Happy New Year Everyone!!!

Just a quick post .. wanted to wish everyone a very Happy New Year .. be safe and enjoy the night with your loved ones.

Hugs, Michele

Well, I did get a little stitching done over the last couple of days .. started and finished this cute little reindeer by Heart in Hand .. it's one of their Wool Whimsy's .. fun and fast little stitch .. here he is ..

sassy_mom2

We went to see We Are Marshall last night .. awesome movie! But if you go, take your tissues, it's a real tear jerker from the very beginning. I think I lasted about 15 minutes before shedding my first tears lol .. of course I cry at most everything, happy or sad .. but even DH said he teared up 4 or 5 times throughout the movie.

Dad called yesterday with his MRI results .. nothing was found, which is really good! His doctor just said he has to live with the vertigo and hopefully it won't last much longer .. usual episodes last about 6 weeks .. and he said he is starting to feel better and the dizzy feelings aren't lasting very long at all.

I've been having fun playing with my new IPOD nano .. have uploaded about 150 songs from my own CD's and went to ITunes and purchased a couple of singles .. Chris and Monica gave me a $15 gift card to ITunes .. it's just incredible how much music is out there! I love all kinds of music .. the last few years I've been heavy into new country, which I've been ripping and loading to my IPOD .. along with the new Tony Bennett Duets album and an awesome Bobby Darin cdand Mary J Blige(see told you I like all kinds of music lol) .. on Itunes, I purchased some music by Breaking Benjamin, Phantom Planet and Gavin DeGraw. I really like the singles I purchased of theirs .. might have to get some more soon :)

I think I'll go listen to some Gary Allan and do some stitching ..
night .. Michele

Happy Day After Christmas! We had a great Christmas with all our families .. sure went fast, but it was fun. I got some wonderful things from my family .. I received from DH (Terry) and DS#2 (Robert) a RED IPod nano :) DH also got me a very pretty pair of square cut garnet stud earrings and DS#2 got me a Josh Brown jersey! He's the kicker for the Seahawks and my favorite player. I got a very nice RED suitcase from my dad and another pair of pretty garnet earrings and some towels from my Brother and SIL A couple of new cd's were in my stocking .. two John Legend cd's and the new Taylor Hicks cd.

We all spent the day pretty lazy .. I played with my new nano, ripping my new cd's and loading them on the nano .. DS#2 had to work for a few hours .. said it was pretty boring after all the Christmas shoppers for the last few weeks :) I did take my dad to get an MRI this evening .. he's been having a lot of vertigo type episodes, gets all dizzy and unbalanced .. his dr. has run a bunch of tests and can't find and infection in his inner ear, which usually causes vertigo .. so he order an MRI to see if there is anything else going on .. should know the results late this week.

Tomorrow we're having Christmas with Chris and Monica (DS#1 and his new wife). I'm planning on doing some stitching during the day and then making enchildas for dinner..

later .. Michele

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

Best laid plans have gone by the wayside when it comes to any productive stitching these last few days. Friday, DH and I finished out shopping .. we had a great time out and about and found all the things we were looking for :) Shopped for about 5 hours .. couldn't believe how fast it went! Then we decided to go see a movie .. went and saw Pursuit of Happyness .. wonderful movie with Will Smith .. I think it was his best so far! And the boy that plays his son, is his real life son .. what a cutie and a good little actor already :)

Today, Saturday, I went and had a manicure/pedicure, then it was home to get dressed for a family party on my dad's side. All my cousins and their kids and all my aunts and uncles were there .. it was soo much fun to see everyone .. we ate, sang Christmas caroles and just visited .. it was such a nice way to spend the day. After we got home and had dinner .. we finished up all the wrapping .. Robert, my 18 yr old, loves to wrap and what a great help that is :)

Tomorrow I have just a few things to do before heading over to my dads .. bake a few cookies, make sure I have all the food I'm supposed to bring, and get all the stocking stuffers together in one place to take to Dad's and the ones for Christmas morning. With the boys gone for the afternoon, it'll be nice and quiet and I actually might sit and stitch :)

