July Already!! Wow!

I can't believe it's already July! The year is half over and I haven't done as much crafty stuff as I've wanted. Guess I better get busy! I've been wanting to learn how to knit and crochet and after looking at the price of yarn I thought it was alot of cash to spend on something I wasn't sure if I would *really* like so I posted an ad on my local freecycle group and asked for yarn. My thought was maybe someone would have a couple leftover skeins or half skeins that they had no use for. Well, a wonderful lady named Jolene answered my ad and said she had a couple. So last Saturday I went to pick it up and this is what she gave me.......

I thought that was a wonderfully generous lady! LOL, I have plenty to play with and learn! Thank you Jolene!
We recently did a patriotic theme exchange in my yahoo group (KraftersKorner) and this is what I received from my friend Lynn......

The picture just doesn't do it justice. I have it on a shelf in my kitchen displayed for the holiday. The funny thing about this exchange....her and I did the exact same pattern! I made a scissors fob and she did the pinkeep. Guess great minds think alike! LOL

We also recently did a "pattern wishlist" exchange in my yahoo group (KraftersKorner). We listed 5 patterns that we really wanted and our partner picked one from our wishlist and sent it to us. This is the one I received......

Thank you Meadow! I can't wait to collect the rest and get them started!

Then I recieved a mysterious package via 123stitch in the mail the other day........

Janet sent me this pattern that was on my wishlist!!! It is "Amazing Grace" from My Big Toe designs. I've been wanting this one since it came out and I can't wait to start it! Thank you Janet!!

I have company coming for the July 4th holiday. I'm hoping it turns out to be a fun weekend and not one of those where you sit there wondering what the heck you got yourself into..LOL! Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday! Hugs!

A Few Tiny Finishes....

I've had a few tiny finishes this week. This first one is a floss ring tag I made for an exchange. It was my first one and I hate the way it turned out. One edge just looks terrible, but I'm hoping my partner will like it anyway. This is the back......

And this is the front......

This next picture is a scissor fob I made for a patriotic exchange in my new group. (KraftersKorner) It was a freebie I found online. I love the way this one turned out! The picture didn't do it justice. This is the front....

And this is the back.....

Next is this little piece that I finished stitching this morning. This will be an ornament for Donna's "Stitching for a Cure" project. This was an easy and quick stitch, it only took me a day to complete it! I've started another one this morning and hope to get it done over the weekend and I'll do the actual "finishing" of them both next week.

On a more personal note: My kids are officially on Summer Vacation. I was so not ready for it! They are already driving me crazy. I think I've become the neighborhood babysitter too.....yesterday I had a housefull and when hubby came home from work I tried to send all of them home. Their stupid parents kept sending them back over! I finally had to tell them that we were having "family time" and the kids had to come in for the night. At 8:00 this morning the kids were back over here knocking on the door! UGH! I am so not prepared for this!

I'm looking forward to the summer though....I'm hoping we can take a quick weekend trip to the beach sometime with the kids. They've only been once in their life so it would be a fun inexpensive way to have a short vacation. Might be able to get some great beach photos for scrapbooking too! LOL

Hope everyone is having a great week!

HUGS!

Stitching, Kids and a little Gratitude

I haven't had much stitching progress the past couple of months but I've started to finally stitch again. Here's a little piece I'm doing for one of my sons teachers. It's from Heart in Hand and it's called "teachers". It will have an apple next to the words with a little star shaped button when it's done. I haven't decided what to make it into yet. Maybe a cube?


This is a little piece I started the other night. I ended up staying up LATE and working on it. Both are freebies from Trail Creek Farm. This will be for a patriotic exchange we are doing in my NEW group. I don't know what I'll make it into yet, but I liked the simplicity of the designs so I'm doing them. LOL

Today was a hot and muggy day. It finally rained this afternoon. We had a good solid downpour for a good half an hour and my kids decided to go play in the puddles. Well, this is what they looked like when they were done! Here's Bodie......

And here's Brady....

