Last Post of 2005

It is hard to believe that it is New Year's Eve already! Where did the year go? I am not one to make a list of resolutions for the New Year mainly because I usually end up not sticking with them!

Since I am here posting it is obvious that we aren't going out to celebrate New Year's. We are both firm believers that this day in particular we don't need to be out on the road. My main reason is when I was 5 months pregnant ( 6 weeks before he was born) I was hit in the rear end of my car by a 16 year old girl that was drunk. I had my 2 girls with me who were 3 and 4 at the time. Luckily, all of were fine but ever since that incident I am more than content to stay at home on this particular day!

So since I haven't had to go anywhere today I have been stitching away! This will be the last progress picture of 2005. Since the last time I posted I stitched the letters C, H, and M. 6 more letter to go! Whoo-hoo!

Tomorrow is the official start of my new rotation! On Sundays I will be working on exchanges, RR, or what ever I want! I need to choose designs for the Birthday Exchange and the Lottery Exchange. So I probably will spend most of the afternoon looking at my patterns to see if something calls out to me. I also need to go straighten up my craft corner sometime tomorrow too!

Happy New Year's to all!!

2006 Plans

I have been thinking about my goals for 2006. I don't know if you could even call them goals but more of a stitching plan. So here is my plan for the year!

WIP's To Finish:
1. Finish Unicorn and Fairy Magic
2. Finish ABC Bears
3. Finish The Fortunate Traveler-start 1/4

New Patterns:
1. Woodland Faerie-start 1/2
2. A Time For Everything-start 1/3
3. Deepest Love-start 1/5
4. Herbs & Spices-start 1/6
5. Dragon Lake
6. The Legends of the Dragons
7. 4 Seasons Dragons


Round Robin Squares
1. Cathy-post 3/1
2. Renee-post 5/1
3. Nicki-post 3/15
4. Laurie-post 5/15

Exchanges
1. Melissa-birthday-post 2/15
2. Cathymk-Birthday-post 3/15
3. Renee-birthday-post 5/15
4. Lottery-post 3/1

Adopted Stitcher Care Package
1. Spring
2. Summer
3. Autumn
4. Winter

Christmas Ornaments for Family
1. Dawn
2. Mike
3. Krissy
4. Allie
5. Mac
6. Jerry
7. Mom
8. John

2005 Recap of Finishes

Here is my list for the year:

Gingerbread Boy (scissor pocket) gift
Boo (tuck pillow) gift
Checkers (treat bag) gift
Christmas Spider(ornament) gift
Snow White (pillow) gift
November Cherub (framed) Kept this one for me!
Unicorn (ornament) My ornament
Insects (floor pillow) Mac pillow
International Buffet (WTF)
Season Greetings (cube) gift
Giant (ornament)gift
Pegasus (ornament) Krissy Ornament
Snowman (pillow tuck) gift
Dragon (ornament) Mike Ornament
Let There Be Light (door hanger) gift
Christmas Tree (ornament) gift
Mermaid (ornament) Allie Ornament
Dove (ornament) Kept this one for me!
Halo, and Merry Christmas (wall hanging) Kept this one for me!
Cats in Flowers ( wall hanging) gift
May Your Sorrows (wall hanging) gift
Phoenix (ornament) Mac Ornament

Round Robin Squares
Fire Dragon
Cats in Hats
Bunny 2000
Autumn Tree
Autumn Chair

Exchanges
Happy Jack (pillow)
Joy (cube)

29 design finishes for the year. That not too bad since I finished 23 out of the 29 into something. Out of those six that weren't finished 5 of them were for RR, so I actually only have one piece this year going into the WTF pile! That was major accomplishment for me this year!

SBQ of the Week

This week's SBQ was suggested by Nancy and is:

How do you balance your stitching time with your other obligations such as work, household chores, etc.?

For me stitching is a way to unwind, relax, and be "me". A normal day for me starts out with getting the kids off to school. When they are all gone is when I clean the house without the fear of cleaning a room and looking back to see the kids have already destroyed it. After the house is clean I head off to work. I am lucky enough to be able to do my stitching while I am at work! When I leave work is when I do my shopping and errands for the house and then it is time for the kids to be coming home from school. Our evenings are pretty normal....homework, supper, bathes, and bed. After all that is when I finally get to sit down and stitch. On an average I would say I stitch anywhere from 3-4 hours a night. There have been nights when I have stayed up till 3 am stitching!

