Rainbow

Your rainbow is strongly shaded white and violet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is says about you: You are a contemplative person. You appreciate beauty and craftsmanship. People depend on you to make them feel secure. You are patient and will keep trying to understand something until you've mastered it.

Find the colors of your rainbow at spacefem.com.

Stupid Pet Tricks

1 lazy cat + 1 plastic cup + 1 silly husband = this!

Trees

On the SanMan board I was telling everyone how all the maple trees in our neighborhood are being cut down due to the infestation of Asian Longhorn beetles. For the past two days crews have been at our house and our immediate neighbors. Here are some photos. The quality is not so good because I used my phone and the windows are dirty from the snowstorms.


Our house photo from Google Maps taken in the summer of 2007. You can see that the tree at street level is dying from the beetles.



This used to be all the trees on the left side of the Google Maps photo. You can see the crane removing trees from the neighbor's yards.



This is where the 3 large trees on the right side of the Google Maps photo used to be. Hundreds of birds roosted there every night in the spring and summer. There were also trees in front of and behind the fence in the background. You can't really tell how big these stumps are from the photo. Each one is at least 3 feet wide.



A view down the street. The trucks are parked directly in front of our house. We were heading out to the sale at Thistle Needleworks in CT to get away from the noise and depressing sight of the trees being cut.



The view out my front window at my neighbor's bare yard. They will be back for the rest of her trees Monday. That is not a dirt road in front of our house. That is ice packed and mixed with wood chips.

Ice Storm

Thursday night around 10:25pm our electricity went out as the freezing rainstorm got heavy. We lit candles and settled in to wait it out. Sometime around 2:30 - 3:00AM the trees in front of our neighbors house lost branches just in front of and behind our car, missing it by inches. Someone was trying to drive down the street and he an my husband pushed the branches aside. We moved the car to my workplace at the end of the street. We spent the remaining hours until daylight listening to the awful sounds of breaking trees and falling branches.


Will heads to the end of the street to get the car and find someplace open with hot food and drinks. We were still without power and the temperature inside the house had dropped to 56 degrees. Our car had been parked directly behind the large branches he is walking past. Radio reports said 100,000 in our area alone were without power.


Large ice covered branches fell in the back yard and hung on the dog walk line.



The side yard was full of fallen branches. You can just make out the police blocking access to the southern part of the street where trees fell and broke all the windows out of one house. Power and phone lines were broken and laying in the street as well.


The neighbor's tool shed still stands but a large branch covers the door. An entire tree is laying behind the shed and barely missed crushing it.


While Will was out getting food a large tractor trailer truck drove down the street and knocked more branches into the street. Neighbors came out and moved them with their hands and a truck equipped with a snow plow.



What a difference it made when the sun came out. Ice melted and was falling like hail. This is the same view with and without ice.

Will had to work on Friday and Mike and I stayed at the house layered in clothes waiting for the power to come back on. Rain continued to fall and the basement started to flood. Radio reports estimated no power until Monday and urged people to go to shelters if they got too cold. We didn't want to leave our animals and we were also afraid our house would be broken into so we decided to stick it out as long as we could. By afternoon we had phone service which was good because the batteries on our cell phones were running low. I sat by our big front window and stitched until we lost the light. We saw power company and city trucks driving up and down our street which made us feel like they were trying to do something. It was frustrating because the houses to the south of us and the factory across the street still had power but we did not. The temperature dropped to about 50 degrees in the house and we put out blankets for the animals to hide under. Will had made arrangements for us to come to his work once his shift was over at 10pm to eat and get warm for a while. Around 9:30 we were surprised and happy when the power came back on. We had to use space heaters until the water cleared from the basement but at least we had something to warm the house back up.

This morning we went out to get groceries and saw more damage. The store we shop at was still out of power and running on generators so we had to go someplace else for perishables. We have been busy today trying to clear up some of the branches and take care of things we couldn't do yesterday so I don't know how many are left without power but I am afraid it is a lot.

