Tuesday, September 30, 2008

kids are so funny!

Man, now that my boys aren't small anymore... we don't get to hear all the funny things they come up with! We were at Luke's football practice last night and there was a little girl, about 3 yrs old, watching her brother practice. She must have had ants in her pants or something cause she was up and down the bleachers!

Her mom finally looked and her and jokingly said, "Will you just sit down, child?!!"

She said down and looked straight ahead and said in all seriousness... "I'm a chiwld? I tot I was a girwl!"

It was so funny! :)

I miss those days....sometimes!

Monday, September 29, 2008

I feel a little guilty!

I went to do my shopping at Kroger today and at the checkout counter, I noticed the Altoid tins had one of those $1 off coupons stuck on it. I couldn't find a price tag, but figured it wouldn't be too bad with the $1 off! So I added it to my cart. When I check out, it rang up for 1.69, but Kroger had it marked down to $1, plus I had a $1 off coupon! So yup, I got it for $0.00! So I grabbed three more, all they had at that checkout lane.

I came home, thought about it, and went back and got six more! But now I feel a little guilty that Kroger GAVE me 10 tins of Altoids, normally $1.69 or $1.99 each. I did leave four tins with the $1 off coupon.... figured I didn't need that many of them!

I love deals like that, thought I don't think I've ever gotten that good of a deal! :)

Now we need to hurry up and eat them, so I can use the tins to make something!!

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Lots of Pictures

Okay, so I got busy doing some finishing work! Not the best job, but I'm getting better, I think! Most of these have been stitched for a long time...(some for a year! shh!) The rabbit set I actually stitched and finished within two weeks.. now isn't that great?!

It's really little, the oval box is only about 3 inches long and 2 1/2 inches high.

This is a tiny needlebook, it hold two needles! And the other is a case for scissors! I need to find 2 1/2 inch scissors!

The design on the box goes all the way around! And this is the back of the needlebook.


This was out of an old magazine. It's not exactly the buttons it called for. It called for buttons that were $5 each and from SOUTH AFRICA! :) So I went for the 3 for $1.25 buttons at Joann Fabrics! I was a little worried that they didn't have any legs, so at the last second I decided to just stitch some legs on there!

It was supposed to be finished as a cigar box purse, but I've come to realize (after three purses) that I don't use stitched purses! So when I saw just the cigar box, I figured that was perfect! I'm going to keep needlebooks and stuff in there.

This is a really old finish! It was one of my first needlebooks, and one of my very favorites! It was sitting there while I was taking pictures, so I just snapped a shot of it!



I loved this needlebook. But the pattern was a pill to read! It's by Rabbit Works. This is the front cover. I used perle cotton for the cording.. I think I'll use that again..it's so sparkly!The lettering is all over one.

This is the inside! It also needs a pair of 2 1/2inch scissors to put in the basket under the tree. All the little pears are stitched over one. The basket is a seperate piece I attached and then the door is seperately attached too.. I stuck a few needles behind it! The green ribbon will tie the scissors onto the book.

You were supposed to put your initials on the back, but mine are so boring: SSS So I used the first initial of everybody in my family! :)

I first saw this biscornu on somebody's blog! I have to admit.. I like hers better! Wish I would have used a dyed thread instead of ecru. But it's what I had! The two fabrics are R&R I think. We got them at an LNS for .50 each! At a different LNS we had seen a biscornu with the front and back a different color.. so I thought I'd try that too! Not sure I like that either! Plus the thing is so big...but when I was doing all the finishing stuff yesterday, I used it for a pin cushion and that worked great. So maybe it'll be fine! I don't love the button, it hides a lot of stitching..but it'll work until I find something better.



Last but not least! Something about a new project with the fabric and pattern ready, makes me want to start it as soon as possible! So after our last trip to the LNS, I got this project to start! I'm stitching two of them, at the same time (not literally!) It's a pain, actually! Lots of confetti stitches, 1/4 stitches, random stitches, backstitching...but it's gonna be cute!

It's on WDW fabric pumpkin. I love the color of it, but it seems so flimsy or something. It's hard to get my stitches to lay right on it. It came with the checkered lining fabric in the picture, but I found the other fabric in my pile of fabric scraps. I have to still stitch some parts in purple on the pattern, so we'll see which one works best!


