Sara's Simple Stitching

It's Been a Long Time!

2010-12-11T19:03:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time since I posted on my blog! I've been busy, just not really busy cross-stitching!

As most of you know, and some were even a part of, I went to Honduras for my 3rd trip last summer. Every time I go, I just feel like there is something I need to do. This last trip, after spending every day with the same group of kids, I was even more convinced that surely there was something we could do!

Thanks to my husband and a good family friend, we finally did something! Simple Matters We kept thinking that it didn't need to be a big, complex thing. That it could be something simple: food, water, education. Things to us that are so ordinary, they hardly even matter. It's when you don't have it, that it really begins to matter! And if we all just do something simple, then together we can really make a difference.

To be honest, big dreams take big work! haha We had no idea how much would go into setting all of this up! We're not sure where this will take us. Not even sure we'll be able to raise the money we will need each month. I have no doubt we can raise it for a month or two! But what the next month? the next year?

We will trust God! Do what we can to positively change these kids' lives, and invite as many people to join us, as we possibly can!

In addition to getting Simple Matters up and running (we're even on facebook!)...remember those bookmarks I was collecting supplies for? Well, I got my first package of bookmarks! I am shocked at what a great job the ladies have done! Each bookmark is better than their previous one. There are about six ladies that have taken this opportunity seriously, and the money they receive is providing for their families.

We are selling the bookmarks: $3 for one or $5 for two. Plus a $1 to help cover shipping costs. 100% of the money received will go back to the ladies. Please contact me if you're interested in purchasing a bookmark.We're working on finding the best way to make these available.

Sara

To Blog or Not To Blog

2010-10-14T08:01:00.000-07:00

That seems to be the question lately! :) I guess I kind of miss the interaction with other stitchers across the states, and around the world too.

I've had a few emails over the past few weeks from people who say they miss my blog! How nice is that?!

So I don't know. I'm not sure I have much to share with the blog world. I'm still thinking about it, if anybody is even here any more!

It's been almost three months. Crazy.

Dumb Comments

2010-08-01T20:53:00.000-07:00

And another reason not to stay: why do I always get those types of comments left on my blog? All summer, I've had to go back and delete them! So frustrating.. :)

Hello and Goodbye

2010-08-01T13:36:00.000-07:00

I've been gone with my family for the past eight weeks. We do youth mission trips during the summer. We were in four cities across NC; Moncton,Canada;Tegucigalpa, Hondruas; and NYC. We had a really great summer. Had so many neat experiences that we were fortunate enough to be involved with.

I obviously haven't posted since we've been gone. And oddly enough I haven't really missed blogging. So for now, I think I'm going to continue my break! I'm sure the cross-stitch world will continue to exist without my random blog posts! :)

Still stitching, though I haven't hardly touched a needle in two months. Maybe I'll be back. But not for now!

I'm available via my email if anybody needs to contact me: sssowers@hotmail.com

Sara

ISO Barb in Oregon??

2010-06-11T09:15:00.000-07:00

For some reason I didn't save Barb's email! I tried to find her on 123stitch.com but maybe she contacted me through my blog?!! I owe a big thankyou for some fabric!! If you're Barb from OR, please leave me a comment or send me an email! :)

You guys won't believe the pile of fabric I have been given! We have so much we are probably going to do the same thing (in English) for a young mothers home in the USA.

Do you have extra 14 ct. aida for HONDURAS?

2010-06-06T09:12:00.000-07:00

I already posted this at 123stitch.com, but am hoping to get some response from my blog too! :)

Forgive me for not retyping it, but it's a lot! :)

As some of you know, DH and I do lots of summer mission work with teenagers. We are heading to Honduras the end of July, and have the priveledge of working with young mothers in the capital city Tegucigalpa.

The place where we go to work, is run by a native Honduran. She daily feed 30-40 children that live in the surrounding area. She has been trying to reach the mothers in the area and she asked my DH if anybody would know how to teach the moms CROSS-STITCH!

WAHOO! :) imagine that, xstitch and me and mission! Can we say perfecto?!

ANYWAY! We've found a really awesome pattern that we are going to use with the ladies. Hopefully to be able to sell in their market place.

All that to sum up... I need pieces of 14 ct 17 by 13. The pattern only uses one color of thread, so I am going to go through all that DMC I bought when Walmart was going out of business! :) But if you have any needles and or cheap little scissors you might want to contribute, that'd be awesome!

We know for sure there will be 10 ladies there. But I'm hoping to leave them with enough supplies to make some more. Plus I'm going to take a few books to leave with them that have much smaller projects.

Would you want to help? Email me! :)

White/cream/ecru aida would work best. Sara

sssowers@hotmail.com

Thanks Ladies!

I Stitched for Sue Hillis

2010-06-04T09:52:00.000-07:00

Remember this?

A couple weeks before our get-to-gether last weekend in Richmond, I got an email from Sue. She asked if I would be interested in stitching the pattern she made for the weekend, over one! I was so surprised she emailed me! :) I had the supplies within a day and had it stitched the next day.

And then she told me to finish it "however I want too".

All together, let's say it: "YIKES" This nice lady has been designing for forever and wants me to do it "however" I wanted! Can we say pressure?!

This is what I came up with:

I found some charms in my stash, and tied them on the ends of the ribbons. I know we all loved cross-stitch and without a doubt, we were going to laugh a lot!

So I sent her some pictures, she said it looked great... off to Richmond I went. The first night, I secretly handed her the project, it's top secret after all! :)

The next morning, as I got in line to register for the weekend, Sue grabbed my arm and asked me if I was able to check my email. Now my heart really started thumping. I felt for sure I did something wrong, that she didn't like it, that it wasn't what she wanted, etc. etc. etc.

Not to worry, turns out she liked it more in person than the pictures! I walked away and gave a huge sigh of relief!

When I got home, I was trying to explain to my kids and I said, "It'd be like if Lego asked you to post one of your projects online." And Andrew, my 13 year old says, "Oh mom, anybody can do that!"

I can always trust my kids to bring me back down to earth! HaHa

We had a great weekend. There were 70-80 of us, I never did get the final count. We met lots of new friends and got to sit with our Canadian friends. We only see them every two years, so we were glad to get to share a table with them.

My friend and I managed to hit 3 LNS's over the weekend. One on the way, one while we were there, and one on the way home. While we were there, we went to an itty-bitty shop that was stuffed to the brim with stuff! Course by the time 50-60 of us shopped at the same time, we were all much closer bonded! It was a tight fit, but I think we all managed to find something to spend our money on!!

And Sue invited 5-6 different people to come set up shops at the hotel! That was NOT a good idea! Well, I mean it was, but I might have spent a little too much money!

My family leaves in ten days to start two months of summer mission with teenagers. We're excited to get started and I have a million things to do to get ready. I got my stitching bag ready to go yesterday, but I highly doubt I'll get to much of any of it!

I bought some really neat smalls while on our stitching trip, had to move those straight to the top of the stitching list! Can't wait to show you!

See you around. Not sure when I'll get to post again.

Hedgehog freebie

2010-05-31T17:55:00.000-07:00

I know Pat is stopping by to find the post for the Hedgehog pattern! :) I thought I'd help her find it and searched and searced a ton of posts.... when you click this link, look at the title of the post! DUH!! It's been a long weekend!

Had a great weekend at Sue's! I even got to stitch her model for our weekend project! Yeah me! :) My kids were completely unimpressed! I told my oldest, it'd be like if Lego put one of his projects on their website. He said, "oh anybody can do that! you just have to upload the picture!"

So much for impressing my kids! :)

More details coming, gotta go back to being a mom!

I Don't Mean to Brag, but....

2010-05-28T03:35:00.000-07:00

Well, okay maybe I do! :) In two hours my stitching buddy is picking me up and we're heading to a stitch-in with the infamous Sue Hillis in Richmond, Virginia. Yeah! This is our 3rd time going and there is going to be a huge group of ladies! Some we've met before and some brand new to Sue's. We have ladies flying in and two ladies coming from Australia! :)

I really, really wanted to get all four little turtles done to take to Sue's. But after I saw my "to do" list yesterday, I thought that there was no way it was going to happen! We had invited our youth pastor and his wife over for dinner. And we had been gone for days and my house had been attacked by Star Wars Lego pieces while I was gone! I keep telling myself that one day I will miss all the lego's, right?!!!

I cleaned my house.
Grocery shopped.
Did laundry.
Mopped, yup I actually mopped! They have a crawling baby, so wanted to make sure the floor was good and clean!
Packed for Sue's.

AND

Finally sat down and FINISHED my two last turtles. One is a pocket and the pocket is so tiny that I have no idea what in the world might fit in it! I'm talking about an inch of room. The last one is a pincushion and it sure is a weenie little pin cushion! I put the four layers of batting in there, but it still feels a little wimpy!

No time to take pictures, but I'll post some after the weekend.

Gotta get Andrew to school. Finish packing for Sue's. Take Luke to school. Get my food out of the fridge and then wait impatiently on the porch for my ride! :)

We're hitting an LNS on the way... we gotta beat the crowd you know!

The weekend is full of fun events and we always have a blast!

I need a break really badly at the moment! Our life is getting ready to hit WIDE OPEN! One of our college students moves in on Monday for two weeks. My mom comes middle of next week. Will have all eight of our college staff live with us the four days before we hit the road. Gotta finish a lot of work for our Bible schools on the road. Then we'll be gone for eight weeks of mission work with teenagers. Including a week in Canada and ten days in Honduras!

