Monday, October 29, 2012

Sandy, stitching, and other stuff..

Hello everyone!  First of all, I am praying for all those in the path of Hurricane Sandy, and those who have evacuated but whose homes are still in the path.   We have been fortunate, just had a little wind and very little  rain. I heard from a friend in CT on facebook- she had to stay at her house for some reason and a window blew in and her roof was starting to leak, last I heard.   I can't even imagine. We have stayed at home during hurricanes but none that bad- back in '99 when Floyd(I think it was) came and it flooded near our home we got out in time.. but I remember being at a friend's house who lived on higher ground and wondering what I was going to come home to. Again we were blessed as our townhouse has a crawlspace underneath, and the   flooding did not even reach to our top step.

On to happier things- I celebrated my 40th birthday this past weekend! My husband and I went out the night before without the kids. We are planning another celebration when my parents visit next weekend as my dad's birthday is the 2nd of November. I am just hoping they are able to make it as they drive through the mountains of WV and right now there are blizzards there. I am hoping they will be able to find another route that is safer, and still make it out.

For my birthday my father-in-law and his wife sent me some beautiful flowers. After I trimmed the stems and put the plant food in the water they started opening up- here are a couple of close-ups.


I finished my little prim ornament I was working on this past weekend. There was a border around it, just a one-row border, but I decided to leave it as is.  This is a Sheepish Designs ornament from the Nov/Dec 88 issue of Just Cross Stitch, stitched with GAST Old Red Paint.

I was so glad the year worked out at the bottom, since I had to change it from 1988 to 2012.

I'm going to start my "stash for sale" page on here(see tabs above). Please check back often as it will probably be slow going adding everything. 

I did get a few pictures of the fall colors that are starting to show here and there- these were taken at our park and library.




Well, that's about it here- praying for all of you dealing with Sandy !

Tracey



Tuesday, October 23, 2012

I fell off the "stash diet" wagon...


But only slightly and for a minute!  I saw this pattern by The Primitive Hare and I had to have it .  I doubt I will have stitched for this Christmas but maybe next.  Now it's back on the diet. :)


I had hoped to finish my ornament last weekend, but didn't quite make it.  I think I am going to finish it sometime this week.  I thought about working on it tonight but I need to get working on the LK sampler. Not that I can finish it by Halloween or anything...sigh... It's my own fault.


I have been moving along on The Alamo bit by bit. I didn't have a chance to work on it this morning but hopefully tomorrow.  Here is my progress as of yesterday.


Ginger turned one year old on the 18th! I can hardly believe it.  We didn't do much for her birthday but we tried to make her feel extra special all day. :) The day before an order from Petco came in with  antlers and a new Kong for her, so at least she got presents. :)
Getting old is hard!( hee hee..)

Sunday, October 14, 2012

An un-stitchy week

I'm afraid I don't have much stitching to show this week- only got a few stitches in on The Alamo but I do have a picture of my progress- have maybe made a little more since this was taken-
I don't think I ever did post one last week.
 
I started a new project over the weekend, since I finished my snowman. It's a little Sheepish Designs ornaments from an old Just Cross Stitch- I guess it might be considered an early ornament issue- from 1988! I was hoping to finish it this weekend as well but didn't have as much time to stitch as I had hoped.
 
It's called "A Primitive Christmas Heart." Who would've thought they liked primitive back in the 80's? That's when I first learned to cross stitch, in the 80's.. but I was young and stitching cutesy things. :)  It's actually a little aggravating- in the cover photo on this issue there is an old sampler on the wall in the background behind the Christmas tree.  I really like it but it's not featured in the magazine.  It looks like it was originally stitched by Susanna Neat in 1820.
 
