A Month Already??

My how time flies when you're having fun!  I didn't realize this much time has passed since my last posting!  Right off the bat, lets post some updated pictures: 


Main WIP ~ Footprints

 To the left is a sort of updated picture of my main current project, Footprints.  I've done slightly more since this picture was taken.  It's mostly filled in down to almost the lowest point there is the teal/turquoise/greenish color now.

I've also gotten a jump start on a couple other projects, laying basic "frame work" or borders around edges to prepare for the madness to take place in January... and then there was a change of plans.  A very good friend of mine decided that the 15 in 2012 was going to be a little too wild, so she proposed a different idea, and I agreed with her and fell into step with her idea.  Instead of 15 started the first 15 days of January, we've decided to do 12 for 2012.  We will start a new project or pick up a WIP the first day of January and that's the only thing we work on that month.  On February 1, we start a new project or pick up the next WIP and then we can work on either that one or January's during February and so on...  I still likely won't stand a chance of finishing all 12, but I will stand a chance finishing the smaller large ones.  Naturally, I can't make up my mind what to do when, but at this point the plan is to start my first Mystic Stitch, Safari, on January 1, and that will give me plenty to do all month long!  I've also added an HAED (Heaven and Earth Designs) called The Edge of Night.  This will be such fun and done with some very special friends.

First mailing date for the Round Robin is December 1 or around then!  The next project I'll have is the theme of fairies.  Looking forward to that as I don't recall ever having done a fairy.

That's all I've got going on for now!  Happy stitching!

Stitchy Updates

Well, quite a bit has happened in my stitchy world since my last post.  First off, here's a not quite current picture of one of my WIPs, Footprints.  Since this was taken, I've filled in the holes around the footprint and done a little bit of white on the right side that belongs with the water washing up on the beach.  This is my first time working with evenweave, and so far, I'm loving it!

As it turns out, after I made my last post, I was doing some blog surfing and ran across This Witches Stitches run by a very sweet lady, Jennifer, whom I've had the pleasure to get to know a little bit since then.  It just so happened that her blog had the link to the Facebook for the 2012 Crazy 15 Challenge!  After it was mentioned to me earlier that day and then I stumbled upon the link, I figured it was something fun I was meant to be involved in.  Then began the flurry of activity to pick out 15 projects which has turned out to be quite the challenge in and of itself, let me tell you!  I believe I've changed my mind at least 15 times on that alone!  I simply have too many that I want to do right now.  As it stands now, I have 15 chosen, four of which are kits that haven't been purchased yet!  Amazing, when I have so many as it is that I can't decide between.  Do I think I'll have 15 finished projects at the end of 2012?  Not a chance.  I'm not delusional... but it is meant to be a fun time shared amongst friends, and I'm looking forward to seeing what transpires.  Thankfully, current WIP can be counted among the 15, so there's a couple of those in there.

And the ladies I've met!  I can't tell you what wonderful people I've met, some that I haven't seen in other Facebook groups, and it's almost hard to stay away from such a chatty group of lovely ladies to stay working.  Several of them are doing at least a couple of the projects I have chosen, so it will be fun to encourage each other and see one another's progress.  I will post a list of the 15 that I have chosen off to the side and try to keep updated with the progress of each as we enter January and start on them "for real."  As mentioned, some are WIP, and some probably will be by then, because as it is, I've already purchased one new kit:  Arctic Antics.  This one has beluga whales in it!  My favorite sea mammal, manatees a close second.  I just love their big blubbery bodies and the times we've been to Sea World, I could stand and watch the belugas for hours and hours.

I'm also a huge fan of Noah's Ark, especially in cross stitch (if you can't tell by my stash list), and I got the Teresa Wentzler Noah's Ark sampler kit sorted out and couldn't wait to start it.  So that's now another WIP.  I had a false start on it, realized I had the fabric horizontal and had to take some out, but fortunately, I hadn't gone very far yet, so it was an easy fix.  I have the light blue in the top row of the letters done and no picture yet.  This one is also on evenweave.

