Katie's Window Seat

Please excuse the poor lighting and the messy room, but here is a picture of the window seat cushion I made for Katie's room. When we moved in there was just no cushion at all, so I started from scratch. I bought two 72in rolls of 2in foam that was 24in. wide. Since the window seat is 31 in. x 110 in. I ended up cutting the foam in five 24 in strips and glueing them together with tacky glue. I could have done it length wise, but I felt the longer seam would not have held together as well and might have been more noticeable. Sorry, I should have taken a picture once I had the pieces glued together to illustrate what I'm talking about, but I didn't think of it at the time.

Once I had the pieces of foam glued together, they seemed pretty secure, but because the cushion was so big, I felt I really should find a way to more securely keep all the pieces together. I had this muslin-like fabric left over from a clearance purchase of fabric years ago and it was exactly the right size to be able to enclose the whole cushion in one piece of fabric. The width of the fabric just made it around the cushion, so I had to whipstitch it on. I wanted a really tight fit anyway, and with a piece this big I just couldn't imagine fighting with sewing it inside out and then trying to wrangle it onto the foam without the pieces coming apart.
It took about 5 hours or so to whipstitch around both angled sides and the shorter straight edge. (The longer straight edge is the fold of the fabric.)

Here is a close-up of the fabric I used for the cover. It is a chenille, and DH hated it, but Katie loves it - and it is her room. I like it too, because I guess I always wanted a girly room when I was a child and never really had the chance because I was raised by my dad who didn't get such things, and I also had to share a room with one of my sisters and she wasn't the girly type as a child (though come to think of it she is now).

Oh, funny aside about DH and fabric: We were in JoAnn's picking out this fabric and I suggested a fabric to Katie and DH said, "Jenn, look this one is all messed up on the edge - I don't think you want that one. Actually lots of them are like that - maybe we should go to a different store." It took me a minute to realize he was talking about the selvedge edge. I actually had to convince him that was supposed to be like that to prevent fraying - when I first explained it (trying not to laugh in his face!) he didn't believe me and acted like I didn't know what I was talking about and this was all just poor quality fabric, etc. etc. Yeah, cause I've been doing crafty stuff including minor sewing projects since I was 10 - but you who are in a fabric store for about the 2nd time in your entire life, know more than me....

Anyway, I had decided I wanted the cover for the cushion to be removeable. Katie is only 5 after all, and although we don't allow her to eat food in her room, she does have markers and crayons and paints that she uses in there, and who knows what mischief a 5 yr old can get into right?

The fabric for the cover did not come in as wide a bolt as the fabric I used to enclose the cushion. I orginally intended to do either a zipper or an envelope back for the cushion, but I ended up doing this on the fly. The diagonal seems are all machine sewn - since I was using the fabric from selvedge to selvedge edge I didn't need to put in a hem to prevent fraying on the part of the fabric that didn't get sewn together. I just used a million pins to pin it tightly and to keep the fabric from slipping around and losing the shape I wanted. The opening works out fine, because it is just large enough to slip the cushion out of if I need to, but it is completely invisible on the back while the cushion is in place.

Now for the pillows - probaby won't make them until this weekend. The pillows are also a chenille, but in a lighter pink shade with hearts for the raised design instead of circles (Katie picked out both fabrics). I was thinking of using the small bit of fabric I have left from the seat cover to make piping on the lighter colored pillows to tie them together a bit. I've never done piping before though, so we'll see. I have pillow forms for them and will just do a standard envelope back on them, so except for the piping (if I go that route) they should be really easy to do. I'm in the middle of stitching a section on the Mira RR though, and having fun with that, so I'll probably wait to do the pillows until over the weekend.

Yes, I edited this after I realized I had missspelled "selvedge". :)

Stitcher's Heirloom Sampler Progress

I'm working on new window seat cushion for the big bay window in Katie's room and that and the endless gardening has been eating a lot of my stitching time. I did manage to stitch a little though and completed the first scene in the Stitcher's Heirloom Sampler by Victoria Sampler.

I'm hoping to share pictures of the window seat cushion in the next few days. :) I'm going to make coordinating pillows and am trying to decide whether to take a crack at doing piping around them, or to just glue on some cording when I'm done like a lazy dope. We'll see what wins out. I also received Sophia's Mirabilia RR today - which is a pixie-themed design. So I'll be working on that shortly too. :)

The Universe

Somedays I think the universe is just mocking me - you know playing head games and such. Today was shaping up to be a pretty awful day. It's TTOM for starters, which gives me headaches, sinus problems and insomnia. Didn't have the insomnia part, but check and check on the other two. Got to work this morning and I had forgotten my security fob so had to stand outside the office like a big DORK until one of the executives (why oh why couldn't it be the receptionist or the nice HR lady) comes by and lets me in. Then at lunch time I drop a big ole creamy noodle out of my lean cuisine microwave dinner right onto my satin-like shirt. Yeah, so I went the rest of the day with a palm-sized stain on my shirt that was VERY noticeable.

But then, one very good thing happened - I found out I got a new placement!! I interviewed on Monday and was starting to get nervous since I hadn't heard anything yet. Today my boss got the call though that I start July 1st. What a huge relief. Just before I found out, I was playing on facebook and took one of those silly quizes - this one read my fortune and said that something I was hoping for was going to happen - less than 30 minutes later my boss comes over to tell me.

Of course the day went right on being crappy except for that one huge good thing. My headache persists, I got to go pee in a cup for the new job in a seedy part of town, my mom called to try to weasel her way into coming an extra weekend this summer, the plants I planted over the weekend are threatening to wither and die, and I still have to figure out what to make for dinner.

Reading back over this, I think I have it figured out - The universe is saying, "Quit your whining - you got it pretty darn good girl!" Even after all the annoyances, I have to mark this day in the good column.

