Goodbye 2011....Hello Crazy January!

Whew, what a year of ups and downs 2011 has been! I am so ready for a new year! I joined the Crazy January Challenge for 2012....we get to start a new project for each day in January. So in a mad dash to at least finish one or two old UFO's I got out moms moose and decided I'd try to finish it in time to give for Christmas.

I did make that goal!! Yay me! And here's mom with the finished and framed moose on Christmas Eve.......

Since I did so well with finishing moms moose I thought a new goal should be set. So the next old UFO in my bag was Alla Turca. I was hoping to have it finished by midnight today. Well, I did it....and I have a little over 4 hours to spare!!
I am so proud of sticking with my goals on these two projects. I've been really bad with keeping up this year and have slacked off alot in my crafting. For 2012 my goal is to enjoy doing more of the crafts I love and to keep up a bit better.

I hope 2012 brings everyone better and brighter things, good health and happiness. Happy New Year everyone!

December Already?

Wow! I can't believe it's the first of December already! Seems like this year has just flown by so fast! So much has happened over this year it feels like a roller coaster ride.

I have been busy with my stitching over the last month or two. I recently "taught" a class at my local LNS on how to make a biscornu. That was a big step for me since I don't do crowds or people very well. I am glad I did it though, it took me out of my comfort zone and I needed it. This is one of the biscornu we did......

Here's the top view....the pic does not do this one justice. It's very elegant looking in person and I think it's one of the nicer ones I've done. I believe the chart was a freebie from flossbox.com
Next up is a round robin. I was the final person in this round so I got to do the patriotic snowman....it was a nice change since it's fall and I've been seeing so many fall type things lately.
Here is the entire piece all finished with everyone's stitched parts. Isn't it adorable?! I believe this is a stoney creek chart...not sure though.
Next we have my round robin that was returned to me. I love the way it turned out! The ladies did an awesome job. Just need to iron it and finish it into *something*...just not sure what yet. Any ideas?
I have three options rolling around in my head....a holiday pillow, frame it or turn it into a flat fold. What do you think it should be?

Next on my stitching list is a final round robin then I'm going to pull out 2 of my UFO's and try to get them finished before Christmas. If I succeed, one will end up being a gift and you'll see it in my next blog update. Wish me luck on getting done! Happy Stitching everyone!

Fall is here!

What a month it's been! Seems like this time of year just keeps me busy and I don't have time for much stitching. Fall is has come to Idaho and I've heard reports that there's snow in the mountains. We've had frost on the cars in the morning and the leaves have been changing and falling all over. I love the crisp air!

We recently did a Halloween exchange in my yahoo group. We had to find items from a list...something with a witch, something with a ghost, etc. My partner was Vicky and she sent me this.........I love it all!

Here's my part of a round robin....it's not backstitched yet. Thankfully the owner of the robin is letting me off without doing the backstitching because I have a couple more sitting here that need to get done. This one was kind of unplanned and landed in my lap when one of our gals had to pull out due to health issues. I'm glad that we are able to get it back into the rotation though and we should have happy people in the end.
This next one is my part of Tara's round robin. She chose these adorable little teapots....they are all so cute! I may have to do these for myself eventually....hard to resist that cuteness.
Next is a biscornu.....I'm going to be teaching a class on finishing a biscornu at my LNS so I've been trying to get a few stitched up to show.
This little biscornu is teeny...about 1 inch in diameter. I designed it myself and forgot to show the cuter side...LOL Hope to get a few more stitched up and have a little basket full for the class.
I know it doesn't look like I've been doing much stitching but I have been a busy girl. I'm looking forward to falling back into a routine and getting things done. Now that I have a craft room of my very own I should be able to be more productive. I'll leave you with a pic of my Rudy....he's my stitching buddy. (when he's not chewing on my boxes)
This is his "I didn't do it" look.....such a little diva dog! :) Hope everyone has their needles smoking! Happy Fall everyone!

Stitching again.....

Now that we are finally starting to settle into the new house, I've been stitching again. It's been awhile and I can honestly say I've missed it. After a few visits from the frog, I was finally able to finish my section on Katie's round robin. It only took me THREE WEEKS!! I don't know what it was about this particular piece, but it did not like me! I'd get partway through it and find I messed up and have to take out half of what I had stitched. This one was a hard one for me for some reason and the funny thing is, it's easy...whole stitches and on aida. Piece of cake for most people....just not for me. Anyway, I'm happy to say Mr Santa is finally stitched up and moving on to the next person in the rotation! Yay!

