Wedding Photos

Finish and Presents

I hope everyone had a great Christmas! We did minus driving in heavy rain when you can barely see the car in front of you.

I finished Snowflake Serenade by Country Cottage Needleworks before we left for Christmas. It looks a little blue in the picture, but it's not like that in real life. I loved the way it turned out. I can hear the songs in my head every time I look at it : )

I also wanted to share some pictures of what my sister made for me and hubby for Christmas. I thought she did a great job!

First up: Christmas coasters.

 

I will probably borrow her idea and do these next year as gifts : )

Next, she made us this (I don't know what to call it). The M can stand for many things: Melissa, Matt (hubby's name), or Mitchell (hubby's last name).

Finally, I made this as part of my sister's Christmas present:

And, I made this for my mother-in-law. It is Single Rose by Dimensions. I didn't get a picture of it framed, but it turned out beautiful!

Thanks for stopping by and Happy New Year!

IHSW December

I hope everyone had a great weekend! We celebrated Christmas a little early with my parents because we won't be able to seem them on Christmas this year. My sister made some wonderful presents for me and hubby, and I will take pictures of those later and post them. She did a great job though!

I decided to work on Snowflake Serenade by Country Cottage Needleworks this weekend. I started this pattern last year around Christmas and did not finish it. My goal is to finish it off this week before we leave for Christmas in Chicago. It will probably be my last finish of 2011. Wow. It's hard to believe this year is almost done. I need to figure out what I want to stitch next year...always fun!

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!!

Scarf

So, I haven't done much stitching this week. But, that is because I have been working on my mom's Christmas present. I got her a little ornament when we were on our honeymoon in Charleston, but I couldn't think of anything else for her. She also is not real helpful when you ask her what she would like. Her response, "I don't know." Well, I finally decided to make her a scarf. So, last Friday night I went to JoAnns and picked out some fabric for the scarf (and more fabric to make another scarf). I am keeping my fingers crossed that the scarf works perfectly with a shirt my mom bought at Anthorpologie awhile back. Hopefully she likes it!

I took the picture last night. The scarf color doesn't look quite so dark in real life-it looks a little more green and blue.

I hope everyone has a good weekend and has fun stitching! I still haven't decided what to work on for IHSW (check out the side bar for more info). It will either be Snowflake Serenade or Mediterranean Mermaid, or maybe both!

Thanks for stopping by!

Japanese Garden and Baking

I hope everyone had a great weekend! We visited my sister's family this weekend for my niece's birthday party. Wow, I didn't realize 5-seven year old girls could make so much noise. We had a good time visiting with my family though.

I didn't get much stitching done this weekend, but I did work on Japanese Garden during the week. I love the cherry blossoms. They are so cute! While stitching on the corner section, the silk thread kept catching on my fingers and pulling out of the needle. Quite annoying. I am going to make sure my hands are moisturized, and I clip any hang nails when the weather is dry like this before stitching. Anyway, here are some pics:

I also finished up LHN's Baking this week- a cute holiday pattern. I thought the Poinsettia flowers looked adorable in the corners. And then the slice of cake and pie...yum! It makes me hungry just looking at it : )

 
Thanks for stopping by!

Mermaid and ornament

I hope everyone had a great weekend! I had a pretty bad sore throat and headache : (

However, I did finish-finish my Christmas ornament that will be a gift. It took me awhile to figure out how I wanted to finish the ornament. I stared at it, and I stared some more before inspiration finally hit me : ) 

 Next up, my progress on Meddie. She has lots of metallic thread and bling (all the empty spots)!

My December stitching goals:

1. Finish LHN's Baking
2. Work on Japanese Garden (I would like to finish the top tree and start the right corner)
3. Work on Mediterranean Mermaid (hopefully I can finish her tail)
4. Maybe work on another Christmas ornament if I have time

Lastly, I was playing around with my new camera and took several more pictures of my violas. They have such pretty purple flowers, and I love taking pictures of flowers. Enjoy and thanks for stopping by!

Mediterranean Mermaid Start

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend (or great weekend)! My parents, hubby, and I drove from Alabama to Chicago and then on to Green Bay, WI for Thanksgiving dinner. While in Chicago last Wednesday, we had lunch at Wilde. They have great gluten free menu options, and my dad and I both loved their gluten free hamburger. It's a rare treat for us. On Thursday and Friday, we were in Green Bay and visited with my family. We also stopped at the Packer Pro Shop and picked up a few Green Bay things. On Saturday, Hubby and I had dinner with my sister-in-law and her hubby at Girl and the Goat. YUM! This restaurant also had great GF menu options. For dinner, we had scallops, ribs, chicken, goat carpaccio, confit goat belly, and a mushroom ragout (just to name a few). My sister-in-law had to make reservations back in August to get a table, and I can see why.

Well, enough of the food and onto stitching. I have made some progress on Mediterranean Mermaid, but not much since I have been out of town. I am stitching her vertically (head at the bottom, tail on top), and I started in the center. She looks like a blob of blues and greens with pretty metallic thread right now : )

Thanks for stopping by!

