July 4 - Independence Day!

Notice how I wrote that? It's a pet peeve of mine. The DATE is July 4th, or 4th of July. Today is a HOLIDAY: INDEPENDENCE DAY! Everyone has a 4th of July. Only the United States of America has INDEPENDENCE DAY on July 4th! To understand a little better why I feel this way, please read this post.

I finally slept last night! After waking up around 1am to feed Kasey and eat something, I went back to bed and read for about an hour and zonked out again. I'm still tired because we did so much walking around yesterday, but nothing like last night. Wow! I was exhausted when we got home.

I went downstairs around 10:30 and started getting my clothes folded and put away because I'm heading home today. No way am I waiting til Sunday when everyone else will be heading home! If I'm lucky, Uncle Jay and Trish will be having their usual cookout and I can stop there to enjoy some time with that side of the family and some great food, too.

Mom had me take this picture of Ricco because she couldn't believe he fit himself onto one step. He's as tall or taller than Kasey! Of course Mom is standing just out of the camera's view, but he's laying on a single step nonetheless. Silly puppy! He wanted Mom's attention and he got it!

Dad has to play music this afternoon and Mom is going with him, so she asked me to stay til around 4pm so that she didn't have to drive separately. I didn't have a problem with that since there were still some of my clothes in the washer and I want to finish my Needlepoint Spring Quilt by Handblessings before I leave.

So that's what I did! It took a few hours of stitching, but around 3:15 I completed NSQ!

I packed up the truck and left Mom's around 3:45 to head home. I called Grandma when I was just outside Chesapeake City to see if she'd be home. I was livid to find out that she was not only not home, but also she was in Corsica Hills Rehabilitation Center! She had her knee replaced for the second time on June 4th and had been in CHRC for three weeks already! I think the steam was coming out of the top of my head, I was so angry at my father's side of the family for not calling me! I didn't even know she had the surgery because it wasn't scheduled the last time I saw Grandma! She didn't even mention it the last time we talked on the phone. What makes it worse, is that she had the surgery at the hospital five minutes from my house! She was there for a few days; I could have gone to see her if I'd known she was there!

I didn't take many pictures as I was busy playing with Kasey and talking to my father, stepmother, and other family members. Oh! Eating! Yeah, the food was excellent, Trish! It was nice to see my aunt's father and ex-FIL both able to attend. I know it probably sounds weird, but in this side of the family, half the "grand kids" are actually step-grandkids. Everyone's treated the same and Trish's problems were with her ex-husband, not his parents, who are still her daughter's grandparents. So Mr Gayle comes over for most holiday dinners, including Christmas and Easter. I wish everyone remembered that where the kids are concerned!

Sure, you split up, but the kids still have two sides of the family! That's how my brother and I were raised, too. Mom used to take us to Grandma's for Christmas because my father didn't come up from Virginia but two or three times a year.

I had to stop what I was doing in order to snap this shot, though! Billy floating in the pool with the noodle protruding. He wanted to know why we didn't warn him earlier when he was floating with his eyes closed. The answer is: Because we were too busy laughing at you!

Kasey was acting very strange today and I have no idea what started it. She walked over to Uncle Jay's back deck, about 50 feet from the pool deck, and sat there waiting for me. I told my father and stepmother that she was ready to go. They didn't believe me.back door being open. I grabbed Kasey's collar and had to pull with all my might to get her out of the truck. I also had to slam the door quickly so that she didn't get back in. She came over to the pool deck with me and laid down in the grass for a while. I opened the back door when Uncle Jay shot off some hand-held fireworks that scared her, though. He was only standing about ten feet away when they went off.

About five minutes later I noticed there was no Kasey Kay in the back of my truck! The boys had just started setting off firecrackers, too. We had to get them to stop all the fireworks and my father and I went looking for Kasey. I found her in the house sitting in the hallway, trying to get into the bathroom. I called her out to the kitchen and she came to me, but I could tell by the look in her eyes that she was worried/scared. When I heard more fireworks going off and she ran down the hallway, almost knocking over my Aunt Trish's dad, Mr Dwight, I knew it was time to take my baby home.

We crossed the Bay Bridge almost exactly at 9:30pm so I was treated to about a dozen different fireworks displays from that vantage point. After making a quick pit-stop at Wawa on Rt 50 to load up on tea for the remainder of the weekend, we went home. We had a wonderfully relaxing evening by ourselves and Uncle Wes returned from the Yacht Club close to midnight.

