Blog Upgrade Completed

Terry happened to ask where I was with upgrading the test copy of my blog, so I went ahead and upgraded the test copy tonight. Everything went well, I settled on a new theme and customized it the way I wanted it (well, almost… I would prefer the sidebar to be on the right side), so I went ahead and upgraded my blog for real. Feel free to tell me what you think!

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A New Finish – Even Finish-Finished!

A quick post today. I’ve been having severe muscle spasms in my neck, shoulders and back and am now on a muscle relaxant and a pain killer to try to manage whatever is going on. I’ve also been told by my doctor to stay out of work until at least Monday. So, I am trying to limit my computer time a bit. In addition, I’m a little fuzzy, so I can’t work on my model stitching right now, which means it’s only personal stitching for me right now. Bummer. ๐Ÿ˜‰

As a result, I finally finished that stupid little Just Nan design that I keep having problems with. Okay, I shouldn’t call the design stupid, I think it was just me who was stupid. Anyway, it’s done and while I was at it, I decided to go ahead and finish it. So, here’s Just Nan’s Cherub Garden:

Finished into its WhimZi frame:

I also finished another WhimZi into its frame. I completed the stitching on this one months ago, but didn’t finish it for whatever reason. This is Just Nan’s Flower Girls:

That’s it for now. I have ideas for a couple of more posts, so you’ll continue to hear from me, hopefully regularly.

Posted in Stitching | 7 Comments

Meet Abby and Lily

As many of you know, my heart was truly broken when we had to let our dear Phoebe go this past August. Despite the incredible pain that her passing brought us, we knew that we would get more dogs. Having a beloved furbaby as part of your family brings so much joy to your life that it becomes incredible empty without one. Our poor, dearest Phoebe had been sick for quite a while and I had been doing research off and on for years, looking into Pomeranian breeders. We stumbled upon Phoebe quite by accident. We were living in our first apartment together at the time and were fairly fresh out of college. Our downstairs neighbors bought a Pom named Daphne who was just the cutest thing and we decided we might like to have one of our own. Of course, Daphne turned out to be a drastically oversized Pom purchased from a pet store (gasp!) who, while we moved away before she reached full size, had to have topped out near 20 pounds. Definitely not within the breed standard of 2 to 8 pounds. Of course, Phoebe topped out at 10 pounds, so she wasn’t withing the standard, either. But I digress. We just happened to pick up a newspaper, looked at the ads and found some Pomeranian pups for sale not to far away. We went to see them one night after work and there were only two left by that time, both females. One was a red sable (I believe) and the other was a lovely orange who came home with us that night. I remember that she was much more energetic than the other, more friendly and more outgoing. She chewed a little bit on the tiny Nylabone that I had brought with us and she peed on the floor near me. Little did I know that was most likely a sign of the housebreaking battles that lay ahead of us. Here’s a hint – don’t bother to paper train a puppy if your end goal is to have them go outside. Just take them straight outside. You’ll save yourself a lot of hassle. Phoebe paper trained immediately. The transition from there to outside was a nightmare.

But, again, I digress. When Phoebe passed, I began the search in earnest for a local breeder who might fill the huge void left in the wake of Phoebe’s death. Through the wonders of the internet, I found a woman who lives an hour and a half away from us. I began a series of regular phone calls with her to discuss our situation, see if we might be acceptable, potential parents to two of her pups and what stock she had available. Yes, you read that correctly, I said two pups. You see, we decided a couple of years before Phoebe died that it would be really nice if she had a companion. However, we felt that introducing a new puppy at that point would be difficult and unfair to Phoebe, not just because of her age and her condition, but also because she was used to be an only “child.” So, we decided at that point that when we got our next addition to the family, there would actually be two additions. The breeder I spoke to had 3 females available when I spoke to her. At that time, I wasn’t ready yet to reintroduce dogs into our home. The pain was far too fresh and we were about to go to Disney for a week and a half, so the timing just wasn’t right. When we got home, though, the house just felt far too empty and I figured it was time to go see what the breeder was like and meet her dogs. We scheduled an appointment for Saturday, October 3rd.

