Two more cubes

Since I was on a finishing streak with some of my F&S exchanges, I started thinking about what to do with the rest of them.  I came up with a "seasonal theme", planning to make two squares for each season.  The squares from Robin made up my first spring one, but the second set of squares I pulled out for a spring cube is just a little off in size from the square pieces of styrofoam.  Back to the drawing board on that one, I suppose. But I did find two more that would work for a seasonal theme.

In fact, it works out particularly well for the winter squares from Renee because the design for the front is a rectangle and the back is a square.  I was going to make an ornament, but couldn't figure out how to make it work, so back to the drawer it went.  That was until I started making up the last set of cubes and came up with the idea of adding a snowflake embellishment.

I dug through my stash of crafty bits - if there's ribbon or sequins or some other embellishment I think I can use for finishing, I put it in with my crafting materials until I have a need for it.  These snowflake sequins came from inside a snowglobe Christmas card, and I was going to sew them on before pinning the fabric to the cube until I figured out it would be much easier just pin them.  Once again, the wide dark blue satin ribbon makes an appearance.  I may change it up a little if I find a snowflake embellished ribbon when the Christmas craft materials come out (which should be any day now, right?  LOL)

We have so many ornaments for the tree that this will be a nice addition to the other decorations.  I decorate our mantle and the dividing wall between our kitchen and family room, so I will be able to tuck this piece in the greenery in either place.

And here's the one I did with the squares from Shelley P.

I ended up using the same fabric I used on another no-sew cube (also from a F&S Exchange from Nicky).  That cube lives on the shelf in Little Dude's room.  I had planned on using the one from Shelley as part of my "summer pair" for my living room, but when I was photographing the two cubes together, Little Dude asked if he could have the "really cool pirate one!" for his room.  Looks like I'll have to find something else.

You know, as I went back through my blog looking for posts on the original squares, I happened to notice that I have a one track mind when it comes to finishing these squares.  I see them and almost immediately think, "Oh!  No sew cube!"  I think I need to do a little branching out!

In honor of St. Patrick's Day

Tangled Shamrocks by The Sweetheart Tree

Stitched on 28 ct. Antique White
Crescent Colors Erin Go Emerald and Four Leaf Clover, GAST Pine
Mill Hill Petite Glass Beads in Bottle Green (45270) and Ice (42010)
Charm included with Chart

I've had this chart in kitted up and in my stash for over a year now, maybe two. I fell in love with them when I saw them, but somehow never got around to stitching them. I decided I was going to stitch something Irish in honor of St. Patrick's Day this year, and I did finish up this one before the holiday. Yay me! I'm currently working on what I dubbed the companion piece, A Celtic Challenge, also by The Sweetheart Tree. It will definitely be done before NEXT St. Patrick's Day.

Conveniently, this is also an excellent answer to Lee's Stitching Bloggers Question of the Month:

Do you have a favorite Irish or Celtic stitched piece? If you don't, what about a piece that represents your heritage? Or maybe a family tree style sampler? Think about it, then tell us the story of your piece and show us your photos, if you have them.

As I've mentioned, I'm 1/2 Irish and may have had an agenda in mind when Lee and I were discussing the SBQ via email. I have several Celtic pieces in my stash, but this is one of the first I've actually finished. The big one that's sitting in my stash is Butternut Road's Celtic Banner. I have the fabric and the specialty threads for it, but have yet to kit up the rest of it. I need to get on that - it was a birthday gift two years ago from my in-laws and there's not a stitch in it....

But back to the piece I DID finish - this is me being all artsy with my macro setting:


Ohhhhhh.... Ahhhh..... I am so fancy. I do like this picture because you can see the silvery color of the Ice beads. The original design called for white beads, but I thought I'd gussy it up a little and go with a silvery color, pick up on the silver of the charm in the middle.

And while I was being all rebellious with the bead changes, I decided to get super crazy and change the COLORS of the floss too. The original design called for DMC threads, but that didn't fit in with my plan to be super clever and use threads with names that coordinated with the Celtic / Irish theme (yeah, sometimes I REALLY overthink things) , hence the Erin Go Emerald and Four Leaf Clover. The Pine has no specific meaning, it just looked really nice with the other two greens.

