All work and no stitching make me a dull girl ....

Thank goodness I've been able to get some stitching in -- wouldn't want to be dull, now would we??  I will be sooo glad when work slows down.  Between working 6 days a week, 2 sick dogs and a lingering cold/allergies/sinus infection thing going on, I'm beat. 

Here's what I've been doing the past couple weeks:

Homage to Japan, a Sticklounge project

Odds & Ends, a Sticklounge project

Purple Garden, a Sticklounge project

Quickie, another Sticklounge project -- are you beginning to sense a pattern here??

Little Easter Sampler,  a Novalee02 SAL

WooHoo!  My first biscornus!  How cool is that??

Faces finished!  Not sure what I will do with this yet.

Later ......

Another quick update

Ooops, I forgot about these two:

January Mystery SAL almost finished -- the backstitching makes this one look more 'finished'



New tiny sampler from the Sticklounge
 -- they remind me of fancy, little doileys


Can you believe it ?!?  We are supposed to get 4-6 inches of snow in the next day or so.  What a winter!

Take care ......

Just a little update

Egads! we are busy busy at work.  So my off time is spent stitching instead of computering.

Sticklounge SAL Odds & Ends by Tam's Creations

Sticklounge SAL Homage to Japan by Remy Lawler 

Easter SAL by Novalee02



Flower Power by Ann Strite-Kurz. 

I am really having fun with this one and hope to get the third row in over the weekend.  The pattern doesn't call for it but I plan to put some beads in the little empty squares after all the stitching is finished.

 
 Have a good one ....... gotta run ......

January Mystery & Crazy Flowers

I finished all the cross stitching on the January Mystery SAL.  Now I have the backstitching to do.  I couldn't decide on an third color for the shared head area.  Instead of letting this piece sit around while I came to a decision, I did this:

Looks kinda cool.

Last weekend I wanted to stitch on Flower Power but just wasn't up to it.  Now that I'm feeling better, I picked it up and set needle and thread to it:

This is going to be so pretty when it's finished.  I enjoyed stitching it so much I may spend most of the week working on it.  I love the colors I chose and though it looks complicated to stitch, it really isn't.  Each band is composed of several different patterns interwoven to give the final lacy pattern.  I do one pattern at a time.  In the pic you can see the second band's first layer completed.  It's pretty as is but with each layer it becomes more ornate.  Once the first layer is down, the remaining layers don't involve much counting.  The repetition is actually kind of relaxing.  I suspect this will be my first large crazy finish.

Sunday, the dogs and I were at a teacup agility trial.  I only entered Stormy and River -- we weren't successful but had a good time.  Meadow got to play with her common brother (they are from a different litter but the same parents).  She had a blast.  Firefly got to sit in my lap and visit with her only surviving child, Pheonix.  Shasta is in season and almost ready to breed but just wasn't 'in the mood' yet.  She got to take a nice flirty walk with her paramore, Ruddy (maybe tonight will be the night??) -- get him all wound up and snarl when he tried to get to first base.  And last, but not least, poor Willow didn't get much attention or have much fun yesterday.  Tonight she has agility class -- hopefully that will make up for it.

Have a happy stitchin' week.

A little update between working and sleeping

Unfortunately not much stitching was done since my last update.  I'm having some sinus issues -- mostly I wish I didn't have the pesky things but right now I have a sinus infection.  I'm not sure why I get soooo tired when this happens but since all I want to do is sleep, when I'm not at work, that's what I've been doing.  I did manage to get the next part of Homage to Japan done over the weekend (and yes, it took me all weekend to get it finished).   I love wild violets and the ones in this piece are so sweet.  It took me forever to get them done because I kept making mistakes and having froggy moments (blame it on the sinuses).

Before the infection took serious hold, I did get some work done on the Busy Bee Tuffet and the January SAL.

Unfortunately, I didn't get the tuffet done for my Monday EGA meeting.  BUT as fortune (and nasty little sinus-loving bacteria) would have it, I wasn't planning on going so wouldn't get to take the biscornus class anyway.  Luckily (?) we had a major winter event -- freezing rain, sleet, snow, major slippery roads, etc, etc, etc -- so the meeting was cancelled.  Yup -- I was a happy camper -- the biscornus class is postponed until next month :)

Have a healthy, happy Wednesday.

