HAPPY NEW YEAR, MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY THANKSGIVING.....

Did I forget any? I am SO bad. I'm so attached to Facebook that I forget I should stop by here more often.

This is a crazy place. This morning it was 28 degrees. When I left the nail salon at noon it was nearing 70. And it's going to be warmer for a few more days. Then we start again.....That's why everyone stays sick around here.

I have to be glad this year is over. It doesn't top the list of the finest! The worst was in July when David's mother died. She was 98 and would have been 99 in another month. It truly was one of the cases of where it was time. The only enjoyable part was seeing family that we hadn't seen in awhile. We went back to the cemetery to check on things before we came home. Guess Michael got a little tired in the heat!

My favorite LNS has closed. Last Saturday was the last day. I will miss indulging my addiction so often, but I think the worse part is not seeing Diane or any of the other girls so often anymore. Of course, there's enough stuff in my stash to last me several lifetimes. Then again, Houston and New Orleans are nearby, so I'll get a fix every now and then.

I was 65 this year. Where did it go? And I've already had the first visit to the doctor for the year.  I've had back trouble for years and during the Christmas holidays it went south! Sooner or later I will have to have it fixed and I really dread it. Sometimes back surgery makes things worse.

As far as crafty stuff, I will try to get some photos up. I've been knitting a lot and have pretty well focused on two stitchy projects: ByGone Stitches Christmas carol sampler and also Anniversaries of the Heart. My goal this year is to catch up on my LHN's ornies. I have a lot done, but need to catch up as I stitch the ones for this year.

Linzie is still the light of our lives. She is so cute and so smart and doesn't like fireworks. She has us trained beautifully! Giselle and Mia still spend a lot of time with us. And I'm glad to report that I didn't see too many of our resident serpents this year. Not that I looked for them.

Since my back has had me waylaid for a few weeks, I've been obsessing on Cranford.  Don't know how many times I've watched both series. Now if  Downton Abbey will just start..

So that's about life here. Dull, I suppose, but keeps moving along. I'm considering setting up a cooking blog. Well, baking, mainly. I'm still thinking of names and how I will organize it.

We're all anxious around here. Monday night is the BCS Championship game. LSU vs. Alabama. We all know where I stand. We lost to them in November, but I don't think we will this time. ROLL TIDE!

Until then, smooth sailing ahead for all of you.

A LITTLE BITTY OLD FINISH

I got to messing around in my stitchy closet last night and came across this little goody. I started it a couple of years ago, made a colossal mistake and then put it away. I was looking for something else and found it. I frogged out the mistake(s) and finished stitching it. This morning I put it together. First time I've ever used those little plastic stuffing beads. I think it turned out right nicely, if I say so myself. It's Indigo Rose's A Bee Charmer.

I'm getting ready to do a major overhaul in the old stitchy closet. Too much stuff, not enough storage space. I have charts out the wazoo- some never used. Think I'm going to maybe sell them. We'll see. I'll let you all know, as well as making a list.

My nose is stingy today and a little stuffy. Guess the weather change is hitting. John has the flu and Michael had to have an elbow injected. We're all falling apart around here! So far David has stayed in good health.

Don't forget about the time change this Saturday night. Never have figured out the reason for it. Time is time!

So...........

here I sit, looking through the window. It's getting very dark outside and we're under tornado watch until 10PM. The mayor sent city employees home at 2:30 PM so we can all watch the storm coming. It's 80 degrees outside but is supposed to be a little cooler tomorrow. Michael came by to pick up the football tickets for this Saturday's game:  Alabama (yea) vs. Tennessee. He'll be leaving tomorrow after work for the trip to Tuscaloosa.

Since there's not a lot to do right now-I avoid housework-and I'm taking a bread from stitching, here's a look at the last few day's activities.

This is a piece that I did years ago-the 80's, I think-and I decided to frame it for the kitchen. Amazing how one's taste changes over the years.....

Now for a look at some progress. Houmas House is moving along. It's an easy stitch (not a short one!) and is really nice. The shading is so subtle. And really looks like the house itself. I'm using the threads called for: DMC and Weeks overdyes.

A Summer Ball is lookin' good. I am changing some of the dress colors and am planning to watch P&P later to see what other colors men wore for dress suits back in those days. The pattern calls for black and white but that's BORING!!! We'll see.

