Showing posts with label Noel Sampler. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Noel Sampler. Show all posts

Sunday, May 4, 2025

Grace and Sovereignty

Grace and Sovereignty...

Sounds like a pretty deep and ponderous post, yeah?

Well, it's not..

"Grace" is Grace Bridges, a piece I stitched some time ago, but she is finally framed and home. (Not on the wall yet...give me a few years.)


The design is by Stacy Nash and was stitched on 40-Count "Boardwalk" linen by Colour and Cotton, using the mostly called-for DMC flosses.  Many liberties were taken with the original design to accommodate my OCD.
(Marly (Samplers and Santas) would be so very proud.)


If the frame looks vaguely familiar, it is. 


This was the second piece I took to a local artist for framing, the first being Noel Sampler by With Thy Needle and Thread.
(Did I share the framed finish of that or not? I can't seem to find it in older posts. In any event, here it is:)


As you can see, they are the exactly same frame.
This was completely unintentional on both my and the framer's part.

If nothing else, I guess I am consistent.
(I prefer "consistent" to unimaginative.)

And Sovereignty...
Sovereignty is the horse that won this year's Kentucky Derby.


For many (many) years, our neighbors have hosted a Kentucky Derby party.
(I know I've posted about at least one of them before, but the posts don't show in the searches as I apparently wasn't using labels back then.)
It's been a few years since I've actually gone to one of the parties, but this year I broke hermitage and went.
Each year they do it up better.
There are mint juleps, horse betting (and other forms of gambling - scratch offs, pull tabs, bingo -all with a horsey theme), and an amazing spread of food.

This year, the track was a muddy mess, and I was grateful none of the horses were injured.
The horse, Journalism, was favored to win but (ironically??), Sovereignty beat out Journalism, and Baeza came in third. 


Although I've been a bit out of the derby loop for a while, I actually did well in the betting - winning the first place ("win") pool, the third place ("show") pool, and even the trifecta pool.

Yeeesss!!


Sometimes walking amongst the living isn't so very awful.


Thursday, May 19, 2022

Ghosted

 

The word "ghost" is probably better known as a noun than a verb; but it is, in fact, a verb also.

                                                                        ghost /ɡōst/
                                                verb past tense: ghosted; past participle: ghosted
  1.  1.  act as ghostwriter of (a work). 
    "His memoirs were smoothly
    ghosted by a journalist."
  2.  2.  glide smoothly and effortlessly. 
    "They ghosted up the river."

In relatively recent years, a more colloquial verb usage has also become popular:

      1.  the practice of suddenly ending all contact with a person without                             explanation, especially in a romantic relationship. "He was a victim of                     ghosting." 
         
      2.  the act of leaving a social event or engagement suddenly without saying                goodbye. "Ghosting might be the best option if we want to get home                      before midnight." (Also called French goodbye or Irish goodbye.) 


There are also some "specialty" usages of the word.... For example, painters/builders/etc. refer to inexplicable dark streaks on walls, carpets, ceilings, etc. as "ghosting."  It is also used to refer to the faint double image sometimes left in printing, or on television screens.

None of these definitions or usages, however, are the ones to which I am referring in this post.  I am referring to the intentional "fading" of certain stiches/areas of stitched and hooked pieces to make them appear old or more similar to the fading often found in antique textiles.

   {"Noel Sampler" by With Thy Needle & Thread}

Whether you choose to believe me or not, I intentionally "ghosted" several letters in the alphabet of this stitched samper so that they are barely visible in some cases.


Even though this is not an antique reproduction, I kind of like the ghosting effect.  Either that or I am too lazy to rip out all those "ghosty" letters and redo them...because this sampler is finally done...and done is better than perfection.  You decide.

This (ummm, partially) hooked rug, on the other hand, is an antique adaptation.


Well, it was intended to be; however, I did not realize that the pattern was not drawn true to the original until it was late in the game.  
In my (late-to-the-game) frustration, I was studying the photo I had of the original attempting to determine if there were elements I could change at that late point to make it at least a bit closer to the original.


(Yes, yes...I KNOW! The tails are closer together in the original, the heads and faces of the cats are different, etc., etc.  Did I not mention my late-to-the-game frustration??)

And there it was.... A ball...between the two cats!  I had not noticed it in the gazillion times I looked at that photo, and it certainly was not included in any of the many reproduction renderings of the design that I have seen...and, of course, it was NOT on the pattern I purchased.
But there it was.

So I decided to hook it.  
Not once.
Not twice.
Not even thrice. 
And, no, I didn't re-hook it that many times just so I could use the word "thrice."

