Last Post of 2010 ...

All ready for a quiet but festive New Years Eve. Ken and Lisa are coming over for games, hot tubbing, steak and lobster and a few margaritas *smile*

This pillow has been my last stitch since 2007 ...

My exchange to Joan arrived while she was away having Christmas with her family. I had such fun spoiling Joan through the year ... Here's what I sent her for our Winter round ...

Here's the pillow that I stitched and finished ... It's by Blackbird Design. I need to stitch this again for myself ... love the design!

I stitched and finished this pillow for KarenAZ ... the design is the same one KarenSC stitched for me! I'm so glad caused I love love love this design *smile*

I have had a wonderful 2010. My family is doing well ... I stitched more than I thought I would/could this year. I had so much fun in the exchanges I participated in and look forward to great exchanges in 2011. I have really enjoyed blogging this year and have met many wonderful bloggers/stitchers, both online and in person. Hope to meet more of you next year. I don't like setting New Year's resolutions, mainly because I can never keep them ! lol ... I do hope to stitch more this coming year, as well as take a better care of my health ... but isn't that what we all hope for each year?! lol ... I do hope you and your family have a wonderful 2011.

and I hope you find your Joy in your stitches ...

I'm grateful for time with my family ...

Christmas 2010

I hope you and your families all had a wonderful Christmas. Mine was really great. On the 23rd we had Christmas with Chris and Monica. This was their year to spend Christmas with Monica's family, east of the mountains, so we got together a few days early. We invited my Dad, had a yummy enchilada dinner and then it was time for presents ...

Robert's thrilled with is huge bag of gummy bears found in his stocking ...

and Monica seems to really like the headlamp my dad gave her ...

hmmm, what's in the package???
here's the grandkids with grandpa ...

Christmas Eve was spent with my brother and his family ... quite a good looking group even if I do say so myself *smile* We had a yummy dinner of honey ham, oyster stew, mac and cheese and lots of other foods ... then it was present time again ... we were all nicely spoiled ...

I received a lovely Fossil watch from my Dad, a gift certificates for framing from my brother and sil, a new Samsung point and shoot from Chris and Monica and a crockpot from all three kids. I haven't had a crockpot in over 20 years ... can't wait to try it out!

I want to show off a couple more vinyl projects that Chris did ... the first was a Christmas present for me ... the Seattle skyline for my laptop ... pretty isn't it ...

Lisa and I found these trays at a craft store back in October. Monica found the graphic and Chris made up the vinyl for us. We were sooooo happy with how they turned out ...

Lisa and I wanted to do a little different one for a friend of ours, Yvonne. We really loved how this one turned out ... we gave her some mojito 2 martini glasses and 2 mojito glasses to go with the tray ... now I want one too!

I think I'll wait til tomorrow to post stitching pictures. It sure has been cold here ... hope you are all staying safe and warm!

I hope you find your Joy in your stitches ...

I'm grateful for time with my family ...

Goodies from Friends ...

Before Christmas I received some wonderful exchanges and Christmas presents from stitching friends ... grab a cup of coffee, tea or your favoriate Christmasy drink and enjoy the pictures ...

Lenna and I were partners in the Fair and Square Christmas round. Lenna stitched T

he Huddle by Ink Circles for me. She also included a great pillow, with reindeer all over it :) Can't wait to finish this one and hang it on my tree next year ...

Amy of Cross Stitch Pals hosted a Secret Santa exchange. Ellen (no blog) had my name. She spoiled me with all kinds of goodies ... like a yummy smelling candle, reindeer pez and reindeer lollipop, a memo pad and older design by Waxing Moon Designs that I have wanted forever. She included some lovely 35 ct Aztec Red fabric and a skein of WDW's Whitewash. The design is going into my pile of 2011 stitching. Thanks Ellen for a fun secret santa exchange :)
I received a fun box of goodies from Diane ... I got some socks and some Christmas earrings/necklace, cute Christmas fabric, a Just Nan needle holder, some yummy lotion, some Christmas buttons and a very cute Christmas ornament.
Here's a closed up of the ornament ... how adorable is that tree :) Thanks Santa Juan *smile*

Staci was sweet and sent me one of her felted hearts, along with some yummy tea and Christmas candies. Thank you Staci for thinking of me this Christmas season ... I think this heart will hang in my stitching room all year long ...

