Saturday 13 June 2009

Stack em high


I thought I would share this photo with you. It made me laugh when I realized what I had done.
Those who know me well, know that I HATE doing dishes!! The home we have now does not have a dishwasher or room for you. One of the things I negotiated with DH when we retired was that he would do the dishes - ALL of the dishes. He agreed. Yesterday he was painting the front deck and I was baking. I ended up with a huge pile of dishes. Well, begrudgingly I washed them - but dry them - absolutely not. And so, I stacked them as high as I could! And then laughed at myself - how foolish is that. But, those dishes stayed there and as one of my friends says "God dried the dishes" LOL.

On the stitching front.

Look what came home this week. My Winter Neighborhood RR. I LOVE IT!!!! I asked that a snowman be included in each square. It is easy to see that each person put some time and thought into their square. I will finish the snowflakes on each side and then make it into a wallhanging.

My Round 13 Fair and Squares have arrived at their home. I chose this design from an old book called 500 Cross Stitch Blocks to Stitch. It had been so dreary here that I wanted to stitch something summery and sunny.


I have added some stitches to my HAED and Mirabilia's Royal Holiday but they still look much like a blob so I will add photos another time.

Noddy came out of the bag and had some serious stitches added to him in the last few days. My friend Ann from Knowledge and Needles decided to give me a little heads up and calculated the stitches in this one - around 45,000 stitches! It is larger in stitch size than Paradigm Lost. What was I thinking! I can see a finish with this one now. I was beginning to despair that I never would.



It has been a busy couple of weeks here so blogging time has been short.

My parents spend the summer in Nova Scotia and left this past weekend. Before they go, I try to spend some quality time with them. They are in their late 70's and I know they won't be around forever. I only see them for a few short months a year - we are gone for 6 months and they are gone for 3 - so I try to squeeze all the time I can when we are together.

My bathroom has been painted and bordered and is looking lovely. It took 5 coats of paint to cover the green I had in the bathroom before. That does not count the coat of paint that I was covered in as I worked. It looks lovely. I did it around a lighthouse theme and am very happy how it turned out. Will post photos another time.

I have over 350 posts in my Google Reader and will do my best to catch up this week. I look forward to seeing what you all have been up to.

Happy Stitching everyone.

23 comments:

mainely stitching said...

I hope your parents' time in NS is wonderful. It's great that you see them as often as possible during the time that you can do so!

I hate doing dishes, too!

Lisa said...

As I look at the stack of the dishes I will never take emptying my dishwasher for granted again (although I am trying to make it a "to do" for the boys during the summer). I got a chuckle when you wrote about your lighthouse theme...when we moved into our CA house the previous owners had a love for the ocean - there is a huge lighthouse scene painted in our office/hobby/exercise room and a pelican theme handpainted in my older son's bedroom (at 13yrs old he still likes having the pelican).

Looks like you are making progress on the stitching and getting things fixed up around the house. Take care!
Lisa in CA

Jeanne said...

Your snowman RR is wonderful! With all of the horror stories you hear about RR's being lost, it's great to see one that made it home!

I especially like yours because I love snowmen! :-)

Wendy said...

Oooh wow! I love the winter neighbourhood RR! Love your other stitching too.

That is a nice picture. Thanks for sharing.

Hugs,
Wendy

Missy Ann said...

Your WinterNRR turned out so great! I'm glad you're happy with it.

That set of F&S are one of my favorites. I'm not sure why, maybe it's the color... They just make me smile everytime I see them.

Congrats on getting the bathroom painted. I've had the paint (and other things for a mini-remodel) since January. And I still haven't done a thing.

Jennifer said...

I take a great deal of pride in how high I can stack dishes in the drying rack. LOL And I hope your husband never learns the trick mine did - he doesn't wash things quite clean enough, so I end up rewashing them. and then I get so frustrated I tell him, nevermind, I will do it myself. And he's happier that way. :-P

Can't wait to see the pictures of the bathroom - you know I love lighthouses! Next time you paint though, try putting on a coat of primer first - we've used Kilz and Behr primers, but prefer the Kilz. DH covered over a dark eggplant purple in our DR with one coat of primer and 2 coats of paint, as well as some faux paint in our guest room and living rooms. And even the second coat of colored paint was just to even things out - all of the previous color had been covered by 1 coat of primer.

Anonymous said...

Our house was built in the 1950's before the thought of dishwashers and there are cabinets in place of where a dishwasher should go but since I am a SAHM I don't mind doing them and I always let them air dry. Lately, my kids who are now at the verge of adulthood (17 & 18) have finally opened their eyes to some realities and have been helping me out a lot more. I have only done the dishes a couple times this week!