December/January Goals

December Goals:
1. Start and finish Renee's RR fabric.
**Finished and ready to mail to Laurie
2. Mail Jo's RR fabric to Renee.
**Done 12/13
3. Mail SB Lottery Exchange to the lucky winner.
**Mailed 12/5
4 Finish my Mom's birthday present and mail.
**finished and mailed 12/5
5. Finish Christmas presents to family and friends.
**Last one finished 12/24
6. Finish Unicorn and Fairy Magic. (if the beads arrive in time)
**Still waiting
7. Work on ABC Bears.
**Finished 4 letters!! Only 9 left to go!
8. Work on Fortunate Traveler.
**I worked on this one for a couple of hours but not as much as I would have liked to have stitched.
9 Start on Melissa's present for the SB Birthday Exchange.
**I have been looking for a pattern but nothing has jumped out at me yet.
10 Dye fabric for Woodland Faerie SAL in Jan.
**Yep, dyed one solid yellow and one a tie dyed.

January Goals
1. Start TW Woodland Faerie SAL with Christine D.
2. Start A Time For Everything SAL with Becky.
3. Work on Fortunate Traveler.
4. Start Mirabilia's Deepest Love
5. Start Herbs & Spices
6. Start/finish Melissa's present.
7. Start on Cathy's RR fabric
8. Start on Lottery Exchange
9. Mail Renee's RR fabric to Laurie.
10. Start on Adopt A Stitcher package.
11. Start on Nicki's RR fabric.
12. Work on ABC Bears
13. Finish my afghan.

A lot of new starts this month!

Now that Christmas is over with maybe my house can get back into a normal routine. Our day went pretty good. The kids were thrilled with their presents and played all day long and I got to stitch. I finished the letters Q, L, and most of G on ABC Bears. Only 9 more letters to go! Like I have said before I am in no big hurry to get this one finished as it is more of a learning pattern for me. Tons and tons of french knots to make.

Sunday I get to start my new rotation. Sunday is for working on RR's/exchanges. I am caught up on my RR's so I will be working on exchanges. I have several that are going to be due at that same time. That itself kind of freaks me out but I know I can get it done. The first thing that is due is for the Birthday Exchange for Melissa. I have been thinking about what to do for her but I haven't come up with the "perfect" idea yet but with the holidays I haven't had a lot of time to think!

Later today we will be taking our tree down. I am happy to say that the kitties and my dog did better this year with the tree. We only had about 10 ornaments get broke which is a lot less than the year before!

Merry Christmas to All!

I have been sick with a head and chest cold so I managed to let things pile up to the last minute. (again!) I had all the main shopping done so all I had to pick up were the stocking gifts. The worst part of the trip was the downpouring rain! I got so drenched and it was cold rain, too!

At least I was able to get warmed up with the cookie baking we did tonight. We always bake a batch of cookies after dinner to eat and to leave some for Santa. Warm cookies and glass of milk are my favorite! :D The kids are getting ready for bed now so hopefully in the next few hours I will be able to finish up the last little bit of wrapping and then I can finally collapse in my bed and sleep.

Christmas Day for us is pretty relaxed. The kids wake us up to open gifts. We take turns opening gifts from the youngest to the oldest. The kids usually head off to play with their toys and try on their clothes while I clean up the wrapping mess and Mike cooks breakfast. After breakfast the kids usually head outside to show their stuff off to their friends. Mike will head to his computer to play with his new games and I will be left to prepare our Christmas Dinner. Our Christmas dinner is odd. We don't do turkey or ham instead we eat lasgne. We like turkey and ham but we eat enough at Thanksgiving that we don't want any at Christmas time so we started our own little tradition. We will have lasagne, cheese bread, veggie/dip, cheese/meat/cracker tray, and assorted sweets. After our dinner is when I get to really relax and do what I want to do. (stitch, of course! )

I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!

Halo, and Merry Christmas

I woke up this morning feeling like crap so I knew I wasn't going to accomplish much today which I haven't. I did decide to work on the WTF pile. I pulled out this cute freebie from Gloria & Pat that I stitched sometime last year. I used Isabelle's wall hanging tutorial to finish it and I have to say she did a great job with the tutorial! Thank you, Isabelle!!

A Dove

I finished this little dove this morning. The dove is from Heart in Hand's Holiday Trimmings II. I stitched it on 28 ct evenweave fabric.

I would have had the dove finished yesterday evening but I messed up on the finishing and had to rip out all that I had stitched. I didn't have the patience to rip out all that I had done last evening so I worked on the letter Q in ABC Bears. Only 12 more letter to go!

Since my new rotation will start in 10 days I have no set plan on what I will be working on in the next few days. I know that I will be working on ABC Bears and some small pieces. I was going to work on Collecting Shells but the more that I look at it, the more I really don't like the tan fabric mostly because it blends it too well with the design. I will probably end up restitching it on some white fabric.

Thank You, Jenna!

See what the postal lady brought me today in the mail :D

This is an ornament from Jenna. I was one of the lucky recipients of her wonderful ornaments. I love it! Mike was joking with me and told me I was going to have to buy another tree just for my ornaments. It isn't a bad idea but I don't have the room or patience with my cats to deal with two trees!

