Happy New Year!!!

What a crazy holiday season! :) We've put over 1,000 miles on the car the past week! We went to my inlaws for a quick Christmas celebration the Tuesday before Christmas. Came home and celebrated Christmas at our house. The day after Christmas, well really at midnight, we hit the road and drove up to PA to visit my 92 year old grandparents.

Man, I LOVE them! :) Grandpa is having a few, growing old, issues! But overall his health is still really good. He told Grandma he needed to go to the doctor so he could do something to fix his balance! She said, "Ken, you're 92! Live with it!" As you can tell, Grandma is as spry as ever! :)

We drove home Tuesday evening at 8pm. Walked in our door at 3:00AM. The kids slept the ENTIRE way! :) Yeah, for driving at night! Wednesday morning, we took the kids back to my wonderful inlaws. DH and I hit the road for another 3 1/2 hr drive to arrive in the big beach town of Shalotte, NC. Never heard of it? That's okay, I don't really know where I am either!

But I do know I'm childless, and DH is busy with his single friend, who we are staying with! :) So that leaves me TONS of time to stitch! In the previous week, I've not even picked up a needle. That's the big negative driving at night! I can't see to stitch! We'll head home on Saturday. And kids start school on Monday!

We've had a wonderful Christmas break, hope you have too!

When life slow down, and I get back to real life, I'll post some pictures! :) And tell you some stories of life with two 90 year olds! It's hilarious!

Happy New Year! I'm hoping to stitch in the new year, hope you are too!

Three Christmas Wishes

To my blogging friends: new and old! :) I wish for you, these three wishes!

May you experience great love, immense joy and continual peace this holiday season and always!

Merry Christmas!

pattern: Peace,Love, Joy by Renato Parolin, available at Down Sunshine Lane

What Day Is It?

My DH LOVES football, there's just nothing really else you can say to explain it! Any team, doesn't really matter, he's always pulling for one or the other! He's been a loyal Cowboys fan since he was a toddler, loves NCState and goes to every single home game.

As most of you know, I'm from Alaska. I'm from an island in Alaska. The state of Alaska has no football team. The town I'm from had no football team, neither did any other town in Alaska. It just wasn't even on my radar screen.

Since our marriage, nearly 15 years ago, I've had to learn all the ins and outs of football! Well, I didn't have too, but I wanted to be part of what DH was passionate about. I try to ask really intelligent questions to show how much I've learned, etc.

Like way back, oh 14 years ago, I said most intelligently, "Dh, what do those negative numbers mean?" Dh says, "Huh?" I say even more intelligently, "You know, -20, -10 and then 10, 20 , etc." Dh looks at me like I might just be stupid and says "Those are arrows honey, not negative signs!"

So I like math.. whatever!

Fast forward to tonight:

Dh and I are sitting on the couch, and a football game comes on the screen. I turn to DH and very thoughtfully say, "Oh, since when do they play football games on Tuesday nights?"

To which Dh replies, "It's Monday night, honey!"

Oh, well that just explains it all much better, doesn't it?!! :)

A Much Better Finish

I kitted up a few ornaments from the JCS issue to stitch. I just absolutely love the colors on this little ornament. It's not the called for colors, but they are overdyes from my stash that matched the picture! Most of them are Victorian Motto Sampler threads. You should check her out on ebay, her threads are awesome!

This is the LHN ornament from the 2009 issue.



Isn't the border a cute idea? I don't think I've seen a pattern like it.


Those pictures sure aren't too great! Guess it's too dark and gloomy this late at night. I'll try to take a brighter one tomorrow.

I've started on the Mistletoad ornament. It's all backstitch, and it's so slow going!! I'll probably get it finished tomorrow, depends on how much cleaning I want to do!

Merry Christmas!

Don't Say I Didn't Warn You!

It's U.G.L.Y. It is, isn't it? It's that freebie from Lilybet Designs. She said to stitch it with one thread, but I didn't want too...I think I should have listened! I stitched it over two on 50 ct linen, and it's just U.G.L.Y. Who ever saw a yellow bird anyway? And look at that dorky bird on the bottom right! I even used all the right colors!!

Here are some cute feed bags, I stitched these a few years ago. We found these patterns at an LNS (Dixie Darlin) in Pigeon Forge, TN. I'm almost positive that the patterns were made by somebody in their shop? I have no idea who I loaned my reindeer pattern too!

Here's the front of the bag---Don't you love that blue?!

The back:

And here's the Snowman Bag. Wish I would have used more fabric, so I would have a bigger bag, but I wasn't THINKING! LOL

Front:


Back:

I'll leave you with the most recent pictures of my boys. Andrew had an orchestra concert and I told Luke to go change out of his muddy shirt. I told him he didn't need to dress up, but just put on a non-muddy shirt! :) He came back downstairs with his white dress shirt and black suit jacket. He doesn't even wear that to church!

