So Much Greatness!

Hello all! This may be quite the long post.

We're still stuck with horribly cold temperatures and ice galore. Fortunately it has melted off of the roads, but everyones yards and several driveways are still a little treacherous. The poor UPS man has almost busted his rear end delivering packages to me. We won't even discuss the USPS man who has to walk up and down the streets and through everyone's yards delivering the daily mail. Happily they are still delivering which has provided me with so many lovely things!!

Stash

Thankfully I am not participating in the SFS group this half of the year or I would have failed miserably. My personal budget hasn't really "suffered" as I don't usually spend much money on myself anyway. So, thanks to ebay (the evil money-sucking place), I am now the proud owner of 3 Mirabilia patterns. And some fabric. And some embellishments. Now before you start shaking your heads, they were all DIRT cheap!!!! I almost couldn't believe it honestly.

I wound up with the entire kit for Fairy Moon (chart, Kreinik, DMC, beads and fabric) for a little under $30.00. Upon receipt I did realize that one of the DMC colors is incorrect, through no real fault of the seller. The number kind of looks like a 0 but it's a 6. Those of you who are familiar with these designs may know what I'm talking about... the font is a little funky. So I must go get one skein of floss, but $0.33 is not going to break me. Here she is in all her glory! I hope to start her this weekend. :-)

See the bright-ish pink thread... that's the culprit!

The other two charts, both with fabric, are Sleeping Beauty and Fairy Idyll. I was in LOVE with both of these charts and at $30.00 for the pair I was suckered in. I haven't received these two yet, but I'll post when I do (should be by this weekend). No more ebay for me.

 

Gifts

I was absolutely astonished when I received my gift from June at Butterfly Wings. Let me back up a little. Back in December (I think) June began stitching a lovely piece and began a contest for the first person to guess the design and designer of this piece. After much searching I finally found it and emailed her. Another follower was a bit quicker than I and found it before me. Didn't bother me as it was fun to search around and find tons of new gorgeous designs. And then I read the rest of dear June's email stating that she would be stitching gifts for the both of us! I was so very excited as I love her stitching. Well I received my package and O.M.G. Let me show you... these photos do it no justice...

The packaging was adorable!! Love the colors.

The card was so cute and so very sweet, albeit a wee bit blurry in the photo.

Inside the cutest bag (the little blue and white one) was the date book, magnetic bookmarks (I have already begun using), the heart clothespin, and the pretty ribbon (wrapped around one of June's beautiful bobbins I've been admiring).

The pincushion is stunning. So pretty and (I don't know how she knew) stitched/finished in some of my favorite colors. The little dragonfly is too stinkin' cute!! I must admit I was almost in tears. Happy ones of course. I was just struck by the amount of time and love and care went into this wonderful package of goodies. Obviously I had to send her the most mushy email I could muster up. :-) Go visit this wonderful woman if you haven't already.

  

Stitching

Are you still with me? I know it's a long one. This part will be short and sweet.

I've continued on with Beauty and the Beast all this week since I do plan on putting it away again this weekend to pick up my new Mirabilia and some other WIPs that are begging for attention.

Last night wasn't the most productive, but there is still progress to be seen.

Giveaway

Nancy at Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe has just announced another giveaway! This time it will be for a Spring, Easter, Primitive hand dyed trim bag. This woman has some amazing things. Hop on over to this post to enter.

One Unhappy Thing

If you've made it this far, I applaud you. I have one more update... MCG Textiles. The company I love and hate all at the same time. I apologize in advance for griping about them again, so you're more than welcome to skip this part. :-)

I called back at the beginning of February to find out why the fabric was wrong and why I didn't get my pearl filament. The woman I spoke with assured me she would send the filament out. She was confused about the fabric and said she would talk to someone (I don't remember who) and would get back with me. Haha. Right... so I've heard and received nothing *gasp, shock*

I finished gridding the center lines, both horizontal and vertical to send them photo evidence that they're wrong mistaken. The fabric is not evenweave, not by any stretch of the imagination. I think its about 26/27 count by 24/25 count. It would add an extra 3 inches horizontally and is about a half inch short vertically. I'm ready to tear my hair out.