Hope you Enjoyed!

Friday, September 26, 2008

Productive!

Oh, I've been so productive around here! :) Can't wait to show you pictures! You'll have to wait in anxious anticipation... I'm going to bed, we've got flag football tomorrow and then I have to take pictures, upload, etc! But just had to tell people who "get it"! :)

And I found my matchbox for the matchbox exchange with Marion.. a whopping .89 cents! :)

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

A Matchbox Exchange

I found this tonight while I was randomly reading a million blogs! Okay, I wasn't really reading, more like looking at pictures!

About 3/4 down her page she shows picture of a match box exchange. Looks like they decorated the outside of a match box, and filled the inside with lots of goodies! Wouldn't that be fun? I'm thinking you could fit a lot of stuff inside a match box. (it was a large one) Threads, fabric, buttons, needles, pins, fob, pinkeep, etc! Oh the ideas are endless, aren't they?

Anybody want to do a one time match box exchange? :)

NCLindaP and I had a great time at our not so local LNS's today! We learned she can pick me up, hit two LNS, grab McD's drivethrough, and be home w/exactly five minutes to spare until I pick up my middle schooler! Hmm.. this could have been a dangerous discovery!

I got all the fabric and threads I need for the new Creepy Crawly pattern. I love it! I think I might do the skeleton in glow-in-the dark thread! Wouldn't that be cool? :) I ordered the pattern when I got home, so hopefully I'll get to it quickly!

I found this neato Halloween needlebook, I'll have to find a link to it somewhere! Without going downstairs, I'm not even sure what the name of it is! It's one of those newer patterns, where they have the printed tin, and you stitch a matching topper... Know what I mean? I'll find out tomorrow! OOH and it's stitched on WDW bright orange fabric! The one we got is Pumpkin! Love it!

I think that's it! Is that it, Linda? :)

I have way too many things I want to stitch!

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Mommy Lesson #5,206

Okay, so for the past eleven years of parenting my thought has always been to wake my kids at the last possible minute, then hurry out the door to wherever we need to go! (church,school,appointments, etc) Get as much sleep as possible! That's the way I am, so that's they way they are? Right?

WRONG!

This year, Andrew is in middle school and leaves the house at 7:00. Luke doesn't have to leave until 8:45 at the latest. So as usual, I would get Andrew and DH out the door and then wake up Luke around 8:00, maybe 8:15.

Well about two weeks ago, DH was out of town and I had no option but to get Luke up and take him with me to take Andrew to school at 7:00. I was dreading it all week, thinking it'd be awful getting him up so early and loosing the extra sleep, etc.

Lo and behold, Luke did just fine that week. Apparently he likes having time to hang out in the mornings! (NOT like me! LOL) So since then, I've been waking him up at 6:30 when I wake Andrew up. Around 7:00 I make sure he's out of bed... we usually get back in my bed after DH and Andrew leave. We'll watch Good Morning America and snooze off and on, or talk or whatever.

I realized today on the way to school, that we had left on time, and nicely, no fussing, no crying for almost two straight weeks! For the first time ever!

Yeah lesson #5,206 learned! Why didn't I realize that earlier? Would have made life much better!

I'm cleaning today, to "earn" myself a day off tomorrow! NCLindaP and I are sneaking off to a few LNS shops! We'll see what we find!

Monday, September 22, 2008

What did you have for lunch?

Okay, ready for this!!

Diet Pepsi, personal size bag of Doritoes (not the little bag, the medium bag at the checkout line) and two Reese cups for dessert! Yup, healthy!

I did a bunch of crafty errands today! I needed some random things to do some finishing. Can you believe I had to go to all three: Michaels, Joann's, and ACMoore to find what I needed? And seriously I wasn't looking for that much!

Nobody has the colored metal rings for the floss tags, in fact nobody even has the rings! ANNOYING! Whenever it comes time for me not to need them, they'll be everywhere! If anybody has easy access to the color ones, I'd love it if you could pick up a pack for me! I'll gladly reimburse you! :)

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Proud Momma

I went to school yesterday to eat lunch with Luke. His substitute teacher (his teacher is out on maternity leave for 2 months) came up and asked if I was Luke's mom... That's always a scary question!!! Anyway, I said yes. And she went on to tell me what a great kid he was, a great student, hard worker, good reader, etc! And I said thank you SO much, I don't get many compliments on Luke! And she said, "On Luke?!! He's wonderful!!" I said, well doesn't he have too much energy, and she said, "Luke?!" AHH! Music to my ears!