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas with their families and friends .. be safe and don't eat too much *grin*

night .. Michele

Happy Happy Day!! My Christmas vacation starts today! I do love having all this time off :) So tonight my friend Lisa is coming over to do some laundry and take a shower .. poor thing still doesn't have any power and is tired of warm sponge baths! We'll probably go out to dinner and then I'm planning on doing some wrapping. DH and I are overspending once again .. he's soo funny, been calling me all day, shopping on his own and having too much fun! The last time we talked on the phone I mentioned that we were a little over budget .. he said, I think we are more than a little, then laughed, then said but I want to get the kids this and that and I just laughed. At least we are paying cash for everything .. started doing that years ago .. so we'll be a little cash poor, but won't being paying on it for months and months. On my way home tonight I stopped and got most of the food for Christmas Eve dinner .. we always do easy, especially this year since DH and youngest DS, Dad and his gf are going to the Seattle Seahawks game .. they'll be home about 6ish .. My brother and his family and I will get over to dad's and get everything ready for present opening and dinner. We're having honey baked ham, nice chewy rolls, if anyone wants to make sandwiches, veggie tray, fruit tray, augratin (excuse the spelling!) potatoes, and lots of desserts!

Tomorrow I'm planning on finishing up the shopping and wrapping .. only have my brother and dad to do .. should be easy .. then I need to get some more stitching finished .. the cube is coming along well .. I started it the other night, but got interrupted .. can't wait to see it done!

4 More Days .. I'm sooo excited!!!!

Finishes!! Two of the ornaments I finished stitching last night, Family and Home. The other two I had stitched a couple of months ago. Sewing and I don't get along very well .. gotta love pre-finished tucks for my stitching :) I'm giving Family to my new in-laws, Home is for my Dad, the Kitty is for my dil, Monica, and Joy is for my sil :)


sassy_mom2

Other than getting the ornaments all finished up .. no other stitching for me tonight .. ordered a couple more items on line for presents and I think we'll start wrapping tomorrow night .. I have a couple more presents to go out and buy .. but have to wait for payday .. and I still need some stocking stuffers, which should be pretty easy.

Talk to dad today .. power isn't expected until closer to the end of the week .. so my sil and I are going to put together all the food for Christmas Eve dinner .. it'll be easy .. we are doing a honey baked ham, rolls for sandwiches, some kind of potatoes, fruit and green salads, leftsa and cheesecake/pies/cookies for dessert .. yummy :)

Since I don't have work after thursday, I'm thinking about making two cubes up Thursday night .. I'm really looking forward to trying my hand at these.

off to bed for me .. night .. Michele

Weather update .. no more high winds, but there are still lots of people without power, including my Dad. Lucky he has a nice motor home with a generator, so he's all warm and cozy and helping give some electricity to his neighbors next door. There are crews coming in from as far away as Montana to help get the power back, but it looks like late next week before everything is back to normal around here. It's been tough, but the stories of neighbors coming together have been wide spread which puts a smile on everyones face :)

Me .. I've been stitching a bit on the two L*K's, should have them done tonight and not sure if I'll get anymore stitching in before Christmas. We are almost done shopping!! But have lots to start wrapping. I'm late getting my cards out .. won't finish them until tomorrow evening .. but they should all arrive close to Christmas.

We received our family Santa picture on Saturday .. I'm sooo pleased with it! Turned out much better than I expected .. we are all smiling :) lol .. I'll scan a picture tomorrow and share it.

