September 2010
After learning a little about the Videos, I need to learn Illustrator and I can not believe I am understanding what I read! This module of the suite has been a real stumbling block, but something clicked recently, probably just learned enough terms, and I discovered the instructions really were written in English.
I have a really nice free project that I am stitching and as soon as I can draw it, fingers crossed, I will post it. Of course, that is after I finish it and photograph it and write the instructions.
It will finally be a home for the flower we made in Punto n Aria and the leaves. Stay tuned, I will post the links as I finish, but it will be a while. Linda Fontenot
May, 2010 Well I am back working, the economy is stalled out and I won't do any shows this year. I was going to do the 'punto n' aria' at the blog but the green threads never seem to show up in the thread club, so I started a series of pincushions, we will do buttonhole projects with them, hang in there.
And I am learing how to do videos in the Photoshop suite, now that is fun! Surprized me how interesting it is, Another surprize was how much film you have to take to get a little itty bitty sequence for the project. Stand by I am almost done with Satin stitches, I am working on Transitions, maybe by this fall. Sigh!
I changed the chart for Down the Garden Lane , I noticed the link to the chart was showing up a mess instead of a legible chart, when did that start happening? Sigh. So, now you will have to copy them to your desktop and print them out, but they are nice and legible. I have a colour chart in the middle of the project at the end of the DMC chapter. The garden has been replanted, oh joy! No butterflies though, I planted herbs since they are more drought tolerant and thought they would smell good, but found out the falls were related to allergies and the inner ear causing vertigo. yippee, can you tell I am so excited? be back later, Linda
Hi again, It's February 2009 and I suppose by now you might have guessed something else happened that I wasn't anticipating and you would be right! We didn't have any rain last spring, but the garden literally roared back to life, I couldn't believe the way it was growing. But then the heat came and it died completely, I placed umbrellas over everthing, but I couldn't save much. Too many trees were damaged and the heat was just relentless, day after day.
Then my computer died, that was really spectacular! It went up like a wheat stack. Sigh. But then you know, I ran it during the hurricane on a generator. If you ever want a new computer I highly recommend a generator as a power supply, the results are guaranteed.
Then I was walking back to the kitchen after clipping a garden edge and managed to take a dip in the pond, I was out of action for two months after that detour. DUH!
Then we had a really cold winter. What the heat didn't kill, the 20 degree temperatures did kill. The temperature went down for four days into the mid 20's. I haven't seen that in a very, very long time. It snowed alot in Texas and made the national news as more evidence of 'global warning.' What?
So I am up and about again and the dog gives me a black eye! I kid you not! Some how or another we got tangled up and when he finally decided he had danced with me long enough, I met the concrete, face first. Geez, talk about being bedazzled, I saw stars for about 20 minutes. But I got to tell you I was really proud of that shiner, it was a duzzy, bloody, and purple bruises and stars in my eyes. I never had one and secretly was kind of proud of myself, I mean I didn't lose any of my teeth!
The lens of my glasses were not scratched either as I use clip-on sunglasses. So there was some luck.
I finally ended up sitting in front of the TV watching vampire shows. I don't get it, I really don't, I hate the idea of vampires, of any kind. I mean they give me the willies, and here I sat watching them, hoping one of my favorite actresses would pick the vampire I liked. I have been reduced to jello. I have no backbone, no will, I must be enthralled. This from the woman who swore she would not watch the soaps all day and stitched instead, sitting here watching vampire movies, and then I started reading the books. Maybe it was the pond water?
Be sure to visit our blog http://americanfolkarts.blogspot.com/ . . . . . . Linda If you need health insurance and you live in Texas visit my husband's website
Hurricane Ike
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My Hero! |
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So, if you ever doubt that there was a man who could move a mountain, remember this picture, because this man moved a mountain. |
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Well, I thought a drought was bad. Look at what a hurricane can do! And let me add we were lucky, lucky, lucky!
A new stepping bridge across the pond? The neighbor came to see the damage and he didn't think I had much, told another neighbor looked like a bunch of junk I hadn't gotten rid of. Gee, I wonder if I should tell him what I think of his garden?
Pond before the trees fell down
Trees are not good leaning on your house!
Hmm, I wonder if we needed that much light? That's DH, he's is 6'5" and he cleaned this mess up. My hero!!!
Javelin practice.
