MY 2012 STITCHY YEAR IN REVIEW

 14 Ornaments

 

3 Exchanges

 

11 Other Finishes

 

2 Model Stitching Finishes

 

Despite my period of stitching blahs, I managed to get alot more finished than I thought I did.  Didn't get very far on my Ornament To-Do List though.  Oh well, it's time to set some goals for 2013.

What are your stitching goals for 2013?

ANOTHER ORNAMENT FINISH

"Blessed"

Design by Little House Needleworks

Completed December 29, 2012

LATE DECEMBER FINISHES

I liked the way this beaded ornament turned out so much...

...that I made 4 more!

Instead of finishing the angel in my previous post, these were the ornaments that I gave as Christmas gifts.


ANOTHER GIFT

I stitched and assembled this fabric lined box for a birthday gift. 

Happy Stitchin'

From Our Family to Yours

Wishing you and your family

A

Very Merry Christmas!

I'M TRYING.  REALLY, I AM

I'm trying to get my stitchy projects done before Christmas.  I finally decided on two Little House Needleworks ornaments to stitch as gifts. 

This is my progress on the first ornament.  I haven't started the second one yet!  We have our Christmas gathering on Christmas Eve, so I don't have too much time to get these done.



MEET MY NEW GRAND-DOGGER!
(sorry for the blurry pics - they were taken with my daughter's phone)

Skye

My oldest daughter and future son-in-law adopted Skye.  She is a 12 week old Border Collie/Sheltie mix, super playful and very loving.  The vet thinks Skye will be about 30-35 pounds when she's full grown.  She's such a sweetie! 


YAHOO MAIL TROUBLES
Anyone who uses Yahoo Mail probably knows that Yahoo changed the email format last week.  Since then, I have had several issues.  I've sent feedback to Yahoo everyday as well as sent help requests and haven't received any response from Yahoo. 

The issues/problems I've been having are:

1. When I reply to an email, Windows Live opens instead of being able to send a reply through Yahoo.  Since I don't use Windows Live, I am unable to reply to emails.
2. In Group Digest messages, I cannot click on a message title and go to that message in the digest.  Instead, I'm taken to the first message in my Inbox.
3. When moving from one email message to the next, the actual message opens in the middle or end of the message instead of at the top of the message. 
4. After deleting or moving messages to another folder, the messages reappear in my inbox.

I've tried using different computers, different browsers and cleared all the cache and cookies from my computer and nothing has made a difference.

It's very frustrating and I'm at my wits end.  Have any of you had these issues?  Have you found a solution?

Sending my prayers out to the families in Connecticut.

 

MEMORIES

When I was a kid, growing up in a new, suburban neighborhood, all the houses had outdoor decorations for Christmas.  One neighbor had an over-sized Santa in his sleigh with super tiny reindeer on his roof.  I always thought it looked so funny, but I sure looked forward to seeing it every year.  Our house had lights illuminating the roof line and we hung a string of lights around each window.  The tree sat in the living room directly in front of the big window and us kids took such pleasure in decorating it.

This box holds so many memories for me.  It is the only box left from my childhood and it's filled with various ornaments we made all those years ago.  Us kids would drag all the boxes out from under the basement steps and haul them upstairs to the living room.  We would empty all the boxes and have everything sitting out all over the living room.  It took us hours and hours to get everything just the way we wanted it.  (Funny how I don't remember taking any of the decorations down -- maybe mom did it when we went back to school).

I'm reminded of all the happy Christmas' of my childhood, when the magic and wonder of the season filled everyday leading up to Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  Opening another little window on the Advent calendar and reading that day's bible verse kindled that excitement for the upcoming celebration.

It sure seemed like the days lasted alot longer back then.


Can you believe that I'm still trying to find ornament designs to stitch for gifts for family members?  I know, I have that super long ornament list, but...  I - just - can't - decide!!!  Any suggestions?

I celebrated a birthday on Monday and this is what Hubby made for me.  No gifts, but he made dinner and cupcakes!  My youngest daughter is in Japan right now, but she sent me a birthday message through facebook.  My oldest daughter and future son-in-law stopped in for a short visit too.   

Simple joys made my day!

I can honestly say I've don't ever remember being able to sit on my porch swing without a coat, gloves and hat on my birthday.  The temp in my area of Illinois made it up to 72 degrees!

May you find the magic and wonder 

of this holiday season!  

M-O-M, WHY ARE THERE YARN BALLS IN THE DRYER?