To make a long story short, our oldest Andrew decided this summer at one of our camps, that like the speaker said, he was NOT to young to change the world. So he decided on his own he'd raise $2,800 to support this village in India. Lo and behold, in less than two months.. due to the kindness of many people, he indeed raised the money. He is waiting anxiously to get news and pictures of his well.

On this website you'll see his picture, if you scroll down a little bit. You can also watch a video and read more about what his money went too, if you are interested! He decided it was awfully easy to raise $2,800 and wants to do it again ASAP!

For the moment I'm a PROUD MOMMA! :)

A Few Finishes

Did I ever show you this one finished? It's the spring bellpull from a magazine.. I'm thinking it's CrossStitch and Needlework, but I'm not 100% on that! (as usual!) I have a summer one to go with it, and I've seen the Fall one, but haven't bought the magazine yet, and I'm assuming there will be a Winter one out soon.

I've seen this little witch biscornu around the web, it's a free pattern... and it's so cute! I love the colors in it! I need to go buy a cute little spider button for the middle! I filled it with those little plastic pellets, so it's really heavy! I like them that way...

I also saw this freebie all over the web, so decided to be a copycat! I want to get a blue ring to use with it, but don't have one at the moment. Whenever I get to the craft store, I'll look to see if they have any.

This is a pattern that is so much cuter in person, than on the pattern! :) The long skinny part, is to be wrapped around a small oval paper mache box. Then the one with just the bunny will be the top of the box. There other sections are for a tiny scissor case and a needlebook too. I need to buy the paper mache box.

Sounds like I need a trip to the craft store, don't I?! :) Maybe tomorrow!

Here is a picture of my two boys. Andrew is 11 and Luke is 8. It shows their personalities perfectly! Andrew is being very serious about showing me his latest song he learned on the viola. It was Mary Had a Little Lamb! (I've heard it about 50 times already!) Then Luke is running from his friend in the background, and his friend is getting their ball out of the neighbors bushes!!

Monday, September 15, 2008

Less You Think All I Do Is Stitch

Nope! I clean too! This weekend we actually stayed home, yup for the whole weekend! Luke had his first flag football game, they lost. They are in an age group of 5-8, but they split into two divisions, 5-6 and 7-8. Luke is 8 1/2. Somehow they gave us a few really young kids, more like 6 I'd guess. But the team we played was all tall, thin, knew what they were doing kids! Some of our kids were more worried about waving at mom and sitting on the bench as soon as possible! Luke on the other hand, though this is his first year, is a die hard! I was really proud of him for not falling apart when our team lost! Good for him! Maybe we are making progress!

I read in a parenting book (How to Behave, so Your Children Will Too) to make a little graph to record the behaviors that you find distressing in your children. To only list a few, 3-4, and then for five days keep a tally mark of how often that behavior happens. Then do whatever you plan to improve it and keep track again, so you have a visual fact of if there was any improvement. Like the author said, if they do something 5 times a day and then two weeks later they are at 3 times a day.. even though you feel like nothing has changed, there really has been improvement.

So Fri, I listed four behaviors that we find quite distressing in our wonderful child Luke! So far, there's only been one tally mark per day?! Hmm.. I thought it was WAY worse than that! I think when the problems start, they are so huge and overwhelming that it seems like it happens all the time, and in reality maybe it doesn't happen that often! It was over a weekend, so I'm interested to see how the week goes.

I haven't finished the book, but so far it's a good read!

So we painted Luke's room, set it all up nicely, organized toys and closets, etc! Then I went to Andrew's room (11)... oh my heavens, he is a junk hoard!! So it's all cleaned up, after about 3 hrs! I'm telling you.. it wasn't dirty, it was just cluttered horribly! I still need to do a few more things in there... so it can get back to the point where he can handle the upkeep himself!

