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!!

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. :-)

Another Giveaway?!

Oh its true! These little buggers are popping up everywhere!

Gillie at Random Thoughts from Abroad has announced her DMC floss giveaway. 15 skeins of your choice! The only requirement is that you must live outside of the US. Much to many folks dismay, DMC prices are a wee bit outrageous outside of the US which puts a large dent in some pocketbooks.

This is a fabulous offer for those eligible. What are you waiting for? Get on over there and see what she's cooking up. :-)