Finishes and other stuff ...

Wow, can't believe it's been over a week since I'm blogged .. bad me! but I have been reading all your blogs! That is how I spend my lunch hour at work .. reading about all your starts and finishes and familes and life .. nice way to spend my lunch time :)

I've been working on my wips this month and I'm getting some done .. feels great! They aren't big projects or hard .. just stitching that I had started, put away to work on something else and never went back to them .. didn't take much to finish them off .. woo hoo! lol

This is a Pine Mountain Pillow, Halloween Four Square. I do a lot of these pillows, usually I grab one to take on the plane with me .. easy, and I love to decorate with them. The white blob on the upper left is a ghost, can't hardly see him.


This cute halloween piece was from a class I took last October at the Pals Fall Fling. The class was taught by Mary of M-Design. The stitched piece fits into the front of this incredible "messenger" bag/purse. There's also a fall design and a scissor fob that goes along with it all. I had started stitching the halloween design during the class ... can't wait for October! lol


This scissor fob is from a class Lori of La D Da taught at a retreat I went to back in 2006. It's cute little fob with cherries on one side and my initial on the other .. but if you look closely, you'll see that my initial is upside down! lol but it was a fun class and we learned how to make tassels and learned how to make and work with really long cording.



Now this wasn't a wip .. but for the Christmas ornament SAL .. it's one of Tanya's designs (Sampler Girl) .. unfortunately my camera really washed the colors out on all the pictures I took today :( This was a very quick and fun stitch. There's a start button that goes on the reindeer, but I'm going to coffee dye the piece (a suggestion Tanya made in the directions) .. should be fun .. I've never dyed anything before!


We've been having the most wonderful winter weather. It's been cold cold cold (for us) but so incredible sunny .. if we can't get any snow, I'll take the beautiful cold and sunny days. Skiers are in 7th heaven though .. we are having record breaking snow up in the mountains.

Hope everyone had a great weekend :)

I'm grateful for my dad ...

Meet Doug ..

Isn't Doug cute! A very dear friend and coworker of mine, Pat, stitched this for me. It's a hand painted needlepoint canvas. A couple of years ago we were bored at work and did some surfing .. Pat was looking for a new canvas to start. She found Doug and it was love at first sight for both of us. Pat offered to stitching him as a Christmas gift for me .. Doug came home to life with me this Christmas. I just love him! My camera is taking awlful pictures lately .. the colors on Doug as very bright and cheery. I'm going to have him framed. I was going to have a pillow made out of him .. but with all the furbabies around, I really don't want him to get layed on .. so now to get him off to a reliable needlepoint framer.


I've been doing finishing some of my WIPs .. I kinda decided in December that there were some WIPs that I really wanted to finish up .. so January is WIP month for me. This first piece is a teaching piece from a class I took from the Bent Creek sisters .. 2 years ago! yikes! silly to take that long to finish stitching a small piece .. but I love how it turned out. And since it was a teaching piece .. I decided to make it my first pinkeep .. seemed fitting. Again, sorry for the picture .. colors are all off ... but I finished a pinkeep! woo hoo! and it's not too bad .. a little off center ... but I really like my first pinkeep, and I'm looking forward to making some more *smile*


And here's another of my finishes this week .. it's JBW's Pumpkin. I used GAST Fragrant Gloves. The fabric is just a piece I had in my fabric bin .. not sure what it's called.

I also have been finishing up SB's Christmas Drawers, but I ran out of med. olive .. I called and SB is sending me some along with their 2008 scissor fob .. well, I couldn't just call and ask for more med. olive without placing an order for at least one thing! lol .. it won't take me long once the floss arrives to finish CD too .. and I won't tell you how long this piece has been a WIP .. I'm too embarrssed! lol

Thanks for visiting ...

I'm grateful for trying new finishing techniques ...

Happy Hump Day *smile*

Thanks everyone for all the birthday wishes. I had a wonderful birthday. The family did take me out to The Outback for dinner Friday night and everything tasted wonderful, including a margarita and blooming onions. We had an extra guest at dinner .. a friend of Chris' that we have known since the boys were in high school, Jay. He was Chris' best man. Jay's living and working in London. He works for Expedia and put in for a transfer 2 years ago when there was an opening. He's 26, single, and figured if he was going to do something like this now was the perfect time. Anyway, Jay was home for the holidays and stays with Chris and Monica when he's in town .. there is a reason I'm telling you this little bit about Jay .. while we are enjoying the evening and our desserts, we had 3 different ones split between the 6 of us! lol .. anyway, the check arrives and of course DH reaches for it .. but Jay asks DH for the check .. both DH and I say thanks Jay but dinner's on us. Well, Jay totally surprised both of us and said we'd fed him more dinners over the years than he could count and he really wanted to treat us to my birthday dinner .. my present from him. Well let me just say that between a mushy birthday card from Chris and Jay buying dinner .. I shed a few tears that night .. but happy tears *smile*

