Home!

We made it to Eugene, Oregon!

Anyone want to buy a beautiful house in Post Falls, Idaho?  😉

309 S Ridgewood Drive

Interior photos will be added on Tuesday.

It's Official

Our house is for sale. The sign went up in the yard today.

Dale and his brother are loading the last few items into our temporary storage area as I write this. We give his mom a hug in a few minutes. We head out of Post Falls tomorrow.

Bye-bye, house! Thank you for holding us in care for the last 26+ years!

The Two Biggest Goals Yet

Recall how I said I'm an overachiever? Well here are two more of my 19 in 2019 Goals that have been met. And these are doozies.

Goal #15: Purge and organize storage shelves in exercise (storage) room.

This was a goal I wanted to complete for years. I thought it was going to be a horrendous job. Four levels of storage that are 25 inches deep and about 12 feet wide.

There were decorations for every season, boxes and boxes of mementos, more picture frames than I care to admit (I have a sickness: buying used picture frames at thrift stores), many rolls of wrapping paper and gift boxes and gift bags, and sentimental items that belonged to my parents. I went through every box, every item.

It was not as difficult as I imagined it would be. Look what I accomplished!

While I was in the mood, I cleared out my Studio, too. I gave away a lot of materials I wasn't using to make additional space for more current interests. I figured I could rearrange the entire room and start from scratch.  So it went from here ...

to here.

OK ... but where is the furniture that was in the meditation room / photo studio? Oh, that went into the library.

Hold it!

H - O - L - D  IT!

Something suspicious is going on. I saw a suitcase in that last photo. Now you have furniture stacked and lined up like soldiers on the march.

Well, now!

Yes, this is happening!

.

Alternate Goal #28: Move to Oregon

Dale and I bought a cute little place in west Eugene. We're having the interior of the house painted from stem to stern this week, and will have all new flooring installed soon. We're mostly packed, have moved in a few essentials, and will be living in Oregon full time before Thanksgiving.

It's official!

(Our home as seen through a bug-laden windshield the day before we officially became owners)

Well, Hello!

You're looking fresh and snappy.

On your way in

and on your way out

Another of my 19 in 2019 goals has been met! The front door has a fresh coat of paint, inside and out. As does the sidelight.

Score!

My Kind of Competition

Competing with myself

So sayith Mary Lou Retton

Ta Da!

And then there were none.

As of this morning, I've completed all 19 of my goals for 2019!

Our giant treadmill found a new home with a woman who needs it for rehab. It couldn't have gone to nicer people. Dale and I are so happy to be able to help them. They helped us at the same time.

Now I get to go into full-on overachiever mode. Because ... let's say it all together, class ...

"Why achieve when you can over-achieve?"

September Goal Update

Oh, September! You brought me so close to my annual goal! 18+ of my 19 goals are complete!

Finished goal #17:  Do the finishing work on six of the needlework pieces that are stitched but not ready for display

I turned a stitch sampler from 2001 into a journal cover.

Finished (Alternate) Goal #18:  Take my little guitar to Kiwanis Park and play it by the river

I had a professional re-string my guitar. Then daughter Jeanne and I went down to the river and I played and sang for about a half hour.

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Goals in progress:

Over-achiever Goal: Blog at least 25 weeks of #throwbackthursday posts of my 1997 - 2007 projects.

Though I already completed this goal of 25 in July, I wrote two more in September, bringing my total to 32 #throwbackthursday blog posts.

Over-achiever (Alternate) Goal: 50 movies/series from my Netflix and Amazon Prime queues

Though I finished this goal last month, I watched another from my list. I also watched about 40 YouTube videos that were sitting on my "Watch Later" list.

Alternate Goal (in progress): Fix / paint front door

Half done! The outside of the door is painted. We're waiting for the temperatures to get back above 60 degrees before we take it off its hinges so we can paint the inside. 