Ok, I admit this wasn't my best use for wool yarn, but I read about how someone was using wool yarn balls in her dryer to control static and soften her clothes.  I can't even tell you which blog I found this on because I was laying in bed using my iPod during one of my late night blog hopping sessions.

I had been given the wool yarn, so it didn't cost me anything and I thought why not try it.  Bottom line -- for me, the yarn balls do nothing for controlling the static and it's hard to say about the softness.  They do, however, help my laundry dry faster and for that reason, I'm leaving them in the dryer.

With my oldest daughter moving into her new home, I find I have an empty room, so I've been going through boxes, re-arranging rooms and moving furniture. 

I found this little scrap of aida that my youngest daughter stitched when she was around 7 or 8.  I will be finding a way to display this little keepsake.

í í í í í í í í

A while back, I found a package of sandwich bread dated almost 4 weeks earlier.  I picked the package up, expecting to find dry, fuzzy, green bread.  What I found was bread that was still very soft and moist and not a speck of mold anywhere.   This is very disturbing to me!

So this is how we get our bread now.

I'm still trying to perfect my recipe for a softer crust.  At least I know what's in my bread and I don't have to worry about why store bought bread doesn't get moldy even after several weeks.

I'm looking forward to a long weekend.  How about you?

 



 

8th Ornament Finish

Cardinal Winter

Design By

Little House Needleworks

Completed:

11/18/12 

A LITTLE PROGRESS

Not much stitching going on these days.  I did find a few minutes to work a little on this ornie.  I hope to get an evening this week to sit and stitch the night away.

A KITCHEN FACELIFT
From this – blue/gray countertop with bluish cabinets and antique bronze hardware…

  To creamy white cabinets and silver hardware…

A freshly painted backsplash and beautiful new countertop!  We’re still working on painting the lower cabinets and a few other little adjustments, but it will be done in a day or two. 

Throughout this whole kitchen facelift, I only went 3 days without a kitchen sink and running water. 

Sorry for the blurry pic above.  I was having trouble with the camera on my phone.

As if having the kitchen tore apart wasn’t enough, my oldest daughter chose the same time to move into her new home.
 
Dottie has been rather upset with her *sister* moving out and the chaos around our house these past couple of weeks.

Thanks for visiting me today! 

A Box Full

You all have a box or bag or drawer full of receipts, slips of paper, recipes and whatever else gets shoved in, right?

I decided to go through my box.  It was mostly receipts, some dating back as far at 1990!  Yep, going through this box was long over due. 

I had thought about just tossing everything, but then decided to sort through it first.  After all, there might be something important in there.

I’m glad I sorted through that huge box of paper.  Besides recipes, deposit slips, store receipts and expired grocery coupons, I found a few photographs:

Learning to brush our teeth.  This is my oldest DD when she was about 2 or 3.  Notice that “rubber ducky” on the counter behind her?  She still loves rubber duckies and has quite a collection of them.


“BEEGLE BUG” was what my youngest DD called Lady Bugs and wanted to be for Halloween when she was 2  1/2.  You can’t really see the wings in the photo, but they were made out of cardboard and red and black construction paper.


Baby Snickers!  We adopted Snickers when she was just 8 weeks old.  She was so tiny.  I’m guessing this photo was used in a project one of the girls made because the photo is pasted on a piece of cereal box and cut out in this wonderful circle shape.


Here’s a pic of Snickers in her “long hair” days.  As she got older, her fur didn’t grow as long and we kept her face trimmed.  She sure looked different with long hair.


BREAST POCKETS
Have you heard about Melanie Testa’s Breast Pockets for Flatties?  Melanie is a breast cancer survivor who decided against reconstruction.  She is collecting 1000 pockets in an effort to get her story on the news.  Melanie is also trying to increase awareness and acceptance that it’s OK to be a “flattie”.  You can read all about Melanie’s Breast Pocket project here.


This is the pocket I sent in honor of my mom.  I chose a pocket from one of my dad’s favorite shirt because my dad was such an inspirational member of her support team.  My mom also decided against reconstruction and it was my dad who convinced mom that it was OK.  He was also able to prove to her that he still loved her – even without reconstruction.

My mom is celebrating 13 years as a Breast Cancer Survivor!


SCRUMPTIOUS NEW FLOSS!


Have you heard that Sublime Stitching has a new line of floss?  There are 63 colors and come in palettes with names like “Prism”, “Frosting”, “Fruit Salad”, “Flowerbox”, “Portrait”, “Parlour” and “Breakdance”.   There’s also a palette of variegated floss called “Taffy Pull” and a palette of pre-blended colors called “Mingles”.

I want them ALL!  