If you are wondering about my conversion, I used the Emerald for DMC 500, the Pine for DMC 501 and the Clover for DMC 503, or basically how they lined up from light to dark in both color palettes.

Overall, I LOVE how it came out, and am excited to finish up Celtic Challenge. This piece was a super easy stitch, but I noticed on the Celtic Challenge chart that there are some tricky areas where you really have to pay attention to where you're stitching (and stitch some parts over 1 so things line up). That one will take me a little longer to finish, but the plan is to finish finish both pieces as little pillows for our guest room. I don't want to go all "theme-y" with it, but the walls are currently painted green and I have black and white bedding in there, so I want to display some of my Irish pieces (I have a couple framed Irish themed prints / sayings). Once I finish these up as pillows, I think they'll be perfect for hanging off the closet doorknobs - dress them up a little. But until then, it's back to the FUFO drawer for this piece.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

I'm a day late, but I was busy celebrating yesterday. St. Patrick's Day is my most favorite day of the year - I think it even outweighs Christmas, though I'm never one to pass up a Christmas cookie (or seven...). In addition to being exactly 1/2 Irish, I think I love St. Patrick's Day because it's not all wrapped up in preparations and pressure. My husband's family is mostly German and Polish, which means we don't have any family holiday obligations like we do most other major holidays (yes, St. Patrick's Day is a major holiday for me!), so we get to have our out little celebration. And it's a welcome break from the winter.

And did I mention the food? I love corned beef. Love it, even though it's more Irish-American than Irish-Irish. I read somewhere that most people in Ireland have never even eaten corned beef - beef is quite expensive over there, and the corned beef is something much more Irish American. Who cares though? I love the stuff and so does my husband. He never had it until we started dating, and I am pretty sure corned beef played a large part in why he married me. :-)

I went a little crazy this year and tried a new recipe from Steamy Kitchen for Corned Beef with Guinness. (BTW, this is NOT my photo). After discovering that Pennsylvania does not sell beer in six packs at distributors, and being unwilling to shell out $35 for a case of Guinness, I was able to convince my husband to stop at Wegman's on his way home, one of the few grocery stores that sells beer in smaller quantities. (And in fact, restrict just how many ounces can be purchased at one time. PA has the screwiest liquor laws, I swear.) But anyway, after getting over the fact that we no longer live in Delaware and have access to a Total Wine on every corner where I can get any damn beer I please, I ended up with the beer I needed for the recipe.

The verdict? It was good. Very good and quite possibly the most tender corned beef I have ever cooked. I started it in the crockpot because I did not have a large enough casserole dish or a dutch oven (shocking, I know, for someone who cooks as much as I do) to do it in the oven. Naturally, I had to head over to Bed Bath to see what they had - uhhh, nothing. Their in store selection is very poor in the way of dutch ovens. Luckily, the TJ Maxx next door had a plain white ceramic casserole with a lid, oven safe to 500 degrees. SCORE! (The $15 price tag didn't hurt, considering it was sitting on the shelf next to a Le Creuset that cost 10x that. At TJ Maxx. Seriously?)

So while the corned beef was good, it was not THE BEST I HAVE EVER HAD, and let's face it, I make some damned fine corned beef. I thought it was slightly salty, even though I rinsed it very, very well. And the Guinness flavor somewhat overrode the corned beef flavor that I love. So it looks like it will be back to the "boiling the bejesus out of it" method of cooking which involves a water change (I think that alleviates the saltiness problem). But we just didn't have the "what the hell happened here?" experience where we look down and discover we've inhaled most, if not all, of the corned beef. (That really has happened)

I would also like to mention at this point that I glaze my corned beef after boiling with a paste of mustard and brown sugar, which is then broiled for a few moments until brown and bubbly. This year, I went with a spicy whole grain mustard that I purchased intentionally for this project, instead of grabbing whatever mustard is in the refrigerator. I pronounce it to be DELICIOUS and a practice that will continue. I incorporated a splash of vinegar which gave it some zip, but wasn't entirely necessary.