My Craft Room (to be)

This post is inspired by Susan, who is asking for pictures of your craft room so that she can get ideas for her own stitching room. :) As most of you know, I just moved into a new house too and having a craft/stitching room was definitely on the priority list. This is the only finished room in our basement, and as soon as we finish the rest of the basement so we can use it for our family and computer rooms, this will be mine (all mine!!). As you can see the room is currently serving as our second living room or a family room, the computer is in it, as is the lazy teenager most of the time! See there he is! And our old couch and the video game system. *sigh* but it will be all mine when the rest of the basement is finished. We are hoping that is later this year, but we are waiting to see if I get a new placement at work before we commit to spending any more money on the house for right now.

I did, however, unpack all my stash into the built in shelves though. This is the bulk of my stash - I also have my beads and a few WIPs and other miscellaneous supplies in a two-drawer end table next to my stitching chair upstairs, but this is pretty much everything else. Now that it is unpacked at least I can get to everything again. The door next to the shelves is an unfinished closet that goes under the stairs. I'm going to finish that off with more storage for crafty stuff too.

Oh, and I almost forgot, the previous owner left this huge storage closet in the unfinished part of the basement. I might just snag this for the craft room too. I'm thinking it will give me all the room I need to start a fabric collection and other miscellaneous supplies for all the crafty goodness I can stand! :)

Humpty Dumpty

A couple of pics of the latest afghan block and the whole afghan as it stands now. I think I will take a bit of a break from this for a little bit. I want to stitch on something else for a few days until the Mira RR comes, then maybe when I finish with that I'll come back to the afghan.

Thanks everyone for your comments on my garden - the ones here and some made on facebook really helped point me in the right direction. I'm slowly getting there on what I want/need to do to make it look decent. :)

One other thing, I think I'm going to skip entering anything in the Fair this year. I'm just not close enough to finishing anything, and in no mood to push myself to have a finish just to enter. I'm going to try to go to the judging though anyway. It is always a fun day. If you are thinking of entering something in the WI fair this year though, be aware the entry deadline is June 20 - so go check out the website if you want to enter. :)

We are Closed!

On the house that is. :) Our closing went off without much ado or any problems on Friday morning. Relieved isn't even the word for it. First item on the agenda after becoming the offical owners was to paint Alex's room. It was pink before:

And now it is green:

Neither picture is the best, and they show different angles of the room because I picked the one from each bunch of before and after pictures that showed the respective colors the best. I won't be winning any decorating awards for this room, and it still needs curtains, but at least we aren't forcing the almost 14yr old boy to live in a pink room anymore. :)

I also managed to transplant one of my hostas to the decrepit border garden around the house. Provided it takes well, I'll transplant a bunch more to finish off the area better. The more I look at the garden areas though, the more I see additional plants sprouting and blooming. It is hard to tell what is weeds and what is plant sometimes, but I'm learning. I weeded out a bunch today and want to get some mulch down soon to stop the weeds coming up so much. A little at a time is how it is gonna get done I'm afraid.

I got in a little more stitching on the baby afghan today too - will probably have another block to show in the next few days. Pretty soon I'll be mailing off my Mira RR and someone else's will arrive for me to stitch on - looking forward to that. :)

Rock a bye Baby

We had a little good news on the house today - the seller's bank says we can close whenever we want now! I'm excited, but also nervous that something will come up again at the last minute. The new closing is scheduled for Friday at 9:30am. Cross your fingers that this time it will really close and the bank has no more surprises.

Lately I just haven't had the concentration for any of my WIPs as they are all larger pieces. Instead I've been working on the baby afghan for my sister - each block is a quick finish. I've also been working on one of the smalls I got at Celebration, so hopefully I'll have that to show one of these days too. So the above picture is another of the nursery rhyme blocks from the baby afghan.

The job situation is looking up too - it sounds like I have a definite maybe for a new placement, which would be awesome and aleviate some of the "OMG, I have a larger mortgage payment and I might loose my job." angst I've been having.

So things are looking up, I hope, maybe, I think. Cross your fingers and say a prayer though just in case!

In My Garden

We are still in limboland with closing on the house, but since we are here, we've begun to settle in a bit. I moved my stitching down into the room that is to be my craft room - but haven't unpacked it and fully settled in yet. Here is the set of nifty shelves already built in where I can organize the stash.

We've also had the carpets cleaned - well the living and dining areas, bedrooms are being done next week and we bought a nice washer and dryer set since this house did not come with w/d and we didn't want to bring our old ones.

The thing I could most use some input on is the Garden areas outside. Since we looked at and made the offer on the house in early April, all we saw was last years dead grass and a bunch of leaves in the backyard. At the inspection in early May we saw some daffodils here and there which were beautiful. When we actually moved in we discovered there is a ton of flowerbeds that have probably been pretty much let go the last few years. We have a nice rose bush, lots of tulips and a few other perinnals, but also a lot of weeds. I'm afraid DH and I have decided to make much of it grass cause I just don't think I can keep up with that much garden. I took a bunch of photos though and any advice or even just telling me what kind of plant some are would be helpful. Then I can look them up and figure out how to take care of them. I'm thinking I might move some of the leafy plants from the largest area to some of the smaller garden areas when we plant grass in the largest area. Anyone know how well they take to being transplanted? I'm totally clueless about gardening - so any advice is good. I pretty much know what you learn in 1st grade from growing tomato plants - sun and water - other than that I'm stumped. Here is a link to the webshots albulm with all the photos - feel free to comment there or here with any suggestions.

Garden

Well, we moved

First let me say we are all moved into the new house. We are completely free and clear, clean and closed on the old house. I cried like a baby at 11pm Friday night when the last items were removed and we finished vacuuming and cleaning so the new owners could move into a clean home. It was a really good house and except for the apartment complex across the street that was becoming more rundown and us just generally outgrowing the place, we loved it there.