Here's Andrew by himself with his viola:


And Luke by himself:

And here's our Christmas picture! Red eyes and all! I did fix those before I mailed out the picture!

Ah! Much Better

Okay, so I was getting a little worried there for a few days! I had no idea what to stitch, I didn't like what I had kitted up, etc.etc. My friend MD, who always watches out for me, send me three great ornament patterns! Can't wait to show you! While I was pulling thread and fabric for those ornaments, I pulled out my JCS 09 Ornament Issue and kitted up about nine ornaments. So now I feel much better!

Don't even ask about Flower Power! It's sitting in my bag! I did learn yesterday, that Balger BF and Kreinik BF are the exact same thread. Apparently in the 70's Kreinik first produced them as Balger. Why didn't somebody tell me? I was getting worried about forking over the money for Balger! No wonder I couldn't find it anywhere!

Daffycat wants me to show you my ugly stitching, I don't want to ruin my reputation! LOL

My Christmas shopping is almost done! I even made it to the gym this morning, unlike yesterday! I have a few more things on my to do list, and then kids are out of school on Friday! :)

Happy Holidays!

Running Out of Time!

Does anybody else feel like these?! This is the last week for kids being in school, so any shopping and errands I need to do without them, has to be done this week!

Plus, a tornado seems to have hit my house, and I need to do some major picking up! For once in my life, it's not my mess....but it's to the point of no return. So momma has got to step in and help out.

Not too much stitching getting done around here. I've stitched up all my little projects that I really wanted to do, and don't feel like pulling out my big projects at this point in the season. I think after I get the house back in order, I'll kit up some little projects, just so I have them when I need them! I hate going searching for fabric!

I stitched a little freebie over the weekend that I have been wanting to stitch for forever. And it's icky! :) I kept stitching, thinking it would turn out better, but it's still icky...It is Birds and Berries by Lilybet Designs. I even used the right color threads. But she said to stitch with one thread, and I don't like that, so I stitched it with two. And she was probably right..one would have looked better. The colors are too dark and heavy with two threads. Oh well, I'll just add it to the finished stitching pile and see what happens!

Gotta get to work around here!

It Was a Miracle!!!

Really it was! I know this is the season and all, but this one I couldn't believe!

I was driving to the middle school to pick up my 7th grader, Andrew. In order to get in the car lane to pick up kids, you drive right past where they are all hanging out, do a u-turn, and get in the line. Complicated I know!

As I drove past yesterday, something very shocking happened!

Seriously. I hardly believed it when I saw it myself!

ANDREW WAVED AT ME!

And he was even standing with a bunch of other kids, and beside a girl.... friend. (Not a girlfriend! A girl, who is his friend!)

AND HE WAVED AT ME! And he was even smiling....

What? He acknowledged my existence in front of his peers!

Who said this wasn't a season for miracles!

Miracle #2 at our house?! Luke, who despises any type of writing, who falls apart at the mere mention of writing homework....wrote FOUR PAGES of a story last night, all creative writing. And it was good too!! Not one meltdown, not one whine-y word!

At school today, his teacher randomly called kids to read their stories. One of the kids at his table didn't get called and Luke said, "Mom, he had a TOTAL meltdown!"

Kettle meet Pot!

I asked him how that made him feel, and he said, "It's annoying, Mom!"

Please let it be a break through!!!

Last night, Luke told me about a game he read about called: "I love you because __________"

I almost cried when he said to me, "I love you because you always forgive me!"

Wah, sob, what?! Can we all say it together?! That one's going in his journal for sure!

Christmas Party Weekend

Saturday was the yearly Tarheel Christmas Party.


That's me in the purple vest. Really, I do like Faye (in the red beside me!) I was saving a seat for the photographer...but that didn't work out so well! :)

We had a great time! Our wonder host Mrs. Linda (in the black towards the right), got tons of donations from different ONS's! I came home with a bunch of different WDW and Sampler threads! Awesome!

Oh, but that wasn't the best part! Joanne at the message board where we originally met, back in 2000, gave a $50 gift card to her shop! You won't believe it! Nope you won't! Guess who won it?

All I'm saying...is I'm doing some shopping at 123 at the moment! I never win anything! Yeah Me!

Sunday afternoon, Luke was in our town's Christmas Parade. He was number 69! It was a long parade! He was voted mayor of his class, and that means he is in the student council. So all the student council got to ride in the parade. This is only part of them.