A few days ago, I got underway with a round robin put together with some of the ladies from the 2012 Challenge, so that's currently taking a lot of my time.  Unfortunately, no picture of that yet either to share.  My theme is Mickey Mouse and it will be a sort of quilted wall hanging when finished for my daughter who loves Mickey Mouse.  There are five of us in the group.  Other themes in the group:  snowmen, fairies, Christmas trees, and possibly pumpkins (I think she's still undecided on the pumpkins).

So lots going on!  I will try to get pictures posted and make a list of my 15.

Footprints After Five Days

Current progress on Footprints after five days.  Started this the evening of Sept. 25, and this was where I ended last night at bedtime.  Tonight, when things settle down, I'll be moving over to the right and beginning a portion of the "picture," some footprints, beach, and waves.

It seemed so fitting that when I found the center of the pattern, "Lord" was there!  So, the Lord is at the center of this project.  It starts with Him.  I also love that working on this piece gives me peace.  It gives me cause to reflect on what is important in my life, from where I am and should be spiritually and what is important in my life, from God to my family to special people in my life like the special friend that surprised me with this kit in the mail.

If I get visitors here, I'm wondering if anyone has heard of the List of 15 or Crazy 15?  From what I understand, this is where you choose 15 projects and start one on each day, January 1-15th, and then the goal is to complete them throughout the year 2012.  This is something I'm considering.  It certainly would be crazy to start a new one each day of the first 15 of January -- my husband would absolutely think I'd fallen off my rocker for sure, but I've also heard it is a great way to finish up some WIP with a fun goal.  This is the part that interests me most.  I recently updated my album on Facebook for my stitchy stash and have discovered there's way too many to do.  Nothing seems small, so I doubt I'd be able to finish 15 larger ones in the new year.  We shall see... Might be fun.  Happy Stitching!

Finished!

Enchanted Cottage finished as of about a half an hour ago, September 25, 2011.  The cording wasn't as horrible as I imagined it would be and dreaded the whole project, so I'm grateful for that!  I am also a pro at French knots now!

I'm still waiting for my patterns from Mystic Stitch, and I found a couple patterns that I'm going to turn into pillows, one for each of my two younger ones.  Still looking for something of interest for my oldest... sports cars maybe, if I ever find some of those.  My daughter will be getting cupcakes, my baby a pillow with farm animals, both from the same past issue of Cross Stitch Gold.

I've got threads sorted to start the next in line... so much for finishing some WIPs lol  I'll be starting Footprints tonight.  It came in a kit from a friend of mine and has evenweave... another first.  Excited to try it!  Happy stitching!

Almost to another finish...

Closing in on another finish... at long last.  This picture was as of last night.  I was able to do a little work on it today, so currently, what there was to do on the pathway is finished as well as filling in most of the left side and some yellow along the edge of the house on the right.  I still have a bit of green and the detailing to do.  There seems to be a ton of French knots in this, so I'm not looking forward to those :S

Today was my friend/coworker's baby shower, so she finally received Baby Monkers and loved it.  I'm so glad... I wasn't completely thrilled with the frame job I did on it, but she was happy, and that's what counts the absolute mostest.... her due date is November 8, but she and her boyfriend are getting a place as of October 1 and setting up the nursery immediately.  Should look wonderful amongst her many other monkey-themed items!

On another note, my stash groweth... Three words:  Mystic Stitch sale.  After looking for a day and a half off and on, I determined the six I couldn't bare to go on without and purchased the patterns in the B3G3F deal... SO excited to get those.  My husband teased me about what I would do in 2034 when I only have 100 or so left that I'm planning to do lol.... could be a worse habit/hobby/addiction!  I'll have to add those to my official To-Do Niche list eventually.

Until next time.... happy stitching to all!

A peaceful setting...

