2013 Stitching Plans

I hope everyone had a great Christmas! We did minus the trip to the vet on Christmas night because Mandy chewed through a small bottle of advil and may have ingested some. I am not entirely sure how much was left in the bottle, but we did find two advils on the floor that she did not eat. We took her home that same night, and she did not appear to have any side effects. The vet assessment said Mandy "has a tendency for dietary indiscretion." I thought it was a hilarious statement for saying she eats things she shouldn't. We are definitely trying to be more careful about keeping stuff out of her reach.

On to my stitching plans for this year:

I plan to finish:
1. Japanese Garden
2. Lady Hera

And I plan to start:

1. Lady Alexandra by Mirabilia on Wood Violet jobelan (a light purple-gray fabric)

2. Water Lily by Nora Corbett on Water Lily jobelan (a light green fabric)

3. Our Love Nest by Country Cottage Needleworks

4. Strawberry House by Little House Needleworks

5. Flower Panel 3- Cattleya Orchid by Chatelaine. Click the link for a picture, and below are the goodies for the design :)

These are pieces I definitely plan to start, but I am sure there will be some random Christmas ornaments and other pieces that I will also work on. I will be starting Cattleya Orchid and Our Love Nest today for my New Year starts after I stop at the framers and finish my errands.

Happy New Year!!

December IHSW

Happy Holidays!

I hope everyone had a great weekend. For IHSW this month, I finished Silent Night by Country Cottage Needleworks. I started this one earlier this month because the design was too cute, and I loved the verse. I did make a few changes to the design. I used gold metallic thread for the stars (because I wanted them sparkly), and I used CC's Spinach for the pine trees and branches instead of the called-for green thread.

It is hard to believe that this is going to be my last finish of 2012! Where has the year gone??

This week I will be doing some Christmas baking- turtle candy and pecan pie. Yum! I also plan to work on Lady Hera because she has been neglected due to all my Christmas stitching. She needs her face stitched :)

Thanks for stopping by and Merry Christmas!

More Christmas Finishes

I have been on a Christmas stitching and finishing roll this month :)

Last week I finished stitching Snow White by Little House Needleworks. It is stitched on PTP Mystic Cashel using white DMC. I love the way it turned out-like a winter night.

I also finished two more Christmas ornaments last week: Pine Tree Inn and Sleigh Bells Ring both by Little House Needleworks. I had fun finishing Sleigh Bells Ring as it was the first time I finished an ornament using wool and the blanket stitch.

My plan this week is to stitch two more Christmas ornaments. I could not decide which one I liked better and decided to do both. Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

Christmas Finishes

I had a busy week last week between finishing some of my Christmas ornaments and using up my apples :) I made a huge batch of homemade applesauce that was delicious. It is so much better than store-bought applesauce. I also made apple-crisp and apple bars, and I still have some apples left.

For my Christmas ornaments, I set out to finish one, but instead, finished two different ones. I still have not figured out how I want to finish that one particular ornament. The ornaments I did finish:

It's Snow Cold by Little House Needleworks

Baking by Little House Needleworks

Last week, I also finished cross stitching December by Little House Needleworks. I have two months to go to finish this series: February and April.

I bought supplies to finish a few more Christmas ornaments, so hopefully I will be able to show those next week. Thanks for stopping by!

Thanksgiving trip and Melody finish

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We made the long drive up to Wisconsin with two dogs, hubby, and my parents. The dogs were very well behaved in the car, but I can't say the same of Mandy at my Grandma's. Mandy was not playing nice with my Aunt's dog :(

Mandy and Molly in the car.

My niece Olivia eating the cake ball I made for Thanksgiving.

 My youngest niece, Harper. She is such a smiley baby.

We came back from Wisconsin with 18 lbs of apples and lots of cheese. Wisconsin has a much better selection of apples than here in the South. My plan is to make lots of applesauce :)

I did not get a whole lot of cross-stitching done last week, but here is my last pixie finish: Melody.

Thanks for stopping by!

November IHSW

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

For IHSW, I worked on Japanese Garden and finished part of the right bridge. I still need to fill in a bunch of bamboo leaves. They are fairly easy to stitch, but there are so many of them. Hopefully I will be able to finish this section off tonight.

For everyone in the US, Happy Thanksgiving! I am looking forward to eating the chocolate-almond cake balls I finished this morning on Thanksgiving. It is going to be hard resisting them. My favorite part of Thanksgiving is definitely the desserts :)

Lady Hera Update

Last week I worked on Lady Hera. She now has an arm! It is not outlined yet and may be a bit hard to see. I really love the pink/purple ribbon against her yellow dress :)

I also finished Tigerlily by Nora Corbett last week. She was the first pixie I stitched, and she is still my favorite. Although, Poppy is a close second. Tigerlily turned out great, and the fabric was perfect for her.  Thanks everyone for voting.

