I'm A Little Hermit

Short, but not quite stout. Lol

Anyway, I'm horrible at following along with the actual IHSW since my weekend plans are either brimming with too much to do or are non-existent. Somehow the weekends of freedom never fall when the hermit weekend is "planned". Well, I suppose I shouldn't say I had no plans as I did want to stitch to my heart's content. Which is exactly what I was privileged to do. DB is gone again for another training, leaving me and the pooches to do as we please.

Other Things

Little Giz, my Chihuahua, didn't leave the comfort of his blanket fort except to eat and, very rarely, venture out into the cold for a potty break. He hates this weather, just like his mommy.

The GSD on the other hand, likes nothing more than staying outside to watch stalk the squirrels in the trees. They have fun with him and throw things down in a futile attempt at knocking him out. Their aim is getting better by the week which is slightly terrifying...

I finally got to watch The Judge this weekend! I've been dying to see this one as I missed it when it was in theatres. I'll spare you the details, but if you're at all interested, check it out here. I loved it!

Stitchy Stuff

First up are my new stash items. I know, I know, I don't need anything else. But I wanted them and I couldn't beat the sale price (plus free shipping). So I've added Pinocchio (12x16) and Cinderella (12x16) along with a vignette of Pinocchio to my collection. :-) You can see them all on my rapidly expanding stash page.

I FINISHED A PAGE! Probably should have started off with this little tidbit of information. Lol. Hummers is officially one page down. We shall refrain from discussing how many are left. Kinda still looks small when you see the entire piece of empty fabric below my square of color, but I love how this one is turning out. Tons and tons of confetti so far, but as I looked through some of the other pages I was pleased to find that not every page will be this tedious.

Also, Jan 28-31 was the first official update for A New Stitchy Start 2015 SAL. Everyone posted their January progress and there are some fantastic projects going on! Go check it out!!!

Grumpy Owl has seen a few more stitches added to the background, not too terribly exciting yet. Stitching one color does go a bit faster so maybe I'll make it to the actual owl (aka the fun part) before too long. No photo of this one. It's quite boring so far.

I was in huge need of a needleminder, but wasn't really looking forward to shelling out $10+ (plus shipping) for one. So off to Hobby Lobby I went for supplies. Found some seriously strong magnets that are plated so they won't leave any funk on my fabric. It took my picky self forever to figure out what I wanted to use for the top. After much deliberation, I decided on this. My all time favorite Disney movie! Plus this little "book" was the perfect size.

Ooo, one more good thing. I found a $25 gift card I totally forgot I had! So I finally decided to order this little trinket. A, hopefully, very handy floss organizer.

I am getting a little tired of using index cards to hold my threads. Plus it's not exactly the most time efficient method. They don't carry it in store, but shipping to the store for pickup doesn't require I pay the shipping charges. Which I'm totally okay with. As of the moment pickup looks to be scheduled for Feb. 9. We can always hope it'll show up sooner though.

Annoyed Ramblings

I did get my fabric for Fantasia (yay), but much to my dismay when I went to start gridding it somehow didn't seem to be quite right. Yet again (boo). From my calculations it's 25-count, however when I called (forget email) MCG they told me they don't even make 25-count. Only the 28-count. I have NO idea what's going on. Ugh. Plus I never received my pearl filament. I'm guessing somehow while I was busy bitching asking about my fabric, they forgot about the filament.  Because, ya know, adding fuel to my fire is obviously amusing. :-( At least I have 8 other kits to borrow it from! Hahaha.

That's all I've got to ramble on about for the moment. Until next time!!

Starting Off With a Bang

Dear Friends,

Hope you're all enjoying the beginning of 2015. I don't make new year's resolutions, but if you do I wish you all the best of luck. I'll happily be there cheering you on. :-)

We spent NYE with friends and DB's company Christmas party was Jan 2. A little late, but they throw an amazing party so it's well worth the wait. DB even managed to win a smart watch. Not sure what we're going to do with it since he's the total opposite of tech-savvy. (I'm lucky the man has a cell phone.)

A New Stitchy Start SAL began as of Jan 1. This brought about the beginning of my first ever HAED piece! For those that aren't following that blog, I shall recap my progress thus far.

Of course, I had to take a photo of the very first stitch going in, and the first 10x10 block that was completed. I'm stitching this one 2 over 1 on 25-count, with full crosses. So many threads in such tiny tiny holes!!

This is where I left off as of last night. I'm guesstimating that I've done about 1500 stitches. I'm still trying to decide exactly how to do this whole parking thing. I tried stitching one 10x10 at a time for the first 1000 stitches which worked quite well. Then I moved onto stitching the same color for 10 columns, basically the height of the page. That seems to work alright as well. Not sure how I'll continue, but parking (however I decide to do it) really is the way to go with this piece.