When we left that morning, I was still quite uncertain about the prospect of new pups. I wasn’t sure that the breeder would accept us (she’s notoriously picky about who she sells her Poms to) and I wasn’t totally sure I was ready. Nonetheless, we packed up Phoebe’s crate and traveled north, even stopping at the local pet store to grab another crate for a second pup and a couple of Nylabones, since they had worked so well with Phoebe. I was incredibly nervous, unsure of where we were going and what to expect once we got there. We parked and went to the gate of a nice-sized, fenced in yard with a Pom garden flag and dog warnings posted. As soon as we reached the gate, there was an absolute swarm of fluff balls there to check us out, all barking at the top of their lungs. Opening the gate and pushing out way in without managing to let any of them out was quite a daunting task. She has over 20 dogs at her place! What a sight! We introduced ourselves, met a few of the dogs and, before I knew it, we were sitting in the yard with a dog in each of our laps. The two she had waiting for us were named Lily and Minibites. Yes, Minibites. Don’t ask. Poor girl was in heat for the first time and the males were absolutely frantic. They wanted her like you wouldn’t believe, so Terry served as her protector the entire time. I held for a little bit, at one point, only to have one of the males suddenly jump into my lap with her. I had Lily in my lap for a while, but once I put her down, she was quite aloof and wouldn’t come over to me. We spent several hours there and I still wasn’t certain, but Terry had known all along that we were coming home with two girls that day. And so, finally, we did. The breeder was incredibly generous, giving us everything to get started, from food, to bowls, to a bigger crate that could carry them both at the same time. We packed them up (having to run after Lily, of course, the little bugger), said our goodbyes and started the trip home. Oh my, was it a nerve-wracking trip. I was so nervous! Poor Lily, having never traveled in a car before (as we later found out), threw up 7 times on the way home. So, her joyous homecoming was being pulled out of the crate and plopped straight into a bathtub. No chance to get acclimated first; she was coated, and Abby was dirty, too. Welcome home, kids! LOL. The second thing we did, after getting them cleaned up, was to rename Minibites. Terry looked on the internet for female Irish names and quickly settled on Abby. So, Abby it is! Abby is a red sable who weighs in at around 4 pounds and Lily is an orange who weighs about 3.5 pounds. Itty bitties, but true to average breed size!

It’s been over 3 months now and I think we’ve finally gotten them settled in. We’ve been learning their personality quirks and their habits, teaching them how to play, trying to housebreak them, etc. I think we’re fairly well into a routine, now. They are unhappy when we leave and quite ecstatic when we return. Oh my, you should see them when we get home. They get so excited, they are nearly beside themselves. And so different in their personalities. I could go on and on about their quirks. Crazy kids. But, this post is already long enough and I haven’t gotten to the pictures yet! The full album is located here in my photo gallery, but here are some highlights of what we have so far:

Lily and my hand:

Abby and a keyboard:

Lily and Abby on the couch:

Lily and Abby sleeping on the couch (Terry calls this one “the double-headed dog”):

Silly Abby sleeping on the arm of the couch (yes, her eyes are partially open, but she is asleep):

AND the requisite post-bath photos:

Welcome to our two new little sweethearts! I love you, girls!

Posted in Going to the Dogs | 11 Comments

Catching Up on Blog Reading

Some of you may have already noticed by the sudden surge of comments, but I am really trying to catch up on everyone’s blogs. I am trying to comment as much as I can, but I do blitz through some posts (okay, a lot of posts), so don’t be too upset if you don’t hear much from me. Hopefully, I can try to keep up with your blogs on a more regular basis once I’m caught up! Normally, I would be totally buried under unread posts, but my FeedDemon is apparently starting to purge really old entries. I might be upset if I hadn’t come to realize that the posts it’s rolling off really are old and while I hate the thought of having missed anything crucial, I’m sure I can get the gist of things. As for me, I’m really going to try to blog more often, thanks to a well-landed blow from Anna at the local stitching get-together the other Friday. ๐Ÿ˜› She’s probably cringing her way through all of my grammar mistakes, as well. Sorry, Anna! At any rate, I have one big post that I really need to bite the bullet and write, then I can start to let more regular entries flow, even if they are as dull as dishwater. Until then, dear readers (any who are left, that is), happy stitching! Or whatever it is that non-stitchers do for fun. ๐Ÿ™‚