IHSW November

I hope everyone had a great weekend! I saw Breaking Dawn Part 1 on Friday night with my MIL, and we both enjoyed it. On Saturday, we spent the day at my parents for a pre-Thanksgiving dinner. And on Sunday, we relaxed, and I got a bit of work done on Japanese Garden. I finished the 9 o'clock rock garden and started working on the top tree. The cherry blossoms are so cute!

The rock garden (I am glad I am done with these!) and bonsai trees:

My start on the top tree:

The whole thing:

Last week I said I would post my progress on Mediterranean Mermaid, but I will probably wait until next week. I bought a new camera and took pictures of my progress, but I haven't figured out how to get pictures onto my computer yet. Well...I haven't really tried : ) I look forward to seeing everyone's IHSW stitching, and thanks for stopping by!

IHSW November

This weekend is IHSW! Check out Joyce's blog for more information and join the fun. My plan is to finish the 9 o'clock rock garden of Japanese Garden, and if I am really lucky, I would like to start working on the trees. We'll see though. Hubby's parents are here for the weekend, and on Friday night, the MIL and I will be going to the movie theater to watch Breaking Dawn (The new Twilight movie). Yes, I like the books, and yes, I like the movies. Although, I don't consider myself a diehard fan. I am much more of a Vampire Diaries fan : )

Then on Saturday, we are going to have a pre-Thanksgiving dinner with hubby's parents and my parents since we won't be able to see his parents on Thanksgiving (hubby and I will be in Green Bay visiting my grandparents). Hubby's parents leave Sunday night, so I should be able to make some stitching progress then. I hope everyone has a great weekend, and I look forward to reading your blogs on Monday!

Finishes!

Well, I have one finish and one almost-finish : ) For the finish, I worked on a Christmas ornament from Prairie Schooler's Cranberry Christmas. This ornament will be a Christmas present. I also picked out some fabric to make to the ornament with, but I still haven't figured out how I want to finish it yet.

 The cross-stitch (it's just folded in the pic) and fabric:

For my almost-finish: I finished the last panel on the birth record! Since my niece is due in January, I won't be able to finish it until then. So, I am calling it finished for now. The last panel:

The whole thing with a cute poem in the center:

This weekend I started Mediterranean Mermaid by Mirabilia and will post a progress pic of her next week. My plan is to frame Mediterranean and South Seas Mermaids (I have already finished SSM) with the same frame and hang them up next to each other. They are also on the same fabric: Vintage Antique Green Belfast.

I added a new page to my blog. On it, there are links to different cross-stitch albums. I wanted to put all my albums in one place and organize my WIP pics.

Thanks for stopping by!

Birth Record Update and November

I hope everyone had a great weekend! We had my sister's baby shower this weekend and had lots of fun watching people drink from a bottle (it's harder to do than you would think). The next game involved guessing what was in the "dirty diaper." I melted various chocolate candies on diapers and people had to guess what it was. The melted snickers bar looked by far the most disgusting.

I am working on the last panel of the birth record, and my plan is to finish the piece tonight after work. Yay! Here is my progress from last week:

I also finished LHN's November this past week. The squirrel in the pattern looked cute : )

Have a great week!

Halloween Ornament and Progress

Happy Halloween!

I managed to finish one of my Halloween ornaments. Sadly, the other one is just looking at me and begging to be finished. For the one that I managed to finish, I glued it to a piece of cardboard, cut black felt out for the backing, and added an orange ribbon to hang it up with.

My progress this week on the birth record:

I am almost done! Yay! I have two more panels left to stitch, and then a little poem goes in the center along with the name and birth date.

I am also almost done with LHN's November, and I will post a picture of that when it is finished.

My stitchy goals for last month were:

1. Stitch 2 Halloween ornaments (one is almost done) Finished
2. Stitch 2 more Halloween Rules Finished
3. Work on the birth record Getting close to finishing
4. Finish the 6 o'clock rock garden in Japanese Garden, hopefully I can get more done! Finished
5. Start LHN's November Started

My goals for November will be:

1. Finish the birth record
2. Stitch one Christmas ornament
3. Start Mediterranean Mermaid
4. Finish the 9 o'clock rock garden in Japanese Garden
5. Finish November

Thanks for stopping by!

Non-stitchy stuff

While shopping at JoAnns over a year ago, I browsed the fabric section (I can't help myself!) and saw this red-print paisley fabric. It was love at first sight. Anyway, I bought the fabric then, and I finally now decided to make a bag with it. I liked the way it turned out.

I also have a few more flower pictures to share. The top one has light blue-purple top petals-so pretty. Apparently I can't take a decent picture of the dark purple flower-they all were slightly out of focus : (

Have a great weekend!

Stitching and Flowers

This past week I worked on the birth record. Fortunately, the panel I was working on was small, so I also had time to finish two more Halloween Rules. Hopefully the birth record will be done by the end of November or early December. Then, I just have to wait for the cute little girl to arrive, and for my sister to pick out a name.