Pretty messy little boys, huh? LOL, I am so thankful for moments like these. It's these kind of times that make life worth it.

I've started a new journal. Each day I'm writing something down that I am grateful for. It can be the most trivial little thing or a big thing, just something that made me happy that day. Not long ago I went through a nasty bout of depression and I honestly didn't know if I would make it through it. After a few weeks of thinking long and hard about what was making me unhappy, I made some changes in my life. I've started the "gratitude journal" and discovered that there is more to be thankful for than I thought. I've found myself having a more positive outlook rather than expecting things to be bad all the time. I've made a choice not to carry on some friendships because I realized that it just depressed me. I'm sad to give some of those relationships up, but for now I know it's the best thing for ME. I gave up my yahoo group and started a new one. I'm looking forward to watching it grow. It's for cross stitchers, but it's also a place to show other things too. Whatever each individual is into at that moment, whether it be scrapbooks, quilts, knitting, photography...whatever. The main focus is cross stitch, but other things are ok too. Soooo, if anyone is interested in yet another group, feel free to join us:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KraftersKorner

I am looking forward to more good things in this journey called life. I hope I haven't bored you all too much! LOL

HUGS!

FRAZ

Family Fun & Tote exchange!

My daughter left last week to go see her fiance in Texas. He was graduating from boot camp. Instead of getting a ticket to the airport here, she got one for $400 less and went to Portland so we had to go pick her up this past weekend. Since hubby's mom and sisters live there we decided to make a mini-vacation out of it and go visit the family. We haven't seen them for about 4 years. We all had a ball!! Here's a pic of my youngest, Brady (the shirtless redhead) with his cousin Austin. They were filling the bucket with water and filling water guns...this turned into a BIG water fight between all the kids and all the adults. The kids won! LOL

Here's another of Brady and Austin....they were having so much fun. They stayed up playing until about 12:30 that night! Neither of them were having anything to do with "bedtime".

Here's my middle one, Bodie. He played pool for about 5 hours straight! We could not get him away from that pool table! When it was time to eat he kept doing the whole..."just one more game" thing. He kept telling his aunt Jen that he wished he had a pool table and she told him he could have it so.....you guessed it, it ended up coming home with us strapped to the top of my car! LOL

Here's another pic of Bodie with his Aunt Jen. He was showing her how great his guitar playing skills are. He was definately in his element here.....

We had a great time visiting everyone! I can't wait to visit again...now that the kids are older and actually play together the adults can have uniterrupted grown up time. It was nice to be able to have a conversation with someone without hearing, "mom, I'm bored!"

I recieved my tote exchange from Meadow yesterday! Thank You Meadow! This was a wonderful surprise after our weekend away. She sent so much stuff! I was definately spoiled rotten! You can't see the actual tote in the pics, but it is cute. It's kind of a distressed denim and it says Rock & Roll on it....it's so me! LOL

I couldn't fit it all in one pic, so here's the other half....

Anyway, it's been a great few days in my world. We had some fun family time and I got a great surprise in the mail. Doesn't get any better than that!

This week I'll be working on another RR and mailing out packages for exchanges and birthday clubs. Gonna try to get my sewing machine out sometime and work on my grocery bag holder. It's all cut out and ready to sew together, I just haven't had time to actually work on it. I so wish I had a craft room! Hope everyone else is having a great week! Hugs to all!

Fraz

A small finish & kittens!

I just finished my little part of a RR! This is the first thing I've stitched in quite awhile. Now I feel like I'm getting my stitchy groove back. I love the stitchers verse on this one.....I can't wait to see it finished when everyone else does their part.

For my birthday this year my kids bought me this diffuser thing.....