Gotta run! :) Have a great weekend, I know I will!

Hey Daffycat...I keep trying to keep your advice and keep my posts short, it just never happens! I think that means I'm a motormouth? :)

My Brilliant Kids

2010-05-22T20:34:00.000-07:00

My kids are pretty smart. I mean, I know I'm their mom, but I'm just saying! They don't have any problems at school. Both can easily use a computer. They can program a cell phone without a second thought. Digital cameras.....no big deal! etc.etc. etc.

Today on our way to Dh's grandparents 50th wedding anniversary dinner, we stopped by his Nanny's house. Now Nanny, mid 80's, is in no way up-to-date with any technological item. In fact she still has an old fashion,in the cabinet style, PINK oven with a matching pink stove and pink phone.

Luke (10 1/2) was playing with all his old toys from when he was a little boy. Actually, I think most of the toys were from when DH was a little boy, and he showed me the Fisher Price rotary phone and was telling me how much he loved it. So I reminded him that there used to be real phones like that toy phone! And he was SHOCKED!

Remember that pink phone?! Well it happens to be a rotary phone. So I took Luke into the kitchen and he was shocked at the rotary phone. I told him he could use it, no problem. So he sticks his finger into one of the holes and says:

"NOW WHAT DO YOU DO?!"

I had to show him how to move the dial around to the little bar, let go, and pick your next number you need to dial.

Poor kid! He had NO IDEA how to dial on a rotary phone! I let him call his Mamaw's number, just to try out the dialing! Then he called his brother. Then he called his dad. Then he called me!

Then his brother (age 13) got on the phone and called his own cell phone and talked to himself. I don't get it either...the kid is weird!

The old rotary phone (which, by the way, Nanny is still renting from the phone company! LOL) kept them occupied for a good 30 minutes!

Another finish!

2010-05-21T20:16:00.000-07:00

That's all I can show you for now! ha

I received a lovely email from a lady, and she asked me to stitch her a little certain something...but it's TOP SECRET! Oh yeah! You didn't know I was that special, did you?!

Okay, neither did I! And really I'm not!

As you may or may not know, I'm a big fabric snob. I use the ittiest-bittiest piece of fabric possible to stitch things on! I hate wasting fabric.

So the certain lady sends me all the supplies and above is the picture of the piece of fabric she sent! That piece that is missing, is actually double what I stitched! I had to use extra to do the finishing.

Wonder if she meant for me to stitch it eight times?!

Quaker Turtles!!! warning tons of pictures

2010-05-15T16:28:00.000-07:00

Luke had a friend come to play, and Andrew was golfing with daddy! Perfect day to make some turtles!

Ready, Get Set, Go.. well, maybe I better start with this:

a little bit before 1:00 I had all my pieces cut out, the bottom shell was laced onto the posterboard and the head was finished.

by 2:06 I was done with half, but it was the hardest half! I sewed all the little legs together, and attached all the legs, tail and head to the bottom shell but I still needed to attach the fabric lining. The poor thing looks ugly, doesn't she! (Hope Ellen doesn't see this!)

How about some lining?

How about a place to put some needles?

Wanna see the bottom shell? Yes I have boring initials! Nothing I can do about it!!!!

By 2:36 (not that I was looking at a clock!) I had put together the top shell, which was super easy since it only had stuffing in it.

It was around this time that my friend calls and ends up dropping her son off to play too. When she came to the door she wanted to see my turtle. So I showed her noncrafty self my nearly finished mommy turtle and she innocently says, "What do you do with it?" So I was explaining how it would hold my needles, and my wonderful son answered her question quite truthfully!

"SHE IS GOING TO PUT IT IN HER BASKET WITH HER OTHER 900 NEEDLEBOOKS!"
Hey, the truth hurts sometimes! ha

It took another 30 minutes to attach the buttons and make that stupid detached buttonhole stitch! I can NOT do that one pretty! I had forgotten to buy green buttons and look at the cute little ones I had in my stash!

Yeah for Mommy Turtle! That wasn't so bad!!

At 3:20 I decided to start the baby. And by 4:47 I was completely done with the baby, even made my cording. Even attached him to my gingher scissors!

Baby had a few issues though! Somehow I had managed to sew on the bottom shell crooked! For about five minutes I thought I could live with it!

I really thought I could live with it. But it was just awful! Wouldn't you agree!???

Fifteen minutes later, poor Baby looked like this!

Took a break, to take all the ten year old boys home! Well, one had to stay...he lives here!

At 6:40 I take my second attempt to make a baby! (oh shush!) Somehow I even managed to take the itty-bitty thing apart and not even cut any of my backstitches! That's a miracle in itself!

By 7:30 or so, baby looked much bettter! And I was much happier with it! Wouldn't you agree?

There are two other turtles that go with the set. One pincushion and one is a pocket. I thought there was no reason to stitch them. But these two are so darn cute.. I think I'm going to stitch the other two. They will be easy to put together now that I have the hang of it!

*edited to add one more picture*

Please don't tell Luke he's right! It might get ugly!!

DH just called and asked what I've been doing all day! I said, "Making baby turtles!" He said, "Huh?" I said, "DUH!"

He's gonna be here in 30 minutes, wonder if I can get all my laundry done in 30 minutes?! :)

Poor Baby Turtle

2010-05-15T16:08:00.000-07:00

Poor baby turtle is having some issues! Momma turtle is waiting patiently.....

Quaker Turtles

2010-05-15T08:57:00.000-07:00

Today is the day! We finished the pinewood derby race with my youngest. My oldest is doing a golf tournament with his Dad. (that should be interesting!) My youngest now has his friend over and I am going to attempt

THIS

I've finished the stitching on the biggest turtle, and on the itty-bitty turtle. The designer, Ellen, has told me starting with the biggest one is going to be the best bet. So that's on my agenda for today!

Dh and my oldest will be gone until around 8pm and surely my youngest and his friend can keep themselves occupied for a few hours!

It's 12:00 noon... stay tuned! ha

Look what I found!!

2010-05-14T05:16:00.000-07:00

I was on the hunt for a picture of a pilllow I made for my Grandma, YEARS ago! And I remembered my old webshots album! Look at the picture I found! I miss those boys!!

Look at us now! Yikes! I think I look better six years ago!

Man, I've been online a long time! :)

One Week, One Year

2010-05-14T04:29:00.000-07:00

I can hardly believe it! In one week, it will be my one year blog anniversary. Really? I can't believe I lasted this long! I love reading other people's blogs, but have thought I should stop mine a million times! LOL But for now, I'm still here! :)

All day today is a big BBQ fundraiser at our church. I was supposed to make desserts. I went a little crazy! :) I made:

Chaco Bar cake: Luke found the recipe in his 3rd grade reading book and insisted I make it. I'll admit I did it a little grudgingly! But boy I'm glad I did! It's like a big yummy chunk of chocolate chip cookies!

Banana Split Cake: Doesn't really have cake in it at all. Graham cracker crust, layer of cream cheese and sugar, layer of pineapple chunks and banana slices, next layer cool whip and vanilla pudding mix, top with cool whip and pecans. YUM!

Brownies: I was just going to make them from the box. But on the back was a recipe that looked really yummy! Brownies on the bottom, a layer of icing and pecans, and the top layer is rice krispie cereal mixed with melted peanut butter and chocolate chips. YUM!

Cupcakes: I'm assuming some kids will be there! :) So made some simple cupcakes and put bright shiny colored sprinkles on them. Boy they look yummy!

Hope it all gets eaten! I sure don't want to bring it all home! Well, maybe I do! LOL

Still working on my quilt square! Hopefully on Saturday I'll have some time to stitch! We'll see!

I Need Some Privacy

2010-05-12T09:58:00.000-07:00

I'm watching our pastor's daughter today. She (M) is three years old, and a lot of fun! Full of questions and exploring! I have spent very little time with her previously, but I told her dad whenever they needed me too, I'd love to watch her. Her mommy is having a few health issues, like M told me, "My mommy has a booboo on her boobie!"

So when M had to go potty I showed her to the bathroom. Seeing as she is only 3, and newly potty-trained I stayed in the bathroom in case she needed some help. I was standing there and M looks up and says, "Hey! I need some privacy!" So much for helping! LOL

So remember that square I was stitching yesterday and told you to guess what it was, but I forgot to upload it?! :) Here it is!

It's really gonna be cute, considering it's on 14 ct aida! Can't wait to show you what it is!

I fixed my zipper!

2010-05-11T13:24:00.000-07:00

Yup, that's right! :) I fixed my zipper...well I mean I backstitched and gave the birdie little feet or tail feathers or whatever they are! :) What are those things anyway? It makes my poor birdie looks like he has two legs! I might have to take those off, after all that zipper trouble! What do you think?

And there was one part that had two A's, which I thought were flower buds! But nope, they were the stitcher's initials... DUH! So I changed those to AL for my two boys, and put MS for DH and myself. I'm really loving it! Now to find some matching fabric!

I love the little birdie, don't you?

I'm stitching a few quilt squares for different groups I'm part of. Gotta love 14 ct. white aida!! This is for a little boy named Charlie in NZ. He loves hot air balloons, so this pattern was perfect.

