One Woman Learning to Live Her Best Life

April 2010Monthly Archives

One Word Meme

I grabbed this from Annette.

The only rule is:

You.
Can.
Only.
Type.
One.
Word.
No.
Explanations.

Not as easy as you might think…

1. Yourself: evolving
2. Your boyfriend/girlfriend/husband: nonexistent
3. Your hair: red
4. Your mother/stepmother: estranged
5. Your dog: none
6. Your favorite item: computer
7. Your dream last night: forgotten
8. Your favorite drink: tea
9. Your dream car: Beemer
10. The room you are in: living
12. Your fear: loneliness
13. What you want to be in 10 years: happy
14. Who you hung out with last night: nobody
15. What you’re not: thin
16. Muffin: caloric
17. One of your wish list items: books
18. Time: 23:04
19. The last thing you did: read
20. What you are wearing: nightie
21. Your favorite weather: cool
22. Your favorite book: LoTR
23. The last thing you ate: almonds
24. Your life: transitioning
25. Your mood: contemplative
26. Your best friend(S): amazing!
27. What are you thinking about right now? change
28. Your car: Toyota
29. What are you doing at the moment?: blogging
30. Your summer: busy
31. Your relationship status: unclear
32. What is on your TV?: nothing
33. What is the weather like?: chilly
34. When is the last time you laughed?: earlier

So, if you wanna play, you can either copy and paste this to your blog or you can answer in the comments at Calli’s place, where this meme originated. Either way, make sure you stop by and tell her you played.

Planning for a REALLY long life

I’ve always made the joke that I won’t die as long as I have unfinished/unstitched projects in my stash. Well, I’m clearly planning to give Methuselah a run for his money. P I’ve not had a lot of time for stitching lately due to my work schedule and training for my upcoming half marathon, but that hasn’t seemed to stop me from acquiring more stash. lol

First of all, I do want to thank all of you for your input about my fabric choice for Garden of Eerie in my previous post. Between my own preference, your votes, and votes of the women at the monthly Saturday Stitch group at my LNS, I’ve opted to go with the Lentil.

Lakeside Linen: Lentil:

I have decided to use the Sand Dune on another project — Autumn at Hawk Run Hollow from Carriage House Samplings. Yes, I bought it! nod


Autumn at Hawk Run Hollow

As soon as I saw those Halloween squares, I just knew I wanted to stitch it. I love the entire design, but it was really the Halloween squares that spoke to me the most. So, I have decided to adapt the design a bit and make a smaller piece using four of the Halloween squares that didn’t include any of the verse. Here is my own mock-up of what my planned piece will look like when finished … some day. P


My version of Autumn at Hawk Run Hollow

By the way, for those who may not have heard yet, if there are any Carriage House Samplings charts you have on your wish list, you might want to go on and purchase them. Kathy has decided to hang up her designing hat. You can read all the details on her blog in this post. The quick overview though is that she will continue to sell and ship to shops until July 1, 2010. After that, any remaining inventory she has left will be listed at her Etsy shop and will be sold there until December 31, 2010. Her charts will no longer be available as of January 1, 2011. (

I had the day off yesterday, so I took the opportunity to drop by my LNS to pick up a new Prairie Schooler chart she ordered for me. While I was there, a few other things managed to find their way into my basket. wink

In addition to the Prairie Schooler The Tortoise & The Hare chart, I also picked up the SYHO design from Belinda at Blue Ribbon Designs called Established With Love. It’s such a sweet little design, and I’m a sucker for houses. nod Since I’m also an avid reader, I picked up The Book Store from Nikki over at Country Cottage Needleworks. Although, I do most of my reading on my Kindle these days, so it’s pretty rare for me to make it to a book store any longer. When I do though, I try to find an independent bookseller instead of one of the major chain stores.

You may also notice there was a floss toss in my new stash photo. I can’t share what the project is yet since it’s for a gift, but let me just say, I am IN LOVE with the color palette! I thought the design I selected was so pretty when I chose it, but once I pulled the fibers, I loved it all the more! I absolutely can’t wait to see how this design comes together. Here’s a closer view of just the toss:

The photo is a little dark because I took it around 9pm last night. I decided I couldn’t wait until it was daylight because I wanted to start stitching. lol

Ok, this post is starting to get really long, but I still have more to share. Perhaps this means I should get back to posting more often. P Anyway, I’m sure most everyone is already familiar with these other items, and I don’t really have anything to say about them other than the fact that I purchased them. That being the case, I’m just going to share the photos and call it good.


