I'm still here!

I have been stitching and stitching and stitching!  But, no photos yet.  Rest assured I am still around and will be back to more regular blogging after Thanksgiving!

Finished! (Amy, look away)

I finished this for my sister, Amy today:

Two Girls by Industrioushead

Started 10-20-10, finished 11-4-10

Stitched on 28 ct white monaco over one with the recommended DMC

This will be her Christmas ornament this year.  Now I get to go to the fabric store to find the perfect backing fabric!

Halloween Results 2010

We had 38 trick or treaters, 23 boys, 15 girls.  Most popular costume was the ninja (7), we had 5 college kids with no costume, 1 Harry Potter, 1 Neville Longbottom, 2 Dorothys, 1 PacMan and 1 Claw machine.  Scott had a great time being a vampire and handing out treats.  Mort, the neighbor's cat, was his trusty assistant!  We had way more kids last year, but the weather coupled with the fact that it was a school night, made it a bit slower than last year.  All in all, it was a great way to celebrate 1 year in our new house!

EDITED TO ADD:  I forgot to mention the two inappropriately dressed tweens!  Inappropriate because of weather (they looked FREEZING!) and because of their ages (practically NAKED!).  We think they were going for Pirate Wenches...

Happy Halloween!

In honor of Halloween, I am going to start a new project!  Here she is:

Scott is a huge fan of Edgar Allen Poe, and this will be an awesome Halloween picture that we can put in the library all year long!  I'll be stitching this in between trick-or-treaters!  Hope everyone has fun!

WIP Wednesday, except it's Thursday

Thought I'd post my progress as of yesterday.  First up is Family Sampler by LHN:

I'm enjoying this very much, with the exception of all the extra fabric I have to deal with.

Next up is Two Girls by Industrioushead.  Amy, you can stop reading right now.  Go on, I'll wait...
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Is she gone?
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Okay, I had to do that because she is my sister and I forgot she still reads this from time to time!  Here it is, as modeled by my sweet Mayhem:

 Have a great evening, everyone!

Has it been almost a week already?

I have had such a busy weekend, I don't think I have had a chance to breathe!  Here's what I have been up to:

• Friday - drove to Maine (4 hours).  No stitching.
• Saturday - shopped with Mom and made Vegetarian Chili for dinner.  Stitched a bit.
• Sunday - various chores for winterizing the house, including putting the lawn mower away, cleaning the gutters, closing up the bulkhead and tarping it, checking for woodpecker damage in the eves.  Then, drove home (4 hours).  Stitched a bit, but less than on Saturday.
• Monday - worked, then made apple crisp and Ham and Hash Brown casserole for dinner, with the leftovers prepared to bring to my MIL on Tuesday.  No stitching.
• Tuesday -  worked, then to Joanne's to pick up supplies for a baby blanket, then the supermarket to pick up ice cream to go with the apple crisp I brought to my MIL.  Then, home to re-heat the casserole and apple crisp.  Then, into Southie to have dinner with my MIL, whose health has not been to good lately.  Then, home again.  No stitching.
• Wednesday - work.  Have to go to CTS to pick up gift bags for gifts I brought for my friend, whose second child I will meet tonight.  Hooray!!!  Hopefully, will stitch tonight!

Success!

Last night we let Mischief and Mayhem sleep in our room.  We have been trying since the end of our vacation, but for the past 2 nights, they were just too rambunctious - chasing each other all over the house and scuffling.  Very cute during the day, not so cute when you are trying to sleep.

So, we decided the best thing to do would be to play with them hard so they would get tuckered, and it worked pretty well!  Yes, I did get stepped on (in the face) once or twice, but that's to be expected.

We'll try again tonight!

Mayhem has gotten too curious for his own good.  Yesterday when I got home I opened the door and they were in the hallway.  We keep them in the kitchen/library area during the day, but they had gotten out.  I didn't notice they were out until I had gotten the door opened pretty wide, and when I noticed they were loose, Mayhem had made his way onto the porch.  I threw my stuff down (including the groceries!) and grabbed him, but he had gotten to the end of the porch already.  I was terrified!!!  I'll be opening the door alot more slowly from now on. 

Honestly, I don't know how people with actual children manage to stay sane!