I'm sad to report that we did not have an uneventful closing/move to the new house though. We went to the walk-thru at the new house at 4pm on Thurs evening, and closing was scheduled for 10am Friday morning. We already had a good portion of the old house packed and loaded onto the moving van. When we got out of the car our realtor's face was just white. She told us that aparently the bank had continued to move on the foreclosure of the house even though they had accepted the short sale. Apparently there are two different departments at the bank and the right hand does not know what the left is doing. The seller aparently knew this but did not tell her realtor, so nothing was ever communicated to us and we thought we were smooth sailing since it was less than 24 hrs til closing. Anyway, bottom line was we couldn't close cause the bank did not have a payoff number because the foreclosure attorneys now need to get paid (even though they have accepted an offer before the foreclosure attorneys were in the picture).

We obviously did not want to be bullied into paying these fees just because it was the last minute and we had no where to go. We threatened to get an attorney and sue for breach of contract and basically the seller and the realtors agreed to let us move in under an occupancy agreement where we pay a very small rental fee per day til we can get the thing closed. The quasi-closing was really to set up this agreement and it was a little ugly because the seller, who is the person who is being foreclosed on was there and she was bitter about the whole thing and wanted us to pay more for the rent. We didn't want to pay anything because we felt we already agreed to get a mortgage to pay for the house - why should we ultimately increase our cost to own the house by paying rent until we close and then still pay the agreed price. We only agreed because the amount we are paying is so small that should the bank continue to drag their feet we are getting an awesome deal on living expenses. The seller felt we should pay what it would cost us to rent an extended stay hotel. The realtors all told her too bad - we shouldn't have to pay anything, and that we were getting the house. It wasn't down right hostile, but plenty uncomfortable.

So anyway, we are in, the house is a mess with stuff needing to be unpacked, and we are unsettled and stressed about whether this will all work out. The realtors are all saying it will, probably within the next week - but when I read up on short sales/foreclosures online there are plenty of horror stories that start out sounding like our situation... so we are hoping and praying for the best.

Soooo to completely switch gears and include a little stitching, here is a pic of the first block of the baby afghan I started for my sister. She is expecting her third child in January. I finished this inbetween packing the week before we moved. The afghan is going to be all mother goose nursery ryhmes (sp?).

New Mira RR

Here is my new Mira RR all ready to ship out on June 15. I think I'm going to request children and fairies for all the sections. :) The section I stitched is from Baby Boat.

Celebration Bobkin

This is another one of the projects we received at the Make It, Take It at Celebration. The first picture is with the Bobkins safely stored under the ribbon in their new holder and the second is the back of the holder with the bobkins out - so you can see what they are. :)

This stitched very quickly in about 2 hours on Sunday afternoon - just didn't get around to uploading the photos til now. This was my first attempt at Nun's stitch, so an easy quick finish to learn a new stitch! :)

I'm pretty close to having my Mira RR all ready to go too - just a bit more stitching on my section to go - hope to have a pic to post of that soon.

Celebration aftermath stitching

So since getting back from Celebration I've ignored all my WIPs and stitched only on stuff I got there. I really have not had that much time to stitch , but I did manage a little progress on Heirloom Stitching Sampler and to finish my Drawn Thread Fob.

I still need to do some over-one leaves and flowers around those squiggly lines on the top and sides of the sampler, but I'm happy with how it is coming out so far. I made the fob a little smaller than the design called for just because I wanted too.

Celebration of Needlework 2009

Sorry folks - picture intensive post! Just returned from my first ever Needlework Festival experience at Celebration, and it was a great time. Below is a picture of me with everyone I met from "the boards."

Standing is Carol, Kate, Robbin, Holy, & Erin. Sitting is me, Susan, and Erin.

Holly and Susan were gracious enough to let me share transportation to the airport and hotel accomodations with them. This means they also put up with my company the entire 3 days we were there. Yeah, basically they are saints! :)

The first day I was really, really tired. I usually am not so socked out by one bad night of sleep even with travel, but by the time Holly and I went to our Bumbling Bullions class at 3pm on Thurs. I was barely keeping it together. The class was great though and although I didn't finish any of the class piece I did learn to make a better bullion! I'm confident now that I can do the class piece, where before I probably would have just avoided doing it even though I like the little button designs. I would have been worried I couldn't do the stitch well enough and wouldn't have attempted it.

Later that night we went to the Make-It, Take-It classes. A great value, I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I could have picked my head up off the table for the majority of the time I was there. I found out later that Erin was even at my table for this, but I didn't know who she was at the time. :) I got lots of great projects and even managed to finish the Drawn Thread fob on Friday while stitching in the lobby.
I'm too lazy to go and look for all the designers names and the pattern names, but above is a picture of what we got. See my fob all stitched up on the right? I still need to put it together, but the stitching is done. All nice projects. I decided to give the bag on the far left to Katie. This project involved making flowers out of fabric using a plastic form - very easy and this afternoon I spent some time with her making a few more flowers and decorating the bag with them. She loves that she has her own craft bag now. :) She was just thrilled with it.

This is Erin, Susan, and Holly at the Intermediate Techniques Hardanger class we took on Saturday - I learned the picot which has eluded me for forever and a half and the Edelweiss stitch. Julie Norton was a fantastic teacher and a pleasure to be around. She talks a lot about her granddaughter, but she has a wonderful sense of humor and works really hard to ensure everyone in the class gets the most they can out of it. Even though there was one lady in the class who couldn't do basic Hardanger she managed to keep all of us moving at our own pace while patiently helping her with easier stuff too. Everyone learned - no matter what level they were at when they arrived.

Here are some more pictures from that class. I think it was my favorite because I learned the most.

