Just a catch-up post...

I figured I'd better get a new post up here before I forget I have a blog!  I keep taking pictures thinking "oh, I'll do a post" and then I don't.  But I'll post them now - it's the best way to remind me of things to "record in my journal".

First off, I've made my egg strata with some regularity since my first report cause I really do like it.  Finally remembered to take a picture of one before I put it in the oven and need to remember to take one after I take it out of the oven cause it's prettier then.  Here it's all soupy but will puff up and brown nicely as it bakes.  Makes me glad I have a red casserole to bake it in.  Very cheery.

And while we're in the kitchen, this is a pretty poor picture of the tile that ... wait for it... ... ...
Chris and I are going to install when he comes over for Thanksgiving weekend!!  Yes, I'm excited. :)  In the picture, the sheet of tile is still in it's plastic wrap so it's mostly glare.  They're glass tiles and the shades are just right for my red, black and ivory kitchen, I think.  I hope we don't have too much trouble and I hope it turns out well.  Pictures will definitely follow (unless it doesn't turn out well).

This is a little cross stitch I finished up for my Etsy shop.  It's prettier "in the real" - the colors are subdued but not as subdued as they are in the photo.  I've actually sold three things in my little shop in the last week or two (third one today!) and that's always a nice feeling - I figure a person wouldn't buy it if they didn't think it was nice. :) 

This little "joy" banner is what I sold today.  The woman who bought it had already bought a Christmas tree quilt the week before last so it was nice she came back again. :)

Once I finished the cornucopia, I decided that I would stitch away at my Chinese petitpoint rug until November 10 (when the Yahoo Petitpointers post their progress pictures (wow - alliteration!)  Seems like so often when I post a progress picture you have to really search when comparing it to the previous picture in order to see where there's been any progress.  So I promised myself that this time, the difference would be noticeable.  I posted my October progress picture on the blog at this LINK if you'd like to compare.  Just scroll on down and you'll find it along with a picture of the finished rug that came with the chart.  Now that I've posted the picture, I've started stitching on a couple of Christmas pieces for my shop so who knows how long it will be before I get back to this rug.  I have to say, so far, it's a pretty boring pattern!  It's certainly not as intricate as a lot of the miniature rug charts that are being created nowadays.  (Wow! being the weird person I am, I just counted and by my count, there are twenty words in this paragraph that start with "p"! - well, now make that 22: ) )

Had a nice outing with Peggy during the brief "minute" she was in Huntington recently.  She's been a travelin' lady lately!  And the other night a neighbor called to see if I'd like to join her and her husband for a visit to SIP, the new wine bar I've mentioned before.  She didn't have to ask twice! :)  I really do like that place and think Chris and I will go there one evening.

Oh, and lest I forget!! Cindy had two free tickets and so called me to see if I'd like to go to the Landau Eugene Murphy, Jr. (how's that for a mouthful?!) concert.  He was a winner last year maybe? of the "America's Got Talent" TV show and he's a West Virginian and so he's a big deal here in West Virginia.  I kind of thought I might not enjoy it that much but Cindy told me he's a crooner-type singer - old Frank Sinatra songs, etc., so I went and it was such a fun evening.  I was glad I decided to go.  He's quite a powerful singer and quite entertaining too.

And, let's see...the annual miniature art show had their opening reception last week or the week before and Shelly (I call her my Starbucks friend cause that's where we met each other) called to see if I wanted to go do that.  I'm so lucky to have friends that keep track of what's going on.  I love that exhibit so, of course, went along.  And then she had to pick something up from the museum gift shop so we went up there and they were getting all their Christmas goodies set out in the gift shop so I think Chris and I will probably go up there too.

There were probably a few other things that I thought "I'll post that when I post" but they're lost in the mists of the past now. :)  I'll end with what I did Sunday, Monday and today - washed windows!  Sunday I just scrubbed all the outside sills which get unbelievably dirty for some reason (I mean - I'm on the 9th floor for pity's sake!).  Then yesterday it was very balmy and overcast so I did the two bedroom windows first.  Washing windows here involves moving furniture, climbing up and down, and basically hard physical labor.  My windows are double hung and I confess to only washing the bottom halves of them.  I'm pretty sure I would accidentally kill myself if I attempted the upper halves.  Each half measures 47-1/2" wide by 37" high and they're double-paned and heavy!  You have to try and be very careful when you're tilting them in and down or they get away from you and then you're in trouble.  But oh, how I love them once they're done.  I did the two bedroom ones yesterday and then woke up to insanely bright sun today and was dismayed to see smear marks on both of them.  Went through all the work of moving stuff, getting them tilted in and down, cleaning them again, only to find the smears were on the inside (dumb me!)  So got that cleaned and they were beautiful, as was the view when sitting in my bedroom chair, to wit:

Seeing that end result gave me the gumption to do all four of the remaining windows (two living room, two dining room).  These weren't as dirty because usually if I decide to wash windows, I start with them and by the time I'm done figure "oh, what the heck - who's going to be looking out the bedroom windows?"  Awful, right?  But again, the end result makes the hard labor all worthwhile.  In the picture below, I sat where I sit when I eat my lunch and dinner and took the picture from there.  So this is that view.  And, yes, even though I know it's hard to believe, there is glass in the windows! (tee hee)

So, there you have it - not a trip to Florence or anything, but for me, a nice few weeks. :)

What I did ...

...after pondering "what to do" (see post below if you're a new visitor).

Here's what I came up with after all that pondering.  And I'm real happy with how it all looks now and especially happy that I finally got my three singing birds hung.  It turns out I bought that in the fall of 2010!  So, it definitely had not been treated well.

The shelf arrangement ended up like this:

Several reasons why I chose this arrangement - I like the bird with only the cream wall behind him, I like the smaller piece of art with the fairly narrow shelf, I like having the doll because not only does it have exactly the right colors, but now the arrangement has something from all three of my children, and I like the fact that the pin is so small that people need to go closer to see it.  Of course probably not everybody is like I am - if I go to someone's home, I love looking at everything they have displayed - it's a nice way to get to know them better.  And if I have to get up close to something to really see what it is, I do.

On the left are my three birds hanging over two things that were already there - my petitpoint cat matted within a quilted circle and the delightful postcard that my grandson sent me from Paris with such a nice little message on the back that I had it framed between two pieces of glass!  This grouping is in my hallway right before you go into the bedroom.

And on the right are the cherries painting and the ceramic plaque together again, but now in my bedroom on the closet wall looking down the hallway to the living room.

I'm real happy with all three arrangements and now should never buy another single thing to hang on walls but I probably will.











And one more thing I did was finish another little miniature project.  This is a half inch scale bed that I've had in my collection of beds awaiting quilts and I decided to make a cross stitch coverlet for it.  I really seemed to drag my feet on the stitching but finally got it finished and managed to then get the whole thing put together yesterday.

The one on the left is a better picture of the bed itself and the one on the right shows the pattern and finished bed better.  For the bedskirt I used corrugated scrapbooking paper that I painted and then glued onto the sides of the bed.  For half scale, it works very well.  And I was lucky enough to have a very white and very tiny trim for the edges. 





So there you have it.  I've decided I should always be in a state of waiting to take a big trip because I really seem to be getting some things done.  I have to stain a couple more pieces of wood to finish up the two bookcases for January's roombox but they're very near completion.  And then I'm hoping I'll get a start on the box itself before I leave.  Although it's a well known fact that I work in slow ways my wonders to perform! :)

Thanks to those of you who e-mailed and commented on my "what to do" post.  I always enjoy hearing from everyone.

Chris is Chastising Me Again!

So I'd better get something posted.  He does keep after me...

I've actually been fairly busy this month what with my temporary filling in for the office manager type person in our condo building which entailed being available by phone, delivering packages, trying to help people who were having trouble with whatever, getting workmen down to the basement, up to the roof, taking down all the Christmas stuff in the lobby, etc., etc.  I was so glad the gentleman who normally does all that finally got to have a nice vacation, but I was also very glad to see him come home!

And once I got to feeling better after my strange on again/off again cold, I seem to have gotten all inspired to get to work on various projects.  I've actually started on getting those shelves installed in my bedroom window.  Put one in yesterday and managed to get another one in today.  It turns out to be killer work for me cause I'm having to drill into some kind of metal stud and really have to apply pressure whilst all twisted around trying to make sure I hold the drill straight, etc.  It is so far from a perfect job that it's really kind of hilarious.  After I got finished with the first one, I figured out that I had drilled at least 15 holes before I finally got the supports where I wanted them and even then I wasn't real pleased with them.  But today's shelf went in with only the necessary 4 holes drilled.  To get the screws in, I have to change drill bits three times!!  However, as long as they don't fall down once I get stuff on them (and I don't I think they will...) I'll be happy with them.