Have a great day

WIP Wednesday

I worked some more on LHN Family Sampler tonight.  Here is my progress so far:

I also started a new Christmas Ornament.  It 's called Two Girls by Industrioushead.  As soon as I saw it, I knew it would be the perfect ornament to give to my sister for Christmas this year.  Here is my progress so far:

It's quite small - I am stitching it on 28 ct white monaco over one.  Here is what it will look like when it is finished.  I really like her style, and this will be the first of many of her designs I will stitch.


Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

What I did while I was on vacation

We had a wonderful week!  Scott and I spent the time shopping, organizing and playing with kitties (who keep growing in adorableness and size).  We got a dining room table from IKEA as a 5th wedding anniversary present (traditional gift is wood).  We were originally going to get a sleigh bed, but it was just too expensive.  We will continue to save up for it, and in the mean time, we will have a place for our guests to eat when Christmas rolls around (IN TEN WEEKS, PEOPLE!!!).

I also stitched, of course.  May I present (less wrinky than Cat Lessons, but un-ironed, just the same):

Time for God, by Lizzie*Kate

Started 10-8-10

Finished 10-17-10

Stitched on 28 ct Mushroom Monaco, with DMC

This was a quick, fun stitch, and I think I will have to stitch it again.  So many people I know would appreciate this, and as it is was such a quick stitch, why not repeat it? 

So, now I am working on LHN Family Sampler.  I neglected to take a photo, but not much more had been done, as I abandonned my plan of stitching it on Wednesdays and Sundays just during my vacation.  I picked it up on Sunday and while I love it, I need to find an easier way to acccomodate the vast amount of extra fabric I have - I was afraid to cut it until I had completed the outline, but it's HEAVY!  Any suggestions as to what I could do to help with this would be greatly appreciated!

I hope everyone had a wonderful week, and it's back to work I go!

A wrinkly finish and a new WIP

So last night I finished Cat Lessons, except for the personalization, which will have to wait while I get a few Christmassy things done.  It was a fun stitch, and every time I see it I will think about my increasingly rambunctious and curious kitties!  Here it is, in all it's wrinkly glory!

And since I finished this, I now felt justified in finally starting Family Sampler by LHN.  I am doing this as part of the SAL at the designer's yahoo group, and I have decided this will be my Wednesday and Sunday project until my Christmas gifts are finished, then this will be my focus piece.  This is about an hour's worth of fabric prepping and stitching, and I already love it!

Can't believe it's Thursday already!  Hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Makin' Biscuits

Mischief's evening ritual:

The three amigos

I decided to upload this picture to try out the new way blogger uploads pictures.  Seems simple enough.  This is my husband and his friends Jim and Tom, who earned their way into heaven by helping us move last year.  They have been friends for 30+ years.

Happy Friday!

SO glad it's Friday!  It has been a very busy week.  Not much stitching done, and not sure I will get much done over the weekend, as I am going to my Mom's for the weekend to help her with landscaping chores and any other little projects she needs help with.  I do this every month, and it's a nice visit.  I am lucky to be able to see her so often, my brothers and sister live far away and are lucky to be able to see her once a year.

Mischief and Mayhem continue to be cute beyond words!  Every evening Mischief jumps up into my lap and snuggles in for cuddle time.  I'll wrap his blanket around him and he will "make biscuits" and suck on his blanket like a baby.  I took some video of it last night.  I'll try to upload it next week.

Still waiting for my fabric for "Family Sampler" to arrive.  I was hoping it would arrive yesterday in time for me to prep it for stitching, but alas, it did not.  If it is at the house when I get home today, I'll bring it to Maine with me, but who knows if I will be able to get it started.  I plan on stitching it on Sundays and Wednesdays until all my Christmas stitching is completed, then it will be my focus piece.

Hope everyone has a GREAT weekend!

WIP

One of my active WIP's is Cat Lessons for People by Lizzie*Kate.  I am making it in honor of these guys:

Mischief and Mayhem, born on May 29, 2010 and adopted by us on August 3, 2010.  They are a delight!  Here is my current progress:

Please excuse the hoop marks and general wrinkleyness (yep, I made that word up!).  I am going to put their names and birthdate at the bottom, and hang it in the laundry room.  This is where they spent the first few days with us.

This is the first photo I took of them!  Look how fuzzy and small they are! 

