Sunday, April 30, 2006

Answers to questions about the UFO

So, Mary wanted to know if it was needlepoint. It is actually cross stitch. A few years ago, my SIL was purging her craft stuff. She called me up knowing that I have done cross stitch in the past as she had boxes of patterns and cloth and baby blankets and much more. I didnt take a whole lot of what she had as we have very dissimilar tastes. She leans more to the country look, which I think is nice in some things, but not everywhere. Anyhow she had a pattern book that had lots of breadclothes and napkins, placemats, and dish towel patterns. I figured there were a few in there that I could do. She also had the precut, and edged placemat fabric. She then told me that she had bought it intending to do the sunflower placemats, but that her tendonitis got so bad (sound familiar) that she was unable to do them. At that moment a light bulb went off. She is hard for me to buy for and she had a birthday coming up. I could make these for her! Well I got right to it, and soon found my hands would not let me complete them quickly. On her birthday I wrapped the one I had finished for her and told her I would finish the rest. She was very pleased. Unfortunately that was about 2 years ago. I have since purchased cute blue and white gingham napkins to go with them, and have looked to no avail for sunflower napkin rings. I think she has probably forgotten about the gift and will be surprised to get it. I will continue to look for napkin rings, and may be make some myself as a last resort. But, that will have to be a gift for another time.

I have a few more UFO's to complete, but the weather is soooo nice (alergies aside) and I still need to finish planting my garden. I also have a growing list of new projects to start as I have two cousins and a neighbor who are expecting very soon. I still need to finish the felted flowers I am making for my niece. She really loved the hat her sister didnt choose, so she will be getting it for her birthday in May. I decided to add a couple of felted flower pins to it, that she can wear on it, or take off, or put on something else. I am not totally please with how they have turned out so far. Again, I am beginning to think it is my washing machine. Don't get me wrong. I love the washer, but I haven't mastered felting in it yet.

Now, a question for Mary. Did you ever knit anything with that watercolor yarn you liked so well in my nieces poncho? TTFN, Miki

Friday, April 28, 2006

One UFO done!!!


Yeah! I finally got the placemats done. I had given these as a gift to my SIL two years ago for her birthday. I had hoped to have them done for her birthday, but then I started having some very serious tendonitis problems with my hands, and was only able to work on them for about 5 minutes without pain. So, now my hands are better, which I attribut to my knitting, and they are finally done. I had hoped to have them finished to send back with my husband today, but I didn't I am just glad they are finished. They still need to be washed and pressed, but at least I dont have to stitch them any more, and I have a UFO dont. Horray for me. TTFN

Keeping too busy to blog

Well there goes the writing at least once a week. I have been trying to work out more so I can drop a few pounds that I gained since moving to Virginia. I have been trying to get a garden planted between rain showers. I have been ferrying two of my children from baseball and softball practices and games. I have been consumed by birthday parites that my children are attending. And to top it all off, my father in law has been in the hospital for a little over two weeks. So, we have been trying to stay close to home so that if need be we can jump on a plane to go home. Well, on Monday evening, they gave him less than three hours to live. He is still with us, but is very touch and go. My husband is flying home today. I am beginning to feel like he is waiting for him to get there. For his sake, I hope he goes quickly and painlessly. This has been a long roller coaster of a few weeks for us, and has to be a little uncomfortable for him also. The doctors have him on morphine to make him comfortable until he passes. My kids are greiving and this has been very hard on all of us. Not to mention that at night we are only sleeping half way, waiting to hear the phone ring. I love my father in law, and wish that it wasnt playing out this way, but I am ready for it to be over. He is sick, weak and confused, and has no quality of life. Just Sunday he was asking where mom was and when she was coming to visit. Mom died a little over 9 years ago. My kids and I believe in spirits. We think that in one of his more critical moments she came to him, and now he is confused and wonders where she is. The kids know that Grandma is waiting for him, and this has made this whole process easier. TTFN, miki

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

How do you appease the travel gods?

So I was thinking the whole trip to New York was just a strange mishap. But, now I am wondering what we have done to upset the travel gods. Yesterday we drove the about 1 1/2 hours to Montpellier to pick up my husbands sister to visit and see the sites in DC(another about 1 1/2 hrs. away). She flew in the day before from Vancouver, WA from a Constitutional Connects symposium. We figured she was close enough and we would at least get some quality time and a good meal out of the trip. Well that was not to be the case. For those of you who have never been to Montpellier, it is in the middle of nowhere. It is a beautiful estate, but as my husband said, both Jefferson and Washington had better views. And Washington was closer to DC, and Jefferson closer to Charlottsville. Anyhow, my husband made a wrong turn leaving and added an extra hour onto the trip. But that was not the worst part. We had picked the kids up early and they had been doing homework in the car and the two older ones said they werent feeling well. Logically we thought they must be car sick as they had been looking down and we were on a pretty curvy road. Now mind you we have always traveled a lot in the car and they have never been carsick before. Well, we were wrong. They spent the rest of the evening puking. But they didnt start until we were on our way to DC, so my poor sister in law was stuck. Then we modified our siteseeing for them and their younger sister got sick. So here we are in the middle of DC, with three kids puking. There goes the nice dinner. So, it was crazy. Of course the batteries in my digital camera died and I couldnt find anyplace open to replace them. I had told my sister in law I would burn her a disc on the drive back. Well with the camera dead, I said I will just use what I already have on the computer. Of course there will be no cherry blossoms, but I will do my best. Well the darn computer was refusing the disc. So, no pictures either. I will burn it and send it to her later. So, what do I need to do to make our trips less faterul in the future? TTFN, miki