Christmas Meme

Found this on Mel's Blog and it looked like fun.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
My wrapped packages don't look so great so I use bags if it's not for family.
2. Real tree or Artificial?
Artificial but I love how real ones smell.
3. When do you put up the tree?
I try to put it up the weekend after Thanksgiving.
4. When do you take the tree down?
After January 6th.
5. Do you like eggnog?
Yes! Yum!
6. Favorite gift received as a child?
Cassette recorder.
7. Hardest person to buy for?
My sister - she has everything!
8. Easiest person to buy for?
Mike
9. Do you have a nativity scene?
Yes. I collect them.
10. Mail or email Christmas cards?
I don't send cards any more. Everyone on our list stopped sending cards so we did too.
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
Most of the worst ones have been from "Secret Santa" gift exchanges at work. I think these are a waste of money and time unless you are very close to your co-workers. I don't care much for Santa Claus and I don't decorate with Santa themed items. We got a lot of Santa themed stuff every year when we were kids and I have just never really liked it. One year for a work gift exchange my partner let her kids pick the gift and they chose plush Santa dolls. They weren't even cute! My DH recognized what store they came from because he used to work there and he exchanged them for a new shirt he liked. I still wonder what possessed this person to let their kids pick a gift for their co-worker.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie?
Love Actually
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
I usually start when they put all the summer stuff on clearance for back to school. Our family birthdays are all between November and January so I start early.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
Yes. The one that comes to mind is a gift basket of goodies that I got. I liked it but DH needed a last minute gift for someone in his office so we used the basket of goodies which was still wrapped. The recipient loved it.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
Christmas cookies.
16. Lights on the tree?
Clear/white lights that came on the pre-lit tree. I prefer colors.
17. Favorite Christmas song?
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home?
Work :( Which is why we celebrate on Christmas Eve.
19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer?
No! I tried this on a quiz recently and couldn't do it.
20. Angel on the tree top or a star?
We had an angel but it broke and I am looking for a star this year.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?
Christmas Eve
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year?
The Christmas music in the stores and at work that is not traditional.
I hate some of the new odd versions of songs.
23. Favorite ornament theme or color?
Woodland animals and birds.
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner?
Lamb
25. What do you want for Christmas this year?
Stash of course!
And Harvest Moon Tree of Tranquility and Animal Crossing City Folk.

Birds, Work, Christmas Decorations and Vampires

I have finished all the main stitching and the birds are hanging in my bathroom drying! Usually I wouldn't wash something at this point but it was so dirty that I decided it would be best to wash it before adding the beads. Tonight I can begin all the backstitching and beading. I set a goal of finishing this by next weekend and I'm right on target at this point. I'll take a picture and post it before I start.

Thanksgiving was nice and the calm before the storm at work. We pulled out all the Christmas stuff and I've started decorating but I haven't done much. I've wrapped most of the gifts, put up lights and assembled the tree. I have been so tired from work so I'm taking things slow. I won't talk about my work specifically but think of it this way. It is normally not too busy. The regular customers are usually older, well spoken, well read and educated. While a few can be snobs they generally know how to act in public. Now the holidays come and you have a lot of customers who don't care how they behave. They are loud (screaming), rude, shoplift, messy and bring children to places where it is not appropriate or the kids are just bored. Not only am I tired from the extra customers I am tired of cleaning up after them, keeping things from getting stolen and asking people to behave that should know better. I don't work in retail and I can only imagine how much worse it is for someone who does. It doesn't help that we are worried about what will happen to our jobs after the holidays. Last night I came home too exhausted to decorate the tree. Maybe tonight I can get started.

I finished reading Twilight and enjoyed it. I had avoided reading it because the description someone gave me sounded incredibly boring. I was happy that the book didn't seem anything like their description. I want New Moon for Christmas.

Silliness

Weekend Update

We had a nice Halloween. No trick or treaters showed up and we didn't even see any out on the street. We watched some zombie stuff Mike had and I worked on the incredibly boring border for Sea to Shining Sea. By incredibly boring border I mean the white/cream boxes around the areas for the houses. It's not exactly something everyone is excited to see a photo of so I will wait until I get some of the house done.


I've decided I want to finish this old UFO for Christmas this year. It's a Bucilla kit I bought years ago when I was just starting to do a lot of cross stitch. It was one of the first designs I saw that had beads and charms back when only a few designers were using them. I've been stitching on it for the past 4 or 5 Sunday nights but I feel like I'm not getting very far. I thought taking photos might help inspire me.

DH and I are doing our on personal NANOWRIMO writing project this month. We aren't joining the official one, just doing something ourselves. I've had an idea for a story kicking around in my head for a couple of years now and I want to see if I can actually get something down on paper. I got two pages written last night that are pretty awful but at least it's a start.

Finally I am so happy this election campaign is almost over. It has been so long and ugly and I am sick of it. I will say one thing that has been good was whether you like them or not it was great to see more women and and an African American in the race. We've come a long way in my short lifetime.