I went to the library book sale this week; one of my favorite things twice a year. I usually only buy paperbacks because I don't have much room for hardcovers and the paperbacks are cheaper. :) The prices have gone up a bit- they were 5 for 1.00 and are now 50cents per book but still a great deal! I got a few books, and some for the kids.. the ones I got are Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, An Irish Country Doctor by Patrick Taylor, The Lacemakers of Glenmara by Heather Barbieri, Ghost Shadow by Heather Graham, and Saving Cee Cee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman. A couple of them were actually already on my Goodreads to-read list so that was nice!
 
 
Ginger will be one this Wednesday- I can hardly believe it!

                                                                   Crazy girl!
 
Everyone have a great week! Thanks for stopping by. :)
 
Tracey
 
 
 

Sunday, October 07, 2012

A finish(sort of) and giveaway goodies!

As some of you saw in my last post, I was blessed to win one of Nancy of Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe's givaways- for the Treasured Friend bag- here are the contents!

I posted a couple of pics cause it was hard to fit everything on my lapdesk- then I realized I was still missing a spool of thread! It is so lovely Nancy, I love everything!  Thank you again!
 
I do have a little finish to show you- I said "sort of" in my title because I need to get a button for it yet-poor planning! Just a little cardinal button.. but here it is so far. :)
I had to use some substitutions here and there, and I did french knots instead of buttons for the mouth, mostly because I didn't read the directions carefully and had stitched them before I realized they were supposed to be beads. I probably would have done it that way anyway because I don't think I have any tiny beads that were the right color.  This is Snow Dreams by Designs by Cathy Jean for Victoria Sampler- from the 2009 JCS Ornament issue.
 
I am impatiently waiting for my mums to open up- the ones that opened in the spring haven't come back, but I do have one pot thats getting ready to open!
 
There is a farm stand not far from my house that sells big pots of mums cheap- I am hoping to get some more soon.
 
I have been going through my stash-I am going to add another tab/page to my blog soon with stash for sale, will let you all know when I get it set up. I am hoping to get rid of it more that way vs. ebay- ebay is so time-consuming and not very cost-effective unless you have something really rare to get rid of.
 
The semi-annual library book sale is this week- I can't wait! I really have no business buying any more books- I still have so many from past sales that I haven't read, but you really can't beat the price, and the money is for a good cause! That's Thursday- it seems so long from now! ha! Although if it goes as fast as this weekend it will be here before I know it. It's been a nice weekend- all of us home all weekend which is unusual- usually Hanna is at some friend's house or another- yesterday a local church had a clothing giveaway/swap- you can bring stuff that you don't want anymore or just come and get some clothes if you need some. I brought some items that I don't wear anymore as well as a couple of things of David's. Hanna usually passes hers on to friends.  I found a few nice things- a cute pair of shoes, some dress shorts, a really pretty skirt- and a "Life is Good" long-sleeved shirt with a cup of coffee/cocoa on the front, which is perfect for me! I love their shirts but I never want to pay full price.. haha. Also found a Transformers shirt for David and some pj's..and Hanna found a few things as well.  We also went to Starbucks and to get a toy for Ginger. Pet Supplies Plus sent us a postcard for a free toy for her because her 1st birthday is October 18- 9 days before mine! So we got her a little toy frog.  He lasted most of the weekend but I noticed earlier she was into something and it was his stuffing. So bye-bye frog.
We then came home and I got some laundry and dishes done- Hanna and I made some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies- which were delicious- they are almost gone already. The recipe was on verybestbaking.com.  It had a glaze and no chocolate chips but we didn't have the ingredients for the glaze, so we added the chocolate chips and Hanna made her own frosting from a different recipe and website, but we left it on the side cause I thought they were just as good if not better without the frosting.  So she frosts them as needed. ;)
 
Ginger and I have been walking more now that the weather is getting cooler- and today I found a piece of pinecone that looks like flower-
I had some more of changing leaves but blogger is being weird again so I will have to share them next time. :(

Have a great week!
Tracey


 
 

Fallen by Linda Castillo

  It's been a while! I have a book review for you today.  Many thanks to Netgalley, the author, and publisher for allowing me to read an...