Leslie's Cross Stitch Heaven

The Move is On

2007-01-21T11:33:00.000-05:00

As of today, my blog will be moving to the following url:

www.lesliesheaven.wordpress.com

I hope many of you will update your feeds and keep following my blog! I was unable to find an easy way to transfer my old posts, but I did manually copy a few months worth. As time goes on, I may copy more over, but it will definitly take time. For the time being, I will keep a link to this blog on the front page of my wordpress blog.

My Three-day Weekend...

2007-01-15T21:52:00.000-05:00

was spent cleaning and stitching. We are having friends over next weekend for a game night, so I desperately need to make our home a bit more presentable. While taking breaks from cleaning I also stitched and went to a baby shower for one of my best high school friends.

Here is all the stitching I have done since my last update...

After finishing up Christmas Fairy I decided to work on Stargazer for a little while. That is how I spent my Thursday and Friday evenings. I really love that piece. The colors really call to me and it is a pretty quick stitch. As my CC got charged from Stitching Bits and Bobs the other day, my beads for this piece should be on their way along with my kreinik for Barnabee's Quest. Here is how she looks so far. Sorry for the crappy pic.

On Saturday and Sunday, I worked a little on M9. I am not sure why this piece is just not calling to me. Not much left in this corner though. I spent some time on the corner pool while watching the Illusionist (great movie) and Superman Returns (2.5 hours of my life lost) on Sunday. I hope I get into another groove with this one again soon!!!

And today, I am officially finished with Part 1 of Bordeaux Mystery. Then I went on to work some on Part 2. Part 2 is really pretty, but there are tons of over one grapes. I think they may bee the death of me!

In other news...my friend Robby is going to try and see about some ways of transferring my blog to Wordpress. If nothing else, I will copy some post over and put a link to this blog on the Wordpress blog for anyone who wants to read old material.

A Potential Move

2007-01-13T10:46:00.000-05:00

Alright, I think I may be jumping on the bandwagon of people moving to wordpress. I love the fact that you can have the additional pages on your blog for challenges, lists and things without having to bump posts on your main page or having a gigantic sidebar.

The problem...my current blog is in the NEW Blogger format and cannot be imported into wordpress like those who have old blogger have done. Well poo! We shall see if there is something to be done that is not too painful.

Keep an eye out for a new URL.

My First 2007 Finish

2007-01-12T21:47:00.000-05:00

So here is my first finish of the new year. May I present my Christmas Elf Fairy! She really is so pretty and the silver beads are increadibly sparkly. None of these pictures do justice to her sparkles. You can't even see the bead snowflakes around her boots. Behind the fabric is the book that I am using to help Allen as he plays Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. It is funny how many of the tasks in the game you cannot do without the official game guide:)

Now the ultimate decision...what to stitch on for the rest of the evening!?!?

Wine Sampler

2007-01-09T21:37:00.000-05:00

On Monday, I had my third annual evaluation since starting my current job. For part of the eval, my boss observed me facilitating a clinical staffing at the high school I work with. All the teachers, admin and other staff on the team are really great so facilitating meetings is not hard, but we are usually extremely silly (including the staff on the team who are my boss's equivalents on the tree of power) and it was hard for us all to keep ourselves a bit more sober. I was so tired just from trying to be serious at that meeting. All in all, the eval went well and I get to skip evals next year. Yeah!! Now if I could only get myself together enough to do the paperwork to take the clinical social worker's exam. Hopefully soon.

After my tiring meeting on Monday, I didn't feel much like stitching. I did a little work on my Valentine's Exchange and put Bordeaux off until tonight. I didn't get part one finished like I had hoped, but I did make some great progress. Those overone letters took a fair amount of time to do. Stitching was made even more pleasant this evening by the Washington Caps beating the stink out of the Philadelphia Flyers as of the end of the second period.

Today, I was also good in that I actually did some exercise. As an amusing little motivator for myself I am going to do a Leslified version of the "Walk to Rivendell" that many other bloggers have been participating in. As I prefer to excercise in my home and our primary cardio equiptment is a recumbent bike, I will actually be biking to Rivendell and beyond over the course of 2007. Let us see how far along the path to Minas Tirith I can get.

Today I biked 4 miles while watching Engineering and Empire. One more mile and I will Cross The Great Road from the Brandywine Bridge.

An Almost Finish and a Dirty Kitty

2007-01-07T20:09:00.000-05:00

Today should have been a M9 day, but when I woke up I was very indecisive about what I wanted to do. I consulted with Allen and he said I should work on whatever I was closest to finishing. So, I got some more good work done on Christmas Fairy. She will most certainly be finished on Wednesday night now. The only problem was that I was about five stitches short on floss for the main color in the wings, Crescent Colors-Cloud. I subsidized with with some white DMC. At least it blends in well. All that is left is the outer border of the wing and the beading.

On the kitty front, while Allen and I were watching season 2 of the Office last night, Cooper came down in to the family room trying to look all cool and such. The only catch in his attempt at coolness was the giant dust bunny sitting on his forhead. He was blissfully unaware of this fact and wandered around and napped with it there for quite a while. I am surprised that it wasn't bugging him. Here are a few pictures of him in all his dirty glory:) What a goof!! I am still trying to figure out where he found this lovely friend.

A great stitching week!

2007-01-06T17:56:00.000-05:00

Wow, I have been super busy with stitching this week. On Monday and Tuesday, I got down to work on Bordeaux Mystery. I am now more than halfway done with part one. I hope to have part one done next week....if those over one words don't kick my butt! Maybe someday I will catch up with Carol and Anne:)

Wednesday and Thursday, I spent a little time with Christmas Fairy and my Valetine's Exchange. She is getting so close to a finish. Just her hat, the tree and half her wing left and then on to the beading. I am starting to think about how I am going to finish her. Unfortunatly these pieces are an ackward size and don't fit nicely into any standard size frame, so I am thinking about finishing her up as a flat fold. I have seen these fairies done that way a couple of places and they look nice. Keep your eye out for my first finish of 07 in the next week or two:)

Speaking of framing, Allen and I have decided to try our hand at framing some bigger pieces. We found a place that sells custom sized frames and mats, we just have to stretch the piece and put it in the frame. We shall see how they turn out. I am waiting to get a set of the companies sample mats to pick something out for both Woodland Fairy and my RR.

And last night and this afternoon, I stitched on Stargazer. I am REALLY enjoying this piece and had a hard time putting her away to stitch on M9 tonight. The blues are so pretty and it is looking fantastic on the fabric I picked for it. It looks like as long as I stay interested in this piece, it should be a fast stitch. It may actually take longer to get the beads that I ordered than for me to stitch it:)

A Little New Year Stitching

2007-01-01T19:07:00.000-05:00

So 2006 is finally over and here is my first post of 2007. Allen and I didn't do anything too exciting for New Year's Eve. I went out shopping early in the day and bought all the goodies for a yummy dinner. I made us Veal Saltimbocca which was absolutely delicious and we had a lovely bottle of Asti. In between yummy meals and hanging out with Allen, I did a whole bunch of stitching. I got a huge amount done on M9. Now it goes away until next weekend. It was hard to put it away, but I did;) I would love to show you pics of M9, but is not posting nicely like everything else

As for the rest of my weekend, I had a really good time on Saturday at my LNS participating in a color class. I brought along Mira's Fairie Treasures. I love the designs, but I am super tired of yellows after stitching Woodland Fairy. I loved the blue-greens in the leaves around her dress so I made those the color of the dress and picked some other greens for the leaves. To show how horrible some of these designer provided pics are, FT's ribbons are actually purple, although they look mauve/pink in the photo. I am undecided as to whether I will leave it as the purple as charted, or change it to a pink. I think the pink goes better with the colors I picked for the dress. While at the LNS I also picked out a lovely piece of Picture This Plus linen called Sterling. It matches perfectly, but I will not be stitching on this for a while as I was a bad girl.

Bad Leslie kitted up Mira's Stargazer today instead. I had the piece of 32 ct. Starquest linen from Silkweaver and pulled all the DMC I need. I also ordered the beads from SB&B's New Years sale. I won't need them anytime soon, so I doesn't matter if it takes forever...they were cheap! While I was messing with my DMCs, I also pulled all the DMC I will need for the Barnabee's Quest SAL that will be starting in February. Here is my minimal progress on Stargazer. I wanted to get some stitching in on Bordeaux Mystery tonight as well.

And other good news...my Round Robin from The Robin's Nest arrived home over the weekend. Mylene, Christine and Renee all did an amazing job on it. There is a specialty frame shop in town, so I will have to go see if they have an appropriate sized square frame for it. I am so pleased at how it turned out and loved the whole experience. I am looking forward to the Seasonal Dragon Round Robin that is being planned on the board for this coming spring. It should be a blast as we have some wonderful ladies planning on stitching it:)

Well, back to work in the morning!! Ick!!!

Annual Goals

2006-12-29T13:18:00.000-05:00

As promised here are the goals that I had planned to work on for 2006.

2006 Goals
Current rotation goals:
-Finish Celtic Winter-Finished in August
-Finish Woodland Fairy-Finished in November
-Finish White Wedding by mid April-Finished in October
-Complete at least ½ of Olde World Map-Nope
-Finish one section of Mystery IX each month-I did up until August
-Complete ½ of Butterfly Rest-Nope
-Finish Lilies as part of Magazine Mania SAL-Nope

I also worked on the following-
1. Finished September Garden Sampler
2. Finished Santa at the Seashore
3. Thirteen Exchanges
4. Three rounds of a round robin
5. Worked on Christmas Elf Fairy
6. Worked on 17th Century German Garden.

For 2007 I WILL do the following:
1. Finish Mystery 9
2. Finish Bordeaux Mystery
3. Finish Christmas Elf Fairy
4. Finish 17th Century German Garden
5. Finish one Christmas ornament per month
6. Participate in a Seasonal Dragons RR
7. Get to the halfway point in either Olde World Map or Butterfly Rest (will eventually replace M9 as my weekend piece)
8. Participate in the two 2007 exchanges I have committed to and no additional ones

As I make progress on these goals, I would LIKE to work on the following pieces:
1. Halloween Fairy-Mirabilia
2. Stargazer-Mirabilia
3. Viking's Prayer
4. Kitty Months-Calico Crossroads
5. My Lady's Needlecase-Brightneedle
6. CHS alphabet

If by the end of the summer I am making great progress on these goals, I will be allowed to by the kit for Chatelaine's St. Petersburg Mandala. I may also tie this in to some weightloss goals as well. Who knows.

December Progress and January Goals

2006-12-29T09:20:00.000-05:00

The end of the month is rapidly approaching, so I thought I would post my December progress and goals for the first month of 2007. Later I will post some year long goals as well.