I've Been Tagged

I've been tagged by Deb

Here are the rules of the game.
• Link to the person who tagged you.
• Post the rules on your blog.
• Write six random things/unspectacular quirks about yourself.
• Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
• Let each person you have tagged know by leaving a comment on their blog.
• Let the tagger know when your entry is posted

Here are my six random things:

1. I love to watch soaps while I stitch.
2. I have a weird sense of humor that I got from my family. Have you ever seen Mystery Science Theater 3000 where Joel and the robots make comments to the movies? My sister and I wrote comments like that in an entire set of Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books.
3. I hate to cook.
4. I'm a compulsive list maker.
5. I love bats. I'm stitching bats and I decorated my home and workplace with bats for Halloween. Once I rescued a live bat that got caught in a building.
6. I drink too much Diet Coke.

Anyone who wants to play along please consider yourself tagged.

Rail Trail Walk

Yesterday I had great ambitions to do some finishing and present you with photos of finished Halloween ornies but it didn't happen. Maybe after work today I'll get started. I ironed them this morning along with two exchange pieces I need to finish and mail soon.

On Tuesday after a somewhat stressful day at work I let our dog out and found the neighbor's dog running loose without supervision yet again. These are the same neighbors whose cat was just killed. Mike and I coaxed him back to his own yard and hoped he would stay out of the street. Later that night the neighborhood skunk was in our parking space on the street eating trash or other neighbors left out. I had just called DH who was about to start home from work to give him a heads up when I hear a car speed up intentionally and hit the skunk.

By Wednesday morning I was in a mood to get away from home and the neighborhood (which includes my workplace) for a while. Mike had mentioned that he felt good walking home from my workplace the day before so I decided we both needed to get outside and so some more walking. After dropping my DH off at work yesterday afternoon we headed to the nearby bike and walking trail.


All these pine trees smell heavenly!


There were lots of chipmonks chirping at us. This one has a nest near the path and kept darting out to see us.


A view from the bridge of the water and fall leaves.


Sunlight reflecting off the water through the trees.


We visited a geocache in the area and exchanged some movie pins for this lobster. Mike had evil plans for it after looking through the Halloween costume circular we got in the mail from Target.


Nikki, Mama Gus and Gwynny subjected to the humiliation of wearing the lobster hat.

A day walking in the woods was just what we needed. I definitely believe in the studies that say lack of sunlight leads to mild depression. Mike has been spending a lot of time in the house and I work all day in a dimly lit place. We've made plans for more visits to the area to explore more trails and find a couple more geocaches while the weather is still nice.

James the Curious

It's been crazy here since I last posted. My hand is still swollen, painful and ugly but it's a little better and starting respond to a prescription cream.

In the wee hours of Monday morning I was fast asleep, DH was watching Torchwood on the computer with his headphones and housemate Mike was upstairs in his room playing Urban Dead. Mike heard a noise and thought someone was using the washing machine in the basement. A little later he went downstairs and realized something was wrong in the basement and alerted DH. Our hot water heater had split open along the seam and water was spraying everywhere. Thank goodness he heard it and we were able to turn the gas off right away. The unit was less than 3 years old and covered by warranty but we had to go without water until 7pm Monday night while it was replaced. It sprayed a box of books so I have them drying on every surface and the house smells like wet books. I've located used copies of some of the ruined ones on Amazon which is good news but DH lost an entire box of Spiderman comics. Luckily they were not worth a lot.

Yesterday Mike went in the hospital to have his hernia repaired. Last night I had the house to myself until DH came home after midnight. I watched Ballet Shoes and started the Britty Kitty Halloween ornament on the fabric left over from my spooks. The main reason I watched Ballet Shoes was I know I read the book as a child but could not remember what it was about. It was sweet and I enjoyed it. Once in surgery they found that Mike had more than one hernia and a lot of adhesions from his cancer surgery so he won't be coming home today but he is doing very well. I'm going to find more girlie things to watch tonight and continue working on the ornament.

This morning we bought a dehumidifier for the basement which leads to the topic of this post. DH was unpacking it when I noticed my rat James watching him intently. He was fascinated with what was going on and climbed up on the side of the cage to look in the box and watch everything. Sirius, his brother, could have cared less and continued to nap. It's the first time one of them has paid attention to us other than to beg for treats. Any time we eat toast or banana they beg and look pitiful as if they are starving. While on the topic of begging DH's cat was funny last night. She loves milk and will beg for it. We bought some gallon jugs of drinking water while our water was off and she thinks they are milk. DH was pouring glasses of water for our dinner last night and she started to cry, purr and beg underfoot. He let her see it was water and she made the funniest "What the heck?" face and ran off disgusted. Of course I never have the camera around when they are funny.

