Personal Update: August 2022

Things are finally smoothing out and looking up for me. 🙂

Work

I have a regular schedule again with a rotating weekend guaranteed to come around once a month. It comes at different time though, but the schedule is made in such a way plans can easily be made. The store is also encouraging cross training so I’ll be leaving my department to work in other departments from time to time. This helps with the monotony of always working in the same area. I’m also getting cross trained in an admin position on the off chance this person goes on vacation leaving someone needing to fill in for them.

Projects

I’m behind on Land Baby which I’d wanted to have done by the end of the year, but the other projects I’ve had planned for this year are coming along nicely. I’ve done small projects I haven’t written about because they were spur of the moment things that I did on a whim.

Dollhouse

This is a multi year project so it deserves it’s own update. The exterior is almost done, and I’ve begun work on the inside. I will be making a great deal, but there will be a great many things I’ll end up buying or have made since they will be beyond my little beginner skills. I am actually quite pleases with the way it looks so far.

Writing

I’ve been stalled out with the book, Golden Knave. With all the turmoil going on, working on the dollhouse and stitching took me out of myself. Writing hasn’t been something I’ve been able to focus on, but I’m hoping since things have gotten better, I’ll be more able to sit and devote myself to my book.

Relationship

My gentleman friend and I are back on good terms again especially after spending time together this past weekend. It’s the first time we’ve been together since the issues we had that nearly tore us apart. This has been hurting me so much I was sure we’d never be in the same room together again. We’ve talked some but always on the phone or via text. I’m just glad we’ve gotten things resolved and can move forward again.

Mimi

Mimi is fat and sassy as always. She’s my constant friend and companion, and we love being together. Now that it’s not raining so much, and it’s not a scorcher when it’s not raining, we’ve been enjoying early mornings outside. She was basking in the early morning sun just a few hours ago in fact.

That’s my life in a nutshell. I work, I go home, and I work on my projects. Once a month, I get to see my gentleman friend – or will now that I’m on a proper rotation. It’s not the most exciting life, but it’s mine. I’m content with things as I’ve learned they could always be worse, and they have been more often than I’d like.

See you on the flipside and don’t forget your towel and sonic screwdriver!!!

Saturday Stitching: Haul!

Yesterday, I went to a thrift store I donate to and occasionally buy from. They support and end of life care facility so, I do what I can to help them out.

After I dropped my donations off, I went over to check out their craft supplies. Of late, there hasn’t been anything I’ve been interested in, but I still went to check, just in case,

I ended up buying about $37 of craft supplies that easily cost more in stores.

Everything was in very good condition and, many of the kits were still intact! I actually found 3 that had never been opened!

This haul is good not just for me, but for the group I’m in where we pass on charts and other cross stitching goodies to others in the group who want them. This helps in so many way! The things I don’t use, I’ll be sending to the group moderator to offer to the group.

I’ll be keeping the thread with no markings or numbers or anything, and I’ll use them in my little stitching projects. I have doubles of two of the kits so the extras will be donated whole and later, I’ll donate the charts.

I don’t mark on the original charts so everything is clean. I might even buy thread for the charts and pass them on too so the new owners will only have to get fabric of their own choosing.

I feel very good about this haul because it helps me, it helps the thrift store, and it will help others in the group.

This said, I’d be happy to pass things along to anyone here who is interested. Just let me know in the comments below. As I work on a project from this haul, I will be sharing it to you all.

See you on the flipside and don’t forget your towel and sonic screwdriver!!

Free Pattern Friday: Tablecloth Pt 6

I am learning some more new stitches. One of them, the star stitch, I’ve never even heard of! For those of you who are new here, I am adapting an afghan pattern called Rings of Change into a tablecloth using all the crochet thread in my stash I can. These threads are all sizes and colors, and I’m doing my best to arrange the colors as pleasing as possible.

This pattern is a paid pattern found on Ravelry and created by Frank O’Randle. He has the first 42 rounds of this 112 round pattern made into Mini Rings of Change, and it’s free.

Here is what the star stitch looks like on my piece:

In the above picture, you see Fan Stitch on the very top, next one down are ch2 and ch1 spaces and single crochets. The third line which you can barely see is made up of all double crochets. The next row down are the Star Stitches. Personally, I don’t think they look like stars…

Since Mr. O’Randle’s written instructions on how to make the star stitch left much to be desired, I went elsewhere to find out how to create this stitch, and I found it on my go to site: The Spruce Crafts

The above is the picture of her swatch of star stitches. I still don’t see any stars….

After the Fan Stitch which, I have made before, comes the Double Treble Stitch. I have never had cause to use this stitch, and it’s going to be a thread eater. Still, I have a full ball of green thread I can use for this row.

I’m up to row 62 now with another 50 to go, I think. Something like that. I may add some extra rows to give it more length. I’m going to start taking picture of it draped over the table I’m making it for so you can gauge my progress better that way. 🙂

See you on the flipside and don’t forget your towel and sonic screwdriver!!

