MIA

I'm really not missing in action, I've just been really trying to get my HAED RR out the door and my Hello Neighborhood RR planned and organized!!

Also, I just received the most beautiful RAK today, and I have to photograph it for you so you can OOOooo and Ahhh tomorrow! It's now 2:30 AM here and I have to get to bed! I want to slip a quick thank you to Sonja, though, and to tell her that it is the most beautiful biscornu on earth! It is really the only hand-stitched gift I've ever received. I simply adore it! And all the goodies with it, too. I'm posting a pic. in the morning!!

This is about what I'm looking like these days, except I wouldn't dare wear a bikini!! LOL

Thank you for keeping up with my comings and goings! Deb

Quick Answers and Questions

Julie: The Neighborhood RR is just beginning in June. We won't have any progress pictures for a while yet, I suspect. But as we get going, we will. I'll ask Carol, who is my team leader, when they will start being posted and how others can see them. Thanks for asking!

Stitchin Mainic: We don't know your name! :(( Also, I can't seem to post a comment on your blog and I love your blog. You have such great entries and your stash is fantastic and I really want to talk with you about your stitching which is awesome, too. And, thank you for always leaving such sweet comments on my blog! ;))

Kim: I'm thinking of you every day. This is a difficult time, and I hope you know your friends are there for you. Hugs, Deb

Anyone Interested: I have some trade items. If you're interested in seeing the list please email me: interiorsbydeb2@aol.com The little Christmas ornie above was one I stitched for a Chatelaine friend ages ago. Just thought you'd like to see a picture! LOL

Thank you, dear friends, for taking your precious time from stitching to stop by my blog and to comment. I appreciate every one of you so much.

Hugs, Deb in FL :))

HAED Revisited

Barbara and Katrina, that picture yesterday was the cleaned up space after I had put the threads into those individual baggies and labeled them!!! That was the aftermath of the chaos!! LOL


Here's the result of my shopping trip today. I went hunting to find finishing things for my mailart piece that's got to get out on or before June 1st.

I decided to put this fully stitched piece on the back. Then I'll put the (now showing upside down) 2 crows with the golden needle flap and the button/clasp closure side as the address and stamp part. That way the utility side of the mailart envelope will have the utilitarian stuff on it, and the artwork side will be the more interesting and fully decorated side. I hope this isn't confusing.

When I mail it, since it's going to a place not really tracked by USMail...I'm going to have to protect it in a see-through baggie or something anyway, so I may as well enjoy beading and making it fancy! :))


This is all I really accomplished today. Except when also at JoAnn's...I found some other goodies which will have to wait to be photoed for you another day. If you haven't been there lately, you have to check out the quilting section. OMG, Fons and Porter have some to-die-for tins, and darling stitching tools, and strawberry emeries....oh, you have to go see them!!!


BTW: the pieces I've chosen for my HAED RR are these, in case anyone is interested:

1-3) Storykeeper, Splash and Atlantis by Selina Fenech

4 & 5) Viva and Moonstones by Linda Ravenscroft

and 6) Sugar Plum Fairy by Myrea Petti

Thanks you for visiting me today! Hugs, Deb

HAED RR ... the kitting up

"Oh bother," as Pooh says, I'm tired and sleepy after more than 15 hours spent kitting up and organizing threads for my HAED RR, which is due to mail out March 11th!! I got onboard late...like last month...so I'm really running to play catch up on this one.

Just thought you'd like to look at my orderly disorder after I cleaned up the chaos of the day. I do love my fabbie and the threads are all nicely packaged and labeled, so I feel good about that. I don't know if you can see the charts I've chosen. Now all I have to do is grid a little and it's off to Ruth in Germany next week. Piece of cake! I only have a ladies luncheon, an ANG meeting and lunch, another doctor's appt., Open Houses for DH, stitching on my Mailart project, and time to sleep!!! :[

Just a quick note to Kim, Isabelle, Dani, Terri and Anne. "His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches over you!" :))

Have a very happy stitching weekend to Carol, Jo, Margaret and others up in Nashua at Celebrations!! Bring back stash and pics for us!!

Hugs, Deb

PS: Don't you just love these half-baked pictures I take! It's a wonder any of you look at them!