Jenna-You really did an excellent job with this ornament. I will always treasure it! Thank you a million times. :)

I finished up the last of my ornaments last night. Actually I have had these stitched for awhile but I was waiting on the exact color of Kreinik to arrive. As my luck runs, the Kreinik still isn't in so I used what I had closest to the color given. They didn't turn out too bad. I am to lazy to post a picture of them tonight but you can use the J.L. Aikman-Smith Ornies link to the left to see them.

I have pretty much finished all of my stitching for 2005. I didn't do too bad this year. I didn't get as many large pieces done as I would have liked but that is why I am trying a new rotation. I did get a lot of small pieces done and even got some of them finished. I will be ending the year with 1 UFO (Collecting Shells), 2 WIP(ABC Bears and Fortunate Traveler, and way too many to count WTF's. Overall not too bad but I do need to work on the WTF pile more in 2006!

Fringed Ornament

Late last night I finished the stitching on this cute Christmas tree. The pattern is a freebie from Janlynn. I stitched it on 28 count evenweave that is dyed golden yellow. I used glittery gold ribbon for the hanging loop. I really like how this turned out! This is the second to last ornament I have to finish for Christmas.

I still have one last ornament to finish this week. It is for Allie. I have one almost done but no word from the craft store and I have been way too busy to make a trip for one small thing. So I will just make her a complete new one. I have everything ready so I will probably start on it later today.

A Little Knock

This morning there was a tiny little knock on my front door followed by a voice saying "Dawn, In!" I immediately recognized Dayzia's little voice and opened the door up to greet her but instead she greeted me with a Christmas present. Inside was this adorable pillow that her mom, Nancy, made for me. She did a wonderful job and I love it! She also gave me a bunch of chocolate which Dayzia was quick to point out to me.


As you can tell the morning went well for me and got even better after I got home from buying groceries!

Birthday Exchange

This afternoon I had to go grocery shopping but when I got home I found a package waiting for me! It is from Melissa for the Stitching Bloggers Birthday Exchange. The stitched piece is beautiful. Sorry for some reason I couldn't get a good close up shot of it today. The blues and greens are so pretty but then again green is my favorite color. She sent me some lovely goodies too. I love the Lilac Ice fabric but then again the apricot is running pretty close! LOL I love the threads and can't wait to use them!

Thank you so very much Melissa! I love all of it!

Class Party

Mac's class party was a success or at least a success to a second grader. The first thing they did was eat! We had a breakfast buffet set up for them. We had sausage biscuits, bagels with cream cheese, blueberry muffins, glazed donuts, chocolate iced donuts, apple juice, orange juice, and chocolate milk. They were stuffed. After we cleaned up the plates and cups we watched part of The Polar Express. Then the kids opened their goody bags which were full of candy. We stayed long enough to watch the teachers to open their presents. I might add that both of Mac's teachers loved their gifts.

Here is the class Christmas tree. The kids each made a little reindeer ornament and Mac's is safely on our tree at the house.

As you can tell we were having fun! :) Mac's teacher took this picture of us.

2006 Rotation Schedule

Sundays--------Exchanges/RR's/Choice
Mondays-------Woodland Faerie (TW SAL)
Tuesdays-------A Time For Everything (4 season SAL)
Wednesdays----Fortunate Traveler (TW SAL)
Thursdays------Deepest Love (Mir SAL)
Fridays---------Herbs and Spices (Magazine SAL)
Saturdays------ Exchanges/RR's/Choice

Work M-F-Crochet Afghans

Whew, I think I have come up with a rotation that I am going to like and enjoy! I am doing 5 SAL's but they are all patterns that I have wanted to stitch and just haven't gotten around to doing. I can't wait to get started!

Almost Halfway There

It looks like I will be setting my crocheting aside for the rest of the week and do some stitching! I have crocheted 40 rows so it is about 40 percent done. It is so soft and warm!


This week is going by so fast! I have to go to Allie's class party tomorrow morning. I am still not for sure if I am going to the party or not. She has a school party on Friday that she wants me to come and help with that one, too. I know for sure Friday morning I have to go to Mac's class and help with the "breakfast party". On top of that I am pretty sure there will be at least 2 extra kids here Friday night or Saturday night.

Door Hanging

Yesterday was one of those days I should have just stayed in bed. Krissy called home sick from school and then was upset with me for making her take cough medicine. Mac got into some trouble on the bus and then handed me a note from his reading teacher telling me his grade is a C but he could do better if he paid more attention. I already know this lady! I spend an hour each night fighting with him to have him read to me for 20 minutes. He knows how to read and does well but he hates to read.

