A feeling of accomplishment..

I am so chuffed! (love that word, always wanted to use it! lol)  But seriously, I am! Tonight I did a method of finishing I have never done before and it turned out great.. and I only needed a wee bit of help from dh. hee hee. Unfortunately I can't elaborate at the moment because the piece was for an exchange - so I have to wait until she gets it, but I am just feeling very excited and a bit proud! :)
On a stitching front - this is what I got done last night-

Yep, just a little. LOL I'm working on Little Christmas by Bent Creek.  I got a late start then got distracted by TV, etc. and that's all I got done. Oh well, it happens.

And now for a picture of Tiny the fish.  He has no other fish to get along with, as Hanna's other fish is a betta also, and bettas do not live well together, or with any other fish for that matter, that I know of anyway. But they sure are pretty and really easy to care for!  Here he is-

This picture doesn't really do him justice- he has pink and blue on his sides that is so pretty- I probably should have waited til the daylight hours to take a picture.   I will try to remember to take one tomorrow morning if I have time.

Well, if I am going to get any stitching done I better get off of here!

Spring goodies!!

My Brooke's Books Yahoo group is having a spring exchange- I am still finishing up my piece but I have already received from my partner Georgena (no blog that I know of) so I thought I would share with you what she sent me!  The theme was Spring/Easter  and the exchange was for a stitched item, but you know us stitchers always send other goodies as well. :) I hope I can remember to take a picture of mine before I send it out!  First-most of the items( I forgot one so took a separate picture of it)-

A close up of the stitched card she made me-

And the cute towel I left out of the picture!

Thank you Georgena for all the wonderful goodies!!

Saturday Hanna and I had a "girls day"- we went to zumba in the morning, and then started a search for a new fish for Hanna, as her fish, Blueberry, died a week or so ago. :( At our local Walmart all the fish looked pretty pitiful-some were dead in the containers already and that made us nervous about buying any of the live ones- we were worried they may die shortly after we bought them! We would've just gone to a pet store first but she wanted a female betta and that is the only place in town that carries females. Anyway- we didn't buy a fish there.  We drove through McDonald's for some lunch and went home to change- we had a zumba presentation to participate in at a local festival so we wanted to change into clean workout clothes. By the time we did that it was time to go to the festival.  It was a small town near here but there was a pretty good turnout. Good parking spaces were hard to find so we had to park quite a distance away from where we needed to meet the others but it was a nice walk.  There are alot of older homes to look at on the walk, so pretty- and some wild growing flowers like these-

After we finished the presentation we didn't stick around long- Hanna wanted to continue on the quest for a fish- so we left and went to a local pet store.  They only had 3 bettas, none of which caught Hanna's eye, so we ventured on to the last pet store- they always have a good stock of male bettas so after much pondering she finally chose one.  Sadly I don't have a picture to show you in this post, I have been meaning to take a picture but haven't, and now the kids are in bed - don't want to scare the fish with the flash, lol.  He is lovely though, yellow with blue fins and some pink in places too.  She named him Tiny because he's so little compared to her previous fish.

That night my boss had gotten us tickets to "Dance for Christ".  This is a large group of local youth that do dance performances all with a Christian theme.  He thought Hanna and I would enjoy it so he asked if we'd like tickets.. anyway this performance was amazing and so moving at times.  Most of the songs they danced to were contemporary Christian- one in particular-Mercy Seat- was beautiful.  It depicted a girl being tempted by all the things of this world- drugs, drinking, eating disorders, I forget what else- but in the end Christ protected her from them all.  It's hard to describe, you just had to see it.  It had me in tears. I think Hanna thought I was a bit crazy. lol I totally plan to go again next year.  Hanna loved it as well.  I tried to find some video to share with you but so far have had no luck.

And lastly- here's my little ME ornie framed in it's little frame- I couldn't get it centered like they had it in the picture without cutting out some of the poof ball on his hat.. so this is what I ended up with. Not too bad!

I have finished stitching my exchange piece this evening so hopefully in the next day or two I can get it finished however I am going to finish it(haven't decided yet) and mailed out with some goodies to Georgena. :) Now -what should my next "lunchtime project be?" 

The winner of the ME ornament pattern!! (and another giveaway!)

I numbered your comments and had my daughter pick a number -(after I marked out those who didn't want to be entered) and the winner is...
Dianntha of Ohio Farm Girl!!