Enchanted Cottage kit, progress as of September 9, 2011, prior to the start of the weekend stitch-a-long (SAL).

I think I've got my next bigger project decision made, too.  Over a year ago, I was involved with what is called a round robin.  In our case, we were a group of four people, two in the United States, one in Canada, and one allll the way down under in Australia.  We mailed our pieces around until everyone had stitched on each other's in the owner's chosen theme.  Mine was tropical, and I ended up with tropical birds, but I love it all the same.  It was during this process of the round robin that I fell in love with my next project:  cupcakes!  The lady in Australia, now a good friend of mine, had the cupcakes for her round robin theme.  There were actually nine of them, and we were to stitch one cupcake.  This came out of a magazine that she had, and I love it!  I can't wait to make this into a pillow for my little daughter, Savannah.  I've had the threads and the pink aida purchased for a very long time.  At long last, I got a hold of the pattern!  Yay!  But, I did promise myself that I wouldn't start on it until I got the Enchanted Cottage finished, so at least I'm motivated!

To the right is a picture of my finished round robin from 2009-2010, the first I took part in.  I'm so glad it was such a good experience; I've heard such horror stories about some of them!

Below is a picture I took after adding my cupcake to my friend's project, to give an idea of the "cupcake pillow."

Anyone who knows me, knows I also greatly enjoy TV and movies.  So excited for some of the new series coming this fall, but really bummed about the cancelling of Hellcats. 

Yeah, that was a bit random, wasn't it?  haha... So glad it's Friday!  It's the weekend of another Facebook friend's SAL, so I'm hoping to dig into Enchanted Cottage and have more progress to post on Monday!  Happy stitching, everyone!!

Currently stitching...

Nothing overly fabulous in the works at the moment.  I picked up one of the various WIPs I have in the works and have been fiddling with that when I'm able to while trying to decide what I want to do next "for real."  I've decided I really want to work on my HAED Noah's Ark, but since it is such a large project, it's difficult to do with a toddler cruising the furniture, curious about what Mommy has, so in the meantime, I'll continue working on the smaller project.  It's Enchanted Cottage, one that I realized I hadn't even included in my To-Do Niche!  I thought I would share the last picture I had taken of it, from back near the beginning of February 2011.  Yikes, it's been in the works way too long... time to finish it up!  There's only a little bit more done on it now -- I'm a few stitches shy of finishing the flowers within the black border.

~Enchanted Cottage, as of February 3, 2011~

I'm not sure why I set it aside for so long.  I am a little leery of the "something new" with this kit.  There's thread to make a cording that goes around the oval when completed.  I'm nervous about how to do this and have it look good or whether it'll be all goofy looking and then ruined when I try to undo it and fix it.  I may simply go buy my own cording to afix to it so that I won't have to contend with both the twisting in making my own with the threads included as well as trying to figure out how to afix it properly... only time will tell how that comes out, I suppose.

Happy stitching to all!

Once Upon a Weekend...

Ever have one of those weekends that you wished you could rewind and just sleep through instead?  Yeah, whatever could go wrong this weekend, DID.  Among some minor things, I don't know how many times I had a bit of a mistake on the stitching and had to unstitch... that's no fun for any of us to realize our small imperfections, but we know that we can't live knowing that mistake would be in our work, even if others wouldn't.  The weekend was filled with eventful incidents, among them my daughter possibly either dislocating her shoulder or fracturing her collarbone and my 12-year-old son getting sick in the car.  At this point, both are feeling much better, thank God.

It doesn't hold a candle to those over on the East Coast.  My thoughts and prayers have been with you all this weekend.  The hubby and I have kept tuned in to the news and can't believe the damage done.  I hope that as waters recede and more and more survey the damage, it is done with care and safety to your person above all else.