And while I was putting my Christmas decorations away, I decided to leave my little Christmas shop out for a while cause I like it plus I liked having its light turned on in the corner where I had it sitting.  That little shop started out as a pottery shop - I built the shop in a class at a miniature show and had all my collection of pottery pieces in it (mostly made by a guy here in Huntington who did beautiful work and then quit).  But then when my Christmas collection started growing, I wanted to display it, so I switched out the shop.  Long story short - I decided this year that I would use it for both - pottery shop all year and Christmas shop at Christmas.  That entails some customizing - have to have different wallpaper for them so had to make a second back piece (which is removable), and for the pottery shop I will have to use shelves like I did originally, but the original shelves were set into grooves in the side walls and I want to change the location of them slightly.  So, that means new shelves because the originals are glass and shattered when my framer guy tried to shorten them.  That brought me to a bit of a standstill while I try to find some acrylic sheeting that will be sturdy enough not to sag.

And I finished my little cross stitch of the "big" cat head and it turned out real cute, I thought.  Here's a picture of it where I was wanting to see how it would look framed since I was having a hard time working up the nerve to try and make it a pillow.

But I finally told myself to bite the bullet and attempt the pillow.  Bravely stitched it to a backing fabric, with great effort managed to get it turned right side out, even got it fairly well stuffed, but by then the open edge of the cross stitch fabric was sort of totally disintegrating with one of the seams starting to separate.  I made an effort to get the raw opening turned in so I could stitch it, but it was not to be.  My happy little cat went into the trash.  So, no more pillows for me!  Should have just framed it. :(

I also decided I want to make another quilt, got out my fabric stash and selected 5 colors and am trying to decide which of two patterns to make.  I had found a delightful scrapbooking paper that is tiny, tiny purple flowers, along with even tinier bits of yellow and pink flowers, green stems and leaves, all on a white background and I don't know why I bought it but I did.

When I get the quilt made, I will probably put it in my Etsy shop and maybe say "here's some paper if you want it".  If I had a dollhouse that needed a bedroom, I know how I'd do it.  I'd make the bottom of the wall white tongue and groove wainscoting and then paper the top with the paper.

I think that's all my projects - oh, I'm going to get back to work on my big petitpoint rug also.  But that's all my projects. :)

The other thing I've been doing is cooking a lot.  I've posted two new recipes - one for a recipe called Bulgarian Leek, Cabbage and Potato Soup and another for one my own creations that I made up last week and then tweaked it a little this week that's Pasta with White Beans, Tuna Fish and Tomatoes and so on.  I liked my attempt last week but felt like it could use a little jazzing up, so I made it again tonight and that's what I put in my recipe collection cause I suppose I shouldn't say it, but I thought it was delicious.

At some point on one of my cooking evenings, I looked out through my pass-through in the kitchen and saw this outside my dining room windows:

It looks like I fooled with the color on these but I didn't.  The sun on the hills somehow made them this very red color.  Really stunning!  I am SO glad I didn't have my pass-through closed in like I originally planned!

So, I had my cabbage soup twice, my pasta and bean creation twice, thawed my leftover meatball mix and had a meatball sub one night last week and spaghetti and meatballs one night this week.  And I still have some frozen chili in the freezer.  So, mother, pin a rose on me! :)

So there, Chris!  I will post pictures of my shelves if and when I ever get them finished and stuff on them.  And I'll post a picture of the pottery shop when it's finished.

I'm All A-Twitter...

Silly, I know...but I just found out a member of Etsy made up a Treasury List and included my Christmas tree quilt in it!  That's a first for me and it just made me real happy. :)

(A few days later)...

I started this early this week and instead of doing a new post will just add to it. And it will be about my addiction to Etsy. :)

I've discovered that I love making Treasury Lists myself. I suppose everyone is familiar with Etsy, but it was all new to me and if it's new to you too, a Treasury List is something you create by doing a search for most anything - a color, a holiday, a word, whatever, and selecting from what comes up for your search. You can choose up to 16 items (and there are usually thousands) and you enter them, rearrange them to hopefully make a pleasing arrangement (some lists are truly beautiful) and then post it. There are a couple of rules - you're not to put in anything from your own shop and you're only supposed to have one item from any one shop and that's the hard part. Sometimes it's tempting to put in more than one if the shop is really relevant to your theme. There's something you do to make the lists get tons of hits - I saw one today with three thousand some but I don't know what it is, nor do I really care; I just enjoy doing the searching and putting them together. So, I'm going to put links here to the lists I've created so far. And just so you know, I'm spiraling...I already have collected three sets of items for three more lists!!

My first list was Itsy Bitsies and was, of course, all dollhouse miniatures.

Next, was Autumn in a Miniature World, again all miniatures.

