Bex Stitch

Fine Art for Dummies

2010-04-23T12:54:00.002-04:00

I loved it! I loved it! I loved it! I had read Kostova’s earlier novel “The Historian” a while back and quite enjoyed it. When I saw that my local book store had a copy of her new book I immediately had to put it on hold at my local library. In the end, I preferred this book to her previous one. This novel begins with a man trying to attack a painting in a museum. He is arrested and soon found to be mentally unstable and is handed over to the care of a psychiatrist. He refused to speak and so his shrink must interview his family and friends to find the source of his compulsion and destructive imbalance. Alongside his story is the turbulent history of the painting he attempted to destroy and the artists from its era. All the characters in this novel are painters and so it felt like I was having a mini art lesson. From the biography on the back of the book I learned that the author has a Masters in Fine Art. I love art and wish I knew more about its technique, composition, and history and so this book was a delight to read.

Too Much Hype

2010-04-23T12:49:00.002-04:00

There has been so much hype around this book and with the blockbuster movie hitting the rental shelves the hype has blossomed exponentially. The library would only loan it out for 14 days with a $1/day late fine! (I was amazed! Wasn’t this book published years ago?!) I saw a preview for the movie and I was in tears just from that! (I love Eric Bana!) After seeing the preview I instantly wanted to see the movie. When at all possible, I try to read the book before seeing the movie or else I feel like I’m reading a script, and I have actors’ images in my head. I was happy to find that my local library had a copy of the book with the original cover and not the film cover for the same reason. Does anyone else dislike movie covers on books or does it not really matter?
The problem with too much hype around a book is that I normally end up feeling let down and I’m sad to say that that was the case with this book. I just didn’t really like it and I can’t put my finger on what specifically that I didn’t enjoy. The characters never seemed to haunt me after I put it down. I read it quickly more because of the 14 day time constraint and less about a compulsion to know what happened next in the story. The whole idea of a man that can’t stay in the same time is just odd to me and I just couldn’t get my brain to believe that it was real.

Myself: Hopelessly Behind the Times

2010-04-23T12:45:00.002-04:00

I must be the last person on the planet to have read this book but I’ll write about it anyway because I did read it. The teenage girl that lives next door talked about these books with so much excitement that I decided to give them a try. We all know the premise of this book: human girl and vampire boy fall in love. It’s yet another version of Romeo and Juliet! This novel is written for teens and you can really feel that with the fast pace of the prose. For us adult readers, I found it was an ‘airplane book’: one that you can read quickly and be easily entertained without too much thought. Some people read other vampire novelists (ex. Anne Rice) with relish but I could never really get into them. I was pleasantly surprised that I didn’t find that aspect of the story more distracting. Surprise! Surprise! I put the second book and the movie on hold at my local library!

Drood, Collins, & Dickens...Friends?

2010-04-19T15:16:00.004-04:00

I love a good long book to sink my teeth into and at almost 800 pages this one definitely did the trick. This is the story of a most devious character, Drood. He is first introduced to us during the railway accident that almost killed Charles Dickens. This strange man, Drood, haunts Dickens' mind and he becomes obsessed with finding him. The story is told through the eyes of his good friend and fellow author Wilkie Collins. Together they travel through London 's terrifying Undertown, within the sewers and along since forgotten crypts, to find him and learn his story.

I realise that this is a work of fiction and not the actual source story for Charles Dickens' later novel, but it definitely made me want to read more of his work. Also, it made me more curious about the actual men, Dickens and Collins. Was Dickens truly as cocky as he is portrayed (ex. making even his family call him Venerable?) I know Collins used laudanum to great excess but was his life really such a complete and outrageous drug trip? Was the almost sibling rivalry betwee these two authors accurate? Was London's Undertown really as terrifying as it was portrayed? Regardless of the answers, this novel made me ask questions, and I always love a novel that inspries me to delve deeper into my own research.

Forbidden Fruit Tastes the Sweetest

2009-06-26T12:14:00.002-04:00

Elissa Elliot’s debut novel “Eve: A Novel of the First Woman” swept me away completely. I was impressed at how the author kept me intrigued in a story that most people already know the plotline. Eve is on her deathbed and recounting her life to her eldest daughter Naava. The story is told through the eyes of herself and each of her female children. The novel is mostly about the life of Adam and Eve and their children after they have relocated outside of Eden after their banishment. I was amazed at how normal these characters felt to the reader. So often in literature Eve is made into a goddess figure and in this story she’s just a normal woman with normal personal, family, and religious issues. She is trying to come to grips with her banishment from paradise and from God and at the same time raise six children.

The family dynamics are pretty interesting; Eve wants to go back to the Garden and so lives in her past; Adam just wants to accept where they are and have a normal life; Cain doesn’t want anything to do with God and just wants to conquer the world; Abel just wants to be left alone with God and his sheep; Naava wants to be revered for her beauty; Aya keeps the family glued together; and little Dara and Jacan, the twins, are a little lost in trying to emulate those around them. The children have been told about Eden and how God created their parents but since they weren’t there and God has already left them the children have difficulty believing. To them it’s all just a fairytale and thus difficult to place their faith in. Some of the children believe and some do not.

The story becomes very interesting when the family realizes that there is a city not too far away. Each family member approaches the city with a different perspective. Not only is there a huge culture shock between rural and urban living but also because this city doesn’t worship the same deity. This city has many deities and different creation stories. This juxtaposition creates a great clash of sensibilities.

I Vunt to Suck Yoor Blud….lol!!!

2009-06-07T14:33:00.002-04:00

C. C. Humphreys’ “Vlad: The Last Confession” is a very intense novel. It is definitely not for the faint of heart as parts of the book are extremely gory. I almost put it down within the first hundred pages because I was starting to have nightmares!!!

“Vlad” is the story of Dracula, not Bram Stoker’s gothic vampire but the real life guy. Vlad Dracula was a Wallachian prince and warlord that fought in a very violent manner in order to protect his realm and throne and also while on crusades to cleanse his land of Infidels. I love historical novels and so I enjoyed that aspect of this one. However, the beginning of the book, where Dracula is a child and turning into the warped man that he became, was probably the most interesting for me but also the most disturbing. I could have done without some of the graphic torture scenes. Unfortunately from a technical standpoint it was definitely needed to help explain the man who emerged from the boy.

There is also a really touching love story that slips in and out of the progress of the story. The depth of their love was remarkable and acted as a huge juxtaposition against some of the brutality. Also, there is the tribulation between Dracula and his best friend from childhood, Ion Tremblac, as they become men together and also his beloved teacher and mentor from his school days, Hamza.

I learned a lot about 15th century living from this novel but I don’t think that I could read it a second time as it was a bit too gruesome for my tastes. I’m glad this was a library book because I don’t have to have it lurking on my bookshelves ready to pounce out at me. I was surprised to find that I was more disturbed by the real man than by the fiction that was created around him. A vampire seems like a teddy bear next to this monster!

Shakespeare: The Original Mac Daddy?!

2009-04-25T11:48:00.001-04:00

We all know that there is not much concrete information on William Shakespeare. Most people know about the question of the actual authorship of his work. However, (I’m ashamed to admit this because I have a degree in English and didn’t know this…) there is a question out there as to the many wives of Shakespeare too. Watch out Henry VIII, here comes Master Shakespeare to give you a run for your spousal money!!!! LOL! Just kidding, Shakespeare didn’t have that many! There is an entry in the Stratford book of marriages for Shakespeare and TWO women. The second woman is Anne Hatheway whom we all know to be his wife. But, on the day before that entry there was a marriage license dispensed for him to wed Anne Whateley. Was this a clerical error? Was he a bigamist? What’s going on here?

Karen Harper’s novel, Mistress Shakespeare, tells the story of his secret life with Anne Whateley. It seems they were childhood sweethearts who were secretly wed before Shakespeare married the other Anne! Oh…the scandal!! LOL! Anne Whateley is his London wife and Anne Hatheway is his Stratford wife.

This is a pretty interesting novel if you’re like me and enjoy all things Shakespeare. It tells of his rise to artistic fame set against the backdrop of the times – political unrest, the plague, etc. It also gives an interesting interpretation of his plays and sonnet series from the perspective of his double spousal relationships and thus his warped interpretation of love.

I look forward to reading more by this author and was pleasantly surprised to find a lot more of her historical fiction at my local library! Yippee!!!! I love summer reading on the beach!!!! I hope my library doesn’t mind when books come back a little sandy…

Feeling Truly Blessed

2009-04-24T07:53:00.002-04:00

THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!

I can't thank you all enough for all the positive energy that you have sent my way. I feel so blessed to be a part of the blogging community! You all are the absolute BEST!!!!

I'm still packing like a crazy person and feeling a little over whelmed with it all. Our moving day is Monday the 4th of May. Please send more good vibes for nice weather and a speedy moving company! (Wow! Do they ever charge a small fortune to move your stuff!)

Does anyone have any advice on the moving of my pets? The cats have never been in the car longer than the 10 minutes it takes to get to the vet and they scream the entire way! I hoping the cats go to sleep for the three hour journey and I'm also praying that neither of them get car sick!!! LOL! My poor little guys! There's also the birds to think about. I've realised that the cage is too tall to fit in my car on the back seat so they're going to go for a little visit with my mom. My darling mom is going to have to chauffeur them to our new place in her minivan! I wonder how they'll do?! LOL! Can you imagine the racket if I did put them all in the car on the same journey! LOL! My husband and I will need earplugs!

