A Fall finish and some puppy pics

Here is a finish for the fall, Autumn Bouquet it stitched up quick and now it is finished. The only thing I am rethinking is my initials/date in the straw coloured floss of the alphabet. I really liked the dark red but jeez I don't want that to be the first thing you look at.
It is only one over one so pulling it out will be no trouble.....

Autumn Bouquet Maria Gossard - Cedar Hill
28ct Graziano Milan
Included DMC Floss


I forgot to post a picture of the roses we got for this weekend. Since we are coming back into to the fall the Leonidas coloured roses are back, they are one of my favorites.
Here is a closeup....



I got some shots of the other puppies last night so here is Mama aka Hunny and sweet Pete.



She was yawning her fool head off, although she does look like this when she sleeps,
with that silly tongue just hanging out.
But just say the word cookie


and boy does she perk right up.....

Then there is the Pete, a busy little boy that just keeps trotting around the house. Although here he is running from the paparazzi chasing him....

That's a crazy Batman angle I must say.


We had a two day heat wave where the temps climbed into the upper 70's.
I actually did not have to wear my sweatshirt in the afternoons!! :)
I think today it will be back to normal as the fog was pouring over Twin Peaks.

Here is one more of the Mama..... you know she is thinking....


"Didn't I hear there was a cookie somewhere."


I know I'm pretty silly about these little dogs!!!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Take care,
edgar

It was a great Party!!! and a little stitching

WARNING.....this is a very dessert picture heavy blog today.......

Saturday night was a great success!!! Rico had picked up the cake in the morning and here is a picture, as promised.....


The dinner buffet that we served was two kinds of pork loin, peppercorn and BBQ, almond/garlic haricot verts ( because when you do more than steam them a green bean needs a better name :) ) roasted little Yukon gold fingerling potato's and buttermilk biscuits. Kimmie and Kevin also brought over two wonderful pies, one cherry and one chocolate creme.






Sweet Carol and Pat brought over a gorgeous fruit tray but I didn't take a picture. :(

We all sang Happy birthday with the candles and everything......


Then we hacked into that beast and I had forgotten how nice the filling was as it is flavoured with rum.......




I did get a little stitching done last night on AB while watching "Down to Earth" 1947 with Rita Hayworth. A silly movie but worth watching just for Rita. Wasn't she just the most gorgeous thing, and what a talent!!!!

Here is a snap of AB



You can see how the alphabet colour is very subtle. Eileen brought me more #301 DMC - brown-orange so I could finish out the left side leaf. All that's left is the back stitching and the little saying at the bottom. I really like the fall colours that are used
and this stitched up so quick.

I'll leave off today with a picture of the Peach in disguise as
"Togue-Zilla" the lickiest dog on earth!!


Hunny and Pete had gone to bed already but the Peach will wait till all hours until the lights and TV are off and everyone has gone upstairs to bed before she takes off to her bed
or her pillow in the big bed.

Thanks for stopping by, hope all is well and everyone had a great weekend!!!!!

Love those comments!!!!


edgar

Stitching Bloggers Question of the Week

I have read many of these questions on lots of blogs and find the answers fascinating. Since we all Blog or are read by people interested in cross stitching learning bits about each other is wonderful and makes each of us understand just a little more about our compatriots in the cs world. I think that we all share so many things in common and yet are all different in the way we approach this hobby/craft.
To get to the Question:

How did you get started stitching? Was there a person that inspired you?

My start came while I was in college. Although my mother has been in the past an avid stitcher doing cross stitch and needlepoint
she was not the person to get me interested in cs or needlepoint.

I went to East Carolina University for my undergraduate degree, GO PIRATES!!!!!, and my first year there I rented a room from a friend of my mothers. Mrs. Pascal rented all of her upstairs bedrooms out to college students. Being a widow living alone in a really big house I think she enjoyed the noise and activity. Well, it was there that I met LouAnn. Just the sweetest girl and she was a stitching fool. Every afternoon I would get home from class and there she was working away at some project watching As the World Turns, another bad habit I picked up. :)

She eventually showed me how to cs and how different patterns could be interpreted in needlepoint as well as cs. The first needle project I did was a needlepoint pillow that was charted for cs. I had lots of fun making it and it lives at my mothers house. Every time I see I see all the problems that exist in the needlework but also after all these years I still get a rush of satisfaction about the finish. I went on to other projects always working on Aida cloth. Then for about a 10 year period I didn't touch any needle project at all. I don't know why, no inspiration, burned out who knows......