This square is for a little boy...can you tell what it is?! ha I'll leave you in suspense! (I'll have to add the picture later, it didn't upload! LOL)

Last but not least, Check out what's been hanging out on my scissors! Yup, it's cute, isn't it?!!

Front:

It was a little kit by Raise the Roof. I hope I can find some ribbon similar to what came with the kit! I'd love to make a few more of them!

Back:

I haven't forgotten my giveaway! Just haven't figured out what to giveaway!!

Why didn't you guys tell me?!

2010-05-02T21:58:00.000-07:00

Hmm? I thought we were friends?! I was so proud of my finish last night, that I snapped a picture of it on my lap and proudly posted that I was done! And you guys said it was so nice!

So I look at it today and I realize I forgot to backstitch the little feet/feather things on the tail of the bird. I originally thought they were feet...but am not sure why they are coming out of the tail? Maybe my bird just needs some tail feathers to shake!

So I pull out my thread to add the six stitches and realize I didn't backstitch any of the tulips either! Duh... why didn't somebody tell me? It's like walking around with food in my teeth or my zipper undone! I thought we were friends?

If my computer wasn't being a pain, I'd show you the picture! No, not of food in my teeth, the picture of the really finished project! You'll have to come back tomorrow!

Don't forget to sign up for my giveaway! :)

I Do Stitch!

2010-05-01T20:01:00.000-07:00

Really, I do! :)

My friend sent me this pattern to stitch. It's called The Sparrow's Song by The Good Huswife. I used all the called for DMC, but picked a random piece of fabric. Not even sure what count it was, probably 32 I guess!

I love, love, love the little sparrow! And check out my perfect little french knot! Those things are rare and hard to find by my hand!

I went on a 4th grade field trip to Old Salem, NC. It is an old Moravian Village and very cool! My son's teacher gave them a challenge to find one grave in their graveyard. Didn't seem like too much of a challenge until I learned the name of the place: God's ACRE, was named that for a reason! My little group of six kids searched and searched and searched!

After my chaperone responsibilites were over, Luke and I went and visited the archives building. I thought it'd be a quick question, quick answer and if we were lucky we'd find the grave! Instead we met the MOST intriguing older gentlemen who spent TWENTY-FIVE minutes with Luke and his best friend. Telling them all kind of information about the man they were hunting for, lots of Moravian history, etc. And eventually told us the plot section, row and number of the man we were searching for!

Can you tell how excited they were?! :)

20,000---where did you go?

2010-04-30T20:04:00.001-07:00

So for the past few months I've been keeping an eye on my counter. It was creeping closer and closer to 20,000. The other day I finally noticed I only had 9 more to go! So I made a little post about it. I left for five minutes, came back and it was at 20,020! I didn't even get to see it! And now it's even more! :)

So thanks for all my visitors. I'm going to get a little stitched something together in celebration of the big 20,000 that we all missed! LOL If you want a little something-something from me, leave a comment on this post.

I'd love to tell you what I'm stitching for you, but at this point..well it's gonna be a surprise for all of us! (me included, since I have no idea what I'm gonna stitch yet! LOL)

I'll draw a name next Friday. One week? That's probably way too long! LOL Oh well, that'll give me time to make something! :)

9 More= 20,000 visitors

2010-04-29T13:36:00.001-07:00

WHAT?! I've been watching my blog counter! Waiting for it to get to the 20,000 mark! Now it seems like I only need 9 more visitors. Hmm.. I think I'm going to do a giveaway when that happens. Gotta go find something to give away! :)

Stash for Sale

2010-04-28T13:47:00.000-07:00

There comes a time in life, where you just realize you have more stash than you will EVER stitch! Sad, isn't it? Doesn't help to read a book like The Hole in our Gospel! Great book, if you want to read something serious!

Anyway, I made a little blog called Sara's Simple Stitching Stash Sale. Creative, wouldn't you say?! Most of the lists are by designers, so make sure you check all the pages of posts. I have another page of random patterns to post, but gotta feed my kids first! :) Hopefully I'll have that page up later tonight.

If you are interested in something, just leave a comment or send me an email. I'll get it either way. We'll figure out shipping when you're done shopping! :)

Thanks for checking it out!

You're in the Right Place

2010-04-27T19:32:00.001-07:00

Just trying to make a few changes! I'll find one I like and stick to it, I promise! LOL I moved my heading picture to my profile picture, but now I'm not sure what to put up there in the heading! This sure isn't very exciting, is it?!!

Visitors from Hungary!??!

2010-04-27T16:54:00.000-07:00

Really?! How did somebody from Hungary find my blog? Now my blog counter said there were three of you! :) I'd love to have you leave a comment so I can go check out your blog too!

Thanks for all the responses for stitching on my heart RR! I'll be getting in touch with you guys soon! I think I have more than I need! Yeah! :)

Are You My Friend?

2010-04-26T13:03:00.000-07:00

Over a year ago, I thought I joined another Round Robin. The grand idea was to do this pattern. Before too much time had past, I somehow ended up heading up the RR, instead of just being a part of it! :) Still not sure how that one happened!

Anyway! :) We had 18 people stitching in our RR, and that means there are about eight hearts left to stitch. There are more hearts to stitch, but only eight left that have space for a name! :) Our group included ladies from the Netherlands, Canada, NC, CA, LA, AZ, IL and IN.

My piece is stitchedon 32 ct...might even be 28 ct. and basically instead of using the called for threads, I just let ladies pick their favorite colors to stitch with. If you are a relatively quick stitcher, it should just take a few hours to stitch it.

So, my question is this:

Is anybody dying to add a heart to my sampler?! :) I of course course finish it myself, but it seems like a lot more fun to have friends stitch on it! If you are interested, will you just leave me a comment? If there are enough who want to stitch on it, I'll just get in contact with you guys and you can mail around to each other. I'll provide the pattern and you can pick your own color.

I'll try to post a picture of my real project later. But alas, dinner calls! :)

Thanks in advance!

PA down, Honduras to go

2010-04-18T17:46:00.000-07:00

Thanks for all the nice thoughts for my Grandpa. He's still in the hospital and will be for the near future, at least! My mom will be there this coming full week, to help out. Made leaving easier, knowing somebody else was going to take my place.

Tomorrow we leave the house at 4:30am to head to Honduras for three days. That means I need to get up at 3:30, so I can get ready to go!

See ya whenever we get back.

Back to Pa

2010-04-15T10:05:00.001-07:00

My grandma called. They had to take Grandpa to the hospital late last night. He's not breathing very well. Draining his other lung today. Giving him oxygen. Trying to get the extra fluid out of his lungs/legs/body/life! Will be there three days.

So I'm going. I have a great DH that will drop his life to make sure I can make it happen. I have to come home on Sunday, so I can fly to Honduras on Monday with DH. I'm hoping the hospital counts today as the first day, that way hopefully, he can go home some time on Saturday. Then I can get them settled in before I leave on Sunday.

See ya...

Ain't Got Nothing

2010-04-14T10:23:00.001-07:00

Nope, not a single thing...

Ain't got a thing to tell you! :)

Haven't done much stitching. Haven't taken any pictures. Yup, basically I got nothin!

I could tell you about when Luke told me the night before that he needed a KILT for school the next day.

I could tell you that I spent an entire day making a kilt.

Or I could even tell you about the major breakdown he had when he refused to "wear a skirt in front of the entire fourth grade!"

I could tell you about how he dropped a can of soda that exploded all over the living room!

Maybe you'd be interested in knowing that the teacher in charge of the play delayed it til "further notice".

Probably not that interesting to know that the kilt is now in the trash can!

See, I've got nothin'!

I have lots of projects kitted up, but nothin is callin my name!

Somebody send me some stitching mojo!

Are you interested in knowing that we have a youth event this Fri-Sun?

Or maybe that DH and I will be in Honduras Mon-Wed setting up everything for this summer.

You know what, keep your stitching mojo... send it to me a week from tomorrow! I might get to stitch them!

Our Trip to Pa

2010-04-05T19:18:00.000-07:00

For the past two years or so, each time I go to PA to see my grandparents, I'm just sure it's going to be the last time I see them. And then amazingly, they are always still there the next time I can visit! At the grand ages of 91, it is really amazing what great shape they are in! I love to spend time with them, love to hear the old stories...even the 4th and 5th times I hear them!

We took a few pictures Sunday after church and I think they turned out great! Apparently, I was the only one who didn't get the "wear orange and grey" memo!

The boys love their great-grandparents, and it makes me so happy that they have been such a big part of their lives also!

We were sitting on the couch, going through some really old pictures with my Grandma. I love hearing all the stories that the pictures remind her off! She let me sneak one out of the bunch... it's about 25 years old! One of the newer ones in this particular album! It's me, my mom and my grandma.

Whenever I start to upload my pictures, I always find fun ones like these! :)

People didn't believe us when I told them he got a haircut! But check out this picture I found! :) See we cut a lot! And this time around, there were no tears!

School starts back for the boys tomorrow! Maybe I'll be able to stitch a little bit!