Saturday we went to my Dad's for the football game and to celebrate my birthday with my brother and his family .. we had a great time, even though the boys lost .. and it was such an ugly game! I got a gift certificate at my favorite frame shop from my DB and SIL and a couple of knives from my Dad. He got me a set of really nice sharp! knives for Christmas, but the set was missing two sizes he thought were necessary. What a sweetie :)

Sunday was spent watching football .. loved all the wins that day! they were perfect! lol .. grocery shopping and packing a few more Christmas boxes .. actually Christmas is offically put away now .. woo hoo!!!! lol

I received a lovely package from the Stitching Bloggers Birthday Club .. Georgie had my name and she really spoiled me. She stitched for me an adorable pillow, scented with lavender .. the picture is a little out of focus but the pillow is sooo cute! She also included a lovely calendar and postcards from Australia where she lives. There was also a lovely sandlewood candle and a skein of Dinky Dye thread .. and it arrived on my birthday! How cool is that :)




Another little gift arrived on my birthday from Vonna. A very sweet card, new needles (can't we always use new needles!!!) and a skein of the prettiest red thread .. and it's called Ruby Slippers .. which as I told Vonna, was perfect. I just love Dorothy and the movie and everything .. including the wicked witch! lol .. my 2008 calendar at work is Wizard of Oz .. thank you Vonna, that was soo nice of you.


And here's a birthday present from me, to me :) I had read on Nicole's blog about this travel cosmetic bag .. and how nicely it fits stash .. I have a weakness for bags/purses and went searching for one .. this style is being retired. I found it in a pretty lime green (this picture makes the color look horrible!) .

Here's a picture of the inside .. I put my birthday goodies in it to take upstairs to my stitching room .. I sure think I'm going to enjoy this bag :) and it wasn't horribly expensive, I found it on Ebay for $28 which include shipping .. not too bad :)

Nice to see new readers of my blog .. thank you so much for visiting and leaving comments .. I really enjoy reading them *smile*

And Barbara .... My mom was 21 when I was born .. she really could have been my older sister .. and her name was Barbara too *smile*

I'm grateful for weekends with friends and family ...

Happy Friday ...

and Happy Birthday to me *smile* .. 54 years ago this was me and my mom (I was about a week old in this picture) .. and yes I was born with a full head of hair! lol


I think this picture is of my 2nd birthday .. I just love old photos :)

The family is taking me out to dinner at the Outback tonight .. sure hope I can taste the food! I'm really looking forward to a blooming onion! lol My cold is starting to get better .. finally slept through the night last night.

In honor of my birthday I would like do a Pay It Forward .. here's how it works ... the first 6 people that e-mail me (michele11wa@yahoo.com) or indicate interest in my PIF challenge, will get something made by me in the next 365 days (this challenge will have a deadline of Dec. 31, 2008). In turn you must post to your blog the same challenge and accept 6 people to send a PIF to...they do it to their blog and so on....sound good?

Looks like my weekend will be full of football and stitching and putting away the rest of Christmas. Most of it was put away last week, the reindeer still need to be put away and there's odds and ends all over the house that need to be scooped up and put away until next year.

Anyone watching the football playoffs?? What team(s) are you routing for?? We of course are all excited about watching the Seahawks kick some major Green Bay butts on Saturday ...



Thanks for all the lovely comments about my 1st finish of 2008 .. and nice to see some new ladies commenting too. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

I'm grateful for birthdays ...

First Finish of 2008

Here's my finish finished for 2008, I finished it over the weekend. I changed the coffee pot from blue to red .. think it will make a really cute pinkeep, like the one Nancy made *smile* I got the coffee cup for Christmas from Monica (my dil) and the bookmark was in my stocking, thanks Santa :)

The only other stitching I've been doing is trying to finish up some WIPs from last year that I would love get done before I move on to new stitching. Wish me luck! lol

Now I'm off to get more tea and snuggle on the couch .. yes you heard me, more tea! lol .. I have a horrible headcold and when I'm sick, coffee doesn't taste good to me at all .. so it's green tea for me and a nice warm fleece blankie.

ps ... sorry I forgot to mention who the freebie design is .. it's Sampler Girl (Tanya) and can be found on her website.

I'm grateful for soft kleenex ...