The Halloween Rules are so cute and fairly quick to stitch. However, I will be putting up this piece until next year. Next up will probably be some Christmas ornaments (I like to stitch for the season). I digress...but LHN released a cute new ornament this month-Snow in Love-that I will be ordering today. I can't wait to work on it. Anyway, the pics:

I planted my violas back in August, and they started blooming within the last week. So far, I have one light purple plant, and one white one (that turns purple as it ages). Since the seeds were a random mix that I collected, I don't know what colors the flowers will be. So, it is fun watching them bloom. 

I think a big, mean, ugly grasshopper snacked on the purple flower : (  I don't like grasshoppers. The thing kept hanging out on my plants, and it was so huge! For a gardener, I probably should be a little less afraid of insects. Oh well. Thanks for stopping by!

IHSW Progress

I had a very productive weekend-lots of stitching for IHSW-yay! We also cleaned the apartment, and I made maple-walnut fudge (tasted great but turned out ok) and pralines (yum! They were prefect!). I had forgotten how hard it is to stir fudge, and I told hubby I should make fudge more often to build up my arm muscles. The pralines in all their yumminess:

As for the stitching, I worked on Japanese Garden and finished the 6 o'clock rock garden-I turned the picture right side up for easier viewing. I liked the blue/green colors in the rock garden. A pic showing all my progress on Japanese Garden is in the Japanese Garden album on the right. As soon as I am done with the birth record, I will definitely work on this one more.

I finished Pine Tree Inn by Little House Needleworks. Instead of plain cross-stitches for the snowflakes, I added beads (more bling!).

I also worked on the birth record and finished the cat. I like its yellow/coral checked legs. So cute!

I hope everyone had a great weekend, and I look forward to checking out your IHSW progress!

IHSW

It's hard to believe another month has flown by since the last IHSW, and I am definitely looking forward to relaxing and stitching this weekend, especially since we have been out of town the last two weekends. Check out Joyce's blog for more information on IHSW and sign up if you haven't done so already. It's a great excuse to stitch all weekend! I plan to work on Japanese Garden this weekend. I really love this piece, and I can't wait to do more Chatelaines (my husband will probably role his eyes and tell me I need to finish the Japanese Garden first before starting another one. LOL). I also think I am going to throw in some candy making this weekend- maybe pralines or maple-walnut fudge or both! Good thing I am helping throw a baby shower for my sister and will be able to pawn off some of the candy on them. I would love to eat it all...but probably shouldn't : ) Have a great weekend everyone!

Ornaments

I worked on several ornaments this past week-two for Halloween and one for Christmas. My first Halloween ornament is from Cats, Bats and Witches by Prairie Schooler- I loved the clock-tower in this one.

My second Halloween ornament is from the 2011 Just Cross Stitch Halloween issue: Halloween Acorn House by Jeannette Douglas. Hopefully this weekend I will be able to finish both of them.

DH and I flew to Los Angeles this past weekend for a wedding, and I decided to bring a Christmas ornament-Pine Tree Inn by Little House Needleworks- to work on while waiting in the airport and on the plane. I found cross-stitching to be very calming while we sat on the runway for 30 minutes in LA because Las Vegas had traffic congestion problems, and we couldn't take off. I was happy that I had more stitching time instead of worrying over when we would be leaving.

Lastly, my progress on the birth record (I also worked on this one at the airport).

Thanks for stopping by!
Melissa

October

It's hard to believe October is here already! This past weekend, I went to the Cotton Pickin' Fair in Gay, GA, and it was a lot of fun.(As a side note, Shia LaBeouf and Tom Hardy were there this spring filming scenes for a new movie set in the prohibition era). I loved seeing everyone's wonderful work and creativity. Of course I bought a few things and stocked up on dip mixes. Unfortunately, hubby doesn't like mayonnaise at all and refuses to eat dips that contain it. I don't care for mayonnaise, but I think the dips taste better with it in them. So we will have to come to some sort of compromise when we make the dips.Yum!

Last week, I finished October Flip-It by Lizzie Kate. I changed most of the colors. Originally, the witch hat was purple, green, and yellow, but I didn't care for the way it looked, and changed the hat to black, a red/purple metallic thread, and orange. I also used much brighter/vibrant orange, purple, and green threads.

I made some more progress on the birth record-a cute little butterfly.

Lastly, here are my stitching goals for the month:

1. Stitch 2 halloween ornaments (one is almost done)
2. Stitch 2 more halloween rules
3. Work on the birth record
4. Finish the 6 o'clock rock garden in Japanese Garden, hopefully I can get more done!
5. Start LHN's November

Progress

I hope everyone had a great weekend! First, I want to say thanks for all the kind comments I have received. Since I am a new blogger, I am always excited when I get comments and new followers.

This past week I worked on a birth record for my new niece. It is Patchwork Baby Birth Record kit by Dimensions. I changed out the aida for 28 count antique white jobelan-I'm not an aida fan. I love the colors in the kite. They are so bright and cheerful (especially in person), and I look forward to stitching the other cute baby motifs.

My favorite time of the year is fall, and I love working on halloween/fall/thanksgiving cross-stitch. So, I stitched the next Halloween Rule by Lizzie Kate-Eat Candy-a great rule! The little candy corns in the pattern are adorable, and I am one of those people that actually likes candy corn. I am always excited when I see it hit the grocery store shelves.

Thanks for stopping by!