Breathing Through Insanity

2009-04-20T11:17:00.002-04:00

My life as of late has been INSANE!!!! My hubby and I are having some real financial issues (the local food bank is our saving grace) and as such are selling our house in order to get our feet back on the ground. It sucks but it's necessary. We're keeping our positivity hats on and it seems to be working out well. We decided to get the house ready to sell and in a complete whirlwind of garbage bags and trips to the local dump, we finished all our work in about a week! Insane...I know! It gets better though...Our house sold in 5 days!!!!! Can you believe it! With all the doomsayers out there who were telling us to prepare for the house to be on the market for about 6 months to a year because of these "tough economic times"!!!! Well, we must have a guardian angel on our side because everything's going well. Now we're madly grabbing boxes from every grocery store in a 10 mile radius and packing all our stuff like crazy people! Where are we moving you ask? Well, Huntsville is calling our name and we're listening! We're so excited to be moving to the country to start over our life! We've always wanted to move up there and we both feel like if we didn't have our back up against the wall that we never would have made the move. Some times things don't occur the way you want them to but your dreams still come true!

Well, that's my life right now but I've still had plenty of time to stitch! I put my Elegance of the Orient on hold for a bit because my husband bought me Ballerina Beauty!!!! He saw it on sale and thought I needed a little pick me up!!! I know...my husband is truly the best guy out there! My digital camera is having some issues right now and so I'm unable to post any pictures but they will hopefully follow shortly. Also, it was my birthday a little while back and my amazing Mom bought me The Mighty Samurai and another one that I can't remember the name of but I'll post that soon too!

I'm all a jumble and thrilled to bits to be posting again! I'm at the library right now (apparently the internet people cut off your service wen you can't pay the bill! LOL!) and I'm trying to remember everything I wanted to share. I'll post again soon and keep you all updated with my crazy life, stitching, and I've also read some AMAZING books recently that I'm dying to share!

My Babies When They Were Babies

2009-02-18T14:31:00.006-05:00

I found some old pictures on my computer of my tigers when they were little. I'm such a proud Mama and I can't resist sharing them with you all!!!

Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend…unfortunately so is Benzedrine

2009-02-18T14:22:00.002-05:00

Joyce Carol Oates’s fictional biography of Marilyn Monroe entitled “Blonde” was a bit of a trial for me to get through. I generally read about 100 pages per day but with this one I was more around about 50 pages per day. I’m not sure if it was the type set of the novel or the subject matter but my pace definitely slackened here. This Chunkster took a while to read.

I didn’t know much about Marilyn Monroe before this book. I’ve never seen any of her movies and my only exposure to her is through the remake avenue of things like Madonna’s video where she reenacts “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” or through Anna Nicole Smith’s entire life! I came away from this book with an overwhelming sense of pity for this poor woman. Perhaps that’s why I found the book difficult…her life is so depressing that it’s draining on the voyeur.

“Blonde” gives detailed snippets of her life. Basically her mother was nuts and before she was certifiable and committed, she was still nuts enough to screw up a little girl quite irrevocably. Her father was nowhere to be found and her entire life is spent searching for this man and trying to fill that masculine paternal void through a plethora of lovers. After her mother goes into the loony bin she is put in an orphanage and bounces around through the system of foster care. It seems like all she ever wanted was love and attention. She knew from a young age that she was different because men and women alike would stare at her beauty but she was nonetheless uncomfortable in her own skin.

She was made into Marilyn Monroe (because her agent liked the “mmmmm” sound the name made!) but she was always just Norma Jean Baker and terrified in the limelight. She abused alcohol and drugs in order to deal with her anxiety. She was Norma Jean playing the role of Marilyn and people never wanted her to be herself.

Some men truly loved her but for most she was a doll. Joe DiMaggio wanted her to be a stereotypical Italian housewife; he wanted her to be more like his mother than herself. It was a constant dominance struggle. She left him after he beat her up because of the infamous subway grate scene; he didn’t like his little wife to show the world her knickers!

Her infamous relationship with the President is put under such a negative light that it’s hard to look at him the same way after. He would drug her and pass her around to his friends for their own pleasure; he had her abducted in the middle of the night to perform an abortion; he treated her like meat and yet she was so desperate for a man to love her that she believed he respected and adored her.

Marilyn Monroe’s life was truly tragic. This novel shows the little girl who grew up but was always lost, always a perfectionist because through her acting she felt people would love her. She worked hard because she was terrified of being laughed at.

If you want to read a rawer version of her biography pick up this book but if you just want the glossy highlights where she is a glowing starlet then pick up a different biography because this one is not for you!

Attempts at Sophistication...

2009-02-18T10:58:00.002-05:00

Check out the new look of my blog!!!! I LOVE IT!!! It looks so sophisticated! LOL! Better late then never!

I have so many posts to catch up on with you all but that will unfortunately have to wait until tomorrow because it's snowing today and I want to go PLAY!!!

Have a happy day and remember to giggle at least once today!!!

“SSSHHH!!!” says the librarian with a scowl…

2009-02-12T13:10:00.004-05:00

Scott Douglas’s memoir Quiet, Please: Dispatches from a Public Librarian was HILARIOUS!!! I was honestly laughing out loud as I was reading before bed and my husband kept on looking at me like I was a nutcase!!!

Scott Douglas is a librarian in his late 20s and this book is his journey through the public library system. The anecdotes that he tells are truly side-splitting and I would love to hear from a librarian whether half of these things actually happen! (Douglas assures the reader that all events are true in his Epilogue.)

It starts with him as a library page whose only duty is to shelve books while he is desperately trying to prove he is not a moron. Unfortunately, he learns that the librarians that he works with don’t even read and think that Pynchon is actually Julia Roberts’s new boyfriend! The book goes on to tell funny stories about computers coming to the library, obnoxious teenagers, story time for the school classes, elderly people that come in drunk on electronic wheelchairs, ESL issues, what he actually thought about library school, and library politics with the archetypal librarian characters.

Here’s an excerpt that I found particularly funny:

[…] Hon, an aging Asian woman. She knew little English, despite having lived in the United States for over thirty years and working in a job where English is the only language spoken.
Despite the language barrier, I like talking to Hon – mainly because of our language barrier; not even a week had passed and we already had a morning greeting. Each morning Hon would come in and ask, “How you do day?” I would reply, “Fine. How are you today?” And Hon would say, “Yes.”
About a month into my stay at the new library, Hon got mad at me. I’m not sure why exactly, but she came to me and said, “I mix peanuts in your shoe.”
I didn’t know what she meant, but I could tell by her tone that she was angry. “What’s wrong?”
“Cements in the paper, plus I need a bag.”
I looked at her, confused. She got angrier. “Cements in the paper!” she said.
“Okay.”
She walked away from me, and we didn’t speak for two days.

This book is HILARIOUS and everyone should pick this one up if they need a giggle!!!

Two Hands are Better than One

2009-01-31T11:41:00.002-05:00

Look at this gorgeous lady!!! I am so thrilled with all the work I have done so far! I really feel like I’m in the home stretch but I know it will be a while before it’s all complete. She now has two hands and I am just mesmerized by the movement in the skirt! Can’t you just feel the warm wind and smell the cherry blossoms just by looking at it! I’m so in love! Check out the second flower; I haven’t done the back stitching for it yet. Can you see the difference in the two? The one without the backstitching looks so two dimensional whereas the other one just pops!!! I love it! I love it! I LOVE IT!!!

Books Set in a Well Known City

2009-01-31T11:40:00.001-05:00

To Whom it May Concern by Pricila Uppal was an absolute pleasure to read! It is a modern retelling of King Lear and it must be the most dysfunctional functional family I’ve ever read about! The dad is an Indian immigrant who is also a quadriplegic and he has an array of very interesting homecare workers that scatter through his house. Oh and he’s about to go through a foreclosure on his house. His French Canadian wife left him because she couldn’t handle the changes in life after he was injured in the hit and run accident. His eldest daughter is about to get married. His other daughter is deaf and works part time in a piercing/tattoo parlor after school. His son is in the middle of a master’s degree in anthropology where he studies curses and the occult and just realized he is gay. What an assortment of characters!!! This is the story of “a father desperate to protect his modest kingdom, and his children, tormented by their desire to escape.”

The best part of this book is that it’s set in Ottawa! I went to university in Ottawa and I just adore that city and really miss it from time to time. Have you ever read a book that is set in a place that you know like the back of your hand? It makes the story so much closer to you and somehow less fictional. I was side by side the characters while they studied at Morriset Library on the Ottawa University campus, or had a pint at the Royal Oak, skated along the Rideau Canal and then had Beaver Tails and hot apple cider, or wandered through the Rideau Center at Christmas!!! This book brought back so many warm memories that I had completely forgotten about!

Do It Yourself Insanity

2009-01-31T11:39:00.000-05:00

I seem to be on a slight Do It Yourself craze lately! I started with making my own cat litter and I have to say it is still working incredibly well! Aside from the lack of clumping, I really think it works better than the regular stuff because it smells so much less! Next, I moved on to making my own bread. I bake rolls and loaves every few days and I’m having so much fun! The bread I bake is so much tastier, cheaper, and more filling then what I used to buy at the grocery store. But, the best part is that the house smells INCREDIBLE!!!! The smell of fresh bread baking must be one of my all time favorite smells! YUM YUM YUM!!!

I’m trying a new experiment now: homemade wine! Has anyone done this before because any tips would be seriously appreciated!? It’s not necessarily wine but more of a fruity alcoholic mishmash but whatever! I had a bunch of canned fruit that I didn’t know what to do with because I never think to eat canned fruit. Well, it’s all in a giant wine jug thingy with some extra sugar and water fermenting away in the basement!!! The kind man at the Do It Yourself wine making place gave me some wine yeast for FREE!!! I just love it when people give me free stuff! Well, as I said it’s bubbling away in its fermenting process and I’ll definitely keep you posted as to how it works out. Wish me luck!!!

Look at these faces!!!

2009-01-31T11:30:00.013-05:00

For those of you that read this regularly, you know that I volunteer at my local Humane Society. I absolutely adore helping out there! It’s such a special moment when I get to be a part of a family meeting their newest member; it’s like being in the delivery room when a baby is born! LOL! (Maybe not quite the same!) Anyway, I am so pumped to go in this Sunday because we’ve got a bunch of new kittens!!! I love it when we get a plethora of new kittens! The last time I was in we got this little guy named Danny. Here’s a picture… can you believe that someone just found this little 6 week old treasure wandering around on his own outside!!! Break my heart!!!

