Weekend Stitching

I was able to get back into the routine of stitching on the weekend.  And let me tell you, it felt soooooo good to be able to do so.  I gave a lot of time to Christmas Eve Fun and made some serious progress.  When looking at my progress photos, it looked like I hadn't stitched on this piece for about a month! I'm almost to the point where I can move my hoop.  Woo-hoo!

On Sunday I gave a about two more hours to Wiseman 2.  All I have left to do on him is add the beads to his beard and then some other little sparkly bits on his box and in the sky.

I just have one more wiseman and the holy family to stitch up and then it's time to figure out how to finish them all off.

This week I anticipate doing more work on the packing up of my house to sell.  I talked to a Realtor last week and will hear back from him this week on the best price point for my property.  I'm definitely not going to make any money on this one, and there's the very real possibility of loosing some cash on it.  Major bummer.  As I was talking to my family about selling the house and getting ready to move out, my brother had this look of horror on his face.  He had just realized that he would be called on to help with the move, and he had helped so well with the move in. ... You see, my house is 31 steps up from the ground floor.  There's a lot of hauling that's going to be going on.

Plants!

Grandma's funeral and other services went very well last week.  The music at her funeral was especially beautiful.  Many thanks to all of our family and friends who came out in support.  There were many, many flower arrangements sent, which Grandma would have loved since she was a gardener.  The family decided to divvy up the flowers for all of us to enjoy instead of taking them down to Filmore for the burial.  And a good thing too, since the snow was falling horizontally for the graveside services.  Here are pictures of the plants that I am going to try to keep alive.  I might have to replant several of these for them to stand a better chance of survival, but they are so pretty as is, I don't really want to pull them apart.

Anyway...  Here are the plants:

Above is the one plant that won't have to be re-potted right away.  I wish I knew the name of it so I could look up how to better care for it. (And look, left over Christmas decorations that are still up...)

This is a large arrangement of live plants.  It almost takes up the whole area in front of my fireplace.  I'm pretty sure I'll need to pull him apart.  I know I've got a mini palm and maybe a calla lily in there.  What that red plant is, and the variegated plant in front, and another type of plan to the left... I don't know what they are.

A cute basket of plants I put on the table next to my sofa.  I've got ivy and maybe another palm type plant in there, also a small rubber tree plant.  The rest, I have no idea.  The yellow flowers are super cute, though.  (And in the background, boxes of items I've been boxing up to get the house ready to sell.)

The last basket of plants.  Quite similar to the first basket, but I've got a calla lily, ivy, palm type plant and sheffelara (shuffelara?)... However it's spelled.  The rest, I don't know.  Maybe I should pot like plant with like plant.  That would probably be the best idea.

I've spent the past couple of days that I've been back to my house packing up stuff to get the house ready to sell.  I've finally got the regular Christmas stuff put away, and later today, the Christmas stuff that is always up with be put away.  Here's that little vignette:

The lighting is bad since I'm taking the picture towards the window.  When I remodeled the house, I had shelves installed above the sliding glass door in the living room (The white shelf you can see everything sitting on.)  Mom paper pieced the wall hanging, and the rest is just little things I like a lot.  I'll be sad to get it all put away and to not have my little bit of Christmas up year 'round.

The sun is shining, and I'm off to the gym to get my work out in here after lunch.  it's really too bad that the weather predictors are telling us that there will be snow over night.  I look forward to reaching the point where I don't have to run the heater or the air conditioner.  Those are my favorite months of the year.

Weekend Stitching

Well, it's been an odd week.  I didn't get much done during the week as Grandma was feeling poorly and I was doing my best to cheer her up and get her feeling better.  On Thursday my Aunt and I took her into the emergency room and I am very sad to say that she passed away early Friday morning.  Heart failure.  However, we do believe in an after life and I know that she is now without aches and pains, can see perfectly clearly again, and is reunited with her husband and all of her family and friends who have passed on before her.

The rest of the weekend has been filled with funeral plans as all of Grandma's children have gathered together.  There has been some stitching.  I've made a little heart to tuck into Grandma's casket.  While I know she really can't take it with her, it comforts me to think that she'll have it with her.  Here it is before I get it sewn up into a little pillow.

Today was Sunday and I started on my next Wiseman.  I got a lot stitched on him while I listened to Dad and my Aunts and Uncle plan the program for the funeral and write up the obituary.  There's a lot to do with this death thing.  I urge all of you to get your wills, living wills, power of attorney (money and medical), and other related items all in order.  Grandma had her papers in order and that has helped things out immensely!  This will be a little rememberance that I'll keep.  Anyway, here he is:

During a break in driving up and down the road, from my house to grandma's, to mom and dad's house, I managed to get my little quilt on the long arm.  I've done about two and half rows of a floral pattern. You can see a bit of the design down in the lower right hand corner on the machine.  Hopefully I'll be able to get it done this week... Sometime in between running up and down the road, attending all the funeral related events.

I hope your week brings you some joy.  Go hug those close to you and tell them how much you love them.

TUSAL - April 3, 2011

It's that time of the month again!  I took my little jar upstairs and took a picture of it with my two little dogs, Pinky and Dude.  Here it is for your enjoyment!