First post of the New Year

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year! We had a lovely time with Ken and Lisa and their sons Jairid and Travis. We ate too much, played Scene It (xbox version) and Scene It Music version (dvd) and Guitar Hero (WII version) .. lots of laughs and a bit too much to drink .. gotta love having your 19 year old as the designeed driver *smile* .. but it was a great time with dear friends.

I finished Lizzie*Kates Happy New Year on the 31st .. my last stitch of the year. I'm planning on having it finished as a banner. I'd like to continue to add the new year every year.


I finished this Pine Mountain Pillow a few months ago .. can't remember if I ever posted it .. love the little clock button!

and here's my first stitches for 2008 .. this is a freebie from Sampler Girl (Tanya) .. It's called Irish Coffee and says "A Morning Without Coffee Is Like Sleep lol




I've spent most of the day vegging and stitching, playing on the computer, and we watched a movie On Demand .. it was Reign On Me with Adam Sadler and Don Cheadle. It was a very good movie, a bit of a tear jerker, but good. Speaking of movies .. we saw quite a few really good movies over the holidays .. if you get a chance I would really recommend seeing Waitress with Keri Russell, National Treasuer 2 with Nicolas Cage and Charlie Wilson's War with Tom Hanks. All three were very enjoyable, entertaining, and Charlie Wilson's War was very educational too!

Well, it's back to work for me tomorrow after a nice long break .. sure will be hard to go back to work .. not really looking forward to it, but it's a necessary evil lol

A few blogs are sporting a new look with a create signature .. it's really fun! Try it out here ...

I'm grateful for a new year ...

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! 2007 has been a very good year for me. Stitching wise, I finished 30 projects .. I still need to frame/finish about 10 projects .. but getting 30 designs stitched is huge for me and I'm looking forward to stitching at least 30 more in 2008. Currently I have 10 WIPS and one UFO that I really want to finish up in 2008. Of course I have about 50+ designs that I want/need to stitch next year lol Should be interesting to see how my stitching goes for 2008 *smile*

This year has been tough for a couple of my dear friends .. 2008 will be a year of healing and new adventures for them.

2007 was good for my family .. Chris and Monica are doing well and looking forward to a trip to London in May. Robert ended 2007 with a 3.2 grade point in his 2nd year in college and is all excited about the football playoffs! lol I had a great time attending stitching retreats last year, and hope to continue the fun next year.

I really don't like making formal New Year's resolutions .. but there are a few things I want to work harder on in the coming year. One is to continue to get my health issues under control and to keep losing weight. I would like to get more consistent with exercise, either at a gym or just getting outside and walking. I also would like to read more and travel more. And of course I want to stitch more and more and more! lol

I've been reading blogs all week and it sounds like everyone has a wonderful Christmas. Our Christmas lasted 2 days and was great as well. Christmas Eve was nice and quiet with my fil, sil and bil. C&M came over to have Christmas morning with us and then we went to my Dad's for Christmas with my DB and his family. It was a fun couple of days with family .. lots of presents, food and laughter .. what could be better than that? lol .. I didn't get any stitching stash, which was fine since I buy all year long *smile* .. but I did get a few coffee maker and watch from Terry, a lovely sweater from Monica and a toaster oven from Chris and Robert.

Oh and everyone that received fleece blankets LOVED them! It really was fun seeing how excited everyone was with their blankets .. I really do enjoy giving my family/friends something I make *smile*

What's everyone doing for New Year's Eve? For the last 15+ years, we've spent New Year's Eve with Lisa and her family .. having our Christmas together, margaritas and enjoying a steak and lobster dinner and playing games all night .. this years I bought a new game, Scene It Music edition .. sure hope it's fun! lol

I have really enjoyed this blogging community of stitchers .. thank you for sharing with me your lives and your stitching ... I look forward to 2008 with all of you.

I'm grateful for time off during the holidays ...

And the countdown begins ...

I've been sooo bad at blogging lately .. I've been reading all your blogs (and commenting too *smile*) but haven't really had a chance to sit and update my own blog .. shame on me!

I don't know where this week has gone .. or last weekend for that matter .. all I know is that I've been super busy and feeling a tad behind the gun if ya know what I mean. Usually by now I'm all done with my shopping and wrapped and ready to go. This year things aren't going quite as planned .. but I wouldn't change a thing. Like last weekend, instead of shopping on Saturday I was having lunch with some friends for Connie's birthday (she's 82), then DH and I hosted Chris and Joan's annual carolling party, they headed home back east for Chris' dad's funeral and didn't want to cancel the party last minute. It was soo much fun .. but C&J were definately missed. Sunday was brunch with Lisa and Cheryl and then home to decorate our tree. Jumping right into Monday, which was a typical day except for a little panic starting to be felt. Tuesday Monica and Chris came over for dinner, then we worked on loading a digital picture frame we got for my FIL. Wednesday was dinner and Santa pictures with the kids (can't wait to see them!) and then yesterday was Christmas with Cheryl and her DH ..