We are a no-kill shelter here in Burlington. We only put down animals when we absolutely have to, like when they have a very serious incurable disease and they are in a bad state with it. Other than seriously extenuating circumstance we never put anyone down. We just rescued this latest batch of kittens from another Humane Society that is not a no-kill facility and that had no room for them and so were going to have to put them down. Would you look at these faces!!! They were going to put them down and we’ll be surprised if they’re not all adopted by the end of the week!!! Every time I come home my husband asks me if I smuggled out a new tiger for us and sometimes I’m seriously tempted!!!

And since I'm discussing kittens in this post...how about some funny pics because everyone needs a giggle from time to time!!!

And here's some for the puppy lovers!!!

Unearthing New Authors

2009-01-30T11:08:00.003-05:00

Ok, so Elizabeth Chadwick is definitely not a new author but she is new to me and so she can still count as a Newbie!

I honestly adored this book and can’t wait to pick up more! I was so thrilled to see that my library has more of her work!

Surprise, surprise… I am back in the world of historical fiction! The Time of Singing is set in 12th century medieval England during the reign of King Henry II. This novel is all about social ties, social climbing, the restoration of family and titles, and medieval life in general. I liked this one so much because it is completely based on the actual Bigod family who actually existed but no one has ever bothered to tell their story before. Love it!

This author seems to only write about this one era in history and each of her novels follows a different character at a different time or place. Perhaps by reading more, it might feel like a series, but I’m not sure so I’ll have to get back to you on that one!

For some reason this novel kept on making me think of Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth which is a good thing because I loved that one too! If you are one of the millions of people who read that then you will love Elizabeth Chadwick!

Also, this book is 517 pages and so it counts as my second Chunkster!!!! Wooo Hooo!!!!
…
My cats are circling me; it must be time for them to herd me up to bed! LOL! They’re so funny about their little schedules! Are yours like that too? If I stray from their feeding/sleeping/ cuddling schedule by even half an hour they’re on hot bricks! LOL!

Until next time…(and I promise my next post will be stitch related because I can't wait to show you my progress!!!)

Bubble, Bubble, Toil, and Trouble

2009-01-30T11:06:00.001-05:00

I don’t normally read non-fiction because I feel like I’m reading a textbook the majority of the time. However, with this one I made an exception and I’m very glad I did. I saw this book in the new release section in my library and something about it called my name! The Enemy Within by John Demos is about the history of witch trials. I didn’t know much about this topic; being Canadian and not American the Salem Witch Trials were never part of my school history curriculum. (Maybe that negation isn’t because of being Canadian…maybe I just went to a bad school? LOL!) This book did discuss Salem and the mystique that it has created through time but it also went right back to the beginning. It discussed the way our idea of God and therefore the Devil came into our lives and ultimately caused the idea of witchcraft. Next, this book came right back to just about the present day to discuss more contemporary forms of witch-hunts such as McCarthyism. This was a pleasantly interesting read. I think what made it feel less like a textbook was that the author chose to have two vignettes of actual specific case stories in each section which were able to keep readers like me entertained as well as informed!

My First Chunkster

2009-01-18T14:13:00.002-05:00

Revelation by C.J. Sansom

This is the fourth book in Sansom’s Shardlake series; I have read none of the other three and so parts of this book went completely over my head because of references to past events unknown to me. I’ll have to look up at the library and see if they have any more but right now I’m at my ‘hold’ limit…did you know you’re only allowed to have 50 books on hold at a time! LOL! I have issues, I know!!! But a lot of my holds are on books the library is still acquiring or movies that I’m literally 100th in line for!!! LOL!

This novel is set in 16th century England. I seem to have a predisposition to this era! LOL! Perhaps it’s because it was the age of Pisces instead of Aquarius! LOL! I really have to idea. Anyway, I digress… the novel is set around the time of Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine Parr and jointly the religious persecution throughout the city. Meanwhile, the London streets are being ravaged by a serial killer that is reenacting passages from the Book of Revelations. I am embarrassed to admit that I have only read bits and pieces of the Book of Revelations but from what I understand it’s pretty horrifying stuff!

I enjoyed the aspects of rudimentary science and medicine that this book discusses, mainly the first areas of psychiatry in the Bedlam Hospital. There is a woman there whose only ailment is agoraphobia and yet she has been locked up like a common nut even though she is perfectly capable of living normally as long as she stays indoors. I have agoraphobia!!! I’m not a nut!!! LOL!

I am super excited about joining in on the Chunkster Challenge!!! This is a reading challenge whereby you read chunky books. I LOVE chunky books and so I hopped right on that bandwagon! A chunky book is anything over 450 pages. Revelation ranks in at 550 pages and so it counts as my first Chunkster! You’re supposed to put a list on your blog of the chunky books you intend on reading but I’m going to pass with that aspect. I’ve been reading a lot of library books recently and I never know when they are going to be ready. Thus, I’ll tally up my Chunksters as I go!

Happy reading, happy stitching, and happy knitting until next time!!!

My Cooking Skills are Sadly Apparent

2009-01-18T13:07:00.003-05:00

The Book of Unholy Mischief by Elle Newmark

I’m back in Venice again during the 16th century with this novel and completely loving the journey! This novel begins on the streets with a young boy that is on his own and just trying to stay alive. While stealing to quench his hunger, the boy is accosted by the chef of the doge and made to return his bounty. The chef brings him back to the palace kitchens and makes him his apprentice. There are some scenes where the boy, in the middle of the night, tries to create marvelous concoctions to impress the chef. His main rule of thumb is that if all the individual ingredients are tasty then so will be the finished product. I’m personally pretty domestically inept in the kitchen and while the reader is meant to see that his recipes are putrid, it sadly went right over my head! LOL! (There’s a reality TV show… Martha Stewart can come to my house to teach me how to be domestic but she’ll end up helping me put out the small fires in my kitchen while I order a pizza for the family! LOL! I don’t think she’d go for it though… it might give her a small mental breakdown! LOL!)

Anyway, the novel deals with the city’s hunt for a legendary book which supposedly contains love potions, an elixir for immortality, and much other sage wisdom. The novel is a fine bildungsroman. It has a reverence for the mysteries of the kitchen and how food can transform moods and change the course of history. It’s very entertaining and quite funny in portions too!

Flower in Random Places and Hockey Pucks No More

2009-01-16T10:43:00.003-05:00

Check out my progress with Elegance of the Orient! Just gorgeous in my opinion! LOL! The shawl is over half complete with the majority of its back stitching done and now I’m working my way down the skirt. The flower on the kimono looks absolutely amazing! There are only two flowers on this and I’m kind of wondering about the positioning of this one! LOL! It seems to be in a rather interesting spot! LOL! It’s been quite cold and snowy recently (it’s -30 outside with the wind chill and it’s so cold that the salt they put on the roads isn’t working! I didn’t even know that could happen!!!) And so a lot of my time is spent indoors with my many projects and I couldn’t be happier! I’m already looking through my stash and trying to decide what to do next! LOL!

I was at my Mom’s house yesterday and she was teaching me how to make bread. Everyone says how easy bread is but every time I make try it turns out like little hockey pucks! I made a loaf the other day and my husband asked when the football game was going to begin with the squirrels! Cheeky Bugger!!! Well, I am happy to report that with my Mom’s help I was able to make two quite tasty loaves! I now know what it’s meant to look like at all the different stages and so hopefully I can do it on my own. (What would we do without our Mommys!?) Hopefully soon I won’t be so domestically inept! LOL!

Shakespeare's Lost Manuscript

2009-01-15T10:53:00.001-05:00

The Book of Air and Shadows by Michael Gruber

This story begins with a fire in a rare book store. When one of the workers opens up the bindings of an old novel in order to salvage the pieces, they find in the binding some old letters. These letters tell about spying on William Shakespeare with a plot to ruin him. Amidst these letters there is discussion of an unknown and lost play which deals with the turmoil between Mary Queen of Scots and Queen Elizabeth. The novel is the story of hunting for this manuscript with mafia and corrupt book dealers on their tail with murders and kidnappings popping up all over the place. This story has two narrators; one is an intellectual property lawyer who is cynical and very witty who speaks directly to the reader in a very unique tone; and the other is a young man who is an aspiring film maker and so everything from him has the undertones of a film (i.e. This can’t be the end because we haven’t had a twist in the plot yet, etc.) This book was a happy find for me and I hope it will be for others too!

Archaic High Class Hookers

2009-01-08T10:20:00.004-05:00

I finished reading another book by Sarah Dunant, In the Company of a Courtesan:

This book is set in 16th century Italy and revolves around the life of a courtesan. She had to flee during the sack of Rome to Venice and the story shows her getting back on her feet (no pun intended! LOL!) in a new city. The list of characters is very different: the courtesan, her dwarf servant (also the narrator), a blind and crippled healer, an array of strange servants, and a few real historic figures such as the author Pietro Aretino and the aritist Tiziano Vecellio (Titian). Just like Dunant's other book, Birth of Venus, this is a very carnal book but not to the extent of lewdness. There is a hilarious scene in church where no one is interested in the sermon. Instead, everyone is flirting with each other, either for courtesan services or trying to find a spouse! Very funny!

Free Cat Litter!!!!

2009-01-07T10:01:00.004-05:00

I'm trying out a new experiment...free cat litter! I saw this tip on someones blog and thought it was the greatest idea EVER!!!! I only have two cats but I must spend a small fortune on litter and so this was such a great find for me!

Basically, this is what you do: Take all junk mail, last year's calendar, old bills, scrap paper in general and shred it in a shredder or cut it up nice and small. Next, put it in a pot of boiling water with a bit of dish soap for about half an hour to an hour to get the dirt and most of the ink off. Drain the soggy mixture in an old colander and then with your hands break it up into little pieces and leave it on an old cookie sheet for a few days to dry. Sprinkle it with baking soda or some other smell sucking agent and VOILA!!! Free Cat Litter!!! It makes a kind of pulp which dries to a crumbly mess. But it's FREE!!!!

