A Work in Progress

Just kidding--this is a picture of The Breakers, the Vanderbilt's summer home in Newport, RI. My husband and I had always wanted to see the mansions in Newport and earlier this summer we realized that the stars would align so that could happen. We would have one child on the West Coast, one serving as a counselor at an overnight camp and a third in France. So we made arrangements and headed north. We covered eight of the properties owned by the Newport Preservation Society and saw The Breakers twice. (We purchased a membership to the society which was cheaper than individual tickets or the packages that were being offered). The kids definitely would have been in mutiny mode after the second mansion, but we couldn't get enough! The audio tours are great and we had wonderful guides for tours at some of the smaller houses. And the buildings--what wonderful architecture and sumptious, over-the-top decorating. Yes, it was conspicuous consumption, a phrase coined by Mark Twain when h...

The infamous Striped Bass (see below) finished off my 25-project challenge. I went off my rotation to finish it because I wanted a new project to take on an upcoming road trip and because I wanted to accomplish one of the things on my 101 Things in 1000 Days list. The challenge is an idea from Cherylann who wanted to reduce the number of projects in her stash. The challenge is whatever you want it to be. Mine was not to buy new charts although I could purchase threads and other supplies to complete designs I already have. And I made an exception to the challenge to be able to buy a limited edition design and the JCS ornament issue. I also included classes in my exception. I completed a 10-project challenge at the end of 2007 and started a 25-project challenge. I made it to 8 projects--twice!!--before I caved and bought a new chart. I started again in July, 2008 and finished just the other day. Which is why I only bought this when I stopped at the LNS on the way home from my Sampler Gu...

If you've looked at my sidebar, you might have noticed that I have a problem with startitis that has led to 34 current WIPs. Which is why I couldn't leave well enough alone when I finished the canvas fish and had to start Postcard from Paradise (Blue Ribbon Designs)even before I put the last stitch in the Striped Bass. If I do three squares a day and one strand of the dividing lines, I'll have this done in mid-July.

Several years ago, there were a number of post on the bulletin boards I frequent about doing 101 things in 1000 days ( http://www.dayzeroproject.com/ ). I made my list and my 1000 days are up today. I accomplished 21 things from the list, including completing a 10-project challenge and a 25-project challenge. Sadly, my goal of calling my mother weekly was also finished as she passed away from complications of Alzheimer's about nine months after I started my list. And although I thought I had completed the goal of teaching my second son how to do laundry before he went away to college, I found that I had to revisit it when I mentioned something over semester break about washing his sheets and towels. His response was "You have to wash towels? I thought since they were wet after my shower I didn't have to wash them". Eeewww! (And just how did he think those fresh towels got in the linen closet when he used them for the entire 18 years he lived at home???) Even though I ...

Here's a picture of my latest finish, a Julie Pischke canvas that I refer to as the Striped Bass. It's done all in basketweave with a darning cotton for the blue background, Caron Waterlilies for the outside of the fish, ribbon floss for the white and a blue metallic. Even though it doesn't look quite like the model I saw in Julie's shop, http://www.juliepischkedesigns.com/index.shtml I think my son will like it when it's made into a pillow. This project has been a work in progress since August, 2005 when we went to Key West after dropping my oldest son off for his sophomore year at the University of Miami. We had two great days at the beach, enjoyed a sunset cruise and ate key lime pie. I got to spend a very happy hour in Julie Pischke's shop although I didn't know then that the helpful shop owner was also the designer of the pieces I bought. We had heard that a hurricane was coming, but it was expected to hit in Fort Lauderdale, about 200 mile...

About 6 months ago, the remote key for my van stopped working. I tried replacing the battery and nothing happened. Ditto for the spare remote. I put off doing anything about it until I had to take the van in for inspection and routine maintenance this week. I had it in my mind that fixing the remote would be expensive so I "suffered" through months of having to unlock the driver's door and then hitting the unlock button to get the rest of the van's doors open--so 1990. Not to mention that I felt unsafe in parking lots at night while I stood around trying to get the key in the lock. Well, my old road dog thinks she just came from the factory after an oil change, new rear tires, a new pollen filter (who knew that cars even had one of those??) and a new brake light (again, I didn't even know if wasn't working). All of this required an overnight stay at the dealer's because one part wasn't available and produced a bill not unlike that of an overn...

I mentioned in a previous post that I don't buy books anymore--well, not many books and certainly not very often. This is why. It's about half the books that are stored in a closet in my sunroom. They were moved there three years ago when we remodeled our master bath and I had to take books out from under my bed and nightstand. They're causing the shelves to sag slightly. And I'm not even showing you the books that have crept back under my bed and my nightstand, nor the ones that are piled on top of the TV in my bedroom. (We rarely watch the TV but it makes a great bookshelf.) So I'm making a commitment to read at least 10 of these books while I'm off for the summer. That's one book a week. Now if I could just keep from checking the latest bestseller out of the library.