I emailed them... again... on Feb. 23rd. I will be allowing them until Monday to respond. If not, I will be calling. I'm pretty sure they hate me at this point. I'm probably on some blacklist they have. Hahaha! They'll probably tell me they never received the email. UGH! I wish there was some way to complain that wouldn't result in me never getting anything I need from them again. Oh well...

Thank you for hanging on through this lengthy post!! Until next time...

ISHW-ish Weekend Update

I had a kind-of-ISHW. Saturday was nothing but stitching until my fingers were numb. :-) It was lovely. I put on Les Miserabls, the new version with Anne Hathaway, Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe. When it was released in theatres on Christmas 2 years ago, I went since I was spending Christmas by myself that year. I've finally added it to my movie collection!

I'm still in the spring-y spirit with my stitching, although I must get back to my Hummers HAED soon or I'll be very sad at the lack of progress this month. It's a double edged sword I feel. Maybe that's why I haven't ever had so many WIPs all at once. Oh well. I love them all and just kind of stitch what I feel the urge to stitch at the time.

Oehlenschlager Snow White came back out to play and Lystig (aka Happy) is now finished. Backstitching and all!!! I think I will continue backstitching each character as I finish cross stitching them as opposed to leaving it all for the end like normal. I even began stitching the tree with the cute little squirrel next to him.

Beauty and the Beast has seen some MAJOR progress the last few days. I swear it's going faster than it ever has before. You can now see more of Lumiere and Cogsworth and Belle's dress and the Beast's outfit are filled in some more. I am SO happy with how this looks right now. I'm dying to finish this page!!! Though I'm not looking forward, not one tiny little bit, to making a bazillion french knots... I'll ignore that for the moment.

YAY! It was a productive weekend, even with Sunday being filled with cleaning and cleaning and laundry and cleaning and laundry and........ I think you get the picture.

I'm praying that the first half (all the embellishments & specialty threads) of my Mira, Fairy Moon, show up in my mailbox when I get home! The second half (chart and fabric) should be here tomorrow. I hope. Like I need another WIP... haha! I'll probably force myself to wait until the weekend when I have some actual time to start this one. But we'll see....

Until next time!! :-)

Snow Days!

My long awaited snow days have arrived! I love these days! Snuggling up on the couch with my stitching has been wonderful. We would up with somewhere in the vicinity of 8-11 inches of snow, which is apparently unusual for this area. Typically there is a lot of ice which I'm not a fan of. Snow is much kinder.

My mood has brightened significantly, thank goodness. Many thanks for all of your kind comments. I decided to pull out some of my other WIPs that were bright and cheerful, not to mention a little less tedious than my HAEDs.

Beauty has seen much more progress, even more so since this photo. I finished filling in the last few stitches of the 2nd page, even those pesky pearl filaments in the rainbow. Since this photo, I've added some more stitches to Lumiere and even a wee bit on Cogsworth's face!

I even dug out my Oehlenschlager Snow White and after frogging the face not once, but twice, I have gotten Happy completed minus the backstitching. Once I remembered how to count again it went very smoothly and surprisingly quickly. He looks so cute, although kind of odd with only one eyeball. lol. Even his butterfly friend is getting there.

It's been awhile since I've gotten this one out of hiding, so last time we left off, he was here. (Screwed up face and all):

And after much stitching he's progressed to here!:

Now I always leave backstitching for last, but with this one I'm thinking about doing each one as I finish the stitching. I just really want to see this little guy finished!!!

As for now, I'm going to get back to Beauty. Until next time!! :-)

The Final Countdown

Dear Friends,

We're still winding down from our Christmas extravaganza. I'm postponing taking down the tree until the New Year. Maybe by then I'll have mustered up the courage to pack away all the decorations.