Alternate Goal (in progress): Purge and organize storage shelves in exercise room

I made some good progress on this goal. I culled more of the holiday decorations. Three boxes worth of Spring, Summer, and St. Patrick's Day decorations all fit into one box now. Plus I found new homes for quite a number of Christmas decorations.

Alternate Goal (in progress): Treadmill … fix it or sell it or give it away

We're so close! We found someone who wants it. We're just waiting for him to pick it up.

Alternate Goal (in progress): Convert audio cassettes into digital format and/or get rid of them.

I culled the tapes, so I know which I want to convert. I bought the tool to complete the process. Stick the tape in the player. Plug the player into the computer. Copy the music into a digital format. Toss the cassettes (finally).

Whittle a Little:

I've been whittling a lot. In my Studio, I've given away:

• most of my yarn stash 
• half of my fabric stash
• two quilts
• six fabric swatch books
• two pillow forms
• many zippers and fasteners
• most of my trims and lace stash (but not the ribbon. Never the ribbon. So, so much ribbon!)
• some floral supplies
• several projects I know I'll never finish
• and more

Elsewhere we've whittled:

• about 75 hangers (we have pretty matching hangers in every room now!)
• a table and chairs set
• a decorative mirror
• elliptical trainer
• the exercise bike
• my Peugeot bike (that was better for a 30 year old than a 60 year old. Dale and I intend to buy new bikes so we can geocache in style)
• plush chairs
• not-so-plush chairs
• couch we no longer need
• some kitchen appliances and utensils we rarely use
• some journals/notes I no longer need (very rare occurrence)

And finally...

Alternate Goal (in progress): Move to Oregon

We bought a vacation home! Now we can see our daughter Jodie more often. More about this later.

Throwback Thursday - 2006 Part 4

We return to April 2006 for more projects. I made two more ornaments, a greeting card, and a small framed piece.

Peace Angel

I received this ornament kit as a gift in an online gift exchange. It had been so long since I'd attempted surface embroidery that I wasn't certain I wanted to stitch it. But a couple things changed my mind.

A gal from a local stitching group had done an entire miniature quilt in redwork (except that she did it all in a pretty blue instead of red). It was magnificent.

Then I got inspired by an stitcher who has a real affinity for surface embroidery. Her gorgeous work reminded me how lovely surface embroidery can be. I was encouraged to give this redwork angel a try.

My mom taught me surface embroidery when I was a child. I was surprised to find that reaching back into my surface embroidery past was very relaxing and fulfilling. As a bonus, my adult stitches are much more even than they were when I was a child.

I thoroughly enjoyed making this sweet angel. The more I stitched, the more personality she gained.

I finished her as a basic padded ornament. I decided to try something new by finishing the edge of the ornament with beads rather than with twisted cord. The sparkly red Rocailles beads are uneven in size, so I strung some them onto some fine wire, tucked one end of the wire into the top of the ornament, then couched the beaded wire over the side seam. After the beads were couched, I tucked the other end of the wire into the top of the ornament and added a hanging loop made of cording.

It's a little hard to tell from this photo, but the beads add a glimmered halo to the angel.

As an aside, when you make a basic padded ornament in an unusual shape like this, it's important to clip the curves a lot so they lie smoothly as you lace the embroidery to the backing board. It was pretty tricky getting all the wrinkles out of the curves. The beaded edge helped to hide the imperfections.

Easter Card

My daughter Jodie and I created this Easter Card for my daughter Jeanne who lived far away at Eastertime in 2006. I found the adorable Italian freebie chart online.

The card is embellished with watercolor paper, satin ribbon, and stick-on "jewels."

I really enjoy the creative latitude greeting cards give me. It's fun making small mixed media projects.

Little Bit O' Blarney

I stitched this sweet ornament in time for St. Patrick's Day, but my needlework shop didn't have the clover charm for me until April. Sigh.

I bought this chart on eBay for no special reason whatsoever. I just liked it. I'm not Irish. I don't celebrate St. Patrick's Day except to wear green. But I thought it might be nice to have a new St. Patrick's Day decoration in my home.