LIVE Bird Feeder Cam (4K) Gettysburg PA, over 30 species identified.

I just happened to come across this channel today, and I am loving it!! It’s a live feed but even if it wasn’t, I’d enjoy it immensely,

One of the draws of being in the country is being able to actually hear/see the birds and see the wildlife. I live in the outskirts of a medium sized city with a fairly decent sized yard. This means we have birds who come to live in the trees along with other wildlife. We actually have a possum living under our house, and I think it’s a female. We don’t really see her though, but that’s okay.

I love this video because I can stitch and listen to the birds or crochet and watch. There are a lot of birds on this video feed I won’t see unless I go North because they don’t live around my area of the South.

I live in East Texas USA, and this feed is from Pennsylvania USA which is far to the north.
I hope you enjoy this live feed as much as I’m going to!

If any of you have links or sites with live feeds such as this one, please share them!! I’d love to be able to see wildlife from different places than my own!

See you on the flipside and don’t forget your towel and sonic screwdriver!!

Dollhouse Project: Update on Exterior

I finally got the back of the house mostly done. Since it’s the biggest part of the exterior, that’s what I’ve been working on since my last post regarding my fail. It wasn’t an epic fail, luckily, but it was still a fail. I went back and did the paper towel to faux stone technique correctly using cheap paper towels with no design on it and watered down school glue aka pva glue.

Once I got the back looking as close to proper stone in texture and scale, I took it outside and applied two coats of white spray paint. I didn’t want to use regular paint because I didn’t want brush strokes to show.

I still need to trim to excess off around the sides and paint the bottom white to blend in with the house. I’m also going to get some pigment powder to put a light coat of gray on it. I think it will make it a little bit more realistic. Then, it needs a coat of sealant to keep the pigment from being rubbed off.

While I’m waiting to get the powder, I’m going to work on the sides of the house now.

Personally, I think it looks very good for my second attempt at a faux stone look. I won’t be taking short cuts with this technique ever again.

Let me know what you think about how it looks as well as whether or not I should use the powder. Buildings in this era were made of stone and covered in a white lime wash so, I could leave the powder off….

Next week, I’ll show you some of the items I’ve acquired to decorate the inside of the house. I’ve begun getting items for it when I can, and I’ll be making quite a bit as well.

See you on the flipside and don’t forget your towel and sonic screwdriver!!!

Saturday Stitching: An FFO and two new starts!

I just finished the small project I was making for my co-worker, Brenda. It was originally a kit from Dimensions:

The saying is cute, but I wanted it for its flowers. Brenda is a snarky woman who is also fun and inspiring so, I took one of the sayings she utters the most(especially at work where she tends the cash office), and I substituted it.

I took the picture at an angle, all the sides are actually even, 🙂

I found the poop image on a clip art site and used the grid. It had a face, but I took that off because it wouldn’t have worked in this situation. I also winged the writing because I couldn’t find an alphabet I really wanted to use.

So that’s my FFO. Here’s the first of my two new starts, and both of them are smalls.

This is going to be a lot of beading! The fabric is 28 ct, but it doesn’t say what else on the package. I’m guessing it’s an even weave which is something I’ve never stitched on before.

This is all I have done right now. I had more, but I had to frog it all because my count was off. It’s a challenge getting the count correct!

This is my second small start:

This is being worked on 16 ct white Aida. I’m modifying a free mini biscornu pattern so it fits my idea better. I’m using some of the fabric I cut off the MSAL I’m working on, and the mini biscornus fit nicely across the width of it.

I’m doing this for Mad Morti and since she’s goth, I’ll be adding skulls to the square on the left and little bats on the one on the right. I will if I can find small enough patterns for them 🙂 I’m confident I will.

That’s it for this week. I’m still working on the frame for the MSAL, and I’ll share it and the block for this month when I get it done. I’m also still working on Land Baby, but it has taken a back seat to the others right now.

See you on the flipside and don’t forget your towel and sonic screwdriver!!

Free Pattern Friday: Tablecloth Pt. 5

I finally got the crocodile stitches done, and I’ve begun the next section which will be done in shades of green.

Here is what it looked like last time I posted:

I’d just begun the crocodile stitch part. This section was done with all of the frames being made first and the stitches made going down afterwards. Typically, the frame is made and then the stitch one at a time. Confused yet?? There are a lot of great YouTube videos showing how the crocodile stitch is made if you’re interested.

Here is what it looks like now:

The top row didn’t sit flat until I put the green row on.

This picture was taken at an angle, and I didn’t flatten out the green edges. Still, it’s looking good! I measured it at almost 2 feet across, and I still have another 60 – 62 rows to go!

I’m not sure what stitch I’ll be doing next. The green is all double crochets just to help flatten out the crocodile stitches and set up for the next fun stitch I’m sure.

See you on the flipside and don’t forget your towel and sonic screwdriver!!