Now I'm not all that into that kind of thing so it's been sitting in the box for a month now just waiting for me to open and start using it. Well, it definately works! LOL Thank goodness it's apple - cinnamon scent! I don't think I could handle anything else! All you do is pour this teeny tiny bottle of oil in the vase and stick the bamboo sticks in it. The sticks soak up the oil and smell up the room.....ha! Not mine! Mine smells up the WHOLE house! You walk in the front door and it smells like an apple pie is baking. At least it's a good smell, right? LOL

On Mother's Day (last week) we were sitting outside and this small little kitty walked up. The poor thing was just skin and bones! So I asked around to see if it belonged to anyone and couldn't find an owner. I even called the Humane Society and they wouldn't take the poor thing so I gave it a bowl of food and some water and let it stay out in the garage. Over this past week she started gaining weight and wandering into the house. We've been trying to find a place to take her to but so far no one in our area has any room, so in the meantime we've been feeding her and letting her come in. Well, this morning hubby walked outside and yelled for me to come quick! She had given birth to a tiny little kitten in the flower bed! We grabbed the dog carrier and put her and the kitten in it and brought her into the laundry room. About 15 minutes later she had another one, and then 2 more about a half hour after that! Now we have 4 kittens and a mama that needs a new home. I guess she came to us on Mother's Day for a reason. Maybe I have SUCKER written on my forehead! LOL I'll show pics on my next blog update!

Hugs to all!

Fraz

A Wonderful Craigslist find & other endevours

About a week ago I was browsing through Craigslist and found an ad for this tote for just $20. I called the lady and asked if it was still available and asked if she would be willing to hold it for me until payday. I went and picked it up yesterday evening. I've priced these in the past and they are always waayyy more than I can afford, I just couldn't pass this one up. Here's the front:

Here's the front opened up. You can't see it in the pic, but there are places for pens and zippered areas for stickers & dye cuts, ect.

This is the left side. There are more pockets behind this area, but I've lifted the flap so you can see under them.

Here's the other side. Even more storage pockets and places for scissors.

Here's the inside. There is an accordian style pocket for 12x12" papers and lots of room for photo albums and other goodies. I will be so glad to have an actual place for all my scrapbooking things. Everything has been in rubbermaid totes for years and now I'll have a place for it all! And it will even fit right into my closet without taking up massive amounts of space!

Since I am more than just a cross stitcher I've decided to start showing a bit of my other hobbies too. This is a small quilt I made a few years ago. You can't tell by the pic, but when I did this one I had no clue how to do the binding so I zigzag stitched all around the edges. It's a bit shabby but that's the look I was going for.

This next one I also did a few years ago. It was originally intended to go on my bed but I didn't buy enough fabric at the time and it ended up shorter than I wanted and became a lap quilt. This was my very first try from start to finish and I love the way it turned out!

Next is my current cross stitch piece. This is a RR for a friend. I don't have too much progress on my part of it yet but I love the saying. I have a few other stitchy things on the list so hopefully my next update will have more progress.

If anyone is interested in a variety of crafty things please join us here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KraftersKorner

This is for crafters of any type from sewing to stitching to beading to knitting to whatever your craft of the moment is. All are welcome!

Until next time.....Happy Crafting!

Fraz

A New Beginning

Not sure where to begin here....the last few months I've been dealing with a bout of depression. Usually it passes fairly quickly, but this time it just seemed to hang on. I have no pics to show this time, I lost my desire to do any stitching or crafting of any type but I'm slowly coming back into my groove. I have given my yahoo group to one of my mods and have stepped down as "list mom"...I'm a bit sad, but I'm also looking forward to a new beginning. I didn't like where the group has been going the last few months and I've been trying to figure out why. Then I realized maybe it's because it's so focused on just one thing...cross stitch. I love all kinds of crafts, not just stitching. So after thinking long and hard about how I've been feeling I decided to start a new group. It's called KraftersKorner and it's not just about stitching....it's about whatever is calling you at the moment. Maybe it's quilting or beading or scrapbooking...doesn't matter, it's about what we are creating. All those creations are a part of us and should be represented. I would like to take this moment and invite my friends to join me in this new endeavor. The group can be found here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KraftersKorner I hope to see you all there!
~hugs~
Fraz