A busy week

Where did the week go?! Hmm? Anybody?!

#1 We have a slight scheduling conflict at our house today! Andrew is in middle school and they get out at 2:15, Luke is in elementary and they get out at 3:45. Usually it works just fine, Andrew and I head to school to pick up Luke about 3:20. Well, Andrew wants to stay after school to watch a teacher vs. middle school team basketball game. Sounds like fun, right? Well, it ends at 3:30. Which just creates a real problem at our house! :) If I wait until 3:40 to go to the school to get Luke, I will wait in line at least 45 minutes and he will be the last child picked up and he will be furious! (trust me, I know!) If I pick Andrew up early at 3:20, then he misses most of the game and he will be furious!!

The middle school is only about a mile from our house, and I might have considered letting Andrew walk home... IF we hadn't just had an ARMED HOME BREAK-IN directly across our street this Wed! So that's out of the option...

So Luke has the perfect solution: "Hey Mom! You could just come early and sit in the car pick up line and be the first one to get me." (this will mean a 45 minute wait for ME!) Luke continues on with his solution:"You could bring your cross-stitch....it IS what you do best!"

Should I be offended? LOL

#2 I can't find anything to stitch! I have a million choices... but nothing was feeling right this week! I finally decided to stitch a nativity pattern by Erica Michaels that I've sort of been wanting to stitch. Actually, when I bought it, I wasn't even sure I liked it! But I was afraid if I didn't buy it..I'd want it really bad and not be able to find it! So I started it... and I do like it! But then I went to CVS and bought two chocolate heart boxes and so I really wanted to start that candybox pattern from the old cross-stitch magazine! So now I have two new WIP's to add to the ever growing pile!

#3 And I finally ordered the fabric for Flower Power and am anxiously waiting for that to come, so I can get started on the big Flower Power. And that's probably how my problem with #2 started!

#4 I started my Friendship Sampler RR...finally! I'm the grand leader of this thing, and I think I was the last to get started! We mail the end of this month, so about time!

#5 I'm going to our church tonight to help the youth babysit for the adults that are watching a movie: Fireproof (?-I think) Mike (DH) and Luke will stay home and do something because according to Andrew it is WAY too embarrassing to have your entire family show up to a youth event! Do ya think he remembers what his Dad does for a job??! (works with youth all summer, for those who don't know!) I told Andrew the other day, that I realize we've reached the point where I embarrass my kid..but to rest assured he had embarrassed me a million times! He said to tell him five times: Hmm.. I couldn't think of any! Guess that was Luke! Course I didn't tell him that!

I'll take pictures soon.. promise! Have a great weekend! This is our one and only weekend where something isn't planned through the end of May!!

A little piece of Alaska

Did I ever tell you that my Dad got sick out at his camp? I am from an island in Alaska, called Kodiak. My dad's camp is way out in the middle of nowhere on the other side of the island. There is a beach in front of it, when the tide is out..but it is very sheltered. A friend of my brother's took this picture. It is taken from the top of the mountain that sits behind the cabin. Can you see the green roofs of the cabins, way down by the water? Isn't that cool? You might need to click on the picture to see it better!


And here is my baby brother: Sam. He's the one I made the bear cross stitch for! This picture is taken a few miles from camp, I think!

Last of the Ornaments

Here are the last of the ornaments! :) I think I'm done for a little while at least...and I'm not going to go back and look or I'm sure I'll find more I want to stitch! These are all from JCS, but I have no idea what issues...if you are dying to find out, let me know and I'll look through and see where it came from!

This one is called The Decorator:

Oh wait, I fibbed! This one is a freebie online, the designers name is Helga, but I forget the last name. She has lots of freebies out there. You can't really tell but it's stitched on really pale pink fabric, love it!

This little snowman is stitched on 9ct in the issue, so looks a lot different on small count fabric!

Pretty sure this one is an Erica Michael's Design. I was shocked, cause to me it looks more like a Prairie Schooler. It is supposed to be stitched with handdyed silk fabrics, but I'm cheap and just used DMC!

