A snow storm in July???

Actually folks, that is hail-- a lot of it!  It hailed for a solid 10 minutes here on Saturday leaving this mess behind on our deck.  Most of the hail was marble sized, but there were a few golf ball-sized exceptions (as you can see in the next photo).  It was crazy to watch and so noisy!  You can see all the leaves that were knocked off the trees and all the hail in the yard also.

That big piece of hail is sitting next to some cherry tomatoes that were knocked off the vine in the storm. Doesn't the inside of that hailstone look cool?  Its layers remind me of an everlasting Gobstopper or something.  It took an hour and a half for all of the hail in our yard and on our deck to melt.  It was such a strange day weatherwise.  At three different times throughout the day we were under severe thunderstorm warnings (and under a tornado warning once).  Funny thing is that the sun came out in between each storm. 

 
In other news, our new kitten now has an official name.  Her name is "Pixel".  We think it will suit her well.  I forgot how much energy kittens have.  She is so bold, too.  She harrasses our other cat ("Train") like crazy.  They tolerate each other, but I just know that my older cat is saying to himself, "What the heck were you people thinking?"  I'm hoping that they become good buds soon.

And last, but not least...Phil and Rosie are building a tree house as their summer project.  They have spent lots of hours clearing a spot in the yard to make it free of brush and other debris.  They have been using two books that Phil got on Amazon.com as their guide.  The books are full of plans and step-by-step directions of how each particular tree house should be built.  It should be pretty cool when it is done.  I will share their progress here with all of you.   

Busy Summer!

We have had such a busy summer so far!  School let out and I have been chasing my tail ever since.  Ellen took a big step in her adolescent life and took her Driver's Ed training the two weeks after getting out of school.  We still need to get her in to get her permit, though. 

The afternoon that Ellen finished up her driver's training, we all jumped into our Subaru Legacy and headed out for a summer road trip to Washington DC.  We brought my mother-in-law along, too.  We all had a great time and got to see so much history!  I admit, when Phil expressed interest in Washington DC, I wasn't all that thrilled.  Now I can't wait to go back!  There is so much to see and so much of it is free so it really is a cheap vacation.  Some of the things we saw were the Smithsonian Museums, the Holocuast Museum, Bureau of Engraving and Printing (they were printing $20 and $100 that day), Mount Vernon, the Ford Theater, Arlington National Cemetery (and the changing of the guard), and countless other memorials and monuments in the area.  It was so cool to see all that stuff up close.  We also rode the subway for the first time, which we all enjoyed.

Phil and I in front of the Obamas's place

Ellen and Rosie on the Capitol lawn

Camille, Amelia, and Ellen at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum

In other news, we adopted a new kitten from Ellen's friend Erin's farm.  She is a cute and fluffy gray tabby and white kitten.  For the moment her name is "Delaney", but now we are feeling like that is too similar to our other cat's nickname "Train-y".  We are considering Opal or Kiwi as possible alternatives.  I'll keep you posted. 

Delaney or Opal or Kiwi (which is it...?)

Help!  I'm stuck behind the sliding glass door!

Well, that's about it for now.  I'll update soon with our consensus for the new kitten's name and some other exciting summer events going on around here.  TTYL!

A Quick Update

Craft Club (from left): Sue M., Jennifer, Me, Diane, and Lana (taken in January- hence the sweaters!)

This is my "Craft Club".  It all started about two years ago.  I made a really neat bag for my oldest daughter's birthday (the same pattern as the bag my husband is holding in one of my previous posts).  They liked it and so we all started meeting every few weeks so that they could make their own version.  The bags all turned out really cute!  We have been getting together about every three weeks or so ever since.  We take turns meeting at one another's house and we all just work on whatever craft we feel like that day.  We talk about books, school/community events, and of course, there is always a little gossip. 