Above is the class kit as we received it - Isn't it pretty - presentation is important you know! :)

Here is the kit after I got it home so you can see what was in the box. The book has very detailed instructions for how to do all kinds of fancy hardanger stitches. Below is the work I actually accomplished in class. Pretty darn good picots if I do say so myself! I'm also pretty proud of the Edelweiss - though I'll freely admit it still needs a little work. BUT I understand how it works now, it is just a matter of mastering the techinique from here.I also did quite a bit of stach enhancement while I was there. I purchased Marriage of Minds and Wayward Sampler from Drawn Thread, a fat quarter of 36ct antique white Lakeside Linen, two small kits from Colonial Designs (one of a ruler holder and fob, the other a pin cushion), 4 skeins of SNC (they were $4 each!) and the real budget buster: Heirloom Stitching Sampler by Victoria Sampler with fabric and thread pack. I just had to put a few stitches in Heirloom Sampler on Friday. I ended up buying a very narrow but long enough piece of fabric to work it on. I'll have to sew muslin on the sides to frame, but I think the coloring will work very well for the piece.

I also really enjoyed the round robins - these are a great way to get a lot of little projects without busting your bank account like you do for the regular classes. Of the 14 projects I got from the Make-it, Take-Its and the 2 round robins, I could honestly see myself doing about 12 of them. The two I couldn't see really doing were both by the same designer and she will remain nameless.

I think my favorite memories are of the people though. On Friday Holly, Susan, and I sat at a table along the edge of the high traffic area in the lobby and several people recognized us from the nametags Holly and Susan stitched and finished for us. It was nice to realize somebody out there really does read my blog - one lady knew all about my house drama even though I didn't "know" her at all. I felt a little like a celebrity stitcher. :) Everybody was friendly and nice and I really enjoyed getting to know several people from the boards a little better. I'm afraid they also got to know me a little better too - like don't give Jenny too much caffeine all at once! :)

I really hope I get to do it again someday and meet all the same ladies again and maybe a few more too.

More Heritage Sampler

Not so much to show this time either, but I did get A-F done in the over-one so I think that is pretty good. The close up shot shows the progress made this go-round. I'm not sure I like these orange and brown shades so much, but I think they will look better once I can see the piece as a whole come together. :)

I've just about finished with the frames on my Mira RR, so I'm going to start stitching my section next, hopefully I'll get to that tonight.

Oh, and thanks everybody for the well wishes on the house. :) :)

Holy Cow!

The bank just accepted our offer - IN WRITING and everything! Woo Hoo!! I can hardlly type. What a load off my mind. We get our closing date of May 22nd too! :)

Mira RR frames WIP

Well it isn't finished yet, but here is my progress on my layout for the Mirabilia RR. We are going with a smaller design size for each participant this time, so my sections are smaller. The plan is for each person to stitch something in one of the rectangular shapes or do two of the smaller squares. The fabric looks a bit more molted in this pic than in real life - it is 32ct Dreamin' Joblean by Silkweaver. When I'm done stitching in the frames the finished piece will be as wide and as tall as it is now - just fillin in the top left corner to do.

I had about all I could take for the next while of just stitching squares and rectangles so I'm putting this aside for a few days to work some on Heritage Sampler. I'll be back to this when I've had my fill of that.

Oh, I almost forgot. We have a verbal acceptance from the bank on the short sale (#2 below) house. Nothing in writing yet - which of course makes me all sorts of nervous, but that's where we are at.

Inspiration - Rosewood Manor

I finished the whole top! Actually I was almost there the last time I worked on it, but it was still satisfying to complete it. Next time I think I'll work on the inner rectangle of the design and see where that leads me.

In house news, the sellers have accepted our offer on the short sale, which I guess is good news, but means absolutely nothing if the bank doesn't approve it - so we shall see. :)

I decided to participate in another Mira RR (I know, I know, but I'm not moderating this time.) so I'm working on my layout for that next.

Housing update

We put in an offer on house #2. Even though it is a short sale, it has everything we need and has lots of potential to get all the things we want. The location is also the best of all the houses. #4 also has a good location, but despite being priced the highest and the description reading like it was perfect it was really NOT what we expected. A lot of maintenance has been let go and a lot of very obvious do-it-yourself shoddy workmanship in that house. The whole house had a really weird/awkward layout too.

Sooo we are giving the bank just one week to respond firmly to our offer, if not we'll move on and we've decided we'll offer on house #1 if that happens. Sooo we are still sort of in limbo, but we have a game plan and either way we'll be happy in either house. :)

Alahambra Garden WIP

I finished working on this several days ago now, but just took forever to take the picture and get it uploaded to the blog. This one is coming along nicely I think. :)

Ding Dong!

In case you're not familiar that is the sound that starts every episode of House Hunters on HGTV. I'm such an obsessive dork I've been watching that channel almost non-stop since we listed our house for sale.

We finally finished all the inspection negotiations and the Accepted Offer sign is firmly in place on top of the For Sale sign outside... which is just peachy, wonderful. No more cleaning for showings at a moments notice, no more open houses, no more angst about the backyard, etc. etc.

Until.... OMG! I have to move by May 22nd! How the H-E-double hockey sticks is all this gonna work out?? I need to somehow get another place even though we cannot close on the next place before we close on this one. I know we can put everything in a pod and close same day or next day and stay in a hotel for a day or two during the move, or we can rent back from our buyer, or we can rent ahead with the seller of the new place - but lordy I wish that was all worked out already. AND since both kids start new schools next year and we have a definite agenda for where we want Alex to go and the deadline has passed for him to go to apply for school choice, that limits our choices... sigh.

ANYWAY....

As promised, here are our current top picks - no promises that we will actually buy one of these mind you as none of them are really screaming "this is the one" very loudly... but they are the best (to us) of what is currently available.

House #1
Cheap but dated
This house was an early favorite and I posted about it before. We like the bones of the house and the neighborhood is pretty good too. The inside is pretty dated though - nothing that has to be fixed really, but there are tons of projects we'd want to do over time to update. It is not in Alex's high school district though. We might be able to get him in to his high school of choice anyway, but we don't know that for sure yet.

