Just a few things

Hello! A quick blog for a few finishes! I have two to show. First one is Acorn Shaker Box by Jeannette Douglas Designs - I changed the variegated thread - but I am making it again and changing it again. I will find one I like.

My second finish is Ghoul Tidings by Plum Street Sampler - I have too much stash (said no one ever) so I ordered the pattern and then realized that I had it in my stash in a magazine! The magazine (Just Cross Stitch Halloween 2013) has a typo - a oddly placed black pumpkin. I stitched it because there is also a floating acorn - so who am I to say if it belongs. Someone on Facebook pointed out it is wrong so I have removed it!

I tea dyed this fabric - I can't be stopped!

Remember how I said I wouldn't be dying fabric again - well, I can't be trusted..... First let me say that every time I go into my craft room I come out with another pattern kitted - I just gotta stop going in there - I think I have (Scott look away) 14 kitted ACK!!!! I went in there with Scott so he could look at what needs framed and BAM I realized I had a piece of fabric for a Barbara Ana Design

In person this pattern looks like gray fabric - on the back it says natural. So in pictures it sure does look natural - but I had already decided to dye it gray. Ampustitcher on Instagram had dyed a piece of fabric and I liked the way it turned out - she pointed me to Primitive Stitcher on Flosstube. I followed her directions for Rit dying - without the gloves and I used kitchen utensils *gasp* I love love love the way it turned out.

before

after

There is a weird thing on the video though - she says her spoon is 1/8th of a teaspoon and she puts in 4 of those - but then says it's a teaspoon. I used a 1/2 teaspoon and it turned out right. Now I want to dye all my fabrics - but I'm not. I am going to buy some instant coffee so I am ready for my next adventure. I am avoiding the craft room..... but look at all the fun - no - stay out!!
Last weekend we went letterboxing. Washington is gorgeous!!

not sure what this is - but it looks like jewelry

Mt Adams

the Wailing Bell on WSU Vancouver campus

The bell looks superimposed right?

Afterwards we had pizza - oh yeah baby!! Worth every bite - I ate it like it was trying to get away! I lost 14.2 lbs in 36 days. We will be off and on Whole30 for the next two months - holidays. I know it's not supposed to work that way but I can't just go back to "normal" eating for two months.

The cat is asleep face down on my foot - guess I stood in one place too long! HAA
Ok kids - I said quick. Hope you are having a wonderful month. Thanks for stopping by!

house tour

Scott finished decorating the house this weekend and I love it! Someone on Instagram asked how many framed pieces I have - 89 - it's true. That doesn't count houses, pin keeps. bell pulls, things I gave as gifts, pillows or boxes. I have been at it for 27 years though! There are still blank walls in this house so I have to get busy!! 

entry we are using the pie safe for quilt storage

hall from entry to living room

same hall different angle

other side

our room - since we didn't use the master we have this extended room

Santa wall and the rocking chair my mom and I refinished!

That's it - I like the way it looks.
Yesterday was day 30 of the whole 30. We are staying on it until our Portland weekend and then after that weekend we are getting right back on. Scott lost 13 and I lost 12 lbs I  had a rough start with the infection but I feel pretty good. I got the nom nom paleo cookbook - there was a recipe for eggs in purgatory that called for a pound of sausage. It's hard to find compliant sausage - Whole foods has it but it is so expensive. I found a recipe (if you use the recipe and are Whole 30 just leave out the sugar) online and made my own - turned out pretty good and was surprisingly easy (much much cheaper too!!!) I also made the nom nom paleo Mexican beef (left out the fish sauce) recipe in the instant pot - love that thing!! Scott made some fried potatoes to go with it - delicious!!
Since I just posted recently I only have one stitchy pic - Bothy Threads Mad Hatter Tea Party

ahhh headless creatures!! I have decided to take a little break from my stitching rotation - I know I KNOW!! sheesh. I love my craft room and I love to look at my patterns but then I think - oh I could get that done in no time and I put together a bunch of small ones - next thing you know I have 10 kitted with stuff coming in the mail - DAMN IT!! No self control. So I thought I'd get some smalls out of my system. Shake it off Jamie!! SHAKE IT OFF!!! Plus I just finished Tiramisu and the Red Velvet feels just like it so I am having a hard time working on it. Again - don't judge! Ü
The storms were pretty rainy - glad we didn't go out. We found a window that is leaking from the top wood part - lucky for us we are renting so I put in a maintenance request - HAHA no work for us!!
We got our Victoria trip planned and booked - it's months away and I can't even wait!! I'm so excited!! Guess who lives there - Thea Dueck of Victoria Sampler. Wouldn't it be cool if I got to meet her? I'm not counting on it though!
That's all I got folks - thanks for stopping by!!! Stay dry!

rain rain go away

Just kidding, I love the rain!

We were hoping to go out letterboxing this weekend and a little rain doesn't scare us, but they said storm.....possible flooding... high winds... that is no fun for letterboxing.