July 1, 2009- ALREADY?!

Wow! This year has flown by! It's already July! Independence Day is 3 days away! What am I going to do this year? Stay home or go to the Yacht Club? Hellifiknow!

I told you in yesterday's post that I was really close to finishing my HIH sampler. Well, I did it! I put the last button on It's Good to be Home shortly after midnight. This is my 19th finish in the Year of the Sampler!

I kept the computer off and started one of Myrl's gifts,
"Needle-point Spring Wreath" by Eileen Gurak of Hand-blessings. I love doing Eileen's designs because they stitch up so quickly. I think the longest it's taken me to do one is 10 hours. That was Stitching Nut, which was cross stitch. I tried finishing NSW before I went to sleep this morning, but I got to the next-to-last step and didn't have enough floss!

I ran out of the DMC Perle #8 in 703! Argh! I was so frustrated. I had an entire length of the Wildflowers Carnival, but no 703. I'm guessing maybe the measurements of the two got mixed up? I know it was an honest mistake. I'm a thread miser and have never run out of floss in a kit before! Lucky for me, I belong to several needlepoint groups/email lists and someone has already responded to my call for help. I'm sending her a SASE tomorrow so that she can send me 12-18" of 703 in #8 Perle. Once I have the floss, I should be able to finish this up in about half an hour. So Finish number 20 is waiting in the wings!

Even though it was 7am and I hadn't been to sleep yet, I still had stitching fever. I pulled out the other Handblessings kit from Myrl "Needlepoint Spring Quilt" and began stitching the tent stitches in the center. And that is where Exhaustion found me. Sixteen rows of sixteen tent stitches (half-stitches for cross stitchers). Borrrrrrrrrrrrrrr-inggggggggggggggggg! G'nite!

But today was a dialysis day so I couldn't sleep for eight hours. I made it to my treatment early because I happened to wake up before my alarm went off. I read at dialysis today because I have some bruises around my graft that are still fading. I didn't want to try to stitch and make new ones.

I worked on NSQ when I got home (left that laptop off!) and completed the tent stitches and three more sections. In the middle of stitching the fourth section I decided the thunder-storms were far enough away that I could turn on the computer. That's where my stitching progress stopped for the day!

See, I told you it was DIRECT PROPORTION: Computer off; Great stitching progress. Computer on; No stitching progress!

And it doesn't help that it takes me hours to write these daily posts. That's One. Post. One daily post equals at least two hours of work if there are pictures. I've spent as much as five hours on one post before (lots of pictures).

OCD? Me? *Nervous-hysterical laugh* Um, yeah. That's me! Grammar has to be right, it has to flow in a logical manner, pictures have to be placed correctly, extra lines/spaces have to be removed... I'm sure I'm missing some things, but you get the general jist of my quest for blogging perfection. I know there's more, but even if there was only one person who read Crossed Purposes I'd be the same way. I'll even edit a post that's old if I notice a typo or an awkward sentence. I can't help myself!

I have to say something to my friends who say I'm addicted to FaceBook: I've been away for more than 24 hours and I didn't die! I'm not addicted! I freely admit to my addictions (the aforementioned Lemonade Tea); I refuse to be saddled with ones I don't deserve!

I even resisted the temptation to sign in when I read an email from a friend telling me that all my Farm Town trees were ready to be harvested. I've defeated my FarmTown addiction, too! Wahoo! I'm so proud of me!

Tomorrow is payday, so I will be running errands and hopefully going to Barnes & Noble to stitch. It depends on how many stops I cross off my to-do list, though.

February 13-15, 2009

I know I've been a little lax in my posting the past few days, but this migraine won't go away. Well, it goes away while I'm sleeping but the pain increases the longer I'm awake. Thursday night/Friday morning, I continued stitching and completed
"Stitching Nut" by Handblessings at 12:30am. This is the 6th finish in the Year of the Sampler and the second Handblessings design I've done. I love how quick they stitch up! I apologize for the charm being off kilter, but as you can see it's a hoop with fabric in it. I'm also adding this one to my pile of unfinished finishes.

I have alot of finishing work to do when I get around to it! The problem is that I don't want everything framed. Somehow that seems boring, or in a rut, to me. Besides that, I can't hang anything here in the house. The walls crack when you put nails into them, so what's the sense? I've got to come up with more innovative ideas to display my work.

