Saturday, February 28, 2009

Hello. It's me. Again.

It's a Saturday evening post, not my usual Sunday morning
update. DH and I are going to be away for most of the day
tomorrow so I won't have any time to up date my blog.
And next week is first of the month, which will likely mean
long hours at work and little time in the evening to blog, and
few brain cells left over that will be capable of stringing two
sentences together in a logical and comprehensive manner.


Here is this weeks update of My Needle's Work. Hmmmm...
This picture looks a bit washed out for some reason. I used
my scanner to get this photo which usually does a pretty
good job of reproducing the image. Ah well. You get the
idea anyways. I've been working away at the greenery around
the girl and am now putting the flowers in. Slow but steady
progress.


So, I spent some time this afternoon working on
November Window. There are branches in the tree over
the house on the left, and the verse is about half way done.
I changed one of the thread colours that I'm using for the
verse, going for the redder DMC 3777 instead of DMC 3857.
I like the redder colour (is there such a word as "redder"??).
I think it POP's more.

Um...the picture above makes it look even more red then it is
actually. So, since you all probably have a skein of DMC 3777
in your stashes you can go check it out in person against the
other colour to see what I mean if you like. Or see the red
fruit in the bottom area of the design in the picture for a better
idea of the true colour. Or just ignore me babbling here and
move on to the next topic of conversation.


And speaking of babbling....

Beatrice nominated myself and four other gals for the
above award. Thank you Beatrice. Since I was,
disappointingly, unable to walk away with an academy
award last weekend this award has been a welcome
pick me up. So I'd like to thank the members of the
academy....

Actually, I suspect that I'm getting this award more
for my tendency to rattle on and on when I comment.
I seem unable to keep my comments brief and to the
point when I leave a comment. In short, I "talk" too
much. But in my own defense I have to say that when
I see all the lovely stitching and crafting being done on
all your blogs not to mention all the other fun things
you get up to, I find it hard to just say "hey, that's great"
and move on. So in other words....it's all YOUR fault!!

I'm meant to pass this award on to five others who
tend to leave awesome comments on my blog. Well,
let's see....

Sandra - Sampler Lovers Blog
Sue W - Stitcher W.
Cathey - Pumpkin Patch and Co.
Briggitte - At Briggitte's Place
Sharon - One Life to Live

I don't know how to do links within my post here,
so just check out the blog list on the right hand
side of my blog and go visit these wonderful gals.
Not only do they engage in sparkling conversations,
they also stitch wondrously well. And so much
more besides.


I started reading The Tea Rose on Monday and am
about a third of the way through it as of now. It's a
wonderful love story and a rag to riches story, with
murder and revenge thrown in as well. It takes place
in Victorian England around the time of Jack the
Ripper and is full of life, colour and excitement
and the characters, major and minor, are given
equal attention and care to detail that makes
them come alive on the page.

I saw this book mentioned on other book lovers
blogs, liked the sound of it and made a note to
pick it up. If you like Rosamunde Pilcher or
Barbara Taylor Bradford then this book is right
up your alley. I have the sequel The Winter Rose
to read after this, and after that one the third book,
The Wild Rose, is coming out in April. These are
nice big books too, which I love. And don't you
just love the cover on this one??? Very elegant and
it sets just the right tone for the story inside.

*******************************************

I stayed up until the very end of the Academy
Awards last Sunday. Did you??? I haven't
done that for a number of years now, mostly
because I've found that the guest hosts have
not been able to bring much to the party in
the way of entertainment or even humor.
So what did I like about this year's show
that kept me up until midnight on a work
night???

1) Hugh Jackman was amazing. He did
the humor with out sounding strained or
desperate, he did the singing and dancing
with skill and enthusiasm. And he looked
like he was enjoying himself, instead of
like he was wishing himself far, far away.

2) Anne Hathaway was a lovely addition to the
opening number and I was surprised to
find out that she could really sing. There
ought to be a law against someone like her
who's so beautiful, can act and can sing too!

3) Was glad to see Kate Winslet win her best
actress oscar at last.

4) and was moved by Heath Leger's family
accepting his award.

5) I really liked the way that they had five previous
winners presenting the nominations for
each of the acting awards. That was very
powerful and moving to watch.

6) The screenwriter who won for Milk (if I
remember correctly) who gave an eloquent
and moving speech about gay rights, the legislation
allowing gay marriages in California and for
acceptance and tollerance of gay people. (He
expressed it much better then I can type it).

I spent the rest of last week making up for the lost
sleep on Sunday night. I can't work on five and a
half hours of sleep like I use to when I was ... um ....
a bit younger then I am now.

****************************************************

It was hard going back to work after my lovely
week off, but we didn't have a share in that
huge lottery jackpot that was given out last
weekend so it was back to the old routine instead.

Thank you for all your great comments about
the library (and it's muli coloured shelves). It's
a dream come true for me to have all those books
and a place to keep them in. It's the most
relaxing room in the house for me.

Well, it's getting late and we have to be up in
good time tomorrow. So thanks for stopping
by. Have a great week and hope you get lots
of time to stitch.

Cheers!


10 comments:

mainely stitching said...

Hey there! Good luck with your upcoming very busy week. Lots of that going around, it seems. LOL. And I hope your Sunday outing with your DH is a happy one. :D

I don't follow the Academy Awards here, though I guess I could pick them up on a British channel or watch the reruns. It's been fun to hear other people's comments about them, though.

