New Family Member!

We adopted a puppy from the Humane Society this weekend. Her name is Mandy, and she is a lab-shepherd mix. The Human Society was not entirely sure about her parentage though. She is about three months old and weighs 15 lbs. So far Mandy: 3, us: 2 for potty training. We will have to work on that. Other than that, she a a very playful dog, and no barking. Yay! This is going to be quite an adventure : )

My amaryllis is blooming so I thought I would share a picture. It has at least 10 blooms on it:

I had my private defense on March 15th, and my public defense is this Thursday (my last major hurdle). Then I have to finish corrections for my dissertation, turn it in, and then I am done (well I do have to organize my lab notebook-that will be pain). Anyway, what a relief. I will be back next week with several pictures of my cross-stitch. Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

IHSW February

I hope everyone had a great weekend and had fun stitching!

For this IHSW, I worked on Moyland Castle. I am happy to say I am almost done with the castle. It still needs backstitching, but I will work on that after I finish the greenery and sky in this part. Once the backstitching is in, the castle should be gorgeous and really come to life. I am quite relieved that now I get to stitch with greens and blues. Towards the end it was rough-going with all the grays and browns.

I also wanted to let everyone know that I am going to take a little break from blogging as I finish up work for my PhD. I plan to keep stitching as a way to take a break from writing, and I may have some time to check out your blogs, but I will not be updating. At the beginning of April or so, I should be back and hopefully have some great progress pics :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Mermaid Finish!

I finished Mediterranean Mermaid by Mirabilia! Happy Dance time :)

She was done on Vintage Antique Green Belfast (The fabric is actually a light, minty green-not gray). Enjoy the pictures!

Last week, my kit for Moyland Castle finally arrived. Yay! Just in time for IHSW this coming weekend (I will be working on the castle). Hopefully, I will get a lot done since the next part will be released at the end of the month. A picture of the silks and beads (there are close-up shots of the silks and beads in the Moyland Castle album- clickable on the right)

Thanks for stopping by!

Mermaid update and a finish

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

I worked on Mediterranean Mermaid last week. She has a lot of hair! I kept stitching and stitching, and still more hair. I love the blue highlights she has though. Anyway, she is not quite finished yet. I still have to put some beads on her tail and fins. Hopefully tomorrow I will be finished. Below is a pic of some of the beadwork. She has some gorgeous crystals-so sparkly!

Last week I finished a quick little stitch-February by Lizzie Kate. I put a fabric border on it and hung it up in my kitchen.

Thanks for stopping by!

Back from the framer

I picked up two pieces from the framers this week. I love the way both pieces turned out! The first one is the Patchwork Baby Birth Record by Dimensions for my newest niece, Harper.

The second piece is Snowflake Serenade by Country Cottage Needleworks.

Have a great weekend! I will be busy stitching away on Mediterranean Mermaid :)

Mermaid Update

I hope everyone had a good weekend!

Last week I worked on Mediterranean Mermaid. I made some progress, but one night I fell asleep at 8:30pm. In my defense, the tornado sirens woke me up that morning at 3:30am, and I could not fall back asleep. Another night, I went to a glass fusion glass with some friends, and I made a glass plate and pendant. I will try to post a picture when I get it back. The class was a lot of fun. Anyway, below is a picture of Meddie. I am getting towards the end :)

This morning I was happily stitching away on Japanese Garden, and then I went to thread my needle with Mississippi Mud from Thread Gatherer Silk N Colors, and it had the zebra stripe thing going on. Instead of being a smooth dark brown the color alternated between dark and light brown, and the same thing with the green. I looked at the rest of the skein, and it appeared to have the zebra stripe. What I don't get is that I have been using the same skein of thread, and up until now, the thread was fine (I received my kit last March or so). I do not care for the effect in my stitching (the colors seem a little off), and I am going to order a new skein hoping that it turns out better.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!