2006 / 2007

Well, the year is at an end. It's about half an hour until we ring in 2007 with a bang and I'm sitting here blogging about it on my computer. lol. What an exciting life I have. The kids are asleep and Jason's watching the 'tube' And me, Well I'm here bragging about having one last final finish in 2006. Yes, you heard right. I finally finished Fairy Celebration!! Woohoo. The only finish this year that didn't involve an ornament. (and only 2 of those!) Needless to say I'm not one of those "power stitchers" out there that stitch an L&L or Mirabilia pattern from start to finish in 2 short months or anything like that. But damn it, when I do get one finished I brag about it to everyone I know. lol

Here's a picture of my newest masterpiece. I plan on finishing it as a wall hanging. I just need to find the perfect material for it. I don't want to get something too busy or it might take away from the amazing fabric it's stitched on. I'd like to get a simple fabric, maybe a single blue or purple with some sparkles in it. When I get that part done I'll post another picture of it then. I should have a little time to look for fabric when I go to town on the 18th.

I've got a doctor's appointment in Fredericton that morning and since my mom is laid off for the winter, I asked her if she'd watch the kids for the day (Thanks Mom!!) to give Jason and I a chance to get out without them. I know, we just got out in December for the day without them, but that was a busy day Christmas Shopping, not much time to just browse around and take our time. We barely stopped the whole time we were away. Still nice to get away from the kids for a few hours, but it's not the same.

Now, on to the part of the post that everyone seems to be posting about the past few days. New Years Resolutions... You know, I hate that term. I REALLY hate it. Everyone breaks their resolution. When people are talking about New Years Resolutions you automatically think Weight Loss, Quit Smoking, Learn Something New, yadda yadda yadda. Nothing new here folks. I gave up making new years resolutions several years ago. Instead, this year I'm making a 2007 To Do list. It's got more on it then a typical resolution, but it's more specific, attainable goals. Not the generalizations that a lot of people usually go with.

So, that being said, here is my 2007 To Do list. Much of which involves stitching. (heh, imagine that.)

1. Play with and read to my kids more
2. Try to keep up with my housework (or at least a little more than usual)
3. Post on my blog at least once a week
4. Post more to the email lists I belong to (no more lurking!)
5. Comment more on other's blogs. - I always complain that no one (or rather very few people) comment on my blog, but I'm guilty of reading and running as well. But not anymore!
6. Try and stitch at least two nights per week (EVERY week)
7. Finish "Waiting"
8. Start "Summer Blooms" (It's the second picture in this post)
9. Finish "Summer Blooms"
10. Start "Fairy Moon"
11. Finish "Fairy Moon" (though not likely!)
12. Stitch "Quilt" (a DMC freebie I picked up online. See the pic here) and make it into a needlebook
13. Stitch and "finish" 3 new Christmas Ornaments for 2007
14. "finish" 3rd Ornament from 2006 (Blackwork Noel)
15. Get started on a scrapbook for Rachel.
16. Make a monthly "to do" list each month to help keep me on track.

So, there it is... I'm done my list and most of them seem pretty attainable. And lookie here there's still 4 minutes to go until midnight. Well, I should go spend the next few minutes with Jason.

(Edit: Well, now that I look back I see one or two generalizations there... play with and read to my kids more? Yeah, it's a good one, but not a very "time specific" - "completable" goal. It's more of a generalization... yeah, you know that thing I was just complaining about... oh well.)

I hope that 2006 treated you well and that you have a wonderful 2007!

Happy Holidays and all that jazz

I came on to post and realized that I never posted an update about Wanda. I guess with all the hustle and bustle of Christmas, once the operation was over and done with I never thought to put it up on here.

Well, everything went wonderfully. The surgeon told Tina (Wanda's daughter) that these were the best set of Donor lungs he's EVER seen and she was able to breathe on her own almost immediately after the surgery. She was kept on the ventilator for a few days because the pain meds she was on were so strong, she slept too deep and occasionally "forgot" to breathe, but once they stepped her down a bit she was fine to come off the ventilator.

She's still in the hospital, but mainly becuase she's waiting for her anti-rejection drugs to arrive. Apparently when you're a NB Transplant patient, you have to wait for the drugs to come from NB. Ontario pays for all the transplant meds for it's citizens, but if you're an NB citizen you only get the anti-rejection drugs paid for... and they have to come from an NB Pharmacy... Not a big surprise there... NB is horrible for their medical coverage, but I assumed that anything paid for by one province would be the same in all the others... I guess I was wrong on that count.

