Winner!

Hi everyone.  First off, Patti C. from Hanging by a Thread won the offering.  My husband was responsible for picking the number and decided that since I have such a mess in the dining room right now, that drawing another number for another journal would help rid some of the clutter.  So Penny (no blog), you were the second number and will be receiving a journal as soon as I get your information.

Not much stitching going on since I've been playing.  I stopped Santa at his light post which called for gold metallic threads, all of which I gave away, but wouldn't have used anyway.  I've been playing with colors and think this 420 will be the final along with a dark gray instead of silver metallic for the lantern.  I just love this guy.  Can't wait to stitch the other two.  The colors of 561 and 989 for his clothing work so well, and I never thought they would.  Almost changed them when initially pulled, glad I didn't.

Progress on Lucy was stalled with the headache but I managed to get a few stitches in.

        




My time has been taken up with sizing, resizing, cropping, and adjusting my sampler photos for the books and also for this little box.  It wasn't easy finding stitched areas to fit the long narrow top, but here's the prototype...

On the linen saga, I got a dark green dye to rid the reddish cast of a few pieces.  You only need a drop of the dark green in the water.  I ended up playing quite a bit with the color and even added a little tan at one point.  What I didn't care for, I dipped in the beach and it came out, started over.  Amber is one tough cookie.  Nothing seems to work for that color except allowing it to darken much more than I would like.  But I had a hissy fit, a flash, some chocolate, a slice of swiss cheese, and voila - it's dark but it's a rich dark and I like it.  I'm not concerned about failure since the bleaching process is quick and effective for starting over, plus these are colors I didn't like at all and probably wouldn't have used.  Now for needles.  I wish I knew what I was using.  The one I grabbed for Lucy will not go under back threads to secure ends.  I hate it and don't know the brand.  The Santa needle is so sharp it glides with no problem at all and it's also a mystery.  I need to test all my packaged sizes, get rid of some, and buy more of what I like.

Our weather has been cold, dark, rainy, and I hate fall.  Did I ever tell you that?  There's a video I go to that makes me laugh out loud every time I see it, which I did again this gloomy morning, and thought you might like to take a look.  Many of you may have already seen it.  Try to click off the ad banner at the bottom so you can see his mouth better.   The look on this dog's face is perfect. 
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGeKSiCQkPw&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Just like walking around the grocery store without the list that's on the kitchen counter, I have a feeling there is something else ..... but ????  So rather than wasting time trying to remember, I'll close.   Trying to remember one thing, brings up many things.  Too many.  But never the right thing.  Things.  To do.  To pay.  To buy.  To find.  To find.  To find.  Then I'll start searching or doing one of those THINGS, and forget about what I wanted in the first place, along with what I was doing at the time.  Some people call that Attention Deficit Disorder.  I call it menopause.   Thanks for reading!!