After all the ruckus of the evening died down I decided to work on finishing another present for Mac's teacher aide, Mrs. H. I have had this little guy in my WTF pile for a long time. I stitched it on 14 count Oatmeal aida cloth and made it into a door hanging. With this one finished I am done with all the teachers presents for this year and just in time too!

Help Please!

I am not for sure how many of you out there crochet but I have encountered a problem I have been trying to figure out for awhile and maybe one of you can help me out. My daughter Krissy has been after me to teach her to crochet. She is left handed and I am right handed. This is our problem. I don't know how to hold the needle and yarn for a left handed person. I have tried what usually works for us by sitting in front of her and matching her hands to mine but for some reason it is not working for us this time.

If anyone knows of a link to a picture on how to hold the yarn and needle for a left handed person I would great appreciate it. :)

Afghan Progress

It was pretty much a normal weekend for us. The kids has friends spend the night last night so it was night of DVD's and the playstation. Of course that means they were a little cranky today. I did manage to get some crocheting done this afternoon. I changed my mind about this being a blanket for my dog. I am keeping this one for myself! The finished size will be 49 inches wide by 63 inched long. Perfect for covering up while stitching! :)


This week is going to go by too fast for me. The kids get out for winter break Friday at noon and last until Jan 2. 2006. Which means my normal schedule is going to be way out of whack!

No Stitching

I managed to stitch one more letter up last night so that makes me at the halfway point of ABC Bears. Yeah! However today I didn't do any stitching but I did do some crocheting. I haven't crocheted in a long time but for the past month I have been wanting to start something. I tend to do my crocheting in the winter time.

Since it has been since last winter since I did anything I figured I would start off with something easy. I have decided to make a blanket for my dog's bed. She has one now that is pretty worn and it needs to be replaced anyways. I am doing a simple wave design of three colors. I am using Red Heart Worsted yarn and the colors are Light Fuchsia, Dark Orchid, and Plum Pudding. I really like these colors and if it turns out I am gong to make an afghan for me with them. I only got 3 rows done this afternoon so there isn't much to show yet. I would have had more done but I was helping Allie with learning how to make a chain.

I'm Being Fair

This hasn't been a good week for stitching for me. I have only gotten one letter done on ABC Bears and nothing else. Last night we attended Krissy's first band performance. It turned out pretty good although I had to sit on the floor just to get some pictures. This performance was put on by the band and music class which Krissy is in both. So not only did she play the clarinet but she played the recorder and did a little dance. The pictures turned out a little dark ( I think my batteries are low) but I had to post about it to be fair with Allie's ornament.

Chiara-I started teaching both of my girls around 8 years (Allie is 10 now) old but I started them off with plastic canvas and a plastic needle. Once they got the hang of that is when I let them use a real needle and Aida.

I want to thank everyone for their compliments on Allie's HD. They really made her feel great about her stitching. So much that she has already started working on another project. She has already decided who it is for and that person is pretty special to her.

Krissy is second from the right

Allie's 1st HD

This past summer Allie finished her first cross stitch piece and tonight she finished into a little ornament for her student teacher. I did not help her at all with this piece. She did it all herself from the stitching to the sewing. I am so proud of her! :) I don't know who is more excited about it her or me.

My Babies

As you can see my babies are waiting patiently for me to get off the computer and play with them. My dog, Girly, thinks that the kitten is her baby!

The little kitten has grown quite a bit over the last couple of weeks! She is definitely a feisty kitty. For some reason she loves to try to take my wedding band off of my hand all the time.

SBQ of the week

Today's "Stitching Blogger's Question" was suggested by Zohrah and is:

Have you done any charity stitching, been in one, or would like to organize one?

I have never participated in charity stitching. I have thought about it before but that is as far as I have gotten.

Today got even better! When I got the mail today there was a package in it for me! Whoo-hoo! Yippie! Cathy's present for the birthday exchange finally arrived. I must say the wait was well worth it! First of all I was (and still am!) speechless with what Cathy made for me. She stitched the design Imagination Creation by Dragon Dreams and turned it into a flat fold. It is beautiful!!

That wasn't the only thing in my package either! She sent me the chart for Legends of the Dragons by Karen Weaver, Jennifer Aikman-Smith,and Teresa Wentzler. I am on stitching cloud number nine! Cathy also sent me a small square of hand dyed 32 count New Dawn Lugana from Kiwi Illusions. It is such a pretty color! I love all my goodies!!



Thank you a million times, Cathy, I love them all!!

For being a Monday I have gotten several things accomplished. I might add that it is a Monday with Mike and Krissy home sick. Ughh! I have managed (so far) to get the house cleaned up, a load of laundry done, mailed a couple of packages out, and made some cupcakes for the kids for a snack for after school. Watch out I am on a roll. LOL!