This week I will work on finishing Melody, and then hubby can hang them all up for me. Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

Two Finishes

I hope everyone had a great weekend :)

Last week I finished It's Snow Cold by Little House Needleworks. This cute little snowman is stitched on Pearl Gray Belfast. I did make a few color changes using DMC floss:
Ecru to White
3768 to 793
3777 to 816

I also started finishing my Nora Corbett pixies. First up was Poppy, and she was stitched on Fresco Cashel by PTP.

These pixies have been sitting in a drawer, so when I pulled them out again, I remembered how pretty and sparkly they were! The next pixie I will be working on is Tigerlily. The results of last week's poll are 80% in favor of the orange glitter fabric, so I will be using that one. Thanks again for voting!

Have a great week :)

Japanese Garden Update

Last week I worked on Japanese Garden and finished another crane. Yay! Two more to go :)

And a close up of the crane

I am planning to finish my pixies (Melody, Poppy, and Tigerlily) like Joyce did. Check out her blog. I was having a little trouble deciding which fabric I liked better for Tigerlily. The left or the right?? The right one has gold glitter on it, which is kind of hard to see in the pic.

Please help me decide by voting! Thanks for stopping by :)

Which fabric to you like better for Tigerlily?

IHSW October

I hope everyone had a great weekend and found some time to stitch :)

This weekend I finished a small, little ornament from October by Prairie Schooler. It was fall-themed, and I wanted to stitch one more fall-themed piece :)

I also worked on the right border in Japanese Garden, but as you can see, I did not get much done. Every little bit counts though :) I will be working on this one during the week, so hopefully next week, I have a much better progress pic. Since the end is approaching, I am getting quite excited about finishing it and stitching more Chatelaines. After Japanese Garden I will finish up Moyland Castle, but in between these two, I might have to start a new one. I guess I better get stitching!

Thanks for stopping by, and I can't wait to see everyone's progress!

An Expensive Halloween Finish

Over the weekend I finished Knock Knock by Prairie Schooler. I stitched it on PTP Willow Cashel, and I changed out the called-for "orange" DMC  to 721, an actual brighter orange. In addition, I used Mill Hill beads (2033) on the sides instead of cross-stitches. In the pic, the beads are not sparkling as much as they do in person.

So, why was this so expensive? One word...Mandy.

Friday night before dinner, I was stitching along, and then threaded my needle and presumably set the needle and thread on the arm rest of my couch. After dinner, I go to use my threaded needle, and it is not there. Ok, so I lost it, generally not that big of a deal. Skip to Sunday night, I take Mandy out, and she is having trouble going to the bathroom. Hubby takes her out later in the evening, and the same thing happened, except this time, he noticed a brown thread hanging out of her butt. And then it hit me. Maybe she found my missing needle and thread :(

This morning we take her to the vet, and the vet does an x-ray. Sure enough, my needle is right there in her colon. The vet then puts Mandy under, and we get a call about two hours later. They got the needle out. Yay! I am so glad she did not have to go in for surgery. The vet was impressed that the needle got as far as it did without causing issues. We will be picking Mandy up later today, and we will get the final vet bill. I should probably stop buying stash for a bit to help pay for our monster-dog.

Lesson learned: Obviously I need to be more careful with my needles in the future!!

Have a great week :)

Lady Hera Update

Last week I worked some more on Lady Hera. Lots of yellow stitching, but I am getting close to finishing the yellow part of her dress. There is a red/orange part left, which may be part of a shawl? I'm not really sure.

Over the weekend, my mom and I went to the Cotton Pickin' Fair. We had a great time and came back with lots of crafts :) One thing I bought was a Halloween fascinator. It was too cute! I am not sure if I will wear it, but right now it is decorating my pumpkin. I am also going to see if I can get Mandy to sit still with it on her head.

Thanks for stopping by!

Japanese Garden Update

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Last week I worked on Japanese Garden and finished off the top bridge. One down, three more to go. This piece is really starting to come together now that I am on the home stretch. I also changed the color of the bridge. It was supposed to be Mississippi Mud by Thread Gather, but my thread was crap (as in not dyed all the way through), so I used Espresso Waterlilies instead. The bridge has a bit more red to it which I like.

After working on all those bamboo leaves (which took longer than I thought they would), I decided I needed something a bit easier. So, I finished a Halloween ornament from Cats, Bats, and Witches by Prairie Schooler over the weekend. I also wanted another ornament for my Halloween tree :)

This week I will be working on Lady Hera and maybe another Halloween ornament. I like fall and Halloween, can you tell?

