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!

It's been a while....

Ok, so I haven't been real good at keeping up with my blog this year.  But in my defense, I have been stitching more lately.  And I have proof....

This is one of my Crazy January challenge pieces.  It's from My Big Toe designs and it's called "Eat the Chocolate".   Have no idea how I will finish it yet so for now it's in the finished pile waiting to be "finished". 

 This next piece was a PIF chart from a stitchy friend and the chart is on it's way to the next person to stitch it.   I forgot who the designer is on this one.  The fabric is a random piece I found in my stash and I changed the colors for the floss to some fancy brands that I had on hand.  This will be turned into a fancy diva pillow for my craft room. :)

Next we have a small Lizzie Kate piece.   I used a random scrap from my stash and just plain old DMC floss for this one.  This will kinda be a companion piece to a previous LK that I did a few weeks back.  Both will be made into small pillows and will sit in a basket on my hall table.

This next tiny piece is a bonus chart that came with one of the Lizzie Kate boxers.  I wanted to pass the chart on so I quickly stitched this one up.  This will be turned into a pin pillow to go in my hall table basket.

 Next is the little daily SAL from my last blog post.  I finished this weeks ago but just never updated with a new photo.  This will be turned into a pillow using the autism awareness colors.  The picture doesn't do the bright colors justice, but I love the way it turned out.

Lastly is a pillow that I made for a Fall/Halloween exchange in my yahoo group.  This is the first time I did a pillow finish like this.  I love the way it turned out!   I plan to do a few more pillow finishes like this in the future.

See....I have been stitching.   I promise to *try* to update the blog a little better for the rest of the year.  I'm on a UFO finishing kick lately and I'm trying NOT to start any new things for the rest of the year.  Hopefully the next blog update will have a photo of a finished UFO.  No promises though,  you all know I can never stick to my goals.   Hope everyone is enjoying the crisp Fall weather!   Happy Stitching!

Finally a Finish!! Yay!

It's been a busy stitching week for me.  I lost my groove for so long, now it feels like the stitching bug is back with a vengence!  Yippie!  

I've been keeping up with this little daily SAL each day and I'm loving the way it's coming together.  I have decided this will be a fun little colorful pillow when I'm done.  You can't really see the colors clearly in this pic, but they are bright and bold.  I can't wait till it's finished and I can make the pillow,  it's going to be a fun splash of color for my house.  I'm only on day 8 and we have all the way to day 25 to go so it's gonna be a while before it's finished but I'm loving it. 

Last night I finished this little Lizzie Kate piece.  I've got a few other smaller LK's that are similar so I plan to do them all and make small pillows out of them and put them in a basket on my entry table.  I love how they are so fast to stitch up!

 And now that I have a finish under my belt,  I have been a good girl and decided to NOT start something new.   I have pulled out sex and chocolate and plan to stitch it until it's done.   It's about a 1/3 of the way so I  should be able to finish it this week if nothing pops up.  This will be going in my stitching room...not sure how I'll finish it off, but it's definately a stitching room piece.

 This is what sex & chocolate will look like when it's done.......

Ok, that's my quickie update for the week.  Hope everyone is stitching like mad and staying out of the heat!

It has been a long time....

It seems like it's been forever since I've updated this poor blog.  I've had lots going on in my life over the last few months.  I've had more hand issues than I can to admit.   I had carpel tunnel surgery on my wrist, such a sad little stump of an arm, eh? 

And since I couldn't stitch,  I needed "something" creative to do.   So I convinced hubby that we needed a bench for my front porch.   Found a great free plan online and went to the "man" store to get the supplies.  Isn't that a lovely pile of wood? 

And after a few hours this is what that wood turned into......I now have a nice little bench to sit on my front porch and enjoy.

And since I still didn't have use of my hand for stitching.  I did a little more vinyl things around the house.  This is directly above my living room window.....

And I made this sign for next to the front door.   Hubby says I should have just put the vinyl right on the door since the door is painted red.  Wish I would have thought of that first!

And here's a little sign for the living room.  Kind of the rules of our house....

And finally, after having my left hand mutilated from the surgery and on its way to healing...I ended up with an anglion cyst on my right hand.   Let me tell ya,  that is painful!  I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.  I pretty much lost use of my right hand for about a week and couldn't do ANYTHING.  No typing, no dishes, no stitching. Could barely take a shower by myself.

It kind of set me into depression mode and I've been having a heck of a time even wanting to stitch now that I can pick up a needle again.   But today I took the plunge and decided to do this little bitty SAL that is offered here:  http://sunshine-stitches.blogspot.com  (hope that's the right blog address)

This is my first "finish" in a very long time and I am doing a GIANT happy dance!   There is a total of 25 squares and one will be release each day for the next 25 days.   They are super small and don't take long at all to stitch up....and you can use whatever threads you have on hand.   I used WDW "Confetti" and for the border I used Valdani "black".    Have no clue what the fabric is...it's a 28 count that I had in my stash.

Anyway, that's what's up with me.  Hope everyone is staying cool this summer!  

Happy Stitching! 

The other "F" word......

Yesterday was one of those milestone days for me....I turned the big 40. What started out as a normal day ended up being fantastic! Hubs went to work super early but came home about 10:00 am and told me to take a shower and shave my legs so we could go get my birthday present. I'm just thinking..."what on earth do my legs have to do with it?" So I get my shower, toss my hair up in a ponytail and get ready to go. My mom shows up to watch the boys just as we're getting ready to leave.