I've been adding it in to my cats' litter box a bit more each day and so far there are no protests so I'm very pleased. The only negative is that it doesn't clump but that's not the end of the world! And since it's free I plan on changing the entire box every few days with free stuff.

The best part of it all is that now my cats are peeing on my Christmas Visa bill and it feels SOOOO GOOD!!!!

Sweaters, and Stitching, and Lists, OH MY!!!

2009-01-06T09:14:00.004-05:00

At long last here is a picture of my lovely white sweater:

It’s she lovely!!! I just adore this sweater and it’s SOOOO warm! LOL! I think it will be my new tobogganing sweater! I wonder what I should knit next… I really need a pair of gloves or mittens and maybe a cute hat to match! I’ll have to go through the patterns that are saved on my computer and see what tickles my fancy next. FYI: I get all my patterns off the free database on the wool websites (Patons, Bernat, etc.)

And, here is an update for my Elegance of the Orient:

She’s coming along so nicely now. I’ve been working on the other side of the shawl and I can’t wait to work on the backstitching for it because it changes the whole look of the project. I really do love Dimensions products because of the detail they provide with the backstitching. I love my Lissandrea too but when I work on her I really miss the precision that my Elegance of the Orient has in its detail.

I just realized that I never did a list of New Year’s Resolutions with you. I usually make resolutions and I’ve usually gotten sick of them by about January 2nd. Do you make resolutions? Do you keep them? How do you do it?! Anyway, here is my list of resolutions for this beautiful year of 2009:

1)Finish all outstanding cross stitch projects
2)Finish outstanding projects around the house (i.e. Painting walls, moving furniture, hanging pictures, organizing kitchen and closets, etc.)
3)Work on reading through Harold Bloom’s western canon
4)Lose the 30 lbs of “Happy Fat” that I found when my hubby and I met a few years ago!
5)Earn $1 million dollars….LOL!

Wish me luck with that list!!!

Small Reading Binge and Knitting News

2009-01-03T15:25:00.003-05:00

Well, I was up late on New Year's Eve and I brought in the new year with my knitting project on my knee. I got up early to sew it all together and I got it done in time for our New Year's Day party. But...as I was sitting at the mirror finishing my face I realized just how warm the sweater was. We go to my hubby's family for New Year's Day and the whole family is there and we really look forward to it. However, with all those people in the house it gets pretty warm. So, I took off my beloved sweater and put on a t-shirt instead! LOL! It was the right choice because I was even warm in my t-shirt! Sadly, I still haven't worn my sweater because the next day I was doing crafts with my nieces and nephews (we made peanut butter and seed smeared pine cones for the birds...a white sweater would have been a BAD idea) and today I was at the Humane Society for my volunteer shift and you never know what you're going to get on your clothes there! LOL! Maybe I'll wear it tomorrow!!!! I'll try and coax my hubby to take a picture of it so I can post it! It turned out so nicely! I'm so proud!!!!

I've been on a small reading binge lately! I just finished another one: Pompeii by Robert Harris.

I read about this book on some one's blog and it sounded really interesting. I can't remember whose blog I was reading so if it's you I'm sorry I didn't put a link. The story takes place within four days. The first two are before Vesuvius erupts and the next two are the eruption and aftermath. The main character is the new aquarian of the Augustus Aqueduct. He's the first person to notice that there is something wrong with the mountain because the water starts to get sulfur in it. It was a really good read and definitely interesting to see people deal with a volcano back in 79 AD before they even had the word volcano in their vocabulary!!!

The Frantic Knitter with the Wonky Shoulder

2008-12-31T09:12:00.004-05:00

The other evening my shoulder started to hurt and by the next morning I was in a ridiculous amount of pain. I have a knot or something under my shoulder blade but the pain runs up the back of neck and down my right arm! YOWZA!!! It seriously hurts! I'd love to know what I did so that I won't do it again. Well, because of this little inconvenience knitting and stitching was not on the agenda for yesterday...I spent the entire day flat on my back trying to find a comfortable position. Luckily I had a book to keep me distracted! I finished reading The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai.

It's set mainly in Indian during the Indian-Nepali insurgency. It portrays a judge, his granddaughter, and their cook in newly acquired squalor. It blends the scenes in Indian with the judge's youth in England and the cook's son in America. I've got to say this is the first Heather's Pick from Chapters that I wasn't too impressed with. It took me about 250 pages of a 300 page book for me to feel any connection with the characters. However, the prose is beautiful...I think that's what kept me reading! There are some really funny scenes of Indians trying to blend into American and British culture and also one terribly funny scene at the American embassy when they are trying to get travelling visas. One character is trying desperately to get the coveted visa and was advised to say that he is Mexican...when he gets to the desk he can't remember what he was meant to say and tells the clerk that he is Texican!!!! LOL!!!

Today my shoulder is feeling much better and I am in a mad flurry trying to get my sweater done for tomorrow! Just call me Bex the Frantic Knitter!!! LOL! I am determined to get it done!!! Wish me luck!

I hope everyone has a fun and safe New Year's Eve! See you in 2009!!!!

Merry Christmas

2008-12-27T11:52:00.005-05:00

I hope everyone had a great Christmas this year! I definitely did!!! My husband and I joined my parents at church to do something completely different this year. We helped to cook a meal for a group of people that would otherwise be alone that day. We had about 40 people there and it was so nice to meet all those new friends! Santa showed up with gifts for the kids! The kids were thrilled to bits because they thought Santa had missed their house in the morning...but little did they know that he was going to make a special visit at dinner time!!! I really had a great time this year and am looking forward to doing it again next year. The best part was that I didn't have to clean the house from top to bottom!!! LOL!

I didn't get my sweater done but I'm hoping it will be complete for New Year's day...it's lucky to wear something new that day! LOL!!!! Yep, I'm superstitious too!!!

It snowed like crazy up here last weekend. We got 40 cm in about 2 days! Here's a picture of it coming down from out the back of our house:

Needless to say, I hibernated last weekend and it was lovely!!! I picked up my Elegance of the Orient cross stitch and it was sooo nice to work on her again. I'm sure you know what I mean...it's like putting on comfy old shoes or something! Here's a pic of my progress:

I also got a lot of reading done while hibernating. I finished The Thirteenth Tale (soooooo good!!!!) and today I finished The Birth of Venus.

I wasn't expecting this book to be as carnal as it was but I suppose in hindsight I should have realized that with a title like The Birth of Venus it would end up that way. However, I love historical fiction and this was a great read.

Tendancy to Ramble

2008-12-18T10:50:00.025-05:00

I finished Helen of Troy!!! I seriously plowed through the 600 pages in no time at all! It was ssooo good! Now I've moved on to The Thirteenth Tale.

I know you're not meant to judge a book by its cover but that's partially why I picked this one! This cover is gorgeous! This is the author's first novel at it was a New York Times bestseller within the week it was published. I totally think the cover had a lot to do with it!!! LOL! Also, this was a Chapters/Indigo Heather's Pick. I've always had good luck with her picks and hopefully this will be no exception.

I haven't been stitching much in the past few days. I'm madly trying to finish my white sweater for Christmas. I REALLY want it to be my Christmas sweater! I've finished the front, back, and one arm. I'm about a third of the way up the other arm so all I have to do is finish that bit, do my blocking, sew it all together, and do the cowl neck. I can do it!!! But wish me luck all the same... LOL! Hopefully I'll have a picture of my completed masterpiece before too long!

My husband and I don't have cable, we don't bother with tv. Our friends joke that we're training to be amish! LOL! Anyway, I have recently gotten in to the show 24. I borrowed season one from the library and I am HOOKED!!! I love to knit while watching a few episodes in the evening. I noticed that my library has up to season six so I am set for a while with something interesting to watch on tv! LOVE IT!

I have a few additions to make to my wishlist for Santa. I went through the Heaven and Earth Designs website and found a few little wonders that I mustlet Santa know about.

Here is A Mid Summer's Night Dream. I have this dream to have my library one day have accents of my cross stitch work on the walls but in the library they will all be literature related. This one's for my future libray!!!

This is Cinderella on the Stairs...another one for the library!!!

This is Cleopatra...one kick ass library lady!!!

The Lady of Shallott...I just ADORE this one!

Merlin and Arhtur. I took a course in university that was all about Arthurian legends. From that point forward, I was hooked!

This is The Owl and the Pussycat. I think I was read this story EVERY night as a child. I love love love it!

This one is called Alernative Reality. I think it's the dress that I adore in this one!

This is Musical Fete. I love theaters...so much potential for so much beauty. I spent so much of my childhood in theaters, either in the house or on the stage...so many memories!

This is Catch Me. I feel like a spend a lot of my life falling off of a precipice and hoping someone will catch me! LOL!

This is Pisces. I'm totally into astrology...I'm a big dork, I know, but I'm a true Pisces and it's just in my nature!

And this is Capricorn for my husband. These can hang side by side somewhere in the house...the fish and the goat...what a funny pair we make! LOL!

This is Beckon. While on the HAED website I found the artist Jonathan Earl Bowser (I hope I got the name right...) I LOVE his work!!!! It's so ethereal!!! The following are all his so I'll just give you their titles.

Cascade

Cathedral

Celestial

Forest Light

Forest Mist

Goddess of Tides

Invariance

Santa, I have been VERY good!

Wow! This was one long blog entry...once I get going, I have a tendancy to ramble...LOL!

Again, I'll leave with a funny kitten. This one is good because last week I took my cats the the Humane Society that I volunteer with so they could have their picture taken with Santa...they didn't enjoy it too much...When I got my cats home one was under the bed for 12 hours and the other went straight upstairs and peed in my closet!!! LOL!! I think the cats are voting that next year we take up Judaism...LOL!

Updates, Updates, Updates!!!

2008-12-15T13:39:00.009-05:00

I made a book selection!!! I'm now lost in the lovely world of Helen of Troy! Has anyone read this one? I read another one by Margaret George called Mary, Called Magdalene. (Also very enjoyable!)