And here's a belated birthday present I've given myself. Diane at my LNS gives a 25% discount during a birthday month. I've really been wanting to do this for a long time: it's the mate to the Quaker Christmas  that's already finished and hanging. I did it in shades of green with touches of red and gold. This one will be in shades of blue with a mahogany brown for the lettering. It's kitted up but I have no idea when I'll start it.

And last but not least: here's the answer to the $64,000 question. The Totally Useless SAL is just what the name implies. Stitchers collect a lot of trash. Little bits and pieces of thread (called "orts"), broken needles, thread labels, etc.  Those belonging to the SAL save them in special jars, or whatever. Once a month, at the New Moon, we report our savings. This past month was a busy one for me. Sometimes I don't do a lot of stitching and there's not a lot of little treasures. Every month I move the stuff into little glass Christmas ornaments which I place in the bowl up side down. I have a very LARGE glass jar and at the end of the year I'm going to move all those little balls to the jar. The only scary thing is to see how many scraps there are. And the colors are really nice when combined all together.

TIME MARCHES ON!

It's almost the middle of the week. Time goes somewhere!

We had a great afternoon Saturday. Michael, the birthday boy, came over and had dinner. Then we spent some time telling stories of our early lives. We all laughed and had a great time.

I went to the movies today-second time this week. I saw Angels and Demons on Monday. It was very good. Tom Hanks has dropped the mullet. And I enjoyed seeing some of the sites I visited on my trip to Italy. The Vatican is absolutely beautiful. The Sistine Chapel, well, it was something being in a place that Michaelangelo poured out a great part of his life.

Today I saw State of Play. It was quite good. A lot of name brand stars. Good story line and a lot of twists and turns.

I've found another series of books to add to the list. I'm reading the first in the series right now. It's A Rose for the Crown and it's by Anne Easter Smith. It deals with the life of Richard III, the alleged murderer of the two little princes. Of course, it's English history, which is one of my favorite subjects.

On the sewing front, "Saving Grace #1" is almost finished. The second one will come soon. I took "Quaker Christmas" to be framed today. And if I don't have enough to do, I'm about to convince myself to do the "Abecedaire" on Gazette94. I also bought a great wire basket to store my needle necessaires in and filled it quickly. So back to the store for another one.

Oh, there is the greatest freebie on the Blackbird blog. Really, really nice.

Well, that's life here-sort of. If you watch weather forecasts, you may have noticed a little tropical depression in the gulf. It's about 2 weeks early: hurricane season is June 1-Nov. 31. We're just hoping it will fizzle out. At least let me get the damage from Gustav repaired before we do it again!

Ta for now,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOHN

Being the proud mother that I am, I claim author's privilege today to wish my oldest son John a very Happy 39th Birthday. Sometimes it seems like yesterday and sometimes it was a long time ago that he was a little blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy, driving me crazy, then making me so proud as he proved to be far more of a musician that I could ever hope to be. And when I was just getting used to that fact, he made me even more proud to be the grandmother to Bradley, Grace and Ann. With Laura's help, of course.

Where the time went I'm not quite sure. One realizes time has REALLY flown when she sees that her little children are turning gray. And on the verge of turning 40.

I can honestly say that John, and his brother Michael, are the best of the best things that have ever happened to me. David's included, or course! I could not be more proud of them and love them more.

So to John (and Laura, too, because she had a birthday last month): I love you dearly and the best part of my being old is watching you grow up to be the man you are. And thanking you for the three little ones.

Happy Birthday!

John, Laura and the Kids


The two generations: John, Michael and Bradley

John and Laura

THIS AND THAT AND JULIE'S FINISH

Yes. I actually made it to church, Donna and Julie! One of God's miracles!!!! Got there 30 minutes before the service started. Since I quit taking my little white anti-aging pills I stay up a little longer. And forget things, too. And grow wrinkles.

Julie, the Peacock Chair is

unbelievable! All of you guys, go to Julie's Stitchyknitter's Journal and check it out. So cool!

Donna, I have 5 stitched so far and am going to start putting them together. I have some great breast cancer fabric (that sounds funny!). And I've finished the Lizzie Kate (?) Peace, Love and a Cure and am thinking about making it into some type of patchwork knob knocker.