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Next week at work will be fun .. lots of potlucks going on all week and people bring in some wonderful holiday baking too .. waddle waddle waddle .. It's our last week before Christmas break .. we have paid time off from this coming Friday until after the 1st of the year .. it's a really nice perk :)

Off to do some stitching .. night .. Michele

Tie down the little kids and dogs .. we're having one major storm here! I haven't been online all evening because the power has been off and on all night .. the storm started about 9am Thursday .. raining like there's no tomorrow .. averaged about an inch an hour all day .. major flooding going on all over western Washington and lots of snow in the mountains .. soooo tonight the rest of the storm is hitting .. lighting, incredible rolling thunder and still rain, mixed with winds at about 30 miles an hour with gusts up to 45 .. and it's getting worse .. they say throughout the night the wind gusts will top 65 miles an hour!!! Went and did a little Christmas shopping with Monica, my DIL, had dinner and drove home dodging the water puddles across the road and the tree limbs already on the ground .. it's going to look like a battlefield of tree limbs in the morning! We have lots of trees around us .. sure hope done of them come down close to us .. I'll check in tomorrow .. the lights keep flicking on and off .. need to get off this computer .

night .. Michele

We got our tree tonight! The lights are on and hopefully it will be fully decorated before the end of the week. I'm taking a day of vacation tomorrow (Wednesday) to go Christmas shopping with my dad .. he likes help in shopping for the grandkids. I always look forward to our annual shopping trip, but I do come home exhausted! lol .. so probably no stitching for me in the evening .. I've been working on two L*K ornaments, Home and Family .. should have them done before the weekend :) And I'm hoping to work on a cube this weekend .. I found some fun fabric for the two pieces I want to cube up .. I'll share pictures as soon as I get them done.

night .. Michele

Whew, what a weekend! lol .. but it seems I got everything done I wanted too .. and did a little stitching too :) Started Family by L*K, really quick stitch .. I do like these L*K ornaments .. wonder what they'll come up with for 2007??

Sunday started with breakfast with my kids, and then a trip to see Santa for our yearly family picture .. the kids were cool about the picture, as long as none of them had to sit on Santa's lap! lol Can't wait to see how it turns out. Later in the afternoon I went to see The Nativity Story and dinner with a couple of gf's. The movie was very good .. nice to be reminded about what this time of year really is all about :)

Here's the picture of my last finish. This ornament was from a class I took in October at the Pals Fall Fling .. the designer is MDesigns .. Mary is a kick, her classes were great fun and the designs, although a bit different, are really fun to stitch. The tree is except for the star on top. I was going to use the suggested silver braid, but I ran out .. so I'm going to add a white star button to the top instead.

by sassy_mom2
Looks like this coming week will be busy busy busy .. seems we have something going each night .. should be fun! lol

Shelleen .. I'll have to think about joining Elf night on Mondays, nice way to start the week don't ya think?
Maryann .. I know what you mean about rotating .. I always start out with good intentions .. but then .. who knows lol
Sally .. What exactly do you mean by a focus piece? You've got me curious! lol

Thanks for the comments ladies :)

Hugs, Michele

Happy Friday!!! and on to the craziness of the weekend! I haven't done much Christmas present shopping .. we have lists and know what we are getting, just need to get out and BUY! I'm planning on doing some shopping tomorrow, after my hair appt .. then home to do some cooking for a Carolling party we are going to tomorrow night. Not sure I'll get much stitching this weekend, but I did finish an ornament tonight .. I'll post a picture tomorrow .. have to charge my camera battery.

I've been having way too much fun still with these blinkies .. found a few more tonight, couldn't believe I found a Seattle Seahawks one! lol

I'm still thinking about signing up for the Christmas Mystery .. I need to sit down and make a list of stitching that I would really like to do in 2007 .. I'm not great at rotating my stitching .. although lately I have been dedicating wednesday nights to ornament stitching .. guess I'm trying to see if rotating really fits me or not .. any ideas or helpful hints about rotating, if you do, would be greatly appreciated :)

Hope everyone has a great weekend .. I'll check back on Sunday :)

night .. Michele

It's always a good day when you ended it with some stitching :) I've been stitching on a Christmas tree ornament that hopefully I'll have finished up tomorrow and can post a picture of it here .. I have to plan a day in the next couple of weeks where I can sit and do some finishes. I've never done a cube before, but have a couple of finishes that I think would work up really cute as cubes .. so tomorrow on my way home I'm going to stop at the Joanne's and check out the Christmas fabrics and ribbons and see what I can find that would look good with the two pieces. I already have good directions, step by step, on how to make the cube, which I will print out tomorrow and take with me so I get all my supplies .. the weekend looks pretty busy, but maybe monday night would be a good time to try one. That's about it for tonight .. sleepy here so I'll say good night and post later ...

