Time and Season Sampler - Moira Blackburn

It was back to the Doctor's office today.  Going on three weeks, that I have been sick.  Hopefully, now I will begin to feel better.  Evidently I have sinusitis, and it was resistant to the Z-pack antibiotic, I was originally prescribed.  I now have in my hands some Amoxicillin, which I will have to take for the next 10 days, and hope that it will do the trick!  I have done very little over the last three weeks.  Managed to do a couple loads of laundry, but my house could use a real cleaning.  But...I spend most of my time sleeping, and any type of exertion, I feel totally exhausted.  I came home from the Doctor's office and took a nap, just going there and then to the Pharmacy took great effort.  What few hours that I am awake, I try to relax as much as possible and so I have managed to cross stitch some.

Back in the beginning of the year, I volunteered to do a sampler to donate to the Samaritan House Charity in Alexandria, Va.  for their annual silent auction.  After much hemming and hawing, I finally decided to sew Moira Blackburn's Time and Season Sampler.  It is done on 14 ct., Aida and I am using DMC floss.  I bought this as a complete kit directly from Ms. Blackburn, so am using whatever was provided.  I will tell you that the picture on the pattern does not do the piece justice.  The colors are very pretty, and the Aida has some flecks in the fabric, that should add more visual interest.  I decided to go ahead and start it, because I don't want to be crunched on time, to get it finished and framed before the auction in April.  I know that seems far away now, but...in two days it will be June.  Where oh where does the time go?

Rosewood Manor - American Quilt Sampler

Slept through most of last week and a half due some lovely bug my son brought home from school and shared with me. I am finally beginning to more human again. Thanks to what my hubbie refers to as "better living through chemistry." For the few hours I was awake during days that I did manage to to finish a few state blocks. Really slow going, lots of back stitching and.... more Algerian stitches.

Finally!

I have finally managed to squeeze in a bit of stitching, in between waiting for paint to dry. No kidding! About a month ago, my husband decided he was going to paint our basement himself, when the estimates to have someone else do it were outrageous. After shoving all the furniture from one part of the basement, he managed to get the stairway done, and that's about it. I can't stand chaos, so I started painting it myself. Ceilings, moulding, doors, walls. Today, I finished one part of the "L" shaped room. Including cleaning the carpet. Tomorrow I'll be able to move the furniture back to that section, and I will only have ceiling, 3 walls, and the floor boards to do. There is a light at the end if the tunnel. Meanwhile, my daughter comes home from college and decides she's tired of her blue room, she wants to change it, and by golly she's gonna do it herself. Except she's never painted a room before. Many a trips of 2 flights of stairs I have made, to calm her down. Who knew painting would be so difficult? She was in tears the first night, because the pink ceiling paint wasn't as even as she thought it should be. I had to explain to her that until it's fully dry, it will even out. She pulled tape off which pulled paint off, another catastrophe! The blue is still showing through. Showed her how to fix that. She wasn't as carefully and ended up getting green paint on the woodwork. So tonight while she was at work, I taped up the moulding and put a little refresher coat on the woodwork. So as I said before, I managed to start on my Rosewood Manor American quilt sampler, between coats of paint. Ann Hill sampler is taking a rest, while I can work myself back into tackling so many Algerian stitches.

 

Cross stitch detox

I am very sorry to say that I have had very little time to cross stitch this week, and am beginning to suffer cross stitch withdrawal!  It has been just a very busy, hectic week!  Hopefully next week will be better!  My daughter just completed her freshman year at JMU.  My hubbie and I went to Harrisonberg, Va. For Wed. and  Thursday to help her with the pack out of her dorm room.  How one girl can accumulate so much, I will never know.  We completely filled the bed of the truck up, as well as the back seat.  We had to ride home three across the front seat for the hour and 45 minute drive home. Then unpack everything.

Then as soon as we got home, I had to make three cakes for dessert for the soccer team for my son's high school.  Didn't plan that very well, that I volunteered to provide the dessert plus help serve the team meal, the very next day after the pack out of my daughter's dorm room.

In addition, I'm still trying to paint the basement, which now seems like the never ending project.  I ran out of white semi-gloss.  Plus, I couldn't finish the moulding on two walls, as my husband wanted to try to bury the cable lines under the moulding before I painted them.

So...today I decide I must run a few errands to include taking my daughter to get new work pants and shoes, get a new ankle brace for the son, and a visit to Home Depot for not only white semi-gloss, but my daughter has decided  she is sick of her blue room, and wants to paint it green. I finally return home to discover that my husband had no luck burying the cable under the moulding and has decided just to rip it off the walls and replace it.  Great!  Of course, he doesn't have moulding so that will require him to go to Home Depot get moulding, cut it to size, paint it and install it.  Bummed as if the moulding was there, I could have at least moved the furniture that goes on that end of the basement as opposed to where it is now, which is encroaching where I sit to stitch.  Don't get me wrong, my husband has some wonderful, great qualities, but he is the KING of procrastination.

I no sooner walk in the door and he tells me he wants to take the boat out for the first time this season.  I really want to say " but I just want to sit down and stitch all afternoon!"  But common sense kicks in, and I agree to go with him.  I will say once on the boat, it was a beautiful day on the Potomac River, and I could spend hours listening to my IPod and watching the wake of the water.  I did manage to get a few stitches in my take along Mt. Vernon project.

Is it bad that I am praying for rain and a less busy week?