Ever find yourself knowing you have something, but can’t find it anywhere?  I’m having this problem now with a knitting bag and accessory pattern, and some fabric that I’m positive I had cut out, pinned, and had ready to sew into a zippered pouch. Last weekend, in preparation for getting back to some sewing, I’d reorganized my sewing box. I moved everything to a larger container, and browsed through all my patterns, and realized the one I was planning to use, was missing, as well as this cut-out fabric. I didn’t have time to continue searching then, and my search was further put off by getting sick.

This morning I finally resumed my search. I’ve looked everywhere. Well, everywhere I can logically think it might be. Obviously I haven’t looked everywhere, otherwise I’d have found it, right?

I’m kind of scared of where I might eventually find it. I know I started this project before we started our bathroom reno, and then abandoned it to focus on the reno and our summer activities. I likely stuck it away somewhere that may or may not have made sense at the time, with good intentions to move it to my sewing box eventually. Since our house has yet to return to “normal” I really wonder where the pattern and fabric will turn up. And will I have an “aha” moment, remembering exactly why I chose that particular place (or at least remember why I left it there)?

The past 2 weeks I’ve felt like I’ve been trying to do a number of things, but not really finishing much of anything. Last week my son got sick with some stomach virus (the first one for him!). He was only really sick for 1/2 a day and then his energy was mostly back. I felt a bit under the weather after that, and took it easy for a couple of days. I’d always wondered how I would deal with a sick, vomiting child, as the smell makes me gag. I was amazed to find that I could just go about cleaning up the bedding and my son without gagging or feeling nauseous. It wasn’t pleasant, but at least it wasn’t made worse by me getting sick to my stomach as well. We’re both fine this week, which is good, because it’s been a busy week, plus I decided to start spring cleaning this week. I decided to start, but that doesn’t mean I’ve accomplished much yet I did finish the worst (for me) job – cleaning the fridge. Amidst all this, I’ve had little time for stitching.

I started a group on yahoo, where I’ve started a SAL for this Teacup Sampler:

Teacup Sampler byOlive Hope Design

I accomplished a little stitching on this sampler last week, but haven’t had time this week:

progress as of May 8/09

To join in on the SAL, join the group here.

I’ve also been working on the EMS Rose Sampler. Most of my progress on the 4th part (the letters) was accomplished earlier in the month of April:

progress as of May 4/09

I also have a finish to share! After working on it sporadically for almost a year, I finished knitting a sweater for my son, and it actually looks like a sweater:

sweater finished May 3/09

I was having visions of sleeves being different lengths, back and front not lining up, etc. It’s a little big on him, which is fine, as then it might still fit him by fall so he can actually wear it. Next time I will try using long enough needles to knit both sleeves at once. At least then I won’t have to concern myself over if they’ll be the same length

I’ve let my etsy shop sit empty for a few weeks. Partly because I did forget when the last items were expiring, but mostly because I was trying to decide what to do with it, whether to keep selling, or to close the shop. I will no longer be selling my cross stitch charts through etsy, unless it’s a special release or limited edition, etc. I do have some items that I want to work on over the next month to add to the shop. So while there’s nothing there now, the plan is to have some items there within the month.

In other news, we had a bit of snow this morning! Yes, snow in May. Somehow I don’t think the fish will be biting very much for Opening Day tomorrow – and I definitely don’t want to be out on the water in this cool weather!

It’s supposed to be spring, right? Well, this was our back steps this morning:

the bottom step is hidden under the snow

and the street out front:

I saw grass just 2 days ago!

I took these around 11 this morning, and it’s still snowing! I *think* it’s supposed to stop tomorrow. Now that I have no reason to venture out into the snow, I can say it looks pretty. But it was not fun trying to walk through a 1-2 foot snow drift to get my son off the bus. Next week is spring break; I’m hoping there will be lots of melting. I wonder how much this new precipitation will affect the flood forecast?

In other news, if anyone has been having difficulty accessing my website (like me!), my hosting server has been experiencing some issues today. Hopefully it will be resolved soon. In the meantime, I’m off to make some Thai Chicken pizza for supper.

Progress to March 4, 2009

My progress on the Ellen Maurer-Stroh Rose Sampler; not as far as some of the other stitchers taking part in this SAL, but I’m on track to finish it by the end of the year (which is the group’s goal). Surprisingly, I’m really enjoying this monochrome stitching; I though I would find it boring.

I’m not doing very with posting each day, so far. But, it is getting me to think more often about what I can post on, so I think I am accomplishing something with it, even if I don’t end up with 20-30 posts by the end of March.

We’ve been suffering through a cold here; my husband and I had it 2 weeks ago, and this week my son has it. Only one day of school missed (Tuesday), and with plenty of rest each day, this morning he announced he was “all better!” Well, the nose still sounds a little stuffy, and he was still coughing, but he was more talkative during breakfast, and in all seemed to have more energy, so I believe he is over the worst of it. We’ll see how much energy he still has when he comes home from school. Yesterday he wasn’t even home half an hour before he was off for a nap. I’m guessing he’ll still need a nap, but perhaps it won’t be needed quite so soon, nor quite so long of one.