My Other Life

2010-03-31T19:24:00.000-07:00

Well, besides stitching I do have another life! :)

DH does a lot of work with youth in the state of NC. His main job is to get them involved in missions in NC, in the states and a few times overseas. We do that all of June and July. But during April and May he does all kind of planning trips, to set up all the different activities we have the youth do. We're talking over 1,500 youth this summer. So it's no small job! Trust me! :)

This week is spring break for our boys. So when DH asked me to go with him to the NC mountains for a few days, I said sure! Thankfully my wonderful inlaws live on the way, and we dropped the kids off with them! :) So they got the grandkids and we got a break! :)

Not sure we didn't get much of a break. We had 4-5 meetings, plus DH led a conference last night which lasted pretty late. Today we drove back to pick up kids which happened to be in the same town where DH had another planning meeting!

Anybody tired yet?! Don't be.... we head to Pennsylvania tomorrow! My grandpa turns 91 on Sunday, my grandma will be 92 in June. They are both in excellent health and still drive and have a schedule about as busy as mine! But recently grandpa hasn't been doing too great. He's having trouble with his breathing and his lungs filling with fluid.

SO.... we're driving up to spend a few more days with them. I think, each time we go, that it will be the last time I see one or both of them. And so far, they've proven me wrong! Thank God, right?! Here I am mid 30's now (SCARY) and have yet to really experience my grandparents passing away. It's gonna be rough, I already know.

I have been doing a little stitching. Faye shared some proof! I stitched a little something on the way to the mountains yesterday...it'll go in the mail tomorrow. I finished the pinpillow that was due April 1st for Becky's exchange. And I finished a heart themed quilt square that was also due April 1st. And I sent Faye her gift and also sent another blog reader a little something.

By the way, I noticed I have 50 followers! That's pretty cool...I need to do a contest sometime to up my numbers, I guess! :) No time this week, maybe next week!!

SO, there ya have it! I don't have a single picture, except for what Faye took, so you'll just have to believe me!

Happy Easter every one!

Paradise!!!

2010-03-23T16:29:00.000-07:00

The other weekend, I managed to squeeze in tons of stitching! :) Started around 6:3opm on Friday, I stitched until almost 2am. I was so tired, I was falling asleep with my needle in the fabric, between stitches!

Saturday, up bright and early....back to my same seat! I stitched until 6:30pm. I did eat lunch, supper was a can of soda and some candy. I'm so healthy, I can't help it!

Saturday, my project of choice was Flower Power!! I spent the entire day in a pile of daisies! that's right, backstitching---ALL DAY---!! That part definitely wasn't Paradise!

I even managed to squeeze in a few more hours on Sunday, and I even got to move out of the daisies! I'd tell you what patch I went to next, but I know nothing about flowers! I still have most of the pink flowers left to backstitch!

I still have this much more waiting for some of my BS abilities: (oh come on, that's funny!)

Won't have another chance at Paradise, until I head to Sue Hillis' Memorial Day stitch-in! This will be my third trip... and we have a blast! My chauffeur is already making our plans!

And then life will get crazy! Our spring schedule is nearly as crazy as our summer schedule! But I just found out in July, I'm going to get to meet some of my Candian friends, during our trip up there with 60 teenagers! :) Might even get to hit an LNS, can't wait!

This week I've been just working on little things! I stitched something ugly the other day, and Faye made is so pretty! So I stitched Faye something ugly too, but she's gonna have to do the pretty part again!

A new stitching friend did me a great favor, so I stitched her a little something. It's not ugly at all, but I'm going to have to do the pretty part myself.

And I'm finishing up a charity square for a little girl's quilt. Oh and I have a pincushion due to be mailed the end of this month. It's stitched, just need to put it together.

So now you're up to date on my stitching life! Who cares about my other life, right?

Almost finished!!

2010-03-18T13:25:00.000-07:00

Seems like finishes around here take a few different steps! Unless I sent it to Faye! :)

I did my very first flatfolds the other day. They didn't turn out too badly! I still need to add the trim to both of them. Actually, I might only add trim to the snowman, I might leave the LHN as it is. What do you think?

I finished a few little pillows. I stitched these in time for Valentine's Day, but, well, you know! At least I'll have them for next year, right?

Then I had been seeing the pillows with matching fabric on the front, so thought I'd try a few of those. My favorite one is the turkey. Just happened to have the fabric, and it matched the dyed threads perfectly! I took these pictures before I stuffed them, just need to add some ribbons and buttons or something!

And remember I started this the other day? It will be finished in the shape of a heart, if I can figure out how to do it! LOL

And then I've been wanting to join in Sylvi's SAL. She releases one each month, and so far I'm three months behind. I'm hoping to get caught up and then just stitch each one as she releases them. We'll see! I'm going to stitch them all in one long line, stitched over one on 25 ct.

Course I always have Flower Power in the wings, and right now I need to finish up a pincushion for an exchange and stitch a quilt square.

Thanks for stopping by!

The Finishing Fairy Came!!!

2010-03-16T13:05:00.001-07:00

Remember a few days ago when I was whining about my U.G.L.Y little pattern that I had stitched. I had wanted to stitch it for months and months and then was so disappointed when it turned out UGLY!

My new real life stitching friend, Faye, was sure she could make it pretty! Mmm, Hmm... sure I thought! I sent it to her on Friday.

TODAY I have a package crammed into my box (grrr...mailman!) and I was shocked to see it was from Faye, already!

I was thinking maybe she'd put a little fabric on the back and maybe a hangar.. but NO! You should see this little thing in person! All the little details are so cute! Check out the scissors hanging from the little ribbon, with the little button!

She even made the back a little fancier! Why don't I think of stuff like that?

I told Faye she better watch out, or I was going to send her my whole pile of stuff I need finishing! She is WAY more creative than I am!

She doesn't live too far away... hmm!! Wonder if she'd notice a huge pile of things that need finishing, added to her own pile?

Thanks again Faye! I just love to pieces!

Send the Finishing Fairy...QUICK!

2010-03-15T20:17:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, I had a huge pile of finished cross-stitch that needed something done to it. Slowly, but surely I about worked through all of it!

The other day, I got to thinking about my pile of little finished cross-stitch. And knew I had to do something about it!

At one point I had picked out the backing fabric! That's a start, right?

But already there was this other growing pile of ones I hadn't even picked a fabric for yet!

All together now: "SENT THE FINISHING FAIRY!"

Have you seen that commercial where the man is in bed waiting for the Good Credit Fairy and his wife finally helps him realize there isn't one!

I figured the Finishing Fairy wouldn't ever come, and thankfully DH is out of town today and tomorrow. SO... I skipped the gym, skipped the grocery store, and put on my Tutu! That is what Fairy's wear, right?

So far, I have three itty-bitty little Valentine pillows put together. Four medium size pillows and two flat folds! These were my very first flat folds, and the medium size pillows were made differently than I usually make them!

They are all stuffed, (Luke said it looked gross!) just need to close them up and add some trim or beads or something, we'll see!

I did clean the bathrooms today! All 2 1/2 of them, thank you very much!!

Stupid Flatfolds

2010-03-15T16:39:00.000-07:00

That's all I'm saying for now! :) Okay, maybe they aren't STUPID, maybe I'm the STUPID one who can NOT cut four pieces of cardboard exactly even, no matter how many rulers I use!!!

Pictures soon... if I don't throw them away first!

UGLY????

2010-03-11T21:02:00.000-08:00

Faye, who I've gotten to know in real life, swears she can make this thing look pretty! :) I finished stitching it tonight and actually the greenery makes it look a little better. Though I still think it hovers pretty close to the U.G.L.Y. category! :)

Ooh, and I added the eyes, which I like. Not too sure about that mouth though! Who has a french knot for a mouth? Are they supposed to be singing? I need to iron it, before I can add the beads.

And check out Willy! :) He's sitting there by his little penguin buddy! Aren't they cuties?

And of course, I had to start something else new! This is by Blackbird Designs, I think. It's called Sweet Heart, it's supposed to finished in the shape of a heart. The fabric is about the right shade, but not exactly what the pattern called for. I started on another green, but realized it was 28ct, so put that up. And this is really too small of a count, I'm pretty sure it's only 40 ct., but I think I'll like it better on this fabric.

Now where does the Finishing Fairy live, so she can come finish all these little projects into something wonderful?

Go Ahead... Pick Your Chin Up Off The Floor!

2010-03-10T11:38:00.000-08:00

Yes Ma'ams (do any Sirs read this blog?!) here are some pictures of stitching! I know, shocking!! Before you scold me, I have NOT stopped stitching Flower Power! I just haven't picked it up in a few weeks! I've been busy! But this Friday and Saturday are PURE stitching days, so Flower Power it is!

I'll list them in order of my favorite, how 'bout that? I can tell this is going to be my favorite already! It goes with the little penguin I stitched a month or so ago. It's going to be a polar bear, but check out the scarf! Ooh, I love it! It's called Willy's Gift by Stitchy Kitty and I stitched it on 32 ct. pink linen (which I LOVE and have almost used it all up!) stitched with plain ole DMC!

I've wanted to stitch this one for almost two years! I even used the right fabric! 35ct. Havana by Weeks Dye Works. I love their fabrics. Whenever I see it in person, I think I don't like it.. but when I stitch on it, I LOVE IT! :) This is called Smell My Feet by La-D-Da. It was in the original October Ornament issue. I didn't use the proper green...this is Margarita by Crescent Colors... :)

I've seen this one on tons of ya'lls blogs! I just noticed I forgot the eyes and nose. I need to add those, unless they plan to be Amish. This is "Fa-la-la" by LHN. And I didn't add the red beads yet! Whoops!

