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!

Some more progress..

Here is the latest on Tinkerbell and the Sense and Sensibility Sampler- I'm afraid I don't move very fast on the latter- I don't get as much stitching time on Thursdays due to zumba class- not complaining, mind you, I love zumba! And Fridays- sometimes I get lots of stitch time and sometimes I don't..

My weekend project is a little snowman project from San Man- I'm hoping to finish it this weekend but we'll see.. it's not very big but sometimes I take longer to stitch things then I think I will.. Tink up there is a perfect example! lol

Progress on "B"

Well, after frogging everything but the upper left hand corner, and re-stitching, this is where I'm at! :-) I really wish this picture did the butterfly justice. It is so pretty and sparkly!
I am also happy to say I solved the Tinkerbell's wing/Daquiri Ice dilemma.  While stitching "B" last night I noticed that one of the colors was really close to Daquiri Ice.  So today I tried it- it was a little too dark, so I ripped it out and used a strand of Daquiri Ice and a strand of the similar DMC and it is so close I don't think it will be noticeable. Yea! I will try to remember to take a picture tomorrow and post it.  I am almost done with the cross-stitching- I have to stitch the "P" in "Pixie" then I can begin the backstitch! hurrah! I feel like I have been working on it a long time.
It snowed today- the third time this winter- I know that doesn't seem like much but I think it's the first time it's snowed three times in one winter since I moved here in '94.  It was really pretty,  not falling hard, just kind of randomly coming down this way and that, big fat flakes.  It melted as soon as it hit the ground but I still enjoyed watching it fall.   Well.. better go if I am going to get any stitching done tonight! :)

Deadly Harvest by Heather Graham

Deadly Harvest by Heather Graham



My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was an awesome book- in alot of suspense books I can figure out "whodunit"- this one kept me guessing til the end.. a real page turner!
Note: This is a part of the "Flynn Brothers Trilogy"- I have read the first one and it was just as good- reading the third one now! You could probably read them out of order though and not be confused or anything. ;)



View all my reviews >>

Mr. Snow Tired is fiinished!

I finished him late last night!  My next snowman design is going to be a little one- a little San Man Originals design..it feels sooooo good to finish something! My finishes for 2010 so far are looking pretty sad. I stitched this on BCG Textiles linen with the recommended threads, but instead of the Homespun Elegance charm I used a Mill Hill Treasure.

And tonight I want to share with you a yummy snack- you may have already done this, I'm sure it's nothing new... but Rob got this book "The Flat Belly Diet" and it has microwave s'mores.  I didn't even know you could microwave marshmallows!  Anyway, all you need is graham crackers, semi-sweet chocolate chips, and mini-marshmallows.  Place marshmallows and chocolate chips on graham crackers and microwave for about 15-20 seconds.  They are yuuuuuummmmmy and relatively lo-cal if you don't get carried away with the marshmallows and chocolate chips. hee hee!

Better late than never!

Back at Christmastime I think I said I would post a picture of the poncho my mom made me for Christmas.  I finally remembered to have Hanna take a picture (you can see her in the mirror! lol) Here it is. Not the best picture of me but at least I'm having a semi-good hair day. ;-) The poncho is really soft and cozy and has a hood too. :) I love it!  The picture doesn't do it justice- the colors are so pretty..

Hardly any stitching the last couple of days- David had an upset tummy on Thursday evening- I was quite distracted being worried about him- fortunately I don't think it was a bug - I won't get into the nasty details though.  He has been fine since late Friday evening and I am so thankful.  I didn't sleep well Thursday night so I was tired Friday and didn't get much stitching done then either, just a couple of letters on my Sense and Sensibility Sampler.   Tonight and tomorrow I am going to work on my Mr. Snow Tired - hope to get him finished! We'll see.  If I am going to succeed I guess I better get off of this computer! Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Does anyone have some Frog-B-Gone?

Argh! Had my B square almost all stitched- was stitching the border before I put the beads on- and realized I was a row off. My block was shorter than the other one.. it didn't look too obvious but it would bother me so I had to frog almost all I had stitched! I may post my progress later anyway, though it's not much..

My first TUSAL post!

A couple days late- I was thinking the new moon was today... oops!  It doesn't look like I have been doing hardly any stitching at all does it? lol Really, I have, almost once a day at least!  Alot of white in there between my snowman and the Aran sweater in the Stitcher's Alphabet.  Hopefully my next updated will be more colorful. :)

ME ornament progress, etc..