With all that done I can devote the rest of the day to stitching! Today I am going to work on ABC Bears. I took a quick picture of it this morning since I haven't worked on it since I got my new camera. :) I am thinking about turning it into a wall hanging when it is finished. I have no real plans for this one since I am mainly stitching this one to make myself learn to do french knots better. This pattern is covered in french knots so if I don't master it by the end of the pattern then I never will.



On Friday I bought a new pattern for my stash. It is Dragon Lake by Black Swan Designs. I can't wait to start this one but NO new big patterns until after the first of the year for me. I had a rotation schedule that I had planned out but the more that I think about it I am not sure if it is going to work for me. I was going to work on one piece each day but my problem with that is I don't feel like I have made enough progress to set it aside. I will figure something out that works for me...eventually.

Snowman Ready to Go

We didn't do anything today as Krissy had a "boyfriend" over at the house so I pretty much sat in the front room with them while they were watching a movie and I was able to get some things finished! I finished my mom's birthday present today! I sewed him up into a little tuck pillow. I really like how it turned out. I stitched him on 28 count evenweave that I dyed royal blue.

Here is the back.

Another Ornament Done

I finished this little dragon ornament for Mac late last night.

A Normal Day

Today was a pretty normal day for me, actually a little on the quiet side so far. I got off work, went and cashed my check and headed to the LNS. I have come to the conclusion that the postal service does not like me in any way! First of all, Cathy's package to me has been missing for about 5-6 weeks now and on top of that my order hasn't arrived at the LNS yet! ( Which was ordered about 2 months ago!) So instead of coming home with beads I came home with some fabric to dye, a new pattern, and some ribbon.

I spent the rest of the afternoon finishing these little ornaments. The Giant is for Mike and the Pegasus is for Krissy. Both are freebies from Dragon Dreams


Tonight I will be finishing the stitching on the Dragon for Mac. I have the Mermaid almost finished, however, that is one of the things on order! GRR!

Autumn Tree Finished

Today is starting off good for me. I finished Renee's fabric for the SBSRR. I picked Autumn because it is my favorite time of the year. I love the everything about fall from the changing colors of the trees to the crisp nights. Anyways, this little pattern was rather quick for me to stitch up. I started on it Monday evening and worked on it yesterday and then did the backstitching this morning. I think it turned out pretty cute! :)



Now, I am off to stitch on Fortunate Traveler for a bit! :)

Teaching Stitching

Last night my neighbor and her daughter were over visiting when Nan asked me if I would teach her how to cross stitch. She recently quit her job to stay at home full time with Dayza and decided she needs a hobby. We looked and found a very basic pattern for her to try and stitch. She picked out a little strawberry pattern that is only 20 by 20. When she left last night she had everything she needed to start working on it. That is the beauty of stash!

At lunchtime when I saw Nan she showed me that she had it finished and already went to Wal-Mart to buy some more Aida and floss! The strawberry looked really cute, too! I thought it was funny when Nan said that she made a small mistake and I didn't even notice it. In a little while she is coming over to look at my patterns for another one to stitch....Maybe I helped create another stitching addict. :)

I must be doing something right with my Christmas Cactus because it has some flowers on it! It only has about 10 flowers but that is doing great for me. It did have a few more but kitties attacked it one night when we were asleep. That is why he is on my craft table right now because the kitties know better than to get near the table.

November/December Goals

November Goals:

1. Mail my SBSRR fabric to Laurie.
**Sent and received.
2. Finish Lottery Exchange.
**It is finished and ready to mail.
3. Finish Unicorn and Fairy Magic.
**Finished all the stitching and most of the beads, waiting on a order of MH Crystal Treasures.
4. Work on ABC Bears.
**I finished up 2 and a half letters this month! Yeah!
5. Work on Collecting Shells.
**Worked on it for a couple of days and made some good progress.
6. Start on small gifts to family and friends for Christmas.
**Most of them are stitched up just waiting on some Kreinik VFB #4(again).
7. Have a great birthday
**Yep survived this birthday. :)
**I also finished Jo's Fabric for her RR

Yeah! I made all my goals this month and I even have a few days to spare.

December Goals:
1. Start and finish Renee's RR fabric.
2. Mail Jo's RR fabric to Renee.
3. Mail SB Lottery Exchange to the lucky winner.
4 Finish my Mom's birthday present and mail.
5. Finish Christmas presents to family and friends.
6. Finish Unicorn and Fairy Magic. (if the beads arrive in time)
7. Work on ABC Bears.
8. Work on Fortunate Traveler.
9 Start on Melissa's present for the SB Birthday Exchange.
10 Dye fabric for Woodland Faerie SAL in Jan.

I don't know if I will get all these goals accomplished or not but I am going to give it my best try. :)

Our Christmas Tree

We spent this afternoon putting up our Christmas tree. I thought we had a tree skirt but when we dug everything out of the closet I couldn't find it or the tinsel. Oh well, I am sure I will have to pick those up next time I go to the store. The kitties didn't even wait till we finished with the tree before trying to bat the ornaments down. My animals work together on destroying the tree every year. The cats are so nice to bat the balls down to the floor where the puppies are waiting for their turn at playing with them.