Here is how I did in December:
1. Finish center and part 9 of M9 (I mean it this time)-Hopefully tonight or tomorrow..shouldn't be a problem.
2. Finish Santa at the Seashore-Finished, framed and will be gifted tomorrow
3. Stitch on Bordeaux Sampler with Anne and Carol-Yup, only a few more grapes to finish page one.
4. Stitch on Christmas Elf Fairy-Finished her dress and made a good start on her wings
5. Stitch on Butterfly Rest-Unfortunatly no
I also stitched on:
6. 17th Century German Garden

Not bad for the month...so on to January. For the upcoming month I would like to:
1. Make good progress on M9-I would like to have most of the corner currently being stitched finished
2. Finish Christmas Elf Fairy
3. Stitch on 17th Century German Garden
4. Stitch a name ornament
5. Stitch a Valentine's Exchange
6. Stitch on Butterfly Rest
7. Stitch on Bordeaux Mystery

Holiday over

2006-12-27T13:44:00.000-05:00

Well, Allen and I made it back safely from Southern VA. We had a great time visiting all of his family, but it sure is nice to be home. After stuffing ourselves with food over the weekend, it is time to get some good dieting and exercising going.

I did get some great stitching done over the weekend. First I worked on Christmas Elf Fairy. I got all of her dress done and made a good start on her wing. Boy is it taking forever to fill in all that wing. Eventually I got tired of working with tons of Crescent Colors Cloud, so I moved on to my LTD 17th century German Garden.

On the LTD garden, I made a good start on the flower beds around the center knot. I took the LTD class at CATS earlier this year and made a brief start on it there. I really like this piece. I think for January, my goal will be to make a quick finish on my Christmas Fairy and then work on this garden Wednesdays and Thursdays. In February, one of those nights will be given up to work on Barnabee's Quest along with many other stitching bloggers.

Today I am kind of torn. Before leaving on our trip, I stated that I would work on my Bordeaux mystery for the remainder of this week before getting back into my rotation Friday night. While I love that piece, my elf and garden are both calling to me a lot. Must not give in and stick to my commitments.

In other stitching news, a LNS in Vienna, VA is offering a class on color in cross stitch this coming Saturday. Its focus is on what to do with those designs where you love the overall pattern, but dislike some of the color choices. I have several bigger pieces that I absolutely love, but I would rather stitch them in colors other than browns or yellows. For the class, I need to pick a pattern or two that I would like to swap out some colors. I will have to browse through my patterns over the next few days. While I am there I will probably pick out a fabric for my Barnabee's Quest Sal if nothing jumps out of my fabric bins at me soon.

Mystery 9

2006-12-22T22:19:00.000-05:00

Just a quick post before we head off to the lake for Christmas. Here is my most recent progress on M9. It is going really quickly now that I am more motivated! I love the corners.

This weekend, I am bringing along Christmas Elf and 18th century German garden.

Leslie can you here me....

2006-12-18T14:22:00.000-05:00

Nope, I cannot! I have one heck of a head cold and my ears are stuffed up beyond belief. I feel super stinky. When I was still awake and increadibly uncomfortable at 5am this morning, I decided that despite having tons to do before the holiday at work, there was no way I could drag myself in. I probably would have gotten some hateful stares as I sneezed and coughed all over everything, too:) Oh well, I will just have to work extra hard on paperwork between my groups tomorrow.

On the stitching front, colds have one benefit many other illnesses, I was not to tired to do some stitching. I worked very hard on my santa and finished him up on Saturday afternoon. Hopefully Allen will help me frame him one night this week and he is on his way to his destination at the end of the week. I need Allen's help and I am centering challenged. Here is my finished Santa.

Santa at the Seashore
By: By the Bay Needlearts
Stitched on: 32 ct. grey Jobelan
Started: October 29, 2006
Finished: December 16, 2006

On Sunday I worked a lot on M9. I am still not quite done with part 9, but I really got my motivation for this piece back on track for this piece by doing some work on parts 10 and 11. Now that all the parts and the "mystery" is out of the bag, I think I will do a lot of skipping around on this piece based on what is calling me.

With some traveling coming up for the holidays, I plan on throwing away my rotation from now until the first of the year. For the remainder of this week, I will be focusing on a last minute Christmas gift and Mystery 9. Allen and I will be visiting his family Saturday through Tuesday, so I will be bringing along a small project. I will probably pack Christmas Elf Fairy and an ornament. Upon returning Tuesday night, I will pull out Bordeaux Mystery and work on that until M9 comes back around in my rotation again on Friday.

On that note, I am off to find more OJ and good sick person tv:)

A few more pics

2006-12-12T22:02:00.000-05:00

I thought I would try and get more into the habit of blogging more regularly again. For the last two months, I have been particularly tired upon coming home from work, so blogging has fallen by the wayside. Today, I was sleepy, but after a nap, I am feeling like sharing:)

Over this past weekend, I made some big progress on M9. I should have some more Delica beads on the way, so I should be able to finish part 9 the next time I stitch. Since I didn't have the beads to finish part nine, I skipped ahead a bit to start on part ten. I started on one of the small pools. It is really pretty and I enjoyed stitching on something a bit different on this one for a change. The last three parts, although big, have enough different looking parts that I think it will keep my interest a bit better than parts 8 and 9. It really is huge now on the bigger qsnap:)

Tonight and yesterday, I was so tired I really didn't do much stitching. I worked a bit on Bordeaux Mystery.Plus the frogs visited...my one boxer ended up losing his legs for a while. I really like this piece. The teeny tiny over one letters take a really long time though.

Last weekend I also did some fabric cutting for some quilted pillows. I am going to make a bunch up for some of my closer co-workers. The group I spent the most time with at work used to be quite small and we all used to spend a fair amount of money on gifts for each other. Over the last few years, our group has expanded significantly and has gotten to the point that none of us can afford to buy for everyone. I figured that by making everyone some pretty pillows for their offices, I can do something for everyone without spending a ton of money. I got a several yards of black and cream fabric for the borders of the pillow and then got a handful of pretty, colorful fat quarters on sale for the centers. I hope everyone enjoys them and they will brighten up all our cubes.

My stitching plans for the next few days will kind of depend on our plans for the weekend. We still have not firmed up our visits to Allen's family for the holiday season, so there is a possibility that we will be doing some traveling this weekend. If we do go away for the weekend, I will be swapping my days stitching on M9 and Santa at the Seashore. I can take Santa with me a little more easily than M9. I really need to get cranking on Santa as he is going to be a giftie:)

So close...

2006-12-09T22:16:00.000-05:00

but still so far.

Actually not that bad. I almost finished part nine of Mystery Nine this evening, including the beads. I have three of the corners fully stitched and beaded through part 9. The fourth corner has a little straight stitch left in the artichoke, 2/3s of one swirl and the beading on that swirl left. I should be able to get all the stitching done after some errands tomorrow, but unfortunatly, I do not think I will be able to complete the beading as I am almost out of the gold delicas required in part 9. I have read on numerous sites that this has been a fairly common occurance, but that the kit provider has be very generous with providing extras. Eventhough I did not finish part 9 this evening, I did go ahead and move the piece on to a qsnap with extenders. Hopefully with this I will have enough room to finish the piece without adding additional extenders.

And here is my progress onto page two of By the Bay's Santa at the Seashore. I really enjoy stitching this piece and hope to have it done soon. The pine fronds in the bottom border are especially fun! You can't tell in the pic, but I actually do have some of Santa stitched. His face and beard don't show up well with the flash. Still have yet to find the sheep though:)

Busy stitcher

2006-12-05T21:57:00.000-05:00

I have been a busy stitcher the last few days. Over the weekend, I spent a lot of time with M9 and my Santa. Here is an up close of the center of M9. It is just about finished. All I need to add is some petite perle which I absolutely hate (hence it is not done yet):) I really do not like how the perle distorts the fabric. I really like how Martina did the center of this one and hope to have part nine done this coming weekend.

Monday and today, I worked very hard on Bordeaux Sampler. Unfortunatly I noticed a pretty glaring mistake from last weeks progress. If it hadn't been for the frogs, I would be done with the first of 14 pages. I really enjoy stitching the Rhodes stitch grape clusters and love the colors in the sampler. I worked this evening by rotating through the three colors. That way I didn't get bored of any one color or stitch type. In this section, the green is mostly back stitch, the red Rhodes stitch and the tan cross stitch. It worked out well and I made good progress. Now it is back in the bin until next Monday. Tomorrow and Thursday will focus on my Santa at the Seashore in the hopes of getting it close to half done. Yay for stitching progress:)

Pictures to share

2006-12-02T15:36:00.000-05:00

What a tiring week I have had. This week was my turn to co-lead our offices three day drug and alcohol education class. Many of the students are in trouble because of their use and it makes for three long intense days. I usually come home for a nappy afterwards. I did manage to get some stitching done though:). Early in the week I finished up my two ornament exchanges. I am quite pleased with how they both ended up.

On Wednesday night, I pulled out my supplies for Bordeaux Sampler. Earlier in the year, Carol turned me on to this pattern I believe was an exclusive at the Vikki Clayton silk website. I purchased the pattern, silk and fabbie a long time ago, but waited until I finished Woodland Fairy to start it. I will be stitching this along with Carol and Anne, but they are a good bit ahead of me. It uses Taro Leaf, Malt and Diane's Roughe VC silks and I am stitching it on 40 Count Vintage Magnolia linen from Lakeside Linen. I really love this color and am now glad that I accidentally ended up with two pieces of it. I am excited to find something pretty to use the other piece for. Maybe my Carriage House Samplings Alphabet. This is my first time stitching on 40 count. It actually isn't too bad...but I haven't hit the over one pieces yet:). Here is the minimal progress my sleepy self made on Wednesday. I am not sure why the pic is so blurry. It doesn't look that way on the camera.

And I also had some great stitching mail this week. In the pic below is an adorable ornie from Cathy(left) and a lovely pinkeep from Renee (right). Both are just stunning and were accompanied by some wonderful extras. Cathy included LHN's House of a Needleworker chart and Renee gifted me with a piece of her own handdyed fabbie. Thanks ladies...you are both so generous and helped me kick the holiday season off to a great start!

November and December Goals

2006-12-02T11:57:00.000-05:00

Here were my goals for the month of November. I think I did fairly well. What do you think?:)

1. Finish Woodland Fairy-YEAH Super Happy Dance
2. Finish part 9 of M9-Not quite
3. Stitch on Santa at the Seashore-Yes
4. Stitch two holiday exchanges Done and mailed out

And now for my December goals:
1. Finish center and part 9 of M9 (I mean it this time)
2. Finish Santa at the Seashore
3. Stitch on Bordeaux Sampler with Anne and Carol
4. Stitch on Christmas Elf Fairy
5. Stitch on Butterfly Rest

I have some great pics of some WIPs and some exchanges I received and will post them after I get some good yard work done. Last night I made a good start on the center of M9 and I hope to get it done later this evening. I really like what Martina did for the center. I was thinking early on that a sundial would be a perfect finish for the center. I had actually been looking for some kind of sundial charm just in case I wasn't thrilled with what the center looked like.