We weren't too sure what to expect from Luke! certainly not this:


Oh wait, this is definitely closer to what we were expecting:


Now this is more like it! Exactly what I was expecting:


If you notice, he's the only one without a Santa hat. He left home without it, and didn't tell me, until it was too late to go back and get it. Apparently the hat didn't match his coat, so he didn't want to wear it! ???? :)

This little guy was in the parade:


On the way home, he took this lovely picture of me! :) I know you want to see me up close and personal, don't you?

A Not So Pretty Ornament

So I sat down to finishing stitching this ornament last night. I was just sure it was going to be the cutest thing ever!

After an hour or so, this is what I saw. Seriously, what is this thing? An alien?

Not too much longer, it started looking a more like a chicken than anything else. More like Chicken Little! Cute hat, though!

There are a few obstacles to my stitching late at night. This is Percy... a huge, hunk of a cat that thinks he needs to sit on me, not beside me. And then snore! Who knew cats snored?


And at last! I knew this thing would be cute! (It's not crooked, I just have the fabric folded back funky!)


Have you ever wondered how I display the ornaments?! Get ready to be bored! Our tree is already full of kids ornaments and family momentos. I don't want to hog it with "my" stuff! So here half of them sit. The others are in a box in my closet! One day, when I have my stitching room, they'll all go on that tree!



Remember the snowman book I was telling you about? Here it is. I used too thick of mat board, so it's not exactly right! But it'll do!


Here he is all opened up! Did you know it's impossible to find any kind of Christmas fabric with orange in it? Seriously, if I ever have Christmas with orange again, I'm going to change out the color.


See that lady in the picture? That's my grandma, she's 92. You can see about half of my grandpa (shh, don't tell him he didn't make the picture!). He's 92 too! (ha) They have been in great health, until recently. My grandpa is having some fluid issues, in his lungs. Tuesday he goes in to have some more removed. Did you know they put a needle through your back, into your lungs?! OUCHIE! It will be the third time in less than a month. Not good news, I know!

Keep them in your prayers. And me too. It's gonna be hard to loose my grandparents.

Stitching Christmas Party tomorrow! :)

So Many Visitors

Wow! :) You guys made my day! Since I posted all my pictures I've had over 230 people stop by for a visit!

You know, visits via blogs are great! You don't have to worry about having a clean house!

Good thing, cause my house certainly isn't clean at the moment. Well, my refrigerator and my food pantry are all clean and organized! I'll even let you look at the top of my fridge. That is if you stop by in the next day or so!

Thanks for the visits and the comments! Y'all make me feel special!

Lots of Pictures

I'm at a strange point in my life! :) Seems like nobody really needs me. My kids are getting to the point where they rarely need me to do something for them. (Unless, it's to thread their needles...more to come in a future post!) DH is settled in his job and doesn't seem to need my help much. We're at a new church and they don't seem to need any help. Luke's teacher is an awesome teacher and seems to completely have her act together. I volunteer a tiny, little bit...but not like I'd like too. I don't have family nearby, so can't help out much with that either! Kind of hard to babysit, when your nieces live in Alaska and you live in NC!

ANYWAY! I know it's just a phase, and I'm sure it won't last long. So for now, I've been spending my extra time stitching. And actually finishing! Believe it or not, my "to finish" pile is drastically reduced!

I stitched this Tulip Needle Book probably last year. I saw it at an LNS in SC, it was completely finished and sitting on their counter. Course I had to get it!

Front:

Back:

A little close-up. I love the blues in this pattern!

Inside:

A friend gave me a chart for this project. Really it was just one night of stitching. All you stitch is the little pin cushion. It's stitched on both sides. Make the little needlebook, make the tassle (my first), and make the padding for the button of the tin. I only had tiny silver scissors, I need to find some 2 1/2" gold scissors. And the best part? The tin comes full of CHOCOLATE! Yummy!

Open it up and look inside: (almost as yummy as the chocolate!)

A little more close-up:

A different friend shared this pattern with me. It's by Just Nan and was a commemorative pattern, I think for a shop that had been open for 20 years? It was a fun stitch, though I'm not sure about the blue birds on the back! But I just love the inside. Don't tell anybody, but the flower isn't attached yet. Haven't got the right stuff to attach it.
Front:

Back:

Inside:

This is all I can show you for now.. it's a gift for somebody special! :) But isn't that cording awesome?

This is by CherryWood Designs. I just love it! :) She designs the funniest things. Sadly, I showed it to my kids and they didn't get it! They said, "Are the reindeer stuck?" I said, "Look at the chimney!" I stitched this pattern last year, and did the finishing last week. I just realized I forgot to take a picture of it!

This is a pattern in the current JCS Ornament issue. I'm not sure I love it. I don't really like to use perforated paper. It doesn't seem like cross-stitch to me for some reason! I'm supposed to glue the green paper on to the back, but I'm not sure how to make sure the glue doesn't poke through all the holes on the front of the ornament. SO... there it sits!