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

FINALLY!

I got my Just Cross Stitch ornament issue on Tuesday, and I wasted no time going through it and picking out the ornaments I want to stich.  A few thoughts, though:

• Why would you put the color key on a different page from the pattern?  Not facing pages, that I understand, but opposite pages?  That's the quickest way to get me to NOT stitch it!
• LHN never fails to deliver a great design, but the Lizzie Kate this year was a disappointment.  Seems to me I have seen it done before.
• Why do they insist on the recipes?  First of all, it is a STITCHING magazine.  Second, I don't know ANY stitcher that would bring that magazine anywhere CLOSE to food.  Quickest way to stain it and/or ruin it.

I'm going to stop the complaining right there, because I really do think it's wonderful, even more so knowing that the designers provide the charts for free.  Can't wait to get started!

Grr...

I am so FRUSTRATED!!! Ahh...... glad to have that off my chest. Work...BAH!

Last night as Scott and I were having dinner, Mischief came into the kitchen dragging his blanket (which we have NEVER seen him do!). He dropped it by my feet, layed down on it, and proceeded to "make biscuits". It was the cutest thing I have ever seen! I wish we had the camera! Scott and I just looked at each other and laughed.

Life with 15 week old kittens is certainly full of laughs and love. I am so glad we got them, and even more glad that we got 2 - they love to play and chase each other, scuffle and sneak up on each other. They are so much fun to watch, a ton of work, but the unconditional love they provide makes everything worth it.

Today we went to a birthday party for my 2 nieces, who turned 7 and 6. It was nice to spend the afternoon with family!

Now I'm home, playing with my babies and getting dinner ready. I worked on Cat Lessons this weekend - no progress pic yet - the memory card is full of kitty pics! I tried to kit up Time for God but I'm missing a few colors - they must be with other projects.

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

Katurday - woo hoo!

So now that I have finished my first ornament of the season, I really think it's time for my mail person to PLEASE deliver my JCS Ornament issue already!!! Mail already arrived so I guess I'll have to wait until Monday. But, I DID get something in the mail that I wanted to make as a Christmas gift, so I guess I'll get started on that. Here it is Guess I'll get up to the studio and start pulling it together! Enjoy your Katurday!

An actual stitching finish!

I have had a few finishes this year, but am just now getting my act together to start taking photos and updating my blog.

This is "Mine" by Brittercup Designs, from the 2010 JCS Ornament Preview Issue. The photo was taken with my blackberry, so it is obviously crappy. Hey, I'm working on it!

A super cute giveaway!

Make sure you go over and check out Dawn's blog! She is having a really darling giveaway!

Can't resist!

I have been a bad, bad blogger! But this wonderful giveaway has forced me out of hiding. I have had this pattern on my wish list ever since I saw Edgar stitching it, and now Carolyn is offering it as a giveaway! How super generous of her! Go check it out! Now, back into my cave I go!

First post of the decade!

Happy New Year to my friends and followers! I have been lurking behind the scenes so far this year, taking care of house stuff and focusing on setting up my craft room, but this giveaway has prompted me to come out of the woodwork in an attempt to win this awesome giveaway Jennifer is having at her blog! Check it out and take a look at the darling furbabies she has as well! I am looking forward to spring when are are finally getting kittens!

I have a few goals in my head for the coming year. First, to cut down on grocery spending and reduce the amount of waste. This will require me to be more creative in my meal planning, and to help me out with that, I have been keeping track of what we have been having for dinners every night on a calendar my mother gave me. It will also give me the opportunity to use the cookbooks I got for Christmas (although I had to resort to the internet to get the recipe for banana bread - didn't want to waste the bananas!!!)

My second goal is to get back to stitching more. I haven't picked up a needle since we started the move in October - there was just so much to do with packing, organizing, moving, unpacking and organizing! The house is slowly but surely starting to come together, which is good, because our housewarming is in February, but I miss the stress reliever of stitching.

The third goal? Be healthier. It is astounding to me how I take advantage of good health, considering the importance of it, and I know good health is not a guarantee in life, so I should be mindful of that.

I think that's enough for now. Later this week I think I'll add a sidebar that calculated how much we are spending on groceries - that will be interesting (and maybe a bit scary?) to see.

Here's to a happy and healthy 2010!