I went a little buck wild with holds at the library and they're coming in in droves so there will be much fireside reading by Bex coming up! I LOVE IT!!!

Well, here's the picture I promised of me in my new sweater. This is the first sweater that I have ever made and am mostly just grateful that it looks like a sweater and not a potato sack!

Don't I look happy? I'm soooo happy!!!

And at long last here is my update picture for Lissandrea! She's so gorgeous!!! I go to work on her and I find myself staring at her instead!!! Much more stitching to come though. I love the winter because there's so much stitching time in the evenings! January and February are the best months for getting lost in projects!!!

Here are just some random pictures of my hubby and I at a family reunion we went to this past autumn. We look a little goofy but you get the idea!!!

I'll leave you with a final word from the LOL CATS:

Until next time ladies and gents! (Do any men read this...if so PLEASE drop me a line...I would love to hear from you!!!)

Winter Reading

2008-12-09T09:33:00.005-05:00

It's been snowing here in Canada and there is nothing like curling up by the fire in the evenings with a good book! That's probably one of my favorite pastimes...after stitching and knitting of course! LOL! The last few days, I have been ENGROSSED in The Glass of Time by Michael Cox. If you haven't read this book, I totally recommend it!!! I love this guy's prose! Just incredible!!! I got it from the library and it is due back today and there are about a million holds on it and so I was determined to finish it before I had to give it back!!! Thus, my life has been completely on hold to accomplish the task!!! The novel is the sequel to The Meaning of Night. They're set in Victorian England at the estate of Evenwood (I could easily move in and happily live my life there!) It has murder and deceit and romance and everything in between!!! Honestly...pick up these books if you can!!!! You will love them!!!

Any recommendation on what to read next?

And here's one more funny kitten just because it made me howl with laughter this morning and I wanted to share the giggles!!!

Dear Santa...

2008-12-01T10:59:00.014-05:00

With Christmas just around the corner I decided that it is time for me to write to Santa...

Dear Santa,

I was on the Dimensions website and found a few cross stitch kits that caught my eye. This is only a few of the items that I love...I don't want to look greedy! LOL!

Thanks,
Bex

PS - YES!!! I have been very good all year!

This is The Mighty Samurai and he is the last in a series that I want to go up my staircase wall. I have completed one and am half way through the second.

This is Enchanting Geisha and the colors are incredible! I'm such a girly girl! I LOVE the pinks and purples! LOL!

This is Aurora Cabin. I've always wanted to see the Northern Lights like this! BTW Santa, if the cross stitch kit is unavailable I will gladly take a trip to the cottage instead! LOL!

This is Dreaming of Tuscany and YES I DO!!!! Again Santa, if unavailable some tickets to Tuscany will be graciously accepted! LOL!

This is A Stroll in the Park. I LOVE this era!!! I would glad move right in as long as I could bring a few amenities with me! LOL! The next few are all in the same vein.

This is M'Lady's Chateau. Again Santa, the chateau in the background would be a wonderful surprise...don't worry about fitting it under the tree...we'll work something out! LOL!

This is Gracious Era. Gracious indeed! I LOVE it!!!

This is Romantic Floral. I don't normally go in for stuff like this but it really calls my name for some reason!

This is Innocent Guardian. I wonder if my guardian angel is this well dressed?!

Last but definitely not least, this is my ALL TIME FAVORITE: Ballerina Beauty. I was a ballet dancer for many many years and it was my first true love! This lady looks nothing like me but I might be able to adapt her into a brunette! I remember having a costume just like this one! It was soooo lovely! I miss dancing but if I tried it again now after so many years off I'd probably look like a drunk bear in a tutu! LOL!

So Santa...please remember that I have been VERY good this year! I look forward to your visit...do you want milk and cookies again this year or something different...maybe pizza and beer? LOL!

Giggle Time

2008-11-30T10:17:00.021-05:00

This post is completely not stitch related but not to worry....it's GIGGLE TIME!!!! I love these "LOL CAT" pictures and I wanted to share them with you! These are a few of my recent favs. Take a break and have a chuckle from your buddy Bex!!! (I might have gone a bit over board with the amount but it's so hard to choose!!!) LOL!

BEX IS BACK!!!!!!!

2008-11-29T10:59:00.006-05:00

I'm baaaaaack!!!!!!!!!!! And so happy to be back in this happy blogging world. Not sure what happened to me...my life took a brief turn into insanity. However, all is well and I am positively giddy to be blogging again! I missed you!!! Thanks to everyone who wrote me such kind notes!

So....what have I been up to lately. I'm still stitching and I will post some pictures of my progress shortly but I seem to have ended up in a knitting frenzy! I'm loving it! I finished my bamboo scarf and it's super comfy and with the chilly weather here in Canada it's coming in very handy!

Next I did a pair of pedicure socks for my Mom! What are pedicure socks you ask? Well! They're basically socks with no toes in them. The idea is that you can pop on you're pedicure socks and flip flops so that you're feet stay nice and warm and not have to stuff your feet back into regular socks and boots and ruin your lovely pedicure. They're a great idea and my Mom loves them! I plan to make more of them for Christmas gifts but my Mom got the prototype! Here's a picture and no those are not my feet! LOL!

Next I made a sweater! It's a real sweater and it actually ended up looking like a sweater! I'm totally amazed! And quite impressed with my handy work! Here's the pattern picture:

My sweater is a red tweed not blue but you get the idea! Also, I made it quite a bit longer. I'm 5'11" and the length they had it set for would look ridiculous on me! I also had to increase the sleeve length for my gorilla arms! LOL! Anyway, I made a large and in hindsight I didn't need the large! It's really big! But it's the most comfortable sweater in the ENTIRE world!!! I'm so proud of it! I wear it all the time and I'm terrified to wash it just in case the whole thing unravels! LOL! I'll post a picture of my actual sweater shortly too!

After all the success I had on the first sweater and my new found knowledge in sweater making (LOL!) I decided to make another one. I'm almost done this one too! I've finished the back and the front so all that's left is sleeves and the collar. It's going to be sooooo cute! I think it will be my Christmas sweater this year! And as my Mom says: "It's definitely NOT a sweater for cooking in!" LOL! Gotta love Moms!!! Here's a picture of it:

So that's been my knitting frenzy as of lately. I love learning new things! I've been pouring over the sweaters that I previously bought and trying to figure out the patterns! LOL! I think my husband is sick of me shouting from the closet: "I could have made this myself!"

It's so good to be back with all of you!!!!!

Craft Gluttony

2008-09-27T12:37:00.004-04:00

My latest endeavour is to teach myself how to knit! I remember knitting as a child with my Granny but I haven't knit since then and I never got past making scarves but here I am again trying to knit. I went to Michael's the other day and got myself some knitting needles and some yarn. I picked up the cheapest needles in the entire store for some reason and I now realize why they were the cheapest. They honestly border on useless and I don't even know what I'm doing yet! LOL! I think they're metal and the yarn keeps on falling off. I'm not very good at rescuing lost stitches yet and so I end up pulling the entire thing apart! Yowza! However, the yarn I got is incredible! I picked up a bamboo/silk mix. It's honestly gorgeous! If you've never felt bamboo fabric then you really have to because it is DIVINE! I found a really cute sweater pattern on the internet but I swear it's in German. Is knitting terminology German? Just kidding! So the sweater pattern got put aside until I can understand "knit-speak". Guess what I'm doing instead? Yes indeed I'm making a scarf! Winter's coming and I love scarves and wear them often so it will be practical and a good beginner project. I'll post a picture when it looks like a scarf. :D

What else have I been up to? Oh yes! I am working on my writing skills. I'm trying to write more and type less so that my handwriting looks better. I have a dream of having my favorite books handwritten on beautiful paper with a beautiful italic fountain pen and then personally bound. (I know this is insanity at it's best! There's a reason why I haven't started yet! LOL!) That was a nice segue into my next endeavour...I want to learn how to bind books. I've been looking at it online and it doesn't look too earth shattering. I was thinking I could make a nice cloth bound journal for my Mom for Christmas!

I also joined an artist book club. What is that you ask? Well, a bunch of crafty people have gotten together to read artsy books and inspire and support each other. We're reading "The Vein of Gold" by Julia Cameron. It's meant to be the companion to her other very popular book "The Artist's Way". It's really interesting and the exercises that she gets you to do are pretty neat. I've learnt a lot about myself! Why is it that you can see the patterns and idiosyncrasies in other people but you can never see them in yourself?! As part of the exercises she asks you to keep a journal. No problem! I've kept a journal for ages. Here's the difference though: she asks you to write in the morning and to write about anything that falls into your head. ("Today I must remember to..." "So and so drives me up the wall..." "My dish clothes are smelly...") By writing in the morning I have a whole different tone to my journal. It's no longer a catalogue of daily events. Now it's actually about what's in my head! It's so much more interesting!!! I highly recommend it!

Well, that's all for today. Sorry that this post had everything in it but cross stitch. I'm still stitching... Lissandrea looks great! I'll post a picture of that one soon!

Trucking Along

2008-09-16T13:20:00.003-04:00

I finally made it to the store to get batteries...not only that but while at the store I also remembered to put the batteries into my basket! Now that my camera is functional again I am able to give a Lissandrea update. Here she is and she can see you too! (I love a project once their face is done!!!)

Lost in the Wind

2008-09-15T07:50:00.003-04:00

Have I ever dropped off the face of the earth recently!!!!!!!! I have been stitching but not nearly as much as I normally do. I'm onto page 4 of Lissandrea and she looks gorgeous! Unfortunately, the batteries in my camera have died and there are none in the house. Thus, no pictures for a bit. Hopefully I will get to the store today so that I can update you all on my progress!

But the real reason for my absence is due to a book. I borrowed "Gone with the Wind" from the library and I CAN'T put it down! I've never read it before and I've never seen the movie. I am HOOKED!!!! I'm completely lost in the world of Scarlett and Rhett! LOVING IT!!! Has anyone else read it?! WOW!!!! I promise that I'll surface again shortly! LOL!

