One more January Stitchy Finish

I somehow managed a third finish for the month of January! I got this chart from sweet Becky a long while ago when she was de-stashing. I got started on it Monday afternoon and put the final stitches in it yesterday evening. This will be finished as the chart instructs so it can take its rightful place on my tree next Christmas. I haven't decided if I like the stark white yet, or if I will be coffee-dying it. Hmmmm....

Christmas Abecediaire Ornament from Historic Stitches
DMC floss on 32 count white Belfast linen
Stitched 1/25/10 - 1/27/10

The chart is up for grabs if anyone is interested. If more than one person wants it, I will draw a name on Monday night. Please leave your email address so I can contact you for an address if you win it.



I hope everyone's week is going well and that you're all getting plenty of time to put needle to fabric!

Crafts with Bug

It flurried this morning. There was no accumulation, so we took matters into our own hands. Cuddle Bug and I put on our scarves and built snowmen in our pajamas right at the dining room table.




Construction paper, scissors, ribbon, crayons, a glue stick, and 2 sizes of hole punch. My socks stayed dry and my hands stayed warm. Not a bad way to built a snowman I would say.

Happy Monday all!

Finishing Details

I've been busy the past week. I started my Anatomy and Physiology I class on Tuesday and I've been failing miserably at keeping the house in a respectable state. However, I did manage to get some (crafty) work done despite it all!

I finished my first quilt topper on Monday afternoon when DH was home for MLK day. He was a huge help keeping the bugs out of my way so I could get this worked on. I'm almost finished with the back and then I hope to baste and quilt it this weekend. We'll see how that goes.


Cuddle Bug went to Ironton, MO with his great aunt to spend the night at a little get-away cabin they have, so I had one less bug to manage today. That meant two naptimes all to myself as LadyBug still takes a morning and an afternoon nap (it's a sad day when they start taking only one nap a day). So i got to work finishing my pieces for Lady Scarlet's Secret Garden from Just Nan. This is a very special piece indeed! I have fantasies of LadyBug wishing to take up stitching and sewing one day and passing this sweet piece off to her :)



And for the record, those are my prized Piecemakers in the needle book. Vonna has changed the way I look at needles forever!

Wonderful Catherine (who doesn't appear to have a blog of her own but is a follower of mine) asked me about my adventures in school and how that works out with the bugs. I just started back to school in the fall of 2009 so this is only my second semester back. I'm trying to get some prerequisites completed right now to hopefully get into the nursing program at my local University to get my BSN. Last semester I took two courses online and one at night that met twice a week. This semester I'm only taking one course - Anatomy and Physiology I - that meets twice a week at night. I enjoy the chance to get out of the house and have some adult conversations for a change. And DH is a true gem! He takes fantastic care of our bugs while I'm away. He's the reason it's even possible for me to go back to school! I think he treasures his alone time with the kids as much as I enjoy getting away for a while. I do most of my school work while the bugs are napping or after they've gone to bed. So far it hasn't been as big of a juggling act as I had expected it to be. But since I just started A&P, there's no telling what this semester holds for me! This class is looking intense so far! :)

Thank you all for your sweet comments and all your support and friendship! I hope you all have a blessed and beautiful weekend! Happy stitchy wishes :)

Giveaways!

Thank you all for you comments on my recent finishes. I have been feeling very productive lately. I'll see how that keeps up once I start my Anatomy and Physiology I class tomorrow evening.

There are a few good giveaways out there to let you know about in case you hadn't heard:

Jennifer over at Feathers In the Nest is having a Cabin Fever Giveaway for everyone who's waiting patiently for spring! It includes a perfectly springy chart, the charms and linen that go with it, and a darling frame. You can enter that here.

Natalia at Piece N Quilt is giving away two $25 gift certificates to her online quilt shop of the same name to celebrate her shop's 1st birthday! You can enter that here.

Linda at Craftaholics Anonymous is giving away some fun jewelry. You can enter that here.

Sweet Su at Contemplating My Needle and Thread is giving away a beautiful valentine ornament she stitched and finished. Who wouldn't want to have one of Su's beauties?! That giveaway is found here.