Missed the spa!
We needed a new compost!
Close up! I don't think the roots held.
If you look at the top of the picture you can see the debris, we had about 3 feet at the back door we had to kick through to get out.
Well, the sky started clearing and the sun began shining, so we got busy. I will show the fixed garden pix next time
Well, I have been thinking about whether a hurricane/tornado is worse than a drought, I think I would rather have a drought, but they aren't nearly as exciting as a wind storm.
I think I died three times during this rebuilding, once when I saw how pretty much everything was destroyed. I had a 30 year old Crepe Myrtle in the center back garden that laid over during the storm. DH cut off two of the trunks that left three, pushed it back up and replanted it. I couldn't not watch, I loved that old tree. It was one of those little bushes that was guaranteed to be a mini and never grow over two feet tall. I guess they figured it would die before the hormone they put on it wore off because before DH trimmed it to put it back up it was about fifteen feet tall.
I died again when I helped My Hero by hauling out as much as I could to the front lawn for pick up.
And then I died finally when I saw what it would take to put it back together. I been planning and working on this garden for over thirty years, it was designed so that if the trees fell it would not do as much damage. I would read about how tall a tree variety would grow and then place them far enough away so they wouldn't hit the house. The ones that were close to the house were trimmed reguarly, but the good tree trimmer, the one that didn't infect the trees with a fungus that turns them black and causes them to die, was no where to be found. He was a German and probably went home. He was a good guy that would clean his saw blades with rubbing alcohol to keep from spreading that fungus. And he did a good job, I always paid him extra because he did such a careful, meticulous job.
I had several garden books that I read to plan the layout. I wanted to be able to walk a path as a old lady amongst the shade trees I planted. We were just at the stage of installing the path. I had found these wonderful large compressed sandstone rocks that we were placing for the path bit by bit. Sandstone is lighter to carry and these were reddish like the brick of the house. I have been using just about anything I could find so far as the yard can get really sticky sinking muddy when it rains here. We have no rocks in the soil and the soil is clay, as any top soil that forms is washed away readily with the heavy rains we can get.
I lined all the gardens with plastic staked borders and shale to hold them in place. And it really works! This yard seems to turn to water when it rains and just about anything you have done to it is lost after about three years. Then I created this little stream that carries all the runoff to the street. I put in a koi pond out the dining room window as it was always wet there. Again DH had to help me as I was just not strong enough. The first concrete I laid failed because I didn't mix it enough and I had to take it up and ask for help.
After the little stream was dug out and proved I began lining it with that ground cloth and covering the ground cloth with larger pebbles. It held really well during the hurricane, a little clay came into the stream but it washed out readily.
I found that these large flat round planters really hold a lot of flowers and can be elevated or staged to make a really, really pretty garden. That is what you can see if you saw any of the pansies pix I use to have up. I am going to plant pansies again and will really love looking at them from the kitchen window. The little birds eat the seeds and I find little pansies everywhere the birds have been in the garden. I love that! I don't really want a formal garden, but I would like one that looked like I made it and it didn't just sort of spring up. Although I do let a lot of the volunteer plants stay where they come up.
Linda, September 21, 2008, goodbye Ike don't let the door hit you in the backside!
Oh my gosh! Went out this moring to water what's left of the garden and there were two new emergent butterflies.
They were fat catepillars last week!
I made this habitat about three weeks ago and suddenly the butterfly are emerging. This habitat is washable and expandable with a long zipper to release the butterflies you can see a part of it on the bottom left side. It's washable and has an elastic band around the bottom of it to keep it snug against the planter and keep out the pest. I put pencil erasers on some stakes and I can move these around as needed, you see them they are pink and one is right in the center of the pix.
Anyways last week I released this little guy, he flew by my head so fast I never could find him again. But I had a pix of him in the habitat.
I also photographed an adult last summer, she was a ham and wasn't shy about being around humans.
And then this morning! Two Black Swallowtails, I will have to find out what they call all these guys.
Hope you enjoyed the flight of the butterflies! Boy my week got better, DH enjoyed photographing my butterlfies so much he took me to lunch! vbg Linda September 10, 2008
Hi! Well, summer is officially over, and I can't say I am going to miss this one. I really can't wait till fall. Had to laugh this morning, some of you might recall the trial and tribulations I have had during two of the last Needlework Shows. Power going off and on, dimming or fading, and dust so bad we would have dry lightening at night. All because of a bridge they are building at the end of one of the major road that runs along the neighborhood I live in. And the same road was being widened at the other end.
