Falling Behind

I'm sorry I suck this week. I was planning on posting a review on my new thread organizer this past Monday which I totally failed at. I didn't manage to get my threads switched over like I wanted to. Honestly I've just had a crappy week, and don't feel like doing anything or for that matter being around anyone...

It did brighten my spirits, however, to see Jacquie back from her hospital confinement. Bionic leg and all! If you missed that she's home, go give her some more love. Lord knows we can all use it sometimes. :-)

That being said, I have been very lax at commenting on new posts. I have been reading them and checking out all the lovely new things going on. I'll be back out of my slump soon and back to bombarding you all with notes!

There's been a little progress on Hummers since my last update. Being in a bum mood doesn't bode well for my stitching. :-/ I think I may pull my Snow White wall hanging back out of hiding this weekend and frog the screw-up so I can get some more done. Possibly a change of project, one that's not so tedious, will bring my happy back from hiding.

I shall leave you all with a progress photo.

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!!

A Little Bit of Everything

Hello again!

Figured I was about due for an update on the goings on with my stitching and various other things. I've been slacking on the blogging!! First I shall start with the "other things."

DB and I watched The Equalizer with Denzel Washington (aka one of my movie boyfriends, oh I love him so, haha). I will watch pretty much anything he does and this movie certainly did him justice. It was quite gory and there are TONS of fight scenes, so for those of you who don't care for that type of thing I would say it's not going to be one you enjoy. Certain parts almost made me think that he was a much more refined version of The Boondock Saints (another movie I love dearly).

This past weekend we also went to see American Sniper with Bradley Cooper. This, for those who don't know, is a movie based on the life of Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle. There has been so much hype about this move, both negative and positive. I, for one, thought the movie was fantastic. Cooper did a wonderful job portraying Kyle. DB and I arrived at the theatre only to find out the showing was sold out. :-( So we purchased tickets for a much later showing and, even with arriving 45 minutes early, we were still near the end of the line to get in. We did luck out with some pretty good seats and I sent DB off to find me a massive tub of popcorn. I could seriously live on that stuff if given the opportunity. Lol.

Onto the stitchy stuff that you all come here to see/read.

I'm slowly kitting up Grumpy Owl, but with about 6 million squares of the same color for the background, I've started this one before I finish winding all the remaining floss since I won't need any other colors for awhile.

The thread blends in with the fabric more than I thought it would, especially in the photo. I think I like it so far.

Oh I almost forgot. I bought this little floss winder for a whole whopping $0.99 the last time I went to the craft store. This has been the best money I've spent. I don't quite feel like carpal tunnel is setting in every time I go to wind a bobbin. It seriously makes things so much easier.

Hummers decided to be a wee bit of a pain last week. I took a moment to actually look at everything I had stitched and, much to my horror, I realized that there were a few dark green stitches that didn't appear to belong. Oh was I correct. Now for my wish to you. May you NEVER have to frog a HAED. It SUCKS. I was terrified that I'd cut or pull a thread I wasn't supposed to or that it would look funky and/or fuzzy when I went to restitch the correct color. Fortunately the frog was kind-ish, and after the right color was in there, you really can't tell that I had to redo it. Thank the stitchy gods.

So here's where we left off as of last night. I would kill for a page finish by the time our update rolls around, but I'm not sure if I'll accomplish that...

Hummingbird Welcome is coming along nicely. This is the one I've got on my hoop right now. I've finished the purple flowers and now I'm onto the leaves. It looks so much better when you can see all the details.

I added to my stash. "Hello, my name is Caitlin and I have a problem"....... Keepsake Needlearts had a 50% off clearance sale on 2 of the Disney kits I don't currently have and one of the little vignettes was only $2.99. Plus I had a coupon for free shipping. :-) There was NO way I could pass that up. They were supposed to be delivered on Saturday, but it looks like I won't be getting it until Tuesday.

I was also digging around on some other sites I hadn't yet been to and now I have a GORGROUS Chatelaine design on my wishlist - Hummingbird Lace Mandala. All the sparkly things, not to mention the hummingbirds, were calling my name. I really need to stay off the internet. :-)

I think I need to sign up for SFS when it opens again.

MCG finally decided I was worthy of a reply. Told me when I emailed (again) last Monday that it can take up to 4 days for a reply and they were currently working on emails from 01/14/15. I found this amusing since they had no problem responding to my email about the pearl filament from 01/16/15. Anyway ....... they've told me they'll be sending a new piece of fabric. We'll see how long it takes.

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. :-)