Last but not least... another icky pattern. This happened to me before, remember? I had a pattern I had wanted to stitch for forever and when I finally did, I didn't like it! In fact, I sent that one to someone who visited my blog! This pattern is by BlackBird designs and is called Small Token. It's supposed to be small, this baby isn't small.. she's 4 by 5! I didn't use the correct dyed threads, or the right fabric. Darn it! lol I hate that my initials are so boring, I've got to change the white before it pokes somebody's eyes out. I was hoping if I add some antique lace around the edge when I finish it, I'd like it more....but I can barely bring myself to finish it!

Let's sing together:

G

L

Y

You ain't got no alibi, You ugly! ooh, ooh, You ugly!

Oh, sorry, got distracted there for a minute! That was a cheer from high school that I start singing every time I hear the world UGLY.

So I have been stitching! Poor Dh is sick, but that means I have lots of stitching time in the evenings. So hopefully will finish up the polar bear tonight.

Last weekend, I went with Andrew to his Science competition. It was the first time I've really seen him interact with his school friends, since he's gone to middle school. I happened to snap this picture... I think it's a great one of him! Wish it weren't so dark! I love his natural smile in it! I rarely manage to capture that in person. He's a great kid! But you see that green jacket? Yeah, he wears it EVERY SINGLE DAY, all day long! Zipped up, just like that....

Here is his whole team, he is smack in the middle behind their sign!

Yes, school is spelled wrong! :) Hey, these kids are SMART, they can't be bothered with the details! Their teacher's granddaughter made the sign, and well.. what can you say?! Didn't want to hurt her feelings! They did draw a black marker C later during the day!

Blocking Readers??

2010-03-09T17:21:00.000-08:00

Okay, so maybe 4-5 times I've gotten comments left on my blog in Chinese writing. I didn't think much about it, since I have been to a few Chinese blogs. Then I clicked on the link, and well let's just say it's not a site I would ever plan to visit! :) HA

So, is there any way to block this certain poster from leaving comments on my blog? I don't want to have to approve everybody's comments, since there is only one that is being difficult!

Any ideas?! I just delete it whenever I get one...anything else I can do?

Thank Ya!

Inspirations Magazine #65

2010-03-05T17:54:00.000-08:00

Alright all you stitchy detectives!!! Anybody have access to the Australian magazine Inspirations? I'm looking for the latest issue #65. Would you please email me if you can help me? Do I need to beg? Will that help? I think I'd beg for this one!! :)

I'm going to be gone all day tomorrow. Andrew has a big science competition. I'm sneaking some stitching with me! His even is only for an hour...but we'll be there 7:30-2:30. Apparently he wants to watch the rest of his team! Gotta get up at 6:00 AM! Not fair for a Saturday, is it?! :)

Enjoy the weekend!

A Few Pictures...I mean a TON of pictures!

2010-03-04T17:28:00.000-08:00

These are mostly people pictures! :) I'm not much of scenery type of picture person! I'd rather see faces! If you'd rather see scenery...sorry!

This is the house where we stayed!

This is the view from the top porch!

Here's our whole group together! We went to church on the Sunday we were there. We got a little bit lost, and ended up showing up late. Which wouldn't have been bad, if our group hadn't DOUBLED the church size! LOL We totally interrupted the service! Then when everyone was greeting us, the pastor figured out where DH worked..and long story short, DH preached the sermon! LOL He said he'd never preached in shorts and a golf shirt before! He did a great job too!

Here are the four "big kids" at the Pearl Harbor Memorial:

This is my big brother and his wife, you can see the memorial from Pearl Harbor behind them. (what an incredible memorial!)

I love these types of picture. This is my big brother with his middle daughter. He has three girls and is great with all of them!

Me and my sister. You'd think the one from Alaska would be the whiter one..but no! She's a fake n' baker! Do you know that term? :)

This is my baby brother...isn't he a cutie? And his wife's name is Sarah too. Gets a little confusing! He calls me "sister Sara" and she is "wife Sara" I'm constantly asking him if he's talking to me or not!

Here he is with his baby, Riley. They call him Rye Guy most of the time. I thought it was silly when I first heard it, but it suits him fine! He took a tumble down five outdoor steps while we were there...poor guy got a few HUGE goose eggs on his forehead!

This is Riley's big sister Anna. Isn't she a poser?! Such a cutie!

And this is Riley's other sister Bailey. Last time I saw her, she was so quiet and shy that she would barely speak to me. We had a great time together this week, we played tons of I Spy! She
is her own person, and is hilarious!

Andrew loved reading books to the little girls. He does such a great job with them!

Luke spent hours building this fort with his cousins! He was devasted when the neighbors came and took the large piece of driftwood from their fort. Seems they really needed it! The neighbors rebuilt the fort, but they never played in it after that! See the little one in the pink? She would NOT give Luke a minute alone! She wanted to constantly hug him, sit by him, eat with him, swim with him, play pool with him, etc. He was great with it, until the last day! Midway through our evacuation, we were riding a train at the Dole Plantation and he said, "Please, Mom! Don't let her sit by me!" For once in his life, Luke got to be the one with all the ideas! The one who controlled all the make-believe play! Thankfully these girls loved it and thought he had "the best ideas ever"!

Snapped this while the "big cousins" were watching a dolphin show! Aren't they a bunch of cuties?

These two are a hoot! They both told their moms that they didn't mean to get wet! They wear dresses constantly, even into the ocean apparently! (the one on the left is actually two years YOUNGER than the one on the right)

This is Andrew with the oldest cousin Ashley. They have both hit middle school, and it's a different world with these two! (check out my Dad in the background.. that is RARE!)

Last but not least, here's DH and me! This was the morning of the tsunami evacuation! I'm sporting my "woke up at 6:30, packed everything we owned, dragged kids out of bed, packed the cars, shoved breakfast down our throats, go to higher ground" look! Nice, huh? :)

We hadn't been together for forever. In fact, besides my mom and my sister, I hadn't seen any of them for 14 months...of course that means I had never even met Rye Guy!v It amazes me how quickly the kids hit it off! They get together so well, and have a blast! I think this was probably the first time there were no fights...well if you don't count the sibling fights! I try to go home, once a year. We do this big group every two years. Not sure where we'll go next! This house had so much room, that we all loved it and are hoping for another trip back in a few years!

The rest of the gang is all still there...I'm trying not to think about it! Glad to be back home, but the break was great!

Back to stitching, I hope!

Look at all my finishes!!

2010-03-01T12:50:00.001-08:00

Look at all the stitching I got done on vacation!! :) We had some VERY LONG flights, including an 8 hr direct flight from Dallas to Honolulu, one week with "nothing to do" and an even longer flight home. So I wanted to show you everything I got stitched:

Oh wait.. you don't see anything?

Let me try again....

Oh, yeah, that's right! I stitched NOTHING. Nada. Zilch!

However I did manage to:

soak in some sun

play Foosball with my 13 yr old niece

swim with dolphins

walk the beach

watch surfers

eat lots of shave ice: YUMMO

play card games with us "big kids"

color with my little nieces

play 50 million games of ISpy with my nieces

visit the Pearl Harbor Memorial

watch an international surf competition

help my boys do homework
(that was ROUGH! who wants to do homework in Hawaii?)

survive a tsunami threat

pack and evacuate rental house in less than 30 min.

visit the Dole Plantation

ate pineapple ice cream

did the World's Largest Maze (some of the adults maybe have quit!)

built sandcastles

buried my neices in sand and gave them mermaid sand tails!

said goodbye to my family

ran through Detroit airport to catch a five minute connection

fall into bed exhausted!

Anybody wonder why all four of us slept the entire four hour flight from Honolulu to Seattle? Luke doesn't even remember getting on the plane! :) We were so exhausted! But we had a great time. I need to go through my pictures and post a few of the great ones.

Today was full of unpacking, grocery shopping, and laundry. Hoping to take a "me day" tomorrow!

Sara

Hawaii....I'm just saying!!!

2010-02-24T22:35:00.000-08:00

We swam with dolphins today! I got to swim with my DH, both my kids, my sister and my neice. We had an awesome time! Like Luke said as we left the dolphin pool, "That was AWESOME!"

We're loving the warm weather. My parents rented a great house. The kids jump in the pool around 8am...we drag them out for lunches and supper...and for bed! Seriously, they are in there for HOURS!

Can't wait to share a few pictures! Not a bit of stitching getting done, but TONS of great memories!

A Few Pictures Before I Go....

2010-02-19T10:29:00.000-08:00

My old blogging friend: motherstree stitched this and graciously shared the pattern with me! I originally was stitching it for myself. You see, I find they perfectly appropriate and hilarious! But Luke came up and saw me stitching it, and didn't care for it too much! Guess he took offense to being compared to a chicken! ha

So instead I am taking it to Hawaii and giving it to my SIL. She has three kids, none are old enough to read, so surely they won't be offended! :) I dug out my LHN "Hen Party" and they had a little cluster of three chickens, so I stitched that on the back of the little pillow. Cute, huh?

Remember I said I was going to work on FP?! Well, I did it! Yes siree! In fact, all my flowers are stitched! I started it in February 2009, so guess one year to get that much done isn't too bad! I stitch in hand, look how wrinkled that left hand side is! Yikes!

This much of it is backstitched, except for three itty bitty leaves:

This part still needs to be backstitched!

