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!! :-)

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!!

Hakuna Matata

AHHH! Yay! I have a finish! The first of, hopefully several, for 2015!

Let me back track a little. I finally received the two brown thread colors I was missing for The Lion King. Aaaaaaand apparently I miscounted the pearl filament (aka the evil sparkly thread) so I was just a little short on what I needed to finish. Oops. I did, once again, email MCG but I really wanted to finish this one. So I stole two strands from another kit to use for this one.

I stayed up WAY later than I should have to get this thing done, but I couldn't help myself. I could see the light at the end of the tunnel and I was sprinting towards it. At about 3 am I crossed the finish line (told you it was really late, lol).

Please pardon the stray dog hairs I probably missed... the pooches like to "help" 

I love the finished product, however the backstitching tried to test my patience. Oh my goodness there were such tiny tiny tiny little stitches. Simba is so adorable and Rafiki looks fantastic! The overall look was more than worth it. I have also found out that I suck at french knots. I'll have to do a lot more practice before I finish Beauty and the Beast. There are hundreds of little knots on that one!

This one probably won't be framed for a little while so I'll update on that at a later date.

Grumpy Owl is ready to be kitted up now that The Lion King is done. I love the fabric I got from 123Stitch.com. It's a 32-count linen, which in my weirdness I forgot was a real linen and not evenweave. I know, I know it says linen right in the title... I'm a dork. Oddly enough it actually isn't that uneven.

The color is amazing, the photo doesn't really do it much justice. It's a more peachy color that seems to go pretty well with all the floss so far. I was surprised by some of the floss colors but I can't wait to see how they all look when they're stitched!! First I must spend my time bobbinating all this floss.

Time for an MCG update..... I emailed MCG again (as you skimmed read a minute ago) about the evil sparkly thread. What did I receive in response? Well, exactly that. A response. I was shocked since I still haven't heard anything about the fabric for Fantasia. They told me they never received the email and asked that I resend it. I forwarded the original message. No reply. Sent a new message with the same content in case there was a problem with the first one. Again, no reply. So I responded to the one they apparently did receive asking if they saw anything. No reply. I was almost in tears I was so beyond frustrated. Can't do anything about it today since it's the weekend. If I have no response by Monday afternoon, I'll be hunting down a phone number to call instead.

I suppose I bring this upon myself since I keep purchasing these kits, but they're the ONLY ones who make them. No other company has Disney patterns/charts/kits that compare to Thomas Kinkade's work. He was a crazy talented artist and these pieces are what got me into stitching again after so many years. Ugh.

I do want to thank you all for your kind and spirit boosting comments. They all make my day every time!

Goodbye Christmas Money...

Dear Friends,

As I was cleaning up the Christmas decorations and storing them all away until next year, I ran across a piece I completely forgot I had. Honestly I have no clue how old this is, but I received it about 4 years ago (maybe more) from my Grandmother and Great Aunt. I was told that it was a gift for me! Yay! And then I was informed that it wasn't finished and that was my job before I could frame it. :-)

Anyway, I pulled it out and started looking to see what exactly needed to be done. Well much to my surprise this wasn't simply a cross stitch piece, there are many stitches I've never used before. Fortunately, almost all the hard stuff is complete (haha!) and mostly all I have to do is backstitching. Mostly. There are a few odd stitches in there that I'm trying to figure out as well.

I'll post a pic of the progress on this one for Jo's Gifted Gorgeousness in just a few days! I don't want to give away too much too soon...

So....... online craft shops are dangerous places, hence the title of this post. I need to be banned from these websites. Needless to say I found the perfect fabric for Grumpy Owl!! It shipped this morning and I'm dying to get it and actually see it in person. It's a 32 count Chalice Belfast Linen. So pretty, and I hope/pray it works well with the colors in the piece. I hate not being able to see it in person, but there are ZERO shops near me other than Michael's and Hobby Lobby. Neither of which are very cross stitch friendly. Don't get me wrong they do have some cheap DMC but fabric is another story.

I'm planning on stitching this one 1 over 1 so I hope the coverage is as good as I'm thinking it will be. Speaking of stitching, I also found a coupon for 20% off my entire order at Michael's so sometime this month I should be able to pick up the remaining thread and have this bugger kitted up in no time!!

I also managed to snag this Ottlite for $70 from Joann!!!! (P.S. for those that may want one, I do believe it's still on sale, although it's out of stock online so you would have to go to your store and buy it there). I've read quite a few mixed reviews, but I figured it was worth a shot... I hope.

Since we don't have one close I had my Mom pick it up from the store right around the corner from her house. Oh I can NOT wait to get it! Even with shipping charges my total is coming in WAY under the $209 they originally wanted for it. Thank God for Christmas money. haha. My eyes will be so much happier with me once it's hooked up and ready to use.

This weekend will be my stitchy hermit weekend. DB is leaving for 4 days for a training class so beginning on Sunday I'll have the house to myself to stitch!! My mom did tell me that I must watch "If I Stay" so I believe I'll be renting that to watch as well. My poor fingers might need a break at some point!

I finally pulled out Fantasia to start on tonight for the Gifted Gorgeousness SAL and as I was reading the package I noticed that instead of the normal Aida cloth these kits contain, this one has Evenweave. I'm curious to see how much more I like it than the Aida. Probably a lot. :-)

Sorry that there aren't any progress photos for you all today, but stay tuned for this weekend when I'm certain there will be more than you care to see!!

Oh and I almost forgot - the floss I am in need of to finish The Lion King was also shipped out to me this morning! I LOVE MCG Textiles. They are fantastic to work with, not to mention the wonderful projects they have and their customer service is impeccable. Never once have they had an issue providing me with the floss that has either been missing or incorrect in my kits. (NO this doesn't happen all the time, but we're all human and once and awhile mistakes are made) I must say again -- I LOVE this company. I'm sure others are this way as well, but they're really the only ones I've dealt with in this capacity so they get my love at the moment. :-)

Thus ends my rants. :-) 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!

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!

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. :-)

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. ;-)