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.

Small Finish

I have done all that I can do on Unicorn and Fairy Magic until the bugle beads arrive. I finished up all seed beads last night. I am pretty proud of how it came out. I started out by using black thread (what was recommended) but I didn't like how it looked on the white stars so I changed it up and used white. It also called to be attached with 2 threads. I ran into a small road block at this point. The beading needles that I was using were so small that there was no way I was getting two strands in the eye hole. I could barely get the one in the eye! So now I am waiting for my bugle beads to arrive and then it will be officially finished.


This morning at work I finished this little gingerbread boy. The only thing I can say is where is his mouth? Mac and I are going to finish this into a cube for his teacher for Christmas. He saw the one I did for the lottery exchange and decided that would be a neat thing for his teacher. Mac has already decided that he is going to put it all together himself. This will prove to be an interesting experience!

It looks like I will be working on ABC Bears tonight! I haven't looked at that one for at least two months. I have no plans on finishing this one. I am stitching it mainly because it has tons and tons of french knots and I need to learn on how to make a french knot better.