Tuesday, February 23, 2010

A Few Photos

My laptop is being fixed. I should have it back the end of the week. Hooray!

I have been keeping busy. I finished stitching this heart and now I don't remember where I got it from without my laptop. If you can tell me who posted the design I would be grateful so I can give her proper credit. I know it was posted in the last few weeks.
I also crocheted myself a pair of socks from Cascade 220 Peruvian wool. They worked up quick. The is the Basic Sock pattern is from Learn To Crochet Socks by Kathy Wesley. Here's one foot . . .
The other foot . . .
And, TADA! both feet . . .
Next up on the list is a pattern sample, then I can work on projects for me.

What are you working on?

Sweet P

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

I Miss My Laptop . . .

I love my MacBook Pro. I love Macs, period. I've been using Macs for 15 years and have never had a problem with one until now. On Saturday, my MacBook Pro screen decided to stop working. After doing research (on DH's laptop, of course) I learned my computer falls into a group of MacBook Pro's that may have a bad graphics processor.

So . . . until I get it fixed or, heaven forbid, get a new computer . . . I will have limited posts. I have a borrowed laptop, but I don't want to load it up with tons of photos. I hope I am able to get all of my photos, videos and files from my computer if I have to buy a new one.

Send me a few good computer karma thoughts.

Thanks,

Sweet P

Tuesday, February 09, 2010

My Tower of Floss

Mr. E spent the weekend with us. He has started crawling - everywhere - from the living room to the dining room to the kitchen. He even found the stairs today. Anyway, Hotel Man told me I had to take my stitching shelves out of the living room. I had planned on barricading the corner where the shelves are, but I guess Hotel Man is right. I should put away all of my stitching gear and only keep out projects I'm working on so Mr. E won't get into my other stuff.

It's a good thing I bought two more thread boxes before I went on vacation. On Sunday morning I sorted and wound all my threads. Here is my Tower of Floss before I took it up to the studio. The bottom box is my Cosmo floss. Boxes 2, 3 and 4 are Presencia Finca floss. Box 5 contains a few skeins of Valdani variegated thread and several over-dyed threads. Box 6 holds DMC floss. The brown box is where I put my newest threads from San Diego. The next box has my silk thread for applique. The maroon tin is my project box with small scissors, needle threader, thimble, etc. The purple box holds all of my needles.
Now I need to find a home in my studio for this tower, plus the dozen or so projects from Under The Mulberry Tree's Stitchery Club. Right now I have no idea where to put them.

I feel a major studio reorganization coming in over the next few days. Maybe I need to do some blog reading and internet searching for some new studio design ideas. How do you store all of your goodies?

Sweet P

Thursday, February 04, 2010

Honey, I'm Home

Actually I've been home from San Diego since Monday afternoon. Since then I've worked two days, had the flu and slept for 33 hours and spent a couple hours with Mr. E.

We saw plenty of sunshine, watched two good days of golf and ate lots of yummy food. Unfortunately every time I wanted to take a photo, I didn't have my camera with me (insert sad face). I did get 7 hours of stitching time in on the way to San Diego, a couple hours while we there and 2 more hours on the way home. All in all, it was a great trip.

The best food we had was Bleu Cheese Chips at the Fox Sports Grill. The menu description reads "Homemade potato chips tossed in bleu cheese dressing, then topped with smoked bacon, bleu cheese crumbles, tomatoes and green onion." They were super yummy! The best part is in this past Sunday's Parade Magazine was a recipe for Hot Cumin-Scented Potato Chips with Bleu Cheese Sauce. Very similar, but enough info that I can make my own Bleu Cheese Chips for Super Bowl Sunday.

On Friday we drove from downtown San Diego to Del Mar and I was lucky enough to find three needle work shops along the way with only a minimal detour from the I-5.

My first stop was Needle Craft Cottage in Pacific Beach. I didn't know I would be driving by this store on the way to the other two shops so it was a pleasant surprise to see it. When I told the clerk I was visiting the area she immediately gave me a wonderful tour of the store, or should I say cottage? It was truly a cottage converted to a great shop full of yarn, threads and needle work kits. After some browsing I chose four threads from her clearance bin of Rainbow Gallery threads. The Angora feels as soft as it looks and I can't wait to give it a try. Gold Rush, Tiara and Treasure Braid are metallic threads. The skein of variegated over-dyed floss is from Needle Necessities.
My next stop was Needlepoint of La Jolla. Wow! This store was incredible! The owners, Carrell and Bill, were great. I asked Carrell to help me choose a palette of threads for around $30. She put in front of me a broad selection of Soy Luster Solids from the The Pure Palette. I chose yellow and red. Next she showed me Silk 'N Colors from The Thread Gatherer. Deep green and deep blue were added to the pile. A few sections down we added a purple overdyed Perle 8 from Threadworx. Then for fun I chose two more threads from Rainbow Gallery - white Neon Rays, a sparking needlepoint ribbon, and Mandarin Floss, a 100% bamboo thread.
Then, as I was paying for my threads, Bill included these 2 skeins of super soft heavy thread for free. I don't remember what he said it was, but it feels like yarn.
The last shop I visited was Needle Nook of La Jolla. The shop had many of the same threads as Needlepoint of La Jolla did, but the customer service was seriously lacking. I was in the store for nearly 15 minutes and not once did a clerk acknowledge me. Since I find it hard to leave a store without buying something I bought more Rainbow Gallery thread - Sparkly Rays in pink and orange and a skein of Caron Collection Snow, a metallic thread, in White.
I've been browsing the websites of the various thread companies and am glad to see that each of them has a section on how to best use their threads. I didn't realize how many different threads there are and how to use them properly. I can't wait to have time to play with them!

This weekend Mr. E is coming to visit so I don't know how much stitching time I'll get in.

I am way behind on reading and commenting on blogs and hope to get a little caught up on them soon.

Sweet P