I'm not sure the name of this pattern. MD and I call it "Tubby", but I'm sure that's not right. But come on...isn't he a cutie?! The finished picture has this ribbon of white pom-poms attached across the bottom only. It's really cute. I went to Joann's to get some, and they had lavendar, purple, black, brown, orange, yellow, lime green and pink pom-poms ribbon stuff. Course no red or white! Bummer! I'll have to wait on this one.

This is my current little project. I know, I know...I said I was going to work on Flower Power! But this little things just keep calling my name! I love Christmas stuff on pink for some reason...so cute! He is called Chilly's Gift. He was a freebie at Stitchy Kitty, here's a direct link.


My Tarheel Stitching group is having their Christmas Party this Saturday! Can't wait to go, it's gonna be a blast as usual!

Back to my other life: gotta clean out the Thanksgiving leftovers in the fridge!

I Didn't Even Get Dressed

Nope! Went to bed in my jammies, woke up yesterday in my jammies, went to bed in same jammies! Is that WONDERFUL or what?! Dh and his friend hit the sales at 3am! I stayed home with the boys, slept in, and stitched. And stitched. And stitched.

Did I tell you I stitched yesterday? Seems like everybody else was occupied with their stuff, so I stitched!

Dh and his friend got a little cabin sick around 6pm and went out shopping again. I don't think I've ever gotten cabin sick. Not even in Alaska, not even in the dark winter days. I love staying inside, especially I have my stitching!

I managed to do a little finishing work. Wait til you see some pictures. I'm improving, I must admit! Seems like you just have to be PATIENT! What?! I'd rather stitch... but patience is a virtue. I think I read that somewhere.

I"ll be back later with pictures. Apparently, I'm having a crisis downstairs. Luke can not get his wheels in his Heelys and Andrew is helping in the complete wrong way... AGAIN!

Some Thanksgiving Advice

We are having a quiet Thanksgiving this year! And I'm thankful for it! We have a single friend that came up for the weekend. He and DH will watch hours of football and I'll stitch endlessly! What's better than that?

Last night I made peanut butter cookies, with Hershey kisses on top. They are our single friend's most favorite cookie.

On my way to grab a load of laundry, I grabbed a warm cookie and shoved the whole thing in my mouth. I mean, I needed my hands to get the laundry!

When and if you choose to shove an entire cookie in your mouth, the Hershey kiss may come off the top, and attach itself to the roof of your mouth. The roof of your mouth is immediately coated with an entire, melted, Hershey kiss, your mouth is completely full of a soft peanut butter cookie, and your hands are full of clean laundry!

What is a girl to do?!

It's okay, I managed to save the cookie! The laundry, well, come on.... I have my priorities straight!

Have a wonderful, relaxing Thanksgiving to all my US friends! :) To my world-wide friends, hope you enjoyed my advice for the day!

Ready for Some Pictures??!!

One of the things I treated myself to on our shopping trip was this humbug by Just Nan. It's pretty hard to take a picture of such a funny shaped object! I really like it, it was really simple to put together. Just connect the backstitches around the edges.

And the little owl pin is adorable, but he seems little top heavy to me.

Aren't the leaves pretty too?

Can't show you too much of this one! I finished this up this weekend too. But it's part of a Christmas gift, so you'll have to wait a little bit on this one. It's gonna get a laugh, that's all I can say!

This is the little freebie that I found online. I chose three colors from the leaves, to make the cording. I like how it turned out!

This was supposed to be a fob. It came as a kit, and it was one of the projects I finished on our stitching weekend a few weeks ago.

But the darn thing is huge! I made it into an ornament instead.

So this was my big project the last few days. I started and finished this over the long weekend. It is by With My Needle. The mermaids are all tent stitches. Except, I did a full cross stitch for the skin. The tent stitch seemed fine for the hair, fish and lighthouse, but I liked the skin better with a full stitch. Anyway, this is the front cover: (I still need to get something to close it with)

This is the back: (There is supposed to be cording around the edges, but I don't know.. I think I like it w/o the cording.)

And when you open it, it looks like this:

It's really not done correctly! :) There is only supposed to be the hearts and the seahorse and the border. The fishes go on the inside of the pocket. But you can't really see them there, and the seahorse seemed kind of lonely! So I moved the fish up one panel. There is only the border inside the pocket.

The fob is all put together, but it's not closed yet. I need to make trim and a tassel, and I'm waiting for the seahorse charm to arrive.

back:

Last night, I decided to go back to my Flower Power. I love stitching little things, but I need to put some work into FP. Dh handed me my camera, and I looked down and saw this in my lap, so I took a picture! Kind of dark, isn't it?! I need a stitching lamp, don't you think?

Hope you enjoyed the pictures! :) Thanks for stopping by!