So, guess what? They tore up the street I live on! I kid you not, they have been ripping and tossing concrete around here for weeks and the dust is so bad I can't breath at nite. But not to worry I found several solutions. My little Dyson is a dust buster! And Lysol spray. The Lysol knocks the dust right out of the air and the Dyson picks it up! I mean it picks it up! Love, love, love my Dyson. Nothing cleans the blinds like it does, it has attachments that will clean the cloth curtains, the furniture and more. I think I am going to have a portrait made with it. vbg
There it is, my Dyson! Small, compact versatile the handle comes off, then you insert it in the hose and you have a hand vac, it has a switch next to the on and off switch that turns off the brush so you can vacuum the floor. The cannister comes off so I can shake out the dust and I can clean the inside of the cannister with one of those great Pledge Dust and Allergen cloths, then the filters come out and I take them outside and spray them off with the nozzle on the water hose and yippy yeh I can start all over again tomorrow.
I keep those Pledge cloths and wash them out because they make great floor cloths, they get even fuzzier after washing and then they will pick up more stuff.
But the real help, the one thing that really made my ideas work was DH washed down the street in front of our house. He's such a great guy.
And one the best things almost as good as DH, I am getting a handle on this website, it's beginning to look pretty good again, figured out all the little gremlins in this old HTML software and a few other programs I use. Along the way I have been developing a real healthy dislike for Mr. Microsoft, but that's another story for another time. I am still working on the new website, but the old one had to be reorganized so I could follow it with the new one. You would not believe the number of pages and files a site can have.
So anyways, the gremlins haven't stopped me yet. If anything I am more organized and determined than ever. I have the new designs ready for the show and I will be posting at the start of the show. Please buy them from the shops that support me, they are on the top of the design pages. Come to the Needlework Show I will be giving free charts away once again and the other designers have exciting things you got to have.
Hahahahaha, that's me laughing at the dust. Until next time, take care, stitch alot, Linda. September 5, 2008
Oh yeah, the power keeps going off and coming on, we have these backup batteries and surge protectors the size of Volkswagen Beetle on everything. I even hung one on the back of the nightstand for recharging all the little portables that make life so pleasant.
One thing you learn when you pick up a pen to write is that your mind is sort of like a committee considering a resolution. If you stop to examine this you would find at least a dozen different ideas in committee.
I mean until I write something down it is simply not real, it exists in the 'ether', a Greek term that is wholly appropriate! My thoughts come and go like little darting silver minnows, shiny for a moment and then gone forever. You might wonder about all this reflection and thought on the matter. Well, I haven't written on a personal level since I was a very young adult. With this website and the needlework I am again writing on a personal level. Once to share my joy of stitching with you and again to organize the instructions into some kind of usable product.
When I started this website my writing skills were somewhere in my early twenties although I had the experience of a forty something woman. Hence, the reason for rebuilding the website, somewhere along the way my writing grew up! I think differently than I did as a youngster. Experience can be a good thing! But much to my chagrin, my adult side decided I really do have to include a Stitch Dictionary , it will be evolving as I rebuild this website, so I ask for you patience once again. %^)
And I discovered another charming little thing about this old html editor, apparently for no reason it respells my words. You can not imagine how relieved I was to discover that. I really, really thought I was going senile and had lost the ability to spell. Turns out it's just another gremlin or ghost in the machine. phew!
And lastly, I hope you had a chance to watch the Olympics this week, the opening ceremony was beautiful and China is beautiful. What wonderful hosts they have been. Until next time, keeping stitching my charts! Linda, August 15, 2008
Okay, okay, okay! I know the new website is getting a little old and it isn't even up yet! Not my fault! The weather here turned horrible and all I do is water. The lawn stopped growing last week, very unusual in August or July. Half my garden died in June, the other half is dying now. I quizzed DH about that, since he is an authority on 'everything'. :) And it was decided that it's the heat, something about the heat triggers plant death. Not surprizing really, everything I had out there was for a much cooler climate, things like geraniums, pentas and hollyhocks.
