Happy Friday! Here's a picture of my progress so far on In Every Nest .. gotta love those little chicks! Stitching for the weekend will be on an ornament for the March SAL on the Christmas Ornament Blog I joined.

Tomorrow I'm doing a bit of housework and then meeting a gf for lunch and shopping .. I really need some new black jeans .. mine are gray and holely lol

I also have to starting getting ready for a little trip I'm taking next week .. I'm soo excited! I'm going to a stitching retreat .. put on by A Stitcher's Retreat ... I just can't wait! I attended their retreat last year in New Harmony, IN and had a wonderful time. I'm really looking forward to the classes and seeing the Inn .. it looks so beautiful and relaxing :)

Thanks all for the comments about spring; the quilting books; and my coffee finish .. I wish my yard had daffodils like that picture .. unfortunately the squirrels seem to eat them as fast as I can plant them lol .. but we do have some wonderful daffodil fields and tulips fields about an hours drive north from me .. the last couple of years it's been sucha raining March and April that the tulips didn't last very long .. hopefully this year it will be better .. I'll take pictures .. it's really spectacular to see.

Before I forget Lizzy .. here's the VC silk conversion for Spot of Coffee, would work for Spot of Tea too Sally *grin* .. the first numbers are the DMC numbers followed by the name and number for the silks ..
676 - Cardamon 4101
420 - Haywains 4131
869 - Haywains 4133
3022 - Tree Moss 5235
3023 - London Fog (Weeks)
3051 - Resenda 3351
3052 - Verdigris 3349
3787 - Earth Star 5219
3857 - Rufous 4447
3865 - Natural 5201

I'm grateful good books that go on and on ...

Happy First Day of Spring! We had all the crazy weather that comes with spring .. rain, sun, sleet, snow, more rain and it was about 40 degrees all day .. gotta love Spring!

At lunch today I finished a terrific book .. I would highly recommend it to everyone that loves to read .. and if you quilt, all the better .. you'll understand more than I did! lol .. the book is called The Quilter's Apprentice by Jennifer Chiaverini .. it starts a bit slow, but half way through I was definately hooked .. and by the end of the book, yep, I was crying .. lol .. I'm really a whimp! Anyway, I understand there are a series of these books .. my friend at work is reading them and is bring in book 2 to me tomorrow .. Let me know if you've read the book(s) .. I'd be interested to hear what other women think about it.

I finished Lizzie*Kate's Is It Coffee Yet? This was such a quick stitch .. I splurged and bought the pillow for it .. I just love it!



but I think I'm a little coffee'd out lol .. so I started In Every Nest by Raise the Roof .. quite a fun Easter stitch .. and it's sooo my family! lol

Thank you all for the lovely comments .. I really enjoy reading what you write .. and it's fun seeing new people leaving comments too .. waving HI :)

Lizzie .. you asked for the conversion that I did for Spot of Coffee .. I post the conversion over the weekend for you and anyone else that wants it .. also nice to my records!

Sally .. Spot of Coffee is also chart to say "Teatime by the candle's light ....." not trying to enable you or anything *smile*

I'm grateful for sunny daffodils ....

Hot off the q-snaps it's Spot of Coffee .. finished!! I stitched this on R&R (32ct) Iced Cappucino. I converted the threads to VC silks and loved working with them. If I was going to stitch this again, I would pick greens that were a few more shades different .. you can't tell very well that there are two greens in the leaves. The color for the coffee pot and cups was DMC 3023 (lt. brown gray). I didn't find a conversion that I liked, so I used WDW London Fog .. it's the only varigated thread, but I like how the pot and cups kinda stand out. I did enjoy this stitch and can't wait to get it framed and on my wall :)

Sunday evening already? Where do the weekends disappear to anyway? It was a pretty good one here .. Friday I went to dinner with Chris and Monica and a couple of fiends of theirs. We had yummy mexican food :) Terry and Robert went to see the movie 300. They loved it! But said it was definately a guy flick lol.

Saturday was spent running errands, got my hair color touched up, and finally got caught up on the laundry! woo hoo! Terry and I also started going through our closets last weekend .. finally throwing old old clothes .. it's truly amazing what we are getting rid of! I think I'm done going through mine .. now I want to sort and organize by colors and everyday vs work clothes .. I do that every few years but it never lasts very long! lol

This morning I got up, started a nice big pot of chili, then left for the airport with Monica, to pick up Chris .. he had flown to Minnesota late Friday night for a friend's wedding. He's known Amanda since they were in 1st grade .. I'm really glad he went .. and he had a wonderful time! Got home and watched the Nascar race from Las Vegas .. soooo boring! I did stitch a bit this weekend on Spot of Coffee .. I'm getting pretty close to being done! The picture is washed out from the flash ..