I did come home from church and napped. Later we met our friend from Plaquemine, Doris Pettus, for dinner at Ruffino's. The food was wonderful as usual, but I got a little nuts and ordered my favorite pizza-Margharita. No, that's nothing to do with the drink (which is NASTY). It's named for some Renaissance queen or so. I have to say that it was a bit of a dud. There's a little place here in town called Schlitz and Giggles. They make the genuine article. A Margharita pizza is one with a paper-thin crust, sliced Roma tomatoes, Mozzarella cheese, fresh basil and olive oil. Tasty! No red sauce-which Ruffino's had. No no.

Doris is great. She lost her husband a year or so ago. She is a corporate travel agent and is pretty good at her job. We talked travel tonight: she's going to the Mediterranean this fall. We both love London and we talked about places we visited. London is my favorite with Rome a close second.

We talked a lot about the Vatican and St. Peter's, as well as St. Paul's in London. She didn't like Russia and I want to visit. I didn't like China and she would like to go there. So that's why we're all different! Boring world if we were all alike.

We're supposed to be getting the new roof this week. Right!!! Heard that before. I'll be even more glad when the hole in the bedroom ceiling is fixed. It's just a couple of months until hurricane season starts all over. Unfortunately, Michael's new promotion will mean that he stays here in the city if we have a hurricane.

Enough gibberish. If I'm lucky I may have some pictures to post tomorrow. Ann, my friend at With My Needle, has completed her heart on my Friendship Sampler Round Robin. You might stop by and see it. She does beautiful work.

So for now, ta.

HERE WE GO AGAIN!!!

I'm in the middle of one of those series of sleepless nights that I go through every now and then. So here it is, 10:30 at night and and EARLY service lookin' at me in the face in the morning. So, what does an intelligent person do? Instead of counting sheep, reading her Bible, doing her cross stitch? She plays on the computer!

If I don't turn it in soon I will be the Ghost of Christmas Past in the morning. And I'm not a morning person anyway.

It was a nice evening. Michael came over He's got a promotion (he thinks!) at work. Certainly a raise in pay. He brought his new rod and reel-the first he's ever bought for himself-and says we don't want to know what he paid for it!!! He'.s taken up kayaking. You should see it. And he's been doing a little tournament fishing. That would figure: he's a marine biologist. I can't believe that little strawberry blond that nearly drove me crazy so many years ago now has graying hair and beard. I'm so glad he's ours.

I worked some on the ornament's for Donna's Stitching For A Cure. I'm not really sure when the deadline is, but I'm enjoying doing the ornies. And I hope she raises a bundle for breast cancer.

Might as well through in a recipe. This is one my mother used to make. Along with the Rum Cake, she would bake this one with the boys in tow. It used to make me nuts seeing one or both of them sitting on the kitchen cabinet, pouring ingredients into the mixer bowl. I was just waiting for an accident to happen. If it ever did, no one told me. Good idea!!! Here goes-and it's actually pretty good.

DUMP CAKE

1 pkg. yellow cake mix
1 small pkg. lemon jello
2/3 C. Wesson oil
2/3 C. warm water
4 eggs
1 tsp. lemon flavoring

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare pan. Dump mix into bowl. Mix jello in warm water.
Add to cake mix. Add rest if ingredients and bake for 45 minutes or until done.

Well, that's about it. I'm going to try reading now.

SUGAR BOWL WASN'T REAL SWEET!

The Super Dome: Grand as ever

Deanne's: Dauphine and Iberville Streets
Great seafood

Michael at Deanne's
waiting for everyone to finish

Canal Street

Great place to shop?


Arthur and David

Alabama's Million Dollar Band

National Anthem

Well, January 2nd was to be our big day. Unfortunately Utah came to play and we just showed up for fun. They beat us soundly. But we had fun anyway. Nobody ever expected us to finish this season like we did so this was lagniappe (Louisiana term for "something extra").

We had a special guest: Arthur Lamm, a proven LSU fan went with us. Dinner was wonderful. We went to Deanne's, which is a seafood restaurant in the Quarter. If you're ever there and need a good place to eat this is it. And they serve in quantities.

After a quick cab ride we went on to the Super Dome for the game. Utah scored 3 TD's in the first quarter so that kinda set the tone. We'll just do better next year.

I've done a little stitching. Some Beatrix Potter and I also kitted up the Cricket Collection's Dicken's Ornaments. The new Loose Feathers is a box and I do love doing them so I've started that. Shouldn't take too long for the stitching.