Oh and then there's all those hummingbirds, bees, butterflies and bugs that need to be added!

I still have lots to do before we leave for Hawaii tomorrow! The bathrooms are all clean. The cat has gone to my inlaws (bless their hearts). Livingroom is pretty much picked up. I have piles of clothes for the boys. Cross-stitch stuff is ready. What am I missing?

Oh, just the tiny issue of MY CLOTHES! :) The boys have a birthday party tonight, so that'll give me a good two hour slot to finish packing...okay, start packing.. whatever! DH will be home from NYC tonight at 10:30pm! I'll probably have to do a load of wash for him, and then he needs to pack!

See ya in a week! :)

Heading to Hawaii!!!

2010-02-18T16:15:00.000-08:00

We're heading to Hawaii! My parents are treating me and my siblings to a lovely vacation on the North Shore, near Honolulu! We will all arrive by Saturday night: Mom, Dad; Big Brother and his wife and three girls 13, 7, 4; Dh and myself and our two boys: 12 1/2 and 10; Little Single Sister: Little Brother and his wife (who happens to be named Sarah) and their two girls 6 and 3 and a new baby boy 6 months. Can you say full house?!

My part of the family will be there for a week. The rest of them will be there for two weeks. We've done a similar vacation, twice, to an itty bitty town in the Bahamas. We always have a great time together! And a week is perfect for my family! :)

I've got some easy little ornaments all kitted up. It takes a LONG time to fly to Hawaii from NC! We leave on a 6am flight, which means we have to leave our house by 4am at the very, very latest. We'll fly through Texas and Seattle and then on to Honolulu. It will take ALL day!

I debated taking my FP along with me. It's all just backstitch and it would be so easy to work on! But as my darling Luke said: "Mom, I don't think that'd be a good idea!" Smart kid, huh?

So tomorrow will be full of packing and cleaning the house! You know, I can NOT leave on vacation and come home to a messy house! Anybody else have that problem?

I've been debating taking a pause from the ole blogging world! Not sure I'm adding all that much to it anyways. :) So we'll see! After a week in Hawaii, I might just get my blogging groove back!

I hate change!

2010-02-14T14:31:00.000-08:00

Oops, I was trying to give the blog more space to read the posts! lol

Now at least, you can see that my little sister was supposed to be in the picture to begin with! She never was all that much into stitching! :)

So how do I make my picture fill that whole space at the top?

Can I make the print bigger for the name of the blog?

Can I change the color so you can read it better?

I think I might have messed up! LOL

Come on experts...HELP!

Backstitching for hours!

2010-02-13T08:32:00.000-08:00

I finished all the flowers! So now I'm starting on the backstitching! It is going to take forever!!! But it sure makes the flowers look pretty, doesn't it?

I have a grand plan: there are about six pages of this design. Well not six pages, it's really six sections of four pages stuck together. The pattern is huge for this baby! Oh and that's just for the stitching and backstitching, there are another 3-4 pages for all the bugs and bees. So my plan is to backstitch and do all the extras (bugs, bees, butterflies, hummingbirds) on that one page. So then, I won't have to go back to it once I finish it.

The real difficulty with this pattern, is all the backstitching is the exact same color on the chart. But so many flowers and leaves overlap each other, it's hard to know where to stitch which color. And then there's the whole section of animals sitting on leaves and flowers... that also have some backstitching.

So do I backstitch the entire flower, then stitch the bug even though it might overlap on the backstitching some? I don't think I want to backstitch the flower over the bug..... hard to explain, I think I'm just going to try it!

So far so good on sticking with FP! We'll see how long it lasts! :)

We got another 3 inches of snow last night! This sure is strange for NC! Two weekends of snow in a row! This time the snow was really light and fluffy, instead of hard and icy! It stuck to all the trees as it was coming down and it sure looks pretty!

Enjoy your weekend!

Flower Power Update

2010-02-10T09:05:00.001-08:00

Don't be shocked! :) I finally finished the tall pink foxglove flowers:

I am working on my last batch of flowers! The greenery and leaves are all done, just need to fill in these pink and white flowers:

Here's the entire left side, I was sitting on the couch stitching last night when I decided to take a picture. I laid it on my lap and it stretched all the way to my toes! This thing is going to be huge!

I have tons and tons of backstitching to stitch, and lots of bugs, butterflies and hummingbirds. All this time I was thinking they were all over one! I was just really looking at the pattern last night, and all the hummingbirds are stitched over two! YEAH!! :)

I started this Feb 2009, so guess I've made a lot of progress!

I Really Messed Up!!

2010-02-06T10:27:00.000-08:00

Last night around 6pm we got a phone call. Luke's best friend wanted Luke to come spend the night. Technically, in the land of Mommy Law's, I owed a sleepover because Luke had just spent the night there during one of our snow days. So instead of Luke going to his friend's house, the friend came here.

No Problem!

This morning, another friend calls and invites Luke to his house. Well, Luke can't go over there because he has a friend here. So that friend ended up at our house.

No Problem!

But I told DH, as he was on his way to Walmart.... "I really messed up!"

You see, I had two chances to have a quiet stitching day, and instead now I have three, ten year old boys running circles around me! :)

It's okay, so far we've made four official, laminated, name badges! (I messed Luke's up! Figures!) I got to throw rubber balls at Luke and his best friend. And we got to eat pizza bites for lunch!

Oh and I also pulled out my stove (nasty), pulled out my fridge (not so nasty), so all in all, a pretty productive day!

Course, since there are three ten year old boys playing Army outside, there is no telling when I'll be captured! Earlier, they said they were playing terrorists, and I asked Luke to take a few things to our back shed for me. He said, "Fine! We're terrorists with a heart!" Don't we wish they all had hearts? Thankfully they have moved past terrorists, and are now playing Army... with swords!?? Go figure!

Last night, Luke and his best buddy were watching a cartoon version of Star Wars. And his buddy says to Luke, "Oh, I just love this show!! It reminds me of my childhood!" WHAT?? This kid is ten! ha

Hope your afternoon is more quiet than mine will be! Dh is on his way home with our 12 year old! :)

A Few Finishes

2010-02-06T07:51:00.001-08:00

It's been cold and rainy around here lately!! Reminds me of home! (Kodiak, Alaska) I haven't had huge amounts of stitching time, so I've been doing these little one nighters!

Before you think I've given up on FP, I haven't! I just don't like to pull the massive thing out, if I only have an hour or so to stitch!

I finished the pattern for our college intern. Now I need to make a trip to the fabric store, to find the perfect, funky, fabric to make it into a pillow.

It's really all Faye's fault! Or maybe it'd Mylene's! See, I first saw Faye's tree of Valentine ornaments and thought to myself, "Self...you need one of those!" Then over at Mylene's, I saw all these cute little Valentine freebies and thought to myself, "Self...now you have no excuse!"

So I went through my stash of random overdyed threads and picked out the pinks and reds that I wanted to stitch with. I had tons of pinks and muaves and burgundy, but I need to get some REDS! Course that sort of defeats the point of using up stash, doesn't it?!

Love is stitched with Dye is Cast Geranium, Be Mine is stitched with Dragon Dreams' Pink Pansy. I have NO idea where I got that thread, I think in a thread exchange a few years ago. Love is stitched with a GAST thread, but I have no idea which one!

This is the pattern I'm working on now. It's not a freebie, it's a PS from long ago! It's supposed to be stitched in all different colors, but I'm using one over-dyed for the whole thing. I'm stitching with The Dye is Cast thread, Barn Red. It's my favorite of all the Dye is Cast threads. Bummer she isn't doing her threads any more, they are so much nicer to stitch with! Course Victorian Motto Sampler threads are about as nice! :)

I have another row of hearts and vines to put under the last row of abc's. It's supposed to be square, not rectangular! But my fabric doesn't seem to be square! Now that's annoying isn't it?! It's 34 ct. Williamsburg Oyester, from a fancy pantsy LNS, not even cheapo stuff from Joann's or Michael's! LOL

I think it'll be okay once I finish it, nobody but you all will know it's not exactly right! LOL I just will have to back it with sewing fabric, don't you think?

So Faye... Mylene.... Since this is all our fault, I need one of you to provide the tree to hang these on and one of you to finish them all into ornaments! Volunteers?!

Just Kidding! :) Have a good weekend, everybody!

Anybody have this pattern?

2010-02-05T14:01:00.000-08:00

I would love to have this pattern to stitch for my DH. I've heard it was Out of Print. I'm hoping one of my wonderful blog readers might know where I can find one?! :) Thanks!!

BRRR!!!

2010-02-02T13:50:00.000-08:00

Okay, enough of this snow and cold! I live in the south, for heaven's sake! :)

Today is the second snow day, for my boys! No announcement for tomorrow yet, at the most, I think they might have a two hour delay. *Updated! School canceled today for the THIRD DAY!* Some of the side roads are still really icy. So we'll watch the evening news and see what the announcement is!

I have NOT given up on FP! :) But there was another pattern I needed to stitch really quickly! Remember the one with the different threads I was deciding between!? I decided to go with the less bright varigated thread. But when I had stitched the first letter, well it just looked kind of boring!

Then I thought I'd try the color it called for, Turkey Feathers, and thought maybe I would like it better after I actually stitched with it. Nah, too dark and blah, not what I was thinking!

So I stitched a bit with the much brighter thread, and really love how it turned out! I left off the border, and will just make it into a fun little pillow for my friend.