I chose to stitch with Anchor floss and Gentle Art Sampler Thread floss this time. I like the quality of both these fibers a lot. For beads, I chose some from my stash that would work. They are Mill Hill white and Mill Hill emerald green. The clover charm is one that is usually used on Lizzie*Kate patterns.

I finished my heart as a basic padded ornament. Getting the fabric to lie smoothly around the heart's curve was slightly tricky — especially because I didn't leave myself much seam allowance! The cording and tassel were made from #5 DMC perle coton.

I continue to decorate my mantle with this ornament every year.

Hive & Blossoms

This is the second chart I finished from the 2006 Cross-Stitch Calendar by Accord Publishing. This chart is for the month of August. The stitched area is 59 stitches square.

This piece uses only six shades of floss. The specialty stitches used are satin stitch in the hive and Smyrna cross in the border. The pattern calls for some pewter buttons. Instead, I found some bright yellow novelty bee buttons at Walmart. I used gold acrylic paint to dull them down a bit so they would match my hive. I'm quite pleased with the way they turned out!

I decided to frame this stitchery, using the printed cardboard mat that was included in the calendar.

April proved to be a fairly prolific stitching month for me. In May 2006, I finished another seven small pieces. I'm looking forward to sharing some of them next time.

Throwback Thursday - 2006 Part 3

If it's Thursday, it's time to take another trip in the wayback machine. This week we'll look at the first six ornaments that I finished in April 2006  - The Year of the Ornament.


Wooly Ornaments

I saw these adorable ornaments in the Mary Maxim catalog and just couldn't resist purchasing the kit.

I love the old-fashioned colors and sweet designs.

Wooly Tree
for Jodie

In my first session, I cut out all the pieces from the felt.

Wooly Cat
for Julie

The next session, I lightly glued the pieces together.

Wooly Santa
for Jeanne's husband

After that, each ornament took about three hours to embroider.

Wooly Snowman
for Jeanne

Pieces are attached to each other with buttonhole and straight stitch. Embellishments are made with lazy daisy, chain stitch and French (or Colonial) Knots.

Wolly Sheep
for Dale

These ornaments were great fun to make. 

Wolly Holly
for Margaret

I kept them for my family. They were to be our "2005" ornaments, since I didn't get personalized ornaments made for the previous Christmas.

Needlework Book Cover

I finished another of my 19 in 2019 goals last weekend! I did the finishing work on one of six needlework pieces from years gone by. I decided to make another journal cover.

This is for my "Many Small Dreams" journal. It's a place where I can write down and flesh out my daydreams. Many people have one passion, one dream they want to fulfill, whether it be a dream job,  owning a business, travel, adventure, writing a book, etc. I've never had that kind of passion for one single thing. I have many small dreams instead. In this journal, I'll let my imagination run wild and write details that can help these dreams come true.

The needlework piece I used is a stitch sampler that I made in 2001. I have no photographs of it in my archives. I can't recall the name of the piece. I happened across it in my box of completed stitchery. It has a 2001 date on it. 

I vaguely remember starting this when I was part of the Embroiderer's Guild, because we were learning new stitches. The design has various stitches repeated four times, and combining tints and shades of the four colors used.

Most guild members made this on canvas. But I don't enjoy stitching on canvas, so I used linen instead. I learned that wasn't the best choice for this design. These stitches needed a firmer base. I stitched it, but did not enjoy the process. This is one project where it took a lot of dedication to get to the end.

Apparently when I got there, I didn't even celebrate it with a post!

The construction of the book cover was a lesson in problem-solving ... one problem after another. Thank goodness my daughter Jeanne was visiting. I used her brain power to help me come up with the solutions. (Love that young woman!)

I thought I'd continue my Whittle a Little when turning this needlework into a book cover by using fabric that I re-purposed from a thrift store skirt which I bought five years ago. That was not a good idea. 