Thank you!

Thank you for all the kind comments on my spooks. I have a health issue with my left hand right now so I haven't been able to do the finishing and it's uncomfortable to type. At least I can still hold a hoop and stitch. I pulled out Castle Sampler during the Survivor premier Thursday and I've got a Christmas UFO out to work on tonight.

This and That

Well yesterday wasn't busy at work at all which was a surprise for a rainy Sunday and it was extremely boring. There is only one problem working at a bar during the afternoon. Everyone who isn't planning to buy anything feels the need to come by and ask if people really buy alcohol from us. After hearing this about 2 dozen times my snarky, wise-ass side came out and I was ready to tell them no it's just here for the employee's enjoyment. Of course if I ever did that it would turn out to be a corporate manager or the liquor board inspector that I was talking to!

Harvest Hunt is moving along nicely. I've now finished the cat, the big pumpkin, the two big green leaves and started the small pumpkin. I should get close to a finish tonight. I'm debating whether to start the Brittercup Halloween ornament from JCS next or one of the other Halloween designs I have in my to-stitch basket. Maybe I'll kit them all up before work this morning.

We're almost finished listening to Lean Mean 13. I put number 14 on hold at the library but I'm 32nd in line for the audio book. It's going to be a while before I see that one.

A Sewing Finish

I finished the bag I started on Wednesday today. I found this cute fabric of cats and handbags at Joann's several months ago. I decided the obvious choice was to make a bag with it. It wasn't easy. The fabric is thin so I used with a heavy interfacing which was difficult to work with. I also had some trouble figuring out the directions. I had to set it aside several times and then go back and play with the pieces until I figured it out. Since this is going to be a large tote that I use to bring a smaller purse, my lunch and book to work I didn't add several of the decorative details. Overall I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

A Gift and a Cranky Cat

Right now I am stitching an exchange so I have no stitching photos. I did post a progress photo of The Gorse Fairy which you can see by clicking on the Flower Fairies link below my blog title. I set up a special blog for this one since it's so big and going to take so long. I might be done within the next 5 years LOL! I realized last night that it's almost time to pull out another big project Castle Sampler. It's a UFO that I don't like to work on for long periods of time so I started stitching on it every week during Survivor. The new season starts this month and I've had a nice break from this piece so I'm looking forward to working on it again. My friend Mike and I have a Thursday night tradition of watching Survivor together.



Last year when we went to Las Vegas I brought one of my co-workers a small gift. I never expected anything in return but this week he surprised me with this great monkey from his trip to New York.




Look at this cranky cat! I found her sleeping in the clean laundry and she did not appreciate being disturbed. You can see I tried turning the baskets upside down to keep the cats out but it didn't stop her.

Today I don't have to work and I hope to do some sewing once Will leaves for work. I like to sew at the table behind his computer desk which is impossible while he is home.

Saturday

The neighbor's cat has started sitting on our front stairs under the mailbox. I think he ordered something and had it shipped to our house so his owners won't find it.




We drove to Leominster this morning after I remembered they get Just Cross Stitch a couple of weeks earlier than our B&N does. It was a beautiful sunny day so after shopping we bought some food and stopped at this park for lunch.




We found a quiet bench away from the hot dog stand and all the other people.




But it wasn't long before our picnic was noticed and we had guests.

Movie Quiz

I was planning to post some photos of the beautiful biscornu Carol stitched for me but they came out funny so I'll have to try again in the morning. In the meantime I found this quiz on Sweet Pea's site and it looked like a lot of fun. The hard part was choosing only 15 movies.

The rules are as follows:
1. Pick 15 of your favorite movies.
2. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
3. Post them here for everyone to guess.
4. NO GOOGLING/using IMDb search functions.
5. Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.

How about a few hints? I'll start by telling if the speaker is male or female.

1. If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals. (male)Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire guessed by Terri

2. Let's never come here again because it will never be as much fun.

3. Let's go get the shit kicked out of us by love. Love Actually guessed by Jennifer.

4. It is a truth universally acknowledged that when one part of your life starts going okay, another falls spectacularly to pieces. Bridget Jones Diary guessed by Jennifer.