On a good note this weekend, I did stumble onto a couple of prizes at garage sales.  I picked up a Minnie Mouse for my daughter for $1.00.  How awesome to find this, the one toy I desperately wanted to get her at Disney and couldn't see paying the $20.00 at the gift stores for this little stuffed Minnie.  So that was quite the find!  I'm also pleased that I managed to find a couple of cross stitch charts for a quarter each:

They're charts for somewhat larger projects -- 13 x 10 inches and 12.25 x 10 inches -- and I'd prefer kits, but they're cute, and I couldn't pass up a quarter!  If nothing else, maybe they'll make some cute little gifts in Christmas cards this year for some favorite stitchy friends.

I also found another project of a different breed, something brand new that I've never done before.  It is a full kit, a felt Christmas stocking kit.  I'm not sure when I'll begin this as I already have so much in progress, but some day.... I certainly have the patience, so I'll try my hand at it:

I haven't yet decided which child it will be for, and if it turns out, it will have to be equal, so I'll have to buy two more suitable for the other two, naturally! 

Last, but certainly not least, I had a finish today!  I finally finished the two little monkeys for my friend's baby's nursery.  Her baby shower is on Sept. 18, so I have plenty of time to get a frame and get it wrapped up and ready to go for her along with the other couple of things I have to go with it.  I'm sure she'll be quite pleased!

Now to decide what's next.... I have several projects in the works already and should do one of those.  I have another friend expecting and have a pattern picked out for her that I'd like to do, but until I get to the store for thread, I think I'll have to satisfy myself with a current WIP.  I'm thinking possibly Noah's Ark Christmas -- over on the right is a WIP picture.

Vacations and stitches and news... oh my!

First and foremost comes the stitching news -- here's the current progress on the monkeys for my friend.  I best get it done, too... I've discovered that her shower is on September 18, so it needs to be ready to roll!  They're coming along, taking shape.  I had to do some major unstitching the other night when I wasn't paying attention and accidentally added an extra small row of seven whole stitches.  Amazing how bad a little mistake can throw you off like that.  All is in order now!  Hoping to finish my current color tonight (DMC 435) during America's Got Talent.

Which brings me to my next topic:  my favorite summer show, America's Got Talent.  Tonight is the big wild card show.  SO excited to see Seth Grabel (magician) have another chance and hope he gets through this time!  Sending out some good vibes for the Summerwind Skippers, too.

Saturday we got home from a wonderful vacation to sunny Florida.  We spent a few days at the beach and then went on to Orlando and soaked up the sunshine (and some rain) at Sea World and Disney.  We had two days at each, one extremely hot and one rainy at each park.  Everyone had a blast, and my littlest, not even 8 months old yet, was so good riding around in the heat in a stroller for the better part of a day.  On our last day at Disney, we were at Disney Hollywood Studios where I experienced the scariest ride of my life:  the Twilight Zone's Tower of Terror.  Literally thought I was gonna die lol...

Here's the view that we saw as this horrible invention launched us up an elevator chute and then let us drop again before doing it again and again.  I'm still not sure how I managed to get a photo.  I imagine I gripped my camera in fear and accidentally hit the button haha... what you don't see is me screaming like a banshee.  In all seriousness, it was like an elevator shaft inside what was supposed to be an old abandoned motel.  The elevator doors at the height of this shaft in the Tower of Terror would open, so all you could see was this and it made it feel like you were launched out of the ceiling... I've never been so scared.  Would I do it again?  Yep! haha

Me with my darling kids and Mickey Mouse from Fantasia!  My daughter was overjoyed to finally meet Mickey.  This was towards the end of the day, our last day at Disney.  She ran right up to him and gave him a huge hug.

Next is the ornies I received back from my partners in our Christmas in July exchange.  They'll look lovely on our tree this year!

Last, but not least, we made an offer on a house today.  Our littlest was a surprise to us, so we've been getting tighter and tighter in our current home.  The one we found is just on the edge of our small town and gives us a country feel and has a huge yard for the kids to play in.  Keep your fingers crossed for us, please!

That's all for now -- happy stitchin' everyone!

