Highlighter anyone?

So I've been working for the last week or so on an unfinished picture for my daughter L. It's a Dimensions Gold Collection design of a Pegasus in front of a gorgeous background scene.

The background works up so quickly it's almost laughable. However I'm not overly fond of stitching on 18 count fabric. It's not that I have any difficulties seeing the squares, which is the usual complaint, but that even the small size needles aren't small enough. I suppose 18 count fabric is fine - IF and here's the big point - if the designer has stuck to using 2 ply of floss. Unfortunately, I've found that Dimensions isn't one to stick to what is normal or expected. So this designer sometimes uses up to 4 ply of floss and trying to get that through the holes in an 18 count fabric is a nightmare. In some spots by the time you have the 4 corners covered, you have 16 threads through one hole. The thread frays, you break needles every 2 days, etc. I'm a bit of a perfectionist (did I say bit?) so it drives me absolutely crazy. Hence, this piece, albeit a very easy piece in the grand scheme of things has sat on the back burner for almost two years now. Well I finally said, "Enough is enough, I have bigger fish to fry, harder pieces to sit in my UFO bin collecting dust. Let's get this done, shall we?" So I have been working on it with a vengeance for the last week and am starting to show some major progress.

The entire rear end of the Pegasus, the bigger of the two wings and two-thirds of the background are completely finished along with my other arch nemesis - back stitching. Even that has been tackled as I don't particularly feel like getting to the end and still having to stare at it for another 3 days just to finish that. Every afternoon and evening, I plop myself down in my stitching room and try to finish as much as I can for that day. I've even gotten to the point where my arthritis in my hands (yes, I got it early from too many video games and stitching... I started to show signs of it when I was only 19 years old.) has been acting up and I've needed to use the compression gloves to keep my hands functioning.

But that all being said, I got stopped dead in my tracks last weekend by G. I love the kid to death but there are days... On Sunday my mom came over and we were doing some sewing projects that have been on the back burner for a while now. She ran out to the store for a couple minutes and I was doing some ironing. I walked back into my stitching room to find my adorable son, standing there with an open pink highlighter, saying "I colouring, mommy!" I took it away from him and started looking around for what it was he coloured on. Next thing I know, I'm screaming NO - NO - NO!! at the top of my lungs to the point both L and G were terrified. I rip my picture out of the frame and run it to the bathroom sink at top speed. I don't think I moved that fast when I got a 2nd degree burn on my stomach when I was pregnant - that's how upset I was. He had coloured all over the background (un-stitched area - thank god!) of the Pegasus picture with florescent pink highlighter. And in case you don't know - highlighter is permanent ink. It's water soluble, sure, as long as it doesn't dry - but it dries very, very quickly.

Well, once it was under the water, G was sent for a time out and both he and L were in tears. They both knew he had done something wrong but not quite sure what. I calmed her down, and he ended up falling asleep while in time out. I tried everything - and I do mean everything. I tried detergent, soap and water, dish soap, resolve... anything I had in the house as a cleaning product. I posted on Facebook to ask if any of my stitching friends knew what I could use, I even called my local store to ask them if they had any ideas. I googled it, apparently I'm not the first to deal with highlighter but no one else had any answers either. Nothing was working. My hands were numb from being under the cold water for an hour straight and while it had lessened, there were still light pink lines all over my light blue background fabric.

I have to finish this post with my new favourite words. Tide To Go. It ended up bleaching the fabric slightly, I have to admit, but... I'd rather slightly white over pink. Especially since the majority of the background are half-stitches and it's bound to show through at least a little. I am so thrilled that it came out, you have no idea. But I have got to say, the next time G touches my stitching, I may cut off his hands.

Just kidding...

Sorta...

And no, there are no photos of the piece while in it's coloured on state. I was too busy trying to get it clean to think about trying to preserve the evidence of that. And my camera apparently doesn't like taking pictures of Aida cloth. I will remember that for future, although I seldom stitch on aida anymore...

Baking Attempts

Another thing that I love to do, or have in the past is cooking and baking. When I was growing up, my mom loved to bake - so much so that we would always have cakes, pies and cookies in the house, but there were times I would be begging her to make something "savoury".

When I met J, he was the one who started me cooking. Ironically, he also started his brother on that path as well and his brother is now a head chef of a great restaurant in Etobicoke, Ontario. J is part Italian and his father had taught his mother how to cook, so I guess it was only natural for him to try and teach me. I had been banned from cooking in my mom's kitchen for years after I had blown out two microwaves as a teenager (don't ask!). And since my favourite food was always pasta, I was thrilled when he taught me how to make my favourites which were Penne in Rose Sauce and Fettuccine Alfredo. Previously, all my pastas had been the pre-made stuff.

After that, I started watching the food network incessantly and just listening. I wasn't into any recipe in particular but more about techniques, and observing what things were supposed to look like when finished. That way, if I tried to replicate it, I'd know what it was at least supposed to look like.