Giant Happy Dance

2006-11-27T22:03:00.000-05:00

Yay, I finally finished Woodland Fairy:) Here she is in all her glory!

Started: August 2005
Finished:November 27, 2006
Stitched on 28 count Wichelt Natural Linen

As I was getting near to the end I really began to dislike the fabric I had chosen for this pattern. It is very stiff and it was hard to keep good tension on. After stitching on some other fabrics, I don't think I will ever stitch on something like this again. I also realized how much I prefer 32 over 28 count. But now she is done and I can get her framed. Maybe in time for the holidays.

For the rest of this evening I will be working on an ornie exchange and then tomorrow I will be starting on Bordeaux Mystery. I am a little behind Carol and Anne, but I will be joining in their SAL on this one. Hopefully I can catch up:)

For December, my rotation will be...
Monday/Tuesday-Bordeaux
Wednesday/ Thursday-Holiday Stitching
Weekends-M9 and other

Stay Tuned...

2006-11-26T22:21:00.000-05:00

for a big finish.

I didn't quite get Woodland Fairy done tonight, but she will definitly be done tomorrow after work. Just a handful of stitches and the beading in her hair to do. I can't wait:)

Happy Belated Thanksgiving

2006-11-25T00:28:00.000-05:00

Allen and I made it home safely after a few days with my family for the holiday. I still find it quite funny that after two years of marriage and an additional two years of living together, this is the first year that Allen has had a Thanksgiving dinner with my family(plenty of Christmases, but no Turkey Days). It was a very nice holiday as we got to visit my cousin's new home and just about the entire family was present. Allen and I had a wonderful time playing with my sister's dog, Hudson before dinner and with my cousin's daughters at dinner.

Today, we got up at the crack of dawn to see if by some freak of nature, any electronics store had gotten a new shipment of Wiis. No luck for Allen:( Then it was back to mom's for breakfast and a nap. As today was my dad's birthday, Allen and I took my parents to dinner and then to a Washington Capitals hockey game. Unfortunately, the Caps were sucking big time this evening. We left after the second period and it was 6-1 in favor of Toronto. I am pretty sure that the little five year olds that had an exhibition at intermission were playing better:) Other than the poopy hockey play, it was a lovely evening and I hope dad had a wonderful birthday.

Now for a few things I am thankful for:
-Not having to spend Thanksgiving in a hospital this year
-Being married to my best friend and knowing that despite being a complainy pants:) he is healthy and happy
-Having the best family in the universe and wonderful in-laws to boot
-Cooper, Zoe, Ralph, Daisy and Hudson (all our family pets)...thanks Zoe for telling me you missed us by pooping one inch OUTSIDE the litter box today.
-A job that I really like
-Generous friends
and last but not least....cross stitch stash:)

More Woodland Fairy progress

2006-11-21T21:50:00.000-05:00

Doesn't she look fantastic....

After I run some errands tomorrow, I plan to sit down and have some serious time with her. My goal for tomorrow is to get the wing completely done and get started on the big branch. Thursday and Friday we will be at my parents for Thanksgiving and my dad's birthday. I will probably bring my remaining holiday exchange and a christmas ornament. Then on Saturday and Sunday, I plan on splitting my time with finishing up WF and part 9 of M9.

If I don't have a chance to post tomorrow night...Have a happy Thanksgiving:)

MIA again

2006-11-19T20:54:00.000-05:00

I am not sure why I have had such a mental block against blogging again this week. Every night I have good intentions and plan something to post, but I always get distracted.

So on that note, here are a few stitching things...

Here is this weeks progress on Woodland fairy. I plan on spending a ton of time working on her over the next few days. Wish me like on trying to finish her up by the end of the Thanksgiving weekend.

And here is my M9. I unfortunatly did not reach my goals on this one for the weekend. I still hope to have part nine done by the end of the month which is quite doable. I only have one swirly thing and five sections worth of beading to do. Instead of working on this, I actually did a lot of work on some exchanges. I hope to get one of them out in the mail on Wednesday.

Weekend Progress

2006-11-12T21:46:00.000-05:00

This weekend I made a lot of good crafty progress! On Saturday, I had the pleasure of visiting with Jo. I always enjoy getting together with Jo and stitching with her. While there, I got a great deal done on my two Holiday Exchanges.

Friday and Saturday nights I worked on Mystery9. I have one corner completely done including beads. Hopefully if this rain ever stops I can get a better pic of all the sparklies!

Before going out to dinner tonight for a friend's birthday, I spent some time in my craft room with the sewing machine. I wanted to do some machine piecing practice before I pull out the big quilt top kit that I have. Today I made this cute little pillow. I think I am going to make little pillows for a few work friends that I exchange holiday gifts with. I am going to have fun picking out fabric for them.

I AM Alive

2006-11-09T21:00:00.000-05:00

Wow, I have been AWOL from blogging for awhile haven't I. For some reason over the last week, I have been having some attention issues right around the time in the evening when I usually do my blogging. Hopefully this coming week will be as distraction free as humanly possible.

I have been stitching, though and have made good progress on both Woodland Fairy and M9. WF's wings are stitching up nicely and the Wednesday off before Thanksgiving, I am really hoping to have her done by the end of the month. Pretty soon I will have to put up a pole to help me decide what my next big Monday/Tuesday focus piece should be.

October/November Goals

2006-10-31T22:05:00.000-05:00

Here were my goals for October:

1. Stitch on Woodland Fairy-Done
2.Finish parts 8 and 9 on Mystery 9-Finished part 8
3. Finish page 5 of White Wedding-Totally finished and Framed!!!!!!
4. Finish Autumn Exchange-Finished and shipped
5. Finish Christine's RR-All Done
6. Stitch on Butterfly Rest-No

All and all a good month.

And for November:

1. Finish Woodland Fairy
2. Finish part 9 of M9
3. Stitch on Santa at the Seashore
4. Stitch two holiday exchanges

Off to do good work!

Its Back..

2006-10-31T21:49:00.002-05:00

From the framer. Allen picked up White Wedding on the way home from class this evening. I think it turned out really nicely. I just hate that it is a pain to photograph the white silk. It just doesn't turn out very well in the pics. Oh well. I am very proud of this piece:)

Tonight, I worked some more on the wing of Woodland Fairy. I am really enjoying stitching on the wing. It is soooo sparkly

WIP Pictures

2006-10-29T21:51:00.000-05:00

So, here is my stitching progress over the last week. Monday I worked on the hair and wing of Woodland Fairy. I really love this one:) I really can't wait to finish her, but I have mixed feelings about all the twigs and leaves. I didn't really enjoy stitching the ones on the bottom and there are tons more in the top half of the piece. Well, I have already started with them...so I press onward.

This weekend, I put my nose to the grindstone on M9. I am SOOOO far behind on this one. I haven't officially finished part 8, yet part 11 comes out on Wednesday. Oh well!! All I have left on part 8 is the satin stich leaves on two of the artichokes. I think I am going to do the beading as I go. I have one and a half swirls beaded so far. After I finish part 9, I will need to pull out the q snap extension. It is getting really big:) I like what I have seen of part 10, but it is just so huge. I like the colors in it a lot better than all that yellow in the little triangles. It reminds me of splattered omlettes.

On and off throughout the week, I have been working on Santa by the Seashore by By the Bay. It is such a cute piece and a fairly quick stitch. I am a bit confused by it though. I was reading the stitching instructions and there were backstitch instructions for the eyes and tail of the sheep. I am not quite sure where the sheep is...do you?

And here is my progress...

In order to make some more progress on my pieces and get some smaller finishes done, I am re thinking my rotation. For the time being it will be:

Monday/Tuesday-Woodland Fairy
Thursday-Santa and Exchanges
Weekend- M9

After Thanksgiving, my parenting class will be over and I will add Wednesday as a Small piece night. After I finish Woodland Fairy, I will put Butterfly Rest in its place. I have Butterfly Day hanging in our upstairs hallway and Allen keeps asking me when I will have its companion to put up. Off to do a little bit of Santa stitching before bed.

Autumn Exchange and Kitty Pcis

2006-10-28T15:11:00.000-04:00

Last week I received a lovely package in the mail. It was my Autumn Exchange from Kath. She stitched me a beautiful pumpkin she made into a flat fold and sewed a stunning tote bag. Kath is also going to be kind enough to send me instructions on making the tote. Allen and I sat staring at it for a while the other day trying to figure it out:) Aren't the colors lovely and just perfect for fall. Kath also included some cute autumn napkins and fall colored DMC floss:) Thanks Kath!!!

And now for some kitty pics...unfortunatly the best one is hard to see. Thursday I came home from work and could not find either of my kitties. Neither one was in their more obvious afternoon nappy spots. When I went into our bedroom to change into my jammies for the night, I noticed the comforter I had folded on the floor had unfolded itself a bit. Upon closer inspection, I found that Cooper had made himself a nest in it. This is as close as I could get without scaring him off. Unfortunately he is a black cat sleeping in a black blanket. If you look really hard at the end by the stand fan and mirror, you can two greyish little circle...those are his ears:)

When I got a bit closer he ran off, but I took a pic of the hole he had made for himself. He was all cute and cuddly:)

I have been stitching this week. I worked on Woodland Fairy, M9 and started Christmas at the Seashore by By the Bay. I hope to post progress pics later this weekend:)

Useless Info About Me

2006-10-22T12:11:00.000-04:00

I saw this on Anne's page and thought I would post some silly things about myself! Here goes:

48 Things You Could Care Less About

1. FIRST NAME? Leslie
2. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? My mom's best friend, my "Auntie" Leslie
3. WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY? Last weekend
4. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? It sucks
5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCHMEAT? Pastrami
6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? Yes
7. DO YOU HAVE A JOURNAL? This blog is it for now
8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? As far as I know:)
9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? Heck no!!!
10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Rice Krispies with a bit of sweetner and bananas
11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? No
12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? No, super weakling!
13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR? Strawbetty
14. SHOE SIZE? 6.5
15. RED OR PINK? Red
16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? I am a worry wart
17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? Allen if he is away, otherwise my sister
18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU? Not really relevant
19. WHAT COLOR PANTS, SHIRT AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? grey pants, tie-dyed shirt and no shoes--weekend wear!
20. LAST THING YOU ATE? Cereal
21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? Allen is watching the Venture Brothers on Cartoon Network.
22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Lavender
23. FAVORITE SMELL? Plumeria or moon flower...I was in heaven in Hawaii on our honeymoon
24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? My mom before she came over yesterday
25. THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE YOU ARE ATTRACTED TO? Eyes
26. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON you stole THIS from? Yes...if she didn't live on the other side of the earth I would enjoy meeting Anne
27. FAVORITE DRINK? JiNon-alcoholic- Diet Pepsi Jazz, Alcoholic-mudslides
28. FAVORITE SPORT? Baseball...even thought my Orioles suck
29. EYE COLOR? Brown
30. HAT SIZE? Don't do hats
31. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? Can't live without them!
32. FAVORITE FOOD? Varies
33. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? Scary movies that have happy endings;)?
35. SUMMER OR WINTER? Summer
36. HUGS OR KISSES? kisses
37. FAVORITE DESSERT? Tiramisu
38. WHO IS MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? Not really applicable
39. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND? As per 38
40. WHAT BOOKS ARE YOU READING? Templars Penance by Michael Jecks
41. WHAT’S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? Don't have one....laptop touch pad
42. WHAT DID YOU WATCH LAST NIGHT ON TV? X Men 3
43. FAVORITE SOUNDS? Allen putzing around the house and my kitties meows
44. ROLLING STONE OR BEATLES? Beatles
45. THE FURTHEST YOU’VE BEEN FROM HOME? Furtheset I have been from my current home is Hawaii on my honeymoon
46. WHAT’S YOUR SPECIAL TALENT? The ability to turn anything into a giant catastrophe!!:)
47. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? Nurnberg, Germany...my dad was in the Army at the time
48. WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? I took it from Anne

A White Wedding Finish

2006-10-21T16:47:00.001-04:00

All done!!! I finished up White Wedding this morning and sent it off to be framed. It should be back in 10 days or so. I was not too thrilled with the alphabet for it as it had waaaay too much back stitch. It fits the piece perfectly though. I hope my sister and BIL like it! So here it is:

White Wedding
By: Ellen Maurer-Stoh
Stitched on Silkweaver Dusty Blue Cashel linen using NPI white silk

I think I am going to pull out M9 for the remainder of the weekend and kit up a Christmas present. Now on to play rollercoaster tycoon with Allen. Tomorrow is his big birthday!!!

Autumn Exchange

2006-10-17T21:20:00.000-04:00

Just a quick post to share the Autumn Exchange I stitched for Chris. This is the first time that I have machine sewn a needlework piece. I really had fun with it and I am glad that I have my sewing maching. As I finished this one, I also did much of the finishing on my Garden piece from severl months ago. I should have a pic of that one this weekend.

Here is my Autumn pillow....

I really like the fabric i used for the finish. I am going to have to do another fall piece for myself with it.

White Wedding

2006-10-16T21:19:00.000-04:00

Okay, blogger is being a butt and not letting me upload pics so I have to resort to photobucket. Oh well, at least you get to see my progress any way. I made amazing progress on this over the weekend and have set myself the goal of having it done by Saturday. Saturday, my mom and I will go to the framer and pick out the perfect frame for it. All I have left are two birds, a wing, some foliage and the names. I am also trying to decide whether to do the interlocking rings in the middle in the white silk or in a silver braid. Ahhh decisions!!

I don't know why the fabbie looks all wavy in this pic...rest assured it does not look that way in real life.

Long over due

2006-10-14T11:42:00.000-04:00

Yup...I am not quite sure what happened with my posting this week. I just really haven't felt like posting. I have done quite a bit of stitching though.

1. My Autumn Exchange was finished and mailed.

2. I stitched Monday on Woodland Fairy. I got a little more done on her wings this week. After I finish White Wedding, I might designate an additional day to work on her as I am not that far from a finish on her either.

3. I finished what will be the last round of an RR for me. This is Christine's RR. The three other ladies in this group still have one more round, but as Renee is only stitching for us, there was a free slot in the rotation. It actually worked out well for me as I don't have an RR obligation for the rest of the year. I plan on using that stitching time for a few Christmas gifts. I guess I need to get stitching. Here is the winter heart I did for Christine's piece. I used an entire skein of DMC 519. These hearts are charted for full color, but Christine requested that we pick a single color that we felt represented the season. I like the blue glare you see off snow in the winter...hence I picked a nice blue.

Here is a pick of the three hearts that have been done so far. Christine did the green spring heart and Mylene did the red summer heart. That leaves Fall for Renee. I hope Christine like how it turned out.

Now I am off to work on White Wedding. I have been inspired by Anne finishing her Dratteds this week, so I am going to put a lot of effort into getting this done ASAP. It may not be this weekend, but it will be soon. I would like to get it to my mom for framing by the end of the month.

White Wedding

2006-10-09T17:30:00.000-04:00

Today I had the pleasure of a day off for Columbus Day. Someone came by and cleaned our chimney (yay it is almost time for fires) and then I headed up to my craft room to do some finishing. Over the weekend, Allen played task master and helped me clean out my craft room. For whatever reason, whenever I went up there to organize I would get overwhelmed and wouldn't get much done. With Allen's direction, it is now usable for sewing. Today I started the finishing on my Garden piece and my Autumn Exange. Just a little bit of hand sewing on both is left.

After playing with my sewing machine, I brought out White Wedding for a bit. I managed to get the middle portion of the swag done and started the date. Here is a pic of the status of the whole piece...

And an closeup of the center with the start of the date. I am pretty confident that I will have it done by the end of October as long as I stitch on it for two days each week. This might be hard as my Wednesdays will be limited for the next six weeks doing work with a local parenting program. At least I will earn all my Christmas money.

25 Projects Challenge

2006-10-07T12:08:00.000-04:00

Well today I made a small purchase from the ONS. I got the last two months of Calico Crossroads Kitty Months series and some DMS perle cotton for a piece Allen wants to work on (He is going to work on a tree pattern I got at CATS). This will be my last stash purchase for a while as I am jumping on the 25 project bandwagon. There will be no major stash additions until I finish 25 patterns out of my own stash. I have three exceptions:

1. I am not ending my monthly fiber and fabric subscriptions, but I did reduce them
2. Mirabilia's holiday fairy kits
3. I am going to finish out my automatic ship on Bent Creeks seasonal snapperlands.

So far I have finished one piece...my Autumn exchange...24 to go:)

Later today I will have piccies of White Wedding. I finished the border and one of the cherubs. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel on this one:)

My CATS weekend

2006-10-03T17:45:00.000-04:00

Well, we made it home from CATS safe and sound. We had an amazing time. Allen and I left early Thursday morning and made our way up route 15. We arrived in Hershey around 11am. We checked in, dropped our things off in the room and went in search of a quick lunch before my Liz Turner-Diehl class at noon. On the way to lunch, I saw a familiar face sitting by the fireplace in the lobby. It was Carol. After lunch, I joined Carol and her friend Margaret at the LTD 17th Century German Garden class. It was great to meet LTD, but Allen did laugh that all I had to show for the almost three hour class was a few specialty stitches on my doodle fabby.

After the class, we all split up to relax for a while before the stitching mart. At 5pm I got in the LONG line to get into the mart. I spent a bunch of money, but got some pretty pieces:) I purchased the following:

Simply Old Fashioned Designs: Ever So Littles-Fish and Chimps, Saint Nicks 4, 6 and 7, Twinkle in Trees
Dinky-Dyes: Summer's Gate Sampler
Patricia Ann Designs: A Secret Garden
Liz Turner-Diehl: Scalloped Seashells, Elizabethan Gardens
Nutmeg Company: Christmas Cottage
Brittercup Designs:Britty Kitties 2
Cat's Whiskers: Fir Tree Mountain
Plus two pieces of R&R fabric and a few misc fibers.
All in all a good haul.

After the market, Allen and I had a lovely dinner with Carol, Mike and Margaret. Then it was off to bed. Saturday, Allen and I wandered around, played games in the coffee shop and stitched. Eventually I ran into Cathy and made plans to meet everyone in the stitchers lounge around 8.

I had a great evening stitching and chatting with all the wonderful ladies I met in the stitchers lounge. Here is a pic of Jenna, Cathy and I.

And here is Jo and Patti.

Everyone was so sweet and fun to hang out with. I hope to be able to get to CATS again next year:) I had such a good time!!!

Here is the start that I did make on the LTD garden kit I got for the class I did. This is the center medallion of the garden. The colors are really pretty. I will be getting back to this as soon as I finish White Wedding. Even more motivation to get that one done:)

Exchanges and RRs

2006-10-03T17:37:00.000-04:00

So, while I was at CATS, I spent some time working on Christine's Round Robin. She asked us to stitch a set of seasonal hearts. I chose to stitch the winter heart in a nice pale blue. It reminds me of how cold winter can be and the blue glare you get off of the snow some times. Here is my progress so far. I should have it done this coming weeknd.

While I was away, I also got a special package in the mail from Sylvie. She stitched us a lovely black cat wallhanging. It is all done over one and is absolutely stunning. She also made me a cute stuffed kitty and sent a ball and catnip mouse for the cats:) Thank you so much Sylvie. I love the gift:)!!!

September/October Goals

2006-10-01T11:19:00.000-04:00

Here is an update on my September goals. I actually didn't do too bad considering the limited amount of time I had.

1. finish body of Woodland Fairy-YES
2. Finish parts 8 and 9 of Mystery 9-NO
3. Finish page 4 and entire border of White Wedding-ALMOST
4. Finish Crazy Cat Lady exchange-YES
5. Stitch on Butterfly Rest-YES
6. Stitch birth sampler for work friend-YES

And here are my October goals...

1. Stitch on Woodland Fairy
2.Finish parts 8 and 9 on Mystery 9
3. Finish page 5 of White Wedding
4. Finish Autumn Exchange
5. Finish Christine's RR
6. Stitch on Butterfly Rest

Here's to a successful month.

PS I will post CATS pics later today... I had a great time!

Off to CATS

2006-09-27T20:43:00.001-04:00

Right now I am packing up my stuff to be ready to head off to Hershey PA in the morning. I have a Liz Turner Diehl class at noon and then just tons of stitching fun until Saturday morning. On Saturday, we will be heading south again to Maryland to visit the Maryland Ren Festival and my little sister who lives near by. It should be a lovely weekend. I will have a camera and access to Allen's computer while we are at CATS so I hope to post some pics along the way.

I am really looking forward to meeting many of my blogging friends:)

Redwork Exchange

2006-09-22T09:19:00.001-04:00

Just a quick post to show off my Redwork Exchange. Anne in Australia received my exchange today. I am very excited! I really hope she liked it as I had a blast stitching it!

Redwork Exchange

2006-09-22T09:19:00.000-04:00

Just a quick post to show off my Redwork Exchange. Anne in Australia received my exchange today. I am very excited! I really hope she liked it as I had a blast stitching it!

