Ok, Melissa told me that I could tell you what I am going to make for her. So without further ado here is the project that Melissa is having me make for her.

Embrace by Tereena Clarke

Originally published at Amarantine. You can comment here or there.

For seasoned stitchers: Define a stitching term or acronym for new
stitchers.
For newbies: What stitching term or acronym would you like defined?

Well I am definitely a newbie, but so far I have gotten a new knowledge of terms & acronyms for the language used. I am still making my rounds through all the stitching blogs that I am finding. So far all the terms & acronyms that I don’t understand Renee or Loretta are happy to explain to me. So as of this moment there isn’t any that I don’t know or understand.

Originally published at Amarantine. You can comment here or there.

I can not believe what Michelle has done for me. She works in a used book store (talk about job envy) and I asked her if any Philippa Gregory books came into her book store to hold them for me & I would pay her for them & the shipping. Well, she has found two of nine that I asked her for. I have complete faith that when the other seven comes in she will also hold those for me also. I just can not believe the amount of friendship she shows to me. I am just not use to this from people I haven’t met face to face. Thanks so much Michelle.

Cross Stitching Update

I have made progress on my Serenity Prayer. Lots of progress, if I may say so. Though I know that Melissa wants me to hurry up and get finished so I can get started on hers, hee hee.

Other Misc. Jobs

Between working on my QBee quilt, my secret project, cross stitching, paper training Shiloh, & sorting through threads for projects that I am sending to people. No Melissa I am not outsourcing, lol. I am still having to come up with design ideas for my father’s website for the office & one for my local Church. But I will manage I always do.

Originally published at Amarantine. You can comment here or there.

ø Galleries - The galleries are getting filled up. I have uploaded several photos of the dogs & some more of the cross stitching ones. Go take a look!

Originally published at Amarantine. You can comment here or there.

These are the palettes I am considering for the next theme for Amarantine. I know, I don’t normally let anyone see these. But I thought I would get your input about which one you all like. I am not saying that I will use your choice, but I would like to see what you all say.

Originally published at Amarantine. You can comment here or there.

Six Random Things About Myself

Ok, Michelle is getting me back for tagging her a long time ago, lol. Also Alexandra tagged me also. So I am supposed to come up six random things about myself to tell you. This is going to take a few minutes.

1. I have a huge stuffed animal collection. As long as the stuffed animal looks real or is from Build-A-Bear, I probably have it. My living room looks like a stuffed animal convention.
2. I have this thing for Fenton cats. I have about twenty of them, but at about $50USD a piece I only buy them when one comes out that I just can’t live without.
3. The song “Bitch” by Meredith Brooks describes me to a “T”. If I didn’t know better I would swear she wrote the song describing be, though I know she didn’t. Even my off-line friends agree with me.
4. I own over 5000 books in just my personal library & I have actually read them all. I constantly add more books to that total. Most of the time every week. I even ask my friends to find me books when I can’t fine them. Thanks Michelle.
5. I adore listening to all kinds of music. I listen to just about anything except for heavy metal & rap. My album collection contains over 500 albums and my MP3 collection contains over 100 songs. Currently I am downloading from Amazon MP3.
6. Crowds make me anxious and give me headaches. I will actually go to the restroom just to get away from the crowd.
7. I never call my mom “mom” or any of those names. I never have. I have always called her “sweetie”, “love”, or “darling”. I don’t know why, but I have always done this since I was a child. No wonder we get some stranger looks when we are together in public, lol.

Fifth sentence of page meme

Michelle did it again to me, lol.

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people and post a comment on Michelle’s blog (she’s the one who tagged me) once you’ve posted your three sentences.

So here we go.

“It won’t be a big wedding, we’d both hate that, but a nice little one with some of our best friends.”

“That’s wonderful, Margot!” She was delighted for her friends. And how wonderful that they had called today, after she had made it up with Joel.

This is from “The Inheritor” by Marion Zimmer Bradley. I do not recommend this book & it pains me to have to say that. I love Mrs. Bradley’s work. But when my father (who started me on her work) and I can not get into the book and just can not read this book then I can not recommend it.

Originally published at Amarantine. You can comment here or there.