It was cheap fabric that got all stretched out and wonky as I used it -- even though I'd interfaced the two layers to give the fabric some stability. I ended up having to trim it down so much that by the time it was ready to wrap around the edge of the notebook it was too short. 

I solved the problem by adding the lace flaps. It ... works. Sort of.

I trimmed down the ground fabric of the needlework to a half inch beyond the stitching. Then I surged the edge of the linen. 

I rummaged through my stash to find something decorative to cover the edge of the linen. I auditioned lace, trims, bias tape, and lots of different ribbons. The ribbon that worked best by color was a one inch mauve grosgrain ribbon. But it was far too wide. 

So I folded the ribbon in half, steamed it really well, and sewed it into place around the edge of the linen. The corners were a problem. I tried mitering the corners, but the ribbon was too thick. I settled for overlaping the ribbon. In the end, the corners look OK.

Next I used a fusible web to "glue" the stitchery to the book cover using the heat of an iron to activate the web. I vacillated with that decision. Usually, once so much energy and time is put into a piece of needlework, I don't want to use glue or tape on the back. Over time, the adhesive can bleed through and ruin the piece. 

So I had to remind myself, "THIS IS A BOOK COVER. THE NEEDLEWORK IS FROM 2001. YOU'RE JUST TRYING TO USE IT AND ENJOY IT FOR A WHILE."

Once the needlework was adhered to the fabric, I sewed down the outer edge of the ribbon to assure that the stitchery stayed in place. 

The notebook I'm using is also a Whittle a Little object. I bought it for about 10 cents at a thrift store and thought this would be a good way to use it up. It's not quite thick enough for the cover. But when I tried a 5-subject notebook, that was too thick for the cover. So I settled on using the thrifted notebook.

---

The entire construction of this book cover was frustrating. But I suppose that's fitting for a piece of stitching that was frustrating to complete. 

I'm not entirely satisfied with the outcome. It feels wonky. I just keep reminding myself that this stitchery has been hidden for nearly two decades. It finally gets to see the light of day. It's not fine art. It's a book cover. 

Not every item I make needs to come to an ideal end. It can be a pretty, serviceable object instead.

August Goal Update

August was a good month for progress on my annual goals! I had to reassess my list now that I'm more than half way through the year. Several of my original 19 are now moot, as life in the Davaz household changes over time. I knew I would likely have to switch some up, which is why I have a nice juicy list of alternate goals to choose from. Here's what I completed this month.


Goal #17: Blog at least 25 weeks of #throwbackthursday posts of my 1997 - 2007 projects.

Though I already completed this goal of 25 in July, I wrote four more in August, bringing my total to 30 #throwbackthursday blog posts.

Goal #19: Finish at least one of seven courses

I finished The Creative License by Danny Gregory and wrote some of my thoughts on the book in an earlier post.

Alternate Goal: 50 movies/series from my Netflix and Amazon Prime queues

I completed this goal with these:

44. The Conspirator
45. The Music Never Stopped
46. Can You Ever Forgive Me?
47. Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
48. Mary Poppins Returns
49. The Great British Baking Show
50. Far from the Madding Crowd

I suppose my favorite of the bunch was Mary Poppins Returns. The Great British Baking Show is a close second. Both are completely charming and make for a sweet way to end a day.

Alternate Goal: Deal with the yellow basket on the chair in my bedroom

The basket had been sitting there for years, containing costumes and make-up for half-baked self-portrait ideas. The ideas had potential when I thought them up, but they haven't aged well. I may do only one of the four or five I had planned. What is left over has been absorbed into my collections or tossed out. It feels good to have finally made those decisions -- and have a chair I can sit in to boot!

Whittle a Little

Dale and I have been going whole hog this month! We've pared down quite a lot -- including many, many more books. I found good homes for them, along with some quilts, blankets, most of my bead stash, some musical instruments, and a couple more pairs of shoes. But my biggest focus was on the kitchen. I donated quite a few small appliances and dishes that we seldom used. All in all, we whittled well over 100 items. It's feeling lighter around here!

