Didn't get much stitching done over the weekend .. too many things to do! Got my hair cut and colored on saturday, then came home to DH cleaning! So of course I jumped right in and we spent the day cleaning and cleaning and cleaning lol .. when Robert got home from work we decided to go out to dinner and a movie .. we went to see The Departed. If you haven't see it, and can stand the f-word said hundreds of times .. it's really a good movie .. it's about the mob in Boston .. kinda bloody too .. but we all enjoyed it. Sunday was laundry and grocery shopping .. and Robert and I took the dogs to one of our off leash parks. It's down on the Puget Sound in Edmonds .. we are having the most incredible weather .. really sunny, about 50 and giving us all a teasing feeling that it's springtime! of course the evenings cool down to about 30 and there's lots of frost in the morning .. anyway, with the weather like it's been .. we had to take the dogs down for a good romp .. and boy did they love it .. they ran and played with other dogs and swam and just had a gay old time :) We ran into Chris and Monica and a friend of their's .. they were heading down to the regular beach to walk when we sawa them .. so they came over to the dog area and we chatted and watched the dogs going crazy .. it was a fun afternoon.

Last night is 3 hours of our favorite shows .. Prison Break, Heros and Studio 60 .. great cause I get lots of stitching done! lol .. I worked on the border of "Pursue" .. I almost have the top portion done, which means I'll have 1/2 the border done, hopefully tonight .. I really want to get this done before I start on anything else .. who would have thought that a border could take sooooo long to stitch! lol .. I received my fabric for Spot of Coffee last week (thanks Mary Kathryn!) and I'm dying to start it .. but first things first .. get the border done! That'll be my mantra for the week :)

I'm really enjoying everyone's comments .. thanks bunchs! and keep'em coming :) Nice to know we are all a little weird, isn't it, Kim :) lol

What Fun! I was tagged today lol .. first time and I've really enjoyed reading about all you weird bloggers! hee hee .. thanks Anna and Mary Ann *smile*

The rules: Each player of this game starts with the "6 weird things about you." People who get tagged need to write in their blog of 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names.

Here's my 6 Weird things ...

1. When I eat M&M's I eat all the colors up the brown ones .. save them for last

2. I don't like my food touching .. I don't do very well at buffets! lol

3. I always have to have a pillow in my lap, kinda hugging it, when I'm sitting in a chair or couch

4. When I eat a hamburger, I get all around it first, then I can eat it normal

5. I have a serious thing for coffee cups/mugs and reindeers (and not just at Christmas) .. I have really trouble not buying them when I see them .. in fact I have a large collection of coffee mugs hanging around the soffett in my kitchen

6. When I have ice cream (coffee is my favorite), I like to stir my spoon around in the hard ice cream until it becomes like soft serve

Weird enough for ya? lol

OK .. here's the 6 people I'm tagging ...

Sally (http://stitchingplace.blogspot.com/)
Shelleen (http://shelleensmusing.blogspot.com/)
Chelle (http://themerrychelle.blogspot.com/)
Kim (http://upnorthxstitching.blogspot.com/)
Lisa (http://jayderose.blogspot.com/)
Adana (http://www.amberseeker.blogspot.com/)

Little finishes keep me going ... this was really a fun little stitch .. actually I like PMP's alot. I'm a huge Wizard of Oz fan, so of course I had to have it just for the sentiment!

In between stitching the PMP, I've been working on my personalized sampler. I ended up frogging last night, while watching Gilmore Girls .. It wasn't that I was off count on the sampler .. I just didn't like the way the colors were coming together .. this piece is one where I get to make all the decisions about what colors would be what letters and/or motifs .. and well, unlike a lot of you .. I don't often deviate from what a designer chooses for her design .. I mean I'll find fabric in my stash that works with the floss, and do some conversions if I don't have a specific color of floss, but really that's minor changes .. so I keep 2nd guessing myself. After frogging and then playing again with the colors, I feel better about my choices and will jump right back to it this weekend.

I've also been working on the border for Pursue .. I do love the border, but dammm they get boring to do and you'd think it would go fast, but nooooo! lol here's a look ...

sassy_mom2

I really would like to finish this .. my fabric for Spot of Coffee should be arriving soon .. and I'm really itching to start it .. but I don't want tooooo many WIPs! lol

Looks like colds are good for something lol .. I spent a few hours yesterday making a list of ornaments I would like to stitch this year .. here's the list ..

From JCS 2006
Angel Stitchin - Christmas Joy
Country Cottage Needleworks - Winter's Eve
Glory Bee - Noel
Little By Little Design - Winter Joy
Lizzie Kate - Happy Holidays
Prairie Moon - Mistletoe House
Praiseworthy Stitches - The Bird's Carole
The Workbasket - Quaker Reindeer

From 10th Anniversary Collection
Sam Sarah Design - Star of Wonder
Glory Bee - Merry Christmas
Shepherd's Bush - Joyful Night
Mary Garry's Sewing Cabin - Reindeer on the Roof

In between blowing my nose, taking my meds and napping I also did a little stitching .. worked on the border on Pursue Your Passion and did a couple of letters on the sampler I'm working on .. I'll post pictures tomorrow.