House #2
Newer Short-sale
This house has the newer look we like AND it has a private wooded backyard. This combination is exactly what we are looking for and seems pretty hard to find. Also the price is very attractive for a house this new. It is 2 blocks from Alex's high school and 3 blocks from one of the acceptable grade schools for Katie. The negatives are that it has a small kitchen (we are babied with a rather large kitchen at the moment, the current owner has a dog that has pooped all over the backyard (I know temporary problem, but still ewww!), the basement is unfinished, which we'd have to do and would be a major expense. The biggest problem though is that it is a short sale. We aren't sure that after being on the market for 6 months ourselves that we have the fortitude to pursue a short sale. We've heard stories of it taking months to negotiate an acceptable offer with the bank and we really need something we can move into on or near our closing date on this house.

House #3
Hot tub heaven
This house has many of our wants and all of our needs. It is in the same neighborhood as house #1 and is probably a bit overpriced. The agent selling this house is the same agent that sold our house and is functioning as our buyer's agent, so might be a conflict of interest. It has a hot tub that we know we'd enjoy for the first few weeks or so until it came time to clean and maintain the thing. The yard is okay, but not as nice as the other two houses. Biggest concern here is the same issue as house #1 - not in the right neighborhood for Alex's high school. It is a small thing, but it has a perfect craftroom with a built in craft desk under a window overlooking the backyard.

House #4 (yeah, I know HH only does 3 - so sue me!)
Pricey but perfect (maybe)
This house is the most expensive on our list, but it is listed about 20k above where it should be in my opinion. Of course even if we get it for a more acceptable amount, it is still the most expensive option. We haven't actually been inside yet because the owner put it on the market with one of those "do-it-yourself" type realtors that doesnt' have an agent for the property and then went on a trip to Europe. WTF? Who does that? Sooo they are probably not that motivated to sell. The house is newer, has a wooded lot, is close to Alex's desired high school, has a man cave complete with sound system (DH is totally drooling over that one!) and has a big soaker tub (my drool) and a large upgraded kitchen.

So which one will we choose?

Accepted Offer

I’m almost afraid to post this…but we have accepted an offer on our house! We got our full asking price (we had just reduced the price) but the buyer asked for closing costs, so after we figured that in we sold for a little less than asking. I think the ladies that came to my GTG must have been a good luck charm! We had 4 showings back to back on Sunday and our realtor managed to schedule the eventual buyers last so that they would see all the other realtor cards on the table (they were coming back for a 3rd viewing, so we felt it a good bet they were a little interested).

We have not been through the inspection process yet, but I understand that should happen rather quickly – like within the next week. I won’t really breathe easy that the sale is “for sure” until that process is over. Blame it on watching too much HGTV or whatever. We aren’t expecting anything to come up, but I guess you just never know. I know our retaining walls in the back are old and such, but they don’t pose a safety hazard or a drainage problem, so we are hoping that won’t be an issue. So we are cautiously optimistic, yet afraid to trust this is it, given how the earlier offer fell through.

I’ve already had a question or two on facebook about what houses we have in mind for moving to… we have about 4 on our short list. Provided the inspection goes well and we can actually start thinking about buying one of them, I’ll post links so you can all play along like on House Hunters! Ha.

It's a Tree!

At least I've made enough progress that now you can tell what it is! I can actually begin using a different color any time I'm ready now too because I can do the letters "Mother's Tree". :) Looking forward to when I can start on the names!

I've decided I'm going to work on my Alhambra Garden during the GTG tomorrow! :)

Not much to show

Not so much to show for a week's worth of work, but that seems to be par for the course these days. I completed the top band in the section where the names will go and I extended the outermost border down on each side. Didn't do any over-one this time, but will get back to that the next time I pick it up.

I'm stitching on my Mother's Tree next. I wanted to work on my Angel of Summer since she is the closest thing in my WIP to a finish, but I cannot find her pattern. I've searched high and low and cannot find the @#$! thing. I know it is here somewhere and someday I'll run across it somewhere really odd and wonder why I ever stuck it there. *sigh* For now I'll just work on something else - it isn't like I don't have enough things to stitch!

I never used to be like this!

I've always had some sort of rotation or plan for how I was stitching - never was I really a screaming rotation kind of girl. Lately, not so. I just stich whatever, whenever. I guess with the economy being bad and the house not selling and such I just feel like it is one of the few things I *can make* go just my way.

Anyway here's my progress on Stone Roses. I'm gonna go back to my Heritage Sampler now even though many of my projects haven't been touched since the last time I worked on it. *oh the horrors*

Birthday Stash

This is just part of what Sean got me for my birthday. He actually went to froggystitcher.com , looked up my wishlist and ordered a bunch of stuff off of it. Pretty cool huh? Remind me not to complain about anything he does for the next while. :)

Pictured is A Fair Maiden's Etui by With my Needle, Cirque des Carreaux by Ink Circles, 32ct Waterlily Joblean (my fav fabric ever!) a dragonfly needleminder from Kelmscott Designs, and Enchanted Dreamer by Mirabilia. DH also ordered JBW's Advent Calendar, the letter "J" Angel fairy needleminder from Kelmscott Designs, and the AppleSeed Needle Book pattern from Jeanette Douglas. Karen from Froggystitcher is sending the rest when it comes in but didn't want me to have to wait to fondle all my birthday stash. :)

This might be one of my biggest stash hauls ever and to think DH ordered it all! Knock me over with a feather. :) :)

Hen Party finished. :)

I came across this JP Threads tin in my stash/linen closet today and decided it would make the perfect finish for Hen Party. :) I'm going to use it to store part of my threads stash.

I think it came out rather well. I stitched this on Norfolk Blend 32ct linen from R&R Reproductions and I changed the DMC 676 in the trim on the house and sun to an orange shade of DMC so that it would stand out against the fabric. I'm forgettting just what color I used now, but it was something in the 900 range of the oranges.

Thank you Kelly for gifting me with such a fun chart - I'll think of you every time I dig into my threads. :)

Hen Party

Just a few photos to brighten things up after the last post.