And generous and kind Becky from BeckyBee's Stitching Hive is having 2 giveaways! She's having a SuperBowl giveaway for Quaker Diamonds (the chart and the fibers) that you can find here. And she's having an un-Birthday giveaway - because that's just the kind of woman she is - to celebrate her birthday by giving away a $100 gift certificate to the online needlework shop of your choice! That giveaway can be found here.

I wish you all luck on any and all of these you're interested in!

Happy MLK Day to everyone here in the states!

Happy Dance 2010!

My very first happy dance of 2010! I would have had Poinsettia House done a week ago but I got distracted working on the quilt. I ran out of thread for the quilt a few days ago, though, and was waiting for JoAnns to put their thread on sale today. So in the meantime, I got back to work on this one and put the final stitches in it Friday night. I love it! Every stitch was a joy! And I only had 2 - very minor - visits from the frog. This was a gift from sweet Vonna so all my thanks go out to her for making my first 2010 project so delightfully wonderful :)

Poinsettia House by Littlehouse Needleworks
28 count linen using recommended CC and DMC fibers
Stitched 12/31/09 - 1/15/09

After reading about Harmien's frustrations, I was especially conservative with the Clay Pot. And I am so glad I was! By the end of it, I had only two little threads remaining. So keep that in mind if you're planning to do this chart too.

To my shock, I have another finish to add to my 2010 list - Lady Scarlet's Secret Garden! I actually started this one over the summer when I was in Boston visiting my dad, but I only got as far as finishing the border. When I brought it home it just got set aside. I picked it up yesterday afternoon and got all the stitching finished by the time I went to bed last night. Today I picked up some beading needles while I was at JoAnns and got the beads added. This was my first time adding beads and I'm pleased with my results! This one is going straight to the top of the finishing pile!

Lady Scarlet's Secret Garden by Just Nan
28 count cream chashel using recommended DMC
Started 7/09; Finished 1/17/10

In other news, the weather was finally nice enough to try out the new running shoes DH gave me for Christmas (we exchanged running shoes this year). They are NICE! I hope to get a lot of good use out of them this year and finally get the last of the baby weight off.

I hope you are having a beautiful and productive long weekend too! Thank you again for all your sweet comments. I really do appreciate them so much! Happy stitchy wishes to you all!

Life is full of Choices

I've got two napping bugs upstairs and a little quiet time on my hands.

What I should be doing:

• cleaning the bathroom
• folding the laundry that's been sitting in the corner of the bedroom for 5 days
• vacuuming the rugs
• sweeping the floors
• unloading/loading the dishwasher

What I am doing:

homemade-fresh-out-of-the-oven banana bread, tea, and Littlehouse Needleworks

Ahhhhh. I love naptime.

Snow, Sewing, and a Finish

Thursday we got the first "significant' snow of the season here in St. Louis. I have to say, as a transplant from the desert, I absolutely love that we experience 4 seasons here in the midwest! But I perfer to admire the snow from inside where I can sip some (spiked) hot chocolate and wear my down booties that keep my toes so toasty.

So speaking of the snow, I must say that DH is such an amazing husband and father. I don't talk enough about him on my blog. He's doting and patient. He deals with my mood swings and my lame attempts to pick a fight from time to time. He rubs my feet, makes my coffee exactly right, runs out to the craft store for me when I run out of the thread I need to finish a project, prays with me, tells my I'm not chubby, and sits in the corner of my LNS playing with the kids all the while telling me to take my time and get whatever I want. And that's just the husband part of him. As a father he blows me away! He's on the floor putting together Lego train tracks into crazy loopy shapes with bridges and switching tracks. He plays peek-a-boo and asks what the specials are when Cuddle Bug plays restaurant in the playroom.

So what does that have to do with snow you ask? Well Thursday, that was my husband taking a vacation day to take Cuddle Bug sledding for the very first time! Those are the moments that will add up in the lives of my children. They will look back and think "my dad could have gone to work that day, but he took a day off and took me sledding instead!" And he showed my sweet boy how to make snow angels and build a snow fort too. I love him for the husband he is to me and for the father is to our children :)


So now that I've gotten past the sappy part of the past few days, I have a few things to show off.

