3 Down-7 To Go!

I knew the other day when I posted that darn picture of my fingernails, that I was gonna regret it and end up with all short nails! :) Both my pinkies are short now and one thumb! I know you really care! :)

We're heading away again this weekend. We're doing a Youth Missions Retreat at the beach. I think we have 400+ youth signed up from all over NC. And guess what?! I have NO responsibilities, yeah you heard right! Well, I have to keep track of my 9 yr. old, that's gonna be a job in itself!

So I've been stitching some, here and there! I've stitched on one Friendship RR, and have one in my basket to start stitching on when I get home this Sunday. Course I didn't take pictures of those! But trust me, there's plenty to show you! Wanna see?

When I first took this picture of my Prairie Schooler Nativity, I was almost finished!

And before I could post about it, I finished it! It's tiny...about the size of a dollar bill, all stitched over one on 32 ct! I love it! It's my new favorite! Look how different the colors are! The fabric is closer to this color, but not quite so yellow! I left off the halos, I just don't go for the halos!

For some reason photobucket is not letting me rotate my pictures! So you're gonna have to lean to the left on all these, until I can get it fixed! This is my car project! It's all over one stitching too. It has four of these alphabet panels, it's a freebie out there somewhere!

I kept seeing this PS finished, and never could find the pattern after I really wanted it! My stitching momma saved the day and found the pattern for me! I love how they are all the same size!

But look what they did to Mary and Joseph! They changed the size! Now why would they do that? I like UNIFORMITY people!! (Lean to the right for this one!)

I haven't forgotten my Flower Power! But I just haven't had the time to really pull it out and work on it! But the pink flowers are all done, and the white ones are started, sorta!

I finished this one last month. It's by Erica Michaels, Humbly Born is the name of the pattern. The snowflakes are not very visible.. but I think I like it that way.. do you?


The stitching along the bottom is all over one! I like it! The colors aren't all exactly what they called for, I used some of what I had laying around!

And last, but not least, one of my very first internet friends and my fellow Diva sent me this for our Spring Exchange! I love it!

I'm gone for the weekend! I'll try to rotate these pictures before I go..but who knows if I'll find the time! Is there a way to rotate them in blogger? Or do I have to do it from photobucket?

I almost wet my pants! I just uploaded the last picture and somehow this whole long post went bye-bye! Thank goodness I remembered the undo button! I wonder who came up with that!?! Thank goodness!

See ya!

Real Life Cooking

I've discovered my new favorite blog, and it doesn't have a thing to do with cross-stitch! I'm really not even sure how I found it. Anyway, as I was making my boys some cookies the other day, I was thinking about how her real-life cookies looked, compared to my real-life cookies!:) So here are some comparisons!

Here are my ingredients sitting on my total workspace!

Here are Ree's pretty ingredients!

Here is my dough!

Here is Ree's pretty cookie dough.

Here are my finished cookies on the tray!

Here are Ree's finished cookies.

Here is my recipe! I've obviously used the exact same recipe for a LONG time!

And here is pioneer woman's recipe!

I WONDER WHO'S TASTES BETTER?!! :) We should do a taste test!

And last but not least, here is Andrew enjoying the scraping of the bowl!


The boys and I are on our way to PA to celebrate my Grandpa's 90th birthday! My mom is there and my big brother and little sister will get there later today. My little brother isn't going, because their new baby is due pretty soon.

Life has been crazy around "these here parts"! Hardly anytime to stitch. And I've discovered, when you go to bed at 11:00 instead of 2:00am, you don't get much stitching done!! :) I'm telling you, 10pm-2am is prime stitching time and I haven't stitched then for probably two weeks!

I've got tons to do before I pick up the kids and head to the airport this afternoon. I should dust and clean my kitchen before I go, but I think I"ll just wash the dishes and finish packing and call it a day! :)

Have a great weekend!

One down, nine to go

I don't feel good! I haven't done a thing all day today, except sit in front of the TV! Not even any stitching, just sat and stared. Had to catch up on a couple shows, thank goodness for DVR and fast forward! :) I watched Grey's Anatomy (why does that show make me cry?), Private Practice, and Brothers and Sisters. I still have The Unit and another show to watch.. can't think of the name of it. It's something about Mars I think.. about the guy that goes back in time to the 70's. I'm a TV-hollic I know! Drives my DH nutso. I blame it on the fact that I didn't have TV growing up...surely that's the reason, right?!

