A Backyard Visitor

Posted on May 20, 2010 by Jenna Magee

I was glancing out of the kitchen window this afternoon and happened to see a turtle scooting across the backyard at a decent clip. I immediately grabbed my camera and ran out to snap some pictures of him. He was a beautiful box turtle, sitting in the hot sun. He even let me stroke his shell and his outstretched leg, but he drew the line when I touched his head. He promptly retracted everything into his shell. Fortunately, I got some good shots before I tried to pet him. 🙂

Posted in Life in General | 4 Comments

Another Quick Post

Posted on May 19, 2010 by Jenna Magee

So much and yet so little going on. It’s funny how that works, isn’t it?

As far as stitching goes, I’ve started on Thea Dueck’s panel for the Savannah reticule. Which just served to further my understanding that I am a slow stitcher. It’s okay, because I think my results are worth the time, but it certainly doesn’t help me to accomplish massive amounts of stitching in the limited amounts of time that I allot to it. I went to Stitching at the Ford on Friday and got a chance to catch up with Anna. I actually got there before they opened the doors and left right around 10, so I got a good bit of stitching done, which was lovely. The next day, I dragged Terry out to our LNS, The Strawberry Sampler, for their framing sale. I brought along two pieces to be framed. My Vintner’s Sampler by The Sweetheart Tree that I stitched in December of 2006 and my Seasonal Dragons by Sherrie Stepp-Aweau round robin from 2007. I apparently don’t even have a photo of the completed round robin. I had a feeling that I should take a picture of it before I took it in, but I studiously ignored myself. So, I’ll take a pic of it after I get it back. Instead, I only have a picture of my square, from the beginning of the RR. I worked with a woman at the shop named Nancy and she was fantastic. I had the Vintner’s Sampler framed similarly to how the model was matted and framed; I brought the picture from the kit with me. The round robin piece actually just got a frame and glass – no mat. I paid a good deal less than I had expected, even before the 20% sale discount. I’m not sure if it’s good that I overestimated the cost so drastically or not? On one hand, I came out of the experience very pleasantly surprised; on the other hand, I have probably been putting off all sorts of framing because I thought it would be too expensive. Now, I think I have at least one more piece that I would like to finish up and get framed before Christmas. While there, I picked up one kit and two charts. So, I dropped off 2 finished pieces and brought home 3 new ones. 😆 I bought Lizzie Kate’s Dog Lessons for People, Hinzeit’s Brush ‘Em (which will be a gift for my dental hygienist, who is also a good friend; I even know how I want to customize the frame and I hope that Molly at TSS will be able to help me) and Pine Mountain’s My Dad pillow.

I spent all weekend stitching the design for the pillow, finished it on Monday, took pictures and was ready to post them tonight when I just now realized why I had such a problem with the design fitting into the dimensions of the tuck pillow opening. I’ll show a picture, but I think I’m going to restitch it now. The kit came with aida, which I assumed was 14 count, so I substituted a piece of 28 count fabric. I also had a problem with one of the thread colors in the kit not working very well and not having enough of another color. So, generally, the kit was a miserable flop, except for the design and the pillow. Now, in looking it up on their website, I see that it was actually 16 count aida, which explains why my completed stitching didn’t fit the pillow. Rats. I was going to send it to my dad for his birthday next week. I guess I’ll be redoing it on 32 count and mailing it with his father’s day card instead. Bummer.

Here’s my current attempt:

While I’m at it, I think I might make another color change and get rid of the green, replacing it with a dark chocolate color. Might as well, right? Hopefully, I’ll have a new version to post in a couple of days.

Posted in Life in General, Stitching | 2 Comments

First Finished Savannah Panel

Posted on May 10, 2010 by Jenna Magee

Yes, I have another finish to show off already – woohoo! To be truthful, I only had a couple dozen stitches left to finish off the top portion, but it’s finished nonetheless.