Before going to sleep Friday morning I decided to stitch another Dinky Dyes quilt square. I fray-checked the fabric and made a working copy of the chart but I didn't actually start it until Saturday afternoon, after getting through all my email. I spent the day Saturday watching movies on the Hallmark Channel. Some of my favorites were playing. By midnight, I'd gotten this far on Lasseter's Reef. Once again, I'm using Yallingup (varigated) and Saltbush (green) instead of the colors Jo calls for.

My head was just hurting too much for me to keep looking into lights, so I've spent the majority of the weekend sans laptop computer. By the time I finished reading email today and Saturday, I couldn't stand the pain anymore. Having the laptop off allowed me to keep moving on Lasseter's Reef, though.

I stitched into the wee hours of Sunday morning and didn't wake up until 1pm. Then I remembered the Daytona 500 was on this afternoon and turned the tv on so I could see that. After about an hour I had to turn off the television and went back to bed. Kasey and I slept from 5-8pm. Here is my progress as of midnight tonight, Sunday.

Once again, the pain is increasing the longer I'm awake. I'm hoping I only have another two days of this! I can't take any of the migraine medications because of side effects and the fact I have kidney failure, so I have to muddle through with Aleve.

I have the computer turned on long enough to upload pictures from my camera and make this post; then I'm turning it off again. I hope everyone is having a great President's Day weekend! Enjoy the holiday!

February 12, 2009

I woke up this morning and could feel the residual pain from the migraine that started last night. Unfortunately, the longer I was awake the worse the pain became. I got through emails this morning but couldn't handle the lights any longer. At 11:00 this morning I turned the livingroom lights out and went back to bed, pulling the covers over my head.

I woke up for the second time today at 2:30 this afternoon and I wasn't in as much pain. Again, though, the pain increased steadily. Needless to say, I didn't go to Barnes & Noble for the afternoon stitching group. At 3:30 I saw a commercial for an over the counter medicine that's supposed to take care of this type of migraine. I drove to the closest drug store to purchase a bottle.

And it works for about 2 hours. The directions say to take it every 4-6 hours, 2 pills. It also says not to take more than 8 pills in a 24-hour period. So I'm screwed! I just need to get through dialysis tomorrow and then I'm hibernating for as long as this migraine hangs on. I'm hoping that if I sleep most of the time, I can muddle through with the little help the medicine provides. If I can't sleep then my alternative is to be in pain most of the time.

I had to turn all the lights off, including the little light in the hood over the stove. I was able to use my OTT Lite by putting it behind my shoulder so the light didn't shine in my eyes. I stitched on Handblessings'
"Stitching Nut" all afternoon and evening. As of midnight it looks like this. All that's left is to finish backstitching the words and to add the charm. This was a either a very quick stitch, or I do much better when the computer is turned off! I watched/listend to a couple movies on Hallmark Channel while working on Stitching Nut, too. I really enjoy Hallmark's "Whole Lotta Love Month" and the movies they play.

November 25, 2008

The clock struck midnight while Kasey and I headed to Wawa. I was hungry and there wasn't a thing in the house that appealed to me. That toasted Italian sub was calling my name! I know it was midnight, but when you don't wake up until 4:30 in the afternoon, that's dinner time! I came home and enjoyed half of my sub with Kasey and Chet "vulturing" at my feet. I could see the wheels turning in their minds, trying to exert all their mental powers to make me drop something for them to devour. Unfortunately for them I don't usually share my subs.

I went back to work on Friendship after putting away the remains of my sub and washing my hands. I was so excited at 2:30 when I finished the verse and could begin adding the beads, buttons, and the charm. I put the last bead in at 4:15am so Friendship is finished!
By 4:45 I was stitching Autumn Whispers by Handblessings. It looked like a nice, easy, relaxing stitch and it was. By 6:45 when I went to bed I had already completed four of the six bands surrounding the center square. An hour and forty minutes more of stitching after I awoke and I had my second finish of the day! I think this is a record for me, as I completed the stitching less than 30 hours after it came into my stash!

Now my total for stitching finishes is up to 47. That's three needlepoint and 44 cross stitch projects this year. Add the eight sewing projects I've done (QSnap Covers, Pillows, and Pillow covers) and the total goes up to 55 projects completed! I'm not quite sure how I got on this major stitching jag lately, but this was the type of progress I had in mind when I set my goal at 100 finishes for 2008. The fact that I've spent more than 50 days in the hospital, underwent eight surgeries, and had major complications from the last one slowed me down but didn't knock me out! I have already surpassed my total for 2007, which was a secondary goal for this year.

