Finish # 12

So, I finished Chatelaine’s “Mini Mystery I” on Friday. I started it way back when it was a mystery, whenever that was:

I also took a picture of my new start for September, “Spooky Halloween” by Brightneedle. It may be possible to finish it by Halloween, except I pulled Chatelaine’s Hawaiian Mandala back out last night…I may work on that for awhile. Here’s “Spooky Halloween”:

I woke up at 6:30 this morning to the sound of thunder. It was so loud that I thought it was right on top of the house. It was really loud! We just don’t get that very often here; it was bizarre. We were definitely not expecting it this morning!

It was a decent weekend I guess. Luke had a soccer game on Saturday. Since I didn’t have him for the weekend (although I did go to the game, of course) Tom and I went for a bike ride in the afternoon. It was good to get out and do something. I’m really tired this morning, but it’s a Monday so I guess that’s to be expected!

Miscellaneous non-stitching pics

So I am really close to finishing Mini Mystery I…if not tonight, definitely tomorrow night. I’ve been waiting to take any stitching pics until then, so I’ll take one of Spooky Halloween then too. In the meantime, I have a handful of non-stitching pics that are fun, so I thought I’d share them. (Christine there will be wedding pictures *soon*…I need to figure out which ones I want to upload).

First off, here is an interesting take on fashion, from the 2nd grade boy perspective. Luke was getting ready for school last week and Tom said “are you really planning to wear those?” The items in question being these fabulous purple and orange gloves with glow-in-the-dark bats on the palms. Last year in mid-November I had taken Luke with me to Joann’s one weekend. He saw them (and a matching hat…) in a clearance bin; I think it was under $3 for the festive ensemble. I didn’t put up a fight when he decided he *really* wanted them. They recently re-surfaced and have become his favorite fashion statement…that and the red wristband that came from a kid’s meal at Subway. Yeah, stylin’. I figured rather than put up a fight I’d let him wear them to school (is it wrong to hope he’d maybe lose them? Yeah, no such luck…) and take a picture for blackmail when he gets older:

Sometime last week in an attempt to add some variety to dinner I started looking through cookbooks again. While doing so I came across the “Just for Kids” cookbook that I’d bought a couple years ago when Luke’s school had a fundraiser. There’s a great picture of a hot dog octopus, or “octo-dog” on the cover. I thought it would be fun, and Luke was very excited about the idea, so I decided to make one for dinner Sunday along with homemade macaroni and cheese. It looked pretty cool, but Luke wouldn’t eat it because hot dogs only taste good off the grill. Sure am glad I only made one! It was fun though. We made brownie cookie ice cream sandwiches too, but I only took a picture of the “octo-dog”:

And one with is look of bemusement:

And, finally, here’s a picture for my brother Michael, who may or may not check in here occasionally. He indefinitely lent me his DS Tetris game, with the instructions to beat 200 lines. I finally did and then put it down for awhile. I recently picked it back up to see how far I could go on “endless”. The result, so far, is 268…and I took a picture to prove it:

So, that’s all for today. But I’ll have stitching pics again and wedding pics soon, honest!!

Checking In!

Wow, my stitching (and posting) sure tapered off there after the stitching olympics, didn’t it? I have still been stitching and should have pictures to post soon. I started Brightneedle’s “Spooky Halloween”, over 1 on either 28 or 32 count linen; can’t remember which at the moment. It’s super cute, but I guess I was overly ambitious when I said I’d finish it by this Halloween. I pulled out three projects and asked Tom which one I should start. He said to do the Halloween one if I thought I could finish it by this Halloween. Yes, he knows my stitching well enough to be specific as to *which* Halloween. Oh well! I pulled Chatelaine’s “Mini Mystery I” back out after seeing my “101 things in 1001 days” list and seeing that finishing Mini Mystery I was on it. I’m pretty close to finishing it so it seemed really doable. I just have some backstitching, one sheath stitch, and about 2/3 of the beading left. Look for a finish soon!

I received a blog award from Kari but I don’t know anyone else who hasn’t received it already since I’ve taken forever to post again. Thanks Kari! Though my blog hasn’t been very interesting since the stitching olympics wrapped up, I fear. I’ll try to get back into the swing of things soon.

Since Luke has started school again things have been pretty busy. Tonight is another “one of those nights” where he has soccer from 5:30-6:30 then the Cub Scout pack meeting from 6:45-8. I have choir from 7:45-9:15. I also managed to get him a dr’s appointment for 4pm to see if there’s anything we can do about his allergies; poor kid has been sneezing constantly, and I have too. I’ve been taking Claritin or Zyrtec (trying out both to see if one is better than the other…) but I’m reluctant to give him an allergy medication without at least consulting the doctor first.

In other news, I bought DDR2 for the Wii yesterday and spent 45 minutes on it last night. It’s either easier than DDR1 or I’ve gotten really good at it. It may be just what I needed to kick start my exercise; I really enjoy it, I’m good at it, and it’s darn good cardio.

Well, that’s it for today. No new pictures…hope to post some after the weekend!

Wrapping up the Stitching Olympics

So…thanks for all the birthday wishes from my friends! I’m doing okay with 30 so far, no break-downs! I had a very busy 3-day weekend; we did something out of the ordinary each day. I’d have liked to have had more down time, but oh well. Saturday we went to a friend’s house whose kids are Luke’s age. They have a ridiculous pool slide (photos to follow, when I get them). We spent the day there swimming, sliding, and then we stayed for dinner. Sunday after church we went to a co-worker’s annual day-before-labor-day-pig-roast. Then yesterday we had to do some chores and went to Tom’s parent’s house for yet more barbecuing. Luke has soccer practice after school today, and things are definitely looking busy as far out as I can look! But overall life is good.

With the stitching olympics competition wrapping up last night, I also tried to stitch as much as I could between other things. I managed a total of 27 items, which means I got through my entire rotation 1.5 times. Wow!!! I am seriously considering a more formal-ish rotation because it was so nice to stitch on everything a little bit. I pulled out things I haven’t worked on in years! Great fun. Here are the remaining progress pictures since the last time I updated. I’m not going to bother with how long I worked on each one, because I can’t remember and would have to check the progress thread at the wagon. I stitched at least 2.5 hours on everything, and 3-3.5 on most of them.

“Blackstone Fantasy Garden” by Ink Circles:

“Mini Mystery I” by Chatelaine:

“Hearts of America” by Victoria Sampler:

“Heirloom Christmas Sampler” by Victoria Sampler:

“Misty Morning Vineyard” by Chatelaine:

Oh, and on Saturday I made homemade sourdough bread for the first time using the sourdough starter I’ve had going for 20+ days now. Except it wasn’t all that sour. But it tasted good when it was fresh and looked really neat:

So, I’ll definitely start something new (or a few somethings!) this month, as a reward for working through my rotation so diligently. I expect my stitching time will decrease pretty substantially though now that Luke is back in school. Also, starting last night, I’m working on ramping up my exercise so I can finally get these darn 20 pounds off. We plan to add to our family on the not-terribly-distant future…but not immediately. I’d like to get the weight off first! So, hopefully that will be my focus in September (and beyond).