Christmas Eve day brought a box from Karen. Karen has been stitching for me all year long through Friends Stitching Through the Seasons blog. I always look forward to seeing what she's stitched ...

inside all that white tissue paper ... a very fun M that Karen decorated with scrapbooking paper, ribbons, buttons and a flower. Love the red and brown combination! Also included was this adorable pillow. The design she stitched is called Merry Christmas by Carriage House Sampling. I just love love love it!

Here's a close up of the M ... this will look cute in my stitching room ...

and a close up of the pillow ... cute isn't it *smile*

Karen also included one of her homemade cards asking the question Naughty or Nice? Well she decided I'd been Nice this year and gifted me with a gift certificate to Down Sunshine Lane. How cool is that! This was the last exchange for the year. I was very lucky to have Karen as my exchange partner and I hope she and I can exchange again in 2011.

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas! We did and I'll share some family pictures later in the week. I also have stitching to share with you that were gifts, but I was so excited to get my exchanges/presents in the mail before Christmas that I forgot to take pictures! So I have to wait until the recipients take some pictures for me.

I hope you find your Joy in your stitches ...

I'm grateful for time with my family ...

3 Days and Counting ...

Can't believe it's almost Christmas! Are you ready?? I think I am ... but this has been helping me a lot! lol
A couple of weeks ago Lisa and worked on some Christmas crafts for friends and family. My son Chris has a vinyl business and helped with our craft this year. We found some designs online and had Chris make them out of vinyl. We found boards at Joanne's, stained them and he added the vinyl for us ... I love how this one turned out!
I decided to keep this one for myself :) I think it looks adorable on my kitchen table. You can see a small board with a vinyl graphic on the small red board. We painted some with red and some with green ... I think the gold graphic looks great on it.
I participated in an ornament exchange in a Yahoo group I belong to ... Carmen (no blog yet) was my exchange partner. She lives about 30 minutes from me, so we decided to meet in person for our exchange. It was so much fun to meet a fellow stitcher in person, especially one that lives so close! We're even planning to get together after the first of the year :) Carmen stitched for me Star (over one!!) from this year's JSC ornament magazine. She also included a little bear in a show, both made by her! And how cute is it that the bear is holding the ornament!
Here's the ornament I made for Carmen ... it's a freebie design from The Stitcherhood. The fabric it's laying on is the backing fabric ... it was a really fun stitch.
All leave you with a picture of one of my favorite reindeer ... all decked out and ready for Santa. I've had this reindeer for a few years ... found him at Pier One but he was too expensive ... but a couple of weeks after Christmas he was sitting all by himself on a shelf way up high ... and dirt cheap by then ... so of course I had to bring him home ... sure glad I did!

I've received some wonderful Christmas presents in the last few days ... I'll post pictures of them soon.

Than you all for your comments ... I love reading each one of them!

I hope you find your Joy in your stitches ...

I'm grateful for time with my stitching girlfriends ...

Happy December

Hope your December is going well. We're all decorated in the house, except for the tree and Terry is almost done with the lights outside. It's starting to look a lot like Christmas everywhere. Terry's birthday was on Friday. The kids came over on Saturday to celebrate. We went to see Santa and then to mexican dinner and games back at the house. We played some Xbox Kinect and had a blast. I think Terry had a good birthday ... I'm sure his 4 margaritas helped! lol

A little story about the Santa hats ... last year I was talking about how fun it would be if we all wore a red Santa hat for our annual Santa picture ... no one was really wanted to but over the year they all kept coming up with other kinds of Santa hats they could wear ... Like Rob wearing his Seahawk Santa hat ... so we decided everyone could pick any kind of Santa hat to wear. I wanted to wear a regular red one but was veto'd ... so I added a trim of reindeers to mine :) Monica made one for Chris because he wanted a Subaru one, it turned out great! So we have Terry in a Tony Steward #14 hat, Chris in a Subaru hat, Rob in a Seahawk hat, me in my reindeer trimmed hat and Monica in her WSU (Washington State University) hat. I think we look marvelous!

I've been stitching a lot but have nothing I can show you ... yet. Seahawks game is sucky so I'm off to my craft room for a little finishing.

I hope you find your Joy in your stitches ...

I'm grateful for time with my stitching girlfriends ...

