My friend

Lambert F. Minucci
1924-2012
Rest in Peace My Friend

The good, the bad and the ugly

An update is more than in order. The good - I went to a terrific holiday party last night and had a wonderful time with 29 other stitchers. We had good food, good friendship and celebrated the joy of being together with an ornament exchange and a fun Chinese auction. The bad - the ornament that I had stitched, but not finished for my secret exchange partner was destroyed in a fire on November 16th. The good - neither of us was hurt. The bad - the house was severely damaged by fire, water and smoke. It will take upwards of 6 months for us to get back into our home. It was not completely destroyed (brick walls and roof still intact) but it's ugly. Ugly includes the destruction of all of my stitching stash and finished pieces except for one bag I grabbed from the living room and a bellpull I stitched in 2004 that I was particularly fond of. There may be some soot damage at the top - but I'll keep it anyway. The good - we found a terrific rental right next door, so are parking our cars in our own driveway and the mail can continue to come to our mailbox and we can keep an eye on the work at the house. Some days it seems surreal, other days.....it is what it is. More good - our son and his wife will be able to spend Christmas with us and that's really important. And now for the final ugly - it's a sad ugly. You all know that I do taxes for a living and also do estate settlement and help my older clients who can't take care of their financial matters. One of my sweet widowers, who is 88 and just 8 years a widower has fallen gravely ill. Today I am making arrangements for hospice care for him. I am sad that he is alone and ill and I am praying that I can find a good place for him to spend his last days in dignity and peace. If you are so inclined, please say a prayer for Lambert. Everything else is just stuff. Linda

42 years - really?

Yep - today is our 42nd wedding anniversary. Life seemed more calming then or maybe it was because I was younger and had more patience. After months of reading other blogs and getting some stitching done myself, I'm here to share a few pictures and blow the dust off my blog. I envy those who post more regularly than I do and fully relate to those who say that time escapes us all too fast. I also celebrated my 65th birthday earlier this month and am sharing some heart-made gifts from my stitching friends. (I'll let the pictures speak for themselves). Thank you Lee and Carol -I'm blessed to have met you both through blog-land.

Do something nice for yourself today. Linda

March weather?

Like many others across the country, the weather is a huge topic of conversation around here. Been in the 70's for almost a week and more to come. Windows open - flowers blooming - and still 4 weeks of taxes to go. It's not right. On top of all of this, I have asmatic bronchitis and missed 3 1/2 days of work last week and just not putting in the hours that are needed. Yoys and double yoys.

Couldn't even stitch last week - just sat in a chair coughing my head off listening to mindless TV. By Friday night I was ready to shut down the office and be a retired Enrolled Agent. ::sigh:: my clients would hate me. But thoughts of stitching and reading are clouding my mind. So tell me I'll get bored if I quit working - and that I can't disappoint my wonderful clients. And please please tell me I won't sound like a croaking frog for too much longer.

Do something nice for yourself.

Linda

Found the picture

So here's the picture that I thought went poof - it's the Stitcher's Companion from a BBD book called........rats - can't remember and it's at home. Oh well...here's my contribution to the Stitch Red for the Heart on the Fair and Square exchange.

For those who use the 3-2-1 cake recipe, last night I made spice cakes - DH loved them and they are easy to make. 1 pkg spice cake, 1 pkg angel food cake. Mix well and put in a plastic storage bag. When ready to bake, I used a coffee mug and added 3 tablespoons of the mix and 2 tablespoons of water. Mix well. Cook in microwave for 1 minute on high power. Inverted them into a little sauce dish and added some fruit. DH even asked me to make him a second one.

I'm still here

Not sure where the time goes, do you? I've been stitching and doing tax returns - and retreating too! Shortly after my last post, I spent 2 1/2 days in Ohio at the annual Covered Bridge Needlearts retreat. Lori Markovic of LaDDa was our guest designer. Lori re-introduced us to using waste canvas on black velvet as part of our class piece. You don't want to see mine - the waste canvas shifted greatly, despite the pinning. But I enjoyed myself and met new stitchers and some old friends from a now-closed LNS in the Pittsburgh area.

Shortly after that weekend away, I went to Northeast PA with my Grape Arbor stitcher friends. We spend 3 nights and 2 full days in a super B & B and just stitch and talk and giggle and eat and yes, a little wine too (afterall, we are in wine country up there). Our hostess makes yummy b-fasts and is also a stitcher. We decided to choose a pattern from the '11 ornament issue and kit it up for each of us and we also included our hostess. Unfortunately I've only started one, but Christmas is 10 months away, so no hurry, right?

This past weekend was my third stitching retreat and was for a short 25 hours as those nasty tax returns are piling up around me. It sure was fun to get away with 16super ladies and see such beautiful work and just enjoy each other and forget about anything and everything else. I'm looking forward to stitching with these ladies again.

In the meantime, I've finished a few things and will do my best to add them to this post. First up are the squares I stitched for the most recent Fair and Square round. The theme was stitch red for the heart. My squares went all the way to Australia and the picture went poof off my camera. But I do have a pic of the squares I receved. This is a freebie from Aury.

Next is my version of October Word Play by Brenda Gervais. Since it was a present for an October birthday friend, I omitted the word hayrides and substituted birthday. I had help with the finishing - and just love the simplicity of the jute trim and hanger. I want to play with the December one too and work anniversary into the piece since the destination is to a couple whose anniversary is in December.

Next is Joy - for an ornament exchange in December. It turned out a little big for an ornament, but the receiver said she has several this size and they fit well on the bottom of her tree. I did the finishing and was pleased how it turned out. The backing material was Weeks wool.

I need to take a class in how to put these pictures into blogger. But hopefully you can at least see that I have been working along. I'm on an alphabet kick right now -have one finished La D Da to share next time, am almost done with a piece by The Good Huswife and have started another La D Da - all alphabets. Let's see what I can accomplish in the next 300 tax returns!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Be well and find some time for yourself.

Linda