Wips and a finish ...

Time for an update on my rotation and an another finish! First up are the rotation pieces ...

Peppermint Twist ... stupid tree was pretty boring to stitch, but I love how it looks!


Earth laughs is coming along nicely ... even with all the color changes for each flower, I still can stitch more in an evening ... feeling sooo accomplished! lol


and last is L*K's Christmas Flip-its ... I'm a bit bummed because I dont' think I have enough fabric left to finish the last of the designs ... I might rip out the top of the border and see if one would fit on top of holly ... I really need to sit down and count it out ... yuck!


My finish for the week is Autumn Song by Blackbird Design. I was doing a SAL with Natasha. She got a little side tracked by other stitching that had to get done, but she's really close to finishing it :) I really enjoyed this ... loved the colors!


I know I won't be stitching this again and would like to offer it up as a giveaway. The giveaway will include the chart, leftover Weeks floss (probably not enough to stitch it, but a good start) and the scissor fob, but not the scissors, in the picture. Just leave me a comment with your email address and I'll draw a name next Tuesday, May 18th. You don't have to have a blog to enter, but please make sure you include your email address ... also, I'll email international too!


I've picked by project to put in rotation now that Autumn Song is done. I'm finally going to start something new! I'll post pictures as soon as I have it all together *smile*

I hope all you mom's out there had a wonderful day! Mother's Day was also Chris' 28th birthday, he was really a Mother's Day baby too :) We started the day at Starbucks (surprise surprise! lol) and then headed to the waterfront for the day ... later in we ended up seeing Iron Man 2, ending with a nice dinner at Red Robin ... it was a very full day but so much fun! I'll leave you with one of my favorite pictures from Mother's Day ... more to follow in another post ...

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

I'm grateful for the my sons and daughter-in-law ...

Sunday and Snow ...

I'm sitting here sunday night, watching the snow fall, yes more snow!!! and wishing I didn't have to go back to work tomorrow .. my holiday break was great and went all too fast. We had a great time New Years Eve with our friends and family .. yes we rocked out playing Rock Band .. omg it was such fun! I suck at it bad, well I do ok singing .. but me and the drums really didn't work out well at all! While not everyone wanted to make fools of themselves, some opted to play Phase 10. Lisa, Monica and I went back and forth between Phase 10 and Rock Band. I think everyone had a great time .. the margaritas were very very tasty. Here's a few pictures ..


Happy New Year from me and Lisa ...

The Phase 10 table ...

Chris, Robert and Jay rocking out ...

Midnight ... outside in the cold listening to all the sounds of a new year :)

enjoying the hot tub after midnight ... cold but wonderful!

On the stitching front, I finished Lizzie*Kate's Christmas is Special on New Year's Day. This was a fun stitch ...

Today I've been stitching on CCN's Joyful Summer. I have 3 or 4 other WIPs that I would like to finish up soon. Other than a couple of SAL's I will be participating in, I really want to work on stitching stash I already own. Other than fabric and floss, I really don't need any new charts. Yea I know, what does need have anything to do with it! lol .. but with the economy like it is, and with all the remodeling we've been doing .. I really think concentrating on what I already have is best ... wonder if it'll work! lol

We did see a couple of really good movies over the weekend. I would highly recommend both of them ... first was Gran Torino with Clint Eastwood. Amazingly good movie. It really wasn't top on my list of movies I wanted to see, but I was really glad DH picked it. The other movie was Yes Man with Jim Carrey. Another surprise movie ... much better than I expected. Jim usually is a little over the top for me, but this movie had just the right amount of Carrey craziness. He really is very funny. Oh and did I tell you we saw Marley and Me Christmas Day? Very good fun family movie until the last 30 minutes ... I don't want to give away the ending, but if you are any kind of animal lover, take a ton of kleenex with you! I had the ugly sobs by the end of the movie, but I did enjoy it.

Thank you very much for the comments on my last post. I enjoy hearing from everyone. The new winter picture on my blog was taken by Monica when she went home to Spokane for Christmas. She took it from her parents house .. incredible view! and lots of snow! as of today, Spokane has had 61 inches of snow and are expecting 6-8 inches more over night. That's the most snow for them in recordable history. The snow around here was actually starting to melt, except for the piles that the snowplows leave. It started snowing again tonight ... we have about 3 inches. It's suppose to turn to rain later tonight ... here's our Christmas tree in the snow. This year after we undecorated the tree, we moved it outside so the birds could enjoy it. I strung some cranberries, hollowed out grapefruit and oranges and filled them with bird seed. During the days, the lights are off, but I love looking at it all lite up outside at night.

