Our Hymn Fest was a Success!

As some of you know, I am the organist for a church in Charlotte, North Carolina. This past Sunday, we had a Hymn Festival, and it was great!

Here is a music file of the event. Feel free to listen at your leisure!
http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/album.php?aid=4633&alid=1351

We had some visiting musicians - The Charlotte Chamber Brass. They were phenomenal. I performed on the organ and piano, and the choir and congregation sang. It was lots of fun, and the music was beautiful.

Now that this HUGE musical event is over, I can get back to my normal life.

Yippee! I can embroider my dresser scarf now!

Catcha later, my friends.

My Other Passion - Embroidery

I've told you lots about my knitting, but I haven't said a word about my other craft - embroidery. I've been doing embroidery since I was little red-headed stepchild of about 10 years old. I'm not sure how I learned....maybe from my sister, maybe from my mom....maybe all by myself. I remember growing up in the 70's and buying embroidery transfers of mushrooms, flowers, hearts and peace signs. We would iron them onto our clothes, and then embroider them with colored thread.

When I was in high school, my boyfriend's mother taught me to cross-stitch. I spent MANY years doing cross-stitch after that. I don't think I have a single project in my house to show for all that work. I gave them all away.

But, my favorite was always pure embroidery, because the finished product looked so REAL. The cross-stitch designs always have that "blocky" look to them. But, embroidery just flows, with no squares to deal with.

I started the "God Bless Our Home" work about 15 years ago. I should have finished it a long time ago, but I have set it down over and over again throughout my lifetime. It's crewel embroidery, which means you use wool yarn. You have to be so careful when working with wool, because the yarn will tear if you're not gentle. My goal is to finish that piece before another year goes by. : )


Recently, I've been fascinated with dresser scarves. They are so pretty and delicate. So, I have decided to make one of my own. I bought a kit on eBay, and purchased the floss at Hobby Lobby. I think it will turn out very beautiful. I might just have to use it as a piano scarf!

So Many Projects - So Little Time.....

Right now, I'm working on so many projects, I can't keep up with them! I'm knitting a baby set for a friend. She's expecting her first child, and I want to make something special for the occasion. I've had the yarn in my stash for about a year now. It was in a large box of old yarn that I bought on eBay. It's discontinued now, so I hope I have enough to finish the set! It's called Renee Baby Yarn, was made in France and sold at Sears. It's a very soft fingering yarn, and makes such a pretty lacy fabric. I got the pattern for the sweater in the Fall 2005 issue of Family Circle Easy Knitting. I found the pattern for the hat and booties on the internet! http://knitwits-heaven.tripod.com/baby_hat2.htm

Another knitting project I'm working on is a cotton sweater. The pattern I'm using is "Saguaro" in the Spring 2005 issue of "Knitter's" magazine. It's short-sleeved, cotton, and the directions include my size.....Alert the Media! I have the hardest time finding patterns that include plus-size instructions. I have changed the color pattern to match my wardrobe, so I'll probably get lots of wear out of this top. The yarn is so easy to work with - Aunt Lydia's Baby Denim. It was on sale at Walmart's last year, and I've been dying to find a pattern for it. I've got enough yarn to make 3 tops if I want!

My New Design - Pussywillow Scarf!

I have found the softest yarn by Lion Brand. It's called "Velvet Spun", and it is glorious! It is marketed as a baby yarn, but I have used it to design a very lovely, super-soft scarf. It looks like rows and rows of pussywillows, so that's what I decided to call it.

Here's the pattern:

Pussywillow Scarf
(Very Easy Pattern - Perfect for Beginners!)

Materials:

• 2 skeins of Lion Brand Velvet Spun yarn
• Size 13 knitting needles

Cast on 10 stitches (Keep the cast-on stitches loose!)
Knit every row (garter stitch)
Bind off when it's long enough for you (Don't bind off too tight!)

Designed by Sandy Davis
(Note: I made mine with 12 stitches instead of 10, since I'm a plus-size girl!)

Look out for Blogger Viruses!

The other day I was browsing through blogs just for fun. I just kept clicking "Next Blog" to view a few different types of blogs. WRONG THING TO DO!

The next thing I knew, I was stuck on a blog with a message window popped up in the center that said, "Here is my dream" with an OK button. No cancel button. The top of the screen said "Nothing is Precious".

My computer was completely locked up. I couldn't do ANYTHING. So, I clicked on the Start Button (thank God it worked...) and went to my Windows Explorer. I started deleting temporary internet files and cookies and so forth, because I wanted to stop this thing before it corrupted my computer. I mean, I have Norton Security, which includes Norton Antivirus, and I update it daily. I also have Ad-aware, which I also update daily. But, I always delete all my temporary internet files before I turn off the computer, just in case something is trying to sneak through.

Anyway, while I was deleting the temporary internet files, it LOCKED UP! The stupid internet message was blocking me all over the place. I was SO MAD!

Well, I disconnected the internet connection, and then shut down the computer. When it came back on, I finished deleting all the temporary files and history and cookies. Then I scanned the computer with Ad-aware and Norton Antivirus. Then, I rebooted my computer. This all took about an hour of my time. What a drag!

Thankfully, I didn't get any damage to my computer, but someone else might not be so lucky.

Just take my advice: Don't look at the blogs by clicking "Next Blog", or you'll end up landing on a bomb like I did.