That’s about it for me for this week.  I haven’t done a lot of stitching and I still haven’t finished that Christmas Ornament I started several weeks ago.  There doesn’t seem to be enough hours in a day!



Dottie has been such a sad doggie.  I found Dottie curled up on the chair that Snickers always liked to lay on.  She heard me coming and refused to look at me.  See the blurry tail?  Guess she thought wagging her tail was better than looking at me.  I think Dottie believes she’s the same size Snickers was.  She almost doesn’t fit!

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

IT'S JUST NOT THE SAME 
around here without little Snickers.  I know it hasn't even been two weeks since she left us, but I still find myself calling her, think one of Dottie's toys is Snickers laying on the floor and look for her when I walk in the door.

Probably the saddest thing is that Dottie is really missing Snickers too.  I honestly didn't think Dottie would miss Snickers as much as she is because it seemed they tolerated each other but weren't best friends.

Another thing I'm having trouble with is being asked several times a day if I have found another puppy yet.  It's just too soon and I'm not even sure if I want another dog or if Dottie could handle living with another dog.

 A few weeks ago, I was selected as the winner for By The Bay's giveaway.  I won a copy of the 2012 JCS Halloween Issue and Donna's stitched model for the magazine!

   Look at all those French knots!  Such a cute piece.  

Thanks Donna!

Speaking of By The Bay, have you seen her new fall mystery SAL?  I'm hoping to get to stitch this one sometime this fall too.  For more info, go to the By The Bay blog.

I was able to order some new stash from my closest LNS (two hours away.  Unfortunately, it was the LNS' final week of operation because the owner retired and I only received about half of my order due to items going out of stock.

OTHER STUFF I'VE BEEN WORKING ON

I was asked to embroider my church's name on some communion linens.  I agreed to do the embroidery on the communion linens because it was only six pieces.  Somehow I got drafted when the Altar Guild decided that the kitchen towels needed the church name on them as well and delivered a bag of wrinkled flour sack towels to my home.  That bag contained 24 crumpled up, wrinkled towels!

Those crumpled up, wrinkled towels all embroidered, ironed and ready to be returned to the church kitchen.  This "little" project took at least 50 hours to complete.

My daughter is the Pep Club sponsor at the high school where she is teaching.  She asked for help from Hubby and myself to make this Cornhole (also called Bags) game for a raffle Pep Club was having during the Homecoming Game.  I helped Hubby get the wood, measure, cut and assemble the 2 x 4 game boards.  Hubby even taught me how to use his router to put a nice rounded edge to the boards.  I was so excited to be allowed to use his power tools! 

After we assembled the two boards for the game, I helped my daughter stain and paint the design on the boards.  I also sewed the bags and filled them with seed corn.  The raffle was a great success!

WHAT HAPPENED TO SUMMER & FALL?
In my area, the weather has turned windy and cold.  We have had many nights with frost and even had to turn the furnace on!  I don't ever remember having to turn the furnace on in September.  It seems the warm fall weather skipped over us.  I miss the warmth of the sun, having the windows open and hearing the crickets chirp at night.

The other night, a storm blew in and turned my next door neighbor's ghost so that the yard light lit it up.  I think that ghost was complaining about how cold it was!

Have a great rest of the week and weekend!

Friendship Gift Bag Giveaway!

Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe is having an awesome giveaway on her blog.  Hop on over and check out her scrumptious floss, trims, buttons and patterns.  Who can resist Caramel Cream Eyelet?

Great Sadness...

November 8, 1996 ~~ September 28, 2012

RIP Sweet Snickers.  You gave us so much love and you will be missed much.

Finally...an UPDATE!

I have been so busy with stuff. 

Stuff like work, kids, mom, the dogs, the house, the garden, dealing with financial aid at my daughter's college, selling my mom's house... 

Oh my, it's been so crazy busy.

Snickers is doing really well since her surgery.  She still has lots of moments when she gets mixed up or ends up behind a door.  In those cases, she'll either stand (or sit) like a naughty child with her nose in the corner or curl up and take a nap right there.

Dottie has started letting me know by either giving a short, high pitched bark or nudging me with her nose if she thinks Snickers needs assistance.  Dottie now wears a collar with tags hanging on it that make noise whenever she moves so that Snickers will always know where Dottie is.  And when Dottie goes on her wild running sprints and playing the crazy-toss-the-toys-across-the-room game several times a day, Snickers knows to duck and take cover under the sofa or chair.