This is the first panel from the Lady’s Reticule project from Stitching in Savannah that I have managed to finish stitching. It was designed by Patricia Bage of Patricia Ann Designs. I didn’t stitch it exactly according to the design, but what’s new, right? Hopefully, Patricia won’t mind!

Next up on the scroll bars is the panel designed by Thea Dueck of the Victoria Sampler. I needed to pull a couple of colors to customize the female stitcher who is as the center of the design, but I’ll be ready to start stitching the next time I have time to pick it up.

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Spring Biscornu Finished

Posted on May 9, 2010 by Jenna Magee

I managed to sew up my version of the Victoria Sampler Spring Biscornu last night and snapped some good (at least, I think they’re good) pictures of them outside this morning. The colors are actually fairly accurate, which makes me exceedingly happy because these subtle colors would have been easily washed out and lost. Thea created a beautiful design, as always. It’s funny because, when she first announced the contest in late February, I thought that the May entry deadline seemed silly because it was so far out. Little did I know that I would barely make it!

I didn’t have buttons of the right size and color combination to be able to use on this one, but I did have large Swarovski bicones that seemed to fit the bill. The backing fabric isn’t quite right, either, but it’s hard to have enough colors on hand to work for every project. I did the best I could with what I had. And that will just have to be good enough. 🙂

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Drive-By Blogging

Posted on May 8, 2010 by Jenna Magee

I’m just popping in on my way to bed to post another finish. This is the other side of my spring biscornu, with the more exciting hardanger sections. It looks a little wonky in the scan, but I don’t have time to fix up everything to lay nicely. It will all pull out of shape a bit when I finish it anyway. Oh, and those Dove’s Cotes (the part in the center of the hardanger section with the bowed out edges) were a bear. But I’m always up for a good challenge. Now I just need to go back through my first Janice Love hardanger book (Hardanger Basics and Beyond – if you want to learn hardanger or just how to execute it better, this is THE authoritative resource) and figure out what is wrong with my stupid Dove’s Eyes!

Next up, I have to squeeze some time into my busy gaming schedule this weekend to finish this thing into an actual biscornu. But first, bed. Good night!

Posted in Stitching | 2 Comments

Stitching Blogger’s Question – May 2010

Posted on May 4, 2010 by Jenna Magee

I’m so glad that Lee has chosen to resurrect the Stitching Blogger’s Question. This way, I might at manage to post at least once a month.

Suppose we say that there are two types of stitchers.

There are those who enjoy the “process” of stitching. They stitch for stitching’s sake and if something gets finished, so much the better, but it’s not necessarily the end goal. Primarily, it’s the application of needle and thread to cloth that makes them happiest.

Then there are those who are “project” stitchers. They move steadily through their projects, certainly enjoying their stitching time, but finding their greatest joy in the completed stitching.

If you had to pick one to describe yourself, which type of stitcher would you be? I imagine that we could all say that we fall somewhere in between, but really think hard about this and try to pick just one. And once you’ve decided whether you’re a Process or Project stitcher, tell us if your recognize that approach in other parts of your life.

I enjoy the process and use it to relax me, but I’m in it for the finish. Granted, I tend to do nothing with those finishes (which reminds me, I need to get my behind to Strawberry Sampler this month with the two projects I picked to have framed), but the bulk of the satisfaction for me is just to say I finished it. The process is important to my sanity, but what continues to drive me is the end product. I firmly believe that this is why I stitch so many smalls. With my limited stitching time, I get the most bang for my buck with small projects. Otherwise, I would have to strangle someone because it takes me forever to finish a large project. I even dread doing medium sized projects nowadays.

Someday, though, I fully intend to stitch all of the Mirabilia’s that I have. I am just going to have to break the design into sections and consider the completion of each section as a monumental finish itself. Someday when I’m able to have that brick-and-mortar needlework shop that I’ve been dreaming of and might actually have a little downtime between customers. Yeah right, who am I kidding? At least I might have some time off to stitch after work? Maybe?

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Where Have I Been?!?

