Cute Boy

A friend of mine took this picture last weekend during a visit to NJ. I'm pretty biased, but he's pretty cute, in my opinion. The thing you can't see is how many teeth the child has! What you can see, however, is how much he favors his daddy (that is, if you know his daddy).

Family Ties

Visiting the Fam in MS is great. Unfortunately our visit has been a bit rushed. I had a wedding to go to yesterday afternoon at 2; it's amazing how a 2 o'clock wedding can take up the entire day. Don't get me wrong, the ceremony was beautiful, and I'm glad I was able to go. But the thing is, you have to get ready, get there, sit through the I-do's, visit a bit afterwards, then go about the rest of your day. It just sort of throws a crimp in things.
That being said, I am hard-pressed to do much else this weekend. My mom has set up a luncheon with family friends for today, which means today is shot as well. Again, this is not a bad thing, but it means doing anything else is out of the question, especially with respect with W. He's going to be a real doll for about two hours, then he will become super-cranky-baby. Visiting his great-grandfather? We'll see. I don't know if he could take a super-cranky-baby visit.
Lunchtime. Let's eat.

#@%$ Painter!

Bad news on the painter front. Mike caught up with him this morning and managed to pry out of him that he won't get around to painting our house until next Wednesday. Sooo annoying. There goes another week of not being able to plant my new plants. It also furthers the delay in getting my tulip and crocus bulbs into the ground. Those things have to be in the dirt by the end of the month. It isn't like MS where you can leave them in the fridge all winter.
Cross Stitch Update: I constructed the Christmas ornament for my friends who are getting married this weekend. It was my first go at the hot glue gun, so the finished product is a little "Stringy" right now, but hopefully I can peel off the excess. It's not great... it definitely looks "hand made" if you know what I mean! I also put together the "Bloom where you're planted" for my dearest friend Rachel. Again, not spectacular, but not terrible either. Finally, I stitched together my pincushion that I used the Leviathan stitch for. Believe it or not, it looks the best of the three I did today. Go figure.

Weird Weather

It's been blazing hot this past week, but today it finally cooled off. We are supposed to get rain this afternoon and tonight. I am thinking that I will prepare my flower bed shortly thereafter so that the plants can go in after the painters come on Friday. I think I can talk Mike into putting the plants in on Saturday, even though W. and I will be out of town. It would be so nice to return home on Monday and see my plants settling in with our freshly-painted home! I have been diligently watering them as they have sat and sat in the backyard, so hopefully they will continue to cooperate when they actually enter their new (permanent) home.
Nerd Alert--I have registered for the first U.S. Sudoku Championship that will take place in Philadelphia on October 20. I have been practicing every day and am feeling confident. It cost $50 to register, but it is possible to win monetary prizes. Since I registered prior to October 5, I will receive a free T-shirt at registration. I love a good free T-shirt.

Grapes Galore

I just stitched a bookmark with grapes on it for my friend Posey. Posey is in her 80's and loves anything with a grape motif. She is very much like a grandmother to me, as both of my blood-related grandmothers passed away before I turned 7. I found the pattern on a website for free. I stitched the bookmark on 14-count cloth, since I didn't have 18. Also I just used plain DMC thread since I didn't have the fancier multi-shaded thread it called for.

A New Stitch

I learned a new stitch yesterday. It's called a Smyrna, or Leviathan, stitch. I think some people even refer to it as a double cross stitch. It's very pretty--it looks like a flower or a star. I am making a pin cushion out of a scrap piece of cross stitch fabric I had and am stitching it with this new stitch to practice the technique.

Switch Stitching

I finished stitching the ornament for my niece and started one for a friend's daughter for Christmas. I got sidetracked, though, when I found a nice cache of free cross stitch patterns on the internet. I found a cute one by Lizzie Kate that I have done for a friend, although I have modified it a little. Her favorite saying is "Bloom where you're planted." The pattern I found has three little flowers across the middle with "Bloom" below it. I have found an alphabet pattern similar to the letters on the chart and am adding "where you're planted" to the bottom of the piece. It looks pretty decent.
My problem is that I need to use a sewing machine to finish off all these pieces I have finished stitching. I have a machine, courtesy of my mother-in-law, but have no idea how to use it. My husband (!) said that he might be able to figure it out (??) based on what he remembers seeing his mom doing with it when he was a kid. We'll see.