I'm grateful for laughs with my kids ...

Thank You Sonya! I received my PIF from Sonya today .. what a sweetie she is! Look at the wonderful scissor fob she stitched for me .. you stitch beautifully, and your finishing is very nice! Almost too nice to use .. almost *grin* .. and she sent a couple of goodies with the fob .. that coffee chart is perfect for me! lol .. looks like she really does read my blog :) Thank you very much Sonya!

I stitched on Spot of Coffee Wed and Thurs .. have the house done and I'll take a picture of it tomorrow .. it's been such a fun stitch!

I'm grateful for paydays :)

I was tagged by Cheryl the other day .. It's called Five Questions and Five Things...Here's how this works: For the first part, 5 Questions - anyone reading my blog can ask me five questions, either in comments or feel free to email them if you'd prefer. I'll answer them in the blog as soon as time allows.

For the second, Five Things About Me. Here are the rules: 1. Get tagged 2. List five things that have not been revealed on your blog 3. Tag five others. Here are 5 things about me ...

1. I work as a project analyst at Boeing .. December started my 27th year there! I've had a variety of jobs over the 27 years .. the group I work with now, I've been with for the last 13 years. I work with buyers and our suppliers, helping delivery data to the supplier so they can build the parts of the airplanes. I also am 2nd generation Boeing .. my dad retired after 33 years.

2. I lust after a 1969 Red Ragtop GTO :)

3. Besides loving to cross stitch, there are lots of other crafts I've tried and enjoyed very much .. although to this day I still can't sew a straight line! Frustrating to say the least.

4. I know I've mentioned that I am a coffee lover .. but I don't think I've mentioned that I have a serious addiction to coffee cups .. and I do mean serious .. I can't seem go shopping without one screaming take me home with you! lol

5. I love to read .. I don't do as much as I want to .. but I love snuggling down with a good book.

Wow, I wasn't sure I could come up with 5 things! lol .. hope it wasn't too boring for you *grin* I think I'll tag ... Sally, Kim, Sonya, Anna, and Sandy. Have fun ladies *smile*

I'm grateful for weekends that are productive, but not crazy ...

SNOW! and it's almost March! lol It's hard to see, but we've had snow all day long .. nothing has accumulated on the ground because it's just warm enough .. but since the sun went down, it's getting colder and looks like we actually might have some snow on the ground in the morning! Strangest winter I've seen in Seattle for years and years .. could it be global warming? nah *smirk*

Thank you all for your hugs, prayers and well wishes about my Dad. He's home and doing well. He's tired, but that's to be expected. He's actually following dr orders and taking it easy, which is no small feat for him .. but he is looking forward to getting back to his walks with his dogs .. before he started feeling really winded from this blockage, he was averaging 3 miles every other day :)

On the stitching front .. I have a finish!! woo hoo :) The design is from Bent Creek. I took a couple of classes with the sisters last May at A Stitcher's Retreat. This piece is called "Tree of Me" .. it was intended for each person to personalize the tree with things that meant something to them. A lot of the women personalized their trees with things about their families .. I decided to be very selfish about my tree and I personalized it all about me .. it was really fun to do. I added the cat and dog because animals have always been part of my life. The "badges" that hang from the tree are all things that make up "Me" .. the race flags, the coffee cup, the music notes, the reindeer, the needle and thread, and the sunflower. This was really a fun stitch .. can't wait to find the perfect frame for it :)

I thought I would post a picture of my Family Sampler that I've been working on a least one night a week .. I just love how it's coming along :)


Think I'll go work on Spot of Coffee now, and watch the snow falling .. why is it soo peaceful to watch snow falling??

I'm grateful for snow ....

Thanks everyone for the well wishes for my Dad .. the procedure went really well today. They found only one main artery blocked, put in a stent and Dad gets to go home tomorrow! It really is amazing how far medical science has come! Anyway, I'm just glad this day is over .. and very glad to know that my dad will be ok .. the cardiologist says he has a really strong healthy heart :) I'll be taking another day of from work tomorrow to take dad home and see if I can do anything around the house for him .. his dr said there won't be any physical restrictions for him, but I will offer to spend a couple of days with him if he wants ... but he tends to be very independent and pretty subborn .. so I never know if he'll take me up on my offers to help or not. lol ... ok off to bed for me ... night
I'm grateful today went so well ...