Then, branching out, Ah, Bella Italia...Ah, Pottery which covers (as my readers know) two of my other loves.

I forget what inspired my It's Almost Time for Oktoberfest" list, maybe because I had come across a miniature beer mug.

Weather inspired A Cold, Rainy Day and a Pot of Tea and this and the Itsy Bitsies are probably my favorites.

And last, just a couple of days ago, I posted A Squadron of Sock Monkeys because I had just finished stitching and listing a cross stitched sock monkey dressed up as a pirate for Halloween. While working on it, I got to wondering if there were very many sock monkeys on Etsy, so did a search and, of course, thousands! This was an exciting one, because I posted it and about 3 minutes later, I got a message that someone had added it to their list of favorite treasury lists (which I didn't even know you could do).

Here's my little sock monkey pirate:

And...more excitement...in addition to the Christmas Tree quilt being included on someone's treasury list, this week two other treasury lists used an item of mine.  Don't ask me why this tickles me so much...but I somehow find it more exciting than actually selling something! :)

And since you're probably really hoping I'll post the links to those three treasury lists so you can pick out my items, here they are:

A Little Bit of Red, A Little Bit of Green" for my Christmas tree quilt.

Christmas Quilting mine is the only tiny thing on the list.




And I'm just all filled up with ideas for stitching I want to do.  I have an old sampler that my mother stitched that hung on the dining room wall of the house I grew up in.  In emptying out the closet after my "flood" (would you believe nothing has been done about any of that yet?!) there it was and I looked at the back of it and discovered that she had stitched it in 1937!!  Which means, if I have my dates right, she probably had only been married for a year or less.  And I decided I would try and get it down to miniature size.  I've finished charting it into my cross stitch program and it will be a large miniature, but I'm real excited about that.  And I have a few "primitive" samplers I want to stitch that should go pretty quickly; I want to make some smaller, decorated Christmas tree quilts (like the one on my quilts page) that could be used as dollhouse wallhangings or as Christmas tree ornaments in "real life"; and I've picked out a few Christmas cross stitch patterns that will adapt well to miniature stitching, so I'm just having a great time with it all.

I think that's about all for now.  Anything else I would have to report would all be bad news - no work on the water damage, a speed-trap speeding ticket on my way home from my NYC trip (and we just won't talk about the dollar amount), "Occupy Wall Street" protestors (noisy!) on the busy intersection that is less than 1/2 a block away from my bedroom, etc.  So isn't it nice I have found a new obsession? :)

The weather here right now is pretty much fabulous and I hope it is for at least most, if not all, of my readers.  Tomorrow is supposed to be another one, so a pleasant Sunday to all.

NEEDLEWORK PAGE PART II - CROSS STITCH

November, 2013 - Wow!  It's been so long since I posted something I finished that I almost forgot to post my latest endeavor.  I'm hoping maybe I finished another thing or two between Oct. 2012 and now and just forgot to post it. :)

Anyway, this one is on 32 count fabric and had 21 colors, insanely enough.  The chart was in a "real-life" cross stitch kit that I bought, knowing I could get it down to miniature on small count fabric.

This next one was part of a fairly large sampler pattern and I've always loved cornucopias (I think partly because I like the word) so decided it was a good one to stitch for this time of year.

This next one was part of a fairly large sampler pattern and I've always loved cornucopias (I think partly because I like the word) so decided it was a good one to stitch for this time of year.

And some more autumn themed pieces below.  I seem to get all inspired in the autumn - both cooking and needlework...

April 11, 2012 -  A little half inch scale bed that I've dressed with a cross stitched coverlet and sham and a bedskirt made from corrugated scrapbook paper that I painted and glued on.  My half inch scale dollhouse is all filled up so I'll put this bed in my Etsy shop and see what happens. :)

March 30, 2012 - Just finished two little pieces of cross stitch and am posting two pictures of the first one because when I put it in this scene to take a nice photo for my Etsy shop, I liked it so well that I wanted to share it here too.  On the right, the legend is clear: "Let me live in a house by the side of the road and be a friend to man." I posted earlier about my mother doing a real life sampler way back in 1937 that hung on our dining room wall the whole time I was growing up. 

And on the left is a picture of that.  I've charted the entire design and hopefully will someday work up the nerve to try stitching it on a very small count gauze or fabric.

It's not a very good photograph, but that's partly because it is quite old (75 years to be exact!!) and I didn't want to use the flash and have it glare on the glass.  It's not as over-all yellow as it appears in the photo.

