Two small finishes

Last week I finished two small projects :)

First up, I finished August by Little House Needleworks.

My second finish was a Christmas ornament, Hot Cocoa, also by Little House Needleworks. I am a big fan of hot chocolate, so when this ornament came out, I bought the pattern and stitched it right away. It seems I have been in a bit of a Christmas ornament stitching mood lately :)

This week I started working on The Apple Orchard by Country Cottage Needleworks. I didn't really need a new start...but this pattern was just calling to me. I am going to put it down (soon I hope) so I can finish Halloween Rules. After that, I can get back to Japanese Garden, and my originally planned start, Lady Hera :)

One new thing I tried this summer was canning. I have always wanted to try it, but I never got around to it. The first jelly I made was a jalapeno jelly. I did add some green dye so they jelly didn't have a nasty yellow-green color. It was great with cream cheese and crackers. Next time I make it, I am going to add a little more jalapenos as my jelly was not spicy at all. Then, I made a sweet onion jelly, and it is great with toasted bread and butter. Anne requested a picture of my jellies, so here they are, and in the background is the German chocolate cake  I made yesterday for hubby's birthday (it was delicious!)

Thanks for stopping by!

Two finishes!

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

This week I had two finishes: Autumn Band Sampler and Sleigh Bells Ring both by Little House Needleworks.

For Autumn Band Sampler, I left off the alphabet as I am not the biggest fan of the alphabet in cross-stitch and hubby definitely does not care for the alphabet. I also added another leaf to each of the trees and extended a few branches to take up the space where the letters Y and Z were supposed to be. I really loved the fall colors in this piece, and I am quite pleased with how it turned out :)

Click for what it was supposed to look like

I also finished Sleigh Bells Ring, a Christmas ornament by Little House Needleworks. The horse and sleigh are too cute :) This is going to be a Christmas present. I will have to finish it into an ornament, but at least I have one present almost done this year.

And last but not least, today is my one-year wedding anniversary! Hard to believe I have been married for one year already :) We will be going out to our favorite restaurant tonight to celebrate :)

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

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!

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!

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!