See what I mean? The weekend and week was spent with friends and family and building wonderful memories and just being there for your friends when they need you .. and that's really what this time is all about .. right? So everytime I feel the panic rising in me .. cause I really AM NOT ready for the 24th and 25th!!! I tell myself to breath and relax and remember the lovely times I spent with those that mean the world to me .. and the rest is just icing on the cake.

I ran across these pictures when we were looking for pictures to load on the digital picture frame .. I've decided to get a couple of new frames and give them to my dad and brother for Christmas .. I think they'll really enjoy them ..

The first one is of the four of us plus our two animals, Skipper (the dog) and Twinkle (the cat) .. Christmas 1963 (I was 8, by brother was 5)



Here's Twinkle the cat .. I just adore this picture! BTW, Twinkle was actually a male tom cat, live a long life but was always in fights .. Dad said it was because we gave him a girlie name! lol


and here's just my brother Mike and I ...

and this picture is for Barbara .. she had mentioned on her blog, I think it was this week, about Christmas trees and how her dad was the tinsel doer on their family tree .. it reminded me of my mom's trees and all the tinsel and how pretty the trees looked .. she would let us help hang tinsel, but we only got to put it on the back of the tree! lol Great memories ...


I hope you all are having a great week and enjoying your Christmas preparations. Please keep Barbara and Niek in your thoughts .. we can't wait to meet you Arden!!

I'm grateful for having such lovely memories and pictures to go with them ...

What .. more reindeer? lol

Hope everyone had a great weekend .. mine was great, mixed with some sadness, but I'll get to that soon.

Friday I took the day off and went Christmas shopping with my Dad. It has been a tradition with us that started back in my teens when he and I would go Christmas shopping for Mom. When mom passed away he asked me to shop with him for the grandkids .. for the years it's grown to a full day of shopping with him, starting with breakfast and ending sometimes after dinner .. but he gets almost all his shopping done and we have some special father/daughter time together. We had another successful day of shopping and I was home in time to meet up with Lisa for a late dinner. She told me at dinner that she was laid off on Thursday .. no warning, no notice, nothing .. 5 employees were let go that day. What surprised me the most, and her, is that she's was a manager of her department. Guess there's never any guarantees these days .. she'd been there 14 years. Very scary to be 53 and having to start over again. She has great skills, very sellable, but well age I'm afraid will be an issue. Keep her in your thoughts please.

Saturday was spent finishing up tying the last of the fleece blankets .. they are officially done! woo hoo!! and it was fun too and of course I came up with about 3 or 4 more people I'd like to make them for lol .. there's always next year. After the blankets came the usually weekend house stuff and then dinner and a movie with my friend Joan (she lives across the street). Joan and I have known each other for 22 years. Her kids are Maia (18) and Derek (22). Our kids continue to be very close good friends. Even though she lives across the street, we don't see each other as often has we'd like .. so every few months we try to get together for dinner and a movie. We went to see Enchanted Saturday night .. omgosh was a fun movie! Have you seen it? It's just a delightful movie and who can't enjoy watching Patrick Dempsey for 1 hour 50 mins? *drool* After the movie we went to dinner .. talked for almost 3 hours .. it was soo nice to catch up with her. And here's the other "sadness" .. her fil is dying .. her DH left this morning for Maine. Her fil was diagnosed with cancer 3 years ago and at the time they didn't expect him to last a year .. so the joy in all this is that the family got 3 extra years with him! That is such a blessing! He and his wife celebrated their 60th Wedding Anniversary last August .. God's Speed Bert, you will be missed ...

Sunday the boys went to the Seahawk football game .. so I had the house all to myself, well except for the 4 legged babies .. and it was a lazy day. I stitched a bit on my F&S exchange, played on the computer, and took a nap! lol .. gotta love lazy sundays :)

Thought I'd share a few more Christmas decorating pictures with you ... every Christmas I have old kid art work that I scotch tape up on the walls here and there .. now when your kids are 19 and 24, that art work is old and showing its wear and tear. Last year after Christmas, I took some of my bonus money from work and took my favorite art work to have framed. It was expensive, but I am so glad I did it ... look ...