What To Do When The Power Goes Out

When I woke up this morning and went to put some water on the stove for my cup of hot cocoa (that is my coffee...lol) the power went out in the neighborhood. Needless to say it was a morning for the kids to play outside while I attempted to clean the house with the power out. The power was out for three hours this morning so when I realized that Mike and the kids had been outside for a long time I went to go see what they were doing. This is what my husband and my kids do when the power is out:

(from L to R: Mac, his best friend, and Allie)
They build a wagon!

( from L to R: Mac and his friend)

Happy Thanksgiving

I am glad that Thanksgiving only comes once a year! I was up at 5:00 am putting the turkey in the oven to cook and of course the rest of the time was spent getting the other stuff ready. Everything was finally ready around 11:30 am and believe me everyone was ready to eat. It was delicious! The best part is I don't have to cook anymore today.

Tomorrow afternoon will be spent rearranging the front room for the Christmas tree. I dread putting the tree up because the animals attack the tree whenever they can! Our tree looks good for maybe one day and then it slowly gets stripped of the ornaments. We have an artificial tree so they pretty much leave the tree itself alone. Sorry no real trees for us, we like to be able to breathe! All of us have severe allergies to pine trees and believe me it is not a pretty sight.

I haven't stitched much in the past few days since we have been getting ready for Thanksgiving and then on top of that I had to hem some suit pants for a friends dads' wedding on Saturday. That was a task in itself because whenever I am sewing something for someone I get extremely nervous that I am going to mess up so I end up taking twice as long as it would if I were doing it for someone in my family. On top of all that it was a white suit so I was worried about getting it dirty. I finished up around 9:30 last night with it all and was pleased with the results and so was my friend. Whew! Glad that is done.

I did work on FT yesterday at work I ran out of 420 for the border but I picked some up while I was doing some last minute shopping last night so I will be able to work on it later this afternoon.

SB Question of the Week

Today's "Stitching Blogger's Question" was suggested by Kimberly and is:

Do you always sign your projects? If not, why? If so, do you use your first name, initials or what?

When I first started stitching I would sign everything with the month and year. However, for the last couple of years I haven't been dating them. I have never used my initials because the letters I think my initials aren't pretty to stitch. I have been trying out different ways to stitch my first name but I haven't found a style I would like to use.

Last week I started stitching The fortunate Traveler by TW. I had planned on working on it last weekend but with having to take Kitty to the vet on Saturday threw a big wrench in my stitching plans. I tried to post this pic yesterday but for some reason it wasn't letting me.


I want to thank everyone for their concern over Kitty. I have never ever had to make that choice and I hope I don't ever have to again. I know it was for the best but I still can't help how bad I feel. Allie is taking it the worst. Kitty was her cat and now Allie has problems sleeping all night. The two would sleep together every night.

I guess the man upstairs new what was going on because that had to be the reason I was meant to find the little kitten. She is still quite wild but she is starting to put weight on her body. She has started to play with the other kitties and sleep with them which is a big relief to me. Hopefully, she will get to the point where she doesn't run and hide at every noise in the house.

Rest Well Kitty

You found your way to us as a stray and you became one of the family. It broke my heart to have to make the decision to let you go play in kitty heaven. I hope you and Jazzy are having fun now that you two are together again. I hope you have fun chasing birds and mice across fields because you deserve it. You will be missed by all of us very much and I don't think I am going to know what to do for awhile without your demanding attitude underneath my feet. We love you and are going to miss you.

Rest in Piece my kitty

Kitty
1/2001-11/2005

Ocean Blue

Yesterday I went out to the craft store to see if my beads for Unicorn and Fairy Magic was in but I was a little depressed to find out that they were not here yet so I didn't purchase much of anything except for some DMC floss I needed and some Mill Hill seed beads. After that was the usually hair pulling trip to Wal-Mart. When I got home I found out that Krissy was spending the night at a friends' house and Mac had a friend coming over to spend the night. There went my evening of calmness. I had wanted to start working on Renee's RR but I had to scratch that idea with the boys here tonight.

Instead of stitching I decided to dye some more fabric. I am planning on stitching Deepest Love by Mirabilia in January and I wanted the fabric to look like the ocean. I used the color Royal Blue to dye the fabric. I am not sure if I just like it or if I really like yet. lol

This week I was trying to work on Collecting Shells. It didn't go so well. I made some progress on it but my heart just isn't in this particular piece anymore. So what did I do to make myself feel better? I started stitching on The fortunate Traveler by TW. I am stitching it on 28 count white evenweave fabric. I haven't made enough progress to post a picture of it yet. All that I have been working on is the border around the dragon scene. I will be working on this one tonight since I just found out that Mac's friend will be here again tonight.