We painted Luke's room RED and Starcommander BLUE! :) He loves it.. it's very wild! But the red, for some reason, was very thin paint! I wonder if all red is like that? We used a really quality paint, but even after three coats, and the entire gallon on two walls...I think we're gonna have to do another layer. Luke's overhead light had a few bulbs burned out when we were painting, so after we were all finished, DH replaced the bulbs! Oh my word.. the paint looks much brighter! I'm gonna have to get some dimmer bulbs! haha

I did stitch a little bit. It's the pattern "What Happens at Grandma's" by Waxing Moon. I'm stitching it for my mil for Christmas, so changed it to Mamaw. She'll love it! I need to get some buttons to go on it too! I am working on the door of the house, besides that all the stitching is done, well I think I have some backstitching on the windows!

So I need to take a picture of that.. did I ever post a picture of the finished Spring Bellpull? I can't remember.. I'll have to do that too!

It's only 10:30 and I've already sent two kids to school, went grocery shopping at two stores, put them away, called my grandma to say hi, started two loads of laundry! See...so productive I am! :) Now I'm going to restraighten the boys' rooms, fold some laundry, clean some bathrooms, and hopefully finish up the pattern for my MIL before I have to get my oldest from school! :)

Have a good day!

Thursday, September 11, 2008

A Big One



Here's what I've been doing all week! I started it Saturday afternoon, after the mail came with my floss and finished it last night. A friend stitched it and shared her pattern with me. We used the same fabric, but she stitched in a really pretty navyish blue and of course I stitched it in red. I used a handdyed floss from a new lady. Gaby from Germany had sent me the threads in an Fair and Square exchange. When I contacted the lady who made the floss, to get more for this pattern... turns out she is in Illinois! How funny is that? From Illinois to Germany back to North Carolina.

This was a really easy stitch. Except for two darn rows. They gave me a fit, and the row with the cross shapes I ended up stitching THREE times! It was supposed to have eyelet stitches, but by the time I had to frog the eyelets twice, the fabric was looking quite stretched out and weak. And I accidentally snipped ONE fabric thread! AGH! So I changed it to smyrna stitches, so it would hold that one loose thread better! So far so good!

The neat thing is that I'll be able to use lots of the motifs in the sampler for little fobs and needle books. I did change the first A, it was supposed to be that fancier A that is in the first row of alphabets, but I couldn't hardly tell what it was, so I used the more simple A.

It's by Mary Garry, I think the title of it is A Pattern For Sewing Well.









The lighting was horrible! But I was trying to get closeups, and sort of holding it in my lap while taking the shot, etc! At least you get the idea!

Monday, September 8, 2008

A few smalls

I'm not the world's best finisher.. but I've been making a smalls basket and wanted to add a few more things to it. The fob has lots of neat specialty stitches...including the pinwheel stitch! Very fun and not to hard! It's in the four corners of the fob. I used a hand-dyed thread called Vineyard from my friend The Dye is Cast. :)

Then this little birdie was in a magazine that I've wanted to stitch for a while. It was to be done on 9 ct. fabric. Well I stitched it on what I had, which turned out to be 7 ct. So the darn thing is HUGE! Those blanket stitches don't hold too well, when it's so big of a stitch count. So I had to put some of that fray check stuff around the edges. Then I decided i didn't like that so much, so I stitched one on 32 ct! :)

What are they?! Well a needlebook of course... The poor little birdie can barely hold ONE petite john james needle! Oops..forgot about that part!

Then I wanted to do some floss tags. Darn, if it doesn't help to read directions first. I almost ruined the humingbird one, cause I didn't make the hole first and it sort of messed up!:) I just added another little metal thingie to the other side and it worked out fine. On the bunny one, I made the hole first and then put in the metal thingy and boy that works much better! :)

Looking at them now, I wish I would have made the W bigger on the hummingbirds... the W stands for Wilma, my grandma who loves hummingbird! Oh and yes, the one on the back is on upside down! I looked at those birds 50 times and finally decided there was no up or down.. but oh yes there is! Oh well!

I went to Walmart today and was going to pick up the rings, but I forgot! I even stood and stared at the craft section and thought..don't I need something?! And walked away! So maybe tomorrow!