I did find redemption in dessert. Normally I make a lemon meringue pie for St. Patrick's Day. I don't know why, I just do. We've had lemon meringue pie for every single St. Patrick's Day that I can remember. This year, I felt like changing it up, and gave my husband a choice of a Guinness Chocolate Cheesecake or Gooey Bread Pudding - The Irish Way. My husband loves bread pudding and will usually order it if it's on the menu. I will order a chocolate cheesecake or any kind of chocolate dessert (except cake - most chocolate cake is too dry). Naturally, he picked the bread pudding and because I love him, I made it.

HOLY COW!!! You should go out and make it, but I warn you - start with a small portion (seriously - like 1/2 cup. You can go back for more), and watch out for that sauce. It is one of the most sinfully good things I have ever eaten. In my whole life. The bread pudding was amazing, and I do not generally care for bread pudding. Did I mention you should make it? Oh yes you should.

I used chocolate chips that I ground up a bit in the food processor. I mixed the chips with the bread and left them in a buttered casserole (not sprayed) overnight on the counter because I like to live dangerously. I also made and refrigerated the sauce last night. If you have a container that locks, I suggest using it because you will be sampling the sauce with your fingers. This cannot be helped. This morning, I mixed up the egg mixture, but I added 2 more eggs and some extra milk, based on some of the reviews that I read (the recipe is also on epicurious.com). I used a mixture of light and dark brown sugar because the recipe didn't specify what kind of sugar, and I added just a tiny bit of cinnamon (maybe 1/8th of a teaspoon because I can't help myself and must mess with recipes).

My oh my oh my. Oh my. And oh yes, that Guinness Chocolate Cheesecake WILL be making an appearance at some point.

But wait.... there's more.

Since my husband a) doesn't much care for Valentine's Day as he is convinced it is a made up Hallmark holiday and b) had to spend 3 days, including Valentine's Day, in NJ for a work conference, we decided that we would celebrate St. Patrick's Day instead. Yay. Presents for me!!! (I did pack him up a lovely goodie bag of snacks for his hotel and made him a nice steak dinner before he left, so he didn't get completely out of Valentine's Day.) Behold...

A new Vera Bradly On the Go bag in Twirly Bird Navy, my Irish version of flowers- an oxalis plant and a shamrock plant, my Guinness beer, and not one, but two perfumes - Sinner and Saint by Kat Von D. I've already been subjected to shaming by several friends for liking Kat Von D's perfume, but let me just state for the record that I don't care one way or the other about Kat Von D - whatever floats your boat, but I'm not a fan. I wouldn't have even picked them up to smell had I not been intrigued by the Sinner and Saint names. Smelling them was my downfall - I couldn't get them out of my head, and my lovely husband obliged me buy purchasing not one, but both! Let me tell you - that Sinner is some sexy stuff... Ahem. This is most definitely a tradition we plan on continuing. It worked out quite well.

And as your reward for reaching the near end of this very long, ridiculously self centered post, I give you the cutest leprechaun ever...

I took some photos last week to send out some St. Patrick's Day cards to friends who celebrate and to Nick's Grandma and Poppy, and his Great Grandma. Nothin cuter than a little boy in a sweater and jeans. Unless it's a cutie patootie "sniffing" some flowers.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Happy New Year!!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and is enjoying the New Year! For those of us here in the Northeast US, we're in the middle of a deep freeze - holy COW it's cold out there!!!!!! (All the more reason to stay inside where it's nice and warm and stitch!)

We had a great Christmas - our son Nick's first one. I still can't get over how lucky we are that he's such a good kid. So cheerful and laid back, and so good about letting people hold him. My 5 year old nephew and 7 year old niece were just over the moon about their new cousin, especially since they were allowed to hold and feed him. Who knew kids could get so excited about that? It was very cute to see them all together, and my nephew even shared his new Star Wars toys with the baby.

On the stitching front, I'm planning on taking on a one a week ornament challenge - more on that later. Also, my lovely MIL gifted me with Butternut Road's Celtic Banner chart and the cash to purchase the fabric for it. I know the pattern has been out for a while and some of you have stitched it, so I'm wondering what to do about the border. The chart calls for Caron Wildflowers in Cedar and Black Forest, but as I've searched the net, I've seen a few negative comments on these threads. I've never stitched with them, so I know nothing about it. For those of you who have either used these threads or stitched Celtic Banner, what can you recommend? Use the threads, or substitute something else? Perhaps the same colors in the silk threads or maybe a DMC conversion? Any thoughts on the subject would be most appreciated.