Fast forward more than a couple years, and I'd like to say my abilities are much better. Not Chef great, I'm still terrible with knives - slow as molasses, and there are some things that still escape me. Pie dough and I don't get along very well, the first working one I managed was only a couple weeks ago and it was a shortbread (sweet) dough. Previously, it was a crumbly mess. My first attempt at it, I was in tears for 4 hours from the failure.

 

Well, last April, J and his parents decided to surprise me after a weekend away by cutting a hole in the brick wall in house to extend the kitchen. It was one of those things that had been planned for sometime, but I was holding us off of doing until we had the funds and time to fix it after. Previously, it was pitifully small and abhorrently decorated. Well - they pushed up the time line on me and in so doing, I lost two counters from my kitchen, leaving me only one, pitifully small counter top which is constantly covered in dishes. My drive to cook/bake evaporated. But now, with the install of my new cabinets only 3 weeks away, I guess I'm getting excited again and my desire came back.

(The Remains of my kitchen)

So last night, I tried to make a lemon souffle. I found the recipe a couple months back and I know, it's an ambitious project. Well, it worked - sort of. The top was beautiful but for some reason the bottom didn't set. I'm not sure if the hot water bath was too high? I left it in for an extra twenty minutes because it kept wiggling. But I had to take it out when the top started browning too much. It was lovely from the top, the knife came out clean and it had risen a full inch. But I left it to cool for 5 minutes and when I came back, it had sunk back down which was the first sign. It still tasted pretty good - kind of like a liquid lemon meringue pie. J at least tried it which is nice. I tried baking it again after just to set the bottom, which sort of worked but it still never rose back up. I will try again one day but after I work up my courage again. For now, I'll stick with easier options.

On another note, I finished the stocking that I mentioned in the first post (Yay!) and am now trying to finish one of my UFO which any stitchers will know of as Un-Finished Objects. It's an image of a Pegasus and it's actually working up a lot faster than I anticipated. So perhaps it will be finished soon too!

A Generic Hello

I figured I'd introduce myself since this is my first attempt at blogging.

It's been years since writing was my forte, so hopefully I don't make much of a mockery of myself with this, so here goes. : )

I'm a 31 year old cross-stitcher/ designer. I recently started my own company selling my patterns called Snow Dragon Designs. I currently have 4 patterns out for sale and I'm working on a couple more right now.  I'm also a married mother of two adorable little children, a 4 year old girl who I'll call L, and a 2 year old boy I'll call G. They tend to keep me pretty busy during the daylight hours, leaving my work relegated to the nighttime. My husband I'll call J. We have your standard, stereo-typical life, apart from the fact my husband is what I call a non-travelling roadie. He works for a media company doing live sound and lights. While he does get to do some awesome shows working with some great artists (he's worked with Shania Twain, Matt Dusk, Blue Rodeo and Bob Dylan, just to name a couple) but for the most part, since he doesn't travel around to follow the bands, he does a lot of political work which keeps him busy for much more than a 9 - 5 job. There are weeks at a time where he's so busy I'm questioning if I have a roommate or a husband. But that being said, he loves his job and since I love him, I'll support it even if I don't always like it. I was raised to believe that you should love what you do, because then you'll actually love to do it, and then will excel at it. Besides, he lets me do what I love so I guess I owe it to him. :)

I love animals, dragons and nature. I'm a trained falconer, however do not currently own a bird since I don't have need of another child who needs food every 6 hours (or less depending on the bird) and since I really like the smaller ones, 3 hours between feedings is too close to having another baby - not my current goal, thank you very much. :) We do have one pet currently though, a very cute little grey chinchilla who's about 8 years old now.

I also have a bit of a video game addiction, but generally to the cute games or role-playing games where there's a story to follow. I'm not fond at all of the shoot-'em up style games. I think the closest I've gotten to that is the Diablo series of computer games, but that's due to my other obsession which has not been fed much lately which is a love of all things Medieval, clothing, armour, weapons, etc. I love reading about the way people used to live, I think it's utterly fascinating the way they dressed, and things they did. Mind you, I'd have been burned at the stake back then for not adhering to the codes of conduct for women, but what the hey, we can all dream of a simpler time every once in a while. I have a couple of medieval dresses, however don't wear them all that often since it a.) freaks people out - most people can't deal with seeing a woman in a medieval dress walking past them in the grocery store, and b.) it's too darn difficult when you're dealing with two little ones who usually have grimy fingers or runny noses just to keep them clean for a day - and they're not easy to clean, let me tell you...

And once I figure out how to upload photos to my blog, I'll start adding pictures in here, but for today, I think I'll end it and going back to finishing up my latest cross-stitch pattern I've been working on, which is a remake of a Sue Coleman design put on to a Christmas stocking for J. I've been working on it since November and I am almost done (thank god!) so I'm hoping to finish before it gets too late tonight.

So a bientot! and I hope to see you all again soon!