I've also signed up to be a volunteer with the local Humane Society. I'm so excited to start this! I went by the other day to fill out the necessary paperwork and I just know I'm going to love it! While I was there I couldn't resist playing with a room full of ADORABLE little kittens! I have a training session this Thursday so that I can learn all about what they do and how I can help. My husband is already worried that we're going to end up with a few extra legs in the house! LOL!

Woo Hoo I'm Done Page Two !!!!

2008-08-24T11:35:00.007-04:00

I'm making GREAT progress with my Lissandrea project! I just adore her! I'm motoring my way through page 3 and am LOVING it! I just love doing faces...it gives the whole work a presence!!! Check out my progress: Please excuse the poor photography; I`m not sure why my camera won`t get a good shot of this one!

I have a degree in Literature and have always wanted to work my way through Harold Bloom's Western Canon (not the book but the list.) I have finally begun! I went through the list and have ticked off all the books that I have read. I've made it through the majority of the British, American, and Canadian Literature but have barely touched on other cultures. I have skipped the Theocratic Age because I`ve never really enjoyed the classics (ex. Homer, Virgil, Ovid, Plato) and have gone directly to the Aristocratic Age that begins in Italy with Dante. I have made my way through The New Life and am now working on The Divine Comedy. I can`t believe that I`ve never read it before! It is terrifying! Seriously giving me nightmares but I`ve made it to Paradiso and it`s all more positive there! I also grabbed some biographies and critical essays for my endeavor! I`m so studious!!!!! LOL!

Well, with all this reading and all this stitching my eyes are a little sore. I`ve started wearing my glasses again. My hubby likes to tease me that I look like I`m wearing goggles...He walks past me through the room and pretends he`s doing the breast stroke....Here`s a pic of me in my goggles; I don`t think I look so bad! LOL!!!

I was hunting for my cat in the forest the other day and I must have bumped into some Poison Ivy on my travels because I`ve got a nice itchy rash on my leg! I`ve had it once before and forgot the agony it is! It should be called Poison Itchy!!! I was checking online for some home remedies for it and was amazed with the strange things people recommend! I`m putting hydrogen peroxide on it and then using a baking soda paste instead of calamine lotion but online people suggest salt, aloe, banana skins, oatmeal, Clorox bleach, Lysol, Windex...the list goes on and on and gets more ridiculous as it goes! Wish me luck! Any suggestions!!! LOL!!!

Isn't She Beautiful?!

2008-08-10T10:34:00.004-04:00

Right now I am procrastinating before I go and work out...not in the mood today...maybe I will be in an hour though. I really have no excuses for not working out: we have a gym in our basement because my hubby is a fanatic about exercise! He just went down to work out and my response was "I'll be down in a minute." :D It might be a bit longer than a minute...

Well, I'm still trucking along with page 2 of Lissandrea. I think she is lovely! I've never done a pattern like this before. It's a Mystic Stitch design and the pattern definitely took some getting used to. Also, I've never done one of this magnitude that was completely stitched. I'm thoroughly impressed with the result though! However, you should see the back of my work!!! Yowza!!! It's dreadful! I usually pride myself on how neat the back of my work is but not this time! EEK! Seriously, it's an abomination! Luckily, no one will ever see the back so it doesn't matter! YEAH! Except the framer...:o

Here she is in all her page 2 splendour!!! (Please excuse my dreadful photography)

Gone But Not Forgotten

2008-07-30T15:38:00.013-04:00

I have been one BUSY lady lately!

I have decided that we have too many birds and our present set-up is not working. So...instead of complaining, I have decided to do something about it! I realize that right now our cage is too small for the amount of birds that we have, even though it is the largest cage that we could find. Here's a picture of all our little ones in their little cage:

Everyday we put the cats in the bedroom for an hour or so for their afternoon nap and we let out the birds for a fly around the house. They are very good birds and we have devised a system of putting sheets over plants and other perching places when we want them to go back into the cage. But it is seriously getting ridiculous! Sometimes we spend a good half hour trying to lure them back in and running around like idiots! And worst of all: the other day the cat got out of the bedroom by accident and he ended up with a bird in his mouth! We pried the little one out and he seemed to be unharmed but the poor little guy ended up dying a few hours later anyway. (We nicknamed him Kibbles...please excuse our dark humour!) That was the final straw! So....drum roll please...I'm going to build an aviary!!!!!! I have never built anything other than IKEA furniture and I think that a two-year old could do that...needless to say, I am generally not too adept at woodwork. My endeavour should be interesting and I will definitely keep you posted on my small disasters along the way! :D Here is a picture of the future home of the aviary. I'm basically going to put a front on the window seat that is hidden under all that junk.

My aviary will be lovely! I've already done all the blue prints and have begun scouting out supplies at Home Depot! However, there is a little hang-up...I haven't painted that room yet and the paint fumes will kill the birds if I do it after the birds are in their new home. So....I began to paint! And this is a picture of my life this week:

My hubby likes the California look of white walls and lots of plants. I'm totally cool with that because I don't have to mess about with wall colors. I am fully aware that interior design is not my forte... but I'm doing well with my attempts. All of our furniture is cherry wood and it looks gorgeous against the white walls. The room I am painting is the only room that we still need to replace the furniture. It still has my old white furniture from university days. Here's a pic of the one half of the room that is complete...sort of...the computer desk won't be there for long, just while I'm painting the other wall. Once the desk moves I will put in my big comfy leather reading chair! SOOOOOO excited to get that back! Anyway...the picture...my two first loves: books and shoes!!!

So that is my life lately...Oh, and my one cat got taken into the pound this week again by a thoughtful neighbour and I think he got a cold while he was there. Here is my little snuffly kitten Apollo:

And so that my other little kitten doesn't feel left out, here is Jericho (the bird killer):

Well, this has been one long post about everything and nothing all at the same time! But I have saved the best for last: STITCHING!!!! Yes, I have actually gotten a lot of stitching done in the last little while. I started my Lissandrea project! She is beautiful! I'm already on page 2!!! Here's my progress:

Did you notice that it is on a scroll frame? Yep, I bought myself a new gadget! I can't believe that I ever lived bereft of one of these before! I LOVE it! Here's a picture of the full thing, just because I am so proud!

Well, that's all for today. I've started jogging to help my wibbly bits get firmer and my knees are killing me! I need some ice and to curl up with my book. I'm reading Michael Cox's "The Meaning of Night" and I highly recommend it. All you Canadians might recognize it because it was a Heather's Pick at Chapters a while back.

Ok, I'm seriously going now! Tomorrow I promise to write a very special post because a very kind stitching/blog friend has nominated my blog for an award!!! More on that shortly as my knees feel like they are going to blow up!

She's Alive!!!!

2008-07-14T12:29:00.015-04:00

I have made great progress on my Elegance of the Orient piece!!! She has a head and a hand now! LOL! The head and hair took ages to complete! There is SO much detail in her hair. I had to make a slight alteration to the pattern. The blue lazy daisies were meant to be double lazy daisies but every time I tried to make them work they looked ridiculous. I made three attempts and unpicked each of them. The double lazy daisies would either look like fat lines (I was also using three strands of floss) or they would untwist themselves in the hole?! In the end I decided on single lazy daisies and I think they look lovely too! Here's a picture of my progress:

Also, I organized all of the floss for my Lissandrea project. I was terrified that the little sleeves on the skeins would fall off before I got to the project and then I would not know what color they were. So I made my own little do-dads to put them on and away I went! I reached a small snag though. My fabric is too small! I bought 15x18 22 ct. fabric. The pattern, according to every fabric calculator I can find, is meant to be 12x16 on that fabric ... but it's NOT. I knew it would be a little tight only having an inch on either side but I thought it could still work. However, after counting it out (a few times) the pattern is actually 12x17 on that fabric and so it is just not going to work! I can't have a 1/2 inch at the top and bottom!!! So today's task is to go and get the right fabric so I can start her! Also, I think I am going to go from 22 ct. to 18 ct. I tried out my first 10x10 block of the pattern to see what it would look like and my crosses look too mashed together and uneven because I'm using two strands and the weave is too tight. I think I will prefer it on 18 ct. This one is a learning curve for me! LOL!

At Veronica's Stitching Vault she does a "floss toss" where she lays all the colors on the fabric to see how it all works together. I had never heard of this before and think it's marvelous! I attempted to do my own floss toss but there were too many skeins to fit and so I did it on my carpet instead! :) This is every color (except one) that I will need for my project. I only bought one skein of each even though the pattern calls for more in some cases but I'll get those as they become necessary. Can you tell why the woman behind me at the store had a conniption fit waiting for all those to be individually rung through!!!

Finally I shall leave you with some pictures from my garden:

This is a lily my Mom got for me and it has just bloomed for the first time!

This is a hydrangea that was a gift from my neighbours when I opened my store. I put it into the ground last year looking very dead and crossed my fingers that it would come back. It's very happy this year and growing like a weed! When it was given to me it was blue and now it's pink...that's an interesting trick! I understand it has something to do with the acidity in the soil. I hope it stays pink because when it was blue it didn't really work in my garden but now it does perfectly!

And last but not least, is this little one. I think it is lovely but have NO idea what it is! My Mom got it for me and I am very grateful but seriously...what is it? If anyone knows please send me a note.

I can't believe the amount of people who commented on my last post! You all are lovely and your own blogs are all filled with such beautiful work! Thanks for making me smile with all of your kind words!