Tina is doing a wonderful job of keeping everyone updated on Wanda's CarePage. It's a free site where a patient signs up and anyone who wants to keep up on their progress can sign up (for free) and subscribe to their updates. If anyone is interested in keeping tabs on her progress and doesn't already have the link, the page is http://www.carepages.com/. You need to sign up and then put her patient name in. (wandanorthrup)

Here's a picture of the Ornaments I (**finally**) finished for Olivia & Rachel this Christmas. This was my very first attempt at "finishing" anything other than to frame it. It's definitely a learning experience. Most of which is trial and error. I've made a few errors, now I know what not to do next time. I still haven't done "Our" ornament (mine and Jason's) I stitched the back piece last night and plan on finishing it before the new year. It never made it on the Christmas tree this year, but at least it'll be finished in 2006 and ready to put on the tree next year. I think I might try to get a few ornaments stitched up soon for next year. Hopefully that means that I don't have to try and do it all at the last minute next year. Not likely, but hopefully *lol*

Christmas went well here. We had a mountain of stuff in the living room under the tree. So much that we sat there looking at it wondering where it all came from. I mean, I know WE didn't buy that much. Santa brought Olivia a Dora the Explorer scooter and some Magnetic letters (for the fridge). He brought Rachel a play center with a "tent" to crawl inside of and a baby doll that squeaks when you squeeze it.

Here are a few "before" and "after" pictures...Before the kids got up and after the carnage! lol

Rachel had so much fun for her very first Christmas! She opened quite a few of her own presents, but when she did, we spent most of our time trying to keep the paper out of her mouth. She had quite an obsession with eating the wrapping paper. Olivia had a good time, because she not only got to open her presents, but about half of Rachel's too.

The girls got a big wagon from my FIL. One of the ones that have the fold up seats and cup holders. It'll come in very handy next summer when we go somewhere. Right now Rachel is a bit too young to spend much time in there, But by this summer it'll be perfect to haul both of them around. It's fun for them and will make my travelling life so much easier. They got a ton of toys and clothes and books. My mom got Rachel her own solid oak rocking chair. She got Olivia one her second Christmas and she saw the exact same one at a store recently and decided that Rachel needed her own as well. We've got Rachel's put away right now, since she's too young to use it now and we don't have enough room downstairs to keep things out that have no chance of getting used. Olivia also got her very own Race Track! She loves it. You "wind" the cars up and put them on the track and they go around and chase each other. It's meant for younger kids, no guns to control the speed, no track that has to be put together every time -- it just folds up when you're done-- and nothing hard they have to do. Another big hit with Olivia was the Care Bears they both got from Rob, Angie and Tyler. Olivia sleeps with hers every night now, and most nights tries to take Rachel's too!

We got so much this year. My FIL got me a Water dispenser that has both hot and cold water and a new pair of Jeans. Now I don't have to heat bottles, I just use the already pre-heated water! My MIL got me a new shirt and got both Jason and I a good shredder. My Mom and her bf got us a $50 GC to the Future Shop and a rain check for a bread maker. Of course, Canadian Tire never has anything in stock when it's on sale, so we're getting it as soon as it's back in. My DH got me lots of stitching stuff. I got a new scroll frame, floss I needed for a project I want to start, a new pattern for my stash -- Fairy Moon by Mirabilia, as well as a few small odds n ends. He also got me a new blouse and some new PJs (both which need to be exchanged).

Jason got a Table saw from his Dad -- which prooves his pet theory that if you think you want something, just borrow it enough and the person you borrow it from will get the hint... He's had his Dad's table saw in our basement for probably 6 months now. lol. His mom and her bf got him a 2gig card for his mp3 player, and the shredder I mentioned above was for both of us. I got him a biscuit jointer, a 4x8 sheet of Pegboard for his workbench and a bunch of the "pegs" to hang the tools on, a case for his mp3 player, a Map book from the girls, and a bunch of other stuff that I can't remember right now. For those who don't know what a biscuit jointer is, basically it's a tool to join pieces of wood together, especially when building furniture.

I've spent the last few days trying to decide what I'm going to do with my new pattern. I need to figure out which fabric to order. This is the reason I LOVE the "Fabric Choices" page I've linked to here, and in my sidebar. You can try out almost all the designs from some of the most popular designers out there (Miribilia, Lavender and Lace, Passione Ricamo, and Teresa Wentzler) and with many of the different specialty fabrics available from some of the biggest names in Hand Dyed Fabrics (Silkweaver, Sugar Maple Fabrics to name just a few) and using the magic of Photoshop, the patterns have a transparent background, so you can get an idea what the pattern would look like on each individual fabric! Like I said, GREAT SITE. You can also load your own fabric or picture scan to check it out. Anyway, after hours of looking through fabrics from many designers and weighing price and colours I think I've decided to go with Silkweaver's "Enchantment" Linnen. Here's an idea of what this should look like using this fabric. Of course the fabric doesn't look exactly the same every time, but hopefully it'll be close enough, because this is the look I fell in love with.

What do you think?

Well, that's enough for today. I should get a LITTLE bit of housework done before Jason gets up. I started the post at 9:51am and now it's 12:03pm, so I think I've spent long enough on here. lol. Mind you, that's including many breaks to play with the kids and do all the normal "Mommy" stuff. I've probably only been on here half an hour or so in total, it just seems like a lot more.

Waiting for news

Wanda, a good family friend has been in Ontario for several months now waiting for a lung transplant. She was told several months ago that she only had about 18 months to live if she didn't get the transplant. Well, Jason called this morning from work and informed me that last night when she was talking on the phone to her son (one of Jason's best friends --like a brother) her beeper went off for her transplant. Apparently the opperation was supposed to get underway sometime in the middle of the night and she would be in surgery until sometime this afternoon.