I've had the hardest time not starting my HAED piece. I wasn't expecting to have everything ready so quickly and I'm not the world's most patient person. I have been, rather anxiously, counting down the days (okay and hours) until I can begin my new stitches.

Instead, for a little variety, I pulled The Lion King back out of hiding. Apparently I forgot to email MCG Textiles to inform them of the missing thread several months ago (oh how I procrastinate) so I decided to get that taken care of the other day. Unfortunately, due to my lack of promptness, they are closed until January 5 and we all know they'll be bombarded with emails upon their return. Hopefully I'll have my floss by the end of January. :-(

In the meantime, I've been stitching every other possible color left. As per usual, I've left the sparkly thread until last since it's a *insert your own rude word here* to stitch with. And, as luck would have it, that's all that needs to be done until the missing floss arrives.

DB and I decided, against our better judgement, to tackle our spare bedroom (aka the black hole) this weekend. Surprisingly we were able to clean and organize it fairly quickly without much hassle. Just a few long hours of our time. (The main reason my weekend stitching was so lax)

Beauty and the Beast moved forward by a whole whopping few stitches. I didn't get a photo, but honestly there's just not much to update.

HAED extended their sale until midnight on 1/1/15. I had decided against purchasing the Storykeep I posted the other day, and then they extended their sale. I now have 2 new patterns. :-)

 Storykeep - The Effects of Caffeine - Randal Spangler

QS - Grumpy Owl - Annya Kai

Grumpy Owl will be for my mom. She loves owls and this one was just too cute to pass up.

That's all for now my dears. I'll be here... counting down the moments until 2015!

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.

The Countdown Begins

Hello Friends,

First let me give a belated welcome to the new followers! Welcome to the craziness!

And now I shall begin the post from H E double toothpicks. It has taken more time than I care to admit to get this post together, but apparently that's what the holidays do to me!

Last week was a whirlwind adventure of working, working some more, Christmas shopping, Christmas shipping (eww), parties, and of course stitching! I am counting down the minutes until Christmas!!!!!

Our office held the Christmas party on Friday which, aside from being an absolute blast, made the earlier part of my week so unbelievably busy! When you lose a day in this job it's like a mad dash to the finish line of getting things completed. Our dirty Santa gift exchange found me with a $20.00 gas card!! Since I put about a tank of gas in my car every other day, I can't even begin to tell you how much I appreciated this.

I decided to make a cheese dip to bring which meant I had to wake up at the crack of dawn to get it made in time. All in all it was a rather fun (and filling, oh my God there was so much food) day.

Somehow, in all the running around, I managed to get everything for Christmas with the exception of a few small gifts for DB. Poor man gets shopped for so late. Every other present I buy has to be mailed out so they've all got to be completed much farther in advance. Even as I type this, I'm debating on which store to go to next. :-/ I also realized, as I did begin shopping for DB, that all the gift ideas I had for him I gave to my mother, his mother, and my grandmother. Helpful for them, but it just makes me have to think harder.

My surprise gift was received! I can not believe how quickly the package made it to her, but I was so thrilled to hear she loved everything. Whew. Many of you may remember the tags Lynn B made for me. See THIS post. I was so grateful for her kindness, I had to return the favor somehow. Of course, I forgot to take a photo of everything in the package, so go check out her post for the full details.

This was my first piece gifted (other than to a family member). It was also my first attempt at a Biscornu and I loved it!! I've been debating on which pattern I should use next as I really want to make one for myself now. You know, with all the spare time I have. :-)

I won something! It's a Christmas miracle! June was having a contest to see who could correctly guess the new design she has been stitching. Okay so I was the second to guess correctly, and June (in all her wonderful kindness) decided that the both of us would receive something from her. Isn't she so sweet?!?! Anyway, the colors are amazing, and after much googling, I managed to figure it out! It's a beautiful design by Luca-S called Tulips. Go check out her wonderful progress HERE.