Dianntha, please email me at angelrose1108@yahoo.com with your address. Congrats!! And now I am going to start another giveaway- this one is for an issue of Cross Stitch and Country Crafts magazine from Sept/Oct 1988.  I'll draw for this one on Wednesday, March 31.  Also included in this issue, besides the cows, are dinosaurs, strawberries, and Herbs and Spices sampler, a chicken design, among other things. If you'd like to see pics of anything inside just let me know! Sorry the picture is so crappy, but I think if you click it you will get a better view. Blogger has changed how you add pictures I think! Don't see an option now for adding from my computer!

a Beary sweet giveaway!

Just head on over to Bearbits to enter! Isn't she sweet?

ME ornament finish and a little giveaway

Stayed up late last night to finish this one, that's why it's not in it's frame yet.  :) I am going to giveaway the pattern and remaining threads- anyone interested please leave a comment here and I will draw a name on Friday. :)

A snowman with a nose, some S&S progress, and another award!

God bless stitching friends!! Thanks to Sharlotte, my little San Man snowman now has a nose.  She read about my predicament and sent me some of her very own handmade carrot noses.  Thank you Sharlotte! As you can see it is perfect!
I have made quite a bit of progress on my Sense and Sensiblity Sampler since I last posted-

I also worked on "D" of my Stitchers Alphabet but not enough progress to really post about yet!

I also received another award! I couldn't believe it!  I received it from Belinda of Blue Ribbon Designs.  I feel so honored, and even more so because Belinda is cross stitch designer!! Thank you Belinda! This award is for bloggers who inspire others with positivity and creativity. The rules for accepting the award are:

1. Put the logo on your blog or within your post.
2. Pass the award to 12 bloggers.
3. Link the nominees within your post.

4. Let them know they received this award by commenting on their blog.
5. Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

Without further adieu, here are my nominees. I tried to pick different bloggers from the last award, as I read so many wonderful blogs!!

1. Stitching with the Sampler Girl, her blog
2.Lola B's- One Girl Talks
3.Gr8dame's Place
4.Kathy's Stitching Comments
5.Carolyn's Stitching Chatter and More
6.Golden Angel's Works
7.Crafting with the Stitch Witch
8.Sara's Simple Stitching
9.Babs in her Own Little World
10.RobinPich
11.Fripperies and Stitchery
12.The Twisted Stitcher

Phew! Thank you my fellow bloggers for being such an inspiration!

And one more little thing.. if you have read my blog for a while you will know that I love sushi.  When Hanna was with her friend and her friend's family at the mall a week or two ago, she found some sushi earrings and was so excited to show them to me. I have yet to talk her into getting her ears pierced, or she probably would have gotten them for herself! Anyway, we went to the mall today and as soon as I saw them I loved them.  Here they are-

Aren't they the cutest? And these appeared to be the only ones left- so you know it was meant to be.. ;)..

hope everyone has a great week coming up!

A great stitchy giveaway!

Especially if you are a lover of samplers like me! Click here

"C is for Crochet" is complete!

Thought I posted this earlier but evidently something went wrong as it was not here when I checked! I finished C last night and pulled the threads for D- I hope to work on D Thursday.

We had a free rental for the Redbox so we got "Did You Hear About the Morgans?" It was really cute! From what I saw it didn't get the best reviews but I liked it.  I love me some Hugh Grant though. :) When he said he wasn't going to make any more movies after "Music and Lyrics" I was so sad.  I'm glad he changed his mind!

Snowman progress and a TU SAL update..

I finished all the cross-stitching on my ME ornament tonight- now just need to do the backstitching and french knots-

And here is my Little River "Snow Sweet" so far-

And last but not least, my TUSAL update! I remembered! lol

Tomorrow I'll work on my Stitcher's Alphabet- I'm hoping to finish C! :)

Up Close and Personal

Up Close and Personal by Fern Michaels



My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was a little slow starting off, but once it picked up I didn't want to put it down. Great story and some of the characters were so funny!



View all my reviews >>

Tink is finished!

Doing this on the sly cause dd is near, hope she doesn't see!!
Thankfully she is watching "South Pacific" and not me.. lol

Got my order from 123 Stitch today - sadly the carrot nose button I ordered is still too large, but a sweet stitching friend made me some carrot nose buttons and they are on their way so hopefully one of them will work out!!

