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.

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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!

Nothing But Stitching

Yesterday and today, I did nothing but stitch. And when I say nothing, basically, I mean NOTHING! I did make sure my boys were fed! I did sweep the kitchen floor. I did THREE whole loads of laundry. And I taxied my boys around here and there. But besides that I stitched.

I started, stitched, finished completely, THIS PATTERN! There are three different ones to look at on the designer's blog, none are mine. (Remember, DH has the camera!) I don't mean to boast, okay, maybe I do! But really, it was a fun, quick and easy stitch. Those mermaids over one slowed me down a bit, but they sure are cute.

I think I've decided not to put cording on mine. Not 100% made up my mind, but I really like it how it is now, without the cording. The fob is stitched and stuffed, but not closed up...I'm waiting for the seahorse charm to get here.

Anybody know where to get those bone fish thread winders? I found some I like, but they are one dimensional, not like the ones in the kit. I emailed the designer and she said they were only available as a kit. But, come one, she had to buy them somewhere, right?! Surely one of my stitchy friends know where I can buy some!

One of my Tarheel pals loaned me her pattern, and even loaned me ALL THE SILK THREADS too! Was that sweet or what!?? Lucky me! Hmm.. wonder what she wants us to stitch next?!

My life is going back to normal tomorrow. DH gets back from the golf trip and I'll have to do things like keep a clean house, make beds, cook dinners, etc. But I sure enjoyed my mini-vacation, right here at home!

Pictures soon, as long as DH remembers where he put the camera!

My Stitching Life

This life is much easier, wouldn't you agree?!

I finished stitching a little "thingy" on 32 ct. over one. It's for a Christmas present, and somebody I know is gonna CRACK UP! I just love making cross-stitch jokes! :)

You know my little hedgehogs? I made the neatest cording, and now I need a pair of scissors to go with my new little fob.

My SB fob turned itself into an ornament, it was way too big for a fob. That's okay, I'm using the red scissors for something else.

And you know my neato mosquito Just Nan Humbug? Oh boy is he cute! Wasn't too difficult to put him together either.

Now don't ya'll just wish I knew where DH put my camera?! He took it with him to NYC the other day? Wonder if he took it on his golf trip with him, or if he left it somewhere around the house!

Both kids are about asleep, a few more stitching hours for me!

Nice end to the day!

My Other Life!

I know this blog is mostly about stitching, but I do have another life!

I spent the day living out my real life! I'm hoping to shower my stitching life with some attention tonight!

DH is in NYC today, doing some research for his job. He left the house at 3:30am and will get home after 9pm tonight. He's stopping by to get his clothes and some cookies, and then he's heading to the beach for a weekend of golf. He goes once a year with his dad, brother, best friend and a bunch of guys they all grew up with. He'll have a great time! One year, about ten years ago, I made some cookies for him to take with him! Apparently, now they can't live without my cookies! :)

So I spent the day making molasses cookies (my fav!), a double batch of choc. chip cookies, oatmeal cookies (DH's favorite, but I can never get them the way I want them!) and a double batch of peanut butter with Hershey kisses! YUM! So he has a huge bag full of cookie containers to take with him tonight!

Andrew, 7th grade, got an award today at school. Much to his embarrassment (MOOOOMMM!! What are you doing here?!) I went to watch! His team has 125+ kids, and there are 3 different teams in the 7th grade. Each team gives an award for each subject they study: math, english,social studies and science. He won the award for best student in social studies. I was really proud of him, and he was so shocked! (maybe more by my presence, than by the award!)

Should I feel bad that I embarrass my kids?! I always tell them, they've embarrassed me a million times over the years, now it's my turn for a payback!

I have a huge decision to make for Thursday and Friday. Ready for it? Here it is:

DO I STITCH or DO I DO FINISHING WORK?

I know, I know...big decision! I have a few really simple things that can be finished quickly, and a lot that will take lots of attention! And I don't want to waste my stitching time finishing! Isn't that always the dilemma! (or is it a dilemna?) either way...it's a problem! LOL

Since I'm still opperating under my other life, I need to go help with homework! This 4th grade math is starting to kill me!

Want to Join a Free SAL?

Somehow, I ran across this blog. You know how you follow different blogs here and there, and somehow I ended up on this one! She's my new friend! :) We've emailed a few times and we are working on an exchange idea.

But, she posted a SAL that she was going to start. Of course, I couldn't be left out of the plan! So here is my SAL so far. I'm stitching it over 2 on 36 ct fabric, it was just a scrap, I'm not sure what it is! But I'm using Victorian Motto Threads. Green for the border and red for what goes in the boxes.

Have you used these? Ooh, yummy! The yummiest part might be the price, but the threads are yummy too! She's from the US, but I was first introduced to them in an exchange with Gaby in Germany. Then someone from our Friendship RR, in the Netherlands, included them in with her project. She mainly sells on ebay. You might want to check her out!

The SAL just took one little short evening of stitching! Lots of counting to get this part all lined up right, but it's gonna be easy-sneezy from here on out!

Hedgehog Freebie

Found It!! Well, I didn't, but somebody at 123mb found it!

Retreats are for Stitching

What an awesome weekend! For the seventh (?!!!?) year in a row I went to a retreat in Pigeon Forge, TN. It is a pretty long drive for my chauffeur and myself, but we made it in record time! I-40 had a huge rock slide, that completely closed I-40. The detour to get around it takes an extra hour. Fine by us...the detour took us right past a great cross-stitch shop!