I made a list of different finishes I want to try! :)
altoid tin, flat fold, cube finish, and I can't remember the rest! But boy it was a long list! I want to make a pinkeep thing.. I did make one, but gave it to my friend Eva. I want to make another for myself, plus make one that has a place to hold scissors on the back. Oh, and a 15 sided biscornu, have you seen those? I'm not going to make it with beads though, I'll just stitch all 15 squares! What to stitch though?! Plus maybe that color wheel that was in a cross stitch magazine lately!:) And an ort bag standup thingie! And some day I really want to make one of these pillows!

Now.. somebody come clean my house and make dinner and raise my boys, so I can do all that! :)

Am I too young to retire?

Friday, September 5, 2008

It was almost a major problem!

Okay, so are you ready for this one?! :) I take a friend (who doesn't drive) to a doctor's office about 45 minutes away with her 3 yr old and 4 month old. The 4 month old was a less than 2 pound premmie and her chubby cheeks she's got now are adorable! She's a whopping 6 .5 lbs, but I saw her when she was just a week old and she looks HUGE!

Anyway... on to the almost major problem! So the 3 yr old on the way home is mumbling about McDonald's. Now my friends are Hispanic and only speak Spanish.. I speak NO Spanish! Always makes for interesting conversation! :) So on the way back, about ten minutes from her house, we pull into McDonald's for lunch. I have to go to the bathroom. (can you see where this might be going?)

While in the bathroom, I try my hardest not to touch anything.. and while I had my purse with me, for some random reason.. I was holding my keys in my mouth by biting one of those little shop discount cards.

I finish, stand up and turn to flush the toilet! (see where it's going now?) Like normal, I stand on one foot and use the other foot to push down on the plunger thingie to flush the toilet. Meanwhile, said keys are still in my mouth... As I'm pushing down with my foot somehow my teeth decide to let go of my keys... (see where it's going now!?)

It all took about 2 seconds, but it went by quite slowly! There I am 1/2 bent over, keys hanging out of my mouth, standing on one foot and I feel my keys slip out of my mouth...see them dropping towards the toilet...see the toilet water swirling down the toilet...and the thought crosses my mind...

"Uh-Oh!"

What will I do if my keys go down the toilet? DH works an hour from where I'm at at the moment, and he has the only extra key! He's always busy at work and a call like that would not thrill him I'm sure!

Anyway..as all that is happening I notice the keys land at the very edge of the toilet, thankfully on the floor edge and not the inside edge! :)

I start to laugh hysterically... and then realize that there is no way on earth I'dever be able to explain to my non-English speaking friend what just happened and realized I'd have to hurry home and blog about it!

Lesson learned?! Oh there are just too many to mention!!

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Merry Cox



The problem with the internet is that you find all these really cool patterns that you love, that you can't get anymore! :) At the 123mb somebody posted about this neat needlebook they made, and it's probably one of the neatest ones I've seen. Come to find out it's a Merry Cox pattern. So I start googling around and find all kinds of patterns that Merry Cox has designed that I just love. But they are all from mid80's or 90's and about impossible to get! In my searching, I discovered I had already stitched one of her patterns, without even knowing it!!




And this was a random pattern I found in one of the bazillion free magazines at one of our Tarheel Retreats! I should have recognized her style! But I found all kinds of stuff I'd love to stitch by her!
Check these out!

And I REALLY love this one!

Guess I'll have to finish one of the hundreds on my to-do list already! :)

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

She's so cool!

Yup, my grandma is the most awesome person ever! We drove up to see her and our family this weekend. She turned 90 this June, and it didn't work out for us to go to Alaska where she had the party. So, we drove up to PA to spend the weekend with her. My mom flew down from Alaska and my Uncle and Aunt were there from Arizona.

On Saturday, we drove all over the town where my Grandma was born. She gave us a little life history and it was a blast! It's amazing how much she remembers! And the cool thing was, the more we drove around, the more she remembered!

Where it all began. Born and raised in this house, 90 years ago. She was pretty sad about how worn down it was. I was just pretty impressed that it was still there!

This was her high school, same building exactly...even to the grates on the airvents. Only it's the middle school now.. doesn't she look great for 90?

We got to see the church where she and my grandpa were married. They had just celebrated 66 years, the day before we went and visited the church.

Backside pictures are my absolute favorite thing!! I love how you can tell she's using her cane, and her shoulders are kind of squished up!

Three generations: Mom, Me, and Grandma. You can tell I get my height from my Dad's side!