Doors and more

No, I haven't dropped off the face of the earth.  I've been doing a lot of fall cleaning around the house.  Whoopee.

Our friend Billy was finally able to get the doors for the bathroom cabinets painted for us.  DH was able to get three of them installed.  The fourth door has glass panels in it and we thought we'd be able to get clips to hold them in the frame from Lowe's or Home Depot.  No such luck; we had to order them online and they aren't here yet.  Here are the doors he installed "before" and "after."

 

 

 

I got my new stitching lamp yesterday and am very pleased with it.  It has several new features that are way better than the ones on the old lamp.  All of the lamp joints are keyless - you don't have to turn a wingnut to adjust the angle; you just move it to the desired position and it stays!  The lens has a plastic cover instead of a cloth one.  Other than that, it's still the same great high quality Daylight magnification lamp I love.

I've made progress on "Liberty Lane."  If you are familiar with this pattern, you might notice that the colors don't match the pattern.  That's because I'm stitching it with colors a friend used when she stitched it.  I like her version a lot better.  When I get it finished, I'll post RitaD's conversions.

On Friday, I'm off to west Texas for a stitching retreat, and boy! am I ever looking forward to it!  Somebody else will cook and clean for me for the whole weekend, and I get to sit and stitch ALL WEEKEND LONG!  

LoneStar

A stitching disaster and a buck

DH has been very successful in hunting this year.  He's harvested two does and a wild pig, and Saturday, he got a six-point buck.  Our freezer will be well stocked for winter.  He's really hoping to harvest his one more allowed buck during the remainder of bowhunting season.  Of course, he'll still have rifle season to get it, but if he gets it sooner, then he'll be done with hunting for the year and won't be as distracted on the weekends.  ;-)

Late last week, I sat down to begin "It's Mine," the Hallowe'en cat and pumpkin pattern on 36 count linen.  Things were going fairly well when my stitching lamp died.  ACK!!  DH was unable to resurrect it.  He determined that the circuit board needing replacing.  So he called the Daylight Company.  We knew that they don't do repairs on lamps, but they will sell you replacement parts if you are able to fix it yourself.  At least, they will sell you replacement parts on current lamps, not discontinued ones like I apparently have.  

So I'm using my stitchtogether/retreat lamp which is smaller with a lesser quality lens.  It's fine for travel, but not for all the time use when I need superior magnification.  Because of this, I ended up starting a different project with a lower fabric count.  I'm now working on "Liberty Lane" by Country Cottage Needleworks on 28 count Monaco.

And I spent a couple of days scouring the internet for a new lamp.  I found the best price on the next generation lamp - the Daylight Ultra Slim XR Fluorescent Magnifier Lamp - on a massage/salon supply website of all places!  Now I just have to wait for it to arrive in the mail and then all will be well in my world.

LoneStar

PIF Winner and windows

Thanks to all of you that entered my PIF - the winner is RitaD.

See this pile of painted lumber leaning on my bookcases?  Hopefully it will begin to cover up the ugly pink 2x4s in my bedroom windows.

DH will begin installing the trim molding for the windows this weekend.  He took today off (and was of course out hunting this morning - no joy getting a buck) and is happily in the mood to do woodworking.  The molding for around the windows is out on the porch on my sawhorses awaiting paint.  Yes, I'm still painting stuff.  Such is my lot in life.  ;-)

I hope to finish-finish a few stitchy things and watch the Dallas Cowboys win (*crossing fingers*) this weekend.  And of course, I hope to get in some stitching time.

LoneStar

A finish and a PIF

I finished "Spring Flowers" by Redbird Designs today.  I stitched it on a piece of mint green Jubilee that was hiding in my stash.  The pattern calls for 28 count "Thyme" over-dyed Jobelan and  DMC, Weeks, Crescent Colors, and GAST floss.  I converted the over-dyed floss to DMC.  

As my friend Mary was kind enough to pass this pattern on to me, I will pass it on to another stitcher.  If you would like this pattern, please leave your name and e-mail address on a comment on this blog post.  No e-mail, no entry.  I will choose a winner on Friday afternoon, October 15th.

This is an exclusive pattern by Lorraine Koester of Redbird Designs.  It is one of five seasonal patterns she did, two of which were exclusive to stitching retreats and were not released publicly.  This pattern is one of those two.  

I will include my DMC conversions with the pattern just for grins.  Mint green Jubilee is no longer in production, but you can find Lugana in a similar color.  

LoneStar

How was your weekend?

We'll not talk about the Dallas Cowboys or the Texas Aggies.  Happily, Texas Tech beat Baylor this weekend (sorry Gloria!) so not all was lost in football.

DH took off a bit early on Friday afternoon so he could get an evening hunt in.  He came home, camo-ed up and was heading off out the door to his tree stand by four o'clock.  I settled down to stitch, figuring I wouldn't see him again until it got dark.  Fifteen minutes later, he was back; he'd shot a wild pig!  So now we'll have fresh sausage for the freezer and a couple of small hams!

Wild pigs are a nuisance in much of the south.  In Texas, there is an open season on wild pigs which means they may be hunted at any time of the year for any reason.  They have no natural predators and sows often have 8-12 piglets per litter, with several litters a year.  They breed like rabbits.   One wild pig can tear up a couple of acres of good pasture or cropland in one night, usually more as they most often travel in herds.  They are very aggressive towards humans, too.  But they make good eating if you can get a small male or a small to medium female.  Larger pigs are not good to eat as the meat takes on a nasty flavor.

