A trip to Grandma's and Back

Well, you haven't heard from me for a bit because Lil Rosebud and I took a trip over to the island so she could have time with her Grandma and Grandpa.

As you can tell, we had a good time...

I think the most fun part of our trip is when her Grandma decided she was going to try out some of those "professional" style pictures of the naked baby in a tutu with a bow on her head. So Grandma went out and bought some tuille, and made Rosebud a tutu. Which Rosebud destroyed in very short order of Grandma putting it on her. So Grandma sewed the tutu back together again... which Rosebud decided would be great to pull up over her face and toss it in every which way and refused to smile for the camera. LOL that's my girl! I'll see if I can get a copy of one of those tutu pictures for your perusal.

I'm still working dutifully on my cross stitch project... which is around half done. Whee!

Oops It's been a while

Ok, I admit it. I'm not good at keeping up with a blog. Between Caelin and staying sane it takes up all my time!

I've been spending a lot of my free time working on a cross-stitch pattern I've been working on for the last 4 months. It's one of a set of 4 from Mirabilia Designs called Summer Queen. Over the past 12 years or so I've finished Winter Queen and Autumn Queen, and there's still Spring Queen to go. However, Summer Queen has been taking me less time to complete than the other two. OK, maybe it's because it didn't end up in the UFO pile (yet).  However, my attention on it isn't flagging at all. I can do it and watch TV at the same time, and it's quiet to do while her nibs is taking a nap.

Here's a picture of Winter and Autumn Queen from Mirabilia's website.
Winter Queen: http://www.mirabilia.com/images/md13.jpg
Autumn Queen: http://www.mirabilia.com/images/md45.jpg
and the one I'm currently working on, Summer Queen: http://www.mirabilia.com/images/md22.jpg

I find them fascinating because there's beads and sometimes special threads etc. It's like needle paint-by-number.  This is the one handcraft I do that my mom doesn't do and has no interest in doing and that's fine by me. It appeals to my Virgo-ness of order (for the few things I want order in) and makes a pretty picture in the end. And I know it's silly but it's kinda nice to have a craft that's kind of my own.  Don't get me wrong, it's great to have a lot in common with your mother and learn off of her and get help when you need it. But sometimes it's nice to be different. Even if it's something that she's just not interested in.

My husband has asked me to embroider a fire screen for our fireplace, so I'm not quite sure whether I'm going to do that next or Spring Queen and get the set done. First things first tho, I need to finish Summer Queen!

It will also be a challenge as I'm thinking of doing it in Crewel work which is a bit more of a free form style of embroidery than I'm used to. I might also have to chat with my dad about making a wooden frame for it for me too. (easier to make it to fit the frame than to make a frame to fit it.