On the right is the other new piece.  Again, I'm putting it in my Etsy shop.  It was a little cross stitch kit I picked up at one of the craft stores and stitched on a smaller count fabric to get it down to 1" scale.

March 15, 2012 - Just finished this little cross stitch for my Etsy shop (which has been very sadly neglected). I've had this pattern for a long time - I found it in the magazine "New Stitches" and there are several patterns all featuring the black cat and flowers.  I had stitched a smaller one and I guess had to build up the gumption to stitch this one!  It uses 21 colors and I stitched it on 32 count fabric. That's a dollhouse chair and dollhouse wallpaper to give an idea of the size.

12/14/11 - Just finished this  little tree skirt today. After I finished the stitching, and finagled around getting all the sides cut the way I wanted them, I bonded it to a slightly glittery fabric backing and then cut the opening up the back and added the trim. I was really beginning to stress over what I could use for the edging and then found this tucked down in my mini trims box and am delighted with how it looks with the skirt. And I listed it in my shop and in less than 2 hours it sold! That will probably never happen again, but to have it happen ONE time is pretty exciting. 

December 12 - Another completed cross stitch project for my Etsy shop.  The pattern for these showed them as little pillows for a real life Christmas tree stitched on 14 count.  I stitched mine on 32 count, made the little "cushions" and then "quilted" the needlework on to the cushions which was the hardest part.  The first one I thought I would do the stitching by hand but that made the back look not so good so the next two, I used my sewing machine, but I didn't want it to go fast, so I turned the wheel with my hand!  Crazy, but it worked.  Then I fringed out the edges of the cross stitch fabric, and, although they don't show in this picture, I attached pretty little antique brass rings on the back of each one that can be used for hanging or hidden away if someone might want to use them as chair pads in their mini family's house. :)








December 4, 2011 - Finished up this little wallhanging or perhaps a real life Christmas tree ornament today.  I made the hanger out of thin wire and as it was my first attempt, I was pleased that it came out looking pretty much like a hanger. :) 
















September 15, 2011 - I just finished two cross stitch pieces for my new Etsy.com shop and am pleased with how they turned out.  Also, I've added 4 more pictures down at the bottom of the page today.

I'm in an autumn mood so enjoyed working on this one.  It's mid-September which means it's almost time for my first pot roast of the season!

And the little Noah's Ark was fun to stitch also.  I had stitched it quite a while ago on 28 count and thought it was too big.  So this time I stitched it on 32 count and not framing it kept it to a nice size, I think.

The autumn collage is on 32 count also and I made the frame from maple frame molding.

And the little single pumpkin below I had also stitched some time ago and for some reason had stitched it quite close to the edge of the fabric but couldn't bring myself to throw it out.  Then I figured out I could bond it to a fabric square and have it be a little table mat or trivet or whatever.  It's about an inch square.  Waste not, want not is what I always say!

There's a lady in Texas who's been commissioning cross stitch from me for a while now.  These two pieces were based on real-life patterns that I adapted to miniature scale.  The very first piece she bought from me was the little "Bo-Peep" rug shown below.  She also had me design and stitch the three quilt blocks. 

Moving on...this next batch are just various pieces I've made over the years - mostly sold at shows...

 

The little covered bridge isn't cross stitch - it's long stitch embroidery which I really enjoyed - I made another one but don't have a picture of it.  Wish I could find more patterns for long stitch although I've collected a few pictures that I think might work well for it - just have to work up my nerve to try them without an actual pattern.

And you can tell this is an old picture - pretty poor.  But it was a pretty cross stitch picture!  Wonder if I could find the pattern and do that one again...I like the lavender in it.

These next two pictures are pictures of all the cross stitch designs I created myself so I could sell cross stitch kits at miniature shows.  People really seemed to enjoy them and since I mainly went to shows within 200 or so miles of here, I would see the same people at various shows and they usually would buy another one or two.  I really enjoyed the shows and keep thinking I may do another one one of these days...

The three samplers in the third row are a boy birth sampler, a wedding sampler, and a girl birth sampler where the stitcher put in the names and dates.  That one in the bottom left hand corner is the last one I designed (I think).  It says "let me live in a house by the side of the road and be a friend to man" and a real life sampler with that sentiment hung on our dining room wall all the years I was growing up.  The little stocking kits included the pompoms and holeless black beads to make the teddy bears and a candy cane.

And this last picture is of a bed coverlet kit that I also sold in six or seven different color combinations.   I ended up eventually making up two booklets of cross stitch coverlet charts.

And I think that's all the cross stitch that I have pictures of.  Certainly not all I've ever stitched cause I've been stitching for years and years and years and ....