Halloween craziness and a beeginning

I finished one of my Crazy Challenge pieces -- yippee! -- the Sampler Girl's "The Old Black Cat" with some changes to the border.  This is such a cute piece.  However, I decided the black spiders look more like ticks to me (bleeechhht!!)  --shiver-- way creepier than spiders.

And I started a new project (Busy Bee Tuffet by Chessie & Me) that needs to be stitched by my next EGA meeting on Monday.  We are going to learn how to assemble it into a biscornus.  I'm looking forward to learning a new (to me) finishing technique.  And as you can see, I've changed the colors:

 I love the little bee keep scissor fob and plan to stitch it also -- though probably not before Monday.

The weather man is threatening us with nice weather for the next couple days -- party sunny with temps near 50.  WooHoo!  Break out the shorts and flip flops!  I hope your weather promises to be just as pleasant .....

Wow!  I just noticed I have some new followers -- how cool is that.  Welcome!

Another crazy finish, lots of pink and a new garden

I finished my first Brittercup kitty on Saturday.  Isn't he 'dorable?  I just love him!

I think my next crazy finish will be the other Brittercup kitty.

Yesterday I finished part 10 of Odds and Ends.  I added a butterfly for my Papillions, a bunny for the beagles and couldn't think of a little logo for the Storm.  So I just made a representation of his smilin' face 'cuz he's such a happy, vivacious little dude.

Oh, and I started another Sticklounge SAL called The Purple Garden by Angie Designer.  However, I already have a purple butterfly garden (the designer's name escapes me)

and since purple isn't one of my favs, my Purple Garden isn't going to be purple.  It's going to be multi-colored, more like a Spring Garden (wishful thinking on my part).  I just started it last night so I'm not very far with it yet.

Enjoy your day!

Framed finishes and other stuff

See the Star and Baumchen are now framed -- yippee!  They aren't hanging on the wall yet but they're almost there.

I completed the border on my crazy Santa piece:

Stitched more on the January SAL (which is starting to look kinda cool):

And that's about it.  This weekend I plan to finish part 10 of Odds & Ends and the Brittercup Kitty ornament.  It's going to be another cold one but at least there won't be snow.  Another good stitching weekend.

Weekend stitching

I got quite a bit of stitching in this weekend:

The January mystery SAL that isn't going to be finished in January

The Sticklounge SAL called Odds & Ends designed by Tams's Creations

One of my crazy Christmas ornies designed by Brittercup Designs

And last but not least, I finished 2 Autumn ornies this morning by adding a little bling to the bottoms.

Not to shabby :)

2 crazy finishes, a couple SALs and help please

WooHoo!  I finished 2 of the crazy Christmas ornaments over the past weekend:

The sugar-shocked reindeer just needed the black to finish him while the Snow Bunnies needed lots of stitching.

I started a January Mystery SAL on Helen & Mahelia's blog.  It's mostly finished on the blog while I'm only starting -- so not much of a mystery for me:

I also started a new Sticklounge Project entitled Homage to Japan.  It's a pretty little sampler with a couple goldfish on it (I love goldfish -- especially the fat, fancy ones) and a Japanese proverb.  I didn't get much done on it because I wasn't happy with the original colors.  So after several starts and stops, I have finally decided on the colors for this first part:

Not much, I know, but I should be able to get this part finished now that all the tough decisions have been made.

I also picked a frame for the Baumchen.  Since I didn't want to spend a bundle here, I chose a standard size frame for it.  Unfortunately, there is lots of room on the longer side.  Hmmmm, perhaps I'll add a piece of lace here to fill in the empty frame space.  I found a nice piece of old lace but cannot decide how to assemble the whole thing.  Any suggestions?  Top, bottom or side?

It's hard to see the lace in these pics, the flash kind of blew it away, but even in real life, the lace is rather subtle.  At this point in time, my preference is the lace on the top .... but that could change.

Have a good one !

Some crazy stitching and a surprise received

I finished my first crazy January start and got lots done on 2 more:

After all those starts I needed to finish something and I needed some easy stitching, so I decided to work on these three ornaments this past week.  I really like this green fabric and may stitch more ornaments on it -- umm, sometime in the future.