Sure glad it's Friday .. I'm doing nothing but watching movies, watching some football, stitching, and a little laundry .. I have got to get over this crud!

Snow and Sniffles .. it was really pretty this morning waking up to it snowing. We got about 3 inches overnight, but it's not supposed to stay around long .. it's warming up, unfortunately. Here's a picture of Chip enjoying a bit of snow play this afternoon.

I think I'm losing the battle against these sniffles .. started yesterday and it's definately getting worse .. even with my dayquil/nightquil

Not sure I'm going to stitch tonight .. hate to stitch when I'm sick, all I seem to do is frog frog frog lol Maybe I'll look for something mindless to stitch, where I don't have to count a lot lol .. think I'll go make some more tea and veg on the couch .. night ...

brrrrrr we are really having some cold cold weather. I think the warmest it's been since last week has been about 28 degrees and that little bit of snow we got is still around. The dogs are so funny with this cold weather. Maddy, our 7 year old golden retriever, loves the cold and the snow. Sometimes she just goes out and lays on the deck in the snow and takes a little nap lol .. Chip, our 1 year old chocolate lab, is a bit more of a whimp when it comes to the cold .. does what he needs to do outside, plays a bit and then wants in, and if you don't jump right up and let him in, he starts to shake and looks sooo pathetic! Doesn't look like it's going to warm up much before middle of next week .. brrrrrrrrr

I had a nice birthday .. decided the day before that I really didn't want to spend my birthday at work .. so I took both thursday and friday off on vacation .. sure did feel good! It was just really nice to wake up, have my coffee and just relax .. in the afternoon I went and had a pedicure and my nails done. My family took me out to dinner at the Macaroni Grill .. yummy food :) I got a docking station for my ipod from Terry (DH) and Robert (DS#2), 2 wonderful pictures of Seattle from Chris (DS#1) and Monica (DIL).

Friday my good friend Lisa and I were supposed to get together .. we always take a day of vacation for each other's birthday's and go and play. Because of the weather we decided to reschedule our day together .. I didn't want her driving home late in the evening with all the black ice we've had around here. So I spent the day cleaning/reorganizing my stitching room, filled a bunch of freebies and leaflets that I'd been ignoring .. kitted up a few projects and made a list of floss that I need. I still haven't finished deciding what I'm going to order from Drema for with my birthday discount, but I think I'll definately be ordering some overdyes, can't beat 25% off :)

I finished a cute little stitch by Lizzie Kate, called Joy, from Tiny Tidings XI. I love the banner :)




And there's a picture of one of my WIP's .. I started this last October, it's called Pursue Your Passion by Blue Ribbon Design .. I only have to finish the design around one of the hearts and then the border and it will be done .. I just love this piece ... the words mean a lot to me .. and of course I love the color lol .. I'm using Gloriana Silk, Garnet, on a very yummy feeling piece of white evenweave.




Sorry the pictures are sooo big! Maybe I should go back to using webshots, at least that way even though the pictures are thumbnail size, you can click on them and enlarge the picture .. what do you think???

IT'S SNOWING!!! Woo Hoo!!! Yes, I am one of those crazy people that love the snow .. I don't even mind driving in it .. it's just the other drivers I don't like lol .. I'm not sure how much more we'll get, I'm hoping for a big dump! but you never know in Seattle what it'll do. I know the snow came at the wrong time of day .. started about an hour before most people, including moi, commute home .. took me about an hour, usually about a 25 minute commute, which isn't bad .. and from what local news is showing, my commute was extremely fast!

The first picture is our Christmas tree that is out on our back deck .. I'm thinking about decorating it for the birds :) The second picture is a japanese maple in our front yard .. told you it wasn't much snow .. but I love it anyway :)




Thanks for the comments on the sampler I'm doing .. if you ever get a chance to take a class from Mary, do it .. she's a kick and a great designer! Maybe someday she'll release the chart .. I'm sure there would be lots of stitcher's interested in it :) She taught a Christmas ornament class at the same retreat .. I have pictures of the tree and wreath pieces in my Webshots album .. different colors, but fun designs. http://community.webshots.com/user/sassy_mom2

I stitched on the sampler last night .. finished F, G and H .. but I'm not happy with H .. I stitched it in the cream silk, and it's just too big of a letter to do in cream .. stands out too much .. so I think I'll make the "i" in cream, cause it's small and frog H and pick another color for it .. why is it that the entire time I was stitching H, I knew I didn't like it .. but I kept on stitching it anyway .. crazy crazy crazy!

