Jan 17 2012

Viva Las Vegas! (Part 2)

Posted on 17 January, 2012 by TheDailyMel

I gave most of the stitchy part of the trip in yesterday’s Viva Las Vegas (Part 1) post. Today’s second (and final) installment of the Viva Las Vegas series will cover the gambling part of the trip.

As I mentioned yesterday, we all won a little something. That really made the trip that much more fun. I was actually the first person in our group to hit for a win. It happened on Thursday night after dinner. I was playing one of my favorite games — the 5X Diamond slot machine.

I actually like all the Diamond slot machines, but having the chance of getting that 5X multiplier is pretty appealing. Speaking of which, if you look closely at the photo, you may have noticed that I did indeed hit on the 5X multiplier with a couple of 7′s on the wheels. Normally speaking, having any combination of three 7′s on the wheels would yield 120 credits. Since I had the 5X multiplier, that gave me a 600 credit win. w00t!! Needless to say, I cashed out immediately rather than risk losing it all again. So, what exactly did that mean?

Slots Winner

Yep, $150!! The other $4.75 was what I had left of the $10 I put into the machine initially. Who says playing quarter slots can’t pay off?!

Still high from my slots win the night before, I was a bit hesitant initially about gambling more the next morning. I ended up deciding to give it a go though and threw $20 into a video poker game since Annette was already set up playing on one. Well, I’m glad I did since I won again! As soon as I hit for a small win, as is my way, I cashed out. Yeah, casinos probably hate me because I take the money and run!

Last up in the gambling department was bingo on Friday night. It’s probably been 15 years since I’ve played bingo and it’s definitely come a long way in the interim. Did you know that bingo has gone all high-tech?! Well, it has!

They have electronic bingo “cards” now that even mark themselves. Gone are the days of big paper sheets of bingo cards and ink daubers. These days, all you have to do is sit and enjoy your drink until it’s time to yell BINGO when you win, which I did! I hit for a $100 win on a triple bingo game.

Annette’s mom, Pat, also won a $100 game. The big winner at bingo was definitely Terri though! She cashed in winning two games and took home a tidy sum. I’ll let her share that news on her blog if she wants. While Annette didn’t cash in on bingo, she did manage a nice win on the Wheel of Fortune slot machine I posted about yesterday. Again, I’ll let her post about that if she wants.

Speaking of Annette, please keep her family in your thoughts. Her grandmother passed away early yesterday morning. Due to that, she’ll be taking a short break from blogging. You can certainly go by and leave a condolence note in her comments though. I’m sure she would appreciate the love & support now.

Oh, and thanks to some ~~enabling~~ help from Cheryl, I found some great brick fabric for the stand-up that I mentioned in yesterday’s post. I ordered it today, so hopefully I can actually figure out how to make a stand-up and finally finish-finish my Ho Ho Ho piece nearly four years after I stitched it. Oh, and I may or may not have ordered a few other pieces of fabric, too. For those wondering about my stash diet, I never said anything about not buying finishing fabrics, so there!

That’s it from me for now. Until next time …

Nov 9 2011

Once more, please?

Posted on 9 November, 2011 by TheDailyMel

Between my blog and the Mirabilia Facebook group, the result was overwhelmingly in favor of Conifer for my Royal Holiday. Luckily, that was my favorite, too! I did come up with one other option that I really like and thought I would throw it into the mix with Conifer for your input.

Picture This Plus Conifer

Sassy's Fabbys Spruce

So, once again, could you please leave a comment and let me know which you think looks better? I’m still leaning toward Conifer because it’s seems to say “Christmas” to me more, but I think the Spruce is really pretty, too. Decisions, decisions ….

Until next time,

Nov 8 2011

I Blame Dana

Posted on 8 November, 2011 by TheDailyMel

Well, I guess I should clarify. Not only do I blame Dana, but I also blame all of those evil enablers over on the Mirabilia Facebook group! I blame the Facebook group because a member posted a photo of her GORGEOUS Royal Holiday WIP which made me start thinking again about how much I want to stitch her (the chart is in my stash). I blame Dana for her ~~evil~~ wonderful Design & Fabric Viewer. No, we won’t be discussing how many times it’s gotten me into trouble in the past!

Anyway, I started playing around with fabric choices for my version of Royal Holiday and came up with several that I really love. I have a favorite, but thought I would post the five options I came up with to see what all of you thought. I had pretty much already narrowed it down to wanting to use either green or blue fabric, so there are three options in shades of green followed by two options in shades of blue.

Silkweaver Woodland Green

Silkweaver Spanish Moss

Picture This Plus Conifer

Picture This Plus Haven

Picture This Plus Glacier

So, now that you’ve looked over the options, what are your thoughts? Please leave a comment and let me know. Thanks!

Until next time …

Oct 9 2010

Stash Pics from the Road

Posted on 9 October, 2010 by TheDailyMel

First of all, I will apologize for the quality of these photos. My batteries are dead in my good camera, so these were taken tonight in the hotel room where I’m staying with my iPhone. I just wanted to share my goodies I acquired today while everything is still fresh on my mind.

Terri and I are hanging in Mesa, AZ for the weekend. We did some shopping and are taking a finishing class tomorrow. I actually experienced the following three firsts today:

Got to meet Annette!
Got to visit The Attic.
Got to vist a Hobby Lobby.