I was so excited when Jason called me this morning to tell me what was going on. All I could think of was what a wonderful Christmas gift someone gave to her.

Organ donation is something that everyone should think long and hard about. No one can make the decision for you, but really... what do you need the organs for once you're gone? Just think that the person who might get your organs could be someone's mother or father, someone's wife or husband, someone's sister or brother. You'd not only be changing that person's life forever, but the lives of their friends and families as well.

I've downloaded the Organ donation card from the gov't of New Brunswick website.
Click on the small picture to see it full size and please please please print it and seriously consider filling it out. Also please talk to your friends and family about your choices. They're the ones who ultimately make the decisions and if they don't know what you want, they may not do anything about it.

If you live outside of NB, please contact your local government office to find out where you can get a card of your own.

Now, I'm off to wait and see how her surgery went. *crosses my fingers, toes and anything else that I can cross* We love you Wanda!!

Letter to Santa

Olivia wrote a letter to Santa yesterday. I know we're cutting it close, but I think we can send it out now and still have a little time to get a response... Jason was going to check it out today to see if it's too late, and if not he was going to mail it today.

Here's a scan of her letter to Santa (written by me of course) and the pictures she drew for Santa. I asked her what she wanted to say and she didn't know... So I had to prompt her... do you want to ask (insert question here) and every second or third question she'd nod and say yeah and I'd write that question. It will be so cute when she can write her own letter.

The picture to the right are pictures of Santa's Reindeer flying in the sky. At least, that's what Olivia told me they are. I'll have to take her word for it. *lol*

Below is the back of the reindeer picture and it's a picture of her hands. I traced the first one and she did the rest by herself. She was so excited to trace her hands by herself.

A visit with Santa

Rachel and Olivia on Santa's lap at the Regent Mall in Fredericton yesterday.

What tarot card are you?

You are The Wheel of Fortune

Good fortune and happiness but sometimes a species of
intoxication with success

The Wheel of Fortune is all about big things, luck, change, fortune. Almost always good fortune. You are lucky in all things that you do and happy with the things that come to you. Be careful that success does not go to your head however. Sometimes luck can change.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

New ornament front stitched...

I've finished stitching the ornament front for the final (3rd)ornament I'm making this year. It's GloryBee's freebie "Blackwork Noel" (If you visit it, notice that there's a dropdown near the bottom of the page to see the other freebies GloryBee has available.) It was a really quick stitch, being made up entirely of backstitches and all, and was done in just one evening.

I changed the orientation of the ornament slightly. It was meant to be square as opposed to diamond shaped. I just turned it 45 degrees and then I had to change where the letters fit. I stitched the letters over 1 instead of over two as was called for. I wanted a more delicate looking letter, and the size they were originally were too big to fit right once I changed the way the ornament was turned. It also called for all the blackwork, or redwork I guess, to be stitched with two threads, but I used one instead. I like the fine line look better. the picture to the right is a picture of what the original is supposed to look like when stitched. (Picture was taken from the GloryBee site)

I plan on stitching a second one for the back of the ornament, but instead of NOEL for the letters, I plan on plotting out my own letters. A "C" and a "J" for Christine and Jason , then "0" and "6" for the year on the bottom, I should get that finished tonight and then hopefully I'll get all three ornaments finished this week... lol... Then, once I get those done I can finally get Fairy Celebration finished. I've only got about 2 or 3 evenings worth of stitching left to finish it off, but I wanted to get the Ornaments done before Christmas.

Cost of Raising a Child...

I saw this on Christine's Blog today and had to steal it. I'm not sure who actually wrote it, she got it in an email from a friend. If you know who the author is please let me know. Thanks

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The government recently calculated the cost of raising a child from birth to 18 and came up with $160,140 for a middle income family. Talk about sticker shock! That doesn't even touch college tuition.

But $160,140 isn't so bad if you break it down. It translates into:
* $8,896.66 a year,
* $741.38 a month, or
* $171.08 a week.
* That's a mere $24.24 a day!
* Just over a dollar an hour.

Still, you might think the best financial advice is don't have children if you want to be "rich." Actually, it is just the opposite.

What do you get for your $160,140?

* Naming rights. First, middle, and last!
* Glimpses of God every day.
* Giggles under the covers every night.
* More love than your heart can hold.
* Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs.
* Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds, and warm cookies.
* A hand to hold, usually covered with jelly or chocolate.
* A partner for blowing bubbles, flying kites
* Someone to laugh yourself silly with, no matter what the boss said or how your stocks performed that day.

For $160,140, you never have to grow up. You get to:
* finger-paint,
* carve pumpkins,
* play hide-and-seek,
* catch lightning bugs, and
* never stop believing in Santa Claus.

You have an excuse to:
* keep reading the Adventures of Piglet and Pooh,
* watching Saturday morning cartoons,
* going to Disney movies, and
* wishing on stars.

You get to:
* frame rainbows, hearts, and flowers under refrigerator magnets,
* collect spray painted noodle wreaths for Christmas,
* hand prints set in clay on Mother's Day, and
* cards with backward letters for Father's Day.