Here is the fabby:

SB Question of the week

Today's "Stitching Blogger's Question" was suggested by Kimberly and Lili and is:

How do you feel about staying totally true to a pattern? Do you feel that you have to rip out stitches to fix a mistake or do you feel it's acceptable to incorporate a mistake into the design?

I generally stitch according to the pattern, however, if it is a tiny mistake (a couple of stitches or so) I will adjust the pattern to make it like it isn't a mistake. Now if it is a big mistake, I will either rip it all out and start over or if it is way too big I will start the pattern all over from the beginning.

Happy Birthday to Me!

It's official I am thirty-something! So far (knock on wood) I have been having a great day. I have been lazy all morning and plan to stay that way the rest of the day. We don't have anything big planned tonight since it is a school night for the kids. Mike is cooking dinner (he won't tell me what) and then of course cake and ice cream. I hope our fire extinguisher works! :) After that I am going to watch and torture Mike watching 9 to 5 with Dolly Parton.

Thank you everyone for your warm birthday wishes and now I am off to be even lazier!

Christmas Spider Web

This weekend I worked on finishing some small ornaments. I stitched this freebie from San-Man Originals. I stitched this for Dayza next door. I know she is gonna love it because Mac and her go looking for bugs together. I stitched it on 32 count Belfast linen that I had left over from SBSRR. I the DMC colors of black and 898. I used Kreinik Blending filaments for the gold and silver. For the green (008) I used Kreinik Very Fine Braid #4.

Here is the front:

Here's the back:

Unicorn Ornie

I also finished this one up last night. I am keeping this one for me. :)

Birthday Presents

Today, the mail lady brought me a package from Renee for the SBBE. What better time with my new camera! :D Renee sent me a birthday card with 3 postcards. I love the post cards! They are so pretty and will go nice along with the others I have in my little collection. She also sent me a small tin of German chocolate. Yummy..they won't last long!

This is what was in the wrapped present!


Isn't this so cute?! I love everything about it. Renee did an awesome job on this for me. It already has a special home in my curio cabinet.

Here is the back of the pillow. The colors are so pretty! Thank you Renee, you are the bestest! :D

An Early Birthday Surprise

Mike surprised me with my birthday present a little early. He got me a digital camera. All the hints must have worked. :D I love it!! He is such a sweet husband.

The first picture I took was of the new kitty. Isn't she adorable? She was playing with the pen when I was trying to take a picture of her. I love her black tipped tail. I think it looks like a raccoon. She definitely has learned where the safe room is in the house. Our room! LOL

As you can tell I am having fun playing with my new birthday present. I framed November's Cherub Angel a while back and now I can show a picture it turned out.

Small Ornies

I want to thank everyone for their comments on the kitty ordeal yesterday. She is doing fine but is still very nervous. I was getting a little concerned as she wasn't eating or drinking anything last night but this morning she did eat a little bit. Originally I had guessed she was about 8-12 weeks old but after her bath I realized I was wrong. She is about 6 weeks old. It is hard to describe her. When you look at her back her coloring reminds me of a porcupine but her tail looks like a raccoon's tail. She has long hair and is so fuzzy. Right now her eyes are a light blue/green color but I am sure that will change.

As for the owners of the pit bull, I actually have had run ins with this dog before and that is why I am so upset at the situation. In town we have a leash law, which I abide by, but they do not. I have seen this dog run loose all day long and when the animal control was called nothing was done. I can count of at least 5 times that this has happened.

Mike actually took the news without going thru the roof. He was furious when he found out. So much as I had to stop him from going over to their house and confronting them about it. Really, what good would it have done?

I spent most of the evening in my stitching chair with the kitten curled up next to me working on Jennifer Aikman-Smith's Christmyth Ornament series. I completed the Unicorn this morning and started on the Dragon. My plan is to stitch up 8 different ornies and then do the finishing all at the same time. I will have to order some Kreinik VFB #4 for them but if the postal service keeps up the way it has been I might end up using good old DMC.

Where's my sign?

Today's "Stitching Blogger's Question" was suggested by Dawn and is:

When comparing large projects versus small projects, which do you get more excited about finishing?

I get more excited about finishing large projects, hands down. After the amount of time I put into a large project I feel that I have earned the right to be excited and dancing all over the place. I still get really excited over small finishes but not as much as a large piece. The best feeling is while working on a large piece to be able to set it aside and finish a small piece and then return to the large piece to finish it.