I decided to go ahead and post a progress pic for Hen Party. Susan and Holly are also doing this one. :)

And this doesn't look like much, but Katie got up on the bar at gymnastics last week. She has been so afraid of doing anything that required any kind of height, so this was a big deal for her. Of course it would be a better photo if she were looking at the camera, but the picture is taken from behind the glass from the viewing room that overlooks the gym, so I had to snap while I could and hope it turned out halfway decent.

Much Stress = Little Stitching

Just a general update from me:

There was massive blood letting at work on Friday. About 50% of the contractors in the area I sit were cut from the company I'm placed at. It was a really tough week. I was told on Tues. that the contractor that reports to me and one other from my writing group were going to get the ax. I wasn't allowed to say anything though - they only told me so that I could make sure all the work was backed up somewhere and such. I was pretty troubled by that alone, but when Friday came and lots and lots of contractors across the company all found out it was their last day that was really hard. Also on Tuesday I found out from my contracting agency that someone who was "benched" (we are all on salary so we get paid when we don't have a placement, otherwise known as being "benched") had to be let go because there were no forseeable placements for him. He was a friend with two young kids at home and his wife is a SAHM, so I felt really bad for him.

Of course much of this news came on Tues - right when we were trying to negotiate the offer on the house. It definitely influenced us not to be as flexible with our price. No use buying a bigger house if I'm getting layed off and cannot make the payments. There is rumor at work that they are going to be getting rid of all the "local" (non-offshore) contractors over the next several months. It is just rumor, but it makes sense that is where they would cut if more cuts are needed so I'm not feeling very secure. Then again, I know my department has more work than it can handle and technical writing does not lend itself well to offshore contracting (not that they won't try to do it anyway though).

So DH and I are weighing the options with the house. Right now we still have it on the market. I'm not afraid to sell - we can rent for about what our mortgage is now. I am worried about buying bigger and having a larger payment though. We might go ahead and sell, and then wait to see what happens (if we are even lucky enough to sell that is). We'll save whatever we make on the sale and buy when and if we feel my job is secure enough. I hate to think this way, and I know some who read my blog are Obama fans, but some of the economic decisions being made right now have me thinking home prices are only going to plummet for the next while. Might be smart to sell at a reasonable price now (again if possible) and buy even lower in a year or so. We know the house we are in now is not our "forever" house, so there is no fear of "losing it" to a buyer.

So stressing over all of the above means that I've gotten almost no stitching done recently. I do have some progress on "Hen Party" for the SAL I've been doing with Holly and Susan, but it seems silly to show a WIP pic for such a small design. I will post a pic when I finish it, which should be soon.

The bright spot? I'm still going to Celebration - no matter what - and I've picked out my classes. I'm taking:

Bumbling Bullions (always wanted to learn bullions properly)
Make it/Take It
Both RRs
Mary Queen of Scots sampler
Hardanger Intermediate Techniques

A lot of classes for 3 days I know, but I don't know when I'll get another opportunity to go to one of these, so I want to take what interests me.

House update

Well – the offer fell through. We are happy with our decision though, we came down as far as we could and well below what comps in our neighborhood are selling for. They wouldn’t budge at all. Their realtor told ours that they are backing away from the offer on our house and will begin looking again in a lower price range. The difference in our counter from their original offer would have only meant $40/month difference in their payment. If it was that close for them, it makes me worry the financing wouldn’t have held up anyway.

It would not have made sense for us to accept their original offer as it would not have given us the down payment we need for the next house. If the market is truly that low, then it makes the most sense for us to stay put…

So we are disappointed but feel we did the right thing. Our realtor has set another showing appointment with a different buyer for tomorrow btwn 6 and 7pm. So there is still interest, I keep coming back to if we are really overpriced no one would be scheduling showings. It was only 10 days ago that we had 4 showings in one weekend – all is not lost.

The silver lining: DH and I did really well through all of this – we didn’t argue or fight at all – we knew our game plan and where our bottom was and we played it just like we discussed we would and had no conflict between us at all. We didn't let our realtor push us into doing something we personally weren't comfortable with either (which she did try to do - she wanted that commission). I look back on our 14 yrs together and I have to smile and feel grateful at how far we’ve come and how our relationship has matured. What would have caused great stress and conflict a few years ago is playing out so smoothly now. I guess we’ve learned something over the years anyway.

Finally!

OMG! We have an offer – the number is not where we need it to be, but I think it is close enough to meet in the middle somewhere…. My head is spinning and my concentration for the day is shot! More later… hoping to have an accepted offer sign in front of my house soon!

P.S. The offer is from the 1 out of 4 couples who did not complain about the slope!

I'm going to Celebration! :)

For those of you not familiar, here's the link.

Finally convinced the DH to agree to my going to one of these. Been wanting to do it for years. Not so much I needed his permission, rather I was looking for his blessing - after all I will be gone for a few days and he'll be on his own with the kids. Something I wouldn't really enjoy doing for him either. He has reluctantly agreed and I wasted no time sorting through a bunch of classes trying to decide what to take.

I had to eliminate anything that was on Wednesday because the very earliest I'll be able to arrive is late Wed night (Thurs by noon is more realistic). I'll also be leaving sometime on Sat. so anything late on Sat. or on Sun is also out. That at least helped me weed out the selection a bit.

Here are some I'm considering - help me decide - which ones do you like?

King James Needlecase
Pretty in Pink Etui and needlebook
Round Robins (I'm definitely doing at least one of these)
Mary Queen of Scotts sampler (nice description, but no pic)

Scratch that - DH IS my best friend!

Apparently 3 out of 4 home buying couples think our yard is too sloped. *sigh* The 4th couple saw that the house 2 doors down is for sale and wants to see that one before they make a decision. The other house is only 2 bdrms and has an even worse slope in their yard. So anyway, yeah, I'm so over trying to sell my house, and that isn't what this post is supposed to be about anyway!

