… and today she decided to turn that sense of humor upon me.

It’s been over a week since the ice storm. Scott got the car out of the driveway for me on Tuesday and it’s been parked in the street since then. It’s been warm and sunny and things have been melting. *cheers* So today, I felt industrious and went outside to shovel the rest of the stuff off of the driveway so that my guests for stitching night would have less of the aforementioned stuff to drive through and walk through. It was pleasant enough outside, 50 degrees F (that’s 10 degrees Celsius for the civilized parts of the world) and sunny. So I grabbed my sunglasses, donned my coat and mittens and boots, of course (more on that in a bit) and grabbed the shovel.

Let’s talk about why ice should be left to keep drinks cold and used for those lovely ice sculptures you see on cruise ship buffets and at weddings, shall we? It’s been over a week since this stuff was dumped on us. It’s melted a bunch… in some places, anyway. So, go get yourself four snocones of shaved ice. Don’t bother putting any flavoring in it, it would be a waste of perfectly good sugar! Now, dump those snocones in a plugged-up bathroom sink. Add about a cup and a half or so of water until the ice starts to melt a bit. Now get a spoon and start poking at it and scooping it up and dumping it back in the sink. Hear that lovely wet icy splooshing sound? Yeah… you get the idea. Oh, and for any blondes or anyone having a blonde day reading this, don’t go sticking your hands in the water… it’s COLD!

Where was I? Oh right… shoveling melted snocone spooge. I get about a third of the driveway done and things are going well. Then the sun goes in. Bugger. Must press on. I’m getting company tonight and I want this driveway clear! The wind starts to pick up. Lovely. Then I mumble as I splash myself in the face… or so I thought. You can see where this is going, can’t you? Two-thirds done… I can do this! Double bugger… it’s raining AND windy now. Kathie and Mike drive by and must think I’m nuts… which is true, actually, but standing outside in the wind and rain shoveling stuff off of the driveway is more nuts than usual. Since I was already cold and soaked I decided to just finish shoveling what I could lift and be done with it.

I was rewarded with TADA… being able to finally drive the car into the garage.

Sort of anti-climatic, isn’t it? You know what’s worse? Not less than ten minutes after I came into the house and peeled off my soaking wet clothes there isn’t a cloud in the sky and the sun is shining brightly.

You win, Mother Nature, I’m going to go take a nap.

Two days ago we had snow. Then we had sleet. Then we had what’s called a “wintery mix.” This is a conglomeration of sleet, snow and freezing rain. It makes for a mess. We had a whole lot of it and it accumulated into stuff that’s not very shovelable. I offer the following pictures of my driveway (click right)
where you can see what looks like snow. If you look more closely, you will see tire tracks where our car and jeep were driven on top of the “snow.” In order to get the jeep out of the garage, we had to first get the car out, because that artful-looking slope is over two feet tall and, should we have backed the jeep out (click left)
we would have ripped the top off of the jeep. Harrumph. Is it slippery you ask? Weeellll… you can get a bit of traction on it… so if you walk gently you’re ok. Try to move faster than a gentle walk, and you’ll find yourself wishing for more posterior padding as the ice is not only hard, it’s really COLD! (Yes, I’m speaking from experience. *sigh*) School has been closed for two days and Scott’s college even closed for a day. The car isn’t about to brave that large plow-created mass at the end of the driveway, so we’re pretty-much iced in when the jeep isn’t here. That’s ok with me, I don’t want to go out in this cold anyway.

Enough about my driveway — how about a stitchy picture? (click right)
I gave myself a Christmas present on December 23rd – I joined my first Chatelaine mystery. I never thought I would join because not knowing exactly what I was getting and spending all that $$$ on silks really made me squeamish. But I *love* pretty borders and Martina snagged me but good with her Rose & Butterfly Quilt. I finally got my kit last Thursday and started! This is the optional decorative outer border – the part that snagged me and it’s been a joy to stitch so far. I had to put it away to get back to Diane’s RR (which I am ashamed to say still isn’t done *hangs her head*). It’s got lots of gorgeous greens and tons of NPIs which makes it pricey, but I ordered my kit before the end of last year so it had the pre-price hike cost. I love stitching with NPIs. *swoons*

Are you joining our Character Creations SAL this weekend? Kerry has some gorgeous charts to pick from! There’s still time to kit something up and join us! *holds up her CC on 3 sign and dances around*

And finally… one of my favorite pictures of my Starbaby. (click left)
We adopted her from the animal shelter almost nine years ago. She’s part Maine Coon cat and gorgeous – if you can ever see her. She’s very shy and quite the Mommy’s girl. Her real name is Stardust, but I never seem to call her that. My latest nickname for her is Fluffernutter because she is one very fluffy kitty (her fur still feels like it did when she was a kitten) and she is totally nuts because she’s such a wuss and hides from everyone. It’s only after having stitching night here for years that some of the girls have finally seen her!