In the midst of all this craziness, there was some stitching done. The Beast is slowly coming to life. I know I'm not really on this page yet, but I can't help myself. I'm a wee bit tired of sky and leaves/bushes/grass.

Now onto my new terrifying project. HAED. Enough said. So I bought my fabric, at some point last week I think. The time is running together at this point. Gridding is going to be the death of me. Only 4 lines done so far! I did finally managed to find all the floss I need, which put a little pep in my step. (Only 3 stores later) I've even got a nifty little box and about 3 million bobbins. So who wants to have a bobbin-winding party? I will provide coffee, lots of coffee.

The thread does look really pretty all laid out together, keep in mind this is only a small portion of what I still have to bobbinate. I can't wait to start stitching this.

That about sums it up for the time being. Thank you all again for your kind words and all the encouragement!

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. :-)

Short and Sweet

Hello friends,

Just a quick update this morning. I was so engrossed in watching the Red Tent for the past two nights, I've been slacking in other areas. I promise a much better/more detailed post soon.

For now I'll leave you with the bit of progress I've made on Beauty and the Beast.

Please feel free to comment/follow.

Mini Vacation

Dear Friends,

Hello again! And welcome to the new followers. :-)

I've managed to squeeze a little vacation in, which was lovely. Thanksgiving went off without a hitch! We had a wonderful meal and really enjoyed spending more than 5 minutes together. My Lil' Butterball (that's actually what they're called oddly enough) was delicious. For someone who doesn't care for turkey much, I was pleasantly surprised.

The apple pie I was intending to make for the festivities was pushed off until Friday. After cooking everything else on Thursday I was dog tired! Needless to say, I refrained from shopping in all the madness that is Black Friday. Cyber Monday is the preferred method of saving money, although I can't even say I've done much online shopping for Christmas presents.

Beauty and the Beast has jumped forward by leaps and bounds. I can almost see the light at the end of this page!! You can see where I've jumped ahead just slightly with the dark browns (peeking out at the bottom). It's a start on Belle and the Beast. Getting antsy! Soon there will be much stitching of the actual characters... which would be nice for a change.

I mentioned, in my last post, I'm working on a surprise project. Figured I'd show a little teaser just to keep you all guessing. :-) I love the colors so far and believe it or not, I'm already 3/4 of the way through the stitching. Then will come the finish I've not tried before and many prayers would be welcome. :-)

The metallic DMC thread is NOT my friend, but I won't be writing it off completely as I'm hoping it just sucks to stitch on Aida. I really like the effect, just not actually stitching with it.

As I upload this photo I'm realizing that a stray pooch hair has weaved itself in. Leave it to my dog(s) to make sure they're a part of EVERYTHING.

I'll be taking a trip to St. Louis, MO from Tuesday night to Thursday night. More training. Woohoo. Can't you just feel the excitement? The hotel is paid for (thank God) and I'm taking the opportunity to finish my Christmas shopping while I'm there. We don't have many stores at all here and I prefer buying certain things in person versus online.

I know I'll be bringing my surprise stitch with me and I'm debating on pulling The Lion King out to drag along as well. It's been my go-to travel piece thus far so I can't very well ignore it now.

Oh dear, I almost forgot one of the most exciting things!! My Grandmother sent a box filled with Christmas things for DB and me. Included were about 6 strands of lights (and she's still asking if she needs to send more!!), 2 tree skirts (for the 1 tree we'll have mind you), tablecloths, place mats, and (my favorite part) a bunch of ornaments she's had that I remember hanging on the tree when I was a little girl. What I didn't recall, however, was that she had cross stitched ornaments! I've got no clue who made them, but they're so darling I just had to share.

On that note I'll take my leave for the time being. Please feel free to comment/follow as I'd love to do the same!

Busy Bee

Hello Friends,

I took a short hiatus from doing much of anything but cleaning this weekend. I suppose this is payment for my hermit weekend last weekend.