I can’t help it. I had planned on keeping this one for a long time, but I am just not liking it any more. I want it to be pink, pink, and more pink. Oh boy that is going to be monotoned. No, don’t worry, I won’t make it monotoned. But this time, the design isn’t going to be a normal looking design from me. Damn it, I want to be in the Perfection Gallery & I keep getting denied & it is pissing me off . No, it is not that they have too high of standards or anything. My site just isn’t good enough, but then I didn’t really expect to get in with either of these designs. So it is back to the drawing board and this time I am going to pester Bubs & Rilla before I apply again, maybe just Rilla I don’t know if Bubs is back yet. So as soon as I get finished with my secret project I will work on re-designing Amarantine. Hopefully, it will be the last time for a while, though I am not making any promises.

On another note, I doubt if anyone has noticed but I have closed my Signature Shoppe, Book Craze, & my portfolio. My father is planning on having me create and maintain his business website & if I am going to do that, then I am not going to be able to manage all the sites. So I am going to just maintain three. Plus our local Church is flirting with the possibility of having me maintain their website also. So I am looking at the possibility of maintaining that site also. But on the plus side, I can code as long as the templates and my friends are willing to help.

Originally published at Amarantine. You can comment here or there.

Author: Jean Auel
Publisher: Bantam Books
ISBN: 978-0-553-25042-8
Rating: 5/5

Description:

A natural disaster leaves the young girl wandering alone in an unfamiliar and dangerous land until she is found by a woman of the Clan, people very different from her own kind. To them, blond, blue-eyed Ayla looks peculiar and ugly–she is one of the Others, those who have moved into their ancient homeland; but Iza cannot leave the girl to die and takes her with them. Iza and Creb, the old Mog-ur, grow to love her, and as Ayla learns the ways of the Clan and Iza’s way of healing, most come to accept her. But the brutal and proud youth who is destined to become their next leader sees her differences as a threat to his authority. He develops a deep and abiding hatred for the strange girl of the Others who lives in their midst, and is determined to get his revenge.

My Review

Read the rest of this entry »

Originally published at Amarantine. You can comment here or there.

Oh my goodness. The Quilting Bee is have a Tea Party. This activity is going to be a blast. We are making teacups and invites for the other bees and for Honey. You need to check out the activity page.

Originally published at Amarantine. You can comment here or there.

How do you handle blended threads? Do you kit the blends up before you start a piece, or do you grab what colors you need and blend when the need arises? If you kit up the blends beforehand, how do you store them? Do you have another option for blends to share?

Well, I haven’t worked with any blends yet, but I plan on handling them just like I handle my other threads. I will put the blends together as I need them. Though I will not store any blends cause I hate to store threads that I will not use again. I will store them until I am through with the project but after that I will get rid of the blended floss, if there is any left.

Originally published at Amarantine. You can comment here or there.

About two weeks ago we had to put down our 20 year old poodle, Cocoa, down because of the amount of pain she was in. Since we were going on vacation, we decided not to look for another puppy to keep Allie company during the time when no one is at home. We had already decided that we wanted a Bichon Frise for the breed & knew what breeder we were getting it from. We just had to hope they would have puppies when we needed them.

So Monday we went to the breeder and they had one little male puppy left and so I introduce you to Shiloh. He is 8 weeks old and very rowdy. He already gives Allie a run for her money. I promise more photos as he gets bigger.

He will be in the gallery that I will label Inside Dogs in the gallery pages. But this will happen after I get the vacation photos uploaded, lol.

Originally published at Amarantine. You can comment here or there.

Yes, I can not stand Anchor floss. The one time I used it, I had more breakages and it twisted up on me more then any floss I have ever used. It drove me crazy. I only used it because the person who commissioned the piece wanted Anchor floss used. I will never use Anchor floss again, I only use DMC.

I figured for this it would be easier to make a photo collage to tell you what is in my xstitch bag.
This box contains extra needles, fabric tape, sharps (needles), measuring tape, Fray Check, permanent marker (marking my bobbins), button thread, thimbles, extra scissors, etc. Basically this box contains things that I don't require in my daily stitching, but in a pinch or a problem occurs I may need something out of it, so it stay in my bag.

This is just a small container that has compartments that is the perfect size for the floss bobbins. This container has been used for numerous projects. In this photo it is over filled with bobbins for my current project the Serenity Prayer. This is the fullest I have ever had it with one project. Normally I have it full with two or three projects at one time.

This is my new frame set. It is called the Q Snap Frame. I simply love it. I have had it for about four days now and I just can not say enough about this frame. For me a frame has to hold the tension in the fabric, able to be put together quickly, lightweight, easy to hold, non-pinching. I have the 6x6, a 3 inch extension, the 11x11 square & the 17x17 square.