I hooked it once and decided it stood out too much.... I wanted it to fade into the background like the (I am sure much-faded) original.  I wanted to "ghost" it.
So I hooked it again.
It was better....especially once I hooked some background around it.
But it was way too far to the left.  WHAT?! I finally hooked a perfect circle (trust me on that one please), but in the perfectly wrong place.

So I rehooked it again.
This time, it is too much to the right. 
But ya know what?
I don't care.  Ain't hooking it a 4th time.

Because there's no cool word for fourth.
 
And because I was tired of hooking circles.


So there you have it.  A "ghosted" cat ball no where near the middle of the two cats.

*******

And since we are on the subject of ghosting, this was my most-recent read:



It's the story of a woman who meets a man with whom she falls instantly and deeply in love.  But when he leaves for a previously planned vacation, she is "ghosted"....  She is certain the relationship they had meant as much to him as to her, but he simply "disappears." 
It came to me on the recommendation from a friend, and I did enjoy it, but wouldn't say it's a "gotta-read" kind of book...at least not in my book (get it?? 😉).
It's a feel-good read in many ways and, while not necessarily "predictable" (at least not until the end - there were several twists I didn't see coming), it was a bit too "happily-ever-after" for me, if ya know what I mean.
Yeah...I can be morose like that.

Or maybe I am just too cranky these days to believe much in happy endings.

*******

In other news, we've been having some kind of changeling weather here in Nod.
We sort of went from winter straight to summer....
But summer was short-lived - only 2 days' worth.
In the past week, we've moved on to autumn.

{Hint: That white stuff isn't petals or blossoms....}

But, hey...we did green up nicely in those 2 days of summer.
When 3 of the 4 seasons are so short-lived here, they make the most of the time they have.

I suppose a lesson to be learned.
But I am thinking my learning banks are full.






Sunday, January 9, 2022

Marly's Minestrone & Other Stuff

I am still holed up at the lake. 
The snows have stopped so I will need to take my leave while the leaving permits.


But it is cold...wretched, burn-your-nose, make-your-eyes-water, skin-sticking, cold.


So I believe I will wait this patch out and hope for a warm-up. Just thinking of loading and packing makes my teeth chatter.  I only hope it doesn't get colder yet and those "feel like" temps become the actual temps...'cuz you know what will happen to the "feel-like" temps then.


To me, cold weather and soup go together like dandelions and daydreams (and, where I live, there is much more of the former than the latter). So soup it is. 
As a disclaimer here, I am a bit of a soup snob.  My mom made the best soups in my world.  So while I LOVE soup, I expect 2 things from them:  (1) That they be homemade; and (2) that they be good...really good.
(Throw in a hunk of good homemade crusty bread and you will have a pal for life.)

I decided to finally try Marly's (Samplers-and-Santas) "Upstate Minestrone" soup.
For some reason, I have never been a huge fan of minestrones but, oh my heck....this.minnestrone.I.LOVE!!!


An unassuming tomato and beef base, complimented by hearty Italian sausage, zucchini, cabbage, and beans, quickly and effortlessly secured it a spot in my top 5 of soups.  Added bonus:  It reheats wonderfully and, like many soups, gets better with each reheating.

You really need to try it if you're a soup person.  You can find Marly's recipe here:

It's hard to believe I have been here 2 weeks (??) already.  Time seems to evaporate here.  I did bring my hooking project along with the thought of, if not finishing it, getting close to finishing it.
But I haven't even put it on my rug frame.
This is where I left off:

{"Simple Santa" by Therese Shick.  Sorry for the wonky photo but it is laying on the top of a curved trunk and I was too lazy to move it.}

I did start a new stitch:
{"Noel Sampler" by Brenda Gervais - With Thy Needle & Thread}

It was a gift from my sister-in-law and I am joining her in a "stitch-along."  Those participating stitch on this design from the 25th of each month until the month's end.  Those participating started already on December 25th (it's a Christmas sampler...get it??), but since I did not get the gift until after the new year (and since I stitch like I do most everything...slowly...) I decided I was entitled to "catch up" out of synch.

And, of course, I'm reading.

I am not certain what drew me to this book as it is not the genre to which I would typically be drawn.  I guess it goes to show how eclectic my taste can be.
It is the, unfortunately, true story of the Galvin family - a seemingly "all American" family with 12 children.  However, over time, 6 of the 12 children are diagnosed with schizophrenia.  The story interweaves the family drama and struggles (and, trust me, there IS drama and there ARE struggles) with the medical field's quest to unravel the how's and why's of the disease in the hopes of developing an effective treatment, if not cure.
I am nearing the end, though, so another reason I need to leave.

But not tonight....not tonight.

Stay safe and warm...and thank you for your companionship during my "purdah."