Posted in Life in General | 4 Comments

Attack of the Killer Frogs

Well, not so killer, unless you count my ego. I’m stitching away today on something I’ve been working at in a very piecemeal fashion and I get halfway around and realize that something is off. There are four sets of stitched hearts, with colors building on each other in a gradient. I look at it carefully and come to the ugly conclusion that I’ve built up the motif I’m about to work on one thread off from where it should be. Which brings the inevitable question of how the heck did I manage to do that? I mean seriously how? This is a small piece, folks. A Just Nan WhimZi that is 2 inches square. How do you screw that up? But somehow I managed to do it. So, I rip it out (fortunately, there were only two colors laid down so far), all the while berating myself in my head. I restitch it and get it back to where it was and lay the color that I had been working with when all of this started in its place below the others. I get to the fourth side of the square, only to find another problem. Oh come on! Seriously? What is my problem? This is not a complex design I’m working with. Sheesh! The best I can figure is that when I was counting out to the middle to do this new mistake I’ve found, I must have started the count from the side that was off. I hope.

My biggest concern now is not just what other stupid mistakes I will find as I continue, but what did I do wrong today that I’ll find the next time I sit down to put the finishing touches on this piece?

I mean, really, it’s a 2 inch square of stitching. Two. Inch. Square. What the heck?

Posted in Stitching | 4 Comments

Blog Upgrade Imminent

Yes, folks, I am on a very old version of WordPress. Haven’t updated in who knows how long. Mostly because I didn’t want to lose my theme, which is inevitable because the authoress has dropped off the face of the earth. Such a shame because she was awesome at elegant, free WordPress themes. I think I’m ready to bite the bullet, though. I have a backup copy of my blog to fool around with, a handful of new themes to try and the latest version of the code ready to install.

Wish me luck! You’ll know if I’m successful if the blog look suddenly changes radically. ๐Ÿ˜‰

Posted in Life in General | 3 Comments

2009 Stitching Finishes

Here they are, all of my stitching finishes for 2009. Some of them were even finish-finished! Those are the four Princess Alphabet pieces, all of which I framed, the two Summer Biscornus by The Victoria Sampler, Happy Heart by Shepherd’s Bush, Celtic Jewel Keychain by Textile Heritage, Lody Steward’s Pagoda Pincushion, Fall Biscornu by The Victoria Sampler, Mauve Heart Sampler from a Mill Hill kit, the two Just Nan Whimzi designs, and the last 5 finishes, one of which was framed, one finished into a bellpull and the remaining three were finished into ornaments. That’s 22 finishes out of 39 items stitched this past year. Not too shabby!

I’m not going to bother linking to the pictures. If you want to see them, you can look at my 2009 Finishes album in my photo gallery.