An amazing news story

This morning, I was catching up on some reading and came across this news story about a pastor at an Ohio church who gave each of his congregants $50 as seed money to raise more by using whatever talents and gifts they possessed. What follows is an incredible story well worth reading.

A Talent for Giving

Keep in mind that I am not a religious person and my DH and I do not belong to a church. But I couldn't help but share this story, especially during the Christmas season. Using your talents and helping other people is a universal theme that is not the sole domain of a religion. The stories of the participants are varied and touching in their own ways, and it's an excellent reminder that we ALL have something to offer.

And with that, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and the happiest of New Years!

I've been tagged! 12 Christmas Things about me

Lovely Lee, the Lake Stitcher, tagged me with a Christmas meme, so I'm playing along as well.

1. Christmas Eve dinner is one of my favorite meals all year. I'm 1/2 Polish, as is my husband, so there is a strong tradition of Wigilia (pronounced vuh-LEE-uh) in both our families. There is a ton of meaning and symbolism behind the meal, so if you don't know what it is, it makes for interesting reading.

2. I can, and usually do, listen to the Nutcracker over and over. I love it.

3. Our tree is decorated with ornaments from both our childhoods as well as ornaments we've collected and made together. We make it a point to collect ornaments as souveneirs of our travels and I love decorating the tree because of all the memories it holds.

4. I hate taking down the tree and put if off as long as possible. Thank goodness we have an artificial one.

5. I love rock and roll Christmas music. U2, Tom Petty, Billy Squier, Elton John, Queen, etc. Love it.

6. I was born the day after Christmas, so when I was a child, people overcompensated with presents. Now I get the "This is for Christmas AND your birthday" combo gifts. I hate that. I like to enjoy them as 2 separate occasions.

7. I both love and hate buying presents. I love picking out the perfect gift for someone - I love things that are sentimental, practical, or meaningful to the recipent. Provided I have enough time to think about it, or am inspired. I seriously dislike stressing over presents.

8. Speaking of presents, I think it is absolutely ridiculous for people to be pushing, shoving, and practically killing each other, not to mention paying astronomical amounts of money, for gifts that their kids will play with for 10 minutes and forget, simply because the gift is on the must have list.

9. I think Christmas morning should be kids ripping open presents and everyone enjoying what they get, then sitting back and watching the kids play while the adults enjoy a breakfast of coffee and Christmas cookies.

10. I am not a religious person, but Oh Holy Night is one of my favorite Christmas songs.

11. One of my favorite Christmas memories is of my DH's grandfather being so excited about his Dallas Cowboys boxer shorts that he immediately put them on and modeled them for the whole family (while still wearing his dress shirt, socks and shoes).

12. I adore Christmas lights and love driving around looking at them. The more complex, insane and outrageous a display, the more I love it. I absolutely love the enthusiasm of people willing to go all out on their displays.

And now I will tag Meari, Dani, and Ruth, if they haven't done them already. And two non-stitching friends, Ashely and Michelle.

Friday Feast

It's been a busy, busy week. DH is home from work, so we've been baking cookies and finishing up pre-Christmas stuff (we travel for the holidays, so we need to get everything done here). This year was MUCH easier with help - I baked everything myself last year because of DH's long work hours. We also cut back a whole lot on how much got baked - I made double batches of almost everything last year and we had a whole bunch of cookies in the freezer, so this year, single batches of all but a few of the cookies.

We usually supply the cookies for the family. My MIL and FIL are busy running around with the grandmothers so they don't have a lot of time, and nobody else seems to want to bake. So that's our contribution to the holiday festivities. This year, we baked 11 different kinds of cookies and made 1 pan of Bailey's Truffle Fudge (always a big hit). DH finished up this morning so we're all done!!

Speaking of being done, I finished Nautical Dreams and DH framed it, along with the anniversary piece for my BIL and SIL's Christmas gift. I'm being lazy now, but I'll take pictures and post them later. I've also got a good start on LHN's Princess and the Pea, the SAL I am doing with Kim.