You want clickies? I got lots of clickies for you today! First up is this most amazingly gorgeous bookmark stitched by Nancy (who doesn’t have a blog, hint hint!). (click right)
It’s got an adorable bunny on it and some happy birds along with a blue “S” – check it out! Thank you thank you thank you, Nancy! What a lovely surprise and well-worth the walk to the mailbox in the below-freezing weather! *HUGS!*

Next up is my next try at a floss toss for Tracy’s always-droolable Blackstone Fantasy Garden. (click left)
I’ve changed the variegated floss for the largest of the knotwork to Gloriana’s Honey Bronze and I will follow the chart and make the variegated part two wide and put a one-wide X border around that floss in Vikki’s Quern-Stone 5161. The smaller of the knots will be in Vikki’s Cream which is a little darker than the Natural I used last toss with a gold Japan Thread highlight. I changed a few of the other silks from the more grey-beige ones to the more golden ones to complement the Honey Bronze colors. If any of them get lost in the fabric in blackwork, then I’ll just use one of the lighter shades. The Honey Bronze looks a smidge darker in the picture than it really is… *sigh* That said, what do you think?

Next up is just for you, Jeannie-Maree… because you’ve been gushing about Glorianas, I went poking around and found the Honey Bronze because of you. While shopping, some other colors just happened to fall into my shopping cart and I thought I’d share. (click right)
While I already had some Cranberry, one can always do with a spare and how about Schoolhouse Red? Deep Blue Sea sent me swooning and how can you not have Purkle Fred? *giggles*

Last up is the Zombie as my husband calls her. *sigh* I keep telling him that she’s a fairy, but he says, “She’s green. She has to be a zombie.” Hmph. She’s all confetti, but totally amazing and totally gorgeous! (click left)
Would you believe that no pinks or peaches were used to make that blush in her cheek? It’s all yellows, golds and chartreusey colors. Watching her appear has been one of the most amazing and enjoyable HAED stitching experiences I’ve had in a while. (I compare it to watching the castle appear in Gustafson’s “Touched by Magic” which I must get back to really soon!)

As I type this, it’s 8pm and the wind chill has it at -1 degrees Fahrenheit which, since we stupid Americans are still archaic when it comes to measurements, means a lovely -18 and change in Celsius. Of course, the front with all the moisture in it went through when it was a bit warmer, so we got ice instead of snow. If we’d get a good blizzard or something then I’d have a really good excuse to stay home and hibernate, But noooo… it’s clear, sunny and dry outside, so I have to scurry around outside in the cold bundled up in my good-to-negative-fifty-five-degrees-parka. BAH is all I have to say about that. BAH!!

So what did I do this month stitching-wise? Not all that much as most of the time my brain was drowning in a sinus infection from another planet, but here’s my itty bitty list:

1: Finished AMAP 8 letter “J” for Jeannie-Maree’s birthday. (Whee, a finish!)
2: Made progress on Diane’s RR which is the fairy’s face in Linda Ravenscroft’s “Verdure”
3: Stitched once on Nadia Tate’s “Accidental Witch-Cat” for QS Wednesday
4: Gridded and started Selina Fenech’s “Tomboy” (Wohoo!!)
5: Added some cotton candy background and part of the letter “L” to Kathie’s “Libra” by Sara Butcher during our Saturday SAL

For all that February is a short month, I sure hope to have more progress to report! We’ll be starting our Character Creations SAL (CC on 3) on the 16th and I’m totally stoked about that!

I was thinking (ok, whining) that I didn’t have anything to blog about since I’ve been quite the bore as of late since I tend to not post pictures of my stitching blobs. But, hey, you may just like seeing my blobs. And, since Jeannie-Maree has received her gift, I can post about that too even though she already has. Here is my first finish of 2007! (click right)
It’s “A Mon Ami Pierre’s” AMAP 8 letter “J” stitched 1×1 on 28 count white jazlyn in a lovely Colourstream called Purple Genie (thanks a bunch, Nic and Vicky! *HUGS!*) and then placed in the top of a Sudberry House white Betsy box. I’m pleased with how it turned out and most of all, pleased that she liked the gift. (Whew!) For those of you who have AMAP 8, stitch it! It’s an absolute joy! For those of you that don’t have it, go here, buy it, and then stitch it!

For my blobs, there are two. First up is my start on Selina Fenech’s full-size black and white Tomboy. It’s only a day or so of stitching and was when I was heavily congested and feeling quite unhappy about everything because I couldn’t even count to ten without botching something. (click left)
Can you figure out where I started? There’s hardly anything to go on! The grey fabric is working nicely, though, but the whites are still a bit of a challenge to see, although that may have been due to the sinus infection from another planet I was coping with. I love this chart and I so want to get back to stitching it! I can’t wait to see how these 21 “colors” are going to turn into such a masterpiece right before my eyes! *bounce*

My next blob is what I’ve been working on exclusively for the past week or so. As the antibiotics clear things up, my groove comes back in fits and starts. This RR piece is all confetti, but it’s positively gorgeous! (click right)
It’s for Diane’s RR and yes, I’ll be posting late (bad bad Sue), but isn’t she sexy with that one eye peering out from behind that strand of hair? Can you guess which chart it is with all that green?

It’s been wickedly cold here with the windchill… so if I promise to send some arctic air in return will someone please send some warm air up here to VA? It’s COOOOOOLLLLLD! *shivers*