The Dirty Word...

Well it sure has been awhile since I've visited this poor blog. Guess that means I'm a bad blogger.  Oops.

I have been stitching though....this first project was for an ornament exchange in my group.  I actually made 2 of this particular one because I liked it so much and wanted one for myself. 

This next one is for a year long ornament exchange.  We are stitching an ornament a month and sending it to a different person each month.  In the end we should have some great ornaments for our tree from all of our stitching friends.  I'm planning to have a cross stitch tree next year with just handmade items from all my friends.

This is my first attempt ever at a pin pillow.  We had a Valentine's exchange in my group and we could stitch anything we wanted to send.  I had originally thought I'd make a small flat fold out of it but it ended up being so small I decided to try a pin pillow. It didn't turn out quite as well as I wanted but I'm going to try again.  I've  seen so many pictures of people doing this and they turn out fabulous...I'm determined to get better at it.

And now for the big stuff......

I have put myself on a stash diet this year and am only allowing myself to spend $50 out of pocket for the entire year on craft related items.  I know that seems like a lot but it's only a little over $4 a month when you break it down.  I am not including gift cards in my diet though....I have a $20 gift card in my wallet for JoAnn's that I've been saving since my birthday last year.  With only a little over $4 a month to spend I'm finding myself being super frugal and figuring out ways to use what I have in my stash.  So far I haven't spent anything.  Kinda proud of myself for that!     I am in a birthday club but I'm not counting that as spending since I'm not buying for myself.   I'm hoping that I will be able to use my $20 for JoAnns on finishing items this year and not actually spend anything out of pocket this year.  So far, so good.


Since I'm on this stash diet I'm trying to only work on things that I have in my stash.  I've got so many things kitted up and ready to go and many others in various stages of "WIPhood".  One of my oldest UFO's is BoInk.   I absolutely despise this project!   I loved it when it came out and was so excited to start it....then I discovered that I didn't center it on the fabric correctly and my stitching was going to be super close to the right edge.  I honestly didn't think I'd have enough fabric to even get all the stitching on there. I was devastated.  I put the project away and from time to time I would see it and get mad all over again.  It's been that one thing that I just couldn't look at because it made me ill.  I've since renamed it the "dirty word" because at one point just hearing BoInk would make me want to puke.

Ok, fast forward a bit.  My son recently was going through my stash with me and found BoInk.  He asked me why I didn't finish it and pulled it out.  He even went so far as too google it to see what it would look like when it's completed.  He really liked it and asked me if I would finish it so he could frame it and put it in his room.  (at this point I was really understanding why some animals eat their young)   Well, I did what any insane mother would do and promised him I'd finish it.  (am I a sucker or what?)

Here is what it looked like when it came out of it's ziploc bag after 5 years of hiding.....

 And here is what it looks like after 4 days of stitching on it......

I'm not going to say I'm enjoying it a lot, but I do kinda feel good that I"m working on it again.  I've got a long way to go with it still but at least it's keeping me from spending money on stash, right?

Keep those needles smoking!  Hugs to all my stitchy friends!