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...

February TUSAL

Goodness all these monthly posting thingies are coming up right on top of one another. And yet not quite close enough to put them all in one post. :-/ That's alright you just get to hear me ramble on and on.

So it's time for the great TUSAL update again. I am honestly surprised with how many ORTs I've already accumulated in this jar, and it's finally getting colorful. Already it's starting to look so much more full than it did at the end of last year... and that was only 2 months ago!? Still on the hunt for a jar that looks less.... I don't know.... blah. I need something with character.

I've been rotating projects a little more frequently which may account for some of this. Maybe that is the ticket to keep me from buying too much more stash.

Speaking of... since I'm here I may as well tell you all about the newest stash... *sigh* I have very little self control, especially when I can find things for so cheap.

I've now added Mirabilia's Moon Fairy to my collection. In my defense, the entire thing; chart, fabric, DMC, Kreinik and beads, was right at $30. Including shipping! Seriously, how could I pass that up???

For those that have absolutely no clue what TUSAL is, or why I'm posting a picture of little thread endings in a pasta sauce jar, click on the link to the right and go find out for yourself!!

Sign up too while you're at it. :-)