Cooper and the Couch

2006-09-21T22:15:00.000-04:00

For some reason I didn't feel like doing a ton of stitching this week. I focused most of my time on my Crazy Cat Lady Exchange. I finished the stitching tonight and hope to finish the finishing of it tomorrow.

This weekend is Allen's brother's wedding. We have a bunch of free time on Saturday, so I will be bringing my Autumn Exchange, Christmas Fairy and Christine's RR. Hopefully I will get a lot done while Allen does his homework. I will be away until monday.

I shall leave you with some sweet pics of my Cooper Cat...

Sleepy Cooper hugging the back of the couch.

Why are you bugging me while I am hugging the couch? I am a very busy cat and the couch needs my full attention.

Please go away. You are disturbing my sleep. I will beat you with my kungfoo paws of death if you do not go away.

What a cutie!!

Weekend Stitch-a-thon

2006-09-18T22:03:00.000-04:00

This weekend was the September Stitch-a-thon on the Robin's Nest BB. I set goals to finish a third artichoke on M9...

And the border on White Wedding...

Almost on both. I am really pleased with how they are both looking though. Tonight is Woodland Fairy....lots of different colors:)

Cooper and the Wrong Trousers

2006-09-14T22:34:00.000-04:00

Last night, I needed to fix some buttons on some pants, so I left a pile of pants on the loveseat until I could get to them. In the few minutes while I went to get the appropriate threads, Cooper decided that they were his trousers. I think they are going to be a bit big for him, but he does look comfortable:)

In addition to sewing buttons, I also worked on White Wedding. I managed to complete the left hand border. As part of the Stitch-a-thon on the Robin's Nest, I hope to finish the top this weekend. I am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel with this piece and I will definitly have it finished in time for my mom to have it framed by Christmas.

This evening, I worked on Butterfly Rest while watching Survivor. I made some progress, but not quite enough that anyone but me can tell. I actually think that this one is stitching up faster than when I did Butterfly Day (after getting through the stupid blue triangle of course).

Well, off to bed. Tomorrow I am leading a training on our new database for work. We are finally moving into the computer age and trying to eliminate the ten tons of paper forms that we complete for every student we work with. As with all things in our county, everyone is creating similar things independently of each other. What a pain:)

Is it only Tuesday?

2006-09-12T21:26:00.000-04:00

Boy it really feels like it should be Thursday. There are still three more days in the work week, but not much of interest left to do until Monday. AAHHHH the beginning of the school year is so slow sometimes.

Of more interest....yesterday, I was able to do a bunch of stitching on my Woodland Fairy. I was able to finish all the flesh tones and finished up a bit more of her sash. I really love stitching on her. I can't wait to get her done.

Tonight was a White Wedding night. I finished all the stitching in the main portion of the upper left side and some more of the border. Tomorrow night, I will keep going with the border and and start on the swag in the top center section. I also hope to be done with this one soon. It is going to be hard to decide whether to stitch on this or Mystery 9.

Now on to watch House with Allen before bed:)

A Weekend of Stitching

2006-09-10T14:00:00.000-04:00

It has been a good stitching weekend. Friday night, Allen had a couple of friends over for dinner and cartoon watching. I spent my evening watching The Venture Brothers with the guys and finished all of the charted stitching on Brotherly Love. All I need to do now is add the names and birthdays of my friend's little boys. I will go ahead and wait until the baby arrives to complete it.

After finishing Brotherly Love, it was on to put some time in on Mystery 9. I really want to catch up after falling a bit behind last month. I am still not sure it is possible as those silly artichokes take so long. I am totally done with the stitching for parts 8 and 9 on half of the piece and got a good start of part8 on a third corner. Hopefully, I will be almost done with that artichoke tonight.

And in exchange news, I received my Redwork Exchange from Ashleigh on Friday. She stitched a lovely quaker design and finished it as a photo album. I am thinking about using this as an album for pics of my stitching, particularly those things I give as gifts. Thanks again Ashleigh!!

TV limbo and other things

2006-09-07T21:39:00.000-04:00

Ahhh, it is the time of the year where there is nothing on the TV in the evenings and the TIVO is full of poo. All of the short summer series are over, but most of my favorite regular season shows don't start for another week or so. Usually at this time of year I would be watching more Orioles games as background during my stitching time, but because of the stupid Washington Nationals (i really don't have anything against the Nats) I often can't get Orioles TV broadcasts. For some reason, TV executives determined that the moment that the Nats moved to Washington, every Orioles fan south of the Potomac River would undergo a spontaneous transformation and become Nats fans. There are still some of us who still love the O's despite the 2 hour drive to Baltimore and we miss getting the games. This is especially true for me as I grew up going to O's games and by the time I got into baseball, no one had hope that baseball would ever return to Washington. As a result of all of this television chaos, I am watching football.

Insert questioning noise here. I am not really big into football, but what else am I to watch while I stitch. Proof that I am not really a football fan...my "brother" runs a football pickem' pool every year and always invites me to join. Each year I enter my picks with some amusing twist. This year my team theme is let me ask my cats. I am letting Cooper and Zoe advise me on my picks this year. We shall see how well I do.

And now on to stitching. Most of the week i worked on White Wedding. I didn't take a pic as it really didn't look like much. Tonight, I worked more on Butterfly Rest. I actually got more done that it looks like as I had to frog a huge portion of the flower stem...yuck! I really like this piece.

I have also been working on Brotherly Love. I finished the yellow cat and am half way through the black one. Hopefully I will get it done before the little one makes an appearance:)

2006-09-04T22:19:00.000-04:00

Okay, I switched to a beta template and of course it will not let me do anything.....:( sad!

2006-09-04T21:38:00.000-04:00

Weekend stitching...

This weekend I did a great job, both on stitching and housework. I got my kitchen looking wonderful and did a good sweep of my family room. Plus I got a bunch of errands done on Saturday.

Stitchingwise, Saturday I worked some more on white wedding. I finished more on the left border....not worth taking a pic. On Sunday, I focused on Mystery nine. I got all the stitching and half the beading done on one corner of part 9. I also got a bit started on a second corner. Next weekend I am going to focus on getting part 8 done on the other two corners.

Here is an upclose of all the beads...

Today, my focus was Woodland Fairy. I managed to get two more of the flesh colors done this evening. Only one more to go. My plan is to the finish the last little holes on her dress. Then I will alternate between her wings and the twigs.

Ick back to work tomorrow. On my way home I will be stopping by the post office to mail off my Redwork Exchange. Hope it reaches its destination soon:)

2006-09-04T11:29:00.000-04:00

To all my blogger friends...

I am sorry if it looks like I have not been visiting some of your blogs lately. At this point, my initial blogger account has merged with my new beta version. I can no longer comment on blogs that have not moved to beta. I will try and comment on ones that have the anonymous option and sign my name in the text. Hopefully this gets resolved soon!

2006-09-01T22:48:00.000-04:00

I have been stitching

sporadically over the course of the week. For some reason, I really wasn't in the mood to stitch much last night and ended up going to sleep very early. I did much better tonight. I finished the second bird motif and a bit more of the left hand border on white wedding.

After stitching on WW for a little while, I started Brittercup's Brotherly Love.

I am stitching this as a gift for a friend at work who is expecting her second little boy sometime this month. I thought I had until the end of the month, but after today noone everyone thinks the little guy will be here before too long. I plan on stitching the names and birthdays of both boys on the bottom of the piece. I have gotten the crook thingy and the cat's butt done:)

I have a huge list of things to do over the long weekend. There are bunch of housekeeping things to do and groceries to be got. I should have gone grocery shopping tonight, but the thought of hauling them through the downpour was quite unpleasant. So I went home and took a nap instead:) Before getting groceries in the morning, I also plan to get myself a back to school manicure and pick up a fan for our excercise room. I also have some good stitching goals that I would like to accomplise. In particular, I would like to get half of parts 8 and 9 done on my Chatelaine mystery:) Hope everyone else has a lovely weekend.

2006-08-31T19:24:00.000-04:00

A month of almosts...

This is how I would describe how I did on my August goals. Here they are:
1. Finish Woodland Fairy's torso and face-torso only
2. Finish part 8 of Mystery 9-only half
3. Finish page four of White Wedding-one motif and the border left
4. Finish House theme Exchange-yes and received in Germany
5. Finish Redwork Exchange-yes, will do the finishing this weekend
6. Stitch on Butterfly Rest on Thursdays-yes
7. Stitch a little on My Lady's Needlecase-no

So hopefully September will be a bit better. At least one of the weekends I will be away will be a stitching weekend at CATS Yay!! Here are my September goals:
1. finish body of Woodland Fairy
2. Finish parts 8 and 9 of Mystery 9
3. Finish page 4 and entire border of White Wedding
4. Finish Crazy Cat Lady exchange
5. Stitch on Butterfly Rest
6. Stitch birth sampler for work friend

Here is to a stitchful month!

2006-08-29T21:15:00.000-04:00

So we got back from the lake safely. We had a very good weekend and I was able to do a fair amount of stitching and reading. I should have worked on my Redwork Exchange while I was there, but alas I did not. Instead, I started my Mirabilia Christmas Elf Fairy kit. To the left is how far I got. The pretty green scissor fob adorning the fabric is a birthday gift I received from Sue. Thank you so much Sue, it is lovely!!

Since returning home, I have been drowning in a mire of inservices at work. I don't think I can sit through another 8 hour conference in a middle school auditorium. Last night I was a good girl and finished up the stitching on my Redwork Exchange. I know how I am going to finish it, but need to make a quick stop at the fabric shop on Friday afternoon. It will be ready to head out in the mail on Tuesday:) I am very excited about who I got to stitch for. I read her blog every day!

Tonight I stitched a bunch on white wedding, but the silly white silk kept getting tangled. I am almost done with dove on the left side though. I will post a pic after tomorrows stitching:)

2006-08-23T19:38:00.000-04:00

A pressie and a pic

I received a lovely surprise in the mail this afternoon after work. Ann (catandturtle) was sweet enough to send me a belated birthday present. She included a lovely sparkly fabbie, a skein of autumn shaded needle necessities thread and some piecemaker needles. Thank you so much Ann. It really improved my afternoon!! I had just spent 45 minutes in line at the grocery store, broken the sprinkler and dropped a can of coke on the carpet.

For the last two nights I have been stitching on the arm of my Woodland Fairy. I was able to complete one of the colors in her arm. I am so close, but still so far away from finishing this one. I keep thinking not too much longer and then it takes forever to complete a small section. It is worth it though...she is lovely!

