So, here we have Alpha’s choice and here we have Beta’s choice. A huge difference in color schemes and topics (serpents versus roses), but they both ended up choosing the same artist!

My girls are twins — just not identical ones, which, for anyone who has met them, is crystal clear! After finishing the AMAP “M” and “L” for their rooms, I’ll start on these. With the complete contrast in colors, I’ll have quite the variety!

P.S. I also grabbed two charts for me!

Paula, oh Paaaauuuulllllaaaaa! I have something to show you, dahlink! Here are the first ten rows across the first page of “Fragile!” It’s 800 Xs stitched 1 x 1 on some 27 count white stuff I had in my stash. It’s mostly sparkly Xs which I stitched with two strands of GlissenGloss 000 because Kreinik and I do not get along. (You can give it a click to see a more up close look and if you see that missed X rest assured that I’ve already filled it in!) This chart is totally girly and I do have to take a bit of a break from it, so I’ll be meandering over to visit my Bubble Telescope or maybe Chameleon for a bit and see how one of them do for a while.

I do have another stitchy picture to show you! This is from Ingrid Keuchel’s “Words Around a Theme” series. I’ve chosen “Peace” and I am stitching it in my most favorite variegated silk ever “Monet” from Colourstreams. It’s a fast stitch and I highly recommend her charts, they look great and she has tons of themes! I love her dancers and may just have to do one of those for my beautiful ballerina someday soon!

I don’t post about my twin dragonettes very often, but I am immensely proud of them. They have both been saving their money for months and months in order to each buy a Nintendo DS and this is the month. Within two weeks of eachother they both made their goal. I had told them early on that if they saved up enough money that I would spring for skins and screen protectors and cases. One daughter will soon be pretty in pink and the other has a cutesy gothic-anime girl on hers. There will be no problem telling their white DSes apart! I am looking forward to playing Animal Crossing with them. I picked up two used cartridges to go with my cartridge so we can have three different towns (with three separate home fruit trees of course) and visit eachother. It will be their first DS wifi experience and I can’t wait to see their reaction. For those of you who see my Twitter updates on Facebook, you’ll know that I’ve been grumping about catching fish in Animal Crossing DS as of late. *mumbles* Catching bugs is much easier! Then there’s trying to shoot the alien spaceship down. I’ve not managed that one yet…

While my blog has been taking a break, I haven’t! I’ve got a few stitching pictures for you. First up us the finished second page of Sampler Cove’s Spanish Rouge. I’m not sure how long I will be able to stand the half letters to the right of that page before I will have to finish them up. *fidgets* You can see a picture of the finished product here and if you want a drool-fest Diane is sure to please! Have I mentioned that Maestro, the kitten who now has quite the pudgy kitten belly, can be sound asleep under the sofa but as soon as I so much as pick up my stitching, is wide awake and ready to chase my floss as it goes in and out of the fabric. *sigh* He’s not ripped anything yet, but he has slowed down my stitching!

Speaking of Maestro, during February’s HAED Freebie SAL, he knocked my glass of water on to my Day Dreaming Fairy. I missed that month’s SAL and neglected to notice that the water had caused the dye to run on the fabric (it’s a Silkweaver hand-dyed solo) until the March SAL when I had to soak the whole thing to get the water marks out. So, I missed two SALs and had some ground to make up. Here is where I am now – I finally got some Xs into her hair. The picture turned out dark and yup, those are hoop marks. QSnaps and I are beyond peace talks. I have found some really nice German wooden hoops and am not going back!

Next up is a big red eye! Jasmine paints the best eyes in my opinion. And these are red! I meandered my way down to a knobby dragon scale because I was itching to see how it stitched up. The charting is amazing in that it captures the subtle shading on the dragon’s hide and the reflections in the eyes are just totally amazing. Whenever I get this piece out, I always stare at it for a while because it’s mesmerizing.

Next up is the first HAED chart I purchased: Christophe Vacher’s Sacred Hour. It’s a study in shades of brown and I find it very soothing. One of my goals for this year is to complete the top row of pages. I have 2 1/2 more to go. They are the large print sized ones, so I may just manage it. Somewhere within the column I am stitching, there is a face. I can’t see it in the chart, but there should be one there. It’s really subtle. I may just have to tear myself away from my latest start/addiction (see what I’m stitching up there? ) and get back to my browns.

Last picture, I promise!! This one is for you, Sonya! I was doing really really well. I had all the blue done down the left side of all of the first page and nearly all the grey. That is until I found out that I can’t seem to count to ten. *mumble* (At what point do my blonde moments become senior blonde moments?) I ended up frogging nearly 200 stitches which was all of the grey and a good portion of the blue. But I will not be deterred! The Two Fluffy Kitties will be back in my hoop very soon!

That’s it for this post. There will be a Chameleon update next time!