Then last year I felt the need to finish those stockings I had been working on for so long they were truly a UFO!!! That led me to looking back at the little bit of stash I had kept from before. The momentum kept building after working up a project on Aida cloth. Then I found a linen project I wanted to try. Up until that time linen intimidated me something awful. I finished that, the fruit basket with bird in my kitchen.
That all led to today where I am once again stitching almost everyday and really enjoying it!!!!

Hope that answers the mystery that is my stitching past.

Take care,
edgar

More silk for VOHRH and some stitching

I worked on Autumn Bouquet a little last night. I was paying more attention to "The Painted Veil." A movie that was even too boring for me to watch. I couldn't really get into it so I didn't even finish.

Here is the progress for AB.


If you look in the upper left you can see the start of the alphabet the surrounds the entire thing. These letters are stitching up rather light, but I guess in the end will be just fine. The piece really looks kinda funny with the floating little flower heads but it will all tie together after the backstitching is done. I didn't stitch to long last night as we are having a load of people over for a birthday jamboree on Saturday. I was really busy as I had to polish up the silver and iron out the linen napkins. I will pick up the linen tablecloth at the dry cleaners today. I just don't have the patience or stamina to iron out a giant linen tablecloth. I have tried and it just isn't worth the effort as I can never get it as crisp as the professionals do using a hand iron.

We also ordered a St Honore cake from Dianda's bakery in the Mission and will pick that up Saturday morning. If you have never had one of these wonderful things they are basically just cream filled puffs of pastry that is slathered in more cream, who could ask for anything more. Or for the official definition that I lifted : A traditional French cake named for Saint Honore the patron saint of pastry bakers. It consists of a base of pâté brisée topped with a ring of cream puffs that are dipped in a caramel coating prior to being positioned on the base. This caramel coating "glues" the puffs together. The center of the ring is then filled with Saint-Honoré cream--crème pâtissière lightened with beaten egg whites or whipped cream.
It is one of our favorite cakes!!! mm mm good :)

I also had a visit from the silk fairy. More fabu silk for the VOHRH. Boy am I itching to start this piece. Here is a snap of what Drema from Needlecarft Corner sent me.



She is so nice and the speedy delivery is a real plus!!!!! If you have noticed I am over ordering these skeins. Not only because I am a nervous sticther and really worry about running out of silk, but they are on sale and you can't beat the price. Worrying about running out of silk is just one of my many mental disorders I guess!!!! I am almost there with all the colours and only need to get the linen. The acquisition of linen is really hard as I have to feel/touch it and really look at it before I can buy it. I find it hard to buy on linen on line if I have a project in my mind and an idea as to what I want to do it on. As we all know the difference in dye lots can really be dramatic...so I will go in person to my LHN and pick it for myself. It also rationalizes the trip over..... and there may other things I have to get, you never know.

Have a great weekend!!!!! I love those comments, THANKS!!!!


Take care,
edgar

A little Stash and a couple of movies

I had a visit form the USPS and was delivered a few eBay wins. I really like eBay as it lets you have a chance a getting those OOP charts. There are so many things that are still being done and have just gone OOP and are really hard to find. Sometimes as many of you know the bidding can get ridiculous. Yes, I have gone crazy for something that I really wanted, in fact quite psycho could aptly describe a few of the purchases I have made. These few thing happen to not fall into that category but are things I have seen off and on and have finally won.


I got the Sarah Tatum Quaker chart, Quaker Black Swan sampler from Exemplar Dames, Autumn Bouquet from Blackbird Designs and the Ann B Tarbox sampler from Hillside Samplings.

I worked on Autumn Bouquet last night and forgot to take a picture of it.

Yesterday was TCM's salute to Joan Bennett and last night they payed to really great movies. The first was "Father of the Bride" followed by "Fathers little Dividend." What wonderful movies!! Elizabeth Taylor was beautiful and top notch as was Spencer Tracy and Joan Bennett. I also think that Billie Burke as the MIL was spot on!!!

