Finally some good pictures…. I was able to fin…

Finally some good pictures….

I was able to finally get the lighting right to get some good pictures of the ornaments that I have stitched over the last few days. On the left is A Little Gift by Little By Little and on the right is a better picture of Joy Tree. I don’t know why that piece didn’t like the camera flash. I am pleased with how they both turned out.

After finishing A Little Gift, I worked some more on the wedding sampler, Olde World Map and on my garden themed exchange. I really like the piece I picked to stitch for that exchange. I will probably have to stitch it for myself too one day.

Now to wrap up my November goals:
Goals for November-i am attempting to be a bit more specific this month.
1. Complete 50% of Woodland Fairy-Stitched on it for a few hours in November, but didn’t finish 50%
2. Stitch ten hours on Celtic Winter-Yes and then some…got a ton of goldwork done
3. Stitch ten hours on Olde World Map-Only about 2 hours done
4. Complete 75% of the wedding sampler-Yes. Looking really good!
5. Stitch five hours on Dreaming of Tuscany-No, I just can’t motivate to start this one. Going to be a UFO for a while I think.
6. Stitch three Christmas ornaments-Got two done.
7. Pick a pattern for garden exchange and begin stitching-Goal achieved.

Here are my December goals:
1. Complete border and globe outline on page one of Olde World Map
2. Stitch one more ornament and finish them
3. Get to 50% on Woodland Fairy
4. Stitch at least 10 hours on Celtic Winter
5. Finish garden exchange and get it ready to mail
6. Finish wedding sampler for Rob and Elana
7. Mentally prepare for all the stitching I committed myself to in the new year:)

Here is my completed Joy Tree by M Designs. I am…

Here is my completed Joy Tree by M Designs. I am not sure why the pic sucks so bad, but this was the best of the 15 ones I took. Oh well. Maybe I can get a good one later. I will also hopefully add a pic of A Little Gift by Little By Little from JCS 2005. I am about 2/3 done on that one.

There has been a lot to be thankful for in my hous…

There has been a lot to be thankful for in my house this year. Allen and I celebrated our first anniversary, we bought the house of our dreams, our family has been healthy and generally happy all year, we both made it through another year at our jobs without too much grief. The only negative this year has been Allen’s thyroidectomy. Thankfully, he made it through surgery with no significant complications. The surgeon and anestesiology team did an excellent job. The only problem was the fact that the floor was a bit understaffed due to the holidays and the hospital pharmacy was closed. i am pretty sure that on a normal day it would not take 90 minutes to get a bottle of Cloroseptic for a sore throat.
Allen was discharged on time and now we are at home and I am playing Nurse Leslie. Fortunately he is not in tons of pain, but I am having to pump him full of Calcium( drop in calcium is often a temporary side effect of this surgery). Hopefully that will even itself out in the next day or so.

I was able to do some reading and stitching over the last few days. I am almost done stitching the Joy Tree by M Designs from this years JCS ornament mag. Hopefully I will have it done tomorrow and will post a pic. Two more to go to make my goal for November.

Wow this weekend went by really quickly. Not much …

Wow this weekend went by really quickly. Not much productive done around the house, but I did get a bunch done on Rob and Elana’s sampler. I should be at 75% done by tomorrow night. YEAH!! I am very please with how it is turning out. I hope they like it. I just wish I could post a pic so that you could see.

I am also happy because I got my new copy of Cross Stitch Collection from the UK. Just what I need, more cross stitch magazines. I have a few in line to start soon though. I also realized that in addition to what I already have started, I have planned to start at least three new projects in the new year. I will be starting a Butterfly Fairy with Cindy, a floral magazine pattern and another larger magazine pattern for my forum on Becky’s new BB, and a wedding sampler for my sister. Whew is that going to be a lot of work. I also have already committed to two exchanges and will probably join more. Oh well, I will just have to work hard.:)

Celtic Winter Progress… Here is my progress at…

Celtic Winter Progress…

Here is my progress at a little over thirty hours on CW. I was able to finish all the gold work up the front of her skirt. It looks beautiful. I also think that I have completed the hardest part of the project. Definitely using only using one strand of PTB no matter what the pattern calls for.