For $160,140, there is no greater bang for your buck.

You get to be a hero just for:
* retrieving a Frisbee off the garage roof,
* taking the training wheels off a bike,
* removing a splinter,
* filling a wading pool,
* coaxing a wad of gum out of bangs, and
* coaching a baseball team that never wins but always gets treated to ice cream regardless.

You get a front row seat to history to witness the:
* first step,
* first word,
* first bra,
* first date, and
* first time behind the wheel.

You get to be immortal. You get another branch added to your family tree, and if you're lucky, a long list of limbs in your obituary called grandchildren and great grandchildren.

You get an education in psychology, nursing, criminal justice, communications, and human sexuality that no college can match.

In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there under God. You have all the power to heal a boo-boo, scare away the monsters under the bed, patch a broken heart, police a slumber party, ground them forever, and love them without limits. So, one day they will, like you, love without counting the cost. That is quite a deal for the price!!!!!!!

Love & enjoy your children & grandchildren!!!!!!!

Rachel's Ornament and other things

I haven't had a lot to say lately, so I haven't been posting much... just a few jokes for the past few days. Life's been fairly slow lately. I haven't even been stitching. I've been a bit tired in the evening and have been spending it laying on the couch in front of the boob tube. I know, I know... if I were stitching I'd be sitting in the same place... It's not like it's a physically draining thing, but I just find that if I'm concentrating, it's still more tiring than just laying there "vegging".

One day last week I fell asleep in front of the TV around 9:30. I got up a few hours later and went straight to bed and slept right through... I think I just needed to catch up a little. I'm normally a night owl and am usually up till midnight or later (sometimes MUCH later) almost every night, then up around 8 with the kids. Olivia hasn't napped since a few months before Rachel was born, so I don't get a chance to catch up during the day like I used to... I guess I just needed a week or so of earlier bed times to catch me up a bit.

I did manage to get Rachel's Ornament finished -- the stitching and beading at least, I still haven't gotten either one "finished" in that it actually makes a real ornament. Right now it's still just a small piece of Aida with some floss and beads on it. I need to get my butt in gear... maybe tonight since there's nothing on TV. lol. I say that like it might actually happen... I've been saying that for a week now and I'm still in the same boat! Here's a picture

I haven't been in much of a Christmassy mood lately. Not a total "Bah Humbug" kind of mood or anything like that. I'm still semi-excited... but I just can't get into that really excited Christmassy mood that usually hits once we get this close to present day *grin*

I got some news from my Mom the other day. My Great-Grandmother is not well. According to mom the doctors have given her anywhere from hours to weeks to live. Her body is just shutting down. Sometimes I feel sad and other times I feel like I should feel more.

There's a bit of a back story to this... For those that don't know me in person, or have just never heard about this. My Grandmother, her only daughter, had Alzheimers Disease and passed away in March of 1998. Several months before Gram died, Grampy asked Nannie (my Great-grandmother) to come home and stay with them. They pretty much knew Gram wasn't doing well and thought it would be good for her to have her mother around. Nannie said no. She wasn't going to move home to New Brunswick. (She lives in Ontario and has for as long as I can remember.) Then a few months after Gram died, I heard through the grapevine (the family) that Nannie had OFFERED to move to Saint John (here in NB) to look after her ex-boyfriend's son because he wasn't well... (BTW, don't let her hear you calling him her BF though... According to her, he was just her "boarder". For 40 years! *wink*) Anyway, after I heard about her offer to move back to NB to take care of Joe's son, I got mad. VERY mad. She can do that for her "boarder's" son, but not her ONLY child!?! I've been hanging onto this anger for a lot of years and I know that even though she's not going to last much longer I'm still having a very hard time letting it go.

FOR ALL THE PARENTS OF THE WORLD

I'm not a religious person, but this is just too cute...



After creating heaven and earth, God created Adam and Eve.
And the first thing He said was: "Don't".

"Don't what?" Adam replied.

"Don't eat the forbidden fruit." God said.

"Forbidden fruit? We got forbidden fruit? Hey, Eve...we got forbidden fruit!"

"No way!"

"Yes way!"

"Don't eat that fruit!" said God.

"Why?"

"Because I am your Father and I said so!" said God, wondering why he hadn't stopped after making the elephants.

A few minutes later God saw his kids having an apple break and was angry.
"Didn't I tell you not to eat the fruit?" the First Parent asked.

"Uh huh, " Adam replied.

"Then why did you?"

"I dunno" Eve answered.

"She started it!" Adam said.

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"DID NOT!!"

Having had it with the two of them, God's punishment was that Adam and Eve should have children of their own. Thus, the pattern was set and it has never changed. So take heart and do not be discouraged!If God had trouble handling His kids, what makes you think it should be a piece of cake for you?

Christmas Cookie Recipe

1 cup of water
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup of sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup of brown sugar
lemon juice
4 large eggs
1 cup nuts
2 cups of dried fruit
1 bottle Crown Royal

- Sample the Crown Royal to check quality.

