Weekend Cancelled

And boy are my kids disappointed! Truth is, I'm a little disappointed myself. But parts of the state are already icy, so we just had to cancel to be on the safe side! We didn't really cancel, as much as we delayed it a few weekends!

So...we have a whole empty weekend in front of us...

A few weeks ago, I was ready Kathy's blog and she mentioned having this lighthouse RR that needed a few more lighthouses stitched on it. And since she's been so much fun in the Friendship RR that I am responsible for, I emailed her and said I'd stitch one for her.

Now she warned me, she really did! :) But this lighthouse has ten shades of white through dark grey! And that's just the main section of the lighthouse! And it is gorgeous! I'm not a big lighthouse person, but this RR is incredible!



So I've had to set FP aside, so I can finish my obligation to Kathy! So if I never go back to FP, I can blame it all on Kathy, right?

Here's FP the last time I stitched on it! :)

Here it is after last weekend. All those green leaves are a pain to stitch...well maybe boring is a better word to explain it.

Just need to finish that one stalk of pink flowers. Then add a bunch of white and pink daisies to sit on those leaves. Then I'm done!

Well, sort of done! I have to backstitch that entire piece. Add tons of french knots. Oh and did I mention all the bug and butterlies and hummingbirds that need to be added? They are all stitched over one! :)

We finally got snow! I know it's not much, but the boys love it anyway! Me? I'm cuddled up inside, stitching!

Why can't the boys never just stand still and take a picture? Seriously!

Ah, much better, and why couldn't we just do that in the first place?

Here's one of Luke wearing his new favorite hat!

This is a lot of snow for the south! :) So church is canceled tomorrow. Wouldn't be surprised if school is delayed on Monday. Enjoy your weekend!

What's Wrong With This Picture?

So last weekend, was a stitcher's paradise, to put it bluntly! I spend Friday evening with no children, stitching until 2:00am! Then all day Saturday, until 7:00pm I spent stitching! Came home, and stitched for a few more hours. No kids, no responsibilities, no nothing except stitching! Oh and maybe I had some really yummy food too!

This weekend, I am spending with my DH, my kids, four college band guys, and 75 teenagers!

What's wrong with this picture? :)

Nothing, really! I'm helping DH run a youth weekend event. We'll be collecting and packaging food that will be sent to Haiti, ASAP. Some of us will help build a senior citizen a handicap ramp for their home. And we'll do some yard work for some people that really need some help!

Of course that will only happen if it doesn't snow this weekend! You know, in the south, life SHUTS DOWN when it snows! Or even when snow is in the forecast. As it is the high is supposed to be 29 on Saturday. And we'll be spending 90% of our time outside! BRR! That's cold for us southern folk!

Don't be shocked, but I worked on Flower Power! Yes siree, got a lot stitched on it too! I spent all day last Fri/Sat stitching with various colors of green! Ugh! But I'm on to the pink flowers and they will be marvelous!

Pictures soon....

A day full of finishing....

Finally, a day to myself! I was going to have one on Tuesday, remember! But by the time I took kids to school, grabbed some groceries, went to the gym, I only had two hours left before I had to start picking up kids! Now I don't know about you, but to me a day to myself is WAY more than two hours!

So today, DH was out of town for work, and wouldn't be home in time for supper.... I skipped the gym and had a grand time! :) Want to see some pictures?

Step One:

When you go to Jo-ann's to pick out backing fabric, it's best NOT TO LEAVE YOUR COMPLETED PROJECT in the buggy when you leave! If you do, you have to call back and beg them to go find it and then call your DH and beg him to go pick it up! Yup, after working nine hours, that's exactly what DH wants to do! Thankfully, DH loves me lots!

Step Two:

Get everything you need! The glue? Well, you just never know!(see all those GAST threads? they were in the package left at Jo-ann's too!)

Step Three:

Three hours later, you will have made a much bigger mess, but at least you have a light saber to protect you from the frog!

but somewhere in there is a little bit of completion! :)

This was three stitched pieces, plus a fabric backing all that went on diamond shaped matboard, with padding glued on! (see, I knew I'd need the glue!)


Then you have to attach each stitched piece to the board, then you have to connect two of them to each other. (twice) Then you have to make a fiddly little scissor holder thing that will take up at least AN HOUR!

Step Four:

Finally, you begin to see some progress. Now you get to add all the cording, that you just made, and you get to hide all your mistakes with the cording! :)

Step Five:

Add the cute little white pins, that really help hid imperfections!

Step Six:

Realize that you have no idea how to connect your two completed pieces! The directions say to do it with ribbon bows, but I'm not picturing how that's gonna work! So you lovingly set all of it aside, and will beg help from your professional stitcher friend ASAP!

Step Seven:

After picking up kids from school, you realize they are much more interested in the new wii resort game than you, so you start and complete the Witman Tin! The finishing part, not the stitching part! It really seemed quite easy compared to the rest of your day!