Hope everyone had a great weekend ...


I'm grateful for a new year ...

Bristol Baby ...

Seems like the weekend was a long time ago. We had record heat for about 3 days and now I'm sitting in the family room, watching the Olypmics and reading blogs and listening to it raining like crazy .. and it's still warm! Not hot like over the weekend .. 90 with 90% humidity .. makes us Washingtonians really ugly and grumpy! lol Even in the heat we had a good weekend. It was only Terry and I .. the kids were at a subaru car rally all weekend. Friday was take out dinner and Weeds. We are on the 3 season. This is one great tv series on Showtime. We just started watching it this summer, I love Blockbuster online! lol Saturday Terry worked on the deck and I worked in the house. Once it got to hot outside to work, we got in the air conditioned car and ran errands. One of the errands we had was for Robert. His favorite Nascar driver's show car was at the mall and he asked if we'd go and get pictures. The country radio station I listen to was there giving away stuff and promoting their station. One of the things they were giving away were Gary Allen tickets .. well, guess what? I won a pair of tickets!! woo hoo! I love Gary Allen .. he'll be at one of our local state fairs on Monday (8/25) with the Lost Trailers. I'm soo excited! Nobody in the family really likes country music except for Monica (dil) .. she's going to take a day off work and we're going to the fair and then the concert .. should be lots of fun! Sunday was spent dealing with family stuff with my dad (cleaning up stuff from the passing of my Auntie Dee) and laundry .. such a fun day! lol

I have been stitching off and on during the Olympics .. sure is hard to keep my concentration sometimes! Anyway, I did get some secret stitching done and finished two more words on the L*K double flipit's. I have 4 more to do by the end of September .. they stitch up pretty fast if you just sit and stitch! lol Here's what it looks like so far ..

The best part of this week is it's a short week for me .. Terry, Rob and I are leaving on vacation tomorrow (Wednesday) night. We are off to Bristol, Tenneessee for the Nascar race. We've been planning this trip for a year now. It is one of our favorite tracks and we are all sooo excited! We leave on the redeye, arrive Thursday morning and have a day to spend enjoying the city of Bristol. Friday night is the Nationwide race, and Saturday night is the Nascar Cup race. We fly back on Sunday. I'm seriously hoping for Matt to have another win at Bristol like he did in 2005 *smile*

Hope everyone has a great rest of your week and a fun weekend. I'm sure I'll have lots of blog reading when I get back .. do a lot of stitching for me, cause I don't think I'll get much done while I'm gone ...

I'm grateful for vacations with my boys ...

He's a fish ...

Michael Phelps is just blowing me away with his swimming abilities. That boy is awesome to watch .. just beautiful in the water. I'm really enjoying the Olympics so far. Do you have a favorite event? I always say I like all the swimming/diving the best, but then when the track and field events start, I really enjoy those too. And of course there's baseball/softball and beach volleyball .. they are all great! lol I joined Melissa's blog for 2008 Summer Olympic Stitching Challenge. At first I thought I would concentrate on my Family Sampler that I started 2 years ago, but changed my mind yesterday. I really want to finish L*K's double flip-it's for Chris and Monica's 2nd anniversary (9/23). I'm about 1/2 done, and since it is a pretty quick stitch, I think it's a great use of my stitching time. At least I hope so!

I finally received my copy of the Halloween JCS issue .. omgosh there are some incredibly cute Halloween ornaments in here. I think the witch shoes are my favorite. I know I'd love to stitch all of them sometime.

I also picked up this cute Halloween kit by Cresent Colours. I don't know if you can really see the colors of the flosses, but omgosh they just soo yummy, deep and rich.

Thanks for all the compliments about Christmas Drawers and the framing. I have it hanging in the hallway and really enjoy seeing it everytime I walk down the stairs. And thanks for all the positive thoughts and prayers for my two friends. We all really appreciate your gentle loving concerns.

OK ... time to get off this laptop and get to stitching and watching the Olympics .. gooooo USA

I'm grateful for Wednesdays ...

Monday Monday ...

I just love the Mama's and Paps's ... I've had this song in my head since this morning, just work up with it! lol

We survived the snow over the weekend. Most was gone by late Saturday night, but it remains very cold here, I think the high will be 50, with a low of 35. I'm sure Spring is out there somewhere .. at least the flowers are trying to bloom.

