Wacky Gift Exchange ornament

I mentioned in another post that I always stitch an ornament for DH's workplace Christmas party. Here's a picture of the one I stitched last year. It's from the JCS '07 Ornament issue, page 67, pattern name "Santa," stitched on 32 count latte Wichelt linen with DMC.

Orphan frame find!

I was by Hobby Lobby this week and found some more orphan frames at 90% off. I bought 16.5 linear feet of frame for $36.12. The regular price would have been $361.20.

The two larger frames had stretcher bars in them for canvas. Stretcher bars don't have rabbets on the back, but this is no problem when you have a DH who has a router. So, by pulling the stretcher bars out of the frames, I ended up with five frames. Three are nicely stained and detailed, and the stretcher bars can be painted. I just love it when that happens!

And yes, I did get to start "Texas Longhorn" last night. I'm a happy stitcher!

My kingdom for my fabric!

Well, the serger at DH's work was broken. I was gonna have him just bring the fabric home, but Georgia-the-quilting-lady offered to take it home with her and serge it. So hopefully, I'll get it tonight.

Georgia is one of the "office ladies" at DH's work. She is an avid quilter but hates to cross-stitch. I'm an avid cross-stitcher but I hate to quilt. We both enjoy looking at the fruit of the other's labor. I stitch a Christmas ornament every year for the annual company Christmas dinner and Wacky Gift Exchange. Georgia loves these and goes to extraordinary lengths to make sure she ends up with the ornament. And, when our IH35 Stitchers group needed a bunch of cross-stitched squares made into a special quilt for one of our members, Georgia took care of that for us. So unless one of her cats gets my fabric, or DH leaves it on his bench, I will be able to start a new project tonight!

It's really painful to have something all kitted up and ready to go, but not have the fabric. I didn't want to start something else, so I just whined a lot and DH took me out to Lowe's to look at plumbing fixtures. That helped some.

Here's what I'll be starting, "Texas Longhorn" by Redbird Designs:

Yeehaw! I finished DH's "Bandanna Stocking!"

Yippee-skippy! I finished DH's "Bandanna Stocking" last night. I was all ready to start a new project but didn't have the fabric. DH serges my fabric for me at work, and he was really busy yesterday and didn't have time. I could have over-edged it on my sewing machine, but that's hard to do when the fabric is still at work on DH's bench. Hopefully, I'll get the serged fabric and be able to start "Texas Longhorn" by Redbird Designs tonight.

I hope to find time to actually finish this into a stocking before we move. I have some Texas Tech fabric to back and line it with. Who would have thought I'd find Texas Tech fabric in the heart of Aggieland? But I did indeed find it at Hancock when it went out of business here last year (one block from A&M!).

Anyway, here's the stocking:

Ippity Blippity Bleepin' Frog!!

Well, yesterday was my day to go to the IH35 Stitchtogether in Austin. I took my "Bandanna Stocking" as I thought it would be easy to work on the last top border. There was a small motif that repeated itself, and I was sure I could stitch it without much concentration. Ha.

I spent half my stitching time today frogging half of what I stitched yesterday. Sigh.

Oh well. In spite of the frog, I should get the stocking finished this week. Stay tuned for a picture.

In a cabin in the woods...

Since the weather here this morning is glummy and grismal, I'm not going to even try to get a decent picture of my "Bandanna Stocking" WIP. Instead, I'll post a picture of our house-to-be. Before you say, "Egad! They've bought a shack!" remember I said in a previous post that it's spent most of its existence as a recreational cabin and needs updating. DH and I are tickled blue (You didn't really think I'd say "pink," did you?!) to get it. Stay tuned for "before" and "after" pictures. We currently live in the Brazos Valley in "Aggieland" in what I call a "country subdivision" outside the city limits. We'll be moving farther out of town within 30 driving minutes of DH's place of employment.

LoneStar quirks

I saw this meme on Kendra's blog and thought it would be fun to do. But I had never run across the word "meme" before and had to look it up. I found that it is a noun and is pronounced "meem," not "meemee" as I had supposed. It means "cultural characteristic passed down through generations.” I really think, in the blogging world, it means answering a series of questions about yourself or telling everyone about "me!”

Anyway, you are supposed to list seven habits/quirks/facts about yourself, and here are mine:

1) I hate the color pink. I won't wear it. Nothing in my house is pink. If you give me something pink, I will re-home it quickly.

2) I am chronically organized; a place for everything and everything in its place. If I come upon a situation involving a group of people with no direction, I will organize them. I don't tolerate chaos well (unless it is organized and controlled).

3) Since I live in south central Texas where it is warm or just plain hot most of the year, I am usually found wearing a T-shirt, shorts, and no shoes. I do wear shoes out in public, but won't around the house.

4) I have every Star Trek novel in print (in all genres except Voyager which I don't care for). I also have every Star Wars novel in print. And yes, I have read them all, most of them several times.

5) I don't like ice in my iced tea. If you make it and keep it in the refrigerator, then it should be already cold; adding ice just waters down the brew.

6) I was allergic to chocolate for the first twelve years of my life. I am making up for lost time. I consider chocolate a food group.

7) I am a singing snob. I was a choir rat for most of my school years and sat under several very gifted voice teachers. I was taught (drilled!) about such things as proper breath control, phrasing, intonation, dynamics, diction, etc. Most of the popular "singers" I hear today make me nauseous. What they consider "style" I consider a serious lack of training. BAH!