Tonight, if my headache will go away, I will stitch some more on White Wedding. I also need to pull together a few small pieces to take with me this weekend when we go visit Allen's mom and grandmother. AAAhhhh a weekend at the lake:)

2006-08-22T22:48:00.000-04:00

House Exchange Received

Yesterday I received my House Exchange from Joanie. She stitched me a cute little notebook cover which will be going with me tomorrow to my first staff meeting of the new school year! I love it. I also stitched a bunch on the arm of my Woodland Fairy. I will post a piccie of her tomorrow when I have a bit more time:)

2006-08-20T22:26:00.000-04:00

Help me....Why are my posts after Thursday 8/17/06 not showing up:(!!!!

2006-08-20T22:06:00.000-04:00

It's My Birthday

Today was a very very nice birthday. Thanks to everyone for all the good wishes:) Most of the celebrating happened yesterday. Today we just hung around the home and did relaxing stuff. I stitched a lot and we watched a bunch more House. Allen did most of the work on all three meals. They were all yummy. Unfortunatly, this year my birthday is also the end of my "summer vacation". Although I did work this summer, it was a lot less stressful with most of my co-workers and all the kids gone. Teachers and the rest of the social workers are back tomorrow and the students are back after labor day. Let the fun begin:(

On the stitching front, I met both my goals for the stitch a thon I participated in. Yesterday i posted my White Wedding progress and here is my second corner of M9. I don't know why it looks all funky while it is in the q-snap. It looks fine when I take it out. Who knows.

Have a great week everyone!!

2006-08-19T23:45:00.000-04:00

A bit of pre-birthday fun!

So tomorrow is my birthday. I have been very fortunate to have a bit of birthday related fun before the 20th as well. On Thursday, I got a call from Michael's to say that my Celtic Winter was framed and ready to be picked up. I was very excited....it only took 8 days:) I hinted to Allen that I would love it if he picked it up on his way home, but then decided that I didn't want to make him make and extra trip since he had worked a very, very long day. Needless to say I was ecstatic when my darling hubby showed up not only with an Olive Garden dinner, but my Celtic Winter as well. He is such a great guy. So her she is...

And her she is with her Spring counter part. Winter is bigger because she was stitched on 28 count Jobelan and Spring was stitched on 18 count Aida (before I made the leap to linen and evenweaves) Maybe I will do one of the other soon. Who knows.

Today, Allen took me out for a more official birthday lunch. He took me to what looks like a hole in the wall place near his office. In reality, it is a wonderful restaurant and wine bar. I had a lemon pepper tilapia that was to die for. That is saying a lot as I HATE fish. The sauce was fantastic as was the endive and apple salad I had as well.

This evening, I have been working on my goals for the Stitch-a-thon going on at the Robin's Nest BB. I met my goal on White Wedding and got some of the outlining done on the second corner of M9. I hope to finish it tomorrow.

I also picked up the first season of House on the way home today. I have been watching reruns here and there and wanted to actually figure out some of the history of the characters. I love Hugh Laurie and his lack of his British accent in the show still amazes me.

Well, off to play gameboy and watch Allen shoot things on the computator in the basement:)

2006-08-17T21:39:00.000-04:00

It has been a busy couple of days around here. Tuesday night Allen and I went out to dinner with my family to celebrate August birthdays. My little sister's birthday is today...Happy Birthday Becca! Mine this coming Sunday. We had a great time and it was nice to have everyone together. Wednesday night I had a horrible headache and didn't do much of anything:(

Today, I went to the dentist, ICK! Fortunately I have no cavities, but it turns out that my right sinus is sitting right on the nerve of one of my upper molars, thus causing some funky pressure type sensation when my allergies act upt. It doesn't hurt, but it feels like someone is pressing against the top of my jaw. Very strange. After the dentist, I sat for a while waiting for our new dishwasher delivered. Our old one "worked" but I had to run it through the rinse cycle twice to get the soap off top rack items. It sucked. Now we have a nice new functioning dishwasher and no spots on our dishes:) After that I sat around and watched King Arthur. It was okay, but I was interested that the writer and director chose to do a version that explored more of the "historical" theories of Arthur rather than the mythical and literary versions of the story. I also went to target and spent some birthday gift cards. I got a chair for my craft room, a pair of shoes and a new work bag. I still have a little left over too!

On the stitching front, I sent out both my House Exchange and Mylene's Round Robin yesterday. I will post a pic of my exchange as soon as my partner gets it. Here is a pic of Mylene's RR. She chose a seasonal theme river/tree theme. It was very pretty. I picked summer as my favorite season. I may have thought twice if I had really looked at the pattern. It had some fractional stitches for the apples, which I do not like to do on aida. It turned out really pretty though and I got a lot of compliments from family and coworkers. Here it is so far. Mylene stitched the spring section on the right.

While I watched King Arthur this afternoon, I stitched a bit on Butterfly Rest. I finished the first flower bud and did some more on the flower stem. It is actually stitching up pretty fast. I should be done with this first page pretty quickly. Unfortunatly it is smaller than the other pages.

2006-08-14T13:53:00.000-04:00

Answering Questions

I have been super amiss in answering questions posed by those wonderful people who comment on my blog. BTW, your comments are always appreciated. Without further ado...my answers

Sue-I did my blog poll through blogpolling.com. It is really easy and you can just cut and paste the html into either your side bar or the main text. Also, I am stitching White Wedding on Dusty Blue Cashel linen by Silkweaver. I love the color and it will be perfect for my sister and BIL. They love the beach!

Catandturtle-The most recent Fiona Apple album was Extrodinary Machine which was released in October 2005. Allen and I both like it, but at her concert she played a good mix of things. I hate it when an artist plays a concert primarily off their most recent album.

and last but not least, Rava-I am using the recommended fabric which is 32 ct. Lavender Bliss linen. I think it is a Wichelt color, but I am not sure. I got it with the materials pack from European Cross Stitch.

So, Allen and I survived our trip to his grandparents this weekend. We had a pretty good time despite the drive. I hate being in a car for five hours:( I completed all the stitching on my house exchange (finishing will be done tonight), started my redwork exchange and did all but the fruit and backstitching on Mylene's round robin. I also played tons of Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced. Got to have something to keep you busy when the guys start talking polics or college football. Neither is my cup of tea! I will post some piccies tonight. I should finish Mylene's piece as well as getting in a few stitches on Woodland Fairy.

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

2006-08-11T12:50:00.000-04:00

Last night's stitching was Butterfly Rest. I almost got the first little blossom done. I absolutly love the colors in this piece:) I am so glad I picked this one up again.

I wish I had time to stitch on M9 today, but we are getting ready to head down to Allen's grandparents this afternoon. Soooo, hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! See you on Sunday night.

2006-08-09T22:34:00.000-04:00

Stitchy Week

Tis late, so just a quick post, but I did want to share this weeks stitching so far.

Monday was Woodland Fairy night. I am pretty much done with her dress, so I moved on to her arm. There is not much flesh so hopefully I can get that done next week. Unfortunately you can't see her arm real well yet.

Tuesday and Wednesday I worked on White Wedding. I am almost done with one of the cherubs on the top half. He just needs a wing and second foot. Good thing he has good balance:) And he has a cute little belly button too!! Now it is off to bed and think of butterflies for tomorrow night's stitching:)

2006-08-06T20:36:00.000-04:00

The weekend is over:(

But it was a good one. Allen and I just hung out all weekend. I did a lot of stitching, played some video games and did some good cooking. I am trying to get back into the habit of cooking better meals on a regular basis. Allen is often late for dinner, so it is sometimes hard to motivate myself to cook a "real" meal. I usually go the easy route and do simple post or a pre-prepared meal. Friday night I did a really yummy crockpot pork roast which we then made into barbecue type sandwiches for lunches. Saturday night I made a Coconut Curry chicken which was okay. It needed to be a bit more spicy.

On the stitching front, I got some good stitching done on the round robin I am working on and on my House Exchange. I will be done with them soon. Yay! I also started on this month's section of Mystery 9. I finished one of the four corners. With all the time we are going to be out of town this month, I am not sure that I will be able to finish it this month. Unfortunately, I really want to keep my rotation in tact so this one may not get as much attention this month. September is relatively slow, so I should be able to make up the time then. So here is my first artichoke.

In other news, my birthday is right around the corner: August 20. I asked Allen to get me a new stitching stand as my gift this year. I got an Ergo stand by Artisan Designs. All I really wanted was the stand, but Allen also got me the matching chart holder. Considering my current set up, I was a bit skeptical about the chart stand at first, but it actually worked out well. I really like this stand because I can now lean my recliner back while I stitch. Much better for my legs as they don't reach the ground and with my other stand I couldn't even use a foot stool. It also will turn the piece around 360 degrees so I can tie off my threads more easily. The only problem is that I have to do a bit of a pretzel routine to get to my drinks on the table behind the chart holder. Here is a pic of my new toy in my stitching area. The black cart next to the couch has all of my WIPS and the stitching notions I use regularly (needles, beading thread, pens, etc).

2006-08-04T18:49:00.001-04:00

I just realized...

...that yesterday was my blogaversary. I can't believe it has been a year since I started this blog. The year has gone by so quickly! I have had so much fun writing in this blog and I have truly enjoyed meeting so many wonderful stitching friends. Because of this blog and all the other stitchers I have met, my stitching habits have changed for the better. I started a rotation and have gotten into exchanges and round robins. Heres to another great year of blogging.

I will leave you a meme from Booking Through Thursday (at least until I finish tonights time on M9)...

Summer Reading

Do your reading habits change for the summer months? yes
If so, how?I definitly read more over the summer. Probably because without students, work is a bit less stressful and it seems like I have more time and energy in the evenings. Because of that I have time to stitch and read:)

2006-08-04T18:49:00.000-04:00

Summer Reading

Do your reading habits change for the summer months? yes
If so, how?I definitly read more over the summer. Probably because without students, work is a bit less stressful and it seems like I have more time and energy in the evenings. Because of that I have time to stitch and read:)

2006-08-03T22:49:00.000-04:00

Feeling sleepy

Monday night, Allen and I went to see Fiona Apple at Wolf Trap. It was a great concert despite the intense heat. The only problem is that since then, I have been very out of sorts. I haven't really felt sick, but definitly very, very tired! Last night, I was so sleepy I didn't do ANY stitching. Allen was a bit concerned that I was an imposter:) Hopefully the sleepies will go away soon!

Tonight was another story. I very eagerly worked on Butterfly Rest. She will now be my Thursday night project. I have now finished one of the big blue triangles of doom and got started on the leaf she is laying her head on. Here she is...

2006-07-30T21:35:00.000-04:00

A Weekend's Stitching

I had a nice relaxing weekend. Friday night we just relaxed and hung out. Allen played Pirates and I stitched for a while before we watched Psych and House on USA network. Saturday, I did a bunch of shopping in the morning and then went to a lunch babyshower for a friend/co-worker. It was a lot of fun and nice to see my co-workers who are off for the summer.