Thursday was a little stash day. In the mail, I got a custom piece of Silkweaver Porcelain Linen to eventually do Celtic Banner by Butternut Road. I tried to take a pic of it, but the light color just wouldn’t show up. Here is the image from Silweaver. I also picked up cuts of Sterling Silver and Fern Linen. I hope that one of them will be perfect for the White Wedding Sampler by Ellen Maurer-Stoh that I will be doing for my little sister and her fiance. I can’t believe they are getting married in a little over six months. Boy time flies.

This weekend I plan to try and get at least to the 75% mark on the wedding sampler for Rob and Elana. I want to finish that so I can frame it for a Holiday gift for them. I will also be kitting up three ornaments from JCS ornament mag 2005 and my garden theme exchange piece. I will be working on these at the hospital Wednesday and Thursday while Allen is either in surgery or heavily medicated. I definitely want to be there whenever he wakes up, but I will have to have plenty to do or the docs will have to find something to give me too. Hopefully I will have some pics for when we get back from Johns Hopkins on Thursday afternoon.

What a great weekend… Although the weekend seem…

What a great weekend…

Although the weekend seemed to fly by too fast for my taste, it certainly was a fun one. On Saturday, I met four close friends that I used to work with for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Good food and great friends made for a really enjoyable evening. I spent much of Sunday cooking and then we went to my parents for an early, not very traditional Thanksgiving dinner. My entire immediate family, plus our good friend and his wife were all able to get together. We always have a blast when we get together and I got to meet my first nephew. he is an absolutely adorable nine week old Chesapeake Bay Retrieve mix puppy named Hudson. Hudson is very sweet tempered and thankfully seems to get along well with my parent’s dog Daisy. He mimicked everything that she did. My cat Ralph who still lives up there was not so thrilled though.

On the stitching front, I have nearly finished the ten hour goal I set myself for this month on Celtic Winter. It is moving along well and I think I will keep going past the ten hour mark. I hope that by the end of the week I will be able to finish all of the goldwork in the bottom of her dress. For me that is the worst part of this project. For the next celtic lady that I work on I will definitely use only one strand of the PTB as Carol did on hers. I don’t mind the look of the stitching with two strands, but it gets a bit unwieldy. Oh well, I have already started it this way. I will post a pic later in the week with all the gold done:)

Thank goodness that week is over… It was only a…

Thank goodness that week is over…

It was only a three day school week, but the kids did their best to make up for it and man was I beat by Friday afternoon. Need to get some chores done today, but then I get to go out to dinner with some old friends tonight, relax during the day tomorrow and then off to an early Thanksgiving/Birthday dinner with my family tomorrow night. Since Allen is having his surgery the day before Thanksgiving, we won’t be able to visit anyone, or see my dad on his birthday. Should be a good weekend.

I have also gotten some good progress done on CW…Here is my progress so far. I have three more hours to work on her before I have to move on to other goals. Hopefully, I will finish those goals and I can do more stitching on her this month.

Stolen from Bunny’s Blog who stole it elsewhere:

10 Favorites

Favorite Season: Summer
Favorite Sport: Baseball
Favorite Time: Evening
Favorite Color: Purple
Favorite Actor: Derek Jacobi
Favorite Actress: No idea
Favorite Ice Cream: Butter Pecan
Favorite Food: Italian
Favorite Drink: Orange Juice
Favorite Place: My home.

9 Currents

Current Feeling: Congested
Current Underwear Color: Blue
Current Windows Open: My blog, my email, ABC Stitch Therapy, Photo manager
Current Drink: Apple Cider
Current Time: 10:10AM
Current Mobile(s) Used: T-Moble
Current Show on TV: Crusades on History Channel
Current Thought: AAAHHH…too much to do today
Current Clothes: PJs

8 Firsts

First Nickname:I don’t really have a nickname that people use regularly. My sister periodically calls me Les, but not often.
First Kiss: Jon when I was 12.
First Crush: Martin (initially when I was about 8, but then again in high school. He and I were friends for a long time).
First Best Friend: My husband Allen.
First Vehicle I drove: My parent’s silver Voyager mini van
First Job: As a teacher’s assistant in a local preschool summer program
First Movie: First on I remember is Return of the Jedi
First Pet: Lucky the dog when we lived in Georgia
First Shave: Can’t remember