Your Snowman rr is sooooo beautiful, what a wonderful heirloom it will be!

I am starting to get several pieces going on now (do you remember that I try to do one at a time), I now have 4 that I am working on, 2 that need some stitches but are ready on scroll frames and 3 ufos that will probably never be finished.

I would love to see photos of your finished bathroom, I bet it is lovely. We have one of our bedrooms that my oldest daughter painted dark blue and if we ever want it to be a light color again, I am sure we will have to use primer and maybe several coats of paint too.

Cheryl said...

Oh your winter RR is fabulous! Its gonna be a great wallhanging, cant wait to see it all finised up in the winter!
LOL at the dishes. I always say my dishwasher was the BEST wedding present we got. I hate doing dishes too

Rebel In Ontario said...

I laughed at your comment about God dried the dishes...funny thing, he dries them at my house as well!
All your stitching looks lovely...I wish I had more hours in a day to get more stitching in - and I can hear you and Beatrice now "Give it time...someday you will be able to stitch all day".
Can't wait to see you tomorrow....

Karen said...

Your Winter RR is gorgeous! It will look great as a wallhanging :)

Maren said...

LOL, I do the exact same thing with my dishes. I hate chores, period. But doing dishes is the worst of the worst. When we moved into our new house, I was so stoked because it used to be a daycare and had two--TWO--dishwashers.

Neither works. Yet. So I still have to do them by hand. What's worse, the water heater doesn't work either, so I first have to boil the water before I wash the dishes. LOL

Your Snowman RR and Noddy are absolutely darling! Good job and your F&S. I'll bet she loves it!

Jinger said...

I love your Winter Neighborhood! So cute!

staci said...

I'm sure your dishes dried just perfectly ;)

Your Winter Neghborhood is wonderful, you must be thrilled to have it back!

Wanda said...

You sure are keeping busy! Isn't it wonderful? Another wonderful thing is time spent with parents. I cant' really say more...I'm getting all choked up at the moment just thinking how far away mine are. Either I missed any progress pictures or you haven't posted any of Noddy but...wow!!! It's looking fantastic!!! Your picture of the RR is the first finished I think I've seen. It is so neat! I hadn't heard of this until I started reading blogs. Such a wonderful friendship activity. Looking forward to seeing your bathroom. Oh...I love the dishes picture! I don't have a dishwasher either and spend a great deal of time, at least it seems, doing them. But I don't mind...my "most hated" is dusting!

Chris said...

Hi Kathy

You are so busy and yet you had time to stop by my blog and left a comment, I must say your RR is so lovely I think I would like to start one myself... the socks??? Well as soon as I get started I will post a pic. How lovely to think of your parents, I was just two when my mother died and my father who I hardly knew died 8 years ago.. so hope you had a great time.
Life is so precious and families are the best part.

Chris x

Kim B said...

Dirty dishes are a nightmare!

Your stitching is lovely. Noddy is a substantial project to be sure!

Cindy F. said...

You're such a good daughter:)

I love the dishes stacked up...I do that too sometimes!

Your RR is just about the most adorable thing! Precious!!

Your squares are beautiful and I love the colors. Yellow's my favorite and always looks good with orange:)

I dread the day you finish Noddy....it's one of my favorite wips to follow:) I'll be happy for you though!

Dani - tkdchick said...

Yup dishes... I don't do those either!

All of your stitching looks fantastic as usual! Just a few short weeks and we'll be kicking it togheter while Leo is away. Do you think God would actually do the dishes or is one of us (me) going to have to break down and do them????

Chiloe said...

You RR is beautiful!!!

Noddy should get out of the bag more often ;-)

I hate washing dishes too and I'm so grateful we have a dishwasher here!!! Freedom !!!!!!!!!!!

sandra said...

Well, you don't like washing the dishes, but at least you had fun this time!
Your winter RR is gorgeous!
I allways love when Nody visit us!
Have you tried your new sewing machine yet? Let us know!

Aussie Stitcher said...

That is one way of putting some fun into a detested chore ;). You must be thrilled with your neighbourhood RR, it looks fantastic. Noddy is coming along. I know what you mean about spending as much time as possible with your parents, they are such special people.

Anonymous said...

I love your RR!!! so cute!
robinpich.blogspot.com

Carolien said...

Hi Kathy,

I like that one: God dried the dishes :) I do exactly the same and indeed, God dries the dishes. It's called a miracle ;)

Bye, Carolien