After the shower, I crashed for a bit before making some yummy baked Ziti for dinner. OOHHH it was good! After dinner I settled on the couch with Allen to watch Lord of War while I worked on White Wedding. I had hoped to get page three done last night, but it didn't quite happen, so after housework this afternoon, I did the last 20 rows of the boarder done. So here it is in all its glory, the first half of White Wedding. I actually have the whole right hand border stitched as when I first started it, I had a bit of a scare that the fabric wasn't wide enough. After I stitched the whole right side, I was rest assured that I would have at least two inches on the top. I may sew a piece of muslin across the top so I have more flexibility in my q-snap.

After White Wedding, the last little bit of Mystery 9 got hammered out. I am very proud that I have been able to keep on schedule with this piece. Hopefully I will be able to continue that for the remainder of the year. Now I need to print out some article for my final class paper, then a little time to work on Mylene's RR.

Unfortunately there will be no stitching tomorrow. I work 7-2, then class from 2:30-5:30. After that, I will grab a quick dinner and then I head to Wolf Trap to see Fiona Apple with Allen. Hopefully it will be a good concert.

2006-07-28T21:36:00.000-04:00

A recap and look to the future

July Goals...
1. Finish Celtic Winter (this may be a bit of a pipe dream)Not so much of a pipe dream...all done
2. Finish dress of Woodland Fairy-Only about 30 minutes left on her dress
3. Finish Part 7 of Mystery 9-I will be
4. Make a start on the next round of my Robin's Nest RR-A little over haf done
5. Complete Dog Days of Summer Exchange-Done and shipped out
6. Finish Stitching on House Theme Exchange-About 2/3 done
7. Finish Elizabeth Design's September Garden-All done
8. Stitch on Brightneedle's My Lady's Needlecase-A little
9. Stitch on Butterfly Night-A little

Great month, eh!!

Now onto August. I am going to have to be more conservative as several weekends are going to be spent out of town.

1. Finish Woodland Fairy's torso and face
2. Finish part 8 of Mystery 9
3. Finish page four of White Wedding
4. Finish House theme Exchange
5. Finish Redwork Exchange
6. Stitch on Butterfly Rest on Thursdays
7. Stitch a little on My Lady's Needlecase

Tonight, I got all but 350 stitches done on page three of White Wedding done. Hopefully I will have a full pick of the first half of that one for you tomorrow. Then just a little bit left on Mystery 9 and then on to spend some time with Mylenes RR. In amongst all this i need to swing by Weight Watchers and then have a lunch/babyshower.

Have a lovely weekend.

2006-07-27T23:12:00.000-04:00

Ringing?

By --Deb

We noticed last week what a disproportionate number of participants had Tolkien's Lord of the Rings either in their list of "most tattered" books or featured in the photos. So . . .

Have you read Lord of the Rings? I have read a good chunk of Lord of the Rings, but I did listen to the whole thing on CD. Allen gave me a copy of this as part of the first Christmas we were dating. I gave him a copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
If so, how many times have you read it? Just once? Or so many you can't count? Just once
If not, why not? Not your cup of tea?
And, while we're on the subject, did you see the Oscar-winning movie(s)? What did you think? Yes I have seen the movie. Again, the first holiday season Allen and I were together was the year that both the first LOTR and the first Harry Potter moves came out. The deal was that we would go to see both. Since them I have seen all three LOTR movies several times and Allen and I even did a 12 hour marathon of all three uncut versions of the movies one New Year. It was a fun afternoon!

2006-07-27T22:32:00.000-04:00

A White Wedding Evening

Here is my most recent progress on White Wedding. I can see the end of the page 3 tunnel. I really need to get booking on this one since my mom is going to get it framed for my sister and her hubby as part of their Christmas present. Thus, this piece will be my focus over the weekend.

I also had some fun waiting for me in the mail today. Last week I got a bit of stash from Stitching Bits and Bobs in the mail. Apparently, I didn't really remember what I had ordered because today another little package was sitting on my front step. It was Jeanette Crews' Summer Stitches. It is very pretty with lots of specialty stitches. I love little surprises like this.

2006-07-25T22:17:00.000-04:00

Woodland Fairy

Yesterday and tonight I made wonderful progress on Woodland Fairy. I am about 45 minutes away from finishing her dress. Just one more color. I am really proud of how much I got done on her this month. Hopefully next month will bring more of the same as it will be her one year anniversary. Tomorrow will be spent with a little Round Robining and then on to White Wedding.

2006-07-23T22:59:00.001-04:00

Quick Post

Before Allen comes up to watch Venture Brothers and then off to bed. Last night I didn't quite finish this months part of M9. I will put it off until Friday, just getting it done before August's part comes out. I am a bit nervous about what is on the horizon for that piece considering how much space is left and only five months left.

Today, I primarily worked on Mylene's RR. It is coming along nicely, but it does have some quarter stitches which can be a bit awkward on aida. Otherwise it is a very easy stitch.

2006-07-23T22:59:00.000-04:00

2006-07-22T19:47:00.001-04:00

Productive Day

So, today I got some really good stuff done despite taking a midday nap. I got myself up early (yes on a Saturday!) and first went to Weight Watchers. I lost almost a pound this week. Pretty good since I ate so poorly. Then it was off to get the oil changed in my car and a brief trip to the grocery store. Next was lunch and a nap. After sleeping off lunch, I tackled a week's worth of laundry, the last of the dishes and the kitchen floor. Hopefully tomorrow will be just as productive. Probably not since I hope Allen will be home. I would much rather play with him than do chores:)

So, after I felt like I had done enough chores to clear my guilt, I pulled out White Wedding. It is looking wonderful. Today I finished all but three rows of the bottom border of the piece. If I put two good evenings and some time next weekend, this page will be done by the 31st.

I just had myself some chicken tacos for dinner and after a short break, I think I will pull out Mystery 9. Hopefully I can get that second triangle done. There is just the specialty stitches and a handful of crosses left to do. Tomorrow will be Woodland Fairy and a bit more time on either Mylene's RR or my house exchange. Maybe I will even tidy the living room;)

2006-07-22T19:47:00.000-04:00

2006-07-21T21:06:00.000-04:00

An RR evening...

Last night and tonight I have been working on Mylene's RR for the Robin's Nest BB. I got off to a good start until two things happened.

1. For several minutes I thought I was crazy because one of the colors just didn't match. Turns out the color was miss charted. Problem fixed.
2. I miss counted on the green land and had to frog a bit...what a pain.

Now things are back on track and this is where I am. It is such a pretty piece to work on.

I am hoping to spend an hour or so on each of the following this weekend: White Wedding, Woodland Fairy and Mystery 9. I should be able to finish this months part of M9 in about an hour.

As for my next "start" now that I have finished Celtic Winter, it looks like Butterfly at Rest won the vote, but not by much. So, after August 1st, that will be my Thursday night project. AHHH, big blue triangles of doom here I come!!!

2006-07-19T22:22:00.000-04:00

Happy Mail Day

This afternoon, I received my Dog Days of Summer Exchange in the mail from Shelleen. She stitched me a lovely summer needleroll and made me a very pretty beaded siscor fob. I love the little ladybugs on it:)

I also worked on Mylene's RR from the Robin's Nest BB. I wish I could get a good pic of it, but it is just not cooperating. Hopefully tomorrow.

2006-07-17T23:41:00.000-04:00

Just a quick post to say YAY I finished her!!! Here is my finished Celtic Winter

Started : September 1, 2005
Finished: July 17, 2006
Stitched on 28 Count Smokey Blue Jobelan

2006-07-12T22:18:00.000-04:00

The best laid plans....

...fall all to pieces. Oh well. I had intended to work on White Wedding and Woodland Fairy for the remainder of the week, but I am just too tantilizingly close to finishing the stitching on Celtic Winter. I am sure that all the stitching will be done this weekend as I am now down to just two of the larger medallions and some fill in stitching here and there. Yay!!

2006-07-11T21:12:00.000-04:00

Celtic Progress

After a weekend of not sleeping, I did not feel much like stitching last night, so no progress on Woodland Fairy. Tonight, since Celtic Winter was still on my stand, I spent about 90 minutes on her tonight. Here is my progress.

All I have left to stitch are the rest of the outer border, three and a half medallions on the left, a little gold braid on the right and a bit of filling in on her dress. If I work hard this weekend I will be able to start the beading.

Tomorrow night, White Wedding will come out to play and I will probably work on Woodland Fairy on Thursday. Hopefully the rest of the week will be fun.

2006-07-11T13:48:00.000-04:00

As I am getting closer to a finish on Celtic Winter (will post a pic tonight) I was trying to decide which of my two UFOs I will choose to fill that Thursday night spot. I have several new projects that are dying to be stitched, but they will have to wait until I finish Woodland Fairy (that won't be too long either). I have put a poll up in my sidebar, so let me know what you think I should work on next. Edited to add pics of my two options.

This is Olde World Map. I currently have a good start on the upper right corner of the map.

And here is Butterfly Rest. All I have done is the bottom left big blue triangle of doom.

Thanks for your help in deciding:)

2006-07-09T22:00:00.000-04:00

Allen's WIP

Here are a few more pics of Allen's model plane. He is almost done and has done a wonderful job on it despite a few heat gun accidents.

Here is an upclose of the wing. He is going for a Dukes of Hazzard theme.

And a pic of it mostly finished in Allen's little workshop.

And here is the magic servo that makes it work.

No stitching pics today as I forgot to take a pic of my most recent progress on Celtic Winter. As I am moving along, i am realizing that I may actually be able to get all the stitching done on her by the end of the month. I am not sure about getting all the beading done...but maybe! I also started my house themed exchange this evening and got about a quarter done with it. Yay, I am ahead of the game:)

2006-07-09T11:41:00.000-04:00

An Allen post...

Allen has asked that I post some pics of his most recent progress. Yesterday he started a wooden model airplane and wanted to share his progress.

Here are some pieces of the tail of the airplane

And here are his lovely rounded edges.

And a pic of half of the finished wing skeleton.

Allen put a lot of hard work into this and it looks great.

Now onto my stitching....I finished my September Garden last night. I am not sure how I am going to finish it yet, but I love the way it came out. Unfortunately the colors of the fifth row got washed out in this pic. They almost blend into the fabbie. Thanks again to Cathy for sending me the kit.

2006-07-07T23:38:00.001-04:00

Just for fun...here is this week's

It is quite an appropriate Leslie question considering the last book I finished:)

Non-fiction

This week's questions were suggested by Christine.

Do you read non-fiction books for pleasure, not counting books required for courses or for work? But of course. I am just wierd like that and do enjoy reading non-fiction just for fun.
If so, what areas of non-fiction interest you the most? If not, why not? I am particularly fond of history, biography, religious studies (for those who don't know, in addition to a psychology major in college, I had a second major in religious studies and a concentration in Medieval Studies. Goodness was I a nerd!)
What are some of your favorite books from those areas? Let's see, a few of my favorites...