This next piece was a quick and easy stitch, thankfully. One of our round robin participants had to drop out due to health issues so I've taken her place in the rotation and recieved Carein's piece to work on. These hearts are super easy and quick to stitch! I enjoyed doing this one and was so thankful to have a quick finish fix.
Next up is an exchange I recieved in the mail from Vicky. She made me the cutest little Fall ornament....I LOVE IT! Loved the extra's too...hee hee.
I went to my LNS today and picked up a few goodies......
While at the LNS today I got into a conversation about different finishing techniques. I have agreed to teach a biscornu class and I'm excited and nervous at the same time. I am not a public speaker at all, and I'm totally NOT a people person. I just don't do well with crowds so this will be a new and exciting experience for me.

Ok, this is a short update, but it's all I've got at the moment. Life has just been a crazy mess lately and I know there is so much more I can put on this little blog but it's just left my mind at the moment. Hope everyone is enjoying the fall weather and stitching like crazy! :)

If you've been following me along over the last few years you'll remember all the drama we've had. 3 years ago the house we had been renting was sold when the owners divorced. This started a long journey through 4 different moves, including moving from Oregon to Idaho. We moved to Idaho in June 2010 and stayed with my mom until January 2011. In January we were able to find a rental. The house was a Godsend at the time....just a little 2 bedroom/ 1bath but we had 4.5 acres to play with. Little did we know what kind of issues we'd face with this house.....we've had sewage issues with the toilet backing up into the bathtub. We've had electrical issues...and have had to play with so many breaker switches I never want to see one again. We've also had issues with mold ALL over this house. Now remember...we moved in to this house in the wintertime. We had no idea what we'd face when summertime came. The house is infested with spiders and earwigs. At night when we go to bed we have to shake out all our bedding to make sure there are no spiders or earwigs in them. We wake up to them crawling on us and are constantly smacking them all over the house. I would rather live with flies than the bugs we've had. Here are a few pictures of the house....


This is the tiny kitchen...excuse the mess all over, we are in the process of packing things up. Notice the standing dishwater in the sink, the sink is plugged and drains slow. Also notice there are no cupboard doors....
This picture shows the gap at the top of the backdoor and the mold around the top. Earwigs constantly come through here as well as spiders. I've often wondered if the ceiling is full of mold too considering it's so wobbly.

This is just a picture of the bare bulb in the hallway. It is covered in rust and mold....it will not come off no matter how much you scrub.

This is one of the heat vents. Notice the gap? Mice live in the walls and come out through the gaps. This is how EVERY heat vent in the house is....

Here is a picture of one of the windows. This has been scrubbed numerous times and it's still covered in mold.

This is a picture of how my kitchen sink drains. The pipe goes from the kitchen to the garage and drains into this trash can. We then use a garden hose to drain the trash can out in the yard. My washing machine also drains from a random pipe out to the driveway....nothing like pulling your car up and driving through dirty washing machine water.

I felt very blessed when we found this house to rent. We needed a roof over our heads and a place to call home. We were lucky to find it at the time and I've been thankful for it. Even with all the issues we've had just living here, I knew we were lucky and things could have been way worse. Well about 2 months ago the owners put the property on the market. They said they would honor my lease but I knew from past experience we had better start looking for another place to live.

Fast forward to 3 weeks ago.....I was browsing craigslist for a new rental and happened upon a place that sounded great. Called the number in the ad only to discover the place had sold, but he had another house he had just purchased at forclosure auction and hadn't listed it yet. Told him our credit was bad and we really couldn't buy anything at this time. Come to find out, not only is he a liscensed broker....he's a liscensed lender too. Ended up chatting on the phone and telling him our entire story of the last 3 years. Sooo, out of curiousity more than anything I agreed to go peek at this other house. I fell in love with it! After many bouts of looking over our credit report, some financial planning and chats with the title/escrow company......we were able to find a way to purchase the home!!!

We now have a nice fat 30 year mortgage to worry about....but this is what I get to live in for those 30 years........enjoy...



Here is the front of the house....the grass was just planted so doesn't look so great yet but it's starting to grow.

This next pic is the living room area....

Here is my kitchen. So much more space than what I've had to work with....

Here's a pic of my pantry.......Love it! I had nowhere to store our food before....

here is my master bathroom.....