I stitched as much as I could, and ran out of thread! DUH! :) So I've ordered more, and hopefully it matches EASILY! We'll see! When it's finished it will say, "Well behaved women rarely make history!"

So I ran out of thread last night around 11:00pm, and didn't want to go to bed! So I picked up a little Valentine's freebie I saw Mylene stitch! It was such a quick stitch! :) I just used some Victorian Motto red thread and the brown is a Crescent Colors, I think! Want the pattern?

Remember the original thread my pattern called for....Turkey Feathers. (a silk thread) What else could I use it for? How about a Turkey Freebie!? So I'm a little early for the season, but the Turkey is cute!! :) The pattern for him is on the same page as the Valentine's pattern.

Back to FP!

Weekend Cancelled

2010-01-29T16:05:00.001-08:00

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?

2010-01-28T09:50:00.000-08:00

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....

2010-01-21T16:45:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-01-18T12:27:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-01-15T13:49:00.001-08:00

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!

2010-01-14T04:18:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-01-08T11:16:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-05T10:49:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-04T10:40:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-02T09:30:00.000-08:00

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! :)

Happy New Year!!!

2009-12-31T05:59:00.001-08:00

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

2009-12-23T19:46:00.000-08:00

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?

2009-12-21T22:30:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-20T20:31:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-12-19T17:40:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-15T11:06:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-12-14T08:56:00.000-08:00

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!!!

2009-12-10T18:57:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-08T15:43:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-04T19:20:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-03T22:11:00.001-08:00

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

2009-12-03T07:49:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-28T13:19:00.001-08:00

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

2009-11-26T06:39:00.000-08:00

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??!!

2009-11-23T13:09:00.000-08:00

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!

Nothing But Stitching

2009-11-21T21:20:00.001-08:00

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

2009-11-19T19:14:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-11-18T15:22:00.001-08:00

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?

2009-11-16T09:24:00.001-08:00

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

2009-11-12T18:20:00.000-08:00

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

Retreats are for Stitching

2009-11-11T08:54:00.000-08:00

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.

back:

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

2009-11-09T19:04:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-04T12:57:00.001-08:00

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

2009-11-01T15:45:00.000-08:00

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.

Are You Bored???

2009-10-30T22:06:00.000-07:00

It's late Friday night, well okay, it's early Saturday morning. And I'm sure you all have much more exciting lives than I do! :) But as I was looking around Facebook, I found this video.

Kodiak, Alaska is the town where I was born and lived for twenty years. And it's pretty awesome. It's really strange actually. Growing up there, was never any big deal...it's just what it was. But looking at something like this video, compared to where I live now, makes me really realize what I had.

I admit I watched a lot of it in fast-forward, it's long...almost six minutes. But the first few minutes are so pretty!

I think I'm going to call it a night. Enjoy if you feel like it! :) You won't hurt my feelings if you don't, cause I'll never know!!

I Heart Coupons

2009-10-29T10:43:00.000-07:00

Have I ever told you that I love coupons?! I just hate to pay full price for anything... (well, maybe for cross-stitch, does that ever go on sale?!)

Anyway, we have some stores here that double coupons on a regular basis, and sometimes triple them. I got some great deals today! :) I'm sure you really want to know what they were, so I'm going to tell you!

Box of Cheerios $3.00----I paid .58
Canned Chicken $1.99----I paid .55
Little individual microwave Chef Boyardee $1.15----I paid .11
Deodorant....I paid .25
Frozen Tony Pepperoni Pizza $1.49----I paid .11

Just a sampling, I don't want to be a total nerd and admit I remember lots of the prices. I mean, if it's a good deal, how can you forget that?!

I walked out of Harris Teeter with four bags of groceries, and paid a little over $10. Walked out of Kroger with six bags and paid about $15. I just happened to walk into Kroger when they brought two cart fulls of "damaged" product out front. I got lots of stuff for .50, and the only problem was the box was dented on the side. Even got something for the kitty: Organic Cat Food $5.99-----for $1.25. I only bought one bag and there were two there, what was I thinking??!!

Went to the gym today, went to four grocery stores total, took my youngest to lunch....quite a busy day so far! No time for stitching, but I'm hoping to make up a bunch of cording this afternoon to finish up some of the ornaments I have put together, but not finished completely.

I finished three more little ornaments last night, I just used the biscornu method of connecting backstitch to put them together. Boy, are the cute! In fact, maybe my favorite so far. I'll post a picture later, first I've got to go unpack groceries!

p.s. if this bores you like it bores everyone I know, just act interested! that's what Mike and the boys do! Now if I call my Grandma (age 92) she'll be excited! Well, at least she's a good actor!

Happy Fall Ya'll

2009-10-27T06:27:00.000-07:00

We had a great weekend at the beach! Perfect weather...we had one downpour, and I mean a soaker! But it happened when the 200+ teens and their leaders were inside with their groups. Perfect timing.

On the way back, we passed this little pumpkin stand and thought we might buy one of their huge pumpkins.

When we got out of the car and saw the sticker price of $35-40 for each pumpkin, we figured we'll settle for a few cute pictures!

As you can tell the boys were FREEZING! I think the temperature, after a two hour drive from the beach, must have been at least twenty degrees cooler! And it was windy too-check out Luke's new do!

Luke-who desperately needs a haircut, but I'm not ready to fight that battle!
Andrew, who absolutely lives in this green jacket!

What?! A nice picture of them together?! I think they were too cold to put up a fight!

You've probably seen this a million times! But last year, when we passed this same stand, it was the first time EVER I'd seen real pumpkins grown in a real field! (I'm from Alaska, don't hold it against me!) As we were leaving, there was a HUGE pumpkin field across the road, I am half tempted to go back just to take a picture! I think it's so neato!

Happy Fall! :)

JCS Ornaments

2009-10-23T06:39:00.000-07:00

Since 2000, I have been buying the JCS Ornament Issue and loving each and every one of them! But I wasn't hardly stitching a single thing out of them. So last year, MD and I decided we ought to start stitching some. Last December that's about all I stitched.

Well, then the problem was I had all of these stitched ornaments that weren't finished into anything. (You know I HATE that part of stitching!) So this month, I decided I've just got to get them done!

Most aren't very fancy, cording is about as good as it gets for me! And some don't even have the cording attached yet, but at least they are stuffed, right?!

You'll have to forgive my little "No Peeking" ornament. I had put him together a few years ago with HOT GLUE and it looked terrible! So I took it apart, but it only left me about four linen threads past the main stitched area to work with. So he's still kind of crooked, but at least he looks decent! I love his cording!

I've wanted to stitch these little boys in the bed for years! And finally got it done. As you can see, I still need to figure out how to finish it off, but I love all the little buttons. The pattern had a boy and girl, but since I have two boys, I changed it. :) And don't you love the little piece of candy?! Yum! I need to find a candy cane button for the middle of the ribbon and two glass round beads. (HEY MD, do you have two glass beads?) And I LOVE the Noel one in the background. Love those colors!

The Santa isn't from JCS and neither is the pink snowman. The snowman was a freebie on line, isn't he a cutie? I love it on the pink fabric! The little red bird was my favorite when he was stitched, not sure he's too great at the moment. These all need little hangers or cording or SOMETHING! But at least they are closer to being finished!

Whoops, I put the cardinal on here twice! I do love him! The poor little deer (he's not from JCS either) I just couldn't figure out how to finish him off. I think I'll stitch with the red and green cording, I like that, and take off the shiny hanger. Oh and the poor little October scarecrow got confused and went into the wrong picture! :) Still need to add triming for these guys too.

Then in adition to all this: JCS decided to do a Halloween Issue last year and boy were there some cute ones! And another one this year, so I had to stitch something from that too! The little witch isn't from JCS, she's a little pattern from somewhere! LOL She was supposed to have a silver charm for a necklace, but I had the little pumpkin and I think he's cute! Can you see the spider on the kitty?

And for when finishing gets way too annoying, I'm working on this project. It's called "A Maker and a Mender". It's gonna be great. The colors aren't as true as they are in their cover picture, but I think they'll be fine. I'm a little worried about how soft the pink is, I might have to change that.

This will go on the back of the project. I just need to finish the vines. This part is all over one.

And here's how it will look when it's finally finished!

Well, I'm off this computer for the weekend. DH has a weekend trip planned for 200+ teenagers at the beach. Hope we don't freeze to death!

Oh, and yes I've spent way too much time finishing ornaments. My house is messy, the boys rooms are terrible, I'm taking care of the bathrooms TODAY, at least my laundry is done, right?!!

Sadly, I still have around ten ornaments to finish off. I haven't even started with any in this years JCS ornament issue. I'm making myself finish the others first! I have to give one up for an exchange at my stitching retreat in a few weeks...whichever one will I give up?!

Have a great weekend ladies!

The Travelling Sisterhood is on her way to the UK! I mailed her yesterday.

Unfortunately Sara....

2009-10-21T18:34:00.000-07:00

So I was over at Monique's blog and she suggested that you go to Google and type in "unfortunately" followed by your first name....

Here is my favorite one:
"Unfortunately, Sara's is trying to be too many things and ends up being mediocre overall."

HMMM???

Luke was back to school today for a half day. And tomorrow is a full day of field trips, which I volunteered for. Today I learned it is going to be a two mile walk/hike back to the "rock" and two miles back! What was I thinking??!!! I prefer the mall field trips!