But the zinnias and marigolds? I had tomatoes, they were a variety called 'the tomatoes that ate the garden'. They were monsters! Seven feet tall and not a bloom anywhere, they out grew their pots and kept toppling over and finally broke the pots, so DH replanted them during the last thunderstorm we had in June, but still no blooms and now they are fading soon to die. Altogether a bad year!But the little stream bed got finished late last winter and it looks just wonderful although the geraniums are gone now.
Got rid of the ironwork, the weeds, brought in more rocks and found a friendly little dragon. Lots better! There is plenty of shade there and usually that's a problem, but not this year! That little section of the garden is still pretty although when the temperatures hit 100 this week it started fading pretty fast. I think I saw the dragon blowing smoke! or steam?
Well that's it from Hades, 'er here. I am finishing up the charts for the Fall show at the Needlework Show in September and still slogging through the new website. Until next time, good stitching and try to enjoy the weather. Linda, August 1, 2008
Here I sit, 10 p.m. on a Thursday evening, tired as a person can get and what do I discover? I can't spell, now that was a big surprise! Should I continue knowing full well that about one out of every twenty five words will be misspelled? When did this occur? Or have I always been a lousy speller and my professors graciously let it go? I have a major in English and I sit here completly baffled with something, shame, consternation? I can not tell you one thing about grammar or sentence structure. I mean I could solve your child's algebra problems, all of them, before I could find the verb in a sentence. And now at this advanced age I discover I cannot spell! ARGH!
All the words I have spelled for my DH that he has proudly presented at work, did he discover that I could not spell decades ago and just continued to ask me because of love? How do I continue? I mean how do you know you are misspelling a word? And does Microsoft really know how to spell? As I sit here typing do I check every word, keeping my favorite dictionary under my right elbow, you know sort of like taking an oath, but the elbow gives you dispensation from the absolute truth. I mean I need something when I am as deep into this as I have discoverd myself to be.
I have a dictionary, several in fact and in several different languages, someone is always writing me in unfamiliar languages for clarifications about the website projects. My favorite is the Webster's New International Dictionary, Second Edition, copyright 1958. I could spend weeks in that book day dreaming about all the fascinating things it defines. But apparently I missed the spelling part of the book.
Well, maybe it's my advancing age, maybe after six decades or so the spelling section of your head retires. Wish it had notified me before it headed out to pasture. I mean really! Maybe I can find a spelling class somewhere that will give me the 'most used words' to practice my spelling regularly, then my head will come out of retirement. But how do I know that the list is spelled correctly? Maybe a teacher will double check my efforts. This is a conundrum! Is there a website for this?
At any rate I am still here trying to rebuild my website, learn the software, double check the spelling, fix the photos and so on. It's like patting your head and rubbing your belly at the same time, VERY HARD!
On a happier note, I got a new vacuum, the Ball from Dyson. It's just wonderful! The house is so clean and dust free and it's fun to use as it transform in an instant from rug vacuum to blinds vacuum to floor vacuum. No bags to buy and the filters pop right out and cleans up at the hose outside. I always thought if a man ever really wanted to give me something give me a vacuum that didn't throw all the dust up in the air and make the place stink. One that really trapped all the crud and got it out of the house. The Dyson does and it's small too not at all difficult to move around and use. I am so happy! Except for the spelling. %^( That's it for this time while I plow on with the website and new designs coming in September. More about them later! Linda July 17, 2008 P.S. Read this at your own risk, I didn't run the Spell Checker, too darned tired!
There won't be a stitch dictionary at this site as the new program makes it easy to place the stitch information right into the project. The only hitch is that I have to make the entire site before I upload it. I could have just translated the old site, the one you are at, but it's not that good as far as website go, so I made the decision to bite the bullet and redo the photos and charts so they load faster, and reorganize the entire site so that it is easier to navigate. I have about twenty percent done. ARGH! Please don't hold your breath! I don't want to lose you!
I keep thinking of better ways to do the site and therefore I am constantly redoing what I have already done. Sigh, I know I am just brilliant!
The really cool thing is that I am going to start a new series of classes, unfortunately Julia's Antique Sampler has been removed. It will not be back, sorry. It is ten years old and just a lot dusty. There are so many weird cross links in it that it is hard to fix. It takes way to much bandwidth and I am going to do something a little more interesting later this year.
That's it, I'll keep you posted, thanks so much, I really appreciate your visits. Sorry for being so slow. Linda June 2008