Posted on May 3, 2010 by Jenna Magee

And the answer is – I don’t know! In all honesty, I spend WAY too much time on Facebook. I really need to tone that down a little bit, but several of the games that I play have this “hook” where bad things happen if you don’t log into them once a day. So, I do. Those are actually the easy ones, where I can stop in briefly and be done with it. There are others, though, that I have allowed to be far too time-consuming. I have to admit that it is much easier to update people with a quick sentence or two every couple of days than it is to write a full blog entry. So, for those of you who still keep up with me, if I’m not friends with you on Facebook already and you are on there, send me a friend request or let me know and I’ll send you one.

Add to that Facebook addiction a plethora of overtime at work (being salaried sucks) and you get very little “me” time. In fact, most of my downtime lately has come courtesy of headaches which keep me off of the computer. This has allowed me time to read, which is something I love to do, but haven’t had/made time for in quite a while. Jenn (don’t go to her blog looking for any content, as she’s gotten caught up in Facebook, as well), Annette, and several other bad, bad, evil ladies have coerced me into the lives of the Black Dagger Brotherhood, on which I have become hooked. I’ve read the first two books in the series and even mailed my extra copy of the first one (I bought one at an actual brick-and-mortar bookstore and then promptly ordered the set from Amazon) to Cathy, whom I think may also now be hooked. Just passing along the evil, I guess. I also snuck a Monica Ferris book into the mix yesterday. Someday I will get back to Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series. I have several books to catch up on before I make it to the latest one, which was actually written by another fantasy author using the late Jordan’s notes. There are still 2 books left to close out the series; Jordan certainly was good about leaving a lot of loose ends from book to book. I just really have not felt that I have the time to sit down and get into a complex, 900+ page book. You really need to allot a good chunk of time to really immerse yourself in that world properly. So, rather quick and light material is just where I’m at right now.

I’ve been considering getting a Kindle from Amazon so that I can carry any book I like with me, but Amazon is currently is an argument with one of the big publishing houses so I can’t get books like the latest in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. Thanks, Steve Jobs. Way to be a jerk and ruin it for the consumers.

I’m hoping that Amazon has worked out an agreement before my birthday so that I can get a Kindle and save some room on my bookshelves for my existing collection.

On the stitching front, I am working on my entry for the Spring Biscornu contest on the Victoria Sampler Yahoo! group. The deadline is May 10th, which is rapidly approaching. I originally thought that it was funny that the deadline was so far out from the beginning of the contest, but now I am very grateful. It took me a couple of hours just to kit up my selection of fabric and thread colors for the design, then I modified the design of the hardanger sections, only to realize after stitching one side that what I did wasn’t very different from Thea’s design. Rats. I’m hoping that what I came up with for the other side of the biscornu will be a little more effective.

And just to prove that I have actually stitched something, I ran upstairs and took a scan of side 1 of the biscornu:

The effect of the overdyed pearl cottons in the hardanger sections ended up being way too subtle, as did some of the floss colors that I chose to coordinate with them. Unfortunately, this seems to happen to me with fair regularity. You’d think I would have learned by now, but they truly do look better in person, in my opinion. The trick will be to get decent photographs of them for the contest. I see special lighting and Terry’s light box in my future.

Posted in Life in General, Stitching | 4 Comments

It’s Raining Toads

Posted on April 8, 2010 by Jenna Magee

No, seriously. I think it might actually have been raining toads a little bit ago. We just got home in the rain to pass 7 toads on the side of the road (some alive and some, sadly, not). I was dying to jump out and scoop up each one and put them back into the grass. So, when we got halfway down our driveway and I spotted one hopping merrily along, I did just that. He was a cold little bugger, rough, bumpy and brown. With him safe in my hands, I waved to Terry to continue down the driveway, only to have him stop near the garage and get out to rescue another one. We brought the two together (you know, for company) and set them free in the grass. I continued to keep watch while we saw another little one moving swiftly down the other side of the driveway. After Terry finally parked the car, I also rescued the fastest worm I have ever seen.