I also NEED, not want, a magnifying lens. The first night I gave myself a headache trying to see all those stitches. It doesn't really help that our living room has next to nothing for light and we don't have a lamp. Ugh. I've been looking at some of those Ottlite things, but good lord they must be gold-plated they're so expensive!!

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL also begins this month with our first post coming quicker than I'm ready for, though I'm thrilled to start. I've decided to begin this journey with Fantasia as my Mom bought it for me for Christmas and it's really the only thing gifted I have at the moment. I also plan on beginning Grumpy Owl as it is a gift for Mom, but as of this moment I don't have all the floss or fabric yet. I'm hoping to get that all together by March-ish.

I've also joined YOTA which was probably the best idea I've had. Maybe this will help me get through the pile of UFOs that I'm very quickly accumulating!!

The last (for now) that I plan to join will be TUSAL, but as of the moment the sign up page isn't quite ready yet.

I'm hoping all of these will keep me organized-ish in my blogging and stitching. Of course if another SAL pops up that I can't refuse I'm sure I'll add it to my ever-growing list. :-)

That's where I'll leave you for now. Please be patient with me as I do plan on revamping the look of my blog sometime this week (I hope). So it may look a wee bit strange from time to time. :-)

Its The Most Wonderful Time of The Year

Dear Friends,

We had a wonderful Christmas! I hope yours were full of fun and family. I'm enjoying seeing the photos everyone is posting!

DB's dad was with us for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day which was a wonderful treat for both of us. As the rest of our family members are many hours away it was nice to have someone here besides the two of us. Dinner was amazing both nights. DB made steak for Christmas Eve and, after presents were opened, I made enough food to feed the neighborhood on Christmas Day. Basically Thanksgiving dinner again with ham instead of turkey. I personally love ham more, but DB is enamored with his turkey. I get one holiday and he gets the other. Fair I think.

"Santa" must have thought we were pretty good this year if the presents under the tree were any indication. I didn't put them out until Christmas Eve since I was worried the dogs would decide all the presents were for them. This is our first Christmas at our house, we're normally going off to visit someone. Thank goodness they were good boys! Their reward was totally worth the wait. New bones and toys galore.

I got a scroll frame for Christmas!!!!!!!! Yay!!! I almost jumped out of my seat I was so happy! It came with three different sizes (three, isn't that awesome), but I think I'll wind up using the largest size most often. There aren't many small patterns in my repertoire. I may try to change that this year, but no promises.

My newest Disney pattern, Fantasia, is finally mine!! This will be the piece I'm using for Jo's Gifted Gorgeousness SAL. Time to get my fabric ready. :-)

DB's dad also gave me this little picture frame. I thought it was so cute. Now I just have to find something to put in it. Neither one of us is a big fan of photos so we don't have too many of us anywhere. Maybe a picture of the boys is a better idea. ;)

I took the day after Christmas off, since no one wanted to meet with me to discuss anything for work anyway, and I managed to get my fabric gridded for my HAED start for the New Stitchy Start SAL. Yay! I decided, after much deliberation, to only grid the horizontal strips. We'll see how much I like it once I start, but it took SO long I really don't want to do anymore. (The photo wouldn't turn for me so its turned on it's side)

Also managed to bobbinate all 12 bazillion colors for this piece!

I'm having a hard time NOT starting this one until Jan 1. I'm so ready!! Can't start Fantasia either.......!

Speaking of HAED, for those of you that are unaware, their 35% off sale is ending today. I'm in the final moments of deciding if I need to buy myself one small storykeep pattern. More specifically, THIS one. It's so cute and so appropriate for me.

Onto Beauty and the Beast. TONS of progress! I'm basically finished with the second quarter of this piece. Only a few stray stitches along the bottom of the right top quarter that I'll get to as I stitch the bottom right quarter. You can really tell it's the Beast now and even Belle is beginning to make her debut. I haven't finished the rainbow either. Let me tell you how much I hate the sparkly thread that these kits come with. I avoid it like the plague. It really does make the piece look beautiful, but UGH! Hopefully I'll get the courage up to stitch it this weekend.

That's all for now dears. I'll be here, very impatiently waiting to start my new stitchy pieces in 2015.

Oh Christmas Tree!

Hello dear friends,

I have a Christmas tree! A real tree! DB and I managed to get all the lights strung and the ornaments on Sunday night and I love it. Originally we didn't realize we had all of his ornaments so we were planning on purchasing a few to fill in the holes. Haha. So glad we did NOT do that. Between what he has and all those my grandmother sent, our tree is very full. Unfortunately with a GSD roaming the house, most of our ornaments need to go very near the top as they are fragile. So far so good. One night down, many more to go.