That was one of the strangest football games .. neither team played well .. just when it felt like the Seahawks were getting some momentum going, Dallas had to run back a kickoff to touch down .. and then wow, would you ever have expected any quarterback to bumble a hold for a field goal like that? We were all surprised and of course excited that we get one more game! Mary Ann, were you and your DH rooting for Dallas??

Christmas, heavy sign, is almost put away .. a few odds and ends and then the cleaning and putting back the everyday stuff .. my goals every year is to have my house back to normal by my birthday .. think I'm on track :)

Here's some pictures of the sampler I'm doing. I took a class from Mary of MDesigns last October in Myrtle Beach, SC. The piece she designed for the class is a sampler that we got to personalize. First we got to chose our fabric and threads from 3 different color pallets. After picking our colors, we then got to work with the sampler pattern and start to make it our own. It was really fun trying to figure out what motifs I wanted that told of our family. I choose a few words that means things to our family .. like joy, believe, laughter .. each of our names will be on the sampler as well as DH's and my wedding date, DS#1 and DIL's wedding date. I love sunflowers so I will be replacing the "flower" motif with a sunflower. There are also beads and charms that can be added to the sampler .. I might have the family look at buttons/charms and see if they want to add anything to the sampler. Here's a few pictures ..








We're off to go to dinner with our neighbors .. late Christmas celebration with them .. can you think of anything better to celebrate with friends than Margaritas and Enchildas? lol

I'm grateful for DH and DS#2 that actually don't mind helping to put Christmas away :)

FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS START TODAY!!! WOO HOO!!!!!



The Seahawks play the Cowboys later today .. game starts at 5pm .. and we're sooo excited!!! DH and DS#2 are going to the game .. DS#1 and DIL invited me over for dinner and watch the game with them. I'm planning to work on putting Christmas away and then I'll head over to watch the game about 4ish.

I stitched last night :) Started a personalize sampler by MDesign .. I'll take pictures tomorrow ... I love it already, the fabric is yummy and the threads are VC silks and wonderful to stitch with so far :)

I've had more productive weeks that's for sure .. lol .. first week back to work after the holidays is always kinda rushed and crazy at work .. add to that needing to put Christmas away, but not feeling 100% .. been fighting a sore throat and just too tired to do much once I got home from work .. thank goodness it's almost the weekend .. my mantra for the weekend will be "undecorate"!! lol

Very little actual stitching happened this week .. but lots of thinking about what I want to be stitching. I got my birthday discount letter from Drema (Needlecraft Corner). I'm not sure what all I will get, but definately need some threads and some fabric. I have an MDesign tree with my name that I would like to do on red fabric, using white'ish silk and maybe some ornament cuts .. I really need to spend some time going through my charts and trying to decide what I want to stitch and get the fabric ordered. One chart I'm really excited to start is LHN's Spot of Coffee. I ordered some silks from Vikki Clayton tonight for this chart :) I've only used silks once (gloriana silk) with the pattern Pursue, by Blue Ribbon Design. I haven't finished the chart yet, but I've enjoyed stitching with the silk so much I wanted to try some more. I have a sampler all kitted up from a class I took last October from Mary of MDesigns .. Mary choose to kit up class piece with VC silks. I'm planning to start that sampler this weekend.

Downloaded a few more cds this evening for my Ipod .. Rod Stewart's Song Books (1-3), Elton John's 11-17-70, Carole King's From My Living Room, Soundtrack to the Bodyguard, Soundtrack to Coyote Ugly, and a compliation cd with Dion and Ricky Nelson. I'll be rocking to good tunes at work tomorrow :) Time to sync Toto (lol, that's what I named my Ipod) and then off to bed .. night all

Heavy sigh .. so it's back to reality tomorrow .. work and school .. and time to start putting Christmas away. DH and DS will bring the Christmas boxes down from the attic and I'll start putting it all away in the evenings .. my goal is one room every night after work. The lights outside can stay up a little while longer .. probably will start this coming weekend to take them down. This week is always depressing for me, going to back to work after our holiday break and taking all the decorations down .. oh well lol

I did some stitching today while watching football .. finished an older kit by Bent Creek called Wish Upon A Flake .. I still need to iron him and put the ribbons and buttons on to make him into a small banner .. thought he turned out really cute :)


sassy_mom2

I've been thinking about my stitching goals for 2007 .. I usually don't set many goals for myself about my stitching .. kinda takes the fun out of it for me .. but I do know that I want to stitch more consistently this coming year. I would like to get at least one ornament stitched every month and have a UFO that I really want to finish .. it's a dimensions kit that my dad picked out and asked me to stitch for him .. about 5 years ago! It is a picture of wolves in the forest, more colors than I'm used to using in one project, but I really want to finish it for my dad .. so I'm think I'm going to set aside Wednesday's as UFO night. I'll have to see if that works for me :)

night .. Michele
I'm grateful for my blog .. I enjoy writting here and enjoy reading the comments :)