We had a great weekend. DH made lots of contacts, etc. We heard an awesome preacher from Africa: Dr. Terry Rae,wonder if he's online anywhere? Well he didn't have a website exactly, but I did find this link to our whole weekend! :)

We worked our hineys off, so to speak. Well, personally I worked a nail off! After unloading and reloading a whole truck of stuff.. I looked at my hands and saw a huge chunk of out my left pinkie nail! So that nail is gone! I've never wanted to be the person who cared if a nail was broken or not! See, that's one of the problems of having nice nails! So I've got nine left to go!

We have another busy weekend coming up, though I don't think any heavy lifting will be involved for me! :)

I need to take a few updated pictures to show you! I got a neato little package in the mail today for a spring exchange from my friend Viv in Canada. And a new nativity from my sister who visited Puerto Rico last month. Stitched an itty bit on my Flower Power, and almost am finished with my PS Nativity. Just gotta stitch the sheep and the roof. Stitching on 32 ct. over 1 doesn't work too well while riding in the car. Besides I was tired, and that didn't help either!!

As soon as I feel like doing more than just sitting on the couch, I'll post some updated picture! :)

Almost....

I almost did it all!:) Got it all done except for my RR on Friday. I stitched it up quickly on Saturday, so basically that counts, right?

I've started stitching again on my PS Nativity. It's over one on 32 ct, so it is very slow stitching! But it's easier to pick that up for a few minutes of stitching then pulling out the FP! But at least all my pink flowers are stitched on FP and I'm on to the white daisy flowers. Have I ever told you how much I hate stitching with white? Does anybody else? I'm just almost convinced that the white thread is different than all the other DMC threads! :) But it's probably in my head!

Life is getting ready to get really busy for my family! DH and I have his work yearly conference this weekend. We'll be busy, but the kids will be with Mamaw, so that'll be nice. The next weekend we'll do a youth conference with Brandon Heath. He's a big Christian musician, have you heard of him? The next week the boys and I will go to PA to help my Grandpa celebrate his 90th birthday. The next two weekends DH will be doing youth weekend retreats at the beach, and the boys and I will go with him! I think that brings me up to the weekend, where my Stitching Mama and I are going to go find an LNS somewhere in NC or SC!!! We're spending all day that Saturday doing SOMETHING stitching related!! Can't wait!

And hey, my nails made it through the weekend! Wonder if they'll make it through the above paragraph!??

Flower Power Stitching

DH has been out golfing all week in Vegas with eight of his buddies. His schedule has been so crazy, that he needed a break! They've been having a blast!




Meanwhile, I've gotten a good headstart on my FP! I took this picture on Tuesday, I think! See that stem at the bottom right? There is another full pink flower there and to the left of the middle flower I have the last pink flower started. Below this section there are white flowers, guess I'll go there next!




I almost always save the backstitching to the very end. But with this pattern there is a TON of it, and I think I might just stitch it as I go...still deciding! DH and I have a drive to FL coming up and I might do the backstitching while we are driving. We'll see!

Here's FP all spread out in my stitching chair! This thing is gonna be huge!










I learned a new southern word Wednesday night at church. The pastor kept saying "fistacuff". Like those boys were getting in a fistacuff. So I guess it means they were using their fists, like in a fist fight?





And I forgot one! Stories!! Do you know what stories are? To my nothern mother they are books you would read to children, obviously! To my MIL, they are "her stories", which she religiously records and watches every day! Did you guess it? Yup: Soap Operas!





And last but not least here's a little TMI for the weekend! I have ALWAYS had the horrid habit of chewing my fingernails! Really, I just couldn't ever stop! Every once in a while I'd notice my fingernails were getting long, and I'd try to keep them nice and then within the day they'd be gone again!





So when we were in Honduras, I noticed my fingernails weren't chewed to my wrists....but since I was in a foreign country I was a little scared to put my fingers in my mouth! :) So here we are almost a month later and look how nice my fingernails are!


And not just one hand either! Both hands, all fingers...nice and pretty! I've even trimmed them TWICE! Seriously, in all the 33 years of my life, this is the longer my nails have been ever!!

And can somebody tell me why my fingers are crooked?! :)


I've gotta straighten up the house before DH gets home tonight, do a little work, stitch on my friendship RR, do the finishing for a spring exchange, do my Bible study, pick up Andrew from school, help with an ice cream party in Luke's class (after I get Andrew...which should be VERY interesting!), feed the boys supper, finish the laundry.... and NOT chew my nails, all before 7:00! Think I can do it?

Lessons from the South

As I was eating supper the other night: cole slaw, baked beans, fried chicken, BBQ and sweet tea-I thought to myself....boy I've really changed since I've lived "down south" for the past 12+ years. When DH and I first met, I wouldn't be caught dead drinking Cold Sweet Tea! Gag! And cole slaw ON TOP OF the BBQ??!! Horrors! But there I was with BBQ and cole slaw both on my fork and going into my mouth!