- Take a large bowl, check the Crown Royal again, to be sure it is of the highest quality, pour one level cup and drink.

- Turn on the electric mixer...Beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl.

- Add one teaspoon of sugar...Beat again.

- At this point it's best to make sure the Crown Royal is still OK, try another cup. just in case.

- Turn off the mixer thingy.

- Break 2 eggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit.

- Pick the frigging fruit off floor...

- Mix on the turner.

- If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaterers just pry it loose with a dewscriver.

- Sample the Crown Royal to check for tonsisticity.

- Next, sift two cups of salt, or something.... who giveshz a sheet.

- Check the Crown Royal.

- Now sift the lemon juice and strain your nuts

- Add one table.

- Add a spoon of sugar, or so mefink.... whatever you can find.

- Greash the oven.

- Turn the cake tin 360 degrees and try not to fall over.

- Don't forget to beat off the turner.

- Finally, throw the bowl through the window.

- Finish the bottle of Crown Royal.

- Make sure to put the stove in the dishwasher.

Cherry Mistmas!

Christmas Carols for Psychological Disorders

Schizophrenia: "Do You Hear What I Hear?"

Multiple personality disorder: "We Three Queens Disoriented Are"

Dementia: "I Think I'll Be Home for Christmas"

Narcissistic: "Hark the Herald Angels Sing About Me"

Manic: "Deck the Halls and Walls and House and Lawn and Streets and Stores and Office and Town and Cars and Busses and Trucks and Trees and Fire Hydrants"

Paranoid: "Santa Claus Is Coming to Get Me"

Personality disorder: "You Better Watch Out, I'm Gonna Cry, I'm Gonna Pout, Maybe I'll Tell You"

Obsessive-compulsive disorder: "Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock." (Better start again.)

Passive-aggressive personality: "On the First Day of Christmas My True Love Gave to Me (and Then Took It All Away)"

Borderline personality disorder: "Thoughts of Roasting on an Open Fire"

Attention deficit disorder: "Silent night, Holy oooh look at the Froggy. Can I have a chocolate? Why is France so far away?"

If Santa answered his mail honestly... (not for kids!)

I got this from my uncle today. Funny, but definitely not for children!

********************

Dear Santa
I wood like a cool toy space ranjur fer Xmas. Iv ben a gud boy all yeer
yer Frend, BiLLy

Dear Billy,
Nice spelling. You're on your way to a career in lawn care. How about I send you a friggin' book so you can learn to read and write? I'm giving your older brother the space ranger. At least HE can spell!
Santa

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Dear Santa,
I have been a good girl all year, and the only thing I ask for is peace and joy in the world for everybody!
Love, Sarah

Dear Sarah,
Your parents smoked pot when they had you, didn't they?
Santa

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Dear Santa,
I don't know if you can do this, but for Christmas, I'd like for my mommy and daddy to get back together. Please see what you can do?
Love, Teddy

Dear Teddy,
Look, your dad's banging the babysitter like a screen door in a hurricane. Do you think he's gonna give that up to come back to your frigid mom, who rides his ass constantly? It's time to give up that dream. Let me get you some nice Legos instead.
Santa

********************

Dear Santa,
I want a new bike, a Playstation, a train, some G.I. Joes, a dog, a drum kit, a pony and a tuba.
Love, Francis

Dear Francis,
Who names their kid "Francis" nowadays? I bet you're gay, I'll set you up with a Barbie.
Santa

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Dear Santa,
I left milk and cookies for you under the tree, and I left carrots for your reindeer outside the back door.
Love, Susan

Dear Susan,
Milk gives me the runs and carrots make the deer fart in my face when riding in the sleigh. You want to do me a favor? Leave me a bottle of scotch.
Santa

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Dear Santa,
What do you do the other 364 days of the year? Are you busy making toys?
Your friend, Thomas

Dear Thomas,
All the toys are made in China. I have a condo in Miami, where I spend most of my time making low-budget porno films. I unwind by drinking myself silly and squeezing the asses of cocktail waitresses while losing money at the craps table. Hey, you wanted to know.
Santa

********************

Dear Santa,
Do you see us when we're sleeping, do you really know when we're awake, like in the song?
Love, Jessica

Dear Jessica,
Are you really that gullible or are you just a Blonde? Good luck in whatever you do. I'm skipping your house.
Santa

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Dear Santa,
I really really want a puppy this year. Please please please PLEASE PLEASE could I have one?
Timmy

Timmy,
That whiney begging shit may work with your folks, but that crap doesn't work with me. You're getting a sweater again.
Santa

********************

Dearest Santa,
We don't have a chimney in our house, how do you get into our home?
Love, Marky

Mark,
first, stop calling yourself "Marky", that's why you're getting your ass whipped at school. Second, you don't live in a house, you live in a low-rent apartment complex. Third, I get inside your pad just like the boogeyman does, through your bedroom window.
Sweet Dreams, Santa

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To knot or not (SBQ) and other stuff

This week's SBQ asks:
How do you secure your thread when you begin a new one? Specifically, do you or have you ever used a waste knot?

