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....