Have you ever had a time when you fell in love with the picture of a design, bought it, along with all the threads and fabric and couldn't wait to get started on it?  Of course you have, we do it all the time.  But what happens when you start stitching said design and absolutely HATE one element of the design -- or worse -- the whole design?

I'm dealing with this dilemma right now.  I'm not going to show a picture or name the design/designer, but I've given it all I can.  I started and immediately hated this one BIG element of the design.  But I kept stitching thinking I'd work on other elements and that would make it better.  Yea, there are some elements that are really cute and fun, but then I get to an element and I can't figure out what it's supposed to be.  I look at the stitched model on the cover and it doesn't seem to match the chart.  Scratching my head, thinking well, ok, I'll make it look like the picture.

Moving on.  Darn, there it is again.  That BIG element that is so ugly and I hate it and I just can't bring myself to thread my needle and waste that beautiful thread.  Oh, but I must because that's the only way I can get to where I can stitch some cute elements again.  I force myself through it so I can move on to the more fun stuff.  I hold my stitching up to look at it.  Boy is it UGLY! 

Hubby walks by and says, "hon, this one is not so good". 

I look over the cheaters perched on the tip of my nose to scrutinize Hubby's face, wondering what he's talking about.  Oh, he's talking about this piece I'm working on.   

"Well, that just confirms it!  I HATE THIS PIECE!" 

Hubby freezes, staring at me, his mouth hanging open, not knowing what to do or say.  I think he was probably wishing he could just back up out of the room and go back to whatever mischief he was getting into.  Instead, he brings me a cold one from the fridge.

"Reach your hand down into the cooler

 Don't drink it if the mountains aren't blue"

Sorry, couldn't help it, that part of the song Pontoon by Little Big Town just happened to be playing on the radio when Hubby handed me the cold one. LOL

I honestly do not like giving up on a project, but in this case, I just can't stand to work on it any more.  I'm not even going to try to remove the stitching I've already done.  I'll cut off the stitched area and use the remaining fabric for another project.

I pulled out something else to work on.

Ahh, much better!

Have a great weekend!

  

 

I NEED A LITTLE HELP

I've kind of become addicted to following blogs.  Anyone have any suggestions on how I can keep up with them all?

STRESSFUL DAYS

Sorry I've been MIA lately.  Last week, Snickers had to have her other eye removed.  We were so sad, but made the decision to have the eye removed.  Snickers came through the surgery fine and is home recovering.  She is blind now and we are helping her to adapt.  The vet assured us that Snickers would be able to adapt and continue to have a high quality life.

The other day, Snickers decided she needed some sun.  She sat in the warm sunshine for at least 45 minutes.  The neighbor let her dogs out and they barked and barked and barked at Snickers.  Finally, Snickers let out two barks and the neighbors dogs walked away.  A few minutes later, one came back to bark some more and Snickers barked only once and the other dog simply turned and walked away.

Snickers is beginning to move around the house better and gaining some self confidence.  She is still the sweetest, most adorable little queen!

 ❃ ❃ ❃ ❃ ❃ ❃ ❃ ❃ ❃ ❃ ❃ ❃ ❃ ❃

We received news of a dear friend's passing on Saturday and then on Sunday, we received more news of one of my mom's cousin's passing.  My mom is having a very difficult time with losing these loved ones and then on Monday we found out two more dear friends are in the final stages of cancer. 

FLOWERS

My MIL gave me this flowering plant 20 years ago and it blooms every year, but this is the first year that it's bloomed several times.  I have no idea what kind of flower this is.  Most of the summer it just looks like some type of grass.  I take it in during the winter and all the green grass-like leaves dry up and fall off.

Here's a close up of the flower taken by my daughter.  Her pic is more true in the actual color of the grass-like leaves.

WHAT I'VE BEEN STITCHING

I've taken on a model stitching project that's not quite completed yet.  Vanilla Cupcake is stitched on 40 count silk gauze over one.  If you're on facebook, you can see it on the OMG Counted Confections page. (The link might still work even if you're not on facebook)

I've got lots of other projects lined up, I just have to get the time to start them!

 ❃ ❃ ❃ ❃ ❃ ❃ ❃ ❃ ❃ ❃ ❃ ❃ ❃ ❃

Remember in my last post, I posted about the young football player that collapsed on the field during practice?  The community had a memory walk in his honor and thousands of people participated, including whole football teams from neighboring schools.  It was very touching.  His funeral was last week, just a day before school started.  It was determined that he had an undetected genetic heart problem.  It seems this is happening more and more and I think there should be some routine screenings done to detect these problems.

I hope that your find moments to enjoy the warmth of the sun on your face!

Happy Stitchin'