And congratulations on your own well-deserved award! :D

Carla said...

Your LHN lady is coming along beautifully! It looks like you're almost done with her :)
November window looks great too!
Have a great week :)

stitcherw said...

My Needles Work is looking so cute. I don't have this one yet, but figure it's just a matter of time as I generally get most of the LHN series. If I do for my mom I'll do the rooster, as she has decorated her kitchen with chickens. If I do for myself, I'll probably try to change the rooster to a cat or dog (more along the lines of my furry household). Windows is looking good too, you're gotten a lot of the lettering done. Looks like you'll have a finish of this soon also.

Thanks for the comment award, like you I find it difficult generally to make just a short comment. There always seems to be so much in the post that I want to make sure I address. I'm glad you appreciate my longer posts and don't think I ramble as you put it. :)

As for posting links in a post, the way I do it is I open a second window for my blog after having the first one open and my new post started, go into the templete area in the one just opened and copy the link I want that is in my sidebar, then I go back to the first open window of my blog where I'm posting and I paste the link in. Towards the end of the link, where the description that will show is, I just shorten that section as needed to fit into where I'm placing it in my blog or change it to how I want it to read. Hope that made some sense.

Tea Rose does have a lovely cover, elegant does describe it well, and I enjoy reading that time period. I'm currently trying to finish up the Friday Knitting Club series, a crochet mystery series, and I want to start the InkHeart and Twilight series. There are just to many wonderful books to read in the time available.

Hope this coming week at work goes well.
Sue

Cindy F. said...

Pretty stitchy pieces!

I agree with everything you said re: awards! I ditto it all!!
Congrats on your award:)
You do not talk too much...lol... I appreciate your comments and your posts are very enjoyable:)

Von said...

Congrats on your comment award, Judy. Your comments are always a joy, like you're sitting right across from me. :)

I loved seeing your bookshelves all assembled. My husband won't be seeing those pics as it will give him ideas and he has enough of those. :) Maybe when more of the kids are launched we'll have floor space for bookshelves.

The Oscars program this year was more entertaining than I've seen for years. In fact, I haven't really watched them the last few years.

I hope you have a great week with some extra stitching time!

Vonna Pfeiffer said...

NEarly a finish on both of those projects...and they are both just gorgeous! I love the Prairie Schooler one...I think I may have to pull that chart out to do :)

samplerlover said...

Hi Judy,
Sounds like you are going to have a very busy week. I hope you and your DH had a lovely Sunday outing.
Thank you for the award. I know I tend to as my DH says "dribble on a bit", but it is nice to have somebody lovely to chat to. We also seem to have a lot in common.
Your LHN lady is looking lovely. It is always lovely to be in the "home straight" with something. I always enjoy thinking about my next project. Although I tend to think about it at the beginning of another project.
I didn't watch the Academy Awards. They tend to arrive live here around midday and I always have to much to do. They usually replay them again in the evening, but all the commercials drive me up the wall so I tend not to watch them. Although I am always interested in hearing who won what.
I was so happy to hear that Heath Ledger had won. What an awful time for his family.
Yes Hugh Jackman is a bit of a "spunk". He is also very talented. He made his name here many years ago playing the Beast in Beauty and the Beast. You could always tell that he would go far.
You have an early get up to go to work. My DH should get up at that time, but it is always a battle to catch the right train. He has a train trip that is around an hour and a half one way.
In answer to your questions. Yes it is the son who had pneumonia with the flu. I have to keep a good eye on him. The mornings are starting to get cool, so he will soon be hearing "have you got a jacket?" every morning LOL.
The middle son had a really good weekend bowl wise. He played in the local Pennants games (4's)on Saturday, beat the opposition and also won Man of the Match. On Sunday he played in the Zone 4's Semi's. They won that and went to the Finals. Unfortunately they lost that game to the top team from their club which had Australian Champions and World Champions in it. So he didn't do to bad.
Yes the weather here is certainly crazy. Today in Victoria is another extreme fire day. Yesterday they were texing people in certain areas of the State to evacuate as the bush fires are still going hot and strong down there. Today there are very strong winds predicted and they think it could be as bad as it was a couple of weeks ago. I just hope that everybody is safe.
Elizabeth Cox is growing quite beautifully. I have finished the part with all the flowers and leaves and I am now in the bottom part that will be the big challenge. I will probably put a photo of it on my blog tomorrow. I am lucky that w2hen I was a lot younger I used to do embroidery on table clothes etc. It is all coming in hand at the moment.
Anyway that is enough "dribble" for the moment, better go and starting doing some housework.
Hope you aren't feeling to tired = Sandra.

Maren said...

Congrats on your blog award! :) I didn't follow the academy awards, but I did read up on them the day after. I liked reading the comments by the Milk screenwriter. He touched on a sensitive subject and wasn't shy about doing so with elegance and class.

Gina E. said...

Glad you liked OUR Hugh Jackman's performance at the Academy Awards. Aussie Aussie Aussie, OI OI OI!!!!
(sorry, that is one of those peculiar things that we do Down Under when we are proud of our fellow Aussies)

Judy S. said...

Hi! I just discovered your blog and can't remember how at the moment. We have a lot in common as I love books, cats and cross stitch plus knitting and quilting. I've been on a knitting kick lately. I also love the Prairie Schooler patterns and have been collecting their Santas since the beginning...someday I'll stitch them all!