So then I started to think! Dangerous I know! But here are a few things I've learned since living in the Southern USA!

*That thing you put groceries in really is called a BUGGY, I used to think it was called a grocery cart.
*If you ask for a "pack of nabs" you'll get some prepackaged peanut butter crackers!
*You don't look ugly down south! Down south you ACT ugly, as in: "Why are you acting so ugly?!"
*Pork Rinds (sp?) really are yummy, even the spicy ones!
*Little boys wear britches, not pants!
*The plural form of ya'all is "all ya'll!"
*My kids are expected to call me ma'am, but only when they are in big trouble!
*I call my boys Sir, but only when they are in big trouble: "No, Sir! We do not act like that in public!"
*Football (and at my house NCState football) overrules every other activity in the house.
*NASCAR really is more than just a bunch of cars running circle around a track! Well, sort of!
*I used to think Oyster stew was just hot milkbutter and a few oysters thrown in there. Now I know that's all it is and it's YUMMY!
*I don't have to take a jacket with me in the summer EVER-unless the A/C is gonna be too cold! Growing up in Alaska, you ALWAYS took a jacket-especially if you were going to be getting home late. It was midJuly and we were heading to a baseball game and I kept asking DH, "Are you sure I won't need a sweatshirt towards the end of the game?" Little did I know, it would still be 80+ degrees at 10:00 at night!

I still think a tobogan is something you sit on, not something you put on your head! They haven't been able to convince me of that one yet!

And I still can NOT eat a red hotdog! Have you seen what happens to the water when you cook a red hotdog? That can NOT be a good thing!

I'm sure there's a lesson or two more that I've learned! :) But at 1:30am they seem to be slipping my mind!

Talk to ya'll later!

My nativity from Spain

This is my little nativity from Spain. It's all made of gold inlay(?). Not sure how to spell that one. The two edges fold in flat against the middle section. It really is much more my mom's style than mine! But it's so unique, I'm glad to add it to my collection. The blue in the back right is one my mom picked out for me when she was visiting my friend in Amsterdam a few years ago.

My Favorite Nativities

I was in my little 1/2 bath today, and was admiring some of my nativities! :) I figured I needed to take a few pictures of my newest ones, and also show you some of the details on the ones I've had for a while.

This nativity is my most favorite! It came from a young Army guy that attended our church. As far as I know, he didn't even know I collected nativities, nor was he a regular church goer. (Mainly cause he was always out in the field.) When he came home from Bolivia, he said I bought you something while I was gone! I was seriously confused, because I hardly even knew him! In the little gift bag was this!!!!

closed and opened

Probably my second favorite nativity is one that my mother-in-law bought me! Usually I pick out what she buys me and then act surprised! :) But this time, she did it all on her own and boy was I thrilled! The whole nativity is little children acting out the Christmas Story! Here is the camel!!

Here is Mary and isn't the baby Jesus adorable?

And this is the little wiseman! Check out his sneakers peeking out under his robe! Almost all of them are wearing sneakers!

A few years ago, my Mom gave me this Alaskan themed Nativity! I loved the igloo shape and all Alaskan animals. All the people are native-looking and the wisemen all are carrying "handmade" baskets.

The itty-bitty Baby Jesus on the dogsled about did me in! :) Of course when I looked at the box and it said "made in China", well that was maddening, but I'm just choosing to ignore that part!

This is my Russian stacking doll Nativity that is actually made in Russia! :) I love this one too! My sister gave it to me! All the hand painted details are gorgeous!

Have you heard of a matchbox nativity? Closed it looks just like a matchbox, see the strip on the side? But it slides open and plays Holy Night. A gift from my SIL.

This is my newest nativity! My nieces (who belong to the above mentioned SIL) sent me this adorable teaset! Wish they lived closer, we'd have a tea party!

Many moons ago, my mom took me, my sister, and my two sisters-in-law to Cancun, Mexico. The best part of the trip was finding this nativity! They are all little bells, made out of clay. Here are the three "wisemen"! Check out their guns!

These are really little ornaments from Hallmark. I really wish I had more to go with this set! Gotta love Snoopy!

This nativity was given by a missionary couple to my mom's best friend. Her friend knew about my nativity fetish and knew I'd appreciate it more than she would. It's all handmade, and there is also a cow, donkey and an angel. And they came in an little handmade basket with a lid. They are from Brazil. I just love all the little details: their hands, the flowers on her dress, the little bits of wood sewn together for the baby, baby Jesus' face...