I was able to start stitching on Jo's RR Monday afternoon. I managed to finish it up last night. I really enjoyed stitching this little bunny for her. This was my first experience with Rainbow Gallery's White Wisper thread. It made the little bunny fuzzy. I hope Jo likes it as much as I do! :)


OKay now for my rant session. First of all in order for this rant to make sense I have to explain my menagerie of animals. As a child I lived on a farm and had several pets growing up on the farm like cats, dogs, squirrels, and even a skunk! If you can't tell I have a soft spot for animals. I was always bringing home a stray and my mom was ready to kill me most of the time.

Since I married Mike we have only had one or two dogs that we actually set out to bring home with us. In the past 14 years we have had so many stray cats make their way to our home that I seriously think I have a sign attached somewhere that says "Any Feral Cats Come To My Home "!

Out of the fours cats we have all but one were strays or being abused. Kitty (the one with seizures) was abandoned by her owner and I couldn't let her starve. Madison(4 mo kitten) was left in an empty apartment with no food or water or even a way to get out for over 3 weeks. Sammis(4 mo kitten) was born to a wild cat and we managed to catch him and tame him somewhat. Elizabeth(the Queen) was given to me by my brother who couldn't take care of the mama and kittens, so in a way she was a stray too. Even my dog, Girly, was on her way to the pound because our friends didn't want her anymore.

I am telling you this in order for you to understand how much this situation I came across today makes me angry. I was sitting in the office stitching away when I heard the distinct sound of a dog chasing something. I jumped up and ran to the door to look outside to see a pitbull dog trying to eat a little kitten. The dog's owner ran down and got his dog but didn't even bother to check to see if the kitten was okay or not!! He just acted like it wasn't a big deal. I ran over to where the kitten was at and luckily I couldn't see any visible signs of injuries but the kitten was in shock. The kitten isn't more than 8-12 weeks old and is so cute! I took her in the house and got her all cleaned up and now she is sleeping on my sweatshirt on the bed. Thankfully there were no injuries on the kitty just the usual problems that a stray has like being underweight and needing to be brushed bad.

My whole issue with this is the dog's owner didn't have him on a leash. I am a dog lover and my dogs are always on a leash when outside. This dog is a danger to everyone near it but nobody thinks that it is a big deal. It will be a big deal when it is a human that is attacked and either hurt real bad or even killed. I am also mad that the owner's aren't even concerned on how the kitten is doing.

Thanks for letting me rant. :) My only other problem is how do I tell Mike that there is another kitty in the house right now? I can already see the hole in the roof where he is going to go straight thru when he finds out.

Weekend Stitching

I didn't get as much stitching done as I would have liked to but it was because Mac had a friend spend Saturday night. I had planned on starting Jo's RR but the boys were acting wild so I figured I had better work on something of mine. :) I worked on ABC Bears until I ran out of 3046. This past week I managed to finish the letters O, T, and most of X.

I had planned (again) on working on Jo's RR Sunday but earlier in the morning I decided to sew up an ornament but it was too late before I realized I had sewn the hanger/hook on upside down! I could see what kind of stitching day it was going to be so I figured I better not start on Jo's RR instead I worked on Collecting Shells.



I am hoping that tonight(or maybe this afternoon) I can start on Jo's RR.

It looks like it should be pretty lazy around here this weekend! Whoo-hoo! Actually it isn't so much by choice. There is a home football game here this afternoon which mean traffic will be horrible so instead of getting in a wreck we will just stay home this weekend. So hopefully I will get a lot of stuff done this weekend.

I plan to start on Jo's RR later today. I am stitching the freebie from Spring 2000 by Whispered by the Wind. When I first picked it out I didn't realize that it used Rainbow Gallery (white whisper) threads. After realizing that my craft store didn't carry it at all which means they couldn't order it in for me, Jo was kind enough to send me the thread. I have never worked with this thread so I am really excited about it. It is so soft and fuzzy! I can't wait to get started on it for her.

Since it is only ten days till my birthday I have been trying not to buy too much stash but last night I found a great sale on fabric. I found these three designs on clearance for 50 cents a yard!! I could not resist that sale.

SB Question of the Week

Today's "Stitching Blogger's Question" was suggested by Dianne (http://diadsie.blogspot.com/) and is:

If you have stitched for a while, can you usually pick out the DMC colors you need from memory when you go to your LNS? (For example, you know that 610 is a brown.)

I am guilty of that one! I have been known to send Mike to the store for a few things and have him also pick a skein or two of floss up for me. It has become a game in between us because when I give him the list I need he asks me what are the colors so he doesn't get a wrong color. The funny part is Mike doesn't stitch and he knows a lot of the numbers and colors.

Scissor Pocket Finish

Okay so I changed my mind on finishing the Gingerbread Boy. I thought I/we were going to finish it as a cube but since I didn't have the wire ribbon so I started thinking about other ways to finish it. I came up with making a scissors pocket. I got the instructions from Becky's tutorial. I was amazed how smoothly it went together for me.