OK, raise your hands-don't be shy

Who wants to stitch some monkeys over one on 28 count black Monaco for me? Come on, I see you there in the back. Stop hiding behind your fellow readers. Don't hold back. Did I mention they are dark brown monkeys? Oh, what do you mean, you have a biscornu to stitch? This is a work of art, people! Well phooey . . .

Obviously, I am still hard at work on the Monkey Sampler. I got a wild hair yesterday and decided I would work on the two creeping monkeys. They are over one. (oh, yeah, I just wrote they were, d'oh) It's going OK. I wish the directions were a little more clear on this one on how to place them. Especially because not only are there two monkeys, there is an owl and the saying to put in over one. But it's still fun to stitch.

I had really good light to work in yesterday. SO has a skylight in his livingroom, and on cloudy days, it's the most perfect stitching space ever. The light that comes in is really nice on those days and you can really see the individual threads better.

I don't think this should take too long to get done.

I am starting to get advancement on the computer situation. I took our Dell in to the office to have the IT guy see what he can do with it. Hopefully, it can be salvaged, otherwise it's a new computer and scrambling for time on borrowed PCs to upload photos. Which stinks.

The Monkey Sampler

I decided I am going to have a run at finishing Midsummer Night Designs' Monkey Sampler. I've had the chart forever, and it's such a fun design. Irreverent and quirky. I started it back in the fall on black, and then put it aside at Christmas. I pulled it back out again Wednesday night. Hopefully, I can get it, if not finished, then majorly worked on this month. I stitched MSN's Lady Prim and Lady Proper Sampler two years ago, and that was a pleasure to stitch. This is just the same.

I converted all the colors to Vikki Clayton silks. I used them on Lady Prim and they were loads of fun to work with. I like how vibrant they are and how they really seem to pop against the black. And they are CHEAP. I think I paid less than $1.50 per skein for these. You can't beat that for silk threads.

One thing about me, I am cheap. I hate spending large amounts of money--I drive a cheap car, my dogs were free or reduced in price, I don't do expensive shoes or clothes. I rarely use over-dyed threads because the thought of spending the money on them makes me nauseous. Especially Silk n Colors. I have a gorgeous chart by Workbasket, the Bay Sampler, and it uses Silk n Colors. I priced them out. At $5 a skein, which is what they were at the time I was doing it, it was over $100 for the threads alone. OMG. But these are cheaper. Even if I bought 3 skeins of each, it would still be way less that.

So these are fun to use. I am not doing the variegated ones, so it's going a little fast. I am working on the house, which is a lot of brown, so had to stitch part of the date in a gorgeous rose. But I'll get to do some other colors, soon. I am almost done the roof, and am moving on from there.

Some Thursday cuteness

I don't think I posted this picture before. I think this is the most adorable picture of my furry son. (Please excuse the background) He looks like a puppy, doesn't he. You wouldn't beleive he's eight years old. This picture makes me smile. Who knows what he's looking at. I probably was offering him a cookie. Anyway, I hope it gives someone a grin.

(We need to take some new pix).

The Christmas Kitten is finished

I am so pleased with myself for getting this finished. I almost lost it last night at the nail salon. I got it out to work on while I was waiting for my girl to finish her other client, and realized the stitching was not in the magazine. I almost threw up. Then I went outside and it was lying in front of the car. Whew. At least no one ran over it and it wasn't in a puddle.

I did most of the backstitching today. I spoke a little too soon about that ease of stitching. The face on the little cat was full of those wonky stitches. But I got through them. I even managed to do his little French knot eyes exactly the same size. They were neat and in the correct, symmetrical position. I am particularly pleased about that--usually my French knot eyes end up being off and it makes one of the eyes look like it's bulging. So, yay for me! He really is adorable, and he does remind me of Gussie.

I sent my payment for this month's Sanmans. I don't consider this a fall off the wagon, because I placed my order before I decided to go on. And I really wanted these charts. I realized I am a horrible dog mother, and, as far as my stitching, I favor the cats. I have very few dog charts, and, sadly, 3 charts that could marginally be Schipperkes. Those are the Mosey and Mes that are of Molly the Mutt. If I take her tail off, she is the perfect Schip. So I wanted to get the dog Itty Bitty to at least start to make it up to Robbie and Chancey. I haven't determined yet the extent of the guilt I should feel because I usually end up stitching other breeds of dogs when i do stitch dogs--we'll leave that for another day, hee hee.

I have decided that being on the wagon does not include not buying magazines. It would be different if they were like fashion magazines, I can live without those. But my magazines are a collection, a highly limited edition collection. I can't just stop buying, not when I have been consistently buying them for this long. It's only about $60 a month. I can afford that, especially if I am not buying anything else stitchy wise. Right?