  1. Dimensions – Princess Alphabet (E) — Finished March 2009
  2. Dimensions – Princess Alphabet (M) — Finished March 2009
  3. Dimensions – Princess Alphabet (G) — Finished March 2009
  4. Dimensions – Princess Alphabet (R) — Finished March 2009
  5. Ink Circles – Celtic Ice — Finished April 2009
  6. JBW Designs – I Love to Shop at the Silver Needle — Finished April 2009
  7. JBW Designs – A Very Merry Summer — Finished April 2009
  8. Just Nan – Jingle! Biscornu — Finished April or May 2009
  9. Just Nan – Jingle! Tin Topper — Finished April or May 2009
  10. Just Nan – Crystal Heart — Finished April or May 2009
  11. Lizzie*Kate – Woof Blocks Flip-It — Finished April or May 2009
  12. Just Nan – Flower Girls — Finished May 2009
  13. Lorri Birmingham – Irish Needle Roll — Finished May 2009
  14. Lorri Birmingham – Crystal Pink Pincushion — Finished May 23, 2009
  15. The Victoria Sampler – October Birthday Needleroll — Finished May 24, 2009
  16. The Victoria Sampler – Summer Biscornu (Purple) — Finished June 26, 2009
  17. The Victoria Sampler – Summer Biscornu (Pink) — Finished June 26, 2009
  18. Just Nan – Ornamental Treasures III – Rosebuds
  19. Sue Hillis – Wine a Bit
  20. Shepherd’s Bush – Happy Heart
  21. The Victoria Sampler – Summer Biscornu (Purple #2)
  22. The Victoria Sampler – Summer Biscornu (Red)
  23. The Sweetheart Tree – Halloween Fob (Front)
  24. The Sweetheart Tree – Halloween Fob (Back)
  25. Textile Heritage – Celtic Jewel Keychain
  26. Lody Steward – Pagoda Pincushion (Top)
  27. Lody Steward – Pagoda Pincushion (Bottom)
  28. Lorri Birmingham – Sarah Belle Scissor Case
  29. Just Nan – Frost on the Pumpkin (Whimzi)
  30. The Victoria Sampler – Fall Biscornu (Pumpkins)
  31. The Victoria Sampler – Fall Biscornu (Leaves)
  32. Mill Hill – Scissor Pocket Treasured Stitching Band Kit – Mauve Heart Sampler
  33. The Sweetheart Tree – Hearts & Flowers
  34. Just Nan – Winter Violets (Limited Edition Whimzi)
  35. Dimensions – Gold Nuggets – Pansies on Toile
  36. The Victoria Sampler – Forever and For Always
  37. My Big Toe Designs – Cross of Christmas (Blue)
  38. Ladybug Lane Designs – Plaid Greetings
  39. My Big Toe Designs – Cross of Christmas (Pink)
Posted in Stitching | 6 Comments

2009 Stitching Clean-Up

It may seem like I’ve spent a lot of time feeling sorry for myself since Phoebe’s death, but honestly, I have not allowed the grass to grow beneath my feet. Since I’ve been so remiss in keeping this blog updated, I have a lot of finishes to post to round out 2009. The 2010 finish will get posted later.

Without further adieu, let’s show some photos, shall we?

First up are my two entries into Anna’s stitching challenge, which ended in mid-September. The design is Bent Creek’s Swirlygig. I made two attempts – the first was a lovely pastel overdyed silk (I think it’s a Caron Waterlilies silk; I bought a big, unmarked lot on eBay several years ago) which didn’t show up nearly as nicely against the black fabric as I had hoped it would. If you look very carefully, you might actually see a little bit of the colors in the border. Bummer.

The second attempt went a little better and featured two Dinky Dyes’ silks:

After that, we have Hearts & Flowers by The Sweetheart Tree. This was stitched from a kit that I think I bought when I was model stitching for Sandie. I completed it on the drive back from Disney in late September. I think my original intention was to finish it into a biscornu, so I’ll see how much of the design I can and/or care to duplicate onto a piece for the bottom, provided I have a cut of matching count linen.

I then finished a previously stitched piece into its accompanying Whimzi frame. This is Just Nan’s Frost on the Pumpkin, which was first released as a limited edition Whimzi design. The version that she just released this past year is a little bit different and will also fit in a Whimzi frame, though she designed it for one of her fancier frames.

Next I stitched up Just Nan’s Winter Violets (a special for one of the TNNA shows in 2009, I think) and finished it into its coordinating Whimzi frame, as well. Clever me cut off the Whimzi embellishment when I cropped the photo…

After that, it was the mad rush to stitch up and finish a couple of Christmas presents. The first was a Dimensions Gold Nuggets kit that I bought and started years ago for my mother. It’s named Pansies on Toile and I actually managed to finish the stitching before we went to Florida at the beginning of December.

I finished it as directed and framed it a couple of days before Christmas. I do so love this frame!