Christmas in July Finishes

It seems as though I've been working on these little items for ages, but it's only been about six weeks or so.  These items came about from a Christmas in July exchange I got involved in.  Always one to have a creativity spaz attack, I ended up with not one ornament for each person I'm exchanging with but several little items since my mind wouldn't stop coming up with ideas, and I couldn't decide.

The ornaments that started it all:

Bookmarks--A brand new experience for me. The fringe on the bottom one is courtesy of my wonderful husband. I was going to leave it with just the ribbon. I'm SO glad he suggested something for the ends... looks much better. The top one is my favorite -- the colors, the beaded "ribbon." I really like how it turned out!

Magnets -- creative experiment number two. The top is stitched on aida with green and silver ribbon on the sides. The bottom is stitched on perforated plastic. Both are fit nicely into 4x6 photo magnet holders. I have a few of them here and since I couldn't get to the store to buy stuff to secure to the back to make magnets (or even know what to look for), I figured this was a clever solution.

Satchets -- yet another first. Both are stuffed with "Ocean Breeze" potpourri. I suppose with Christmas in July, "Evergreen" would have made more sense, but I wasn't thinking at the store. I was thinking more about vacation in Florida, so "Ocean Breeze" it was.

Finally, some finishes to post on my blog.  I'll be working furiously on the monkeys for my friend over the next week or so.  If it isn't finished before we leave for Florida on August 2, it will be going with me... they'll be going with me.  I won't pretend I'll have it done by then.  I will be bringing along another WIP just in case I'm able to finish that one up while we're off relaxing.... too bad the beach is so sandy.  It would be an awesome spot to stitch!

TGIF tomorrow!

It's been a long week!  Sometimes it seems I just never get enough sleep.  I managed to finish the last bit of stitching that will become a satchet last night.  I've dug my sewing machine out of the storage closet.  I was hoping to put it to use tonight, but the kids were a bit on the wild side tonight... the one usually is... and hubby and I decided tomorrow night I'll do the sewing and creating that I need to do on my little ornies, magnets, bookmarks, and satchets.  That'll put be back to working on on the monkeys for my friend.  I did a bit of stitching on it tonight in between snuggling with the baby.  Another day of work tomorrow with an early start again... gotta save up that overtime for vacation.  Only 12 days until we're on a plane (and getting felt up by TSA)!  Woohoo!

Christmas in July

Almost finished with the most recent exchange.  I actually got a jump start on it back in June and wasn't sure what the exchange was going to entail for sure.  I thought it was to be similar to a Christmas gift exchange, not necessarily something Christmas themed.  Once I discovered exactly, I couldn't decide between stitching a magnet or stitching an ornament, so I decided on both -- the ornaments were small enough, so why not?  Somewhere in there, I discovered that last year some of the participants didn't receive an item back when they only exchanged with one person, so the organizer of the event decided, quite rightly, for each person to have two exchanges.  The items I've got going will find good homes.  As always, I've gone overboard.  My two recipients are both overseas in the UK.  Each will receive an ornament for their tree, a Christmas-themed magnet, and each will also get two Christmas "gifts" from me:  a bookmark and a satchet with some potpourri... neither an actual Christmas theme, more so just for fun.  Most of my items need me to get out my sewing machine, which I hope to do tomorrow evening possibly, for finishing.  I just busted out my serger a few days ago and surged up a pair of shorts for my daughter for our upcoming vacation (the shorts are also in need of my other machine for the hems and elastic to be put in, so I'll be a busy little seamstress this weekend, hopefully!  Pictures to be posted eventually....

All Things Stitchy...

Finally, a blog!  I've wanted to do this for awhile now, to have a place to post and share all things stitchy, have a place to brag and whine, depending on how current projects are going.  I've been sharing everything on Facebook for a long time, but some things have to wait to be shared there because of participating in exchanges or making gifts for people.  I'm hoping to connect with some other crafty people as well :)