It was aniher breezy foggy day followed by a foggy cold night. One of the main reasons I stay here in this crazy overpriced city is the weather!!!! As many of you know I grew up in the deep south sweltering and sweating my way through the days and relish this cool/cold weather!!!!!! BRRRRRRRRRR :)

Take care,

edgar

Stitching on Autumn wrapped in fog

I realize that most of the nation is out there sweltering in the heat. I know that my Mom in Florida can't play but 9 holes of golf as it gets way too hot way too fast no matter what early tee time she gets....and her answer to that is......
off to the club house for a tasty screwdriver and a quick dip in the pool. :)

If you notice I have a little weather thingy on this blog that shows the weather around the SF area, but you need to take that with a grain of salt. That is the temperature out at the airport which is in South San Francisco and about 20 to 30 mins outside of the city and it is never really what it might be in the city. For example the thingy may show 70 or 80 degrees but in the fog wrapped city it is probably 60 degrees or less, there can be that much difference.

Well yesterday we went to dinner at Red Lobster in South City for their Shrimp Tuesday, quite tasty. We went with Carol and Pat ( Hi Carol!!) we had a very interesting conversation covering lots of things. When we got back to the city it was freezing and banked in fog. Actually it was in the high 40' or low 50's and we had to close the house back up and flip the heat ON. Yes the heat. It got toasty very fast!!! I got into some comfy sweats and worked on Autumn Bouquet. Here is a snap......


It is really small and is coming along fast. Since this was a kit all the stuff came with it. Now my past experience with pre-kitted things is that you usually get way too much floss to complete the project. If you notice the orange leaf to the left is only half done as I have run out of that orange, which bites!! All I need is just one more strand of the stuff. I even thought it might have fallen under the chair or sofa or gotten lost in my workbasket. I have torn apart the area that I work in and I do not think it has fallen or gotten lost anywhere. I think there just wasn't enough. I have switched over and worked the red and some of the other greens and will just have to get more when I trot over to Needle in a Haystack. I think AB is working up very nice, I wonder though what to do with it when it's finished, any suggestions????

While I stitched I watched "Humoresque" which has Joan Crawford and John Garfield staring in in a slum musician and rich woman kinda thing. The movie is from 1946 and JC was in top form. It seems that this week is the week for people to sacrifice themselves on the alter of love, first there was "A Star is Born" and now "Humoresque." There were two really nice things about the movie one is the music is very good all the way through and
JC can really throw a drink at a wall!!!!


Here are a couple of snaps of the Pete and the Peach.....






Gad Zonks Batman but those angles are ferocious!!!!! :)

Hope all is well in your part of the world, Thanks for stopping by!!!

edgar

Movie weekend and an Autumn start

The weekend was very low key with not too much going on. I received two movies via GreenCine.
Just an aside - It is now taking 5 to 7 days to get a movie turned around where as before it was 3 or 4 - Their new move has really messed up the delivery of movies...... oh well,
The first to arrive came on Friday was "Fast Food Nation." Now, I had heard all the hype etc... surrounding this film but found the movie very long with no point. Or the points could be, illegal aliens looking for a better life are abused and underpaid for doing dangerous work...or another point could be......working in a fast food joint bites......or another was....... the meat industry along with the fast food industry is crooked as the hind leg of a hound dog?!?!?!

Is that supposed to be news???? I think not.



The second movie came on Saturday. It was the 1954 return to the big screen of Judy Garland, "A Star is Born." This was the remake of the 1937 Janet Gaynor flick of the same name. I really enjoyed this picture and had seen it a long time ago. The copy I got was a remastered with additional footage and audio added making it closer to the original vision of the producer/director and not the studio cut up release. It was a very long movie at almost 3 hours, but definitely worth it as Judy is in top form and the vocals are great!!! If you have not seen it then give it a chance.
James Mason as Norman Maine delivers a great performance and Jack Carson in the supporting roll as Matt Libby is also wonderful.
I always like Jack Carson he always gives a very well thought out and strong performance. In today's Hollywood you would be hard pressed to find any talent that could come close to the strong performances of the Hollywood of 40 or 50 years ago. I can think of maybe a half dozen actors that might be able to but not many!!!!

Moving on to my start. I bought a small kit a few months back a felt that since fall is upon us :)
it was time to get it going......


It is called "Autumn Bouquet" and was designed by Cedar Hill out of Dayton, Ohio. I have been saving through the summer to do closer to the fall. It is stitching up really quick.

Thanks for stopping by and if you get the chance leave a comment!!!!

Take care,
edgar