I spent Saturday cleaning house in the am with DH, some laundry and grocery shopping and then settled in for some stitching. I worked on L*K double flipits, finished Remember last week and Give this weekend, and started Listen. I'm really enjoying this project. I think I'm going to give it to Chris and Monica .. maybe as an anniversary gift in September. I also worked on my biscornu, hopefully I'll have it done next weekend. I need some time to learn to put it together and the exchange is due 5/10. No pressure here! lol I also worked on my new Bent Creek start. I couldn't get a good picture of it last night .. I'll try again .. I just love the fabric and the colors :)



Sunday we went out to breakfast with the kids. DH and I were going to run some errands after dropping Robert back at the house .. but DH and I started fighting on the way home, over something sooo stupid .. I got pissy and said I didn't want to go anywhere .. changed into my comfy clothes, put laundry away and stitched. I also rented a wonderful movie .. Martian Child with John Cusack. Has anyone seen it? OMGosh it was good .. I just love John. I don't think I've seen a movie with him in it that I didn't thoroughly enjoy. I'd recommend it to anyone. Sunday night one of my favorite shows was back .. Brothers and Sisters .. anyone else watch this? I love it and last night was a great episode!

I really enjoyed all the comments about snow in April .. this is really out of the norm for us! But the skiers and snowboarders are really enjoying it! lol

I had a couple of comments about the pin tins in my last post .. she's an ebay seller .. her ebay store is Calico Cottage Crafts. She's really nice, responds back quickly and I was very happy with the products .. however, she's in Australia so shipping is a bit costly. Didn't wany anyone to be "surprised".

I'm grateful for productive stitching weekends ...

Tea and Stitching ...

Have you seen the new Tea Thread Packs? OMGosh they are cute! Even this coffee drinker likes them lol So, who's going to stitch these . inquiring minds want to know lol :)




I started Heart in Hand's Thanksgiving Bird this week. These silly birds have been a favorite of mine ever since the first ones were published .. over the years I've stitched all the holiday ones .. Thanksgiving and New Years were the only ones missing .. now I'm really hoping for New Years to be next! I also have 2 of the 4 season Birds stitched .. hopefully I'll finish the other two next year .. I forget wha a fast stitch they really are .. at the Pals Retreat two years ago, a few of the girls started calling them the Poopy Birds lol .. that's been my favoriate name for them every since!

I've also been stitching on Ho Ho Ho this week .. cute design isn't it :) DH loves the frame and told me to go ahead and order it .. it'll be one of my Christmas presents .. maybe from the furbabies!

Thanks for all the comments .. the fleece blankets are really fun .. I've made one and cut another couple. And yes my fingers will hurt just a tad bit from all the cutting lol .. anyone want to help us? I promise not to forget to double tie the knots Kim .. Monica forwarded us about that when she was teaching us .. but it's amazing how you can still miss one or two, there's a bit of double checking to do too! and a warm welcome to a few new blogging friends .. that's for stopping by and saying hi *smile*
I'm grateful for silly long-legged birds, they make me smile ...

Woo Hoo we have toilets! lol Everything went pretty smoothly on Friday .. not everything gone finished, but I'd rather have it done right, then done quickly. The major problem is the wallpaper in the kitchen .. the wallpaper we picked ended up too thin .. it was showing all the blemishes of the wall underneath. So our installer started from scratch on Friday, efinishing the kitchen walls to get a smooth base for the wallpaper. Because of the delay with the wallpaper, I was concerned about the frig and what we were going to do with it .. omgosh I love Sears! lol .. at least I love the delivery guy .. he came in and saw where the frig is going, didn't want to move it in until the kitchen was complete, said it's too easy to tear vinyl flooring .. he told me that Sears allowed 30 days to move the appliances around, if there were issues on the original delivery date .. they moved the frig into the garage and when we are ready, they will come back within 24 hours of calling them and move/install the frig .. for free, well, not really free, but no extra delivery costs. Wallpaper should be complete Monday, frig should be installed no later than Wednesday .. it's a good thing *smile* .. and speaking for good things ..

I finished L*K's Good Things this afternoon .. this was a cute fun stitch .. I looked through my odds and ends of frames and found one that I think is perfect for it .. don't you? The design would make a really cute pinkeep to ... hmmmm, maybe a PIF??




Back to laundry and sunday night stitching .. I'm going to work on the PALS sampler and watch football! OMGosh can you believe its that time of year again! GOOOO SEAHAWKS!

I'm grateful for forward progress ..