First up, I finished LHN's "Peace" thread pack into a pillow on Friday. I finished the stitching on this one last year and I had the finishing kit from Mary Kathryn's ONS. It just needed to be completed. So I went ahead and did that on Friday.


Additionally, I've been sewing up a storm working on my first quilt! Knock on wood, but so far so good. I got all 42 blocks finished and sewn into 7 rows of 6 blocks each. Soon enough, barring any unforeseen hiccups, the top of this one will be finished. I am loving how this is turning out and really enjoying the process! If it turns out as I hope, this will be my birthday gift to LadyBug when she turns 1 exactly one month from today!


I haven't gotten to put too many more stitches in Poinsettia House. My fingers have been too cold to hold the needle and I kept dropping it. I finally set it down. I hope to get some more stitches in it tonight after I've warmed my fingers up with a cup of coffee. I hope everyone has been having a wonderful weekend and staying warm! Happy stitchy wishes to you all!

Poinsettia House and Ginger Blossom

I'm just popping in to give a little progress update on Poinsettia House. The trim has been painted, the windows installed, and some snow fell as well. I really love this piece more with every stitch I put in it!



And look what the UPS guy brought today for my quilting adventures! Some Ginger Blossom and Kona cuts from Fabric.com. And let me just say that they were very generous with these cuts!


Happy Wednesday and happy stitching to everyone!

Lots of Giveaways lately!

Someday Crafts is giving away a pattern from Little Blue Boo. I need the halter/tie-back pattern to make darling "up-cycled" dresses for the LadyBug, so I'm hoping I win! But if you want to try to win a pattern to make these sweet designs for the bugs in your life, go enter here

And don't forget that Edgar is offering his JCS issue with "This is the Day" in it over at his blog! So go enter that for sure! You can find that giveaway here.

I'm plugging away at PH when I have time and waiting for my fabric.com order to come in the mail today. Brrrrr it's cold! We're expecting the first "significant' snowfall of the season tonight and I'm just thanking the Good Lord that I have these comfy down-booties to keep my feet warm!

I'll update on PH soon! Hope you're all getting in time to work on your beautiful projects as well - and staying warm too!

Chirp Chirp

It's 22 degrees F outside and I've got spring on my mind. This morning when we left the house to take Cuddle Bug to preschool it was 3 degrees! WOW! I couldn't believe it! I'm a desert dweller...this whole single digit thing is just not right! I can't even bring myself to check the temperature in Phoenix today. This is my third winter in St Louis and by far the coldest I've ever experienced! I miss you warm, sunny Arizona! I'll see you in July and you better have the Wigwam pool ready for me!

Anyway, back to spring. I'm not very good about making it a priority to finish-finish pieces I've stitched. 2010 is going to be different! I have a little drawer of projects that need "finishing" and I intend to finish each and every one by the end of the year! So here's the first:



Egg...cetera from The Cross Eyed Cricket finished as a small pillow

Tell me this doesn't make you feel a little springy too! I'm very pleased with how this turned out - especially considering that there was a bug crawling around by my feet for most of its construction - not the kind you squish of course, the kind you snuggle and love :)

I hope everyone is having a beautiful beginning of the week! Thanks for visiting and thank you for your wonderful comments and support.

I'm off to put some more stitches in Poinsettia House. I'm enjoying each stitch more than I can say! And those Piecemakers...oh my goodness I am in love with every pass through the fabric! It sounds like most of you know their magic already. Where have I been?? Vonna has opened my eyes!!!

Happy stitchy wishes to you all! And happy Tuesday!

Edgar's Giving Away Something Grand!

Edgar is giving away the JCS issue that contains the chart for "This is the Day!" I love this design but am declining to join the drawing as it would surely derail my other stitching goals for 2010 if I were to win. So if you want this, go on over and enter here! I'll be pulling for you :)

A Little House, Space Ships, and Red Corduroy!