Once we arrived at the hotel Thursday evening, we didn't see the light of day until Sunday morning. Well, okay, we saw it through the windows of our room...but we didn't set foot outside. We stayed in the stitching room, every day, all day! :) Besides there was stash to buy in the stitching room... can anybody say: Heaven?!

Because I have a lovely chauffeur, who drove the entire way on Thursday. I was able to start and finish this pattern on the way to the retreat. It's a freebie by With My Needle. These aren't the colors it calls for, but I saw it stitched this way and loved it. The person finished it into a pinkeep, with all cream pins, except one red pin. I'm going to be a big copy cat and do the same thing!

My main goal for the weekend was to finish my stitching on this project! (at the end of the post) Despite TONS of queen stitches, I managed to get all the stitching done. Now, who's going to do all the finishing?

Close up of the queen stitches and pretty flowers:

And these will make the cover to the needlebook and the scissor holder. Those darn stitches for the scissor holder took FOREVER!

You'd think they'd be easy, but oh no! They are a pain!

Then my chauffeur stitched and finished this pattern and thought it was quite necessary that I stitch it also. I always obey my chauffeur. Besides, it was white silk by Dinky Dies..yummy!

Saturday afternoon I stitched this pattern by Shepherds Bush. It's supposed to be a scissors fob: the kit even came with some pretty red scissors. But the darn thing is HUGE. I might have to just keep the scissors and make a little ornament with this guy. There is a stitched back that says Merry Christmas, but it went missing in cyberspace!

I stitched this little guy on the way home. It is stitched over one on 36 ct. and boy is it tiny! I usually can't stitch that small of count in a car, but since my chauffeur is such a good driver..I was able to finish it. I need to do some backstitching on the leaves. I couldn't manage that in the car! He's about 1 inch wide by 1 1/2 inches tall. He's a freebie from somewhere online...Yeah! we found him!

Since we still had a few hours left in our drive, I started this little guy. Just you wait until he is all finished up, ah man...he's gonna be cute!

It was a great retreat. We had ladies from NC, TN, WV, GA....am I missing anybody. We did a gift exchange, all stitching gifts...when it's your turn, you can pick a new present or steal somebody else's. We laughed so hard, we had our hostess laying on the floor! Great Times!

I stitched this little fellow last week. Just a little needlebook, it came as a kit and was such a quick finish.

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Last but not least: Remember those two cuties that came to visit me last week? Is there any wonder we didn't get much stitching done?

This is my Luke wrestling with Wil, 4: (next time, will somebody remind one of the three boys to put the toilet seat down, or at least shut the bathroom door?!)

And little Genna,2, loves to wear her food, Andrew is cleaning her up in this picture:


It's been raining buckets here today and yesterday. Leftovers from Hurricane Ida. It would be a perfect stitching day, if there wasn't so much work to do!

He Saved My Life

So the night before I left town, around midnight, Luke was still sobbing over his haircut. So out of pure parental desperation... after offering every solution possible...I offered this one:

"Twenty-five cents per insult".... he was convinced everyone would laugh and make fun of him, so I gave in to the great parental tool called bribing!

Fast forward a few days, and you'll see me sitting at my seat at the table...cross-stitching my heart out. All of a sudden my phone rings, and here is the conversation:

Me: Hello
Luke: Hey Mom
Me: Hey Luke!!!
Luke: Uhm, Mom you owe me $7.25.

Fast forward a few more nights and we hit tonight. Monday nights Luke gets guitar lessons from his hero, Mark (who has "cool" hair). Right before Mark came, Luke searched high and low for the faithful toboggan to cover his haircut. (A toboggan is a stocking cap, for you non-southern folk. I realize a toboggan is a sled to most people in the world, but after 15 years in the south, some times you just have to cave in!).

Doorbell rings.
Luke opens door.

In walks Mark WITH A HAIR CUT!!! Yeah, and it's shorter than Luke's!

Off goes the toboggan, and for the night Mark has saved my life! Wish he would have came over last Thursday!!!

I've Ruined My Son's Life

How do you ask? Really it's not a hard thing to do. What happened?

HE GOT A HAIRCUT.

Period. Yup that's it. Less than ten minutes and it ruined his whole life. In fact it may as well just be shaved off. He's not going anywhere. Ever. In fact he's not even going to school tomorrow. He's wearing a hat and sobbing under his sheets, and will do it until the hair grows back.

But you know what?! That's okay... I'm leaving tomorrow at 6am, for FOUR days of stitching. And not only stitching, but no children. No whining. No homework helping. No lunch packing. No cooking. No cleaning. I can even wear my jammies all day if I want too.

Do you think his hair will grow back before I get back on Sunday?

No Stitching

Don't you just hate a weekend of no stitching?! :)

My best friend from high school is on her way to visit me as we speak. She is bringing with her a 2 and a 4 year old! :) (her children of course) And this house is gonna be rocking the next few days. I put away all my sharp xstitch scissors and my xstitch bag, just to be on the safe side!

They leave on Wednesday pm, and bright and early Thursday morning my personal chauffeur (don't even try to guess how long it took me to figure out how to spell that word!) will be at my front door! We will be on our way to our annual stitching retreat at Pigeon Forge! Yahoo!

Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday

We are going to STITCH, EAT, and SLEEP in that order of importance! We have about a seven hour drive ahead of us, and we'll hit a few LNS's on the way up. That will save us from having to get off our backsides for the rest of the weekend. That's right, once we are planted Thursday late afternoon, that's it for us. We'll move again on Sunday when we leave to drive home. In fact, last year once we entered the hotel on Thursday, I don't think we even saw daylight until Sunday! And isn't that the best way to have it?

Can't wait to go! :) Talk to you when I get back.