My up and down weekend .. started out nice with dinner and a movie Friday night with Terry (DH) and Robert (DS#2) .. we went to see Jim Carey's new movie called 23 .. the reviews haven't been great, but we all really liked it, different than we expected, but very good. Saturday started out normal .. housework, laundry, and then I was going to watch the Busch race and stitch. That changed when my dad called about 4pm to say that he wasn't feeling good. Same problems as he had a couple of weeks ago, he was having problems breathing and started having some chest pressure, more than he had two weeks ago .. his gf was at the house and they were going to call 911 again .. so a call to my brother to tell him what was going on and off to the hospital I went. They checked him out and got him stable in ER and said it looked like he needed an angiogram, the ER doctor was pretty certain that there is a blockage somewhere that is causing these symptoms. He was admitted and his cardiologist was called and said he'd see dad Sunday morning. Well after the doctor visit this morning, they've schedule him for a angiogram for Monday morning at 7:30am. Definately a blockage, but until the angiogram, they don't know the extend of the blockage. I know they do these procedures all the time and I know they can fix whatever they find pretty well .. but he's so scared .. scared what they might find, but more scared how it may change his life .. all those unknowns. I'll be meeting my brother at the hospital tomorrow about 6ish .. dad really wants to see us before they take him for the procedure .. heavy sigh.

The rest of my sunday was spent vegging and not concentrating on much of anything .. I did stitch a little bit, and watch the end of the Nascar race today .. my boy Matt, sweep both races at California! WOO HOO!!! that was one nice thing about my weekend :)


I'm grateful for my brother :)

Pay It Forward .. WOW! It's full .. and thank you for signing up .. I think we'll all have fun with this! I already have a couple of ideas of what I want to stitch for a couple of you *grin*

Also, thanks for your comments about Spot of Coffee .. it's nice to see new names posting .. I'm having a great time reading everyone's blogs and seeing all the beautiful stitching you all are doing.

With the Oscars on Sunday, when I found this on Karen's blog .. I just had to take the movie test .. it's really fun!

To quote her: "It's been said that allegedly if you've seen over 85 moviesyou have no life.... Mark the ones you've seen. There are 239 films onthis list. Copy this list, go to your own blog, paste it in and put x'sby the ones that you have seen. Add them up.. and post it."

LOL ... I've seen like 121 movies on this list! but hey, I do have a life, don't I? lol and there are still sooo many movies I've seen that aren't on the list! Well .. it was fun :)