Speaking of books, my favorites I have read or listened to from the past year are: 

"The Help" by Kathryn Stockett

"Still Alice" by Lisa Genova

"Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen

"Little Bee" by Chris Cleave

Easter Sunday

Egg Hunt (from left):  Erik, Kyle, Ellen, Rosie, and Aaron

We had a lovely Easter Sunday at our house this year.  My brother, his boys and my parents drove up from the Twin Cities and spent the day with us.  My sister-in-law had to work unfortunately (she's a nurse).  The weather was glorious!  We have had a really amazing spring in Minnesota.  Not at all like what we're used to.  We had some great food and some really fun desserts.  Check out the Easter cake my dad made (you should taste his oatmeal chocolate chip cookies!) and the fun Easter egg cookies Rosie and I made (below). 

Sock Monkeys

Hey everybody!  OK, it has occurred to me that I may be the world's worst blogger.  I don't know what to say in my defense.  Lazy?  No...just really busy, I guess. 

In cross stitch related news, I just sent in my submission to the Just Cross Stitch Ornament Issue.  We were humbled to be invited to participate in the JCS ornament issue again this year.  We take turns and this year it was my turn.  Here's how it turned out:

Isn't he cute?  I'm calling him, "Nickadeamous".  The one thing I wish I would have done differently is the hanger- I wish I would have used solid red instead, otherwise, no worries.  I'm really happy with it.  The ric-rac trim adds a nice vintage touch, too.  I love how the mitten buttons match his hat.  Blue and yellow happen to be our school colors-- okay, so maybe that wasn't an accident.  "Go Kimball Cubs!"

My girls are big sock monkey fans.  My oldest daughter, Ellen, really likes the traditional Rockford Red sock monkeys and my younger daughter, Rosie, really likes the newer, funky-style monkeys.  Here are some photos of their monkeys:

Rosie's Funky Monkeys

(Gordon, Bubbles, Nanette, and Donald)

Donald was made by her friend, Maicy, as a Christmas gift this year.  Aren't hand made gifts just the best?  He has a little pink button heart sewn onto his chest and even his yellow hat and scarf (not shown) were crocheted by hand.  So cute!

Ellen's Bunch

(her favorite is "Hendrix" on the right with the bowtie)

Of note, the one in the front with the fez and pom poms is the one my mom made for me when I was a kid.  I think I called him, "Peek-a-Boo" for some reason.  I remember thinking he was so cool when my mom made him for me, but I remember her saying that she was unhappy with how he turned out because his arms, tail  and legs were so short.  She claims she messed up the pattern somehow, but I never cared.  He's cute and his little fez was my favorite part.  Always reminded me of Richie's dad (Mr. Cunningham) on the TV show "Happy Days".  Remember how his dad used to talk about Leopard Lodge No. 462 in Milwaukee?  

Richie, Mr. C as Grand Poobah, and the Fonz (my husband's childhood hero)

I will leave you with some cool pictures I took around our yard this winter.  All of our snow is gone now, but I got some really cool photos on a particularly foggy day here.  The hoar frost on the trees was so beautiful that day.  I tried to capture it on film.  Enjoy!

Christmas- so fun, so busy, and so fattening!

"Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!"

Christmas is such a great time of year.  There is so much going on, but so little time to get regular stuff done...like updating my blog!  My oldest daughter always lets me know how long it has been since I've updated.  I am embarrassed that this is my first blog update of December.  She has been nagging me to do this for quite some time.

The picture above was taken at my brother's house when we celebrated Christmas with my family.  Just look at how big my girls are getting.  I am only 5' 1", but as you can see the oldest daughter has passed me up and the other is well on her way.  How time does fly! 

Santa was very good to our family this year.  Ellen finally got a cell phone.  We had heard for months about how dreadful it was that she is 14 years old and doesn't have her own cell phone for heaven's sake!  We finally broke down and got her one now that she is a freshman and involved in more activities at school.  She will be learning to drive in the next year and truth be told, we will probably appreciate the convenience of having her just a phone call away as much as she enjoys her unlimited texting.  Needless to say, she was completely surpriesed and thrilled with her new toy.

Rosie's favorite gift was a really cool Lego set.  I guess you could kind of describe it as a Department 56 scene in Legos.  Very cute Toy Shoppe with park benches, streetlights, and a town Christmas tree.  It is really sweet.  It even comes with a "light brick" which is a special Lego brick with little batteries and a bulb that actually lights up the toy shop (just like a Dept. 56 house).  She was able to put the whole thing together by herself without any help from either of us.  It will be her new tradition- she can take this set out every Christmas and put together and then display it for the holiday season.  I mean, are you ever really too old for Legos?