Not much else going on this weekend- took the kids to the library today, ran here and there.. going to go stitch on my latest snowman soon..  :)

Stitchy updates..

I am moving slowly on my Sense & Sensibility Sampler- but here is my progress as of right now-

Here is my latest start- a freebie by Little River- I always like getting a freebie that is printed in black and white, that I have never seen stitched before- I like being surprised when it's all finished. :)

The fabric is actually green with bits of yellow, don't know why the colors won't show up in pics, even when taken under the Ott-lite..

And a bit late, but I have taken Feb. out of the frame and put March in!

I am a bit peeved with the postal service- if you read Barb's blog you know already what I am talking about- but Barb and I did a pattern swap- I sent her "Mr. Snow Tired" and she sent me "The Emma Project"- and as a nice surprise she had sent me a beautiful fob- well not only did the postal service take forever to get it to me, but when I got the envelope it had been torn open and the fob was missing. This is what she had sent me.. sniff...

(photo courtesy of Barb)- I am so sad, this was absolutely beautiful! I am going to check with the P.O.(in vain, probably) to see if they have a "lost and found" box of things they find that might have fallen out of people's packages! (ahem!) Makes me want to send everything in well-packaged boxes from now on..

I've been awarded!

I feel so special! Thank you Rhoda!

To accept this award, here are the rules:

1. Thank the person who gave you the award.

2. Paste the award on your blog.

3. Link to the person who nominated you.

4. Tell 7 interesting things about yourself..

5. Nominate 7 blogs and post links

6. Leave a comment on your nominated blogs to let them know.

Now for my 7 interesting(?) things.. I hope I can think of that many. Sorry if they aren't too interesting. lol

1.  I was in a pretty serious car accident when I was in high school- I was not driving- I was thrown from the vehicle and had a skull fracture, among other things. Due to this I have a small metal plate in my head. (No, it does not set off metal detectors. )
2. I have been cross-stitching since I was about 13 years old.  I learned needlepoint and latch-hooking before that but I don't remember how old I was.
3. I skipped kindergarten.
4. I am an avid Jane Austen fan- sadly when I visited England in the early 90's I wasn't yet.  Now I want to go back and visit all the Jane Austen places- her home, the Jane Austen Centre, etc.
5. I have lived in 4 different states.
6.In high school I was voted "most likely to own a night club." ha!
7. When I was younger my grandpa called me Tracey Michelob(instead of Michele), "Mick" or "Micky" for short, and I have never liked beer.

OK, so maybe not so interesting.. sorry! lol

Now to nominate - this was very difficult as I read SOOOO many great blogs- so please don't be hurt if you don't see your name!!
1.Edgar
2.Mary Kathryn
3.Sibohan
4.Tracey (no I didn't nominate myself! ;) )
5.Paulette
6.Sharlotte
7.Faye Raye
Your blogs brighten my day!! As do so many others..
Hope everyone has a great weekend! And thanks again Rhoda, you  made me feel special! I love your blog too but didn't want you to have to do all this again.. hee hee.  And I also want to apologize for those who have given me blog awards a long time ago and I did not acknowledge..they did mean a lot to me!

Tink is taking shape!

Any suggestions as to what I should outline the letters with?

B is finished, and C is started..

I didn't get very far on C, as I kept nodding off..lol But here is
B, and a close up of the butterfly because I think it's so pretty- the picture again does not do it justice though..

an **almost** finish

Ohhh.. I was so excited! I was going to finish stitching a project in one weekend!! Woo hoo! And I guess technically I did-but the only carrot nose button I had was tooo big. So here is my nose-less snowman.  Fortunately I had just placed an order with 123 Stitch (one of the only places I could find Kreinik #8 braid #3280), so I called them this morning and added a carrot nose to my order.. I actually need a few but I guess I will get them as I need them.  I wish someone here locally had them- I mean Michael's has all other kinds of buttons, why can't they have carrot noses? I'm sorry for complaining.  So here is my almost finish!

In case I forget later- a San Man Originals design-stitched on Silkweaver 32 ct lugana(I think?)- color is Charizma- with recommended DMC threads. The snowflake button is a San Man button. Anyone know of any good button companies besides Just Another Button Co? I like their buttons but I like my carrot noses a little rounder-not so flat.. hee hee..  When it's finished I will try to get a better pic- the fabric is actually different shades of purple and a little blue- it's really pretty!