(X) Rocky Horror Picture Show
(X) Grease
(X) Pirates of the Caribbean
(X) Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest
( ) Boondock Saints
(X) Fight Club
( ) Starsky and Hutch
(X) Neverending Story
(X) Blazing Saddles
(X) Airplane
(X) The Princess Bride
( ) AnchorMan
( ) Napoleon Dynamite
( ) Labyrinth
( ) Saw
( ) Saw II
( ) White Noise
(X) White Oleander
( ) Anger Management
(X) 50 First Dates
(X) The Princess Diaries
(X) The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
( ) Scream
( ) Scream 2
( ) Scream 3
( ) Scary Movie
( ) Scary Movie 2
( ) Scary Movie 3
( ) Scary Movie 4
( ) American Pie
( ) American Pie 2
(X) American Wedding
( ) American Pie Band Camp
(X) Harry Potter 1
(X) Harry Potter 2
(X) Harry Potter 3
(X) Harry Potter 4
( ) Resident Evil 1
( ) Resident Evil 2
(X) The Wedding Singer
(X ) Little Black Book
( ) The Village
( ) Lilo & Stitch
(X) Finding Nemo
( ) Finding Neverland
(X) Signs
(X) The Grinch
(X) Texas Chainsaw Massacre
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
( ) White Chicks
(X) Butterfly Effect
(X) 13 Going on 30
(X) I, Robot
(X) Robots
( ) Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
(X) Universal Soldier
( ) Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events
(X) Along Came Polly
(X) Deep Impact
( ) KingPin
(X) Never Been Kissed
(X) Meet The Parents
(X) Meet the Fockers
(X) Eight Crazy Nights
(X) Joe Dirt
(X) King Kong
(X) A Cinderella Story
(X) The Terminal
( ) The Lizzie McGuire Movie
( ) Passport to Paris
( ) Dumb & Dumber
( ) Dumber & Dumberer
( ) Final Destination
( ) Final Destination 2
( ) Final Destination 3
(X) Halloween
( ) The Ring
( ) The Ring 2
(X) Surviving Christmas
(X) Flubber
( ) Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
(X) Practical Magic
(X) Chicago
( ) Ghost Ship
( ) From Hell
( ) Hellboy
(X) Secret Window
(X) I Am Sam
(X) The Whole Nine Yards
(X) The Whole Ten Yards
(X) The Day After Tomorrow
( ) Child's Play
( ) Seed of Chucky
( ) Bride of Chucky
(X) Ten Things I Hate About You
(X) Just Married
(X) Gothika
(X) Nightmare on Elm Street
(X) Sixteen Candles
(X) Remember the Titans
(X) Coach Carter
( ) The Grudge
( ) The Grudge 2
(X) The Mask
( ) Son Of The Mask
(X) Bad Boys
( ) Bad Boys 2
( ) Joy Ride
(X) Lucky Number Sleven
(X) Ocean's Eleven
(X) Ocean's Twelve
(X) Bourne Identity
(X) Bourne Supremecy
( ) Lone Star
(X) Bedazzled
( ) Predator I
( ) Predator II
( ) The Fog
(X) Ice Age
(X) Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
( ) Curious George
(X) Independence Day
(X) Cujo
(X) A Bronx Tale
( ) Darkness Falls
(X) Christine
(X) E.T.
(X) Children of the Corn
( ) My Bosses Daughter
(X) Maid in Manhattan
(X) War of the Worlds
(X) Rush Hour
(X) Rush Hour 2
( ) Best Bet
(X) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
(X) She's All That
(X) Calendar Girls
(X) Sideways
(X) Mars Attacks
( ) Event Horizon
(X) Ever After
(X) Wizard of Oz
(X) Forrest Gump
(X) Big Trouble in Little China
(X) The Terminator
(X) The Terminator 2
(X) The Terminator 3
( ) X-Men
( ) X-2
( ) X3
(X) Spider-Man(
X) Spider-Man 2
( ) Sky High
( ) Jeepers Creepers
( ) Jeepers Creepers 2
(X) Catch Me If You Can
(X) The Little Mermaid
(X) Freaky Friday
(X) Reign of Fire
( ) The Skulls
(X) Cruel Intentions
(X) Cruel Intentions 2
( ) The Hot Chick
(X) Shrek
(X) Shrek 2
( ) Swimfan
(X) Miracle on 34th street
( ) Old School
(X) The Notebook
( ) K-Pax
(X) Krippendorf's Tribe
(X) A Walk to Remember
(X) Ice Castles
( ) Boogeyman
( ) The 40-year-old Virgin
(X) Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
(X) Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
(X) Lord of the Rings: Return Of the King
(X) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
(X) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
(X) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
( ) Base-ketball
( ) Hostel
( ) Waiting for Guffman
( ) House of 1000 Corpses
( ) Devils Rejects
(X) Elf
( ) Highlander
( ) Mothman Prophecies
(X) American History X
( ) Three
( ) The Jacket
( ) Kung Fu Hustle
( ) Shaolin Soccer
( ) Night Watch
(X) Monsters Inc.
(X) Titanic
(X) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
( ) Shaun Of the Dead
(X) Willard
( ) High Tension
( ) Club Dread
(X) Hulk
( ) Dawn Of the Dead
(X) Hook
( ) Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
(X) 28 days later
( ) Orgazmo
( ) Phantasm
(X) Waterworld
( ) Kill Bill Vol. 1
( ) Kill Bill Vol. 2
( ) Mortal Kombat
( ) Wolf Creek
(X) Kingdom of Heaven
( ) the Hills Have Eyes
( ) I Spit on Your Grave
( ) The Last House on the Left
( ) Re-Animator
( ) Army of Darkness
(X) Star Wars Ep. I The Phantom Menace
(X) Star Wars Ep. II Attack of the Clones
(X) Star Wars Ep. III Revenge of the Sith
(X) Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope
(X) Star Wars Ep. V The Empire Strikes Back
(X) Star Wars Ep. VI Return of the Jedi
( ) Ewoks: Caravan Of Courage
( ) Ewoks: The Battle For Endor
(X) The Matrix
(X) The Matrix: Reloaded
(X) The Matrix: Revolutions
( ) Animatrix
() Evil Dead
( ) Evil Dead 2
( ) Team America: World Police
( ) Red Dragon
(X) Silence of the Lambs
( ) Hannibal