I do use a waste knot form time to time, usually when I feel I'm running low on floss and want to conserve every millimeter of floss for stitching. For a while I used it all the time because I hated trying to "catch" the tail in my stitching. But now I usually just run my needle under some existing stitches nearby when starting a new thread.

The only time I leave a tail and then stitch over it to catch it is when I'm starting a brand new project, or starting in an area where there isn't much stitching already done to run the needle under.


Now, onto the rest of the post. Sorry I haven't been on much lately but the past few days has seen a household full of "sickies" here chez moi. All 4 of us have caught a rather nasty strain of the cold. This is our second go-round in the past few weeks, so I've been spending any extra time that I'm not looking after the kidlets recouperating. Unfortunately that means not much stitching going on either. I've spent much of my time sleeping lately. *grin* Luckily Jason doesn't mind looking after the little ones. I seem to have gotten the worst of it this time around. Last time I only had a stuffy nose for about a day and a half, but I think I more than made up for it this time. It almost feels like half cold/half flu. I've got the cough and stuffy/runny nose of a cold, and the aches and pains and fatigue that go with the flu.

I finally got a little bit of stitching done last night. I started the lettering for the back of the two ornaments on Monday night and last night I finally got Rachel's Ornament finished. I still have to work on the beading tonight so I won't be posting a progress picture until the that is done. After that I'll try and get them finished into ornaments. This is my first time "finishing" a project, so it should be interesting. I found a little tutorial on how to make the braid that goes around the ornament out of floss. I was planning on buying standart white braid to use, but now I think I might try making my own out of the pink and purple shades of floss that I used to stitch the mittens and scarves. I think it would be cute to have all 4 shades in there. Of course that means I'll have to pick up more floss too because I have very little left of most of those colours.

I'm so excited about Saturday. We're going shopping in Moncton. Now this thought usually brings dreadful thoughts of a packed Walmart and trying to find a parking space at the mall without having to walk 10 minutes to get to the front doors dragging screaming kids behind you all the while.

But what is so exciting this time is that Jason and I are going SOLO! Yes, that's right Jason's mom is watching Olivia and Mom is watching Rachel. We've got the whole day to shop without having to stop every 5 minutes for pee breaks, or bottle breaks, or dirty diaper breaks...

We can actually go to lunch somewhere that doesn't give out toys with their meals.

I can actually stop at a craft store and poke around for a minute without worrying whether or not the baby is in the car with Jason screaming her face off the whole time. (something that has actually happened once or twice)

I'm so excited thinking about it that I'm almost ready to get up and dance around the room...

(I know, I know... What's stopping me, right? It is good cardio after all.)

Olivia's Sparkling Snowman

I finished stitching another "small" last night. It's the Christmas Onrnament that I mentioned in my last post -- or rather, it WILL be a Christmas ornament once I finish it. I plan on stitching Olivia's name and age along with the year on a back piece before finishing it into an ornament for her. Maybe something like:

Stitched by Mommy
for Olivia
3 Years Old
2006

We'll see how it turns out. I need to go through my books and magazines to find a lettering that I like. I know I have a couple of them that are cute, I'm just not sure how many I have that are small enough for this. The stitched area is only 48w x 58h (including all the beading) so it's a fairly small area for lettering.

Speaking of beading, this is the first projet I've ever used beads on. I've had a few packs of Mill Hill beads a few years ago but never used them. (I bought them for Scrapbooking) So when this pattern called for 4mm ribbon french knots, which I desperately hate doing, I decided to put some beads on in their place. It's cute. It almost l0oks like sparkling snowflakes falling, whereas before the knots were green ribbon... not very "snow like".

I changed up the colours for the pattern quite a lot. The scarf and hat were supposed to in shades of blue and the mits and ear muffs were in green. Also, the ecru stitching around the edges of the snowman were supposed to be in DMC silver metallic, but I started stitching and ripped it out completely a few minutes later. I HATE HATE HATE working with that stuff... I've never worked with the Krienik metallics though, are they any easier to work with than the DMC? I hope so because I love the metallic look, but refuse to use it unless I absolutely have to. Besides, I thought the ecru was more authentic looking. I still get the "sparkle" from the beads, so I'm quite happy with it.

Small Happy Dance and SBQ catch up.

I finished a quickie project last night. It took about two days (stitching at my pace -- slow) to finish this towel up. The design is from Better Homes and Gardens Cross Stitch Christmas Magazine (I'm not sure which year offhand, I've got 3 or 4 of them) It's the perfect size for a hand towel.

I stitched it with the intention of giving it to Olivia's Dance Teacher at their last class before Christmas, but now I'm not so sure. I think it's very cute, and don't know if I'm going to give it away or not. *lol* I finish so few projects that when I do get one done I don't want to give it away. Maybe once I get a few more finishes under my belt I might be better at parting with them.

I haven't gotten around to answering very many of the SBQ (Stitching Blogger's Question) lately so I've decided to play a bit of Catch-up for at least the last few weeks.

SBQ for November 16

Do you stitch Christmas ornaments? If so, how many do you stitch each year and for whom? If not, why not?

