Life With Jules, and other stuff

Yup! It's that time again! TUSAL!!! I finally got around to taking my update picture for this month. Here are a couple of pictures:   And as you may have guessed it, my finish is ANCHORS AWEIGH! First a little background on the song, which can also be found here :   History Lieut. Charles A. Zimmermann , USN, a graduate of the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, had been selected as the bandmaster of the Naval Academy Band in 1887 at the age of 26. His father, Charles Z. Zimmermann, had played in the band during the Civil War years. Early in his career, Lieut. Zimmermann started the practice of composing a march for each graduating class. By 1892, "Zimmy", as he was affectionately known by the midshipmen, became so popular that he was presented with a gold medal by that year's class. More gold medals followed as Zimmermann wrote a march for each succeeding class.   In 1906, Lieut. Zimmerman was approached by Midshipman First Class Alfred Hart...

Well, I promised an update on Anchors Aweigh and here it is: I haven’t gotten it finished just yet. I was dealing with such a headache earlier. I couldn’t even concentrate on my studies. Ouch! I called my mom (a nurse) and mentioned that I think I got too much fresh air and that’s why I have a headache, LOL! She disagreed, of course. hehehe... Anyway, as I have been stitching this piece, and especially the cap, I find myself feeling indifferent to the whole design. I guess starting out on a bad thread note doesn't help, but the cap is a bit off even by Candamar's palette. My brain started rolling around and I decided to try to come up with my own Navy sampler. I will incorporate some of my own experiences in the Navy to make it more personalized and the cap will be accurate! LOL!!! And, I also thought about the trinkets I have left over from my uniforms and plan to embellish this design a bit. Maybe that will sway me to liking it more! I do plan to frame it and add it ...

In honor of my service in the United States Navy... My niece called me yesterday wanting to come over to learn how to cross stitch. Of course I said yes. She also brought her baby. We all had a good time! Here is a picture of my niece learning the craft: Here is a picture of my start on Anchors Aweigh (a Candamar design): I actually took this after starting the lighter blue stitches this evening. The dark blue is all I completed last night. I was a bit annoyed with this kit when I first started sorting the floss and prepping to stitch. It did not contain all of the correct colors. There was no white whatsoever. It gave 3 or 4 different shades of brown, none of which are even charted! Thank God for my well organized floss as I was able to convert the Anton floss into DMC equivalents and get the needed colors from my stash. The undesirable floss that came with the kit: Here is a picture of where I am now: I leave you with "A Mother's Love" (and baby hugs): It's hard t...