I am happy to report that I got some (fairly) adequate stitchy time in over the weekend! This is where LHN's Poinsettia House stands to date:


I made it out to JoAnns yesterday to pick up the 3865 DMC I had run out of. No one seemed to notice on my last post that the last row of snow on the rooftop was only half cross stitches! But I've replenished my supply so all is well.

I promised some pictures of my recent sewing adventures in my last entry. So here goes.

This is the library book bag I made for Cuddle Bug using this tutorial.


He picked the fabric out himself and I think he did well! I made the library card pocket on the front extra deep so his card would fit deeply in it and wouldn't fall out when he bends over. I call this one a success! He loves to take it to the library and fill it with new books. And Daddy got a hook to hang it in his bedroom so all his library books would be tucked away there instead of getting mingled in with his huge personal library!

Now despite the fact that I make an effort to not post pics of the bugs on my blog - because I'm a crazy neurotic mother - I can't bring myself to crop off LadyBug's face on this picture to show off the dress I made for her to wear to the family Christmas Eve gathering. So for your viewing pleasure....


It's red corduroy - soft and comfy. This was my first time sewing in a zipper and I would call it a good first go! Next time I know what I would do differently. And check out those butt ruffles! I added those myself since the pattern didn't have them. I absolutely love how this dress turned out! And I made it a little bit bigger so hopefully it will still fit for Valentine's Day :)

I hope everyone else had a great weekend! Happy stitchy wishes to you all!

Another Giveaway!

I'm only posting this out of the goodness of my heart (it has nothing to do with that extra entry I get - hehe) because naturally I have my heart set on the Hearts and Chocolate necklace....but sweet Disney over at Ruffles & Stuff is offering a giveaway to pick anything you want from her amazing etsy shop! So go and enter here if you love her pieces as much as I do!

The crafty goodness in blogland is so much fun and there are so many amazing and generous giveaways out there! I'm keeping my fingers crossed and I'll keep them crossed for you as well! :)

HUGS!

A New Year, a Fresh Start

Welcome 2010! 2009 went by way too fast. It was a big year for us in many ways: LadyBug joined us, Cuddle Bug went off to school for the first time, I went back to school, we lost our beloved grandfather, my sister got her master's degree, and my brother got married. What a year it was. I can only hope 2010 will be filled with as many blessings and a little less heartache :)

I got started on LHN's Poinsettia House yesterday (thanks to dear Vonna who gifted this to me in our Christmas exchange). WOW I am absolutely LOVING this! Everything about it makes me happy: the fabric, the colors, the design, and oh my goodness those needles! Please indulge me for a second while I go on about the needle I am stitching this with...



Vonna included a package of Piecemaker needles with this chart (along with the fabric and the Crescent Colours...spoiled me!) and she told me that they are her very favorite needle to stitch with. In fact, I can quote her as saying "Piecemakers slip through like a hot knife in butter." Well that got me excited! I already knew I would love them. I mean I consider Vonna to be a foremost expert on all things cross stitch so if she says they're good I believe her! But I couldn't have imagined I would love them as much as I do! You know when you're expecting your first baby...humor me here... You know you are going to love that child in a way you've never loved another human being before, but you don't really understand the depth of that love until they place that baby in your arms and you hold him/her for the first time! That's how I feel about these needles! Okay, that might be a bit of a stretch, but I only mean to say that I knew I would love them, I just didn't realize just how much I would LOVE them until I crossed my first stitch with them! My poor husband had to listen to me go on and on all night about how much I was loving this project and how the needle is just perfection. I feel like I can stitch a little faster with them even (I'm a very slow stitcher). By the end of the night, DH said "aren't you finished with that yet? I mean geez the needle is so good I thought you would have finished that whole chart by now!" He thinks he's cute...

Last night I also managed to get squares cut to start work on my first quilt! I took a beginning quilting class in October and now I've gotten the big idea that I should start my first quilt. I made a table topper in the class. I guess I'm feeling adventurous... Wish me luck!


I still need to show off the dress I made LadyBug for Christmas and the library book tote I made Cuddle Bug the other day while he was napping. But those will have to wait for another day. Something to look forward to right?

I hope everyone's 2010 has started off right! Happy stitching!