SPINSTER STITCHER
The almost true exploits of an intrepid spinster and her stitching...and all of the things that make up her crazy, happy, quiet little life.
Dec 10, 2024
Dec 9, 2024
Dec 8, 2024
Dec 5, 2024
IN WHICH WATCHING A BAKING PIE MAKES ME INSANELY HAPPY
On YouTube TV they play these lovely videos of various things along with the note to "Enjoy the zen". Most are of nature scenes or of the ASMR variety...this one is of a beautiful pie baking in an oven.
Aaaaaahhhhhhh.
Cold and snowy in these here parts, so I am under the Snoopy blanket happily stitching away.
Progress is super slow, but I'm sure it will speed up if I stick with it. I might switch to the Mirabilia Santa later, but for now I'm enjoying playing with this one.
Happy Thursday, Dearies!
Dec 4, 2024
WEDNESDAY
This is the one that I'm working on now...also from the amazons:
Dec 3, 2024
Nov 30, 2024
INQUIRING MINDS WANTED TO KNOW
Dearies, this chart is a .pdf download from the etsy. I believe the name of the shop is: NARAxstitch. I was stalking (er, looking at) the interwebs for inspiration, and Ms JessieMarieDoesStuff was playing with a beautiful pattern from the same designer, so I went fishing.
Thank you for the comments about my pitiful decorating this year. As much as I miss him, it's a very good thing Stewey isn't here to see just how far I've fallen off of the Christmas sleigh. I honestly contemplated not doing anything at all this year, but my Jersey Boy found his little nativity set in the garage, and the look on his face when he asked if we could put it under the tree made me gird my loins and get the darn thing together.
(Confession...I was really really really STUPID last year and literally opened the canvas Christmas tree storage bag I got at the Targets and just stuffed the tree in without undecorating it...pause for pearl-clutching horror....so fixing that MISTAKE and vowing to never ever do that again took some time and grunting.)
Football and stitching today and not much else.
What's new with you?
Nov 29, 2024
Nov 26, 2024
Nov 24, 2024
WHAT'S THIS POINTY SKINNY THING IN MY HAND?!
Oh my goodness, Dearies! I picked up needle and thread tonight for the first time in a very looooonnnnng while! I admit that the first several minutes were all fumbles and curse words, but methinks I might be home again, jiggity jig.
I still like the diamond painting, but I've decided to try to incorporate a little bit of everything I love into a day...stitching, reading, blogging, diamond painting...eating, sleeping...you get the idea.
Off to bed I go. Tomorrow is going to be a long day, and I'm hoping to be fresh and fantastic for every bit of it!
I hope your weekend was swell! Come tell me all about it!
Nov 23, 2024
WELL WELL WELL...LOOK WHO CHANGED HER TUNE
Nov 22, 2024
ONLY FOUR AND A HALF HOURS TO GO
Sigh.
Nov 21, 2024
Nov 19, 2024
IT'S NOT EASY BEING ME
(I swear, if I survive this, I'm going to find a way to make sure that everybody who ever wants to get a medical degree has to at least try every drug they're going to prescribe at least once.)
Friday I will go to the hospital for a "gastric emptying" test, which I just described to my friend Gail as showing up at 8am, eating a radioactive egg salad sandwich, and then laying under a CT scan for four or five hours.
Really?
We can put a man on the moon, but we can't figure out why one simple, portly-yet-loveable Midwestern Spinster can't manage to eat anything without making a terrifying runwaddle to the nearest ladies room?
Come on, people. Work with me.
I did, however, manage to finish another diamond painting. I know, I know. Not one damn stitch has been made on anything in any one of the fifty-eight baskets of stitching crap I have laying around here, but I'm in a bad headspace, Dearies. Something is definitely broken in there, and despite a small retail pharmacy's worth of pills, we haven't yet quite fixed it all. The new compound cocktail that I started yesterday, however, shows promise, so let's keep fingers crossed that as soon as the side effects clear I will be back to my non wig-flipping, non profanity-spewing, non remote control throwing, and non getting escorted out of the Targets Optical place happening (I swear it to be true), self.
(She looks friendly, right? But if you want to know just how completely bad it's been around here, ask Rich how many hours and minutes until he can flee on the train for his Christmas visit to New Jersey. 🙄)
Anywhoo...here's the diamond painting finish, Autumn Mandala from Paint With Diamonds:
I logged it into my little notebook (because I do things like that now), and then I stuck it in the book/portfolio thing that lives under my chair.
That's the last of the stash, so until I replenish my pin money fund, it's back to stitching or coloring I go! I do want to start playing with some Christmas things, even though the tree isn't up yet (Saturday, I promise), but at the same time, I also am feeling like a 7:30 bedtime with a book might not be too bad of an idea either.
Thanks for hanging in there with me, Dearies. This too shall pass...I know it will. I just need to keep doing all of the things they tell me to and stay out of trouble, I suppose, and we'll quickly be calling this a "blip of bother" in an otherwise wonderful year.
What's new in your neck of the woods? Come tell me all about it!
Nov 18, 2024
Nov 16, 2024
Nov 14, 2024
Nov 13, 2024
MEMORIES
Sometimes I like to look at my posts from years past. This one is from November 13, 2009...15 years ago today. I still LOVE Laura J Perin designs, and need to do more of them:
Nov 10, 2024
SUNDAY...LOVELY SUNDAY
Hello, Dearies.
I've had a delightful, quiet, happy, healthy Sunday. It started a bit late, but that's because I was up watching my Irish beat the Seminoles until the wee hours, and then the sun came into the window and across my pillow, and we all know how much I love to put my face in the sun while snoozing away in the big girl sleigh bed.
I finished the Autumn Birdhouse diamond painting on Friday night and am just so tickled at how much fun I'm having with these. The only one I've "framed" is the huge Village Under The Moon, but all I did was stick it in an inexpensive magnet frame from the Amazons and hang it on the front of my cabinet, because it wouldn't fit in my book.
(I have a book/portfolio that houses all of these finished pieces, and it lives under my chair.)
I started another Fall-themed DP...this one is called Autumn Mandala:
(It has a protective plastic covering on it, Dearies...that's why it looks so dull in the photo.)
I'll play with this for a few hours tonight as soon as my nails dry:
I'm back to using stickers/wraps...these are from an enormous gift of wraps that I received from a lovely stitchy friend. I know I've explained them before, but there are basically stickers that you apply to clean, dry, alcohol-wiped nails, and then after you've trimmed the excess, you add a nice clear top coat. I can usually get between 2-3 weeks out if them, and as long as I don't pick and remember to use my Solar Oil every night, my nail beds stay nice and healthy and the nails themselves grow long and strong.
For those of you convinced that I have abandoned the Good Ship Stitching, never fear. I spent the afternoon gathering and kitting four Christmas projects...one canvaswork WiP, two cross stitch WiPs, and a cross stitch do-over, but methinks I might wait a few more days and play with Autumn at Hawk Run Hollow just a bit longer. I'll reveal the Christmas projects later, but for now...
This will be a busy week and a rough week. Tuesday will be 37 years since my mom died, and then Thursday will be 8 years since I lost my Stewey. In between will be a few doctors' appointments and tests, and then Saturday will be the last Notre Dame home game.
Nothing else new to report, I'm afraid.
How was your Sunday? Full of everything you wanted it to be, I hope! Come tell me all about it!
Nov 9, 2024
Nov 7, 2024
IT'S NOT EASY BEING ME...
Holey Schmoley...recovery day is pretty rough thus far. 😱 But never fear, Dearies. I am from hearty peasant stock, and a few more cups of damn good and a vat of Tylenol will have me right as rain before you know it.