And my last nativity story! :) Back before Christmas my parents went to Spain. They stopped by the house "on their way" and Mom and I were discussing all my nativities. I was telling her how I just really was to the point of just collecting smaller nativities, because I was running out of room. So I was surprised when I received this in the mail from her. It's not huge, but they are about 12" tall. I almost broke the thing when I picked it up out of the box. I didn't realize it was three seperate pieces! Thank goodness it didn't break!

So we when we were in Alaska this summer, a few days before Christmas mom holds up this tiny bag and says, "This is all you're getting Sara! And you have no idea what it is!" Now this is rather unusual, because we usually get a big gift and a few little things. So I said, sort of sarcastically, "I bet it's a small nativity from Spain!" She looked at me like I had just ruined the greatest surprise. Mike (DH) asked me why I had to ruin the surprise. And I said, "I was just guessing!" Here's what I opened on Christmas. While it's not my style, it's certainly my mom's!! It is all handcrafted in Spain, 24 ct. Gold. I have no idea what it cost, but I'm sure it wasn't cheap!

Well, shoot! I guess I forgot to upload it to photobucket! I'll have to leave you in suspense until the next time I post!!

And in the words of the best grandma ever: "That's about enough of that!"

2 Days, 19 Hours, 23 Minutes

That's what our parking ticket said when we got our van after our trip to Tegucigalpa, Honduras! Here is what the majority of the place looks like. Houses just packed one on top of the other! Mostly the color you see is brown, but every once in a while you'll see a bright yellow, red, purple, blue or pink house! :)

You'll have to tilt your head to see this one! But this is the home we'll do construction on. Basically they'll completely tear this yellow house down and built a new one. It's in horrid conditions. The mother lives there by herself with her children. Her husbadn recently passed away, and they've been broken into SEVEN times! You can barely see her mother's house in the trees behind hers in the picture. All seven of them will move into that little house while our team completes her new house. They will have to tear it down and lay the foundation (basically a cement square floor) before we get there.

This is up on one of the mountains looking down over the city. Immediately below us were terribly poor looking homes. The trash along the roads is everywhere there.

We went to visit an outdoor market "The Valley of the Angels", where we will take 75+youth this summer. When I saw this nativity made from corn husks, you know I couldn't leave it sitting there. The price was 150 limps, and when we asked the lady she said that would be $80. I loved it, but not that much even though it was all handmade. When I said no thanks...I could tell she was thinking and all of a sudden she said, "Oh $8, not $80!" So course we had to buy it for that!!

I started stitching FP before I left for Honduras. Boy this is gonna be slow going for a while. There is TONS of counting!
Flower Power Start of Day One! :)

Flower Power: End of Day 1! This is gonna be a SLOW one!

I've since stitched two more nights on it:

I almost always wait until the very end to do the backstitching, but I'm thinking I might stitch it as I complete each set of flowers. This pattern is huge! Six pages (each like 4 8 1/2 by 11's) plus a few more pages with all the little bugs and butterflies and hummingbirds. See how there is sort of a straight line of stitching there at the bottom? That's where the page ends, and I'm a little worried about stitching it that way, because that line is going to show through on the finished product! (at least for me, I'll be able to see it!) But it's so hard to stitch and hold 2 sets of those pages on my lap! :) Another pink flower goes up there on the left, so I think I'll do that one first and then worry about how to blend the different pages.

I was going to keep track of how many hours this takes me, but I've been stitching in little sections of time. Getting up in the middle to do laundry, feed children, help with homework, etc! So, so much for that! :) It'll take so long it'll probably make me depressed anyways! :) I've kept track on three patterns how long they took. I"ll have to go see if I can find where I put that info!

You might recall I'm the fearless leader of the Friendship Sampler RR! Well we did our first mailing this month. Guess what... the fearless leader put her OLD zipcode on her address! Everybody else emailed and confirmed their addresses! What in the world was I thinking?! So at the moment, Carolyn's RR is taking a little trip to Fayetteville, hopefully it will be here soon. She emailed me and said...."You must be really close to Fayetteville." I thought to myself, well no not really! I went and looked at the file of all the addresses and MINE WAS WRONG! I just hope we get it back quickly! If not, I'm gonna go visit 205 Pine St in Fayetteville! :)

DH is gonna be gone all next week. He's actually going golfing with a bunch of his friends and I'm thrilled for him. He needs a break. Course there might be a little jealousy added in there too..but hey, the boys and I will survive. My MIL might come down for a few days, but other than that I'm gonna STITCH! Well, I need to do a good bathroom cleaning first or else I'll feel guilty the whole time I'm stitching!

Happy Weekend! It snowed here last Sunday, this Sunday it's supposed to be 80! What is going on with the weather around here?!!