This one is by Country Cottage and I really like the pinks and greens, don't you?

Did I show you this one already? It's another Erica Michael's..I still need to add beads along the inside border. I used all the threads called for on this one. It was my first whole project done with ______ threads. Drat, I can't think of the name of them..not WDW, not Sampler, but...

Of all the ornaments in all the books, this is the one I most wanted to stitch. And in the end, I like it the least! For one, I accidentally did it on 32ct instead of 36 ct and it just seems way too big. One is supposed to be a girl, but I changed it to two boys since that is what I have! :) It took the longest out of all of them, most counting, most stitching...and I liked it the least! Bummer...

See how everything is perfectly symmetrical, and then see how the teddy bear is off centered? It was designed like that, but I don't think I like it too much like that! I need to add some JABC buttons around the pillows, little candy mints and gingerbread boys...that might help it out some.

This poor little fellow is waiting for some red fuzz to finish his scarf!

And this was one of those last minute ones, and I just LOVE it! Might even be my favorite! I used plain old DMC, because it called for about ten overdyed threads, and I didn't love it that much at the time! Lots of blending in the pattern too.

And NO HEATHER, it's not the same as this ornament:
Very similar, yes! :)
And here they all are! Wonder if they'll ever make it into actual ornaments?!!

And last but not least. This is part of the I Made A Snowman pattern. There will be three of these little panels, that you connect together like a little storybook. When I first started them, I wasn't really thrilled with the border colors. They seemed more Halloween than Winter. But the further I get, the more I think I like it! I do have one more panel done, but finished it after I took the pictures last night!

DH made it safely to Budapest! Last I heard they were driving into Ukraine. He'll be home late Sunday night. Luke let the news spill that somewhere he is hiding a Valentine's Day card from DH! I didn't stick one in his suitcase...I thought about it, but didn't ever end up doing it. We rarely do anything for Valentine's Day...but I always try to make sure it's "equal"! :) Oh well...he did me one up this time!

Who sent me a package?

Somebody sent me a wonderful little collection of charts. You had emailed me to let me know it was coming, and your email seems to have disappeared! I'd love to give you a formal thank you, but I can't find your email! Hopefully you'll read this and email me?!

I started three new things! I can't help it! I started this first, then I started Scatter Christmas and while I'm waiting on the threads to finish those, I started the snowman storybook. The scatter patterns were my present in November from Pigeon Forge. They are gonna be so cute! :) Quick and easy stitching, and I even received the buttons with the patterns! Yeah! But while I am waiting for the threads, I started the snowman pattern. It's the one on the bottom in the picture. There are three individual patterns that you finish like in an ornament, and then you somehow connect the three with ribbon. Not sure how to do that w/o ruining the fabric, but I'll worry about that later!

Thanks for all the great comments on my nativities! :) I do have the Jim Shore one, well I have Mary and Joseph and Jesus and the shepherds, no wisemen at that party! He makes a tall angel that has the nativity in her skirt, and I'd like to add that to the collection some day! There are a few in the cabinet that I want to take a better picture of: the Alaskan Igloo nativity, my matchbox nativity, Charlie Brown nativity and a few others. I don't have the Little People nativity and I really want that one! Wish I would have gotten in when the kids were little, but oh well! It's so cute! Maybe some day!

DH leaves tomorrow for six days! Hope the boys and I survive...or I mean I hope I survive the boys! Something like that! I told them since their dad would be gone for Valentine's Day they needed to take me out for dinner. Luke said, "Okay cool, Mom! Only one problem... can I borrow some money?"

I have a few more ornaments to share pictures of, and then I think I'm gonna retire the ornament stitching for a while, at least until I find another ornament I want to stitch! Remember that flamingo from JCS a few years ago? I really want to stitch that, but am having a horrible time finding Coral Wisper!