The kitten (who is now looking more lanky and feline-like rather than like a ball of fluff), was taking quite the interest in alpha daughter’s pair of pet dwarf African frogs. (They’re tiny things that live in their own ecosystem and stay in water.)  So we decided to move their small aquatic world up into the room where her gerbils are to keep him away from them. (The doors are kept shut.) A few days after this move, Scott and I heard a loud thud and just thought it was the girls making their normal crashing and thud-ing sounds. As it turns out, one of the girls had accidentally locked the kitten in, you guessed it, the gerbil and frog room. He hopped right up on the dresser and knocked over the frogs’ small aquatic world. We had thought he had eaten them until alpha daughter discovered two flat dried up frog bodies that had hopped under the bathroom door to escape the frog-chasing kitten. Fortunately, she isn’t mad at the kitten. She is, however, quite sad that her first ever pets of her own are dead. Now she wants a turtle or a snake; preferably a snake. *sigh*

I’ve done a little bit of stitching since last time, including this bit which I’m going to leave as a mystery for my favorite girls to ponder a guess at. It is a HAED chart (and a full size one at that). It is an active artist and an active chart.  It is also an artist whose work I have drooled over but have never stitched… until now. She has been with HAED for several years, too! This is the middle of the chart and it’s part of a face.

Next up is my new start for the 5th weekend retired artist/chart SAL. I’ve been wanting to start this chart for a while and have tagged this as my guilt-free start for 2009. It’s Linda Ravenscroft’s “Serendipity.” While I’m not sure what is serendipitous about the scene, I love it anyway. I know I’ll be stitching this more often than every 5th weekend. There is something about Linda’s work that I find amazing. I have her “Mask of Colors” going around as a round robin. But other than that, I don’t have any of her other work in progress. I will be getting to part of the tattoo on her arm really soon. It’s next on the top right of my stitching!

My next stitchy picture isn’t all that exciting to see. It’s a square of sparkle and two shades of really pale grey. It’s QS Day Dreaming Fairy by Zindy Nielsen which is the piece I’ve chosen for the 2009 HAED Freebie SAL. I was torn on what to choose because stitching all these neutral colors will drive me bats, but it’s a new artist for me and she’s pretty. She is due to come out this coming weekend for some stitching although maybe I will pull her out a bit earlier.

Speaking of 2009, I’ve made two stitching goals for this year on the HAED front. One is to finish the QS I just mentioned above, and the other is to finish the top row of pages in Christophe Vacher’s Sacred Hour.  I’ve got about 2 1/2 large print pages to go and somewhere in those pages is a face! This was the first HAED chart I ever bought and it is the one I love most of all.

Maestro adores everyone in our family… and everyone in our family adores him. Our daughters read in the evenings with him and he scampers all over them and their books. He loves their long hair and never stops purring. Weighing in at a manly two pounds, he packs a lot of purr for his weight! His favorite toy — FEATHERS! What’s even better than feathers? His people moving the feathers for him. He’s also a rub-my-belly baby. I hope he keeps that as he grows up. Scott wears cargo pants and Maestro loves ‘em! He climbs all over them and uses them as his personal jungle gym. As for me, I’m Mommy. I play, I feed, I clean the litter box, I shove yucky stuff in his face and I’m his favorite place to sleep. When I nap with him or even spend the night, he’s either curled up on my shoulder or stretched out across my neck. At this current weight, he’s not a problem across my neck. However, it may be an issue at ten pounds. But that’s ok. And, like my other baby boy, Ziggy, he likes to lick my face. None of my female cats do it, just my boys.

Maestro also loves any toys my daughters have. He loves all the little fiddly bit parts and things that make up eight year old toys. (Think Barbie shoe sizes and smaller.) His little head and feet fit right in there to “help” and they have quite the time with him. Today I took  him into their bedroom to have him “help” them excavate out the stuff under their beds. I don’t think any kitten could have been happier. He was scampering all over the place diving from under one bedskirt to another discovering all sorts of cool girlie things to play with.

When he’s not doing that, he looooooves his whale. It’s a great place to play chase with his human-driven feathers, too!

I know there’s only one picture… he’s hard to take pictures of! I mean, good pictures of. We have lots of blurry pictures… and pictures of his fuzzy butt… and the back of his head… and of him jumping at the strap on the camera. The picture up there is of Scott holding him above his head so he would hold still! What about while he’s sleeping? Urm, well, he’s a kitten. He wakes up the instant you walk into the room and starts zooming around all over the place!

He is SUCH a sweetie — thanks Alesha and Kat for our new baby boy!

Some restrictions do apply. As in he has to decide to if he will be going ahead with PhD work AND in astrophysics. If it’s not in astrophysics, then a telescope, as cool as this one is, just won’t be as applicable. I also wouldn’t start stitching until he officially starts working on this particular degree.