Master bedroom closet....

Master bedroom.....

Another shot of the master bedroom......

My youngest sons room...

Oldest sons room....

My craft room......(happy dancing!)

Craft room closet.....

Backyard for my little Rudy (my chi-pom) and the boys...

Another shot of the backyard.....

And my favorite thing of all.......my front door. They painted it "Ferrari Red"....love it!

Ok...so no stitchy pics this time....but I hope you enjoyed the pics of my family's new "homestead"......I am so excited to begin this new journey. And doubly excited to FINALLY have a crafty oasis of my very own. Hugs to all and happy stitching!

Been Awhile....

It's been a while since I've wandered over here in blog land. I've been reading everyone else's blogs from time to time but just haven't been keeping up with mine. I lost my stitching mojo for a while and just couldn't seem to finish anything and nothing would hold my interest. Over the last month or so the stitching bug is finally returning and I've been able to finish my Lizzie Kate "Living with Charm" piece. I did NOT use the charms on this one because I like it just fine without them. I think I may make this into a wall quilt. Here she is in all her glory.....

My group KraftersKorner is doing a RR and after searching for just the right piece to do, I finally found just the right chart in one of my older UK magazines. I've left the middle 3 sqares for each person to stitch and sign and then when it comes home to me, I'll let the group vote on how to finish it. It was a little bit of a switch for me since this is 18 count aida and I usually stick with 32 count but I liked the color and it was the right size fabric so voila! Here is my piece waiting to be sent to the next person.....

My other group, the Stitcherhood, is having a challenge to get so many projects done before we buy new stash. I've fallen off the wagon and had to restart so I thought to myself the best way to complete those 10 projects is to finish some of the UFO's & WIPS I have laying around. I've had this next project sitting here for months just waiting to be picked up. It's Lizzie Kate's "Christmas by the Letter". I'm going to try to get this one finished soon and it will also be a wall quilt for the holidays. Here's my progress so far:

Not much else going on in my world at the moment. The kids start back to school at the end of August and I am so ready! I need some "me" time again! Hope this stitching bug hangs around for a while, maybe I'll actually update this little boring blog a bit more often. Hugs to all and happy Stitching!

Wow, it's been awhile.....

I can't believe this is my first post of the year! Time is flying by! Not going to go into my family and personal stuff in this post....today it's all about the stitching. So without further blabbering......

I posted a challenge in my group KraftersKorner for everyone to stitch up 2 ornaments a month from January to June. In June we'll have 12 ornaments and pick a day to "finish" them into ornaments. Here are my January ornies....

In Suz's group, StitchesandStuff, we are doing a seasonal SAL where we could all choose to work on the same pattern or pick our own. I chose my own since I happen to have some Lizzie Kate seasonal boxers. This is my winter SAL.....

I know it's a bit late since Valentine's has come and gone, but I did stitch a little something for the holiday. I'll finish it off on the big finishing day in June. I've had this chart, fabric and floss for over a year. Jennifer sent it to me as an exchange and I just never had the chance to pull it out and work on it. I'm liking it and think it may end up as a little cube to decorate a shelf next year.

Next we have my challenge ornaments for February. The snowman was a freebie from online somewhere...it escapes me at the moment. "Humbug" was a chart found in a pile of junk at a thrift store...it was a photo copy so had no idea what it would even look like, but it just called to me to give it a go as an ornament, so off I went and that's what it came out like. I think it's kinda cute.

Next is a new little SAL I found online. Not sure why I like it, but I do. I've got January and February finished so far, still gotta catch up on March but it's a quick stitch so I'll get it done this week sometime. We are also doing this as a SAL in StitchesandStuff so it'll be fun to see how everyone chooses floss and fabric.

While going through some boxes in the garage last week, I ran onto 2 little "shelves". I pulled them aside and thought I'd stitch up something for them and hang them up in my living room. Since I'm desperately trying to have an African/Safari "theme" I started searching for something small that would fit in them. What I found was perfect for the shelves...one will be a realistic looking rhino and the other will be a realistic looking hippo. I have the rhino started but no pic yet. Hoping to finish both of these in the next week or two and have some "finished" shelves to show you in the next post. Here's a pic of one of the ugly little things....

Obviously I have NOT stuck to my goals this year. Lots of reasons and excuses, but hey, at least I'm stitching. Hope eveyone has their needles smoking and the frogs are staying away. Hugs to all my stitching friends!