I know spring is officially only a few weeks away, but I love a good snowfall. And we had another one last night. I enjoyed watching the big snowflakes start to fall as I was beginning preparations for supper. The snow continued all evening, and when I headed to bed last night at 1 am, it was still coming down. Beautiful!

I’m able to enjoy these snowfalls best when I have no where I have to be, like yesterday and today. Often I’ll plan to curl up on the couch with my knitting or stitching, but last night I decided to read. I still can’t believe I finished the book in one evening, but I just couldn’t put it down! I was reading The Breaking Point by Karen Ball. A really good read, and I highly recommend it.

I know Christmas is still a few weeks away, but I’m really excited to start the Advent calendar today with my son. I found a really neat one at one of the local Christian bookstores; instead of a chocolate for each day, there is an ornament to pull out each day that is also a mini-book. Today’s story is about the Holy Land, and the scripture is John 1:14. For a few years now, I try to read at least one Christmas storybook to my son each day during Advent, so this fits right in. I also found a book, The 25 Days of Christmas, which provides added scripture, readings, and activities we can incorporate, if my son is willing to sit still long enough I don’t think we’ll do a craft every day, but I do have a few in mind. Oh, and I did buy a bag of Hershey’s Hugs, so my son can still have a chocolate each day after we hang the ornament for the day.

I’ve done some Christmas decorating around the house today; no pictures today, but I’ll try to post some once I’m done, including a picture of my ornament that was in the November Gift of Stitching. Oh, and I have another finish, and 2 starts to show you too!

I guess because it’s been chillier here (we’ve actually turned the furnace on already!), I’ve been feeling like baking, so this morning I baked some oatmeal raisin cookies. The house smells good, and my son can come home from school and have a cookie after lunch. They did turn out a bit darker than I thought they would, but except for a few on the first pan, they didn’t burn. I always seem to burn or overbake a few on the first pan

 

Ready to eat!

Sorry, the picture is a little blurry

…I have lots of helpers. He keeps telling me of various toys of his that are vacuuming, doing laundry, and other household chores. If only they really were And if only the blanket would remake the bed after my son’s done playing with the blankets. But I’m hearing his imagination at work, and I love it!

School starts soon, and my son will be taking the big step of taking bus to school. He’s excited, and I admit I won’t mind not having to drive back and forth picking him up and dropping him off. Now that he’s not napping anymore, I admit I’m looking forward to some quiet time in the house

We had a wonderful time last week visiting my cousin Tracy in San Francisco. I’ve had a hard time selecting a few pictures to highlight our trip (we took 250+), but I’ve narrowed it down a bit.

We arrived on Tuesday, and we definitely noticed some jet lag. We were ready for bed EARLY! The next morning, we went down to the Wharf. We wandered around on the piers, viewing an old submarine and ship from WW2, and of course browsing through all the shops on Pier 39. We also stopped to watch the sea lions for a while.

The one at the front appeared to be sleeping, but it was amazing to see how quickly he/she became alert when another sea lion swam up to his/her dock.

This bird, along with a couple of buddies, were surrounding our table at lunchtime. They were obviously hoping for some food to drop from our plates. Lucky for them, some people at a neighboring table were all too eager to throw them some crumbs.

After lunch, and some more walking, we took a ride in a cable car. It was definitely a neat way to see more of the city, without having to hike up and down those hills!

On Thursday, we headed for the Golden Gate bridge. On our way to catch our connecting bus, we saw these:

We just couldn’t believe how big these Trumpet Flowers (?) were. They were gorgeous!

I know it was foggy, but I rather like the effect in the picture. I really liked the weather in SF, including the fog. It looked really neat sometimes, especially the way we saw in rolling in over the hills on the way to the airport Saturday morning.

The ocean was beautiful, but it was freezing! DH had his feet in the water for about 2 minutes while he was dipping DS’ feet in, and his feet were numb when he came out! I tried to get some pics of the surfers, but I kept missing them. Btw, this was in the evening of the same day we were at the Golden Gate bridge – there was no fog

On Friday, we toured Alcatraz. It was a lot more interesting than I thought it would be – I’m actually interested in watching some of the movies about Alcatraz now.

One last picture:

I loved this view from my cousin’s rooftop; and to think I just about forgot to go up there and take some pictures.

If you want to see a few more pics, visit this post at Tracy’s blog.

I guess it’s about time that I posted again. The past few weeks have flown by! I knew it had been a while since I’d posted, but I hadn’t realized that it was nearly a month! A lot has happened in that time…

1. We survived VBS week at church; DH was the Grade 3/4 leader, and I was snack coordinator. 98 children registered, and I believe we had about 200 people at the wind-up BBQ.
2. DH accepted a new job.
3. We spent 4 days on a fishing trip with my parents. I caught one fish. However, I did help bring several fish into the boat, including the largest one of the trip, a 27 1/2″ pike.
4. We started a bathroom renovation. I say started, because although we’ve been working on it for 5 days, we are still not done, and it could be a few weeks before we have the project completely done.
5. Managed one stitching finish; will post a picture once I can find a place to properly photograph (the reno is of 6×10 bathroom, but with all the supplies and tools, it seems to have taken over nearly the entire main floor!)

I will hopefully return to regular posting in early August. DH will return to work, and life will return to something resembling normal, I hope.