5. Why are you doing this to me, Joe? Every time I talk myself out of it, you come around and make it sound so easy. (female)

6. Of course, we're not going to go round parading ourselves in a room full of men. This isn't... France, for God's sake! (female)Calendar Girls guessed by Kathy

7. I dunno, really... Let's see, there's the, uh... The bump, the stomp, the bus stop... Me breakdancing days are probably over, but there's always the funky chicken. (male)The Full Monty guessed by WillZ

8. I figure life's a gift and I don't intend on wasting it. You don't know what hand you're gonna get dealt next. You learn to take life as it comes at you... to make each day count.Titanic guessed by Melody.

9. Wonderful girl. Either I'm going to kill her or I'm beginning to like her.(male - I saw this movie on my first date! His kid brother was so mad that we didn't take him with us.)Star Wars guessed by WillZ

10. A long time ago, you took something from me... the only thing I'd ever truly wanted... Well, now you know how is feels.(female)

11. I'm 26, and I'm single, and a school teacher, and that's the bottom of the pit. And the only excitement I've known is here with me now. I'll go with you, and I won't whine, and I'll sew your socks, and I'll stitch you when you're wounded, and I'll do anything you ask of me except one thing. I won't watch you die. I'll miss that scene if you don't mind.(female - this was the first PG rated movie I was ever allowed to see when I was a kid which should give you a hint on the date since I'm in my 40's)Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid guessed by Terri

12. I'm not crazy, I've just been a very bad mood for the last 40 years!(female Steel Magnolias guessed by Annette.

13. Don't you ever talk about my friends. You don't know any of my friends. You don't look at any of my friends. And you certainly wouldn't condescend to speak to any of my friends.The Breakfast Club guessed by Jennifer.

14. Second shelf is mine. That's where I keep my rootbeers and my double-thick Oreo cookies. Nobody touches the second shelf but me.The Lost Boys guessed by Jennifer.

15. My family is big and loud but they're my family. We fight and we laugh and yes, we roast lamb on a spit in the front yard. And where ever I go, what ever I do they will always be there.My Big Fat Greek Wedding guessed by Melody.

Whomping Willow Attacked my Ford Anglia!

Ok so it was a maple and it attacked my Chevy Malibu but since it happened on the same day my book group started reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets I'm calling it the Whomping Willow. Thursday we had yet another thunderstorm that started unexpectedly. One minute it was sunny and the next water was pouring down in sheets. The wind and rain knocked a branch off the tree I was parked next to. We have a dent in the roof and all the money we planned to put in savings this week went toward a new windshield but at least we were able to fix it quickly and move on. For some reason this car seems to attract dents and scratches. I'm glad its just a "means to get from here to there car" and not a special sportscar or I would be crying.

Changes & Lazy Pets

I've decided to change my blog (again) because I am bored with it. I originally started this blog with posts about stitching and anything else I felt like writing about. Then I read a bunch of stitcher's comments around the web who said they liked "stitching only" blogs. I decided to make this blog stitching only and put everything else in a separate blog. After a while I've realized I don't enjoy maintaining a stitching only blog. I find I rarely have anything to post any more. I can't show exchange stitching until the person receives it. I don't enjoy photographing what I am working on after each stitching session to post a picture with a small amount of progress. I have so many things I want to do and so little time that I'd rather spend the time I'd use taking update pictures to do those other things. I'm on the wagon so I don't have stash hauls to show. All this makes for a neglected blog. I've decided to go back to posting stitching along with everything else non-stitching and using labels for navigation.

My only recent finish is a biscornu for a SBEBB exchange so I have no photos yet. The animals have been cute lately and I did manage to take a couple of cute photos of them. Usually they move just as the shutter clicks!



It's been hot and muggy with lots of thunderstorms here. I walked in the bedroom after work the other day and found Callie laying on the bed like this. She looks like I feel after walking home from work in the heat and humidity.



I was at the computer a few days ago and looked down to see Gus and AJ looking cute by my feet. Luckily I had the camera and was able to snap a photo. AJ isn't especially fond of the other cats but these two have always been best friends.

Have you ever wondered...

what would happen if you tried to mail a message in a bottle? I know the answer. It ruins someone's shipment from Silkweaver! The bottle in question is that little smashed plastic thing in the center of the picture. This fabric was for a gift that will now be late but I think the recipient will get a kick out of seeing why it was late.