I need to stuff the fob and connect the pincushion, but I think it's cute! Luke said, "Uhm, Mom! isn't that supposed to hold chocolate?" Silly kid!



Speaking of the silly kid, I think the birthday party wore him out!

The pictures aren't great..it's cold and rainy and dreary here! Plus I have a headcold, and my fingers are killing me! And I'd rather be stitching, than taking pictures.... Maybe next I need to make friends with a professional photographer!

Thanks for all the suggestions on where to get the charms! That's on my to do list!

I Survived!

Quite nicely, actually! In fact, when the 4th boy showed up, the other 3 started playing nicer together! They were supposed to leave at 3:00...one left at 4:30 and one left at 5:30. The other two never left! I think I've got about ten more years until that happens!

Due to MLK Day, both boys are home from school and DH is off work also! DH and I went grocery shopping and to the gym, and for the first time EVER both boys stayed home by themselves. Our oldest, 12, had just started staying home alone this year. Our youngest, 10, has never stayed home alone or with his brother. But surprisingly, they did so well, that we might actually be able to leave them alone a little bit! The problem is that the 12 year old likes to stay home ALL by himself, which would obviously not include a brother! :)

It's a long story, that I'll tell you some day, but Luke is fascinated with Canada and all things Canadian! Yesterday I stitched him up an itty bitty bear, toting a Canadian flag. I need to put it together, make some cording, stuff the thing, and hang it on his door.

Then I was reading Mylene's blog and saw that she stitched this freebie! Perfect for Valentine's day! And such a quick stitch, that I started it yesterday! Hope to finish it completely tonight. Won't cording with the green and pink together be pretty?

Last, but not least, I really want some of these cute little tags. My stitchy friend gave me some great ones that have one word on them: faith, believe, love I think! I need to look at them more closely, obviously! Sorry, stitchy friend! But I'd love to have some "made with love" ones! I can't seem to find them anywhere around here. Anybody know where I can get them?

Tomorrow, after the gym, I'm calling an "Selfish Sara day"! I'm sending DH to work, kids to school, and I'm going to sit, stitch and maybe even watch a movie! That's the plan, let's see if it works! I'll post some pictures tomorrow!

Somebody Save Me!

I'm surrounded my three Nerf Gun toting boys who are running and screaming and having a blast! It's only just beginning! I've got a sleepover and a birthday party to enjoy before any quiet time comes my way!

Miracle of miracles, so far both my boys are playing well together! :)

We're heading to a movie in an hour, and that will fill up most of our evening!

I did some stitching!

Time sure flies, doesn't it? Seems like I just posted yesterday and now it's been almost a week already!

I stitched this pattern by With My Needle a long time ago, but just now added the charm and added the cording. I was going to leave the needlecase without the cording, but I think I like it better with the cording. Don't you?

I finally finished the Mistletoad ornament from JCS Ornament. I followed the directions, really I did! I connected the bottom and then I stuffed it and connected the top. I left it a little bit open, as you can tell, so I could attach the hanger. When I read that part of the directions, it says to thread a needle with a ribbon and poke it through the bottom. How am I supposed to do that?! I connected it all, and now I can't tell what's stitched and what is the connecting thread! Arg! Look how tightly closed the bottom is:

I should have left it like the top, but then how was I supposed to stuff it?

So now I'm not sure what to do, and here's what it looks like for now! Sure is difficult to take a picture of a circle!

You know those little metal shapes that you can stitch on? Well, this is a free pattern from here to use with their products. But I saw a lady on a blog somewhere, who stitched it on blue fabric and finished into a little fabric stocking. I'm going to do that, if I can figure out how to do it! And she made a little snowflake fob to match. Haven't gotten to that part yet. I just need to add a snowflake charm to the top left. I need to find those little circle beads too, I just need about ten of them, anybody have any to share?

Last but not least, I am finally stitching the pattern for the Witman tin. I changed a few colors to more cloesly match the Witman tin. The pattern is a little simple for my taste, but I think it will be neat when I get it all together. The yellow isn't looking too pretty, but it was 6:00 in the morning, on my lap! :)

Today Luke turns 10! He came and woke me up at 3:30am to tell me he was now 10!! He's not too thrilled at having to go to school on his birthday. He said, "Nobody else goes on their birthdays!" Yeah, okay! We're taking doughnuts to his class this morning and then we'll pick him up and take him out for lunch. Pizza for supper with Mamaw and Papaw and a sleepover tomorrow and a little party on Saturday. Whew!

I'm tired thinking about it!

Decisions and New Nativities!

Decisions?! Well it seems like all of you had different opinions on the best option! If I can find good coordinating colors to use for the border, I think I'm going to use #3. I'll let you know! I like #2, but the brightness worries me a little bit! :) Watch for pictures!