Looky, Looky, I got roses for Valentines! And choccy too. YUM! The good kind. So the weekend wasn't a total loss. DH saves the day. :)

My realtor is my new best friend...

She called AGAIN last night at about 7pm to set up yet another showing for this weekend. This one is another couple for whom we've made their 2nd cut list. So for those of you keeping track, that is 4 total showings, 2 of which are 2nd showings...

It's getting really hard not to count chickens!!

House happenings

Cross your fingers for us – we have 3!, yes 3 showings for this weekend. Two on Sat. and one on Sunday. The best part is that the couple coming on Sunday already saw our house once (last night) and their realtor told ours that we are at the top of their list. They are revisiting their top 3 on Sunday and making a decision then.

I probably shouldn’t get too excited until I see an offer or what it is, but I don’t know if I can help myself. This isn't the first time I've been all excited about a prospective offer, only to have it not materialize...

Alhambra Garden - half way there

Since I have two of the side triangles and two of the diagonal triangles and all of the center I'd say I can claim this is half way done, right? This time I did the diagonal triangle on the right, the foliage underneath and the purple bridge thing to the left of the foliage. I guess it is a bridge, I dunno - looks pretty anyway right? :) So I'm having a small half-way done with AG dance.

I had to put away all my 'big stitching stuff' - the stand for my charts, the lap stand, the boxes of threads that normally sit by my chair for a showing yesterday and for the open house tomorrow - so I'm just gonna stitch on small travel type projects for the next day or two. When I do pull out something big again I'm going to work on my Angel of Summer.

Facebook

Seems everywhere I turn nowadays friends and collegues are telling me I need to be on Facebook. So I finally caved and created a page. If you know my real name (and considering the post below this one you should!) you can find me and friend me.

I took the opportunity to update my profile image here and put the new pic on my facebook profile. Hope to see some of my needlework friends there. :)

Not much stitching news to report - I'm working on Alhambra Garden, but progress is slow. I'll take a pic though in the next few days and post it before moving onto something else. Hmmm... probably Angel of Summer.

Over one overload - Heritage Sampler

This time I worked mostly on the over one lettering "Fauls" (our surname) and "Family" and "J" and "F" to sign it around the tree ornament. I also started the "golden vines border" that you see beneath the tree ornament.

I'm a bit overloaded on the over one for now - and considering the alphabets on each side and then the names, I'm glad I have lots of other projects to switch out to! I am really happy with the progress so far though - really like how it is turning out. I have to admit to not really be 100% sure about the oranges and yellows and browns with the light green in the "golden vines border". Especially on the gray fabric. We'll see though, I bet it will blend in better when I get in a row or two in the sampler/names section.

And the Winner Is....

Kathy! :)

I just had Katie pick a name out of the basket (now you know what you can use if for Kathy!) so nothing scientific. Now hmmm what to put in it before I mail it off!

Kathy could you email me your snail addy - my email is jfauls @ wi.rr.com (remove spaces).

I'm trying to get in some stitching on Heritage Sampler this weekend, but we have an open house and a showing on Sunday which means most of my weekend will be consumed by cleaning and by being out of the house so others can see it. Hoping for just a little progress though - we'll see. :)

Inspiration progress

I managed to get in some stitching over the weekend on Inspiration by Rosewood Manor. The colors are more true on the left side of the photo where my light was shining when I took the pic.

I also managed to finish my French Monogram design into an actual basket. It turned out okay I think, but I'm still not itching to make any more. I decided I'd give it away as one of my "Pay it Forward" gifts. So if you'd like to have it, make a comment to this post and I'll draw someone at random. Psst... I'll load it up with some other goodies inside too! Not sure exactly what yet, but it will likely be based on whose name is drawn and what chocolate I can get hold of. :)

Katie's first Happy Dance

Excuse the tinkerbell pjs, but I thought I'd share Katie's first happy dance. She has taken great interest in my stitching lately. She keeps asking me if she can stitch, and since I don't think she is really ready for a "real needle" and project yet, this is what I came up with. Someone on one of the boards recently mentioned doing this as a craft project, so I had it in the back of my mind for Katie. As you can see, it is just a page from a coloring book pasted on cardboard. I used a holepunch for the holes and the thread is DMC, but yarn would probably have worked even better - I just didn't have any on hand. Somewhere I got a big blunt-tipped needle that worked great. I doubled the thread in half with the needle in the fold of the thread and then knotted the two ends onto the first hole for her so that she couldn't loose her needle. She had a blast "stitching" her reindeer. :) :)

Ah, common ground with my daughter at last. :)

Job Security

Well, I finally have news on my contract. It is good news, but scary at the same time. My boss at the client called me into a meeting on Friday to tell me they've decided to make me the lead writer on this major project that is VERY high profile for the company. It is the whole new way they are delivering their product to their clients and the way it is presented and documented (my job) is very important. It is going to involve me overseeing the work of at least one other contractor and possibly more. It is also going to involve me writing and pitching a documentation plan to the executive team.

OMG! I'm feeling a little bit over my head as although I've been funcitioning as a lead/senior writer within my group I've never had to supervise anyone else's work (at least not beyond editing it) and standing in front of people pitching my ideas has never been my strong suite. I'm a reluctant leader type - meaning I can do it when I need to - but my personality is really not very assertive, so it only happens when I sort of get pushed into that position - like now! Anyway, this means there is no way they are getting rid of me anytime soon - even if they decide they need to cut the budget and get rid of some contractors, I'd probably be first on the priority list of keeping around because of this project.

The boss at my client told me she picked me because of all the leadership I've shown in the last few months (I was called on to give input to the team on some new writing standards and apparently she thought I did well.) I just sort of feel like an imposter who has them all fooled into thinking I know what the h - e - double hockeysticks I'm doing, when I'm just sort of feeling in the dark. But I'm a fake-it-til-you-make-it believer too, so I'll carry on.