Barnes & Noble Shopping Trip

Yesterday, I treated myself to a bookstore trip because I had to see my doctor for an annual physical. I have a fair bit of Cherokee blood in me, and the ancients must have had an aversion to modern methods which has carried down to me...I believe in self-healing and the right foods and sunshine. Or, so I say!!:))

Anyway, here's what I found at B&N, and I'm so thrilled! I'm an opera buff. I started loving opera when I lived in Jacksonville, FL, some years ago, as a single woman and interior designer. My bf at the time (and still a close friend, Kate, also an IDer) and I used to go to them whenever we could. And, Madame Butterfly is a favorite of mine...not Kate's!

Opera, if you've never gone and think you don't like it, to me is alot about art and set design, and costuming, as well as the storyline and finally the music! It's not just the music, in other words. I found this great little book all about Puccini, his bio. on Madame Butterfly, the history of the opera, a line by line translation, and the CDs of the music!!! Lots of pics, all for $20!!

The actual opera by Puccini opened on February 1, 1893, in Milan, Italy. It was called, Manon Lescaut, and was performed throughout Europe and South America in the following years as a sensation.

"A seemingly simple tale about a young Japanese girl and her love for an American soldier who is careless with her devotions, Butterfly is brought to life and eventually to her death by Puccini's powerfully heartbreaking music. ...so many aspects of the human experience...overwhelming love, unbearable loss, rejection, motherhood, and clashing cultural ideals...with tenderness, honesty, and poingnance." It's a tragic story of love and mismatched cross-cultural understanding of honor and dishonor.

The lower pic to the left is of Cary Grant playing the Lt. in a 1933 movie version with Sylvia Sydney. Who knew! I've never seen it.

I hope, if you've never tried opera, you'll treat yourself, too. If you just hate it on CD...take it back!

BTW, I love you guys!! Thank you for your dear comments on my stitching and picture. I don't deserve all the praise, but I soak it in because it means you're my friends...and I love that most of all!!

Thanks to Carol, Katrina, Becky, Wendy, Vonna, Von, Dani, Lizzy, 'Lena, Isabelle, Barbara, Anne, Deb, Julie, Tannia, Jo, Patti, and others (I know I'm leaving someone out and I apologize!!!) who have made my first months of blogging so precious to me by reading and leaving notes so regularly. You are forever my stitching friends and I know you're there.

Hugs,
Deb

My Mailart in Process

Here's my Mailart piece that I've been working on this evening and last night. I'm due to send it off by June 1st. I'm going to put the address to the left of the leaf stem below the blossom--which I know is different, but I like the idea because it's unexpected. Love beading, so as you see I've put all the chart requires plus some of my own, and then put some french knots in the bud, too!!

Will keep you posted as this grows and comes to the finish. Remember, this is a first for me--so the finishing will probably be the real circus!! LOL

Why did I choose this pattern? Well, as most of you know, I was sick for about 2 years and couldn't really stitch much, but that didn't keep me from stash building. I love Blackbird Designs, though I haven't kept current stashing lately. This one was in my old stash. Since I'm loving the thought of Summer coming, I thought a Squash Blossom was a cute idea....

Specifics: Wichelt 28 ct., Waterlily; Sampler Threads & Delica Beads

Please forgive the deplorable picture! I wish you could see the real thing. It's actually vibrant with color and beads! It really looks awful with the lighting even in the larger image and I just hate that!!

Hire Out??

In answer to your questions, yes, I do hire out!! I'm an interior designer, you guys!! LOL But, I really never bring clients to my house. My bf, Deb in CT (Cat Tails & Needles) is about the only one who ever saw my house on a regular basis (other than a few EGA stitching friends and Martina & the Chatelaine Stitching Bee stitchaway group!) and she can testify to the color blast and visual overload for the average person's eyes!!! Deb's also seen the mess of stitching it can become, which nobody else ever has seen!!

One of my son's always used to say, "Okay, Mom, overstimulation!! Where's the quiet room for me to sleep in!?" So, I always have a very quiet, blue and white room for him and guests that's decorated in toiles and white matlese..and a few accessories.

I love antiques...English and French. This dining room piece is an English antique and the pictures are of our families, each going back many years...in mine on the left, my dad is 2 yrs. old and he would have been 80 yo today. You can just bearly see him standing in front of his father. He had the very English name: Alfred Basil Riggs My DH has picked up these other odd bits and pieces.

Some of you have been asking about me, personally, and so I wanted to share this little bit.

Love and hugs to you all, and thanks for caring! I appreciate your stopping by!

Deb