Marian asked if I got any new nativities over the holidays! :) I am a big collector of nativities. I have close too 200, of all sizes, shapes, colors and materials! My favorite way to collect nativities is to get them directly from different countries. My sister has travelled to Africa a few times, and I have three "natural" nativities from there. Two are made from natural African wood, the other is made from Banana leaves! :) I have ones from Honduras, Brazil, Columbia, Bolivia, Peru, Germany, Amsterdam and probably somewhere I'm forgetting!

But there is a wonderful store in America called 10,000 villages. They are a fair trade company and their main store happens to be near my Grandma! We went over there this Christmas, and their nativities were 25% off! Even scarier for a collector! :) Grandma said she wanted to buy me one! Wonder why she wouldn't buy me the $1,000 one from Bethlehem?!

Anyway! I saw this one, that I just loved! It's by Gurung people in Nepal! Made by local people,
with local products! Don't you love it?

Here's a close-up!

This was the real reason we went. This is a real egg! A quail's egg, it is TINY! :) It's made in Peru. For some reason, Peru makes lots of nativities!


Look the shell is even hand painted! It's about an inch long I guess!

Last but not least! My mom gave me this nativity. I've wanted it ever since my kids were little. They are 12 and almost 10 now, so it's not nearly age appropriate. But their little faces are so cute!

I'm always on the lookout for new nativities! I'm to the point where I really just want unique ones from different countries!

It's a fun collection! Though it's getting a little out of hand! I've stitched too many nativity themed things, and the room is started to get cluttered, instead of unique! Going through them is on my 2010 to do list!:)

Help Me Solve the Dilemma

So remember I purchased this pattern to stitch for one of our college kids. Apparently, there were two different color themes for the same pattern. I asked to be sent the one that was shown in the picture, but was sent the other one. It's a beautiful thread color, but I think it's too rich for the pattern, don't you?

I was thinking something more fun and whimsical...but this might be too bright? (where did that little black speck come from?!)

I have this option, it seems about right, but I'm not sure!

This is a snowman by JBW. Can you read what the tummy says? I think it's really obvious, all the way to the bottom line! I might have to chance the last two letters!

These little ornaments are all from the JCS 09 issue! I decided I needed to start stitching some of those cute ornaments!

This one is by PS:

This is by Cherished Stitches. It's supposed to be finished as a needlebook! Not sure why there is a needlebook in an ornament issue! But Whatever! I think it's cute! I changed the shades of green and red, I was tired of the same old Christmas colors! I used Victorian Motto Sampler Threads.

This is called Blessings: stitched on 50 ct. over two. It sure ended up wabby-jawed! I'm going to have to block it to make it square again! Actually, I'm not 100% sure it was square before I started!


Last but not least, this was a freebie from years ago! I've always wanted to stitch it, and finally got around to it this year. It's a little pincushion! Cute, huh?

Thanks for looking!

Back to Real Life

DH back to work: check
Andrew off to middle school: check
Luke up and out the door to elementary school: check
Me-gym and groceries and laundry: yuck, check and check!

Me-clean and dust: not so much!

I mean I can't have a perfect day now can I?! It's nice to be back on a little bit of a normal schedule. Plus I was desperately needing some ME time! Not to be selfish, but we've been on the go the entire Christmas break, and I just need some time by myself! Know what I mean?


I was talking to Marion last night, and we both have the same 2010 project:Just Add Tinsel!

I have a few more little projects I want to stitch up, and then I swear I'm going to work hard on Flower Power! What? You don't believe me?!! Dh has a few weekends away over the next few months, and I'm going to have some extra stitching time. So Flower Power it is! Really, I mean it!

Well, maybe after I finish Just Add Tinsel (okay, start it) and I have that peacock chair I want to stitch and this pattern for one of our summer workers and...and..and...and..!

So maybe I won't ever get back to Flower Power after all! :) Who knows! Stitching is for enjoying, and whenever I start enjoying FP...I'll get back to it! Or maybe I need to get back to it and then I'll enjoy it!? I'll keep you posted!

Happy New Year!

A few pictures

At midnight, the day after Christmas, we loaded up the Cruiser and headed to PA to visit my great-grandparents! We had a great time with them! And I was pleased with their health, and levels of activity! They are both 92 and don't they look great!?

We played tons of Dominoes! Even Grandpa, who usually doesn't like to do stuff like that!

Andrew's life goal has been to get taller than his Great-Grammie! Looks like he finally made it!

I have been doing some stitching! This is Mistletoad from JCS 09. I still need to stuff and finish it! I messed up big time! But can you tell?

The bottom of this thing, sure was tricky to get together! But I think it looks okay, don't you? All that backstitching sure was a pain!

I'm not a big animal person. But this little scottie dog from JCS 09 was too cute to pass up!

I have a few more ornament finishes to show you, but need to take pictures first! :)