I haven't stitched anything big in a long time, or so it seems! I used to always have at least one big project in my bag! I have debated stitching Flower Power for a few years! I have the chart, just need to invest in some fabric! I think that's gonna be my purchase on my next trip to the LNS. I'm just gonna finish up what I've started and only buy the fabric for FP. Think that'll happen? :)

Monday!

A whole week and nothing especially new to say! :) How about a bunch of random thoughts?

It reached 72 here yesterday, it's supposed to be upper 70's on Wednesday!! I love weather like that!

I had a great stitching weekend! My friend and I went by the LNS on the way to our stitching weekend. I've gone through most of my stash and just made list of what I need to stitch what I already have: fabric or thread or buttons. So at the LNS I just shopped off my list! How boring is that? :) We started stitching around 2:30pm and finally put the needles up around 1:00am. Picked them back up around 8:00am and stitched until a little after 5:00. Of course we took a few minutes to eat, but besides that we just stitched! That's my kind of weekend! I was able to finish one Christmas ornament, and start and finish two others. I need to take some pictures, they turned out really cute!

I finally got my fabric and pattern for the new RR that we are starting the end of Feb. So picking out my threads is a high priority at the moment!

Dh leaves Wed for the Ukraine, he'll be gone until late Sunday night. This Tuesday he is teaching a youth conference in a town 4 hours from here, so basically after tonight, we won't see much of him!

I came home to a letter in my mailbox that announced they have reassigned our base school. That means my poor Luke will have to change schools next year. We have a few options, and we are going to do our best to keep him where he's at. For three main reasons: the new base school is a year around school, that means school is in session during the normal summer. I don't have a problem with that, in fact I liked year around when we were in it years ago. BUT things have changed, first of all...due to Dh's schedule with summer camps we aren't even here during the summer!That's the major problem. Andrew (in Middle School) will stay on a regular school calendar, adn can you imagine juggling that one! :) One's on vacation and one's in school.. YIKES! And that's only my first reason! :) Second reason: if Luke changes schools, this will be his FOURTH elementary school and he will only be entering the 4th grade. I'm telling you I am convinced that he can NOT handle another change. He cried hysterically every day last year, and only this year finally sort of likes school. I can't imagine the horror of trying to change him! :) I forget my third reason for keeping him where he is...the first two are reason enough, don't you think?

We can't do anything about it until May. Then we have one chance, if the response is no...we can go face to face with the school board. So keep us in your prayers. We haven't told Luke, or anybody for that matter! Well, now I've told the world.. if you ever run into Luke...don't tell him!! We are praying that he will be allowed the transfer to stay in his current school, and we won't even have to go into all of this with him!

If they deny us, and he has to change schools... we'll have to cross that bridge when we come to it! I pray we never do!!!

Happy Stitching everybody!

Nativities

So I noticed the other day that this nativity has sticky stuff on the glass, so today I cleaned it. Then I thought I really like this little picture (about 3 by 5), I'll take a picture for my blog. Then I thought...I should take a picture of all my nativities, and the rest is history!:) Almost all of my nativities live in my little hallway half bath! Wierd, I know..but I love it! I also have random nativities throughout the house, so there are pictures of those too!

This is my new favorite shelf. It was perfect to set all my little nativities on.

The wall hanging on the top is hung with pins...shh don't tell! They are all of the Shepherd Bush's Christmas ornaments for the JCS Ornament issues from 2000. Except the first square, I made that up. And they are in order of the Biblical story, not the order they came out in the magazines.

Below that is a hand quilted little piece done by an old internet friends, it was a complete surprise and remains one of my favorites!

These hang on the wall beside the toilet! :)

The real obsession becomes obvious! Under the steps are all these shelves, which turned out perfect for all my nativities! :)

Here is a close up of the bottom shelf. On the floor are some figures from an old magazine pattern. This shelf are the ones that kids can get into!:) Veggie Tales, Playmobile, and the nativity Luke made for a class presention. The one is from Uganda and is made of banana leaves, it shouldn't be on that shelf! :)

The next shelf up: The little one in the front left is from Columbia (an army soldier brought it back for me!), the silver is from Honduras, next is handmade in Brazil, and the last is my lastest from my sister.