And now I'm off to watch the final episolde of The OC .. yea, besides watching a lot of movies .. I'm also a TV junkie .. and even though I'm OLD, I have really enjoyed this 20something soap opera! lol

I'm grateful for a DH that cleans up after I cook :)

Pay It Forward .. As most of you know, I've just been blogging for a few months .. when I first started reading all the blogs out here I started seeing all the posts about PIF and how excited everyone was .. and then watching what everyone was stitching for their online friends, it was sooo exciting! Once I actively started blogging, all the PIF's were full, then came Sonya's post and well, long story short (lol) it's my turn to offer mine. A Pay It Forward (PIF) exchange is an offer to make a small gift for the first 5 stitchers to respond to this post with a comment that they would like to sign up. If you sign up, you then will post a message like this in your blog and see if you can collect five folks to stitch for. I will get your gifts out to you as soon as possible - within the next six months! If you want to sign on with me, I will need your postal address - please email that to me at michele11wa@yahoo.com I shamelessly copied a lot of the above blurb from Sonya's post, lol) .. anyone interested??
I'm grateful for payday :)

Finally had a good night of stitching on Spot of Coffee .. here's a picture of my progress .. I really do love this piece .. and not sure if I'll rotate it or if I'll just keep stitching on it .. what do you think I should do? lol

Sunday night after the race I went to a movie and dinner with my neighbor Joan .. we went to see Music and Lyrics with Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore .. it was a funny movie, definately worth seeing in the theatre .. but it'll be a great rental too! I do love Hugh Grant movies .. and Drew's movies lately have been very good :) Do you have a favorite Huge or Drew movie? I think my favorite Drew movie was 50 1st Date with Adam Sadler and who didn't love Hugh in 3 Weddings and A Funeral? Off to bed for me .. night ...
I'm grateful for monday to be over ...

Saturday was a really nice day .. got a lot of things done around the house and Terry worked on cleaning the garage .. Chris came over to help out in the afternoon, he shares the garage with us, not much garage space in the condo he lives in lol .. his wife, Monica, went out of town this weekend with a gf so after working all day around the house we went to dinner at Applebees .. yummy yummy yummy :)

I finished the Christmas ornament I've been stitching .. it's by Glory Bee, Noel, from JCS 2006 .. I really liked the way this came out. I need to kit up my next ornament .. think it'll be the LHN one from the same JCS ornament magazine.

Sunday is .. DAYTONA BABY!!! WOO HOO .. CAN'T WAIT UNTIL THAT GREEN FLAG DROPS! Yes, my house is all excited about the race today! We are big NASCAR fans .. My favorite driver is Matt Kenseth #17 .. I'll be making enchildas with green sauce for lunch and will be stitching and rooting for Matt .. Hope it's a great race!


Hope everyone is having a good weekend!
I'm grateful for my quiet time when the house is asleep ...

Yippeee it's almost Friday! and I'm sooo ready for a nice quiet weekend :) I haven't been stitching much this week .. too tired to really concentrate .. I've put a few stitches in the Glory Bee Christmas ornament I started last week .. I'll post pictures over the weekend .. I really want to stitch on Spot of Coffee .. I think I'll focus on that piece this weekend.

Thanks everyone for the well wishes .. Dad seems to be doing well .. which is such a relief!

off to bed for me ...

I'm grateful for soft pillows and warm blankets

Happy Valentine's Day *smile* .. some think this is a "Hallmark" holiday .. I just think it's a wonderful time to treat a friend or loved one to a smile; a little chocolate; a flower, a nice cup of coffee/tea .. or just a hug .. ENJOY!

These are the tulips I bought today .. the silly reds ones just won't cooperate! lol


I've been emotionally all over the place these last few days .. and have spent way too much time in emergencies rooms! Everything has turned out fine .. but what a long couple of days .... let's see if I can give you the condensed version ...

I was on vacation last Friday .. took the day off to play with my dear friend Lisa. Every year she and I take a day off around each other's birthdays to have a girls day .. this was our play day for my birthday .. anyway, we meet for breakfast, went shopping .. I found two wonderful pairs of shoes woo hoo! .. then we went and saw two movies, yep lol two! We saw Dreamgirls and Freedom Writers, with lunch in between. I would highly recommend both these movies to anyone out there .. Dreamgirls was soo much better than either of us expected! and Freedom Writers was soo inspiring. After the last movie Lisa and I decided we needed to finish the night with margaritas .. left the theater and turned the cell phones on .. she had a message from her oldest son (he's 22) .. long story short, he passed out at a coffee house he and his friends hang out at .. was out for only 2 or 3 minutes .. seemed like forever .. so he was on his way to the ER. Lisa's husband was out of town, so I asked if she wanted me to go with her .. we spent the night in the ER, got home about 3am .. but Jairir, her son, is just fine .. they ran tons of tests and scans and couldn't find anything, but he's to follow up with a neurologist this week. Needless to say Saturday was a total wasted day for me after being up all night .. I stitched and napped and did get a bit of laundry done .. it was definately a slug day. Sunday was nice .. felt rested after a good nights sleep .. did the usually sunday stuff, getting ready to go back to work and took the dogs for a nice long romp at the beach again.