I'm not sure what I'm going to stitch now but I should have something in progress by the time I post tomorrow's update.

Here are your freebies for today:

Kaleidostitch has links to many free charts.
http://kaleidostitch.com/content%20pages/catalog%20page/Free/catalog.htm

The Chart Shop is another page with links to numerous free charts.
http://shopping.originpublishing.com/charts_category.asp?category=5

November 24, 2008

As I was working on Friendship and saw how fast it was stitching up I realized that I may have another finish tomorrow! If I'd known I could stitch it in 2-3 days I would have started it long ago! When I saw it in a SAL it seemed people were taking weeks and weeks to complete it and everyone was complaining about the verse. I've always done my over-one stitching using the Continental stitch so that the thread doesn't go behind the fibers of the material. I think the verse was the easiest part for me to do.

All of the leaves and back-stitching are done, except for one last spool of thread. I chose to do the "ad-vanced" option of using padded satin stitches for my thread spools. I'm not sure why it's advanced when it's just a straight stitch, but whatever floats your boat. It's easier and faster than doing the x's for the thread on the spools, too. I wanted my spools to look like real spools of thread and this stitch certainly accomplishes that

Kasey woke me up at 10:00 this morning and then didn't come when I called her half an hour later. I was worried so I got dressed and put on my coat to go find her. As I was walking out of the carport and calling for her again she came running from the direction of my neighbor's house. Of course I was wide awake so there was no getting back to sleep at that point.

I am constantly thankful I discovered the online stitching community. No only has it provided me a lifeline to the outside world and some of the closest friends I've ever had, but also the generosity of other stitchers continues to amaze and humble me. I received an email on Friday from Marl B of Indiana. She said that she has a special interest in my posts because her son also lives in Annapolis. Marl wrote to tell me that she saw the Handblessings charts on my wish list and had them for me. The designer, Eileen Gurick, is in several guild chapters with Myrl and they are friends as well. She told me that she was driving through Annapolis on Sunday and would be leaving the charts with her son and gave me the information to pick them up from his work.

Since I couldn't get back to sleep anyway I decided to ride over to pick up the charts from John's work. I was flabbergasted when the bag was handed to me. Myrl had mentioned something about her son mumbling, as she watched him put the bag in his truck, about what color suit to wear Monday to match the purple stitching bag. Purple stitching bag?! Yep! Myrl found a set of clear thick plastic bags with purple nylon straps. There's everything from a little cosmetic case to an 18x18" tote! These will be great for keeping future WIPs clean as they all zip closed.

But that wasn't all! It wasn't just the charts I wanted! Myrl included the fabric and fibers to stitch them! There was the 18ct mono canvas, already on stretcher bars, for Autumn Whispers and the Lugana for Stitching Nut. As if that wasn't enough, Myrl was able to convince Eileen to sign the charts for me! That is SOOO cool! My first ever personalized charts!

Myrl, I cannot thank you enough for these wonderful gifts! Have a safe and happy trip to Ocean City and enjoy your time "Down the ocean."

After getting only a few hours of sleep I was exhausted around noon and decided to go back to bed. I was also feeling the effects of a sour stomach and was afraid I was coming down with a stomach bug. For me, sleeping is the best way to heal and my family says they can tell when I'm sick because it's the only time I stay in bed. Since I knew I was going to sleep through the afternoon I called my dialysis clinic to inform them I wouldn't be there today.

I slept until after 5:30 this afternoon but felt much better upon waking up. The feeling of my stomach revolting on me was gone so I went back to work on Friendship. I was hoping to have it complete but didn't quite get there before midnight.

I've shared pictures of Kasey several times recently so I had to be fair to my boy. Here is my stitching assistant, Mr. Chetter-bug, sitting on me so I can't get away from him. You'll notice he's also trying to hide the tv remote. I'm all the time having to pull it from under His Highness. His eyes really don't look that evil but his pupils are so large they always reflect when I take a picture of him. The red-eye remover doesn't recognize such a large area so it won't work for pictures of Chet.

Finally, I know you've been waiting to see what I come up with for today's freebies, so here you go:

Gran's Stitch Niche has some beautiful free designs but beware! They're BAP's!
http://stitchniche.50webs.com/patterns2.html

Erynne's blog is full of free charts. Make sure you stop by to take a look at her offerings.
http://be-stitched.blogspot.com/search/label/grille%20gratuit