So we will stay home - plan a trip and finish hanging things. Let me tell you the things I love about this house - taking the trash out is a one car length struggle - instead of a steep long hill. Lawn mowing takes less than 30 minutes - not an entire day. We won't be raking every weekend for two months - we won't be raking at all!! House cleaning is 2-3 hours instead of all day! We are so close to so many things instead of  20 minute drive to anywhere! We can sleep with the windows open - no swarming bugs or humidity! A girl could get used to this easy life! I will do a post showing the house in a week or so - there are still a few things that need hung up.

When we got here I looked into the closest college for nursing. They evaluated my transcript and decided it was not up to their standards - I would have to either take again (who knew anatomy and physiology could be so different from one school to another) or take more classes because  I didn't have enough credits in a subject.  So basically my time in school in Indy was a big fat waste of time. I feel like maybe they just want you to spend more money at their school. I was pretty down about that. Dispatchers make good money here so I thought maybe I would just go back to that - but then I am on nights, weekends and holidays as the low man on the totem pole again - bah! Either choice had me down. When I went to the ER, the nurse that took care of me told me there was another - better in her opinion - school. It's 45 minutes away but so was the last school I went to. I enrolled today and I have to wait - forever - for a transcript evaluation - but it looks like the same amount of classes as my last school. Fingers crossed kids!!
Yes, you heard right - I just found a home and I am ready to travel!! Scott's boss won a weekend at a swanky Portland hotel at a fund raising auction. They were going to expire before she could use them. She offered them to her managers and Scott took them - I feel like everyone else thought it was weird to want to stay 20 minutes from home. If we had to pay for it it would be about $600!! We plan on walking all over the city of Portland - it will be fun!! Scott's new company also buys crates of apples for the employees to take home - I have a big box of local organic apples - delicious!! Another trip I am hoping to take is The Butchart Gardens Holiday lights tour. You get to ride over to Victoria on a clipper, visit the holiday light display, stay in a hotel and return the next day. It looks like so much fun!! We are going to talk about it this weekend!!
My mom, stepdad, uncle Joel and aunt Carol are all coming for Thanksgiving - I am trying to find a restaurant. I know - shameful - but it's so much easier than cooking and cleaning! It will be fun to see everybody.
Last but not least - stitchy news. I have 4 new starts because I recently finished all the projects in my rotation. I showed the Red Velvet on my last post - nothing new on that. I have a finish from week 2

Tricky Tweet Just Nan

Yes, I made 6. I have 4 lovely stitchy friends that I thought would enjoy these - one for me and an extra in case a need a quick stitchy gift. I think they are adorable.
Remember that fabric I dyed, bleached, ice dyed blah blah blah. Well it was gorgeous but way to dark so I bleached it - and then bleached it some more. Then I tea dyed it and damn it all - something happened that made big black splotches - there must have been brown crystal in the towel

before tea dye

after tea dye

 So I measured and I can fit the pattern inside the splotches - geez what a crazy adventure this has been. From now on I'm buying the called for fabric.

new start for week 2 -  Scary One

Week 3 is Teresa Wentzler Fantasy sampler - started in 2005

This is how much there was when I pulled it from the WIP box

after one week

I got three animals done - including the backstitch, some border backstitch that you can't see because it's gold cord and added some green to the inner border.
Week 4 is Bothy Threads Mad Hatter Tea Party - started Sunday 9th - here is my progress as of this morning - rotates out on Sunday - back to week 1!

Our Whole 30 is going as well as can be expected. I am tired of meat and I am tired of cooking. We go to the gym 3 days a week. Weekends are spent on our feet for the whole weekend moving boxes around. I feel thinner so it's hard to complain too much - I only want one little donut - or 12  - don't judge.
There you have it folks - my whole week. Thanks for stopping by and listening to me blabber on about things!

oy vey

Happy Fall kids - loving the cooler weather and the pretty foliage. I have another finish - finally. A continuation from my last blog post - they mailed the thread the 17th but I didn't get it until the 23rd - earlier that day I had to stop by my lns for some other thing -  I bought a skein- so of course it showed up. They included a skein of limited edition Gentle Arts Sampler (because I paid more for shipping than the skein itself) so I will stop complaining .

I had a week to work on Red Velvet Cake by Glendon Place before it rotated out

called for threads and fabric so it's weird that it is hard to see the thread on the fabric

I am currently working on a Just Nan Halloween Tweet - I am changing it to a needle minder. Let me say again how irritated I am that they use hard to replace supplies in their kits - and don't sell extra. I am sure I was boycotting them because of it and then bought the kit - I can't keep track of my irritation boycotts. I bought a clearance piece of fabric to use for Scary One by Plum Street Sampler. It got here and it was way too light. I want to be like Marly over at Samplers and Santas - she dyes things with crazy abandon and they always turn out perfect.  So I questioned her and tried it. Well, rats it didn't turn out. I sprayed it with straight dye - too dark so I rinsed it thinking it would be perfect lighter but it turned purple

and you can see my spray bottle pattern. It doesn't look purple but it really is - looks like a pen leaked on it. So I asked Marly again  (I might not be following her suggestions - I do that sometimes - I think she said try a corner....) So then I bleached it and most of it came out. Then I thought I would ice dye it - I've seen others do it and it sure is cool! Well - mine turned out cool but way way too dark.