Happy Thanksgiving

I have so much to be thankful for ... great family and friends. I hope you all have a wonderful turkey day!

and we have a winner of my 4th Blogiversary ... Congratulations Sharon (itsdaffycat). I'll be emailing you this weekend. Thanks everyone for all the lovely comments you left ... warms my heart *smile*

Hugs, Michele

Sunday Night ...

Hope everyone had a great weekend ... are you all ready for Thanksgiving? I can't believe it's only a few days away. I love Thanksgiving ... family, football and good food ... what's not to love! lol Last week Monica (my daughter-in-law) came over for a visit and brought me the cutest fabric pumpkins for Thanksgiving ... if you remember I shared some pictures of pumpkins she made for Halloween ... she's getting really good at making them ... they look so cute on my kitchen table.
Last week I finished BBD's Waiting For The Harvest ... I liked stitching this design until I got the my initials. My initials were too wide for the original design, so I stitched to keep the design square ... I really wish I'd left the initials off, for found a small alphabet ... funny how you can be in love with a design when you start on it, but my the end of it you are just kinda ho hum about it ...

Blackbird Design's Waiting For the Harvest

fabric - misc piece of linen

floss - GAST Dark Chocolate

I finished this cute design by Ladybug Lane Design ... it was in the 2010 JCS Ornament issue ... it was a really fun stitch ...

Joy ornament by Ladybug Designs

fabric - misc fabric

floss - Victorian Motto - Burgandy

I started this sweet design Friday and finished it on Saturday ... I just LOVE it! It's a freebie from Tanya, The Sampler Girl ... I can't wait to finish it and enjoy it for Christmas this year ... thanks Tanya for the freebie!

Christmas Eve freebie by The Sampler Girl

fabric - hand dyed by Staci

floss - dmc

Don't forget my 4th Blogiversary giveaway ... drawing is on the 24th ... just leave a comment on my blogiversary post ... Good Luck!

I hope you find your Joy in your stitches ...

I'm grateful for time with my stitching girlfriends ...

Guess Who's 4 Today??

That would be my blog is 4 years old today! And what a fun 4 years this has been. I have really really enjoyed blogging, even when I don't feel like I have very much to say. The stitching/blogging community is such a wonderful group of women. I've made some wonderful friends and I've been lucky enough to meet a lot of you in person ... it's been a great 4 years! And in honor of my blogiversary I'd like to do a little giveaway. This is my favorite time of year so I'm thinking my giveaway will have all kinds of fun Christmasy things in it ... I have the perfect Christmas basket picked out and I'll be stuffing it with all kinds of fun stuff ... maybe even some chocolate :) So all you have to do is leave a comment on this post, make sure your email address is available so I can let you know if you win. Thanks for making my first 4 years wonderful!

Edited 11/18 to add ... I forgot to put a date that I will be drawing the winner's name lol ... I'll do the drawing on the 24th ... leave a comment on this post if you want to be entered in the drawing.

Now a few Myrtle Beach pictures ... just to show you that we really do stitch at stitching retreats ... here's a couple of pictures of starts and finishes ... KarenAZ started and finished this cute Halloween design by Cherry Wood Design Studio. It's called Halloween Ribbon and is just adorable!

Diane started and finished Turkey Time by Lizzie*Kate and she's sooo excited to be done with it!

I started this design ... It's Blackbird Designs Waiting for the Harvest. I'm using GAST Dark Chocolate on a very yummy piece of linen ...

look at this messy messy work area!

and how can I leave out these great pictures of my stitching friends ... here's ChrisNC, Myra and Toni

I love this picture! Some of my oldest dearest stitching friends ... Laurie, me, Char, Theresa, Beth, Patti and Karen ... love you ladies!

more smiling faces ...

and some gifts from my dear friends ... Karen gave me this lovely chart of Christmas ornaments, complete with the board, floss and felt, some beads (red of course! lol) and a stitch charm that is hanging on my keyring ...

Chris gave both Karen and I this fun witch chart ... we drooled over it back in July when we all went to the stitching retreat in Tulsa ... and she remembered how much we loved it!
and from Sharon I got this hysterical bag! I will always remember who I got this from! Love ya Sharon *smile*

Thanks for letting me share with you my friends and our stitching retreat ... now I can't wait til next year!

I hope you find your Joy in your stitches ...

I'm grateful for time with my stitching girlfriends ...