But, as soon as I get two credit cards and my car paid off, I am joining a FOTM club. I figure I'm worth it then, since I would be paying $300 a month less in bills. $40 or so is NOTHING next to that.

Trying to finish a Margaret Sherry freebie gift

I have had the cutest little Margaret Sherry cat in a wreath free kit in my to-do pile for over a year. I am particularly careful with this kit because you have to have the mount to make it work, and I have a habit of trashing paper mats. It was in Cross Stitcher 181, which, BTW, is a good issue of that magazine, pretty diverse in the subject matter--we got a Tigger, the cat, a robin, a winter sampler. Pretty good value in that one. Anyway, I am digressing.

I spent a good part of yesterday working on it. I worked late late night, so had a pretty good 4 hours straight to put in. I have it pretty much half stitched, the bottom part though. I still have his cat face to do. I really have to compliment whoever charted this design. I do not do a lot of MS because of the fact that you have to split threads on the backstitch. After I did that big afghan last winter, I realized I hate having to fight to get the needle and thread down through the middle of an X, then through the fabric. It doesn't seem like it would be hard, but it is. But the charting editor, who, and this may be why this is fun to stitch, stitched it as well, did a fantastic job of making it a user-friendly chart that is fun to stitch.

I don't have any grandiose plans for this one. I don't think my LNS could figure out how to frame this any better than me. I thought it would be kinda fun to just mount the finished piece on a piece of card stock, or else a fun scrapping paper, and mount it in a store-bought frame, maybe I can find a cool one at the thrift store. Nothing fancy. It's not a fancy design, it's just something that reminds me of my Gus, and makes me smile when I see it, because I just know, if he could figure out how to get into a wreath, my tubby tabby would be swinging in the wreaths at the holidays. And, since it was free, and I can get a cheap or reclaimed frame, I am staying on the wagon. Ha!


Somehow I suspect giving up buying cross stitch is going to be a lot harder than giving up drinking soda.

In case you need a reason to eat popcorn . . .

Fisher's popcorn is pretty popular if you know someone going to Ocean City, Maryland. I didn't know about it--we went to Virginia Beach when I was growing up, so we did not know about this "downy ocean, hon" treat. They are right down the boardwalk from a killer little LNS (imagine an LNS right on the boardwalk) and their other location is across the street from an LNS in Fenwick Island. The popcorn is yummy, even better when you visit in late fall on a chilly day and it's still warm, and you can sit on the boardwalk and eat it. Chancey is not a fan of it, but Nikki likes it and I assume Robbie will, when he gets a chance to eat it, LOL.

Anyway, you're asking, why is she talking about popcorn on a cross stitch blog? Because they have the best tins to use to store WIPS or floss. I have three. Two of the small, one which got used to store cookies in it, the other has my white floss for Hummingbird Trellis, and the big one is for one of my caches of unsorted floss. They're very beautiful tins. I can sit the big one out in the livingroom and no one would know it holds stash. Anyway, I thought I would share. but if you are ever up for a ride down to our Eastern Shore, they're a good stop on the way to the LNS.


POPCORN

Back on the wagon

I am back on the Wagon, as of today. I made that decision this morning. Between all the magazines I buy, and my stash, and the freebies available online, I think I have enough to stitch. Scratch that, I know I have enough to stitch.

My plan to stitch last night fell apart. But I did not waste my time, I promise. I just didn't feel like stitching after I got off the phone with one of my CC companies, but I had a huge bag of floss and managed to round up some of the paper bobbins, so I wound floss for 3 hours. Antiques Roadshow was, in fact, on, which is fantastic. That is a show you can listen to, rather than watch, so it works well for cross stitching. And I watched Law and Order and CSI: Miami. I was actually watching CSI: Miami. I realized it was time for bed, that I had been floss winding for too long, when I realized I was trying to figure out whether Elizabeth Berkeley had had plastic surgery since Saved By the Bell, or if it was just that hairstyles have changed that made her look like she had had surgery (I know that sounds wierd, but I figure I look way different since I am not rockin the big hair as much, and I figure I can not be the only one . . . please let me not be the only one). Anyway, I made some good progress on getting it wound.

I have to stop kitting up projects well in advance of stitching them. I waste so much money on floss that way, because I just keep spending money on floss that I probably have in one of my caches of floss that I seem to have stored all over the house. For some reason, once it goes in the bag, I don't seem to want to use it. Until I have a night like last night where I got to looking and ended up going, "Why in the name of all that is holy do I have 3 skeins of 780, 2 of 781 and 2 of 782?" That is $1.75 I could be doing something else with, buying half a gallon of gas, or a can of dog food, or, yee gawds, putting it on my car payment to get it paid off. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Anyway, I am back on for now. I have about 5 projects in my tote bag to work on. i should be good for the week, LOL.