He's not patiently waiting for me to come lay down with him for a few minutes, it's our Wednesday night ritual!

I've been finishing lots of ornaments, I'll post some pictures soon. Sure wish I was more creative! I'd still rather be stitching then finishing!!

She's Ready to Travel...Sort of!!

2009-10-19T06:13:00.003-07:00

Here she is! :) And she's ready to travel! This time she will be going to the great country of ENGLAND to visit Carol R. There is an itty, bitty, tiny issue! My youngest has managed to get the flu somewhere over the weekend. So we are stuck in the house for the next few days at least! She will be mailed as soon as he goes back to school. Hopefully by Wednesday or so!

In case you were wondering, no she does NOT have a nose! LOL She did have one, but we did some cosmetic surgery and removed it! I like it much better this way!

The first picture shows the colors much clearer, don't you love that red?! I love how the red changes shades! But here she is in her full glory! (well maybe her full, fuzzy glory! didn't want to spend too much time taking a perfect picture!)

I've loved every minute of her visit with me! It's great fun to be included in the journey! I loved all the visitors that she brought to my blog. Hope you will stick around!

On a side note: I've been invited to stitch with some ladies who do quilts for sick children. I first learned about them through the 123mb. There is a little boy Sam, age 8, out there that is really sick. They are making him a cool quilt! Here is my square! :)

And there's another little fellow out there who will be receiving a Cars quilt! Here's Flo!
She is stitched on 11ct aida with 3 strands of DMC! Quite a change from my over one stitching! :)

CAROL R I guess you need to email me with your address! Congrats!

Check me Out! :)

2009-10-17T14:24:00.001-07:00

How cool am I?! :) Nobody answer that please! But go check out an old finished piece on the designer's page!

Come on, now that's cool!

Last Day to Sign Up!

2009-10-15T03:35:00.001-07:00

Yup, she's gonna get ready to hit the road bright and early Monday morning. So end of today is the last chance to sign up! Can't believe 76 people want her, she must feel special! I've gotten to check out some new and very cool blogs from all the comments on that post!

Thanks for stopping by! I'll let you know, by posting here sometime over the weekend, where she is going next!

Framing

2009-10-14T07:40:00.000-07:00

My mom was here visiting and decided that she wanted to frame some of the piles of cross-stitch I had under the bed! :) Such a great mom I have, right?

This one is the PS Nativity, stitched over one. I just love how the green frame goes with the fabric.

This is by LaDDa also stitched over one. It is stitched on hand-dyed fabric, but the streak on the left isn't that dark, at least I didn't notice that it was! LOL

This is an old Dimensions kit that I stitched in 2007. It's a countdown for Christmas, oh an advent calendar! I forgot what it was called. (and it's stitched on 14 ct. aida..HORRORS! lol)

See there are numbers behind each ornament. All the itty bitty ornaments are stitched on plastic canvas. (ick) and are to be taken off and put on a tree to count down the days. I'll probably just leave it as it is and add it to my nativity collection!

I forget who this nativity is by. I thought it was kind of goofy, until I realized the meaning behind it! It has to do with an old hymn, course at the moment I forget what it says! I'm going to attach it to the back of the frame, so I won't forget. I forget who this one is by. There are white snow flakes that at as a border, but you can't really see them in this picture.

This is an OLD OP chart, that my bestest friend MD and I both stitched. It's called A Present For Sewing Well. You can't see it too well, but you can see the size of it!

I really came upstairs to upload the picture of my finished Traveling Stitcher, but realized I haven't taken a picture of her yet! I'll do that later today!

Thanks for looking.

Ornament Finishes

2009-10-12T11:22:00.000-07:00

So I was a little worried that nobody would find my blog to sign up for the Traveling Stitcher! But guess I was wrong! I'll have a name to pass it along to by Friday.

I have a huge pile of stitched ornaments that have got to be finished! So I did a few this weekend. I am feeling a little more comfortable...I even sewed my trim on! I'm so proud of myself, I usually use fabric glue! (shh)

This poor little guy has been sewn and ready for almost a year, all I needed to do was sew the opening closed. Then I found this little ribbon and decided to add that instead of my usual cording! He's from an old JCS ornament issue.

This lovely guy was a freebie from Daffycat! I tried a few different combos for the cording before I got it about right.

This is a freebie out there somewhere, both are backed with the same fabric. Wasn't it a perfect match? I probably should have used a lighter brown for the reindeer, but I stitched him before I saw the fabric.

This little guy was a freebie on the internet. The pictures don't do it much justice! The fabric is a dyed brown with little spots of pink, and the thread matches it just perfectly. The four sides are stitched, a freebie online. The top and bottom are empty.

Oops I can see I need to push some pins down!

Everyone needs a stitched cherry pie, right? This has been stitched a long time, but took forever to find the right size pan! And to make the cording fit right, etc! I have no idea what to do with it, I just wanted it! :) It's from an old magazine, not sure which one!

This is my first circle EVER! I'm still trying to decide what to do with the edges, I'm going to ask my friend MD tomorrow.

My mom was here for a few days, and we took a bunch of stuff to the framers! She called and they are ready, after only about five days at her shop. I'm going to go pick them up tomorrow and meet MD for lunch! :)

Stitching and friends, can't beat that!

She's Ready to Travel!

2009-10-11T09:04:00.000-07:00

Check out the cool funky fabric I happened to have that matched just perfectly! And even made some trim today!

Alright Ladies! :) She is ready to travel! She's no longer topless..and is ready to get moving!

At the moment my camera is misplaced! It's not lost, at least I don't think it is! Not sure how long I'll leave the contest open, I guess we'll see how many responses I get in the next few days. I'll wait at least until next Friday to draw a name. Just leave a comment on this post, make sure I can get your email from your post. Can't wait to see where she travels next!

(picture coming soon, I hope!)

Below is her journey! :)

Harmien in the Netherlands (November 3, 2007)

She sent it to Lili in France (June 17, 2007)

Who sent it to Barbara in Malaysia (June 25, 2007)

Who sent it to Tessa in Australia (July 16, 2007)

Who sent it to Lizzy in North Carolina, U.S. (February 26, 2008)

Who sent it to Barbara in the Netherlands (March 11, 2008)

Who sent it to Sarah (no blog) in Ohio, U.S. (April 11, 2008)

Who sent it to Anna in Pennsylvania, U.S. (May 28, 2008)

Who sent it to Wendy in Ontario, Canada (July 4, 2008)

Who sent it to Sue in Michigan, U.S. (August 2, 2008)

Who sent it to Jennifer in Pennsylvania, U.S. (September 2, 2008)

Who sent it to CJ in Texas, U.S. (October 25, 2008)

Who sent it to Claire in Nova Scotia, Canada (January 20, 2009)

Who sent it to Kathy in Arizona, U.S. (February 18, 2009)

Who sent it to Carol in Indiana, U.S. (March 15, 2009)

Who sent it to Carolyn in California, U.S. (May 20, 2009)

Who sent it to Sharon in Oklahoma, U.S. (August 8, 2009)

Who sent it to Jill in Minnesota, US (??not sure what date!)

Who sent it to Sara (me) in North Carolina, NC (September 2009)

Who to sent it to ????????

Leave a comment and we'll see where she goes next!

On a side note: This is the biggest xstitch sin, to me! Check out how much fabric I wasted! What was I thinking? Maybe I had planned to stitch her over two? I'm going to carefully cut her out and then use the rest of the fabric for little ornaments or fobs or something! I HATE wasting linen!

Quick Question

2009-10-10T16:26:00.000-07:00

I have some pictures I want to show you guys, but how do I make a new post, but keep the contest post at the top of the page?

When I find out the answer, I'll delete this post so the contest can be at the top again! I'm loving all my readers! :)

Here She Is! :)

2009-10-01T07:40:00.000-07:00

Ta Da!

She's almost topless at the moment, but at least she's not headless anymore!

As you can tell, I had stitched the words in green, but the r and t just really blended into the skirt colors. Who knew that green would blend into purple? So I found this brighter pink/red color and wanted to make sure it wasn't going to do the same thing. So I frogged the r and t to make sure, before I frogged all of it!

I think the red will be fine, I still like the green better, but I wanted to be able to read the words too!

I'm going to do the border on the bottom that she stands on, in green and the leaves between the words will be green too. So I think it will all work fine.

Now, I just have to frog all that green, over one stitching!!

She's pretty tiny. I just grabbed a random piece of fabric, and it's got to be 32 or maybe 36. I'm hoping to be done this week and start the drawing by the weekend. We'll see if it works according to plan!

My momma comes to town on Saturday. Today is going to be spent cleaning and straightening up! Hopefully I'll be able to stitch a few hours at some point today!

Sisterhood Pattern

2009-09-30T22:17:00.000-07:00

Yup, I started it the other day! She was hanging around headless, but she had her fancy shoes on! So I definitely had to fix that! It was getting a little weird! :)

I picked an awesome color for the wording, and stitched the bottom half of the words. (all over one, mind you!) And when I started putting the skirt on her, the r and t from Comfort just blended in to the dress too much! So I tried a new color and am going to go with that. Only now I have to frog all that over one wording! UGH! :)

But the pretty little stitcher is all stitched. She's a cutie!

Keep watching, she'll be ready to hit the road soon!