Nearly Headless Nikki

2008-07-06T10:05:00.003-04:00

As promised, here is a picture of my progress! I am so proud of this one and am loving stitching it! Please take note of all the back stitching in gold metallic thread along the shawl (grumble). Also, of the lazy daisies that you can barely see on the shawl but that took FOREVER to complete (They are good practice because in her hair the pattern calls for double lazy daisies...never done those before...) Next, please notice the magenta cording along the cuffs and collar instead of generic back stitching. I love the way the cording makes the piece more three dimensional! And finally, PLEASE take note of the corded belt! That was a labour of love!!! The directions seemed simple enough: make the cording without a needle, loop the pieces to create a knot,and tack it all to the piece in the desired place. No problem! Sounds easy enough! Next, wrap one strand of magenta around the ends of the cording and draw it through the fabric so that you can tack it to the back and finish it off. Aahhh, here is the problem!!! This is 18ct. fabric that has already been stitched and so 10 strands of corded thread does NOT easily draw through the fabric to be tacked! GRUMBLE!!! I broke three needles and bent another two trying to do this and at one point I thought I was going to break a hole on the fabric! It really was a labour of love. My husband giggled at me trying to make it work and I scowled back at him! LOL! But it's done and I think it was worth it because it looks GORGEOUS!!!!

Last Bird Post...I Promise

2008-07-04T11:46:00.003-04:00

Well, while I was at the computer typing my last post, Delta arrived out of the nest. I missed it! Oh well. I took a look in the nests to see what was going on and look at what I found: two little ones have decided to visit the other nest!

Count the Heads: There's SIX of them in there!!!

Petry All Alone :(

First One's OUT!!!

2008-07-04T11:13:00.006-04:00

My first little bird has left the nest! The first thing the little one did was land in the food bowl and look around startled. I got a picture of this moment but it's pretty blurry but so cute! Omega (yes, I went with Omega in the end)keeps trying to get into the wrong nest. It's adorable because his parents are freaking out trying to get him back but they aren't allowed in the other nest. I took the bird bath out of the cage; now that we have kids we have to build a fence around the pool to prevent accidents! LOL! I hope you like the pictures below. I promise the next post will be completely stitching related. :)

Omega in the Food Bowl

Omega Looking Cute

Omega Has Realized the "Mama-razzi" Have Spotted Him (LOL)

Widget Happy Randomness

2008-07-03T22:28:00.003-04:00

As you can probably tell, I have become slightly "widget-happy" today. I have added a plethora of these things and I hope this explains the excitement I have over my blog!!!

I have made stunning progress with my projects and I will post pictures very shortly! Also, my little birds are doing SOOOO well!!! They are so close to leaving the nest. Mom and Dad have been sitting outside the nest waiting for them to pop out for the last two days straight. I can't believe their diligence!

All for now and to all a good night!

Baby Birds and Old Friends

2008-06-29T14:04:00.004-04:00

I'm going to start by showing you pictures of our new baby birds! They are adorable and I'm so glad that they are FINALLY starting to look like real birds and less like furry caterpillars!!! Hopefully in a few days they will start venturing out of the nest. I hear that's a very cute stage. While they're learning to fly they look a little drunk because they can't quite aim correctly to land on a perch and so they miss and fall a lot...kind of like kids learning to walk: it takes some practice!!!

Above are Aurora and Finnegan's babies. I'm not sure how old they are because I didn't keep track of their birthdays but they are a few days older than Barbie and Merlin's babies. (below)

So I need a little help from everyone...You can't tell the gender of the bird until they have their first molt in a couple months. So I need some help on unisex names for these little ones. My ideas so far are Petry (from The Land Before Time...remember..."Petry fly?" "No Petry fall..." so cute!), and maybe Omega and Delta, but I'm not too keen on the last two so I need some help! I've got seven babies and only ONE name!

Wow, that was a tangent...back to stitching!

I wrote to the kind people at Dimensions and asked them for the remaining floss that I need to complete my Oriental Fan project but I haven't received anything yet. So that one's on the back burner for a while. HOWEVER, I have started back with The Elegance of the Orient!!! I love this pattern and was jumping up and down when I got it back out again! It was like visiting with an old friend! This one's a little more difficult because it's on 18 ct. instead of the 14 ct. that the previous was on....my eyes are feeling the difference! LOL! Well, here's my progress so far.

So Close!!!

2008-06-23T12:30:00.003-04:00

I had wanted to finish this project and be able to show you all but instead it's still a WIP!!! Yet again, I have run out of floss and have to write to Dimensions. This kit has been brutal for running out of floss. So far I've run out of 4 colors! The kind people at Dimensions are going to get to know me very well. I'm so close to completion!!! I'm very excited!!!

As a complete aside, our birds had babies!!! My husband and I have 4 zebra finches and they are lovely! We got birds because we were trying to entertain the cats indoors. When my one cat Jericho goes outside he picks fights with other cats and comes home looking like he got attack by a lawnmower. We decided the cats need to stay indoors if they can't behave themselves outside and the birds have really helped them stay entertained. They have proven to be very avid bird watchers!!! Well, last week I poked my nose into the birds' nests and noticed we had eggs and a few days ago I was snooping again and found babies!!! We have 7 babies!!! I think we're going to need a bigger cage but it's VERY exciting!!!

Daddy Day, Buckets, Updates, and Future Ambitions

2008-06-15T10:15:00.005-04:00

First of all let me wish all the Daddy's out there a very happy Father's Day!!! I have been musing over what to get my dad. He's a simple guy who feels uncomfortable when people spend money on him. Also, his birthday is on the 20th and so I often combine gifts. I think I will have my "All is Calm" piece framed and give it to him for his birthday.

He needs some calm in his life; he works very hard and never takes enough time for himself. Also, a few months ago we lost my brother very tragically. My mother was very upset on Mother's Day and I think today may be difficult for my dad. I want to make sure this Daddy Day is as easy for my dad as possible! Please send happy vibes our way!!!

Well, that last paragraph had a sombre tone to it. Let's move on to something more chipper! Last night I watched "The Bucket List". Has anyone seen this? Hilarious and sad all at the same time! The part when Jack Nicholson gets to kiss "the most beautiful girl in the world" had me crying/smiling for about 20 minutes! My only wish was that they made the character of the assistant a little funnier. That actor was the best part of "Will & Grace" and I think his character in this flick could have been HILARIOUS!!!

And finally, an update on my latest project. I have finished the spokes of the fan and done the couching with the gold metallic thread. I love couching!!! It's a touch time consuming but the effect is lovely! Next, I've been working on the next fan in the background. I'm really happy with the progress I'm making. I think the excitement over my next project is giving me the inertia I need!!! My diligence is paying off!

I've been reading a bunch of blogs out there in the ether and I've decided that I HAVE to get myself a Heaven and Earth Design! I am in love with every one that I see! Also, I think I'm due for a Miribilia for the same reason! But my all time favorite that I've got to get for myself is "The Lady of Shalott". You know...that famous painting, by someone whose name escapes me, of her in the boat floating down the river with that soulfull look on her face after she realizes that she's dying. I love that painting and I love that poem! I think I'm getting ahead of myself AGAIN!!!

Temptation

2008-06-10T13:15:00.003-04:00

The other day I accidentally found myself in my local craft store and then I accidentally found myself purchasing all the necessary items for my Lissandrea project....ooops!!! I am so excited about this pattern and I can't get it out of my head. I've already decided that I would finish Oriental Fan and then complete The Elegance of the Orient before moving on to Lissandrea but the temptation is intense! That pattern is positively screaming to me and now that I have all the necessary materials to complete it I'm having issues with self restraint! I must be strong!

As an aside, I'm not sure if I felt worse for the cashier or the grumpy person behind me in line when I was having my items rung through. The poor cashier had to individually scan all five million skeins of floss while the woman behind me tapped her toe, huffed a lot, and looked at her watch every other second! I thought crafty people were more patient?!

Oriental Fan Part 6 and Dimensions Came Through AGAIN!!!

2008-06-07T14:00:00.004-04:00

I love this border but it is taking FOREVER!!! Since last week I have completed the top portion of it and the gold flecks within it along the left side. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I really dislike stitching with metallic thread but I love the effect it provides; it's a love-hate relationship! I got a bit bored with the border and so I moved on to the spokes of the fan. I'm SO happy with how quickly they are forming!

I went to the mailbox the other day and found that Dimensions had sent me the floss I need to finish the back stitching for the leaves on the face of the fan. YIPPEE!!!I haven't done it yet but am excited to do so. I've had very positive experiences with Dimensions so far. They have sent me a replacement for the pattern that was lost and now they have sent me some more floss because I ran out. I wish I'd known how easily they send you replacements because I never would have bought extra thread from my local craft store when I've run out in the past! My only qualm with their otherwise GREAT customer service is this: when you send them an email letting them know what you need all you get is an automated email in return saying that they have received mine. Thus, I never know if they are going to send me the item until it shows up in my mailbox. I wish they could send me a quick email letting me know that they are sending it so that I would know if I need to take a trip to my local craft store or not. It's a small thing but I think it would make a big difference. Am I being too picky?

What can be my useful tip for today??? Well, I was talking a few days ago about how I kept making mistakes on the border and had to unpick it. The reason for this was because I lost my pencil. Lost my pencil? Yes, lost my pencil...you see as I stitch an area I shade in the squares I've stitched so that I know I've stitched them. I'm certain A LOT of people do this but most people tend to use a highlighter. I like using a pencil because I can erase it if I need to. Also, I use my highlighter to color the back stitching lines on the pattern that I have completed. I've found this is a useful tip. I remember the first large pattern that I stitched because that was when I started doing this. I'd lose my place on the pattern but not realize it and end up stitching the wrong colors in the wrong places. I must have unpicked at least a third of it!!! LOL!! Then I started shading in what I had done and it made ALL the difference. The only thing that you need to be careful about is getting pencil on your hands and then getting it on your thread. If you do it's not a big deal because it will wash out. I made this mistake while stitching the snow in "All is Calm"; I kept wondering why my snow looked dirty until I looked at my hands and gasped!!!

Well, it's 30 degrees outside today and about 40 with the humidex. Too hot for doing much outside so I think I shall curl up next to the air conditioner and stitch to my heart's content!