I received these goodies from Jules' giveaway yesterday (thank you!):

The oriental book has some beautiful butterflies that I'm itchin' to get stitchin' but that will have to wait until I get some of my other starts finished.  The little framed 'Welcome' is just lovely.  And don't laugh, but the best thing is the honey from Florida -- yum!  

I   l-o-v-e   honey!

Thanks again, Jules.

It's going to be freezin' this weekend -- a perfect stitching weekend.  I plan to work on some of my SAL's and hopefully get caught up with them.  Should be a good time .....

The last 2 days of craziness

On Day 14 I started a project I've been fretting over for about a week.  And on Friday evening, I needed to make some commitments.  This is a piece called Flower Power by Ann Strite-Kurz that I bought a few years ago.  The pattern calls for canvas and perle coton but I, of course, wanted to be different and do it on evenweave.  I chose a 28 ct rose evenweave and some DMC threads -- it took me forever to do this.  Then I had to attach the fabric onto the scrolls.  By the time I actually sat down to do some stitching, it was about 8:30 - 9 pm.  The first thread I chose was grey -- it looked so pretty on the rose fabric.  *smile*   The second thread choice was a dark purply mauve.  It too looked realy pretty on the rose fabric -- however -- it overpowered the grey  *grumble!*  Sooo, I frogged the grey and added black instsead  *eureka!*  Then I went to bed.  Here's the result (fyi, colors are wonky):

 I think the black definitely goes better, however, I still  like the grey.   Sooo on day 15, I got up and worked more on this piece:

While the colors are truer, the pic does not do this justice.  I'm totally tickled with this so far, so much so that I had a hard time putting it down to work on my Day 15 project. 

But on Saturday evening, I started the Beagle in a Basket.  There isn't much to show of the beagle, but she is started:

 On Sunday I bought a plastic tub to keep all my Crazy 15 starts together -- previously they were scattered all over the place.  Now I can go to the tub and pick out something as the mood strikes.  I'm not sure what I want to continue first .... I'll keep you posted.

Happy Monday!

Another crazy kitty

Day 13 is another Brittercup design (the name of it escapes me at this time -- something about gifts).  It can be found in the 2010 Just Cross Stitch Christmas edition:

I'm a little pressed for time today so this is a short entry.  See you Monday for the last 2 installments of craziness.  Have a good stitchy weekend! 

An even dozen's worth of craziness

I have always admired the Brittercup kitties (mainly because I love black cats) but have never stitched one until last night.  This pattern is from the JCS 2009 Christmas edition:

I'm happy with the progress I made on it and can't wait to finish it. 

My first kitty was a precocious black cat I adopted from a shelter years ago.  He was the best cat -- athletic, friendly, confident, always into trouble and too smart for his own good -- probably not the best cat for a first-time cat parent.  As a kitten, he got his head stuck in one of my speakers, knocked over 2 fish bowls with Bettas (one was on top of the refrigerator) and my 4 shelves of plants, crawled inside my refrigerator, among other adventures.   He's gone now, but whenever I see a black cat in a pattern, picture or real life, I have to smile.

Thanks everyone for your comments, especially about my pups!  I appreciate you taking the time to leave a little note -- they also make me smile.

Can you believe it -- only 3 more days ......

Craziness plus a birthday!

Crazy day 11 pattern is another Sampler Girl called The Old Black Cat:

I did pretty good with this one last night -- at least I managed to stay awake.


Today is Meadow's first birthday.  It's hard to believe that a year ago she was this tiny, blind puppy -- a little eating, sleeping, peeing, pooping machine:

Three months later she's this sweet little running, jumping, chewing, eating, sleeping, peeing, pooping machine:

And a year later, she's developed into this adorably, wonderful, eating, sleeping, playing machine (thank heavens the chewing, peeing and pooping are under control):

My bouncing baby beagle is all grown up (snif) but still cute as the dickens:

Around Thanksgiving, we had a family portrait taken -- from l to r, Rudy (poppa), Shasta (momma), Meadow.  You can see where she gets her good looks .....

Thanks for looking .... and I'll be back tomorrow with more craziness.  Only 4 more starts to go.