laundry (yeah, okay, that's a stretch - I don't generally get too much laundry done during the week), get the dinner stuff cleaned up (it takes a lot out of a gal you know - crushing those pizza boxes and disposing of them can be treacherous - paper cuts????), and then finally, finding a spare minute to sit down to stitch, I just don't get that much done. I can get in about an hour or an hour and a half of stitch time at the most, before I'm dozing off. Unfortunately for me, an hour and a half does not produce very much..... I'm slow ~ in more ways than one some might tell you! Anyway, here's what I've managed to get done on Lizzy since the last time I posted.



A few of you saavy stitching gals have noticed that the colors on my Lizzy look slightly different than the pattern. Yep, I changed 'em up just a little bit. I went to my not so local LNS to get the floss and they were out of most of them. So.... I looked at the front cover and started picking colors. They did have the Weeping Willow from OWS but it was just too taupe for my fabric so I swapped it for Weeping Willow from Crescent Colors. The pattern calls for all Olde Willow Stitchery fibers for all colors. The fibers I am using are:

ILO OWS Emblem of innocence Rose, I'm using CC Blushing Beauty
ILO OWS Philadelphi Red, I'm using CC Apple Fritter
ILO OWS Quaker Swan, I'm using CC Green Onion
ILO OWS Bucks County Red, I'm using CC Cherry Tomato
ILO OWS Providence Brown, I'm using CC Cocoa Bean
ILO OWS Weeping Willow, I'm using CC Weeping Willow (the CC is a lot more green than the OWS Weeping Willow which is a lot more taupe in color). This explains my parrots looking so funky, but I love 'em!

Painting my craft room floor is taking more effort than I anticipated. After 4 coats of white, I'm finally ready to start putting in the red blocks. I expect this will be a slow go as I'll have to do very thin coats to keep it from bleeding and - I cant' do them all at once because the tape will not allow the squares to match up corner to corner. Oh well.... it'll get done eventually. I did move my stitching chair to our bedroom so I would have a place to stitch but I don't feel quite as productive there. Plus, I like having all my stitchy things around me when I'm working. The floor will get done but WHEN?????




The other thing I've done lately (remember, the stitching mojo isn't quite back) is to paint some primitive style boxes. This is my first ever attempt at doing these so don't look too closely. I think they're okay though and I think I'll try my hand at a few more. The blue is not quite as neon as the pic looks IRL. That's Miss Pitts standing next to the boxes. She's a punchneedle pattern from CHS and I just love her. She's stuffed with lavender and she still smells sweet.




Oh, and one more thing, all you lovers of the Hawk Run Hollow series: I just read on Gio's Blog that Kathy is working on Christmas in HRH!!!! Christmas is my favorite thing and I'm just imagining candlelit houses with wreaths, feather trees and folksy Santa's. Can't WAIT to see this one!! I've searched high and low for a reference to this but can't find it anywhere except on Gio's blog. If you find it, let me know!

Until next time, have a great weekend and thanks so much for all your comments! As I'm sure you know, it sure is a kick when you see that someone has taken the time to leave a comment. It's like getting a little present! FuN!

Peace,
Terri