3 straight hours and 6 yard sized trash bags later I put a tiny dent in the leaves that had begun to take over my yard. I was feeling fairly accomplished until it rained Sunday and 3 billion more leaves fell. Now it's impossible to see any progress. Ugh. At least the house looks somewhat better.

Of course with Thanksgiving right around the corner I went out and spent a small fortune on food for said holiday. With only DB and I to cook for I got a small 9 lb turkey that will feed us both for quite some time, especially with everything else I'll be making. My list so far:

Turkey
Mashed potatoes
Sweet potato casserole
Green bean casserole
Stuffing (in and out of the bird)
Cranberry sauce (I cheat since I love the canned, Ocean Spray, stuff)
Deviled eggs
Cinnamon rolls (breakfast of champions)
Rolls (of course)

I did get an early start by making the pumpkin bread Saturday. The first batch was a miserable failure, so back to the store I went for round two. Second time is apparently the charm for I had 3 beautiful (very tasty) loaves and the house smelled wonderful for several hours.

I opened my email this morning to a fantastic gift from Lynn at Happiness is Cross Stitching. We've been emailing back and forth and, because she is such a wonderful person with a huge heart, she offered to make a few labels for me. :-) I can't tell you how thrilled I was to receive them. I gave free reign on the design and was I surprised with what she created.

Look how sweet they are!! I adore the bow!! Must admit, I am spoiled as there are several colors and designs to choose from. I just have to stitch faster so I can use them all.

As you may have noticed I am over the moon with excitement. I swear I did a happy dance when I opened the file Lynn sent. :-) She can attest to my rambling email, which is turning into a rambling post, over my joy.

Onward to stitching!

I did manage to get some stitching done, mainly throughout the week. I went back to the Medium Dull Purple much to my chagrin, but it stitched quickly.

You can almost tell there's a tree on the top right!

There is another WIP that, unfortunately, I can't share until I'm finished and the recipient actually receives it. Hope to have it done by the end of next week and in the mail. I have, yet another, training to go to at the beginning of December in St. Louis. This gives me plenty of time to stitch since I'll be staying in a hotel for several nights with nothing else to do! I'm sure you can see how heartbroken I am ;-)

That's all I've got for the moment my dears. Please feel free to comment and/or follow! I'd love to find some new bloggers to stalk follow. ;-)

Hermit Weekend Update

Hello Friends,

Oh did I have a joyous weekend. My DB stayed gone overnight for work which left me and the pooches for a cross stitch crazy weekend.

Apart from bringing my Chihuahua for his yearly visit to the vet for all his shots, I didn't leave the house. It was cold and rainy so it didn't bother me at all.

I managed quite a bit of progress on Beauty and the Beast. Yay!

My last update we were still here.

And now........

And here is a little bit closer view of what I've done. Lots of counting since I decided to continue with the green on, what will eventually be, a tree.

At some point Saturday night Sunday morning, I picked up Snow White and began stitching Happy. Or at least that's who I think it is...

I then realized, as I was stitching his beard, that I miscounted. That's apparently what you get for starting a new project at 2 am. Needless to say I'm a little annoyed that I basically have to frog his whole face. So... I put him back down and picked up Beauty and the Beast again.

All in all it was quite a productive weekend on the stitching front. I managed to watch Sleeping Beauty, The Princess and the Frog (the newest addition to my Disney collection), and many hours of Hallmark Channel Christmas movies. Don't judge me. :-)

We had small amounts of snow that melted quicker than it fell. Until this morning that is. Just enough to make the roads slick of course. I'm glad I don't have to go more than 5 miles to work. Snow seems to wipe everyone's memory on how to drive.

I must admit I love how snow looks... when I don't have to go anywhere. My lantern looks especially lovely I think.

That appears to be all my news for the moment. I'm debating on joining a SAL for 2015... seems to be a fun idea and I do have the perfect project for it. I'll let you know!

Until later, please feel free to comment and follow. We're up to 12 followers and it feels amazing! I never get tired of seeing your lovely projects and getting to know you all better.