Christmas, a New Year, and a New Look

We had a wonderful Christmas this year despite LadyBug's fever late Christmas Eve night and on into Christmas day (it figures, right?). As you can clearly see, my bugs were spoiled (again) this year. I guess it pays to be the only grandkids on both sides...



Besides the festivities, I have a finish to show you (and just in the nick of time, too)! I put the year on this one months ago. But it got set down and, for some reason that has yet to be determined, it didn't get picked back up. Please tell me I'm not the only one to forget a WIP! It narrowly escaped needing a do-over on the year until I realized it was sitting there unattended and picked it up to finish it! Phew. So here it is in all it's finished BBD glory. The fabric color is off completely. It's actually a winter white in person.

Something Sweet by Blackbird Designs
Thread: recommended CC, WDW, and GAST
Fabric: 28 Count winter white linen
Started: 6/6/09
Finished: 12/30/09

And in case you haven't noticed yet, I went ahead and made myself a fresh new blog layout to ring in the new year! I'm loving the clean white background.

Wishing you all a blessed 2010!

It's That Time of Year

Thank you everyone for your incredibly kind and supportive comments on my last entry. I don't know what to say. Stitchers are easily some of the most amazing, sincere, caring, and generous people in the world! Thank you for making me feel so good!!

And thank you everyone who offered to do personal exchanges with me! I hope to make time to do one with each and every one of you in the near future. Ranae and Vonna are on my list in the coming months! I've been busy at work getting things together for those exchanges and I have to say that I am incredibly excited about it! Thank you ladies for offering to join in the fun with me!

In between organizing myself for my first exchanges, I have made a little bit of progress on "Something Sweet" from BBD. I am loving this project now as much as when I started it! I have already picked out a spot on my wall for it too! Now if only I had a lot more open time to work on this one!


These are the weeks that get a little crazy around here. I'm sure many of you commiserate with me that this time of year gets hectic. And I don't even have "school aged" children! DH works for a university, and it's move-in time and student-tech training time. That means he works some days on the weekend (like yesterday) and he works extra long week days. We miss him. I feel spoiled to have a husband that (usually) works regular work hours. These extra hours remind me not to take his (mostly) predictable schedule for granted!

On top of that, I am headed back to school myself this year. I mentioned before that I was going to start taking classes to begin working toward my BSN. Well I have 3 classes this semester starting a week from today (8/24). Biology, Statistics, and Economics. Wish me luck! This surprise came in the mail from my mom and my sister to get me ready for my new role as student! And when I finish school, it can carry stitchy projects! Lucky me!


And we decided to find a preschool program for Cuddle Bug. We are hoping to give him more social interaction with children his own age. We found him a preschool class that meets only two days a week (Tues and Thurs) for 2.5 hours (9-11:30 am). I'm hoping that will help him to open up a bit and not be so painfully shy around other kids. We will see! He starts that in September.

So we've been working hard around here. But it isn't without it's joys and celebrations! Ladybug turned 6 months old a week ago. We had a half birthday party for her and she had her first bite of "solid food." The adventure begins with that! Smeared sweet potatoes and sticky diapers. Fun! I cannot believe she's already 6 months old!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend full of crossed stitches and relaxation! Hoping you all have a great week and happy stitchy wishes!

A Beauty from Ranae

I am such a flake! I completely forgot to mention and extend my thanks to sweet Ranae for sending this gorgeous issue of Sampler and Antique Needlework Quarterly to me! Ranae gave this away on her blog and I was the lucky winner. It has been forwarded on by several stitchers and I intend to pass it along once I've gotten my fill of it! Thank you Ranae!


I got some stitching in yesterday. As usual, it was not enough to make nearly the progress so many of you make on a given day, but I will take what I can get! I am hooked on this piece. It is a marvelous stitch! Brigitte, you should definitely start this one (IMHO)! You may even finish before I do! :)



Today I read this very honest and vulnerable entry on the blog of an incredibly talented stitcher. She says she feels insecure about her stitching sometimes. I am in awe of her skill. Her projects are bigger, bolder, and stitched with more mastery than I could dream of achieving! I relate though. I'm terribly insecure about my stitching and my finishing. I desperately want to participate in all of the gorgeous exchanges so many of you do, but I hate to think someone will get my pitiful stitching in exchange for a masterpiece they made! I follow the HOE blogs just to oogle everyone's creations and packages! Maybe I will get the guts to do it myself one of these days. In the meantime, it was special for me to read that even some of you gifted and experienced stitchers feel insecure about your work sometimes. Not because I enjoy hearing people feel this way, but because I know I'm not entirely alone in my feelings sometimes.

