Sharing my life and love of cross stitch. Thoughts about this and that.

Thursday, December 31, 2009




Saturday, December 26, 2009

Wow - I Won a Needle-Minder for Christmas!!


From Handcrafts Online !! I've never had one before, and at the rate I misplace needles ... (photo by Kelmscott Designs)

Thank you, Mary Kathryn!!

Thursday, December 24, 2009

IT'S SNOWING IN NORTH TEXAS

We're going to have a WHITE CHRISTMAS!!!  The first we've had ... since before I was even born - a LONG time ago!! Of course that puts Christmas Eve plans perhaps on hold, but Christmas Day should be okay with temps in the 40's. I deliberately waited until it started snowing to do some last minute shopping, then took myself on a 20 minute drive in blowing snow. Love it!!  And since it was 75 just yesterday, the roads will be fine tomorrow.  ADDENDUM: The last White Christmas in Fort Worth was in 1926!! To give you a frame of reference, my elderly mother was a 2-year-old toddler at the time - but remembers it vividly!

Christmas Lighthouse Freebie

Get a head start on NEXT Christmas!



From my Lighthouse series. Please note Copyright Information on right, and please leave a comment if you download or check the Response box at the end of this post. Thank you!!

With this I thank you for dropping by my blog and wish each and all a very Merry Christmas and wish each one of you a healthy, safe and most marvelous New Year!!

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

With a New Camera Come Photos!!

Several years ago I was given a greatly overgrown orchid in a 15 inch clay pot requiring a hand ax to break pot and divide orchid into 5 smaller clumps, which were given homes in much smaller pots.. I decided the best place for so many new plants was my back patio. Squirrels ate 3 of them by the next afternoon. The remaining 2 still live outside in partial shade, in the front away from squirrels, but because I'm not good about watering they depend primarily on Mother Nature to see to their needs.  They do count on me to bring them inside when the temps drop. Last winter I forgot one night when it dipped into the 20's and, of course, they froze. I rationally and fully expected them to turn black and that would be that.  HOWEVER they stayed mostly green, and a couple of weeks ago one of these incredibly hearty plants presented me with THIS!! The two beautiful tiny blooms are only 1-3/4 inches from tip to tip and last only 14 days. Mother Nature did a REALLY good job this year! This is considered a "native" orchid because it is one that can be found in nature as opposed to the hybrids that retailers sell these days. It's of the cattleya family but I don't k now the exact variety or name. I do know it will survive temps from the 20's to over 100!!

This is a large photo and at 768x1024 is wallpaper size, if anyone is interested in d/l. If you do, please leave a comment. Thanks!



Flowers received from my BFF for my recent birthday! The bouquet ordered had a bear HUGGING the vase - a representation of all the hugs she's sent my way in recent months! I was just so surprised and honored she thinks of me in this way, and love the bear regardless! She's now sitting atop the CPU just to the left of me on my desk. 1-5-09 Update: I'm drying what's left of the roses and have clipped off the spent lilies, but all except one of the little pink carnations are still very lovely, as are the fern and greenery.



DD and DH (DD cooked Bobby Flay's Eggplant Parmesan for me, coating it with Doritos, along with a pan of roasted veggies and cookies made solely out of crushed almonds and honey with a bit of blackberry jam, and also a mug of tapioca pudding with crushed pineapple dessert for a gluten-free, sugar-free meal! - well, except for the bit of honey :D )



My Parents:



My new step-granddaughters:

 

DD reading Night Before Christmas to ... and this came as a sudden shock when I realized it only a couple of hours ago ... her grandson. Wish I had realized this at that sweet moment!

I don't have any intent to distract or take away from my DD's precious moment, but the truth is that the simple act of reading to a grandchild is something I will never get to do - as much as I have wanted grandchildren since I was a kid and had 2 of the greatest grandmothers on earth. I couldn't wait for my turn. But never to be, and I have reluctantly come to terms with that fact of life.




Monday, December 21, 2009

Recent Birthday Present from Dad


Yeah!!! Cannon Power Shot - 12.1 px, sound capabilities AND in my favorite color!! THANK YOU Dad!

Now back to my very delayed Christmas STITCHING!!

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Beautiful Sunday - I love pansies!!