This has got to be some of my favorite reindeer *smile*

Here's a picture of our piano that is in our living room .. I have family/friend Christmas pictures in the frames on top of the piano. Above the piano are our family Santa pictures. I saw this idea in a frame store years ago and loved it. We took Santa pictures every year and I was running out of ideas of how to display them .. this is perfect! I have 4 or 5 years that I need to get into the last frame .. I'll have to do that after Christmas before I pack them away.



and here's some new stash I received yesterday .. It's from Tanya, Sampler Lady's Esty Shop. Of course I HAD to have it! It came all wrapped in red tissue paper what that adorable snowflake ornament hanging on it .. what a lovely presentation it was .. sorry I forgot to take a picture before I ripped it open!




Thank you all for your comments about my reindeer herd and S&P "pots" (love that term Sally!). In answer to a couple of your questions .. no I don't keep the reindeer or the Christmas S&P's out all year .. although I've been tempted some years to do that. I find it makes them a bit more special when I get to see them for only a month every year. I have non-holiday S&P's that I display the rest of the year .. it's a nice combination of antiques, vacations and just everyday S&P's.

Sue, I'm still chuckling about "wayne"deers! I don't name them .. but I think I must find a "wayne" in the collection!

Marie, another January birthday friend :) We'll have to celebrate long distance! Wish I was going to be 48 again *grin*

Hope the week is treating you well and you are getting lots of stitching done .. stressfree right??

I'm grateful for being there for my friends when they need me ...

Holiday decorating ..

and a few reindeer .. just for RuthAnn ... I'm not sure exactly when I started collecting reindeer. DH and I have been married 33 years, so let's just say I've been collecting for about 30 years. We have a room divider that is actually older than the collection .. it was the first piece of furniture that we bought as newlyweds .. it a great way to display all the reindeer don't you think? So this is a picture of most of the divider, there's one more shelf on the lower right that I couldn't get in the picture ...

Here's a close up of the top right ...

the top middle ...

and the top left ...

the next pictures are of the individual cubbies ...

oh this is the bottom shelf ...

more individual cubbies ...



and this is the front of the divider .. it sits at the end of the dining room .. because we don't spend much time in the dining room, you'll see that most the reindeer face the hallway, which is the major hallway from the upstairs and entryway and the family room/kitchen .. but of course you can't have dinner with a bunch of reindeer butts facing you .. so some reindeer get turned around ....

Here's my Christmas salt and pepper shaker collection .. I've been collecting them for as long if not longer than the reindeer .. DH helped with hanging my stitching around the shelves .. I think it turned out really nice :)

It's stopped raining thank goodness .. but there are still towns having to dig out of the muck and mire .. what a horrible way to start the Hanukkah/Christmas holiday .. Happy Hanukkah to any of you that celebrate it ...

No stitching this week yet .. but I've almost gone my Christmas cards all done *smile* I'm itching to stitch though, so tomorrow I'll be working on my Fair and Square exchange piece.

I'm grateful for my reindeers, they make me smile and remember ...

Crazy Mother Nature and Pictures ...

I think we in Washington State really made Mother Nature angry .. not sure what we did .. but the last 3 days have been some of the most crazy weather I've seen in a long time around here. It all Saturday when we woke up to snow, great weather to be baking Christmas cookies in *smile* So it snowed all day, we got about 3 inches which is a lot for us, especially in early December. Sunday morning we woke up to more snow, which turned to rain and it rained and rained like I haven't seen it rain in years .. it rained so much that the rivers started flooding sooner than ever, the storm systems couldn't drain away the water fast enough and our Governor declare the a state of emergency before 1pm today. It's the 2nd wettest 24 hours in state history! There are counties that seriously should be building arks. There is currently one town so flooded that the people can't get out and emergency vechiles can't get in. Combined with the rain the coast had severe winds. We are lucky, out community seems to only have some minor water over roadway spots .. but if you go a mile in any direction it seems everyone has a flooding story. Please send up some prayers for the flood victims and hopefully the rain will stop for a while so we can start digging out.

So, while all that weathe was happening, Lisa and I were able to cook up 5 different Christmas cookie recipes. 4 of them turned out great, one was a complete disaster and tasted so bad that we threw them all away! But the 4 that did work out were awesome! We made S'mores cookies, Eggnog Cookies, Angel Wing's and chocolate dipped/peppermint candied pretzel rods. I think we each ended up with 4 dozen of each kind. I got them in the freezer before the family ate too many of them! lol

Oh and I found the camera battery charger .. it was under a bunch of clean clothes in the master bedroom .. go figure! kik ,, but now I can share some pictures again! woo hoo *smile* Here's a picture of Lizzie*Kate's Ho ho ho that I finished last week. The banner for it came today .. I love these banners!
More pictures tomorrow .. hope everyone had a great weekend.

I'm grateful for being dry ...