Fondue, anyone?

2019 Totals as of August 31

SIXTEEN GOALS!
11 of the original goals finished
3 original goals in progress
5 of the alternate goals finished
4 alternate goals in progress

Only 3 more goals to complete my 19 for the year. I hope to have them done by the end of September.

And then, as you might guess, I'll follow through on the goals I have in progress because ... well ... why simply achieve when you can over-achieve?   😉

Throwback Thursday - 2006 Part 2

The wayback machine is taking me to March 2006 this week. I was a busy little beaver with some crochet hats and cross-stitch finishes. Let's take a look:


More Winter Hats

My hats were such a hit, that I just had to make more.

Actually, a gal that knew me from church ran into me in the grocery store. Both my daughter and I were wearing our new hats. Like me, this woman has thinning hair and needs a hat in the winter just to stay warm.

She asked me if I made the hats.

I told her I did.

She asked me if I sold my hats.

I told her I did not, but that I'd be happy to make one for her. I asked her what color she would like, and what alternate color she'd like if I didn't have yarn in her first color choice.

She said she'd like a soft pink hat. And if I didn't have any pink yarn, could I make her a white or lilac hat. That worked for me!

When I got home, I found that I had all three colors of yarn ... so I made her one of each.

I stopped by her home with a gift bag to give her a hat. She was pleased to get a pink one.

I told her, "Keep looking."

She pulled out the white hat.

I told her, "Keep looking."

She pulled out the lilac hat. She was absolutely pleased as punch. We had to go peek in a mirror so that she could model all three hats.

It's awfully fun to have an opportunity to surprise someone like that. And I made a new friend in the process.

(That's Jodie modeling all the hats).


Joy Assisi Ornament

This is the second time I stitched this ornament, but this time I kept it for myself instead of giving it away. I also stitched it on red aida instead of perforated paper so that it would match the Love and Peace ornaments that I made earlier.

I did use a different fiber than the other two ornaments, though. I'd received some Eva Rosenstand 6 strand cotton in a grab bag, so gave it a try on this ornament. I found it to be much softer in texture than DMC stranded cotton. It also frayed a bit faster, so I needed to use shorter strands to keep the floss crisp.

It's nice having some extra Peace, Joy, and Love for the Christmas tree each year.

Cheri Blum

This project took a long time for me to stitch. I started it in January 2005, but didn't finish it until April, 2006. It wasn't that it was difficult to stitch. It was just so different for me.

I saw this kit advertised in The Stitchery catalog. I fell in love with the rose, the background, the colors. They would look just right in the new look I had envisioned for our dining room. Dale bought the kit for me as a gift — complete with the mat and frame.

When I looked at the catalog, I hadn't realized that this was an embellished cross-stitch kit. That means that the image of the rose and the background was already printed on the aida fabric. As a stitcher, all you do is use one strand of floss to do some cross-stitch and half-cross stitch on top of the printing.

I started it, but was just out-of-sorts every time I worked on it. The embellishment barely seemed to show. I just didn't "get it." Why add floss to a piece if it barely makes a difference? So I put this piece aside for months at a time. I would pick it up now and then. I even made a goal to complete it by Dec. 31, 2005. But nothing could get me motivated to work on it.

Finally, early in 2006, my husband and I had a long talk about redecorating the living room / dining room area of our home. After years of planning, it was really going to happen. That seemed to be enough motivation for me to complete this piece.

Now that the piece is finished and framed, I find I like it more and more. The rose is growing on me! The embellishments add just a touch of color and depth and shine to the printed aida. It's really quite pretty! Still, I don't think I want to stitch another embellished cross-stitch piece.

Here's a recent detail image. In it, you can better see how the stitching embellishes the printed fabric.

Click for larger image

Cheri Blum has a place of honor in the dining room. My mother-in-law even made a companion piece for it in the form of an oil painting.