7 Lasts

Last Drink: Apple Cider
Last Kiss: Non-human…Zoe gave me a kiss this morning, Human…Allen
Last Time: I defer to my husband on this one…
Last Time Shaved: Couple of days ago
Last website visited: ABC Stitch Therapy

Last Movie Watched: Butterfly Effect
Last Pill I Had: Ibuprophen

6 Have You Evers

Have You Ever Broken the Law: Yes, but not for anything major.
Have You Ever Been Drunk: Yes.
Have You Ever Kissed Someone You Didn’t Know: Yes, I think I have.
Have You Ever Been in the Middle/Close to Gunfire or Bomb Blast: No.
Have You Ever Skinny Dipped: Yes.
Have You Ever Broken Anyones Heart: No

5 Things

Things You Can Hear Right Now: The TV
Things on Your Bed: Allen and Cooper
Things You Ate Today: Nothing yet.
Things You Can’t Live Without: My husband and the kitties
Things You Do When You Are Bored: stitch, watch tv, surf the net, read.

4 Places You Have Been Today
My bedroom, the kitchen, the family room, the bathroom

3 Things On Your Desk Right Now
Computer, wireless router and a giant stack of CDs

2 Choices
Black or White: Black.
Hot or Cold: Hot.

1 Thing You Want To Do Before You Die
Stop worrying so dang much. In the event that that doesn’ work out…do the Brother Cadfael (one of my favorite literary characters) tour in England.

Monday Madness…. Well, last weeks at least. He…

Monday Madness….

Well, last weeks at least. Here are my answers.
1. Name 1 comedy movie you’ve seen. Shaun of the Dead
2. Name 2 black and white films you remember seeing. Robin Hood with Errol Flynn and The Man Who Wasn’t There
3. Name 3 dramas you thought were worth watching. the Pianist, Amadeus, and Forrest Gump
4. Name 4 television shows you watch on a regular (or semi-regular) basis. CIS, NCIS, Survivor and Law and Order: SVU
5. Name 5 things that, in your opinion, are advertised on television too frequently. I wouldn’t know anymore….Thank goodness for TIVO. I don’t think I have watched an ad in four years:)

Now here is an adorable picture of Cooper that reminds me of Art Stitches Feline Queen. Eventually, I am going to stitch it, but will have to call it Feline King.

i have been stitching a lot on Celtic Winter this week, but have been trying to finish a book so that I can pass it on to my mom at dinner Sunday night. Will post a pic for everyone tomorrow.

I am in a weird mood tonight so I adpoted an egg (…

I am in a weird mood tonight so I adpoted an egg (It was a very long crisis day at work today). Allen thought I adopted a real egg to hatch. That would have been even cooler, but I don’t know that the kitties would have been happy. So here is my virtual egg…

I wonder what kind of baby I will have.

AAHHH, I am so greatful that it is the weekend. I am looking forward to some time at home to relax and take care of some chores around the house. I plan on getting some good work done on Celtic Winter this weekend. I am really looking forward to it. She is really starting to come to life.

Old and new goals Here is the follow up on my Oct…

Old and new goals

Here is the follow up on my October and new goals for November.

OCTOBER
1. Continue on Celtic Winter SAL-YES
2. Continue Woodland Fairy-YES
3. Continue Olde World Map-YES
4. Start Wedding Sampler (I finally got the final bit of thread that I needed)-YES
5. Start Dreaming of Tuscany-NO
6. Enter a stitching exchange or round robin (hopefully I will get me acceptance to Stitching Bloggers exchange soon)-YES–entered garden theme and Valetine exchanges.

Goals for November-i am attempting to be a bit more specific this month.
1. Complete 50% of Woodland Fairy
2. Stitch ten hours on Celtic Winter
3. Stitch ten hours on Olde World Map
4. Complete 75% of the wedding sampler
5. Stitch five hours on Dreaming of Tuscany
6. Stitch three Christmas ornaments
7. Pick a pattern for garden exchange and begin stitching