I had to snap a photo with the lights on (mainly so you can see the ornaments) and another with the lights off (to show off my lights of course). Please ignore the fact that there is no tree topper at the moment. We have yet to find one we both like...

The remainder of my lights will be going up outside when I have 5 free minutes. Not sure when that will be.

Most of my Christmas shopping was started and finished Saturday. A few things had to be ordered, most of which were mailed straight to the recipient with only a few I have to go pick up from the store. I even managed to get DB's birthday present purchased and wrapped (in Christmas paper because I have nothing else).

I was slacking Sunday and Monday night since the Red Tent was on Lifetime. For those of you unaware of what I'm talking about. Many moons ago Anita Diamant wrote a book titled "The Red Tent." It tells the story of Dinah, the only daughter of Jacob. You follow her through her life and watch as her story intertwines with those more popular (ie. Joseph and the coat of many colors, etc.). If you have not read this I would highly suggest picking up a copy here. I thought it was a fantastic book, and the depiction of this story in movie form was great.

Enough on that. Onto the stitching news.

Not much progress on Beauty and the Beast since yesterday (seen here). The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show was on and I had to watch. My yearly tradition. :-)

I did, finally, decide on a piece to use for A New Stitchy Start. I put on my big girl panties and took what felt like the Polar Bear Plunge into purchasing and committing to my first ever...... drum roll please...... HAED pattern. Ah!! Without further ado, here she is!!

Humming birds are my absolute favorite bird, and this is a beautiful piece by Jody Bergsma. I've spent more time than I care to admit trying to decide on a chart. My original plan was to try a QS first, but this one screamed my name too loudly for me to ignore. So I bit the bullet. I was questioning my sanity as I watched the one billion pages of charts print, but so far I'm not too terribly intimidated. Okay I lied, yes I am. But that will NOT stop me from trying.

I'm debating on attempting parking my thread as I go. I know this one will be way more confetti-ish than normal. Ugh. So many new things to try on one poor little project. :-) I am hoping to have my floss purchased (or at the very least located) by the end of this week. Fabric may take me a minute to decide on. I don't think I'm comfortable enough stitching on linen to try something of this magnitude, so it's possible that I'll be stuck back with aida. Not the worlds worst idea.

I believe that's all my little heart can handle for the moment. I love reading your comments and am always surprised when there's a new follower or two! Thank you all for keeping me going!!

Until next time. :-)

Stitchy Start

Hello dear friends,

As I type this, I'm sitting in my hotel room in St. Louis, MO. Waiting rather impatiently for our training to begin in about 2.5 hours. I arrived at about 11 PM last night, after a boring 3 hour drive. Did I mention that was after a full day of work? Ugh. I like driving, but goodness I was toast.

I have several things to share this morning. First, I decided to join with Tammy at I Want To Do One More Stitch on a new blog. A New Stitchy Start SAL 2015. All those joining are planning to start a larger project this coming year and will be posting progress along the way! I'm still debating on which project to use although I've been considering using the one I've already designated for Jo's SAL. Oh decisions. Anyway, please go talk to Tammy if you'd like to join in this endeavor. It promises 12 months of fun!!

I have Christmas tree pictures! Okay so this isn't actually our only tree. We are planning on buying a real tree, but in order to keep it from turning brown before Christmas I've put off getting one quite yet. This cute little tree has been my DB's for several years and when it became mine (did you like the subtle way I totally stole his tree? haha) I decided to put ornaments and lights on it. Last year this was our only tree as we went to visit his family on Christmas. There wasn't really much of a point in putting up a huge tree we wouldn't use.

Without further ado:

Onto the stitching.

There was a slight bit of stitching done last night, and as I pulled out The Lion King - for the first time in months - I realized that I, somehow, missed posting progress on this one! Shame on me. :-)

We started out here as of 6/19/14:

I took a photo before I continued last night. When I say I forgot to post, believe me, it's been a LONG time. So sometime between then and now, I made it to here:

TONS of progress!! I have no idea how I missed this?!

After stitching last night, we are now here. Not a ton of progress last night. But something is better than nothing!

Now for my frustrations. I now remember why I put this thing down to begin with. I'm missing floss!! Of course all the colors I'm missing are the ones to finish the lions and the rock. Ugh. I'm debating on making a stop at a craft store around here after training tonight. It's really bugging me not to have everything I need.

That's all I've got for you! Only 2 hours 10 minutes of mulling around my hotel room. Please feel free to comment/follow! I love having new bloggers to stalk follow. :-)