Thursday, August 20, 2009

Normally I enjoy waking up early in the morning and stitching for an hour or two before Tom gets up and we start our day. Today was not the case!!

I was happily stitching for about an hour, and then decided to make a pot of coffee. I put the water and beans in the coffee maker, and turned it on to grind and brew. I then went back into the family room to stitch for a few minutes.

When I returned to the kitchen, I found coffee grounds and water all over the counter and floor! Egad!! What a way to start the day! After cleaning up the mess (and what a mess it was), I discovered I had forgotten to put the coffee basket in the brewer. I don't think I'll be making that mistake again any time soon!

This incident was almost as bad as last week when Tom had a box of grits "explode" (his words--actually the lid got caught on something in the cabinet and came off as the open container fell to the counter below). There were grits in the cabinet, on the counter, and on the floor. I'm still finding grits. At least the grits weren't hot or wet, and Tom cleaned up the mess.

Last night I went to the The Queen City Sampler Guild monthly nighttime stitch-in. Carol W., who is not only a good friend but also my framer, brought me my framed Dutch Beauty before the meeting. Wow--did it come out gorgeous!! Because of threatening storms, I decided not to take Dutch Beauty to our meeting, but I did take Mary Wigham.

Dutch Beauty looks much larger framed than unframed! (It measures 42 inches in the largest dimension!) Egad--I never thought I would say this, but I may be running out of wall space. Carol suggested that I put Dutch Beauty on the mantle in the family room. I put it there this morning, and now we'll live with it for a few days and see what we think.
(Click on the photo for a better view. Please excuse the flash glare.)

9 comments:

Carol B. said...

Ellen -

Your Dutch Beauty is gorgeous! I love the framing - its very simple and elegant and doesn't detract from the beauty of the design itself!

Again, if you run out of wall space, I can rent you some for free in Baltimore!!

Congrats on the gorgeous finish!!

Carol B.

Ellen said...

Coffee, grits, messes?? At least there are no endangered samplers in the kitchen, yet. --Tom

Margaret said...

Oh dear on the various kitchen messes. Don't you hate when that sort of thing happens? I just got my Dutch Beauty back from the framer as well. Love how yours came out!

woolwoman said...

Ellen - your DB is beautiful - you have really cranked out some huge pieces this year - you should be very proud of your accomplishments - not to mention launching another lovely class piece "fruit of the vine" - Can't wait to take that in GA next year - I'm already on the wait list. No more messes! Mel

Karoline said...

Dutch Beauty is gorgeous Ellen, great framing.

I don't envy you having to clean up the mess without having had any coffee!

Colleen said...

Dutch Beauty certainly is...a beauty, that is!! Just gorgeous!

That's another reason I let my DH make coffee!! Besides, he makes better coffee than i do...LOL

Denise said...

I'm just happy to hear about the 'grits mess'.
I didn't think anyone in Ohio ate grits!
Wishing you & Tom a 'safe kitchen'!
Denise (from Georgia, where we have grits, too!)

Ellen said...

Hi Denise...don't know if you remember or not that we're not native Ohioans. Tom's parents are from Georgia and North Carolina, and mine are from Virginia.

One of Tom's concerns when we moved to Ohio 32 years ago was whether you could buy grits....yes, you can!

Solstitches said...

Your finished and framed DB is magnificent Ellen!
What a wonderful achievement.
I have this piece barely started - a UFO for a couple of years now.
I think you have inspired me to at least stitch a little on it each day.

Margaret