There's no official Friday Feast Questions today, so I'm going back to the beginning and doing Friday Feast #1 (from May 21, 2004)

Appetizer: What time do you usually wake up each day? If you could choose your wake-up time, when would it be?
This is a tough one. When I am working, I like to get up early and get into the office early (by 7-7:30). Normally I'm not a morning person, but being able to leave around 4 motivates me. I also don't mind getting up early when we're traveling - I like to have the whole day to do things. When I don't work, I'd much prefer to stay up until 2-3 am and wake up around 9 or 10. That seems to be my most natural schedule.

Soup: When was the last time you bought groceries? What store did you go to? Name 3 things you purchased.
We went shopping at Wegman's on Sunday. I LOVE that place. Love it, love it, love it. It's a NY state based chain that's spread throughout the Northeast and I love their stuff. I bought bagels, lamb for lamb stew and Wensleydale Cheese with Cranberries.

Salad: How many books have you read so far this year? Which was your favorite and why?
I don't keep track of the books I read or even how many. I do get a lot from the library, so my spending has gone WAY down. This year, I've been on a rock biography kick - I've read Motley Crue, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Warren Zevon, but my favorite has been Tom Petty's bio.

Main Course: What is something you consider to be very elegant? In particular, what about that item/place/person conjures up the feeling of elegance?
I guess I'd have to say high end places usually conjure up elegance for me - like Bergdorf's or Saks. I like understated elegance though - clean, classic lines, quality materials, nothing really flashy or overly opulent / gilded.

Dessert: Who taught you how to drive?
My mother. It did not go well. I did much better with my HS driving instructor.

Our Christmas Tree

I finally talked DH into putting up our tree this year. Several years ago when we moved into this townhouse, we went out and bought an artifical pre-lit tree because we travel for the holidays and have a cat that likes to drink things he's not supposed to, making a real tree a non-option. However, now that the tree skirt is in place, our cat spends most of his day (and evening) napping on it under the tree. I worried the first year that he'd start climbing up it, but I guess I should have known he's too lazy for that. He just likes the softness and warmth of the velvet (and since it's a $20 skirt from Target instead of a hand stitched heirloom, I'm okay with it). So here's our tree in it's glory. Excuse the hibiscus tree that wanted to make it into the picture.

And here's a few of our favorite ornaments:

Home FROM the Holidays

Whew! We're back home after spending a few days in our hometown with the in-laws. It was nice, but I'm very glad to be home. We drove up Wednesday, stopping at 5 Wal-Marts and a Jo-Ann's on the way in search of floss. Two of the Wal-Marts were completely sold out of DMC, one carried only Anchor (which I thought was very odd) and we raided a picked over selection at the last two stores. We ended up with about 200 skeins of floss for $20 (and some dirty looks from the cashiers until I told them all the skeins would scan the same since they were clearanced out and we had already counted the floss for them.) Now I just have to sort them out and log them into the floss inventory. We also made a stop at JoAnn's for colors we needed but couldn't find at Wal-Mart. There's another Wal-Mart not far from me that I may go hit up today to see if they have anything left.

Thursday we had a nice dinner with my ILs and the extended family, minus one grandmother who wasn't feeling up to coming. We spent the rest of the afternoon watching football and moaning and groaning that we ate too much. But everything was SO good, it was hard to resist. My poor FIL was downstairs later that night in search of Mylanta for his aching stomach! Friday, my DH helped his dad put up the Christmas lights outside and I went out shopping with my MIL. I'm not crazy though - we slept in and waited until late morning before we went out. We didn't venture anywhere near the malls or the big box stores - just a few local stores and the grocery store. Friday night, DH and I went out with some old friends, and Saturday, my BIL and his wife came by with their kids on the way home from my SIL's family's house (where they spend Thanksgiving). They left the kids with the grandparents, so we got to hang out with my niece and nephew for a while before we came home yesterday.

All in all, a very busy holiday, but I still managed to get some stitching done. I took 2 projects with me but only managed to work on Nautical Dreams. I finished the backstitching on the middle section and started working on the top section. I haven't taken any photos yet, so I'll have to post one later. It's really moving along and I'm glad I've been doing the backstitching as I've worked on it instead of waiting until the end. Breaking up the backstitching into little sections seems to help - it's daunting to face all that backstitching at the end.

So that's about it for me. Now I just have to catch up on almost 200 blog posts in my Google reader and download holiday photos off the camera. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!