The next Christmas gift was one that I had to stitch and finish before we left for Florida. Of course, I didn’t decide to stitch it until two to three weeks ahead of time. This was a limited edition kit from The Victoria Sampler called Forever and For Always. Thea has now released it as a chart. I stitched it for Terry’s dad and his (relatively) new wife as a momento of their wedding in 2007. So timely. ๐Ÿ˜‰

I finished it as a bellpull, with wooden hardware that I stained myself days before we left, hoping it would cure in time. A lot of the stitching is done in cream against white fabric, so you can’t really see the details, but the effect was quite lovely, if I don’t say so myself.

Once I finished that, I decided to go for the gusto and stitch some more last minute Christmas gifts during the Florida trip. I did two versions of Cross of Christmas by My Big Toe Designs, as published in the 2009 ornament issue from Just Cross Stitch. The first one was in blues, for my dad in Florida. Of course, I didn’t see him while we were in the state and even if I had, I wouldn’t have been able to finish it into an ornament in time, so it was mailed out 3 days before Christmas. I’m amazed that it reached him in time!

Of course, having not planned in advance, I didn’t have an appropriate color of pearl cotton to make the cording, so I had to work with what I had.

I also stitched a pink version for my friend Mary. Pink is her favorite color and she is fighting breast cancer, so I tend to do a lot of things in pink for her.

Once again, an appropriate color of pearl cotton was not to be found in my stash. This color didn’t quite work as well as the blue (nearly) did. I don’t think it looked as bad in person as it does in the scan.

And finally, one last ornament that I stitched during the trip to Florida. I did most of this in the car on the way down to Miami and I completed the stitching (except for the backstitched wording, which I didn’t realize I had missed until we got back) while staying in Miami for a couple of days. This design is called Plaid Greetings, by Ladybug Lane Designs, also from the 2009 JCS ornament issue. When I saw the little scottie dog, I just had to stitch it for my neighbor because it looks so much like her dog, Quincy. I didn’t have the recommended overdyed floss, so I tweeded two colors of DMC as an alternative. I think I also subbed both the red and green overdyeds.

It didn’t finish up perfectly, of course. I should have made the cording thicker. Oh well!

Well folks, that gets me caught up with stitching through the end of 2009. I know we’re now into the second week of 2010, but for those of you who celebrated it, I hope that you had a lovely Christmas and for those of you who don’t work off of the Chinese calendar, I hope you have a wonderful new year!

Posted in Stitching | 5 Comments

Goodbye, My Sweet Little Girl

Phoebe Leigh Magee
(July 4, 1998 – August 17, 2009)


(Photo taken by Barbara days before Phoebe died.)

I’ve been avoiding writing this post for over two and a half months. I thought that it was because I didn’t have to time to devote to it, but it turns out that it’s really because my heart still aches and the wound is still semi-fresh. It took me several days of having this post open to be able to type without crying. Even now, there are tears in my eyes.

I’m not even sure what to say. Anyone who knows me knows that Phoebe was my little baby girl. Aside from Terry, she was my best friend and the love of my life. She was a wonderful dog who was incredibly smart and well-behaved. We were truly spoiled by her and privileged to have her in our lives.

Phoebe had a heart murmur that was diagnosed when she was a couple of years old. Through the years, the murmur got worse and worse and then, in November of 2007, she had been coughing a lot and when we took her to the vet, we were told that she was in congestive heart failure. She was put on two medications, but was incredibly good about taking her pills. We would wrap them in a little bit of cheese and she would gulp them right down. As time went on, the dosage of her meds were increased in an attempt to reduce the fluid around her heart. In the end, she had lost a lot of muscle mass and, despite eating normally, she had lost weight.

We didn’t think that she was going to see her 10th birthday, much less her 11th, and yet, it still seems like she left us too soon. Pomeranians can live up to 16 years old, but we weren’t lucky enough to see Phoebe get nearly that far. I can attempt to soothe my soul by saying that we took really good care of her (which we did) and that we made a kind and loving decision for her, but it truly doesn’t make it any easier. That day, hands down, was the worst day of my life to date. One that I don’t look forward to repeating. And yet, life goes on.