Thank you all for your support! I love reading your comments. They mean a lot to me! Happy stitchy wishes everyone! HUGS!

Another Lobster Roll Please!

Well all I can say is finally...finally a little something worth showing!

Thank you all for your suggestions and comments on my last post about scroll bars vs. q-snaps. I set out finally having settled on some q-snaps. Well wouldn't you know that my Hobby Lobby would be all out?! Just my luck! So circumstance effected my decision making in the end. It was either wait a week for some q-snaps to come in or get some scroll rods and get stitching! I chose the latter, naturally.

I must say that I like the scroll rods so far. There was a bit of a learning curve with them - trying to figure out how best to go about getting my fabric on the rods and twisted taut. But I managed. And they've been doing what I paid them to do. So I'm pleased! I will be giving q-snaps a try next time I need something though. As some of you said, I guess I can only really decide what I like by trying both.

I made some progress on my BBD "Something Sweet." It's coming along swimmingly considering it sat idle for nearly 2 months and I get very little quality stitching time - what with the bugs demanding my constant attention and all. But I'm enjoying this more than I can describe! Who could have known that BBDs are such an absolute joy to stitch?! Here's a little progress pic for you to feast your eyes on!


And as I mentioned in my last post, my month-long absence was not only taken up with longing for needle and thread, but also with a little fun in the sun! DH and I dragged our incredibly awesome bugs on a long 2-day car ride from St. Louis to Boston because we're crazy like that! We spent 5 full days in Boston enjoying ourselves to bits, and then we drove 2 more days home! I would just like to say that even though our bugs are only 3 years and 5 months, they are amazing travelers! We had our moments (Cuddle Bug had to pee on the side of the road for the first time and that involved a huge meltdown "NOOOOO! Only dogs pee on the ground!" - yes, that's a quote) and I'm nursing the Ladybug so you haven't lived until you've been pumping in the passenger seat and crawling into the backseat with a bottle every few hours. For those of you wondering, running the car heater and setting the (fresh from the cooler) expressed milk on the dash does bring it up to body temperature, but be prepared to sweat utilizing this method in mid-July! Seriously though, it was easy considering the ages of our little ones! They spoil us.

We were there visiting my Dad and his wife who live just outside of Boston in a great little beachy town called Hull. And we took it easy...way easy. We didn't cram a bunch of sight-seeing or tourist stuff into our trip (since we've done all that during previous trips there). We mostly hung around my dad's water-front townhouse, ate lobster, and enjoyed the view and good company. We did take the bugs to the New England Aquarium and managed a trolley tour. Oh and we took my dad's kayaks out a few times and spent a few hours at the beach. It was more fun and more relaxation than other vacations I've been on! We came home from our trip not feeling like we needed a vacation to recover from our vacation! And that's how we know it was a success.

I leave you with a picture of the view from my nursing spot at my dad's. This is where I sat several times a day and nursed the Ladybug. Oh how I long to be back there now!


Thanks for visiting, and for all your wonderful comments, help, and suggestions! And happy stitchy wishes to each and every one of you!

That Lonely BBD

Thank you all for your sweet comments about my 3 problems on Friday. And an especially big thank you to everyone who encouraged me to get that Cheesecake Factory! I'm going to be letting DH know how you all feel ;)

I didn't find any time to pick up my current stitching project this weekend as I had hoped. I'm working on BBD's "Something Sweet." I started it over 2 weeks ago, but haven't touched it in over a week. So it's only got 1 week's worth of work put into it - which isn't many hours considering I have 2 small children. It will get some quality time this week I hope. Pay no attention to the stairs. I will be fixing that mistake! Oops.