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great week!

Autumn Finishes

I hope everyone had a great weekend! My arm is a little sore from playing fetch with Mandy at the dog park yesterday. Normally, hubby throws the ball, but he was not here. Guess I need to work on my arm muscles :)

This week I have several autumn-themed finishes. First up is The Apple Orchard by Country Cottage Needleworks. It turned out really cute and reminds me of when I used to go apple picking with my mom as a child. And then making homemade applesauce-yum!

I also finished October by Little House Needleworks. I changed out the Crescent Colour's Pumpkin Harvest for DMC 922. Pumpkin Harvest looked a little pale, and I wanted my pumpkins orange, not anemic looking :)

Lastly, I finished Autumn Band Sampler, and it is now hanging up :)

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

IHSW September

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

We spent our weekend relaxing after getting back from the Florida Keys, where we vacationed last week with our friends. It was a long drive there and back, but we had a great time! The weather was gorgeous, and we saw lots of beautiful fish and a very large sting ray while snorkeling.

Picnic Island: A small island that we walked to from the boat. The water was about 3 feet deep and so warm. I loved it!

Mandy in the car. She rarely moved from this spot (behind the front passenger seat) while driving. Silly dog :)

For IHSW, I worked on Lady Hera. I did not take a before picture, but some of this was progress I made before we left for vacation. I did a whole lot of yellow stitching, and the flowers were a nice break from all that yellow.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cross stitch and a cute puppy

I hope everyone had a great weekend! We visited my parents this weekend to see their new little puppy, Molly. But first, I will show my cross-stitch progress for this week.

I worked on the crane in Japanese Garden this week. The crane was stitched over one and looks amazing, but it took forever. And my poor eyes... I really need to get new glasses as my prescription changed. I would work an hour and then take a break to let my eyes rest. Well, it is done, and now I have three more left to do.

Also this week, I finished Wine a Bit by Lizzie Kate. It was a quick, easy stitch, especially after working on the crane.

My parents brought home a new little puppy on Friday. Her name is Molly, and she is a tri-color Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. She is adorable and full of energy. Molly was pretty cute when she would chase Mandy (our dog) from behind, but the second Mandy turned around, Molly would scamper away :) Enjoy the cute puppy pictures!

Japanese Garden Update and Fabric Stash

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Last week I had jury duty. It was an interesting experience. Jury duty threw my schedule out of whack, and I did not get a chance to stitch until Friday. I worked a bit on Japanese Garden, and I have to say, I really love the blue and gold border. I also started working on the top crane medallion. The crane is stitched over-one, and I am not the biggest fan of over-one stitching, so we will see how it goes this week :)

While away on jury duty, my Picture This Plus Christmas in July Sale order arrived. I ordered three pieces of fabric.

Mystic Cashel- I plan to use this for Little House Needlework's Snow White. I like the fabric, but I wish it had a touch more color variation. The white spots are pieces of fuzz.

Earthen Belfast - I plan to use this one for Passione Ricamo's Medieval Enchantment. This is the first Passione Ricamo pattern I bought, and I was quite surprised at how big the pattern is :)

Fresco Cashel - I liked it :) It appears slightly washed out in this scan.

In the right side bar, I added a link to my photo album containing the PTP fabric I have in case if anyone is interested. The scans are fairly accurate (at least on my monitor) of the fabric color.

Thanks for stopping by!

IHSW August

Sorry for the late post. I had to report for jury duty yesterday, and I didn't get a chance to take a picture until today. For IHSW, I started Lady Hera by Mirabilia. The fabric is Autumn Blush belfast and is a light pink-beige color. Her dress is the yellow stitching, the reds and oranges are part of her cape (not sure what to call it), and I worked on the bouquet of flowers that she is holding in her hand.

Last week I finished up Halloween Rules by Lizzie Kate. The rules are quite adorable :)

Have a great week, and I look forward to seeing everyone's IHSW progress!

Fall Stitching

I hope everyone had a good weekend!

Last week I worked on some fall stitching. I started working on The Apple Orchard by Country Cottage Needleworks. The pattern was too cute, and I had to start it :) I finished the red barn, and then put it down to work on Halloween Rules.

I felt a wee-bit bad for starting a new project, so I picked Halloween Rules back up and finished two more rules. Only two more to go! My plan is to finish them this week, and then start Lady Hera by Mirabilia (my originally planned new start).

Yesterday we took Mandy, or Mandy-monster as I like to call her, to the creek at the dog park. She loves playing fetch in the water :) And, it tires her out, an added bonus for us.

Have a great week!