Mary finished, and two Anns

Here is Mary Allen all finished.

Mary Allen Sampler by Samplers Remembered

40ct RR Creme Brulee

NPI fibers

I'm so happy she's done!

Now for an Ann.  Do you remember Ann?  Ann Wheatley that is.  The SAL for Ann Wheatley at the Attic finished in September, but with all that's been going on, I forgot to post my finish of her on my blog.  Well, here she is.

Isn't she lovely?

I love her colors!  I used the fabric and fibers provided by the Attic for the SAL.

And now my new start.  Does anyone know who she is?

She's Ann Smith from the Scarlet Letter.  Here's a link to her full picture.   I'm using 36ct Vintage Light Examplar so that I don't go crazy when the over one parts come in.  There is a ton of over one.  I'm also using the AVAS called for.  I love her colors!  The inner gold border is supposed to be done in tiny eyelet stitches, but Marsha says you don't have to if you don't want to and I'm not.  Too time consuming!  

In other news, we managed to go visit a couple of colleges for the boy child this past weekend.  Which is a good thing.  We visited a massive college in the city, and a very small college north of us.  Very good contrasts.  The boy child seems to like both, which is great.  I'm sure there are more college visits in our future.

The boy child has been going full speed with school stuff, of course.  He got a part in the high school fall production of Noises Off, so every day after school has been 3 hours of rehearsal time.  Makes for busy times when you throw in his regular non-school orchestra rehearsals and his jazz band rehearsals in the evenings 2 nights a week.  Plus homework of course.  But he is loving it and that's the important part.  Let's just hope he gets all this college application stuff done in time!

Here is the boy child and Mia, sleeping partners once again.  The boy child hasn't been getting enough sleep as usual, so a nap happened to make up for it.

Thanks as always for stopping by and saying hi.  I always enjoy visiting with you all!

No more words! And TUSAL

Ah, a sigh of relief.  The words are all done.

It actually wasn't all that bad.  Most of the words were over two, not over one.  And they went quickly and took up a lot of space.  :D  But I'm glad to be here now.

Instead of here.

I do love the owls though.

It's also TUSAL time.

My ORT jar always looks the same, doesn't it?  Oh well.  I put my ORT jar with my bear from Lori Ann Corelis.

I will leave you with a picture of Mia playing with a Keurig cup.  The father type left a box of Keurig cups for his coffee maker on the bed.  Mia loves coffee and will do anything to get some. So of course she plunged into the box of K cups and grabbed one.  Such a cute baby.

Thanks as always for stopping by and saying hi.  And thank you for the sweet words about my FIL and the birthday wishes for the father type.  Both were greatly appreciated.  I hope everyone has a great week.

A hole in our hearts

My progress so far on Mary Allen.

I was very happy to get to something besides borders and words.  And the cute little owl.

My sweet, gentle, FIL passed away last week.

I still remember when I first met FIL and MIL, how they welcomed me into their lives.  Theirs was a special family.  They always respected others, they never fought.  Never.  They didn't raise their voices -- except to tell a funny story or to tell about their day when they got home.  FIL was always ready to help out in time of crisis or just to keep someone company.  He always thought of others before himself.  I can see so much of him in my sweet father type.  So much of MIL as well.  I could never express in words just how much my FIL will be missed.

The picture above was rescued from the flood waters in our basement.  It shows FIL at age 17.

Thanks as always for stopping by and saying hi.  I hope everyone has a good week ahead.  Hug and kiss your loved ones.

My new start and cleaning up after Irene

I was inspired by Robert, Terri, and Siobhan to start this new project, the Mary Allen Sampler by Samplers Remembered.  This is what the piece looks like (or you can take a look at Robert's finish or at Terri's header picture).  (This picture courtesy of ABC Stitch Therapy.)

And here is where I am.

Mary Allen Sampler by Samplers Remembered

40ct RR Creme Brulee

NPI fibers

I copied Siobhan's choice of fabric.

I just hope I can make it through all those words and letters. Not my favorite thing.  lol!

We had some people come in to clean up the basement and spray antimicrobial stuff to prevent mold and bad things growing.  A 30 ft. dumpster was practically filled up by all the stuff that was damaged by the 5 or 6 inches of water we got from Irene.

I couldn't believe that two guys could bring up all that stuff from the basement, but they did.  The spraying happened afterwards, and then industrial fans were set up down there to help dry the basement out.  

The dumpster should be picked up today (we managed to throw some things into it from the garage too), and I'm calling the basement dry as of today and calling the people to pick up their fans too.  It's a good feeling to have that work done.

On Saturday, we helped the girl child move back to college.  This involved two cars for a change.  The girl child drove her new used car down to college with the father type riding shotgun.  She needs a car on campus this year since she will be working part time at the place where she worked for the summer. The boy type rode with me in the minivan packed with the majority of the girl child's stuff.  I do have to say things went pretty quickly unloading with 4 people -- and with the girl child having learned what to bring and what not to bother with.  After the unloading, we stopped in town for some sushi, teriyaki and tempura at the girl child's favorite sushi place -- soooo good!  Then it was goodbye and driving home.

I think this year marks a record -- for the least watched matches at the US Open for me.  The first week, we didn't have power until Thursday.  The second week, I was busy with the flood guys and various other things -- plus two days were rained out at the Open, on days when I could have watched.  Saturday, the boy child kept me informed of the scores at the Djokovic/Federer match while we were doing the college trip.  I'm actually grateful to the girl child for keeping me from watching that one.  Ouch.  I watched the tail end of the Nadal/Murray match when we got home.  I will miss large chunks of the men's final tonight as well since the boy child's orchestra starts tonight and I'm on driving duty.  Oh well.  

But I got to watch the women's final -- congrats to Sam Stosur!  Yay!  I was so happy for her!

Mia's life hasn't been much affected by all the chaos of Irene, Irene cleanup, packing for college, etc.  Here she is sleeping with her boy child during one of their final naps of the summer.

Now the boy child is back in school and Mia won't have a napping buddy.  Unless the boy child falls asleep during homework.  lol!

Thanks as always for stopping by and saying hi.  It's always good to visit with you.  Have a great week!