And now comes Monday .. it started out being a very typical Monday at work, until about 12:30 when I got a call from my Dad .. all he said was Michele, this is your dad, I don't feel well and I've called 911 .. I'll call you back later .. and hung up on me! Needless to say I made a couple of quick calls .. one to Terry (DH) and one to SIL to get my Brother .. told them to get their butts to dad's house .. turned off my computer, told my friend Pat what was going on and left. We all made it to his house before 911 was ready to take him to the hospital .. he had been having shortness of breath for a few days .. monday morning he had an episode again which scare him so he called 911 .. we spent the last 30 or so hours at the hospital, they ran all kinds of tests and scans .. verified that he hadn't had a heart attack, verified that he didn't have any blood clots that might be blocking his lungs, did a a heart ultra sound and a stress echo test and verified that he didn't have any blockage .. which is all good! but what brought on the shortness of breath issues?? Right now the cardiologist isn't sure .. but is pleased with all the test results .. so he upped dad's high blood pressure medicine and put him on a diatric (excuse the spelling, I'm sleepy! lol) and he's to go back and see him in 2-3 weeks.

Whew .. what a fun couple of days! No stitching for me last night or tonight .. usually when I stitch when I'm tired or stressed, I tend to frog more than I stitch .. I think I'll stitch on Spot of Coffee tomorrow and I'll post a picture soon :) Thanks for listening!

AND .. thanks for all the comments on Pursue!! I really enjoy reading all the comments .. and nice to see a couple new ladies reading and commenting .. thanks!!!

I'm grateful for my dad .... Love You :)

WOO HOO!!! Pursue is done!!!! I finished it yesterday (saturday) .. I just love how it came out .. and can't wait to get it framed. I'll be stitching this again for a very dear friend that doesn't stitch, but loved the sentiment .. but I'll wait a few months before I start it again .. lol that border is nice, but sooo boring to stitch!

I have Spot of Coffee all kitted up and ready to start on tomorrow .. I'm going to stitch it on a piece of R&R Linen, 32 ct Light Espresso using Vicky Clayton silks .. I love the colors .. what do you think?

All in all the weekend was lazy, but nice. Other than stitching on Saturday, I watched a couple of movies .. An Unfinished Life and The Invincible .. both really good rainy day movies. I decorated for February, Valentines stuff and good old laundry. Today is Monica's (DIL) birthday .. this evening we went to dinner at Buco da Beppo's .. yummy yummy yummy! Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Happy GroundHog's Day! lol .. what a silly holiday this is .. wonder if we will have 6 more weeks of winter? Wouldn't bother me cause I love winter .. but spring is my 2nd favorite season .. so guess I wouldn't be too unhappy with some spring :)

I just love this crazy groundhog ... I grew up with a mom that decorated for every holiday .. I thought we were Irish when I was young because we celebrated St. Patrick's Day! lol, even after my brother and I moved out, she continued to decorate for each and every holiday that came around .. one of their dear friends remarked once that they were surprised she didn't decorate for GroundHog's day .. that got to be an ongoing family joke through the years. My mom taught me well about decorating .. and how you can start out with just one or two items for a holiday, and if you take care of your things .. you'll end up with a very nice assortment of holiday decorations .. well, when Bent Creek (I think they are the designers) came out with this cute chart .. ya know I had to stitch it .. unfortunately my mom had passed away by the time the chart came out .. but every year when I put it on the mantle, I have a good little giggle and tell her, see mom, you can decorate for EVERY holiday!

I stitched more on the border for Pursue Tuesday night and tonight .. I really want to get this done .. and look .. it's getting close! I should be able to finish this this weekend .. especially since we'll be watching the Superbowl, but really don't care who wins :) Speaking of the Superbowl .. anyone partaking in any Superbowl sales?? Hope everyone has a wonderful Friday .. Happy February!

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 :)

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 :)