Oh, and there were also at least 3 bunnies that came flying out from the area just behind our mailbox as we were turning in. Add all of that to the 2 deer that we saw trotting down the sidewalk along West Chester Pike near Anna‘s house a couple of hours earlier and it’s a been a wild night. 😆

Posted in Life in General | 1 Comment

Photo Update

Posted on April 4, 2010 by Jenna Magee

Hang onto your hats, I have several photos locked and loaded for this post.

First up is my current stitching progress. I have finished most of this panel of the Savannah project – this picture shows the completed portion. I’m working on a section at the top now that should actually be done with just another hour or so of work.

Photo removed. See the finished piece here.

Next are several pictures that I snapped of the girls today. The first four are mostly of Lily and were all taken with my BlackBerry, which explains the odd lighting and quality. I have the top one loaded as the background for my BlackBerry, but the closeup of Lily is my absolute favorite. She’s just so irresistibly sweet. And, if you look closely at her pupils, you can see that her eyes are actually off-center. Kinda explains some things, doesn’t it? 😆

And the next four are of Abby, but with a real camera.

They both have bone bits in their ruff, so that’s why their chests look a little matted. We give them Booda bones, so it’s mostly starch and gets really sticky. It kinda makes a mess, but they are the only things we’ve been able to get Lily to chew on and even then, she will only chew on an end after Abby has polished off 2/3 or more of it.

They are also in the process of shedding, so there has been a lot of brushing recently. Lily is quite patient about being groomed, fortunately. Which is amazing in itself, since she is so touchy about just about everything else in existence. But hey, don’t look a gift pup in the mouth, right?

Isn’t Abby just a lovely, perfect example of the Pomeranian breed? She truly would have been a champion if she had been shown. She’s just a gorgeous ball of puff! I love my two girls!

Well, that’s my disorganized, rambling stream of thought. Have a great week!

Posted in Going to the Dogs, Stitching | 3 Comments

The Redhead

Posted on March 30, 2010 by Jenna Magee

Yep, I did it. Actually, Terry did most of it, but we took some time out Sunday and dyed my hair red. I like it, but I’m not exactly used to it yet. I’m not expecting the color when I look in the mirror (which is fairly infrequently anyway), so it still takes me by surprise when I see it.

Not many people have commented on it, but then I worked with mostly men, so that’s not a shocker. The coworkers who have commented so far were both women. 😆

As I’ve found with other level 2 colorants, my hair felt better after the coloring than it did before. Which makes me want to laugh. I just bought some extra conditioner on the way home today, too, so it will feel even nicer after a couple of days.

Now, if only I could get my face to soften up. I started using a new acne treatment regimen about a week ago and it’s starting to catch up with my skin. I noticed the other day that my skin was drying out, but I’ve been using moisturizer every morning, as much for the SPF as for the hydration. Last night my face was a little sore when I laid down for bed and then this morning, it felt like it was sunburned. So, I guess I need to lay off of the cleansing a little bit until my skin gets used it to it. That and I think I need to order some moisturizer from the same company, as well. They have one called a “skin soother.” It’s just a shame that I have to back off when I’m starting to see some results. Of course, things are also bubbling to the surface as the bacteria is being cleared out, so it’s almost getting worse at the same time. All to be expected, but I need the sensitivity to come under control before sailing season starts.

Enough about all of that, though. Here are a couple of photos of me with my new hair. I don’t like having my picture taken, if I can avoid it, so don’t expect too many more. 😛 You don’t notice the color change as much with my hair curly as with it straight. Part of it is lighting and background color, but still. I think it looks half-decently plausible as a natural hair color for me. Considering my Irish heritage and that I probably would have been born a redhead if the genes didn’t skip a generation, it actually could have been possible, under different circumstances. Now, if only the dye had taken properly at the roots on both sides of my head, it might actually look natural, as well… Next time.

Posted in Life in General | 10 Comments