Saturday, DH got our stove hooked up and it is so nice to be cooking on gas again!  I've always loathed cooking on electric stoves.  The hot plate is now stored up in the attic of DH's shop and I don't miss it a bit.

Sunday afternoon, DH and I vegged out on the sofa watching football.  We did have a bit of excitement when we heard Emma barking outside the house like a fiend at something out of the ordinary.  DH went to investigate, looking out the kitchen window.  "GAH!" he hollered and then began yelling for Emma to come into the house.  Emma was after a snake (again) and DH thought it was a rattler!

With Emma safely in the house and with me keeping an eye on the snake from the window, DH ran for his shotgun.  The snake was quickly dispatched.  A knot of dead wood on the ground from one of our backyard trees was also dispatched as DH thought it looked like a second coiled up snake and in all the excitement, he shot it, too.  ;-)

I managed to stitch a lot this weekend and am close to finishing "Spring Flowers."  

LoneStar

Riding weather

The weather here in my part of Texas has been absolutely gorgeous this week.  Upper 40's at night and up to the mid-eighties in the daytime with perfectly cloudless blue skies.  This kind of weather at this time of year makes me nostalgic for hitting the road.

Years ago, when my DBro was 14 years old, he got a motorcycle.  In Texas at that time, a 14 year-old could get a motorcycle license; car driver's learner's permits weren't available until a person was 15 years old.  My DBro was so desperate for wheels, that he talked my parents into letting him get a motorcycle and license at 14.  He was kind enough to teach his big sister how to ride it, and I also got my motorcycle license.  (Actually, I'm his older but much shorter sister.)  

Well, my brother had a nice Kawasaki bike.  Then my dad decided that it would be a good learning experience for my DBro to buy a Honda in a box - some guy had taken it apart and never got it back together.  So DBro bought the boxed-up Honda and he and Dad put it back together.   He didn't like it as much as his Kawasaki, so it became "my" bike as it fit me more comfortably than the Kawasaki.

I was in college at the time and having a very difficult semester.  We were having extraordinarily beautiful weather that fall.  I would come home on the weekends, put five dollars in my pocket for a tank or two of gas, and ride the Honda out in the country until I had just enough gas to get back home.  It kept me sane.  (My Mom, however, says she got all of her gray hairs while my DBro and I were riding motorcycles - neither of us ride anymore.)

But when the days are clear and fall is just around the corner, I get a hankering to pull on my jeans, boots, leather gloves, and wrap-a-round helmet to go riding in the country on a little Honda bike with five dollars in my pocket.  ;-)

I am enjoying stitching on "Spring Flowers," a stitching retreat exclusive by Redbird Designs.  Mary says she doesn't want the pattern back, so I will PIF it once I finish it.  Here is what I've stitched so far:

I am still without my stove.  The propane guy came out and filled the tank.  Then when DH got home, he discovered that the tank had a leak.  So the propane guy had to come out and fix it.  The leaks are gone, and DH will have time on Saturday to finish the last little bit of hook-up in the house.  So I should be cooking on the stove by Saturday night.  Should be.  Yeah.

LoneStar

Monday post on Tuesday

Blogger was a bear yesterday.  They have a new picture uploading tool that stinks.  It either doesn't like my Mac or doesn't like my slow internet speed.  After trying for 20 minutes to upload one picture and getting continual "Error; try again" messages, I gave up.  Hopefully, today will be better.

On Saturday, Georgia and I went to Austin for the I35 Stitchtogether.  We had a great time with everybody and together we solved all of the world's problems.  I got a goodly amount of stitching done on "Tribal Seahorse" which is now my stitchtogether piece; it will go with me to and only be stitched on at the stitchtogether until it is finished.   

I left DH at home in his tree stand as Saturday was the opening day of bowhunting season.  He got nothing on his morning hunt, but was ultimately successful over the weekend as he harvested two doe.  He was the subject of much envy on Monday morning at work as his hunting crazy coworkers did not go hunting over the weekend.  

This year, he is allowed two doe and two bucks.  So now he has the rest of bowhunting season and rifle season to harvest two bucks.  My freezer will be full of fresh venison!

On Sunday I started an unplanned new project.  Mary was kind enough to loan me a spring pattern exclusive to a stitching retreat that she had just finished.  As I hate to keep borrowed patterns for too long, I'm stitching it right now.  It should be a fast stitch (fun, too!).  I'll post as picture when I'm finished.  

I had planned to next stitch "It's Mine" by A Mon Ami Pierre.  The only US store that I found that carries this is ABC Stitch Therapy.  It's a European pattern and ABC Stitch can get it, although it usually takes about two or three weeks for it to come in the mail as they have to order it from overseas. 

 

I finished painting the propane tank and the propane delivery guy will be here tomorrow morning; I'll be cooking on my gas stovetop tomorrow!  Yippee!  I can retire the two-burner hot plate!

And today I begin painting yet again.  Our next project is getting all the trim molding put in the windows of our bedroom.  I'm tired of looking at pink studs, sealant foam, and bare sheetrock edges.  It "should" be a quick project for DH, and then he will start on the HVAC.

LoneStar