After they told me about this new role I emailed my boss at my contracting firm to let him know and he was all pumped too. This is exactly the kind of next step he had identified for me at last year's review. This year's review is next week, but he went ahead and told me anyway that he is promoting me to Technical Writer II at that review, which doesn't sound like much, but at my company it means you can bill more, fall into a higher salary range, and lead projects on your own, so it normally comes with more money and respect. In light of the recent paycut across the whole company I doubt I'll see any more money right now, but I'm still glad to be progressing rather than stagnating.

So after going on far too long about all of that, basically my new contract is through the end of September 2009, but really that will probably get extended too because that date was apparently decided before they gave me the new project. I am probably set through June of 2010. I light of that and a raise that Sean just received (gotta love a union gov. job with preset increases) we are going to go ahead with purchasing another home should be lucky enough to sell this one. So I'm happy, but scared I'll fall on my face!!

Delusions of Grandeur

Every now and then I get this wild look in my eye and decide I'm going to do some big ass project that I somehow think will take no time at all and everyone will think is so great and neat and whatever... Ha! Then I realize not so much. Please make me feel better and tell me you do that sometimes too - lie if you have to.

The pic is of French Monogram Basket by Twisted Oak designs. I looked at the pattern, saw that it was just the same small motif four times. I thought - "Hey I can make a bunch of these for all my friends! I can do a bunch of different colorways too - it's gonna be so neat." I used some 32ct linen from Silkweaver that came in one of their grab bags so I don't know exactly what it is - the colors are showing up reasonably well though so you get the idea.

I thought I'd crank one of these out every two weeks or so while doing other projects too so I wouldn't get bored. Ha! It took all my stitching time for more than 2 weeks to finish. Also it never occurred to me that I might need more than one skein to do all four motifs until I was well into it. I didn't quite make it with the one skein of Dinky Dyes Amethyst silk I used, but luckily I had an oops pack of Jo's from a couple years back that had a shade similiar enough to fake it if cut in the right place for the last 30 stitches or so. Then I went to find backing fabric to actually make it into a basket I was thinking in my head that I had some emerald green velvet that would look great next to the deep purples. First the velvet I had was not in any pieces big enough to work, then the shade of green didn't go as well as I thought it would. *sigh* nothing else in my small stash of fabrics would really work either, so now I have to shop.

And oh yeah, there is no way I'm making any more than just this one - at least not for a very long time! So after this debacle I'll just go back to stitching on some WIPs and hope the next time the creativity bug bites me I plan a little better and have some more realistic expectations!

General update

As you can see from the picture - Alex just had braces put on. I couldn't convince him to smile much more than that, he is a little embarrassed about how crooked the teeth are right now. Hopefully that will be a different story soon enough though now that he has the braces. And gosh, he is getting so tall, I took this picture facing him and we were at eye level with each other. I know I'm biased and all, but don't ya think he is growing up so handsome? :)

Still no word on my contract. I am also up for my performance review though, and my boss at my contracting firm just met with my onsite bosses at the client regarding my performance. After their meeting, the boss from the contracting firm emailed me to say we need to update my resume. When I asked why, he said I had apparently gained a new skillset - walking on water! So if they don't renew me for as long as I'd like it won't be because they don't think I'm doing a good job. Got 'em all fooled I guess. :) So anyway, still no decison on what to do with the house - all the traffic we had been seeing has suddenly dried up anyway - we had one second showing, but they decided to buy a condo instead to avoid yard maintenance (older empty-nesters). It has been more than a week since our last showing, so the whole thing might be a moot point anyway. No matter what jobs we have/don't have we aren't moving unless this place sells first.

Stone Roses progress

Here is my progress thus far on Stone Roses. Not a ton done, but she has a face. I really, really, like to do faces first on pieces that have them. :)

Not too much else going on. DH and I are kind of in a holding pattern on any decision on the house. My contract at my current placement is up for renewal and although they've told me they are definitely extending the contract (in fact it technically expired on 12/31, and I'm still working and getting paid) they just haven't said how long yet. That new expiration date will influence any decision we make since it will represent how long I have a "for sure" contract and paycheck. The date they threw at me last I checked was 12/31/2009 which would be great, but the date could also be as soon as 3/31/2009 (they usually go in quarters) so we'll see.

New Year's Mish Mash

The Good - cause we should always start with the good right? :)

My family is all well, DH and I both still have good jobs, the kids are healthy, well-adjusted and doing well in school. We have enough money to pay all our bills and even some extra for savings and fun.

Showings on the house have continued to pick up - we have had multiple showings every week for the past 4 weeks.

Also, I got in some good progress on Angel of Summer, I actually even enjoyed working on her as she goes pretty fast. I'm toying with the idea of making her a focus piece to finish her more quickly as she is easily the closest thing to a finish in the WIP pile.

I did decide to start Stone Roses, so I'm working on her today and will continue on her until I feel ready to move on. I'll post a progress pic when I do.

The Bad - because there is always something, right?

I got a letter in the mail yesterday from my consulting firm. They are cutting my salary by 6%. I know times are tough all over, so I'll try not to whine about it too much, I know in this economy not everyone is lucky enough to still have a job.

I can survive the 6% just fine, so it isn't really the money that is bothering me - it is knowing that the company is in enough trouble that they had to do it. Makes me wonder if the other shoe is gonna drop, ya know? Still I cannot imagine they would fire me while I have a placement that is actually brining in money, so I'm pretty sure I'm safe - for now. If I get benched - I'll be worrying though.

The Ugly

The above now has me questioning whether we should really go through with selling our house and buying another. DH has a pretty recession-proof job so we're good financially if we stay here if I loose my job. On the other hand we can still afford a bigger house now even with the salary cut and even if I had to take a lesser paying job should I be laid off. It would be a lot more stressful though. A big part of me believes that buying now is a big financial opportunity if you can do it - but it feels a little like a gamble right now - and I don't like gambles.