I'm actually currently working on my very first Christmas Ornaments. I never stitched them before because we always had a very "coordinated" tree. It is always decorated in Red, White and Silver, and I never saw a lot of patterns that matched this theme that I liked, so I always stayed away from them since the ones I liked didn't "match" our tree.

But since Olivia was born we've slowly been collecting more and more "non-themed" and kid-friendly ornaments, and this year Olivia saw a cute snowman ornament I had in one of my magazines and said she wanted me to stitch it for her. There are two there, so I decided to stitch one for each of the girls and to find one to stitch for Jason and I as well. I've decided I'm going to try and make it an annual thing. Make three ornament every year. One for each girl and one for us every year. And when the girls leave home, they've already got their start on a Christmas Ornament stash for their own Christmas Tree.

SBQ for November 8

How many different brands of “complete” embroidery floss sets do you own? How do you keep track of it? (i.e., spread sheet program, index cards, palm pilot, etc.)

I don't own ANY complete sets of floss. I use mainly DMC, but I buy floss as I need it. I'll pick up one or two that I don't have every time I get a chance, which until recently wasn't often since I can't buy DMC floss in Fredericton anymore (only Anchor -- at Walmart) and I rarely get to Saint John or Moncton. So hopefully someday soon I'll end up with close to a complete collection of DMC. That would be nice.

Or rather I should say I don't THINK you can get DMC in F'ton anymore... the two places I used to get my floss and Cross stitch patterns in F'ton have both closed down. Trimmings was a small-ish craft store with TONS of stuff for Cross-stitch, Beading, Sewing and Quilting plus some stuff for other crafts, but those seemed to be the main focus. They closed down, oh, probably two years ago now, and Lewiscraft in the Mall closed down probably around 6 months ago and there aren't any LNS that I know of at all in Fredericton.

A small home based shop opened up in my town a month or so ago and they carry DMC floss, but not the complete collection of colours, and their distributer doesn't carry a lot of the big names in patterns like L&L and Miribilia etc etc. Their distributer only carries "kits" and I hate buying kits, especially now that I've discovered stitching on higher count fabrics. (Linnen and Lugana, pref 28 count) I desperately hate stitching on 14 count Aida fabric, and that's usually what kits include for fabric.

SBQ for November 1

How did you decide on the title of your stitching blog? Was it random, or does it have a special meaning to you or about you?

Well, until earlier today my blog was just called "Christine's Little World" I guess reading this SBQ a few weeks ago kind of got me thinking about how uninspired that sounds. *grin* So, I've been mulling it around in the back of my head and finally came up with the name Ramblings of a Scattered Mind, which pretty much sums up everything going on in this blog. There is no unifying "theme" to my posts. They mainly seem to focus around my stitching and my family... for this month, but knowing me I'll completely switch gears in another month or so and will be posting about something completely different... So it seems to fit...

However that being said, the title has absolutely NOTHING to do with stitching. I don't have enough ambition to keep one blog going steady, let alone two. In other words, my life isn't interesting enough that if I don't put my stitching stuff on my main blog I'd have nothing to say. *lol*

I think that's enough for now... hopefully I can keep up with doing this on a weekly, or at least bi-weekly basis so I don't have to type this much all at once again.

Getting There (Fairy Celebration)

I decided not to take a picture of my progress at 15 hours because I was so close to finishing the fairy portion. So instead I'm posting a pic I took at 17 hours after I finished Ariana and her wand completely. This was taken a few days ago, but I guess an update is better late than never.

I'm nearly done the border now and once it's done, I'll begin working on the script around the border. The border is going fairly quickly since it's only one stitch wide (with the exception of the embelishments at the corners) The script however will take a bit longer because I changed it somewhat.

The original pattern calls for the words "Fairy Live Here" but I changed it to say "Faeries Live Here". It needed to be plural to make sense, so I plotted it out by taking the letters from elsewhere in the script and copying them to make sure it looks close enough to her original. There was only one letter that wasn't in the original pattern, the "s". I had to try and plot one out that fits. IMHO it looks pretty good, but then again it's only on paper so far. Hopefully it'll look ok with the rest of the letters.

It's also taking a bit longer to finish since I've been working on a few smaller cross stitches for the past few days. I put this one away while I did that because I wanted to make sure I had them done for Christmas, so they take a bit higher priority.

I've got a post with pics of a towel I stitched for Christmas coming up in a few minutes. I would have put them all in one post, but I had the other almost finished when I realized that I never published this post, just saved it as a draft. I came back to finish and post this one first.

My beautiful girls

Here are a few of the pictures I took yesterday of Olivia and Rachel in their Christmas Dresses. Aren't they gorgeous! The photo session didn't last long because of a pre-nap meltdown from Rachel and an "everyday" meltdown by both Olivia and me, but I got a few good pics that might be ok to tuck into the Christmas cards.

I borrowed some black faux velvet from Kerri, and draped it over the couch. The girls are sitting on the floor with their backs to the couch. I turned it around so it faced the window, then I turned on my stitching lamp so it was facing them. It supposedly has a "natural light" light bulb. Personally, I think it's much more blue tinted than natural light is, but it's not nearly as yellow as a normal bulb and does look quite a bit closer to natural light than anything else I have in the house. Unfortunately I forgot to turn off my flash and I still ended up with a bunch of pictures that had a bad glare on their skin and I had to fix the red eye in nearly every picture I took...