These were two of my favorite gifts this Christmas.  The first was a bunch of random dice that I wanted and thought would look really cool in a jar.  I LOVE things in jars dispayed around the house.  I've got jars of buttons, army men, marbles, old-fashioned Chirstmas light bulbs, candy canes, bottle caps, and now DICE!  The other thing I got that was sooo neat was this little ORIGINAL 4"x4" painting of a peppermint.  The artist is Linda Hunt and it was a gift from my friend (and business partner) Theresa.  She found it on Etsy.  The picture doesn't do it justice, but it is really cool!  Ha!  Get it?  It's a peppermint!  Seriously, the paint is really thick and dimensional and it reminds me of an original piece of art that you'd see in a museum or something.  It is adorable and I just love it! 

Well, that's all the news that's fit to tell for now. 

Everyone have a SAFE and Happy New Year!

"Hi my name is Susan and I love the Twilight saga."

Now the support group is supposed to chime in and say in a flat tone, "Hi, Susan..." 

I don't know why I am always somewhat embarrassed to admit that I am a fan of the Twilight saga.  What an awesome series of books Stephenie Meyer wrote. She is such a cool person, too.  When she realized that her book, "Twilight" might actually be published, her wildest dream was to make enough money to pay off the $10,000 balance on the family's mini van.  Ha! 

I was at the midnight showing of New Moon (the second installment in the Twilight Saga- in case you've been living under a rock) with bunch of ladies I work with.  There we were (all of us are moms and a couple are even grandmothers) in a movie theater at 12:01 a.m. on a Thursday night for a movie premiere.  We bought our tickets weeks ahead of time so that we could watch it in the theater with the "monster screen".  They were actually able to fill up two other theaters besides the monster screen at the midnight showing.  I was surprised so many showed up at that hour. 

The movie was great and I was pleased that the director kept the story so close to the book.  Great special effects/CGI work with the werewolves, too.  Much better than the first one.  It was nice to see Kristin Stewart's character, "Bella", crack an occasional smile in the scenes with Taylor Lautner (aka "Jacob").  She is a little too brooding for me in the first movie.  My only complaint about New Moon was that many of the hairstyles of the Cullen family were changed for this movie.  They were dreadful!  I hated the new looks of Jasper, Rosalie, and Carlisle.  Esme's hair wasn't as bad, but seemed a little too modern for her.  She's supposed to be their "mother", after all.  I would think a more classic look would have been better suited for her.

As far as crafty stuff goes- which is what this blog is supposed to be about (not football and vampires)- I have been working on some Christmas presents.   BUT, I can't really elaborate because some of the intended giftees read this blog.  I'll take some pictures and then post my projects after Christmas, how's that?  Have a great week!

Vikings beat the Packers...again!

OK, so I know that this blog is supposed to be about cross stitch and what I'm working on, BUT I have to take a quick moment to recognize the Minnesota Vikings and their awesome win against Green Bay today!  I have to admit, I had my doubts in the third quarter, but they managed to turn it around. 

The team this year is amazing.  Not only do we have Brett Favre (man, I love that guy), but we've got a ton of other notable players, as well-- Adrian Peterson, Percy Harvin, Bernard Berrian, Jared Allen, Visanthe Shaincoe, Sidney Rice...the list goes on.  I don't want to jinx us, but I am so stoked about our chances to make it to the Super Bowl this year.  Can you even imagine?!  Minnesotans are so used to disappointment when it comes to their Vikings, that I almost hate to dream it.  I don't know how many of you know this little factoid, but the Vikings were the first team to both play in and lose four Super Bowls.  They have NEVER won a Super Bowl.  The last time they were even in a Super Bowl was 1977 (and I was only nine at the time).  Some people aim to see the seven wonders of the world, others hope to win the lottery, but I will die a happy woman if the Minnesota Vikings win a Super Bowl just once in my lifetime! 

Go Vikes, Go!!