I didn't do the soda ash soak and I only left mine until the ice melted (impatient). I guess I will try another bleach dip and hope it lightens without changing the colors. I would have already done it but I ended up going to the ER Saturday for a cat scan (Mo is mad at me so I had to pay for one - haha I'll be here all week) Even though I had 12 inches of colon removed a few years back because of chronic diverticulitis - it's back. I can't even tell you how disappointed I am about that. What's worse - no insurance. Worse still - spent ALL day Saturday doing that - so half of Scott's weekend was wasted.
That is all that is going on here - pretty exciting! Hope you are having more fun.  Thanks for stopping by!

Well, that took forever!

We finally have internet. YAY I have my phone but doing anything on it is challenging so it's nice to have the computer to work on!! We moved into the house. It's not bad. We have owned the last 3 houses so it's weird to rent. The house it a little beat up - carpet bad  - appliances are older. The downstairs is nice - entryway, living room, dining room, kitchen and half bath. The upstairs is dumb. On the left at the top of the stairs is a big room - which we are using for a bedroom because our bed is huge - with one small closet. Then there is a bedroom on the right- small - 10.5x11.5 - with one closet. The next room is supposed to be the master maybe 20.5x11.5 with two walk in closets - one smaller than the other and a little master bath. The next room is a larger bathroom and the final room is 10x11 with one closet. Ryder gets one small room and the craft room gets the smaller room. "Master" is the office/ music room. The set up is odd. We have too much stuff - it's hard to go from 14 closets to 6. We are so close to the other houses. The last house was far away from my neighbors - couldn't even see two of them when the leaves came in - no chance of that here. The weekend we moved in there were a million kids on the streets and barking dogs - but since that day it has been pretty quiet here.

so much work!!

We are happy to be out of the hotel room! I will show pictures once we (I mean Scott - who I call Marty Stewart haaa) get it decorated.
We bought new furniture - yes I just said we have too much stuff but we left our old couch and both recliners behind. I had no stitchy chair - WHAT?!?!? 

the little couch has two recliners and the separate recliner - can you tell which one is mine??

Scott picked this but it doesn't fit so it's in the corner

Sadly, my cat likes to tear up furniture when I leave the house or go to bed.  I have been putting him in the bathroom at night. You would think I was torturing the dumb animal with all the yowling. He has his litter box - a big bathroom and soft bedding. He sits in the sink and yowls. He will have to get used to it.

"hiding" from me

I have a finish!!! NO MORE BELL PULL!!! I was so excited. I carried on about it for so long Scott started looking at me like I was crazy. Seriously - I started that when we lived in Alaska in 2005 - 11 years ago!!! I'm sure I have said different years every time - but this one is correct. I had signed up for a Teresa Wentzler chat board and posted about this project.

last block

I also had an almost finish. I had changed colors to stitch from stash - which I only do it I have enough thread because if I have to buy the new color I might as well buy the called for color. Well, I miscalculated,  plus I got the wagon halfway done and realized I was missing an entire row. Hand dyed thread doesn't come out easily so I had to order one skein. 123 Stitch was out of that color so I ordered from somewhere else - I ordered on the 8th they didn't ship until the 17th!! I ordered some fabric from 123 Stitch last Friday and will probably get it before the thread - that is why I always use 123Stitch!!

Patriotic Poppies With thy Needle and Thread

almost done.... Another fading sheep - grrr I visited my new LNS ( before I knew I would need thread) Acorns and Threads - love it!! I bought a strawberry pattern!!

Awhile back I bought a Milady's Yuletide Hornbook pattern - which only comes with one hornbook but has 2 patterns. I found someone to make me some extras - love the new ones better than the one it came with. When I get the pieces stitched I hope to have Scott stain them and add the handle holes!! 

So when I put my stitching stuff into my new room I decided to do inventory. I am using an app called Stash Cache. I now know what I have in my stash - threads, beads, Kreinik and even what patterns I have - including the fabric that goes with each. It's awesome!! I also organized while I was at it. I used wood skewers to keep my stuff from moving around. I hope to have Scott make some wood dividers - I am demanding - I know.

looks like I have more when it's just thrown in there!!

I have my next 4 rotation projects ready to go - Red Velvet Cake by Glendon Place, Tea Party by Bothy Threads, Fantasy Sampler by Teresa Wentzler (WIP) and the smalls week - different smaller patterns so I feel like I am getting something done.
We started back on Whole 30 this last Saturday. We also joined a gym - this time it will be uninterrupted! I made pickles for the first time. Quick and Easy Dill from Serious Eats, they are a little sour but added to food they are fine. I made hard boiled eggs in the instant pot. Takes longer than on the stove but easier because you put them in and turn it on and walk away.
That is all I have for today - hope you are all doing well and thanks for dropping by!!