Hugs, Michele

Can't believe it's Sunday already! The weekend flew by .. but I got a lot accomplished .. and it feels wonderful :) Saturday Lisa and I baked 4 different cookies for Christmas .. I like to give the people I work with cookies, found some adorable Christmas cookie boxes at Michaels .. not very big, but they should hold a nice variety for everyone. Saturday night the kids and I took DH to dinner and a movie for his birthday .. went to see Casino Royale. I think I'm going to like this new Bond. To me the only real James Bond is Sean Connery .. but this guy is pretty good :) Today Robert and I went to Toys R Us to shop for our adopt-a-kids .. Robert (my youngest DS) works there .. it was fun and we found some great toys and I got 10% off :) I had one small problem .. one of the boys we were buy for had as his dream wish a bike. He's 7 and we had enough money collected for a bike plus helmet .. so the first stop was the bike dept .. there was this really cute bike on sale (only $60, half price!!) Well the problem was it takes 24 hours to have the bike but together and I didn't have 24 hours .. we have to hand in all the toys tomorrow .. so I went up to customer service to ask if I could buy the floor model, or would they push through quickly putting one together for me .. the woman I worked with was incredible .. she got the manager to ok me buying the floor model .. and had them do a safety check on it for me .. when she knew why I was in a hurry for the bike .. she was sooo helpful! Then I got the rest of my errands accomplished and got all my stuff that I need to mail tomorrow all ready :) Yep, it was a nice weekend!

I didn't do any stitching this weekend .. but I did finish something I'd stitched last year and never finished it all the way .. here's the picture


by sassy_mom2
I'm stitching a Christmas Tree ornament that I was part of a class I took at the Pals Retreat last October .. hopefully I'll be done with that by Tuesday .. then I have a couple of Lizzie Kate Christmas Ornament designs I want to do for gifts and I have Blue Ribbon Design's Pursue to finish now that I got more silk to finish it .. thanks Nancy :) and thanks Sally for asking about what I'm stitching.

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend ... night, Michele

Happy Friday everyone :) wow, I understand our really cold snowy weather has hit the mid-west and other parts by now .. I sympathize with any of you that is enduring what the first of our week was like .. took until yesterday for a lot of people to finally get their power back .. finally our weather is more typical for November/December, bitter cold at night, but rainy during the day. I hope everyone stays safe and warm this week :)

Can't believe it's December 1st! I'm pretty much on target for what I need and want to get accomplished .. DH and I went through the kids lists and made our decisions about what to get them .. I've always worked off lists for the holidays, much easier to get people what they want/need then to get them something they'll end up returning. My boys are 24 and 18 .. Chris is 24 and married Monica on 9/23/06 and Robert is my 18 yr old. It shouldn't take too long to finish their shopping up early next week .. then it's just my brother's family and the two Dads and we'll be done :) I like the sounds of that!

I think I'm almost done decorating the inside of the house, except for our tree which we don't do until the 15th .. we still get a real tree and don't want it to dry out. Tomorrow DH should finish the outside lights .. couple more things to scratch off my list. Tomorrow I'm doing my holiday baking with my bf Lisa .. we are doing smaller this year .. picked 4 different types of cookies .. should go quickly. Then the kids and I are taking DH to dinner and a movie for his bd. Sunday DH has a meeting with a client, so I'll head out and run errands .. I got the frame for This House Believes, so I'll head to Michaels to get it framed .. the off to shop for our last two adopt-a-childs for work .. Boeing supports lots of holiday was to give .. my group adopted 4 stockings (2 seniors and 2 kids) and 4 foster kids through the adopt-a-child program. My group is great in supporting all kinds of holiday gift giving programs .. as long as they don't have to shop lol .. which is fine, cause I love shopping .. so they throw money my way, I do the shopping and they all help to wrap and get everything together to hand over to the various agencies .. perfect match don't ya think?

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!! I'm off to stitch ..

night .. Michele :)