Now, for what I’m sure most people are interested in, here are the goodies I got from Annette for winning the Day 3 drawing of the 31 Days of Halloween extravaganza:

Isn’t that pin cushion just too cute?!! I always want to send out a big thank you to Annette’s daughter K for the adorable bookmark! There was also a bag of candy goodies, but I forgot to grab it out of my bag to include in the photo. Thanks for all of the wonderful goodies, Annette!

I also did a bit of damage while we were at The Attic this morning. I immediately started oooohing and aaaahing as soon as we walked in the door and I was greeted by the sampler wall:

After getting over the initial drooling stage, I wandered around the shop. Jean has so many beautiful models all over the shop. It’s amazing how many were done over 1 and on higher count linens. I was blown away by how different some Shepherd’s Bush designs looked when they were stitched on 36- and 40-count linen. It definitely makes me rethink my fabric choice on a couple of designs in my stash.

Speaking of stash, here are my new acquisitions today from The Attic:

I should point out that the little bag in the upper left-hand corner of photo wasn’t purchased at The Attic, but was acquired there. It was actually another gift from Annette. Terri got one, too. Thanks again, Annette!

The last stop of the day was at Hobby Lobby. OMG! It’s probably a really good thing we don’t have these stores in southern California because I would probably be constantly broke if we did. The mere fact that we spent over THREE hours in the store and never even hit the floral or seasonal departments should say something. The only thing that kept me from buying even more stuff there was the fact that we’re traveling in Terri’s two-seater car. Here’s what I did buy:

The coffee stuff is for decorating my kitchen in my new place. I’m planning to make some pot holders and placemats using the coffee print. I’m planning to use the coordinating brown diamond fabric as the backing on the placemats. The other fabrics and papier mache boxes will be used for finishing stitched pieces.

Well, that’s it for now. Tomorrow we’re off to The Attic again to take our class. It’s for creating a crocheted edging with antique buttons, so it should be fun.

Until next time …

Nov 29 2009

Autumn Leaves

Posted on 29 November, 2009 by TheDailyMel

Contrary to popular belief, we actually do get a bit of Autumn here in southern California. I snapped a few pics of the tree outside my home. By this time next week, I’m sure the last of the leaves will be gone. The first of these photos will satisfy PhotoHunt #177 which was the theme of Orange.

PhotoHunt | PhotoHunt

Here are a couple of others I took as well:

In stitching new, I’ve been working today on Fa-La-La from Little House Needleworks. It’s the first ornament in Diane’s ornament of the month series that will run until next November.

I’ve signed up for the automatic from Drema at Needlecraft Corner. Her kits include the chart, recommended fabric, and beads. Since they are stitched using the regular DMC line, the fibers aren’t included.

I also picked up a couple of pieces of new fabric from Lauren at Sassy’s Fabbys. If you aren’t familiar with her fabrics, you should definitely check they out. They’re wonderful!

The large tan piece is 36-count linen in her new color called Snickerdoodle. The smaller piece is 32-count Lugana in Witches Brew.

Until next time …

Sep 8 2009

End of a Long Weekend

Posted on 8 September, 2009 by TheDailyMel

I love long weekends. The only bad thing about a long weekend is when it ends. Oh well, at least I have another one coming up this next weekend, so I only have to work three days this week.

I managed to put together a bundle this weekend for the Iraqi Bundles of Love project that I posted about on Friday. If I had more time to gather stuff up, I could easily have filled far more than one box, but this was what I was able to assemble on such short notice.

Click to enlarge

Since it’s already bundled up, you can’t see the contents, but it has a variety of eight quilting fat quarters, 10 balls of matching yarn (can’t remember the brand now), five balls of novelty scarf yarn, two skeins of Lion Brand Homespun yarn, knitting needles, and crochet hooks. It’s then all wrapped up in a half yard of Moda sampler fabric. I also included a handmade greeting card thanking Major La Flamme and the other volunteers for coordinating this project.

In other stitching news, I was surprised at the end of last week with a gift certificate to my LNS from my friend Nicole in Chicago. I headed over to the shop on Friday to pick it up and, naturally, had no trouble putting it right to use. Here are the goodies I picked up:

Click to enlarge

The charts are “Pumpkins 4-Sale” from Little House Needleworks and “An Apple a Day” from Plum Pudding Needleart. The fibers are for the new “Romantic Rose Garden Mandala” design from Chatelaine Designs that appears on the cover of the September issue of The Gift of Stitching digital magazine. I have no clue when I’ll ever get around to stitching it, but it’s definitely one I want to stitch at some point, so I figured I might as well go on and kit up the fibers. Here’s a partial pic of it from the cover:

After I left my LNS, I headed over to Joann to buy the ribbon to tie up my bundle for IBOL. While I was there, I stumbled across a little bundle of fat quarters of Halloween fabric that was on sale for $1 off. As much Halloween stitching as I do, I grabbed it for finishing. Here are a couple of pics. The first shows the whole bundle, and then the second one shows a better view of one of them since it was a large print.

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Lastly, I put in some stitching on Hagatha’s Slipper. It’s amazing how much longer it takes to put in that purple background stitching than you would think. I’m really trying not to focus on the fact that I have to do this all over again for the other side when I finish this piece. I’m really hoping this doesn’t turn out to be like so many single socks I’ve knitted over the years.

Click to enlarge