This is my beloved Pearl (which is actually named Pearl). This poor thing is filled to the brim with my music. If I am not watching tv while stitching then I am listening to Pearl with my hot pink ear phones. My mother could not believe when I bought the RCA MP3 player. She thought for sure I was going to buy an IPod, but I told her that I wasn't happy with the singularity of IPods and wanting something that would work with my WMP and IPods wouldn't.

Well those are my required parts of my cross stitching bag. Of course, my current project and a three ring binder that contains the current project's chart is also required in my bag, lol.

I print it out cause I cross stitch in the car, at my father's office, while I am waiting in line, basically anytime I am waiting I am cross stitching :lol: But if I am at home in front of my laptop I usually will just stitch from the computer.

Well, it depends on whether I did the project on commission, as a gift, or just because I liked it. Usually, if I just did it cause I liked it (the Americana) I will probably either sell it, give it away, auction, or keep it.

Originally published at Amarantine. You can comment here or there.

Say hello to version 10!  Everything is finished, but it is completed enough for me to release it to the public.  I still have to remove the in-between pages since I have the Dynamic Sub-Navigation working.  I will work on that in the morning and on Saturday.

I do need to pass on a huge thank you to  Melissa for the help in getting the comments file fixed.  She has been an amazing help to me with the comments & the dynamic sub-navigation coding.  I don’t know how I would have gotten this theme up & running without here.

Originally published at Amarantine. You can comment here or there.

What can I say, my mother loves me? I had a 40% off coupon? I have this crazy things for Buddha and I am not even Buddhist? I have three statues of him, and my mother bought me this pattern Sunday with a coupon. The pattern usually costs $20 and that is more then I ever spend on any pattern. With the coupon it brought the price down to around $10 which for a kit my mother will pay for. I can’t wait to get started on it. Though this pattern is all Meghan’s fault, I first saw the pattern on her site. That made me want it and I have been hoping to find it cheap for a while now.

I can’t wait until April 15 (tax season is over then in the US) and then my father will actually get some sleep and be less stressed. :sweatdrop: 

Originally published at Amarantine. You can comment here or there.

ø Countdown - Don’t worry, if things start to shift and plugins (Gravatars) disappear. I am just getting things ready for Version 10 Leaves. I have the design & graphics completed. I am just finishing up the tweaking of the WP coding.

Originally published at Amarantine. You can comment here or there.

ø Signature Tags - I have finally got all the signature tags section up and complete.

Originally published at Amarantine. You can comment here or there.

I found this online, I don’t really remember where. But thought it was funny & thought I would do it.

You get to answer with one word.

1. Where is your cellphone? table
2. Relationship? single
3. Your hair? short
4. Work? none
5. Your sister? none
6. Your favorite thing? cross-stitch
7. Your dream last night? none
8. Your favorite drink? tea
9. Your dream car? none
10. The room you’re in? living
11. Your shoes? none
12. Your fears? dying
13. What do you want to be in 10 years? alive
14. Who did you hang out with this weekend? dogs
15. What are you not good at? remembering
16. Muffin? cream-cheese
17. One of your wish list items? cross-stitch
18. Where you grew up? Missouri
19. Last thing you did? eat
20. What are you wearing? nightgown
21. What aren’t you wearing? shoes
22. Your pet? dogs
23. Your computer? compaq
24. Your life? wonderful
25. Your mood? tired
26. Missing? sleep
27. What are you thinking about right now? words
28. Your car? saturn
29. Your kitchen? none
30. Your summer? home
31. Your favorite color? pink
32. Last time you laughed? today
33. Last time you cried? yesterday
34. School? done
35. Love? none

Originally published at Amarantine. You can comment here or there.

Yeah, I know. You all probably don’t care, but when I can afford new patterns it is like Christmas for me. I throw a little party every time. This is what I have gotten this time. I ordered and downloaded these today from PatternsOnline.

Originally published at Amarantine. You can comment here or there.

ø Curious - I am curious as to who exactly is in my RSS feed. Is there a way I can find out who has subscribed to my RSS feeds or would you be nice enough to comment or email me.

Originally published at Amarantine. You can comment here or there.

ø Amarantine v. 10 -  I wish I could just keep my hands off my designs.  Aargh  :mad:  But just to warn you all, Amarantine is going to have a new theme and structure.  Thanks to Melissa’s tutorial and other sites I am learning how to tweak WP.