Thank you to all of you who have provided your support through the tough weeks following Phoebe’s death. All I would like to do now is share some of my favorite photos of my dearest one.

Phoebe at 3-4 Months Old:




5 Months Old:


8 Months Old:




Christmas 1999:

2000:

New Year’s Eve 2002:

2003:


2004:


2005:


2006:

2007:

2008:

Rest in peace, sweet one. You will always be loved and missed terribly.

Posted in Going to the Dogs | 16 Comments

Great Blonde Jokes

I saw these jokes posted on a Yahoo group recently and they really made me laugh, so I thought I would share. To all of my blonde gals out there – you know I love you! ๐Ÿ˜€

Blondes Are The Best!!!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

A blonde and her husband are lying in bed listening to the next door neighbor’s dog.

It has been in the backyard barking for hours and hours.

The blonde jumps up out of bed and says, “I’ve had enough of this”.

She goes downstairs.

The blonde finally comes back up to bed and her husband says “The dog is still barking, what have you been doing?”

The blonde says, “I put the dog in our backyard, let’s see how THEY like it!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Two Blondes With Hammers…

Lynn and Judy were doing some carpenter work on a Habitat for Humanity house.

Lynn was nailing down house siding, would reach into her nail pouch, pull out a nail and either toss it over her shoulder or nail it in.

Judy, figuring this was worth looking into, asked, ‘Why are you throwing those nails away?’

Lynn explained, ‘When I pull a nail out of my pouch, about half of them have the head on the wrong end and I throw them away.’

Judy got completely upset and yelled, ‘You moron! Those nails aren’t defective! They’re for the other side of the house!’

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Did you hear about the two blondes who froze to death in a drive-in movie?

They had gone to see ‘Closed for the Winter.’

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

A blonde was driving home after a game and got caught in a really bad hailstorm.

Her car was covered with dents, so the next day she took it to a repair shop.

The shop owner saw that she was a blonde, so he decided to have some fun.

He told her to go home and blow into the tail pipe really hard, and all the dents would pop out.

So, the blonde went home, got down on her hands and knees and started blowing into her tailpipe.

Nothing happened.

So she blew a little harder, and still nothing happened.

Her blonde roommate saw her and asked, ‘What are you doing?’

The first blonde told her how the repairman had instructed her to blow into the tail pipe in order to get all the dents to pop out.

The roommate rolled her eyes and said, ‘Uh, like hello!

You need to roll up the windows first.’

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

A blonde was shopping at Target and came across a shiny silver Thermos.

She was quite fascinated by it, so she picked it up and took it to the clerk to ask what it was.

The clerk said, ‘Why, that’s a thermos….. It keeps hot things hot, and cold things cold.’

‘Wow,’ said the blonde, ‘that’s amazing….I’m going to buy it!’

So she bought the thermos and took it to work the next day.

Her boss saw it on her desk. ‘What’s that,’ he asked?

‘Why, that’s a thermos….. It keeps hot things hot and cold things cold,’ she replied…

Her boss inquired, ‘What do you have in it?’

The blond replied….. …’Two popsicles and some coffee.’

+++++++++++++

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST

A blonde goes into work one morning crying her eyes out.

Her boss asked sympathetically, ‘What’s the matter?’

The blonde replies, ‘Early this morning I got a phone call saying that my mother had passed away.’

The boss, feeling sorry for her, says, ‘Why don’t you go home for the day? Take the day off to relax and rest.’

‘Thanks, but I’d be better off here. I need to keep my mind off it and I have the best chance of doing that here.’

The boss agrees and allows the blonde to work as usual.

A couple of hours pass and the boss decides to check on the blonde.

He looks out from his office and sees the blonde crying hysterically.

‘What’s so bad now? Are you gonna be okay?’ he asks.

‘No!’ exclaims the blonde. ‘I just received a horrible call from my sister. Her mother died, too!รขโ‚ฌโ„ข

Posted in Life in General | 2 Comments