Today was a beautiful 68, almost cloudless skies ... and seemed like everyone was out shopping or working in the yard!! After taking Mom to church and visiting for a bit, I checked out Home Depot hoping to find pansies and a poinsettia at a good price. Not yet. Then drove a couple of blocks to Calloways where I found a 30% off sale AND the very same varieties pictured as my header for $1.11 as well as a couple of new colors to try. The one on the left is Matrix Morpheus. Reminds me of very big Johnny- Jump-Up. (I love those happy little guys as well.) The one in the middle Matrix Blotch Colossus, and the one on the right is Matrix Sunrise, the variety seen in the header, which I was so happy to find. I keep wanting to call it a Tequila Sunrise. VBG.  I also got a solid velvety deep purple similar to the other pansy in the header. Colossus and Sunrise I planted in the same 18" round container (they may need to be separated), the purple sits in a window box shaped planter right beside them, and the Morpheus is by itself in a pot near the front porch. I suspect it will need to be moved to a sunnier area. When they finally got enough sun last year, the pansies bloomed and bloomed, only giving up when the temps neared 100 and the plants were so leggy and the blooms so little, it was time to give up - watering on a daily basis would have probably kept them healthier a week or two more, but when it hit 104 .... These current plants have 3"+ blooms!! Then a block further to PetsMart where the bettas were 25% off, so I came home with a gold one this time, and Purina One cat food for $2 less than Walmart as well. What I really wanted was a new puppy dog. Better sense prevailed, so it was a new betta instead. Before I even walked in the house, I dug the weeds out of the previous containers, added fertilizer and planted pansies! I finally fetched betta from top of car and came in house. He's still waiting for water temps to equalize before he gets his new home. Sam Too, the blue one, keeps eyeing the empty vase! This one is Sunny. Perfect weather for a tiny bit of gardening and a tropical fish!

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Christmas Cactus Freebie

This was originally designed as an ornament for a charity Victorian Christmas Tree raffle back in 1996.


I've indicated the center of design with box around center stitch - don't stitch box.
Size: 49h x 51w
  • 14/28 ct:  3-1/2 x 3-5/8  in
  • 16/32 ct:  3 x 3-1/8 in 
  • 18/36 ct:  2-5/8 x 2-3/4 in
Merry Christmas Stitchers!!

    Wednesday, December 9, 2009

    Purrfect Tree Decorating 101

    A Cat's Christmas I've corrected the link. Who knew cats were so clever when it comes to decorating a Christmas Tree?

    Monday, December 7, 2009

    Continued Fruitless Job Search

    I have been submitting online job applications a lot recently. Friday I sent a couple to Bank of America. Despite spell check, repeated attempts at proof reading, etc., when I started on #2 what I had submitted with #1 was displayed. I about died. First, when I'd created my "account" I'd misspelled my name as Lidna (something my fickle fingers do all too often), and then there was the misspelled words that only NOW jump out at me. I corrected name, errors and resubmitted #1. I hope that wiped the first submission. Why is it only AFTER one hits SEND that the errors magically appear?? Can't begin to explain just how deflated and defeated I felt. -Lidna :{

    Saturday, December 5, 2009

    Frosty Bob & Cactus Pete Freebie

    Though it didn't snow today (well, actually we did have snow flurries - it's just that it evaporated before it fell low enough to see), and it being our first hard freeze (24.8 as I type), time for Christmas freebies! I guess I'll start off with Frosty Bob. Check back every couple of days for a new Christmas freebie.


    Size:  51w x 77h
    • 14/28 ct: 3-5/8 x 5-1/2 in
    • 16/32 ct: 3-1/8 x 4-3/4 in
    • 18/36 ct 2-3/4 x 4-1/4 in
    Stitching suggestions:
    • Use a dark fabric to emphasize the night sky
    • Use gold #4 very fine Kreinik braid for the star, Merry Christmas and tinsel, or loosely stitch the tinsel using a doubled length of gold blending filament then separate the threads to give more fullness
    • Don't worry about exactly placing the all the tinsel stitches - it's the overall effect that works
    • Substitute gold mini tinsel trim by couching or tacking the strand in place to give a sparkly 3D effect
    • Use beads or metallic threads for the Christmas lights
    • Go a shade or 2 lighter on the browns in Frosty's hat to help it show up better on dark fabric
     Frosty Bob as stitched by Johanna, and check out this interesting framed finish on Webshots.



    Thursday, December 3, 2009

    Michael Powell Freebie

    Christmas Front Door  - a .pdf file. I can't figure out why it has 8 pages and multiple chart versions, but you can print only the pages you actually need.
    Photobucket