I think I might try it again later, but with either the white or the navy velvet that I borrowed from her as well. Hopefully this time I remember to turn off my flash.

I had this one cropped in nice and close to a vertical picture, but for

some reason Blogger won't let me upload it. Baaaaad Blogger!

This is the one Janice thinks I should use for the Christmas Pic.

I'm not quite sure which one it'll end up being though.

This one isn't in the running for the Christmas picture since

Rachel isn't in it, but I just wanted to post it because it's such

a nice picture of Olivia.

Need your Help

Hey everyone, I need a bit of help finding a product I saw on the web, but I'm not sure where to buy it at... Anyone know where I can find this mirror at??

Fairy Celebration Update... finally!

Ok, I'll admit it, in addition to ignoring my blogging obligations I've also been ignoring my stitching lately.

I put it off for a few days because I had other projects on the go, and once I finished them I just never seemed to pick it back up. It's been nearly a month since I last posted a progress pic and I've only completed a measley 5 hours on my Fairy Celebration X-stitch... but at least I now have another picture to show... and hopefully will have another in just a few more day.

Fairy Celebration or "Ariana" as I call her at 10 hours work

I call her Ariana after the fairy collection that Partylite carries in their "home party" catalogues. I used to be a Partylite consultant back in the 1999/2000 timeframe and absolutely fell in love with the original Ariana piece (see pic below) but just never got around to picking it up. The Cross Stitch fairy reminds me of her for some reason... Here's a few pics I found on Ebay of the Ariana piece I always wanted. Maybe I should tell Jason. There's always someone looking for ideas for Christmas presents... maybe this would be a good one.

More pics missed from October

I've decided to post a few more pictures that I should have posted in October. (and two from even earlier than that. I wasn't sure if I had posted them before or not and I was too lazy to check *lol*)

April 26: This was taken on Rachel's first day home from the hospital.

August 26: We went out for the day and Rachel needed a little nap. I thought this picture was so cute with her cuddling the cow. We call her "Bessie". (The cow, not Rachel *lol*)

October 1: Olivia has been facinated with making funny faces lately.

October 1: Here's another funny face.

October: Here is a picture of the painting we had done for my grandfather's 75th birthday. It's a painting done of his house by a local artist. Click on the picture to see a larger version and see if you can find the cardinal. (She puts one in every painting she does.)

Here's the original picture (taken last year by my uncle) that the artist worked from for the painting. Isn't she an great artist. BTW, she didn't paint the roof colour wrong. She thought it was grey as it looks like in the picture, but she took a drive out to his house to double check on something and found that it's acutally green.

October 6: Olivia taking a rest on the lawn while playing outside.

October 6: We had my uncle come over and take some pictures hoping to get a good family picture we could put on some Christmas cards. I love this picture, but it wasn't quite focused and it's a bit too blury for printing. Most of the others didn't turn out because, well, any of you with kids know how hard it is to get two of them looking in the same direction at the same time. *lol*

October 7: Olivia bowling for the first time. My cousin had her daughter Josie's birthday party at the local bowling alley. Olivia had a blast!

October 8: Rachel grinning from ear to ear. Get a look at those two pearly whites!

October 11: Roasting marshmallows on a campfire in our back yard. Strangely enough after one marshmallow Olivia didn't want to eat any more. She liked roasting them, but didn't want to eat them... Strange... if I didn't know better I'd wonder if she were really mine. *lol*

October 19: No story behind this picture. I just love her expression.

October 23: Rachel was 6 months old this day and we started feeding her solids.

October 24: Olivia's 3rd birthday and she started figure skating today. She LOVES it!

October 31: It's Halloween and here are Mommy and her girls all dressed up at a Halloween Party that morning.

October 31: Candy Day. As you can tell Olivia is pretty wired. This was our last stop at Nannies house before we went home for the night.

Long time no see...

I know, I know. I've been a baaaad girl lately. I haven't been keeping up with my blogging at all. My last post was about Olivia's birthday and that was 2 1/2 weeks ago.

I've also realized that I haven't been posting as many pictures of the kids as I had intended either, so most of this post will be back pictures of the kids, then if I have time I'll post a bit more... The pictures always take the longest because It takes so long to upload them to blogger.

Here's a few from November.

November 1: Rachel eating her first vegetable. PEAS!!

November 1: After the peas were done. Messy girl!

November 2: Olivia cuddling up on the couch, smiling for the camera.

November 2: Rachel having some "tummy time"

November 5: Here's a picture of Olivia writing a letter to Santa. (Yes it's that time of year already!!) She has decided to ask him for a Scooter for Christmas this year.

November 7: Here's Olivia helping to feed Rachel her baby cereal.

November 7: And here's Rachel after she was done. *lol*

November 12: This final picture was taken this morning. I was getting her cereal ready and I looked over and saw her sucking on her bib. Apparently I wasn't quick enough with her breakfast and she decided to try eating something else. *grin*