Rainy Day Musings and Fights with the Cat

2008-06-03T15:36:00.006-04:00

It's a rainy day here and I LOVE IT!!! I think the universe sends you dreadful weather to force you to have a lazy day! I walked over to the grocery store to grab some bits for dinner. I had to walk because I lent my car to my Dad. His is on the way out of this world and I work from home and don't really need mine. So, he's borrowing it indefinitely. I'm actually really enjoying walking everywhere!

When I came back I realized that I had forgotten to put my cross stitch away. My cat was asleep on it!!! He woke up and continued to clean the dirt off his paws! I've been spot cleaning paw marks out of it for the last hour. It's my own fault for leaving it on the couch! Lesson learned though!!!

I realized that I never posted pictures of what my projects will eventually look like. You can basically tell what Oriental Fan will look like but here is what Elegance of the Orient will look like when completed:

I also mentioned a few posts ago about the pattern that I got in the mail. It is a Mystic Stitch design and she is called Lissandrea:

I think she is absolutely stunning! I have NO idea where I'm going to put her when she's done because she really doesn't fit in with the rest of the house but I'll deal with that one later!

Oriental Fan Part 5

2008-06-02T10:28:00.005-04:00

Yet again, I am a day late in my post. Yesterday I took my nephews to Black Creek Pioneer Village. They had a great time and I think I've found my new vocation in life. Throughout the village they have people in traditional costume pretending to live in the era and answering questions. In one of the houses was a woman who sat by the fire all day working on her embroidery. Where do I sign up for that job!?

Anyway, during this past week I have completed the background for the top area. Next I moved onto the border. I like to finish the left hand side of the pattern first because I am right handed and it's a little more awkward to complete. The border has proven to be a slight nightmare. Granted it is a very simple pattern but somehow I was still able to make a couple of mistakes! I had to unpick portions of it twice! Never stitch while enjoying wine! LOL! Now, I am trying to be extra careful to avoid having to unpick again.

Next, this border uses 5 strands of floss to create the weight of it. It is SO uncomfortable! Not only is it a nightmare every time I try to thread my needle but I feel like I'm stitching with yarn! I'm so glad I used the stretch bars on this project because if I hadn't the fabric would have invariably been quite warped! The pattern also calls for cording along the border. I now understand why: to mask any warping in the fabric!!!

I seem to be grumbling a bit in this last post. Sorry, next post will be more chipper!

PS - It is my photography skills that have made the pattern appear crooked and not the actual pattern.

Oriental Fan Part 4

2008-05-26T11:57:00.003-04:00

I'm a day late this week; I normally like to post on Sundays. It's my lazy day when I get stuff done that I WANT to do and not what I NEED to do!

The fan face is DONE! Well, almost...I ran out of the color for the back stitching of the leaves. That's why the leaves on the far right side look a little wonky. Back stitching is the greatest thing...without it my leaves just look like green blobs of color; they lack the definition that only back stitching can provide.

Seeing as Dimensions has been so kind to me recently by sending me a new Elegance of the Orient pattern, I didn't want to bother them again over the one color I am lacking. Instead, I went online to find the DMC equivalent. If you Google Dimension to DMC Conversion then you get a plethora of charts that give you the color code that matches. A word to the wise here: DMC and Dimensions do not dye their floss with the same stuff. Therefore, the DMC equivalent is NOT the same color. It's just the closest match that they make. Sometimes the floss looks the same but mostly it is a completely different color and the difference will be noticeable in your project. Anyway, I found the color code I needed and trotted off to my local craft store to see if it was even remotely the correct color. Well, they didn't have it! So, I sent another email to the kind people at Dimensions. In hindsight, I think this is a better plan anyway. They should know that their kits don't contain the right amount of materials and hopefully, if they receive enough requests for more floss, they will start putting enough in the kits. I have NEVER completed a Dimensions kit that has had the correct amount of materials: I always run out of at least one color or there is so much of another that I wonder what they think I'm doing with it all! I have now taken to saving the leftover scraps of floss from previous kits so that I can use them when I run out during a new project. I am amazed at how often I dip into my reserves!

Where was I? Oh yes... I have finished the face of the fan! Next, I didn't really feel like doing the spokes of the fan just yet. It will be boring...lots of the same color over and over again. Also, I think I might need to unpick the small section of the spoke that I have completed because I think it might be a little sun bleached. I like to work outside in my yard on sunny days. Perhaps not the best idea, but c'est la vie! Anyway, so instead of doing the charcoal spokes that will go on forever, I decided to get started on the background! Did you think this was going to just be a boring fan in the middle of some fabric? Oh no, much better than that! Just wait and see how lovely this is going to be when it's done! I love the background of this piece because the effect of the half cross stitches make it look almost like some pencil sketches of fans and leaves. Gorgeous! Also, I wanted to do the background for a bit because half cross stitches and back stitching go SO quickly! I love this kind of instant gratification!

Dimensions Came Through!!!

2008-05-18T13:17:00.004-04:00

I am so thrilled! This week Dimensions sent me a replacement copy of the Elegance of the Orient pattern that was thrown out while I was in hospital. I am so excited to start working on this project again. But that's not all my good news! I also received a new pattern for a project called Lissandrea. I have been ogling over this piece for ages and now that I have it I can't wait to get started on it.

Now, this is where I have to exercise a bit of self restraint. In the past, I have tried to work on more than one project at a time. This doesn't work very well for me. I find I start confusing symbols in my head and stitching with the wrong colors! (Very frustrating!) Either that or I am simple spreading myself too thin and I don't see much improvement on any of my projects and then I get discouraged.

So, for the time being I will just have to be a good girl and do one thing at a time. I will finish my Oriental Fan, then move on to Elegance of the Orient, and then do Lissandrea. This way I can get very excited about the next project that is coming up and that excitement will be the inertia I need to work hard on the project at hand! I hope...

Oriental Fan Part 3

2008-05-18T13:06:00.005-04:00

What have I done this week? Well, let's see. I stitched another flower and some leaves and did their back stitching. I also started to stitch yet another flower. I did some more back stitching to create the accordion folds of the fan. Oh and I did some of the black back stitching along the left edge of the fan just to see what it would look like! Cross stitching is teaching me patience! LOL!

As usual I try to keep my work looking uniform. I have found that the easiest way to do this is to keep all of my stitches looking the same. All of my stitches should be left over right crosses. To help me do this I use the following tip. If I am stitching downwards I start from the bottom left corner of the stitch and work from left to right and then back from right to left. This way when I go to start on the next line down my thread is not coming out of the fabric in the place where I want it to go down again. Also, when stitching upwards I do the opposite. I start my stitching from the top right hand corner of the stitch and then work from right to left and then back again from left to right. This is a simple method that I have found to keep all of my stitches as uniform left over right crosses and it also helps to keep the back tidy too!

Oriental Fan Part 2

2008-05-11T10:29:00.007-04:00

Another week of work is under my belt on this one. I still haven't heard from Dimensions about my Elegance of the Orient pattern and so I guess I'll be working on this project until it's complete!

This week I did a bit of the red border on the left side and a bunch of the ivory background so that I could do the back stitching to create the effect of the accordion folds of the fan. Next, I did the back stitching on the first flower and its leaves and part of the second flower. I LOVE the effect that back stitching provides! It really makes the art work come alive!

I try to keep the back of my work neat and so I try not to jump more than a few stitches. Instead, I will finish and restart the thread in the new place. I've been experimenting with a new trick to keep the back neat. I have been weaving my thread through the back of my work so that all of my stitches are either vertical or horizontal and never diagonal. Let me elaborate:

Say, I'm stitching the following pattern (Ignore the underscore on the second row. It's not a stitch; it's just helping me create placement for this blog)

XXXX
_XXXX

I will start top left and stitch the first row so that I end up back at top left. But here's my new trick: When I start the second row, instead of just going directly to the bottom left where the stitching begins, and therefore creating a diagonal line on the back, I weave my thread through the back of the first stitch of the top row and then down. By doing this, I have gone horizontally through the first stitch of the first row and then vertically down into the second row and kept with the natural pattern of the stitches I'm doing. I'm AMAZED at the results!

Oriental Fan

2008-05-04T11:36:00.002-04:00

Considering the fact that I am unable to work on my Elegance of the Orient project, I have started a new one in the interim. It is called Oriental Fan. (I seem to do a lot of Oriental patterns because my husband adores them! Our home is decorated in that style and so they fit in nicely!)

I have been working on this project for about a week now. It doesn't look like much yet but it will be gorgeous when it's done.

I tried to get a lot of the metallic stitches over with...I hate stitching with metallic thread. You have to be so careful not to let the thread twist because it knots SOOOO easily.

I read on another site a very good tip for keeping the back of your work neat and tidy. To start fold one full (uncut) piece of thread in half and thread the two ends threw your needle so that you have a loop at the other end. When you make your first stitch, weave your thread threw the loop at the back of your work! That way, to start your stitches you don't have to tie a knot (heaven forbid, LOL!) or weave them threw about an inch of stitches. Brilliant tip!

Elegance of the Orient

2008-05-04T11:26:00.002-04:00

April 27, 2008

This is called Elengance of the Orient. It is the second (Jewels of the Orient being the first) of a series of three that I am trying to complete for my home. This is also the first time that I have used stretch bars for my work and am really enjoying it. My stitches are normally pretty even and so the Aida doesn't get too warped but the stretch bars really make it stupid-proof!

I went in to the hospital on April 29, 2008 for heart surgery and I brought this to work on. While I was asleep someone threw out my pattern because they thought it was GARBAGE!!! I am so crestfallen over this! I have contacted Dimensions (the company who make the kit) and have asked for a new pattern because I don't really want to purchase a whole new kit. I am waiting to hear back from them but neadless to say this project has been put on hold indefinately...

Peaceful Silhouette Progress

2008-05-04T11:20:00.002-04:00

March 29, 2008

April 5, 2008

April 13, 2008

April 17, 2008
IT'S DONE!!!!

2008-05-04T11:08:00.001-04:00

Let's start by posting my previous accomplishments.

All is Calm

Jewels of the Orient

Peaceful Silhouette