Honeysuckle Manor book from Blackbird Designs


Needle and Thread (with bed) from Little House Needleworks


Winter Sheep – ornament #5 in LHN Ornament of the Month series

Ok, so I do have something else to say, imagine that?! wink This last piece is actually an OOP design that I purchased from Nicole. I had the pleasure of taking a class from Liz & Ann from Brightneedle Designs a few years back and fell in love with their designs. Subsequently, they have retired all of their old designs and are now only doing teaching pieces. This is one of their retired designs that had been looking to find for quite a while. When I saw Nicole was offering it fully kitted on her trade/purchase blog, I swooped it up. I’m so excited to finally have it in my stash. D


The Sampler Sampler by Brightneedle Designs

Ok, now I’m done. P Until next time …

Floss Toss Input Request

As I mentioned in a post last month, I recently purchased the Garden of Eerie chart from Plum Street Samplers. I *love* this chart so much.

The design is charted for NPI with a conversion to DMC also provided. Of course, I couldn’t go the easy route and use either of those. lol Instead, I converted the colors over to Vikki Clayton’s silks. I really love how the colors look together.

Here’s where the request comes in … my dilemma is what fabric to use. I have the recommended fabric (Lakeside Linen Sand Dune), but I also have a couple of others that I really like as well. I’ll post pictures of the three options I’m considering. Click on each for a larger view, if desired. After you’ve looked them all over, please take a moment to leave a comment and give me your opinion. Thanks!

Lakeside Linen Sand Dune:

Lakeside Linen: Lentil:

Lakeside Linen: Peddler’s Moon:

Finally, I just have to share a new release from Diane Williams at Little House Needleworks called Robin Hood. Those who have been reading my blog for a while know I’m a major LHN fan, and this one does not disappoint. I have a feeling it will be finding its way into my stash soon. wink

Oh, and for those who may have noticed, yes, Diane is already aware of the couple of errors in the chart. She addresses the issues of the extra R in sheriff and that Marian isn’t spelled correctly on her website and explains how to correct them.

Speaking of stash, I did pick up a few other new items over the past week or so. A couple of new things plus something I picked up from Nicole’s trade blog. I’ll share pictures of those things in another post on another day.

Until next time …

Halfway to Impossible

“It always seems impossible until it’s done.”
~~Nelson Mandela~~

Yep, that’s right! There are only nine (9) weeks left until my impossible dream of walking the Rock ‘n’ Roll San Diego half marathon with Team in Training. I can’t believe I’m down to single digit weeks remaining already! It seems like just a couple of weeks ago that we were having the kick-off, but that was nine weeks ago which means I’m now at the halfway point.

Things have actually be going pretty well other than one slight set back. I strained my upper back & neck three weeks ago and had to miss a couple of weeks of training while it healed. The coaches at Team in Training have been great in helping me modify the training schedule to keep me on track despite the injury.

I also wanted to extend a huge thanks to those of you who have contributed to me individually or who contributed to our big Team Shrinking Jeans fundraising bash recently. Thanks to all of your support, I’m closing in on my goal and hope to reach it very soon. There is still time to donate by visiting my personal fundraising page or by visiting our team fundraising page (everyone on the team gets a cut this way).

When I started this process, the thought of both raising $2500 and walking a half marathon seemed utterly impossible. I still honestly have no idea if I’ll actually be able to cross the finish line in the course time limit (4 hours), so the Nelson Mandela quote at the top of this entry has become my new mantra. What I DO know is that I’ll be out there until I either get to that finish line or they pull me from the course, whichever comes first. I may very well be in severe pain with lots of bitching & moaning by the end, but it will still be nothing compared to the battle people living with cancer have to endure each and every day. If they can go through that, I can tough it out on the half marathon course!

Thanks again for all of your a.maz.ing support and encouragement! It means so much to me.

Until next time …

New Kitchen Toy!

I’m so excited! I got a new toy for my kitchen today to help me with my goals of eating healthy and preparing more foods from scratch. I am now the proud owner of a new 700W KitchenAid food processor. Squeeeeeeeee! The color is called Gloss Cinnamon.

It came with a ton of attachments, as well as a handy storage container in which to keep them.

Here’s a details list of the various features & attachments:

  • 700 watt motor
  • Extra-wide feed tube and pusher with built-in narrow feed tube and pusher
  • 12-cup work bowl
  • 10-cup chef’s bowl
  • 4-cup mini bowl with mini blade
  • Multipurpose stainless steel work blade
  • Fine 2mm slicing disc
  • Medium 4mm slicing disc
  • Medium 4mm shredding disc
  • Dough blade
  • Egg whip
  • Citrus press with 2 cone sizes
  • Slim-line accessory case

The only other thing I really wish this set would have come with is the Julienne disc. That’s something I’ll definitely pick up at some point. The French Fry disc is also very tempting. Since this processor has the wide mouth feed tube, it would be great to quickly make my own fresh yam fries. )

The best part of this purchase? I found it on sale for $92 off the MSRP! 8) I can’t wait to spend some time playing with it this weekend and trying out some recipes. I’ll definitely post a follow-up review after I’ve had a chance to put this beauty through her paces. yes

Until next time …

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...