So can I do 376,425 Xs in the time it takes a 40-something year old to earn his PhD in astrophysics? *nibbles on her fingernails and nervously eyes the pages of the chart* I just thought I would mention that “Marchetti” and “confetti” rhyme and it’s quite applicable for most of the pages.

Stay tuned to see how things turn out! (10 skeins of 310…that’s what happens when it’s something in SPACE, Sue. DUH!)

Next up is Tribute to the Old Masters by Nouveau Encore. This is stitched on my favorite fabric – 36 count Lakeside Linen. I’m using Belle Soie’s Elegant Eggplant silk which is absolutely divine to stitch with. I highly recommend it! It’s always nice to spend time working on a single color sampler as there’s only one floss color to worry about. To see what the whole piece looks like, you can see it here. It’s just a little big. *grins*

I’ve got about a quarter of part 2 of Oriental Harem Garden done. I’ll be taking it with me on vacation along with another piece… I think. I’ve still not decided. I’d better figure it out soon as we’re leaving on Sunday! We’re taking our girls on a Disney Land/Sea vacation and then spending a week visiting our friend of over 20 years in Tampa. The girls have no idea where we’re going aside from on a plane. They will, of course, figure it out, but we’re enjoying their not knowing and looking forward to their surprise as they realize that we’re staying at a Disney resort for four days (all of their previous visits have been day trips) and then three days on the Disney Wonder, one of their Cruise liners (they have no idea that Disney even HAS boats) and then we’ll be going to the airport and instead of getting on a plane, we’ll be picking up a rental car and heading to Tampa for another week. It’s going to be quite the adventure!

Let’s see if I can keep up with this and have part 2 done before August 1st!

And finally… Happy Birthday, love! *SMOOCHIES!!*

Speaking of Fudgey, has she tempted you with Periphaeria Designs’ Spanish Sampler Mystery SAL yet? She caught me with it and I’m bouncing all over the place fiddling with fabric and silk trying to decide if I should spend my certs now and order things, or wait it out until part 1 comes out March 15th… and then order and then stalk the mailman waiting for my fabric and silk to arrive. I’m torn! I so want to start something new! While I’ve been looking at lots of fabric, this linen is the one that I have always come back to and I’ve been thinking that Vikki Clayton’s Natural silk would go well. Thoughts?

And finally, the girls were off from school last Friday thanks to (yet another) “wintery mix” storm. So they rummaged around in the game closet and came out with one of Nikki’s favorite games. No sooner was the lid off of the box when she was right where she wanted to be! Think the mice were scared that lazy afternoon? (And of course we didn’t chase her from the box when we were done playing… we left her there until she was done with her nap and then put the lid back on the box!)

Last week we had our usual February “wintery mix” weather. This equates to something that starts off as snow and then meanders through snow mixed with sleet, sleet, sleet mixed with freezing rain and then freezing rain. Sometimes we get snow after that. Last year we got a lovely near foot of that stuff and Mike aptly named it concrete as it took over a week for some of us to be able to get out of our driveways! Last week, however, we ended up with freezing rain. This was unfortunate as it my daughter ended up breaking her arm in ballet class that afternoon and we spent several hours in the emergency room only to emerge with her newly splinted arm to find our car completely encased in ice. (the orthopedic doctor she visited on Valentine’s Day had to put a cast on it — she chose bright pink!)

The next morning, Scott risked life and limb to take some lovely pictures… this is the part where ice can be lovely. Fortunately, he didn’t need any casts, Ace bandages or other boo-boo mending gear. These are some Crape Myrtles. We live far enough south that they love growing here. Of course, after they burst into bloom, we usually get a wicked windstorm and all the flowers blow down the street… or into the pool. *sigh*

Some of you may recall when the white pine tree fell on our house last year. That was due to wind and shallow tree roots. Of course, it doesn’t keep me from worrying that another one of the huge pine trees around will do the same even though the arborist has assured us that the remaining pines are stable. They really droop when weighed down with ice, but in this closeup, they don’t look so menacing. In this area, residential power lines have to be underground, so I don’t have that worry on my property. Whew!

We have a myriad of shrubby things around outside and when we built the house, our landscaper was very good about having the tags left on things, but that would still require me to either trapse outside into the cold and try and find the tags on nine year old shrubs or dig out the landscape plan and translate his really long latin-y names into the more common names that we know. So instead you just get my swell description of a hibernating bush with ice-covered berries on it. It’s still quite pretty!

Meanwhile, inside the house, life goes on and my Ziggy sleeps through everything without a care in the world… not even that there’s a stuffed bunny (affectionately called “Bun Bun” by Lindsey) perched on his back. Ahhhhh, to be able to relax like my ZigZig! He does curl up next to my head in the morning so I can rest my cheek on him so I have a purring pillow, so life is stripey and purrrrrrfect!