On the top shelf: the redish one is from Uganda, next is a handpainted one from Russia..it is a stacking doll with all Nativity themed pieces inside. (skip one) The solid figure is from Egypt! My cousin lived there for a year and got it for me. Next is from Peru, a church member had her mom get it for me as a surprise! It's hand painted inside a gourd, the lid is open.

This is for the pictur above: In the basket are little bells, from Cancun Mexico. That black are thimbles from Vietnam. (I cheated on that one and got it at a local US store!), the little bell is from Amsterdam, the wooden in the back is a handcarved Russian stacking doll, the gold one is real gold from Spain! It was my only present from my parents, they went to Spain last year. That big one is my favorite! :) My MIL picked it out all by herself. It is little children dressed up like in a play, you can see their tennis shoes sticking out of the outfits, and the camel has two kids in it!
If for some reason you need to actually use the bathroom, this is the view you'll see! Nothing really special about them. The largest on the left was my present from the choir I played piano for when we left our last church. It is by Willow Tree.


A few little pillows, aren't the snowman funny?

And these sit on my little nativity stool in the corner.

You are now free to leave the bathroom! :) Right arond the corner is my grandma's old hutch. It is home to the rest of my nativities. You can see the Precious Moments one, my mom gave me that on my first Christmas as a married lady! It started the whole thing! I think you can see the bear nativity that was my second one, from my brother the next Christmas. Then I thought, hmm I should collect these! And look what happened! You can't really see it, but behind the doors is an Alaska themed nativity that sits inside an igloo! And a few snowglobes across the bottom and a bunch more!

Above my couch hangs my real pride and joy! :) The Marbek Nativity!

And on the way upstairs, in the worse location ever sits the very expensive Willow Tree nativity. My mom gave it to me a few Christmases ago. The poor thing is lucky to have survived! My dad broke Joseph and smashed his staff to pieces, my FIL broke the shepherd head off, a little boy I was babysitting dropped the large shepherd and he broke into tons of pieces (the shepherd, not the little boy) The boy looked at me and said, "Mrs. Sara you didn't put that in a very good location!" Well, no duh!! And just today, compliments of ME the wiseman's head fell off! I hand my hands full of laundry and figured I'll grab the dust shirt with my toes and toss it down the stairs. Simple right? Except it landing on the tallest wiseman, knocked him off the shelf, down the stairs, onto the hard wood floor where the poor thing was decapitated! Long live Mary, so far so good with her!!!

So there you have it! The mostly complete collection! I have a few xstitches in the works! :) Hope you enjoyed the tour!

A few finishes

So yesterday, I was reading the 123mb and I ran across this post, that gave a link to this free pattern for hearts! So I just figured, I really needed to do that! A really quick stitch, and a lot of fiddling with the edging later, and here it is! I need to get a keychain to attach to the top and then I"m gonna put it on my stitching bag.

The initial I used is from my grandma's old stitching book! I like to use it whenever I get a chance!

This pattern is from a french site somewhere out there! I had it printed it off years ago, I think. Anyway, I made one for a little Valentine exchange and then I liked it so much, I made myself one. Then I remembered I had pink scissors! :) Perfect!

It's tiny, only about one inch square. I made the cording with three different colors of DMC Perle Cotton. Cute, huh?

A lady on the 123mb knows a woman who lost a twin baby boy soon after birth. So they are making a memory quilt for her. Here is what I stitched, not sure why the fabric looks discolored, I think because I took the picture on the wooden table.

DH= MINUS 80 Pounds! Good for him, huh? I could never do it..I think he looks great!

And last but not least, here is what happens when you let a 9 year old play with your digital camera! You get TONS of pictures like this!!! Poor kid is home sick today, I can hear him hacking up a lung downstairs.

I took a picture of my nativity collection...I'll show that off later, maybe if Luke takes a nap or something!