I realized I hadn't ever posted any pics of my Mary Engelbreit ornament I'm working on- this was one of the $1 kits from Michael's, and it's actually pretty detailed, I really like the vibrant colors!

Tonight I decided to go through the books I had bought at library book sales and our used book store's dollar sales and mark the ones on my goodreads "to read" list that I own- I looked through those books and found books I had forgotten I had even bought- and found one that I had bought twice-I bought one copy at the used bookstore and one at the library book sale!  It's ok, it's an author my mom likes as well so I'll save a copy for her when she comes to visit in April.. I am such an addict when it comes to those book sales.  I'm sure I've mentioned in a previous post that the library book sales sell 5 paperbacks for $1.00- and "friends of the library" get first dibs..I have a dear friend from church who keeps renewing my friends membership so I try to be there for "friends" night every 6 months when they have a sale.  The kids like looking through the books too and the library lets me bring them on "friends night." :) Anyway, enough rambling.. I am really tired.  Have to take Hanna to the dentist in the morning for a filling- her first cavity. :P I supposed it was too much to hope she would never get one.. lol.

Snowy Day= Stitching/Reading Day!

I love this song from White Christmas - every time it snows I think of it! Here are some more pictures of our beautiful white stuff!

Look at the trail of pawprints- looks like one of the local stray cats was the only one to venture out this morning!

Now - off to stitch or read!

Snow!!

I know most of y'all are sick of it, but we haven't gotten much, so I am still excited!!

I did a short video but have to figure out how to post it here as it's an unsupported file type. :( I haven't been able to save it as anything else..

Blackbird Designs giveaway!

Cathy is giving away a gorgeous Blackbird Designs pattern (w/fabric!) on her blog- click the post title or her name to see which one it is!!

A is finished!

Doing a happy dance!! Stupid me didn't already have my threads pulled for "B" - and I'm feeling a bit lazy, so I guess I will start it another night. :)

A pic from a bit farther away

See post below this one also..

Dilemma

I used SSS "Daquiri Ice" for Tink's wings- I used my whole skein and only had a small bit left to stitch so my mom loaned me hers. It's quite a bit lighter as you can see- sorry for the crappy cell phone pic-it's really obvious that it's lighter isn't it? What to do now? SSS is pretty hard to come by these days...

Progress on my Sense and Sensibility Sampler..

I didn't post any progress last week as I didn't get a whole lot done.. I got quite a bit of stitching time last night though. :)  Please excuse the hoop mark!! I am really loving the colors in this.

Phew!

I have not been this glad it's Friday in a lonnnnnng time.  Work was crazy this week. I got off about a half an hour late every day except today, oddly enough. Probably because it was raining.   It seemed like this week everyone wanted to do business in the last hour of the workday.  I won't complain though - it's job security! Tonight was soooo nice. I got off work and was on the way home when Hanna texted me to let me know they were waiting on a pizza from Papa John's it would probably be about an hour (!).  So I came home, changed into comfy clothes, turned on the 'salsa' radio station on Directv, and boogied around the house catching up on a little cleaning- it was great winding down time believe it or not.  Last night I got off late, did not eat dinner so we could make it to zumba class in time.  When class was over I wasn't hungry, so I got the kids something, they ate most of it on the way home, finished up at home- I took a shower while they were eating-got David to bed.  Then put a load of clothes in the dryer and plopped down in my usual place on the loveseat. I was so drained- didn't eat, didn't stitch- just sat there watching TV.  I was in bed by 10.  So naturally there was a bit of a mess to be cleaned up today, since I did ZILCH last night. lol

But enough of that.. here are some progress pics- first, my "A"- I have finally started on the beading..

And here is one of "Pixie Spoken Here"- I had almost gotten finished with Tink's wings and I ran out of SSS "Daquiri Ice" . Thankfully my mom is mailing some to me that she had- hopefully it will match. So I worked on the lettering in the meantime.

Sorry it's a little hard to see- I took at work- must be those flourescent lights.  If you look closely you can see the start of the letters on the left- I am doing them in WDW Spring Bouquet.  The pattern called for them to be done in white, but my fabric was a little too light.

Well, better go get little man to bed.. I am behind on my blog reading too, maybe I can do some catching up tomorrow. I want to work on my Sense & Sensibility Sampler tonight. :)

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