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I am happy to report that I have finished another project from my StRIP list! Yay!
I stitched the Faith freebie from Accents, Inc. on a bookmark edged in dark lavender, using SMS Filled With Hope and Kreinik #4 braid in gold. I also used SMS Filled With Hope for the Nun's Stitches at each end. I'm thrilled with the finished piece!
This bookmark will soon be winging its way to a very dear lady in New Orleans. She was able to repair her home after Hurricane Katrina struck last year, and always seemed in such great spirits. She's definitely an inspirational person! I'm hopeful that this little gift will help her as she faces the upcoming hurricane season.
Also, I am slowly turning the titles of my WIPs (in the left hand column of my blog) into links to a current scan of each project. I need to scan most of them in, or at least stitch enough to warrant a scan...LOL The progress bars alone have been a great source of inspiration to me! Let's hope the scans provide even more motivation to stitch, stitch, stitch!
Little by little, it's all getting done...
Our garage down is now back in working order! A technician out yesterday. Twenty minutes later, the door was going up and down with hardly a sound. The tension coil wasn't broken, just stuck, so no new parts were needed. Yay! I did make certain to get the tech's recommendation on a lubricant, maintenance, etc.
Also, within the next couple of hours, our van will have new brake pads and be ready to go. We also suspect a slight brake fluid leak, which will (hopefully) be easy to find and repair.
That leaves the compressor for the van's A/C system and our roof/fencing. Maybe, just maybe, all the repairs will be done by the end of the month.
I'm very thankful that, so far, all the repairs have gone smoothly. I hope and pray that the trend continues.
Apparently, I can no longer stitch on 14 ct Aida. Perhaps it's just me, or perhaps it was the stiffer quality of the Charles Craft navy blue Aida, but it's just not working.
I've been promising to stitch Sue Hillis' Burger King for my grill-mad hubby. So that's what I started on Sunday evening. I really thought the colors would "pop" on some navy blue fabric (which they do), but to me the stitching itself looks sloppy.
I have heard some say that they rinse their DMC or CC Aida to remove the stiffener. I, however, used to like the stiffer feel for stitching in hand. Now I stitch almost exclusively with Q-Snaps, which I love! Maybe the stiffener plus the tension of the Q-Snaps just isn't a good combination?
Anyhow, I'm going to rip out the little bit I stitched and restart the project on a white evenweave. I've become very enamored of evenweaves. I just love them! And I do still love 18 ct Aida, stitched with 2 strands.
Note to self...rinse the fabric next time...LOL
In some ways, it seems that the tornadoes here never happened and, in others, like it was just yesterday. In reality, it has been 2 weeks.
We finally received word that our insurance adjustor will be at our home on June 4th, and will be prepared to cut us a check that day. More than likely, our deductible alone will cover repairs to the fence. That means that the check they give us should pay for the roof repairs, in full. Of course, we'll have to find a roofer who has time in his schedule. That ought to be an interesting search.
Tomorrow, we also have an overhead door company coming out to look at our garage door. It won't open or close. After the storms, we had to disengage the automatic opener in order to open the door manually. Sometime during all the opening & closing of the door over that long weekend, the tension coil broke. Hopefully, it won't be an expensive repair.
This past Friday morning, we received a visit from a highly-recommended septic service company. Finally, someone who actually knows what they're talking about! The first service we called really scammed up, and I'm still wanting to go about demanding a refund.
This wonderful second service did a full inspection of our system and did let us know that our septic pump and one of our sensors were both no longer working. Happily, the owner had a sensor in his truck that he gave to use, free of charge. He also replaced the pump, but that wasn't free. Several hours and $300 later, our septic system is back in full running order.
Also, we're still waiting on word of a compressor for our van's A/C system. We had some work done on it the weekend of the tornadoes, but it became apparent that the compressor had been damaged when the coolant overheated. Our mechanic is just waiting on the right compressor to come in and then we'll finally have a working A/C again.
I'm in prayer that once all of this over, we'll have a month or two relatively free of large expenses. We really want our focus to be on paying off the van early.
Okay, enough serious talk! LOL I think I'm going to go clean up my "stash area" in my bedroom, just so that I can play with stitchy stuff...hehe...
I stayed up entirely too late last night, but it was so worth it! I finally got around to finishing San-Man Originals' I Love Carrots!
I stitched this on Dyeing4U's Sandy's Sunshine Jazlyn...a color made especially for the San-Man herself. It doesn't show in the scan, but the fabric is a mottled pale yellow & white, with opalescent threads running through it. So pretty! I also used some raffia from my stash for the bow, which I think gives it a "country" feel.
I started this last year, but then rediscovered it when I decided to make a StRIP list. I'm just thrilled with the way it turned out!
It was a VERY long weekend here!
This past Thursday evening, we took our van to the repair shop, to have the air conditioning fixed. We had decided that being "stuck" at home for the weekend would be wonderful. There would be no errands to run, just lots of family time. Happily, the van should be ready tomorrow. We were blessed to be lead to a wonderful mechanic who is fixing our van for a fraction of the original estimate.
Late Friday night, a line of severe storms moved into our area, bringing strong straight line winds, large hail, heavy rain and tornadoes. We spent approximately 30 minutes huddled together in the laundry room, after hearing that a tornado was on the ground 8 miles from our home. At one point, the whole house shook violently. The kids and I were scared, by Steven was fascinated by it all.
When we emerged from the laundry room, we discovered that we were missing nearly 70 feet of our wood privacy fence. Our power was out and the rain just kept coming.
Saturday morning, Kathy & her family stopped by to check on us, as did my in-laws. Our neighborhood didn't look too bad at first glance. My in-laws took all three kids and we stayed behind to do some cleaning up.
By late Monday afternoon, we still didn't have electricity, phone or internet service. Thank goodness we had our gas grill! We did A LOT of walking and a good amount of cleaning. All of our utilities were restored Monday night, 68 hours after the outages.
I did stitch a bit on SMO's I Love Carrots, but it was too humid to stitch most of the time. Instead, I decluttered my son's room and thoroughly cleaned my refrigerator and freezer. It was a good time to do it, as I had to throw away most of what we had stored. Thankfully, the food replacement costs will count towards our homeowners insurance deductible.
We also discovered that we are missing a few shingles and the whole back section of our roof appears bubbled. It could be 2 to 3 weeks before an adjustor gets out here. However, the insurance company told us to call if we end up with any additional damage from more rain before the adjustor makes it out here. There is a possibility of more rain this coming weekend.
To top it all off, we had some problems with the service we hired to pump out our septic system. After a week of phone calls, they finally finished the job today. Now we have a different (and highly recommended) company coming out to do a full inspection of the system, just in case. We're in prayer that the system is fine and that if it does need repairs (pump, float sensor, etc.) that the cost be minimal and the repairs easily accomplished.
We've also found a great way to increase our income. Starting tomorrow, Steven & I will be running a commercial newspaper route. One of us will pick up the newspapers at 3 AM, drop them off at various business and then come home. It's seven days per week, but should take no more than 20 hours per week. The pay is wonderful, as well. If, at any time, we are ill or need to go out of town, we can have someone sub for us. My mom & my MIL have both volunteered to help us, if needed. Isn't that great?!
One last item of interest before I go. Last week I finished up a model stitching project for San-Man Originals. It is a GORGEOUS design and I predict it will be a big seller! As soon as it's released for retail, I'll post a picture.
That's it for now, I hope! LOL
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