RIP Dear Sister

Laura Jean Ackerson

April 30, 1984 - July 13, 2011

You will be missed little sister

We all love you very much

We will watch over your little boys for you

Full Disclosure...

At the risk of shocking some of you, I've decided to post how many projects I have floating around the house in an attempt to motivate myself into finishing some of them (i.e. shaming myself into finishing them).

You see, I had been having the urge to work on something cross-stitch for a couple of weeks now, and thought about starting a new design. I have plenty of fabric (a post for another time) and plenty of floss (you've seen the pictures here), so I could start something with very little outlay of money. I even went so far as to go through the filing cabinet where I store all my cross-stitch patterns and pulled out the three that seemed like the best option. You see, I couldn't decide which one was the best option, so I pulled out three to peruse for the next few days to decide which was the best.

As I sat there perusing, I realized I have this large box where all my WIPs live (Works In Progress). It's a copy paper box - it holds 10 reams of paper...it's not a small box. And no, I don't have a picture to show you of that - someday. Anyway, I remembered this box that I had relegated to the back corner under my working table and decided to pull it out. Let's see what projects I have already started that I might have forgotten about, maybe one of these would be the best option right now....

Yeah. I have a total of 27 bags of projects in this box!! One bag per project. And 24 of them have stitching on the fabric!!!!! This is ridiculous. 24 started cross-stitch projects?? And I'm thinking of starting another?? Yeah....nix that idea. So I pulled out every project I had that was close to being finished. That was, um.....4. Yeah....24 cross-stitch projects started and only 4 can be considered close to being finished. This is ridiculous. Oh wait, I've said that already.

I did find a 5th project that I no longer wanted to stitch, and was very near the beginning stages of stitching, so I'm currently frogging all those stitches. It's going pretty quickly and then I can say I only have 23 started cross-stitch projects!! Yay!!!

Then I remembered I don't only cross-stitch, I quilt and knit, too. Argh. Ok, so how many knitting projects do I have started? That's easy, 3. Three knitting projects? I'm not even an avid knitter, why do I need to have 3 going? But at least it's better than the cross-stitch projects.

Ok, on to the quilting projects. Hang on, I haven't actually counted these yet (I'm kind of scared to...). Let me do that while you wait...

Counting...

Counting...

Fainting...

Ok, I've woken up again....I currently have 22 quilting pojects started. That means it is somewhere between the stages of having either cut fabrics or begun stitching something, and it doesn't have a binding on it. Four of these projects are piecing, 8 are applique, 2 are English Paper Piecing and 8 are in the hand-quilting stage. Whoa....

So, I've decided that I need to get each category (cross-stitch, knitting and quilting) of WIPs into the single digits, under 10. I have no idea if I'll be able to accomplish this or how long it will take, but I'm hoping that by posting about it here, I'll be more accountable about it.

I thought I'd add this picture of Felix. This is how he looked after he got done helping me clip coupons this weekend. I think he's on coupon overload :)

A Framing Happy Dance

I've managed to frame a piece I stitched over 5 years ago. It is Emie Bishop's Warm Christmas Wishes. I found the frame at Salvation Army for $3. It didn't have any glass, and I wouldn't have been able to fit it in the frame if it had. That's ok, this piece has beads on it, anyway, so glass would have just smooshed them.

I found some red vellum at Hobby Lobby when I picked up the foamcore and pasted that underneath the hardanger sections of the design. I wish I had found a better shade of red, as I think this is too bright....oh well, it coordinates with the highlights on the cranberries.

We had our oldest nephew over for the night a couple of weeks ago. He found the piano and just loved to sit at it and play and play and play...boy were we glad for the quiet when it was time for him to go home! LOL

Here is Kendrick and DH playing together. As you can tell, it was a very hot day, so he went around in is diaper for a while...Kendrick, not DH!

Oh yeah, you can see a bit of Pips in the picture, too....He's sneaking a peek at what might have been forgotten on the table....sneaky dog....

And to prove how hot it's been lately, here's Felix melting off the buffet. DH claims he stayed like that for an hour after he got up for work....very unusual, as Felix is normally following us around like Pips (he thinks he's a dog, you know).

My Favorite - No Longer

There is a very popular Italian restaurant that I love to eat at. I love their salad, their breadsticks and this dish - Chicken Con Broccoli. Doesn't it look wonderful??

On Monday, my darling DH took me to this restaurant on our way home from visiting his parents for the day. I ordered my long-time favorite dish, only to be told they no longer carry it!!! I've been ordering this dish for over 10 years!!! How can they stop making it??? I was flabbergasted.

The server suggested a dish they called Chicken Scampi as a possible substitute - which turned out to be very close...but it's just not the same, you know? I asked her to substitute the red peppers in the new dish for broccoli....the sauce tasted very similar...and the chicken was good. Maybe if I ask them to substitute the linguini for the bowl-shaped pasta I want and to serve it in a bowl with extra sauce, it will seem like the same to me??? Who knows....at this point, I don't plan to go back to that restaurant anytime soon....DH is devastated. No more Pasta E Fagioli soup for him...

Amazing Music

Have you seen this??



I think it is just beautiful - enjoy!