Hubs then drives me to a fancy schmancy spa about a half hour away! Hubs, our daughter and my mom all pitched in together and got me a spa day! I've never ever had one of those. I had a FULL massage with seaweed wrap and very pretty smelly stuff...it was fabulous! After the SUPER LONG massage I went to another room where they gave me my first ever manicure! Yep, 40 years old and never had one. My hands were seaweed wrapped, exfoliated, oiled and painted a very lovely shade of what my hubby says is "hooker red". My nails are naturally long and the ladies there oohhed and aahhed over them, made me feel so good to hear it was okay to not have the fake kind since I always feel like I'm left out of some secret society when I see other girls with those pretty things on.

After the manicure I recieved my very first ever pedicure! Yep, they seaweed wrapped and exfoliated and got rid of those nasty cracked heels! Then they painted them the same "hooker red" and put glitter on top! They said since it was my birthday that my toes should have a party too, LOL! I was kinda thinking I was too old for that but then I peeked at them and fell in love! They sparkle! Who knew your toes could sparkle like that?! I walked out of that place feeling so spoiled and diva-ish. I am soooo going back there again! :)

When hubs brought me back home mom had cleaned my house and decorated it up all birthday-ish. It was very cool and unexpected. The above pic is flowers from my mom and the boys and a pretty Lily from a good friend.

These are my nails after my manicure......so shiny! :)
And here is my chubby little feet with my sparkly toes......
Ok, now on to the good stuff.....we have a birthday club in my group and I was very spoiled from all the ladies. From Miss Vicky I recieved "Seaology" by the Trilogy, LHN's "Bookshelf", some chocolate covered peanuts (if you look closely you'll notice it's an empty box...I couldn't wait) Some cute stickers, a notepad and the cutest little bear figurine that is already displayed on a shelf in my craft room. :)
From Miss Ethel I recieved Mill Hill Button & Bead kit "the Firehouse", and Stone and Thread's "Keeper of Snow". :)
From Miss Pat I recieved Mill Hill Button & Bead kit "General Store" and some DMC floss. :)
From Miss Chele I received the first 2 charts of Lizzie Kate's "Less=More", JBW "Twas the Night II", #8 pearl cotton and some red beads. :)
From Miss Georgena I received a large piece of 32 count linen, a big box of skittles, 3 packets of tea and some DMC floss. :)
From Miss Carrie and Miss Sierra I recieved gift cards to 123stitch. :) I already kinda have an idea of what I will use them for but I keep changing my mind.

From Miss Tonya I recieved a gift card to JoAnns....this I will use for trims and embellishments for "finishing". :) I'm going to hang on to this one for a while and plan a big finishing day later.

It was a fabulous birthday and I know there is still more coming. I felt very spoiled and special all day long. Thanks everyone for making it a wonderful day! :)

I can't end this update without a little bit of stitching progress so here is the last photo I took of Lavender Blue. It's not a great pic because I didn't want to take it completely off the scroll frame, but you can kind of get the idea of what it looks like.
I have the next parts for this but I ran into a snag with some hand issues so haven't been able to stitch like I normally would. I'm going to keep at it and try to keep up with the SAL though. This may be the only "finish" I get this year depending on what happens with my hand. I'm okay with that though....just gives me more to look forward to stitching in the future. :)

Hopefully my next update will have the next part of Lavender Blue finished and maybe some progress on something else too. Happy Stitching everyone!

Happy Spring!

I know I've been super behind in keeping up my blog this year. "Life" just has a way of getting in the way of things. I've had a billion personal/family things pop up this year that has cut into my stitching time. I've fallen so far behind on my Crazy January Challenge I don't think I'll ever catch up!

I did choose to do a SAL this year and have fallen way behind on it. It's from: http://magicaspuntadas.blogspot.com/ I just finished the first two parts and she's already released parts 3 & 4. Hoping I can catch up before the next one's are released. Here's my progress so far.......

My other focus project is a SAL from Sylvia at: http://syku66.blogspot.com/ She's releasing these really cute seasonal pieces. I'm doing this SAL with some of the ladies in my yahoo group and I think I'm the last one to get started on it. I chose some silkweaver fabric called "rainbow dreams" and I'm hoping when all the seasons are done it'll look kind of like a sky in the background. Here's my progress from yesterday......
The title of this blog post is Happy Spring but spring has been slow to come to Idaho this year. Earlier this week I found some pretty flowers that popped up over night........I was so happy to see these!
Unfortunately they aren't a good indicator of the weather in my area...just this morning we woke up to snow falling. Ugh. It didn't stick around but it's still cold and I am looking forward to warmer temps so I can start a vegetable garden.

That's it for me this time. Hope all you stitchers are enjoying warm weather and lots of stitching time. Keep those needles smoking!

Long overdue update..

I finally have a long overdue update. I am suppose to be doing a SAL with my good friend Tara on this Grand Marquoir piece. I haven't gotten far, just the first little square.

Here is my Lavendar Blue SAL....
As you can see I have not finished the first two parts yet. "Life" has bit into my stitching time lately. The next 2 parts were released today and I did not get them since I wasn't finished with the other parts. I will spend today and tomorrow trying to get this finished so I can get the next parts.

Not much else to say since I haven't been stitching alot lately. Hope everyone has their needles moving and making more progress than me.