Something Sweet by Blackbird Designs
Thread: recommended CC, WDW, and GAST
Fabric: 28 Count winter white linen
Started: 6/6/09

We had a good Father's Day. Cuddle Bug and I got up and made Daddy the usual Father's Day breakfast of cinnamon rolls. When they were ready we woke up Daddy and Ladybug and all had a wonderful breakfast. We gave Daddy the gift we had prepared for him. Then we loaded up into the car and drove to Ironton, Missouri to spend the day with some family. It was wonderful and low key. I finished up the day very sick. I think I had become terribly dehydrated in the heat. My head was pounding and I was dizzy and tired. I guzzled a bunch of water upon returning home, took a bunch of advil, and laid down to close my eyes for a bit. 2 hours later DH woke me up to nurse the Ladybug. I felt terrible to have napped so long on Father's Day, but I was really not feeling well at all. DH assured me he didn't mind.

This is what we gave Daddy for Father's Day (one of the rare moments you will get to see a picture of the bugs or see their names on my blog):


I have a question for all you wonderfully helpful seasoned stitchers out there in blogland. I am stitching my BBD project in a hoop. I find it makes my stitches more even and consistent than stitching in the hand. But it's leaving ring wrinkles in my fabric and I'm finding it impossible to iron them out. Since I'm using hand dyed fibers, I can't get it wet to force the wrinkles out. Any suggestions???

Well that's about it around these parts. I hope everyone else had an incredible weekend! Sending you all wonderful stitchy wishes!

It's Been Too Long!

First of all, thank you everyone for your kind comments about the dress and support of my desire to head back to school! I appreciate each and every one of you!!!

It's been too long... Since what you ask?

Well it's been too long since I've posted an update to this here blog. That's one. And it's been too long since I've put needle to linen (almost a week now). That's two. And it's been too long since I've seen the inside of a Cheesecake Factory. That's three.

So I'm on a mission to fix these things in the near future.

Problem one - well I'm taking care of that one right now.

I don't have much to write about. I've spent a little more time behind the sewing machine since my last post. Cuddle Bug got a chef's hat. Now I can stop being reminded how Santa forgot to bring him the chef's hat he requested for Christmas. And this one is made of Disney Cars fabric! Beat that you little elves!!! And Ladybug just got a new summer dress. This time I managed to get the little diaper cover worked out as well :) I'm improving!

I've also been dabbling in the paper crafting world! I'm a huge admirer of the work Steph does over at Where'd All My Money Go?!. And she's peaked my interest in paper crafting! I'm all signed up for a "Scrapbooking Basics" class at a nearby scrapbooking store next week. I'm excited!

I made it out to a great LNS in historic St Charles, MO with a friend. I got some specialty fibers I needed to start my current project. They carry Belle Soie and for a moment I considered picking up a skein to quell my curiosity. But I exercised self control and just got what was on my list. I'm a bad stasher... Too much self control for my own good! Someday very soon I want to give silks a try!

That was two weeks ago tomorrow we made that trip, and that afternoon I started my current project - my first BBD. And I love it! It's been a joy so far when I have the time. That brings us to problem number two. I haven't touched this project in almost a week! I have to admit I've hardly made a dent in it and I haven't had a moment to get a good photograph of it when the sun is up. When the sun is up, my bugs are up. And that leaves very little time for taking pics of my projects. Oh well. I promise a picture this weekend! So bare with me! I may become a BBD junkie! This one is going to get some much-needed attention tomorrow...I hope...

And that leaves problem three. Something tells me this one is going to remain a problem for a while longer. I will just have to settle for some Sarah Lee cheesecake from the freezer section of my local grocer. And I admit, as humble as that sounds I may almost perfer it that way. That I can eat in my pajamas as I work on that afformentioned WIP. You can't say that about the Cheesecake Factory ;)

Okay, since I have no picture of my own adventures, I leave you with this little beauty I have been drooling over today:

Feast your eye on that!

And for anyone interested in a crafty giveaway I came across this one in my scrapbook blog hopping and you've got to check it out (not stitching related, but good fun for the craft enthusiast!):
Paper Craft Pleasures is giving away a Bind-It-All binder machine and accessories! This is generally a paper crafting tool, but stitchers could use it to bind your very own journals complete with stitched cover! You know you want one ;)

That's it for me today. Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!