A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchmann-great review of the Hundred Years War. Throughout the book she follows one family which really drew me in and made it easier to put myself in the midset of a person living in that era.
Six Wives by David Starkey-go figure a biography of Henry VIII's six wives. I also enjoyed the companion documentary piece he did.
Standing Again at Sinai by Judith Plaskow-writings on the changing roles of women in Judaism.

There are ever so many more, but that is just a few of my favs that are within sight at the current moment. I so enjoy reading non-fiction that I have a separate "wishlist" of biographies, histories, etc. It is also interesting to note that my preferred fiction genre is the historical mystery. I am partial to those written by authors that put a good deal of time into their research and provide an accurate backdrop for their protagonists. I have been know to sit with a history text while reading a novel to verify historical accuracy and place people and events in a broader context. I even have a geneological book of European royal families that I will often reference while reading a mystery. Again, I am a huge nerd:)

2006-07-07T23:38:00.000-04:00

Just for fun...here is this week's

It is quite an appropriate Leslie question considering the last book I finished:)

Non-fiction

This week's questions were suggested by Christine.

Do you read non-fiction books for pleasure, not counting books required for courses or for work? But of course. I am just wierd like that and do enjoy reading non-fiction just for fun.
If so, what areas of non-fiction interest you the most? If not, why not? I am particularly fond of history, biography, religious studies (for those who don't know, in addition to a psychology major in college, I had a second major in religious studies and a concentration in Medieval Studies. Goodness was I a nerd!)
What are some of your favorite books from those areas? Let's see, a few of my favorites...

A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchmann-great review of the Hundred Years War. Throughout the book she follows one family which really drew me in and made it easier to put myself in the midset of a person living in that era.
Six Wives by David Starkey-go figure a biography of Henry VIII's six wives. I also enjoyed the companion documentary piece he did.
Standing Again at Sinai by Judith Plaskow-writings on the changing roles of women in Judaism.

2006-07-07T15:32:00.000-04:00

Just a few quick pics for everyones viewing pleasure:)

Here is this weeks progress on white wedding. I should easily be able to finish page three by the end of July.

And here is my most recent progress on Elizabeth's Designs September GArden. I have two and a half bands left.

I also finished the finishing on my Summer Exchange and got all my materials together to start my House Exchange soon. I am undecided as to whether to stitch this first or work on Mylene's RR as they both need to be shipped on August 15th. I have plenty of time for both:)

2006-07-05T09:52:00.000-04:00

Just a quick post to say....Yay, I finished my Dog Days of Summer Exchange yesterday while hanging out with Allen. It is such a pretty piece and I think I may stitch it again some time for myself. I also did a bunch of stitching on White Wedding, but decided to hold off on a pic since I am going to stitch on it again after class this afternoon. Look for some eye candy later:)

Hope everyone had a safe and fun Fourth of July. No bottle rockets through windows as Cooper was sure was going to happen yesterday with all the neighbors ' kids setting off fireworks at the end of our circle. Hopefully everyone has used up their stash and we will finally have a quiet night:)

2006-07-03T13:48:00.000-04:00

Lovely Post

I got some great mail today. The Friendship Exchange piece that Melanie stitched for me arrived today. The pattern she chose for me was absolutely perfect...A Tale of Two Kitties by Calico Crossroads. It is a perfect depiction of my home. Plants and papers torn up, an open laptop on the table and of course...two black cats pretending to be sweet and innocent. She also include an adorable Friendship pattern and four of her own hand-dyed fibers. I already know exactly how I am going to use them, my Christmas Tree Name ornies. YAY!!! Thanks so much Melanie for such a special gift!!

In other stitching news, I finished one of the remaining two triangles on my Mystery 9, stitched some on Butterfly rest (not enough to post a pic though) and am almost done stitching my Summer Exchange. Yay me. Today, after a few chores, I am going to devote my evening to Woodland Fairy. Should be fun!! Here is my M9 triangle:

Yay Blogger for cooperating...it wasn't looking good there for a moment:)

2006-06-30T20:46:00.000-04:00

Just a couple of quick pics for ya...
Here is a full pic of Celtic Winter.

And and up close of yesterdays work.

And a couple of Cooper heading off to his first day of work. His job description...power napping, chasing Zoe, knocking things over and generally irritating his mommy. He is still a bit unsure as to why he has to wear a tie to the office:)

2006-06-30T10:35:00.000-04:00

June Recap

I don't usually post while I am at work, but today I think I am entitled to. Our Assisstant Superintendent is retiring today and in his honor, our floor is hosting a mini golf tournament. Needless to say it is very loud and not conducive to doing any real work. So, in between catching a quite moment to work on my summer assessments, I decided I would do my June recap and July goals. Here they are:

June Goals
1. Finish Celtic Winter border-almost done with right side border...just a few gold stitches left
2. Finish page 2 of White Wedding-yes...yay me!
3. Work on Woodland Fairy-made great progress this month
4. Finish Part 6 of Mystery 9-Yup
5. Finish my part of my RR-Yes
6. Work on Lilies-No
7. Work on Butterfly Rest-No
8. Complete Friendship exchange-Yes, with time to spare

I am quite pleased with my accomplishments this month.

Now, onto July Goals...
1. Finish Celtic Winter (this may be a bit of a pipe dream)
2. Finish dress of Woodland Fairy
3. Finish Part 7 of Mystery 9
4. Make a start on the next round of my Robin's Nest RR
5. Complete Dog Days of Summer Exchange
6. Finish Stitching on House Theme Exchange
7. Finish Elizabeth Design's September Garden
8. Stitch on Brightneedle's My Lady's Needlecase
9. Stitch on Butterfly Night

I haven't done much stitching this week because I am still feeling a bit pooky after my dental surgery on Monday. After 9 hours at work/class, I just come home and check out on the couch. I have, however, made a good start on my Summer Exchange and should be able to have it all finished by this weekend. I have the finishing all planned out and have all the needed materials. I am going to use my new favorite finishing technique...I just wish I had more patterns that were the right size and shape for this type of finishing.

I have a few pics at home to post later this evening, so check back then. There is one particularly adorable one of Cooper getting ready to go to work. Definitly worth seeing:)

2006-06-27T19:16:00.000-04:00

I have not felt much like posting over the last two days, primarily due to some icky dental surgery yesterday. I am a bit sore and extremely tired...if only the pain meds would do something other than make me sick and sleepy. Yesterday I slept most of the day and today I muddled my way through report writing at work.

I did, however, make a little time to work on Woodland Fairy. Here is my progress. I am hoping that with some good work on her next Monday I will be able to finish her dress and sash. Now that I have gotten motivated to work on her again she is really stitching up quickly.

I also kitted up the pattern I am going to do for my Summer Exchange at The Exchange Place BB. I am now a little less than half way done with that piece. If I am lucky, I will have the stitching done on that and my house themed exchange by July 4. Go me!!

2006-06-25T12:17:00.000-04:00

TEE HEE

My blog got a make over:)

2006-06-25T00:47:00.000-04:00

Here is my most recent progress on My Lady's Collection. I am really loving stitching on this one and am so tempted to pull out my Ezmerelda's House pattern. No...bad Leslie! I am almost done with the first of the three needle books. This is for size 24 needles, but you cannot see that the number is stitched already. For some reason, I can't get a good pic of this one. It is either totally out of focus or full of glare...oh well.

I also finished up part six of my Mystery. I know I took pic of it, but I can't seem to find it on my camera. Hopefully, I will be able to finish pare 7 over the 4th of July weekend.

2006-06-22T19:20:00.000-04:00

Edited to answer a question...The other day Lynn asked what CATS was and I neglected to answer promptly. CATS stands for the Consumer Arts and Teaching Show and is a needlework show with classes, vendors and a shopping area. I had read about this last September when several other bloggers attended the one in Hershey, PA. It also occurs in at least two other cities through out the year. If you want more info visit www.stitchingfestival.com So far, I know Jo, Carol, and a few other ladies will be attending. I am quite excited and I think I have convinced Allen to go with me. Maybe he will even bring his cross stitch:)

Speaking of Allen and cross stitch here is his progress on his piece. He started this quite a while ago and has stitched on it every night this week. It is a Dimensions kit of a lighthouse. I need to look for a "masculine" piece in my collection for him to work on. Here is Cooper modeling Allen's masterpiece:)

End Edit***

Just a quick post with two pics from my progress last night. I have gotten a good bit done on White Wedding and anticipate that page three will take only a fraction of the time it took me to do page two.

I also made a good start on one of the needlebooks for my Brightneedle class. I thought we were supposed to get the first instructional email last night, but maybe I am a week ahead. I am interested to see what the online portion includes. (Sorry the pic sucks)

Tonight I am on to Celtic Winter. Hopefully I will make some progress while watching So You Think You Can Dance. I am a horrible reality addict. Last night I made poor Allen watch it. It was quite a site as he was also cross stitching at the same time:)

2006-06-20T22:35:00.000-04:00

Yay...another two good cross stitching night!! Last night I worked on Woodland Fairy and actually felt like I was finally making good progress on her. I had a really difficult time putting her away this afternoon and actually took an extra 30 minutes to finish up the color I was working on. Here is this week's progress.

Tonight I made some good progress on White Wedding. I am planning on working on it some more tomorrow night so I will post a pic then. I also started a little on Brightneedle's My Ladies Needlecase. Tomorrow night is the first of three online "session" for that class. I am not sure what those "sessions" will entail, so it will be interesting to see what is waiting for me after my work class tomorrow night. This evening, I did some more basting and started on the border of one of the needlebooks. The silks that were included in the kit are soooo pretty and I am really liking stitching over one. Working on this makes me want to start one of my other Brightneedle patterns, but Allen seems to think I need to cut back on the starting of new projects.

On the Allen front, he is actually sitting next to me cross stitching. A few years ago he stitched a grape pattern for our grape themed kitchen and did a great job on it. Shortly after he finished that he started a lighthouse pattern, but it got forgotten when we moved. Tonight, he asked if he could try stitching on my Brightneedle piece, but decided against it when he saw it was over one. Instead, I fished out his old lighthouse and he has been working on it for about an hour. I am so proud:) He even said that I can post pics of his progress.

Other good news on the stitching front....I think I got into the Liz Turner Diehl class that I had applied for at the Hershey CATS convention. There was a charge for the right amount from CATS on my charge card, so I am taking that as a good sign. I am very excited!!

2006-06-19T19:34:00.000-04:00

Twas a wonderful stitching weekend...

On Friday, I finished one of the two triangles in this month's installment of Chatelaine Mystery 9. I really liked the satin stitched flowers, but I agree that the red ones on the bottom were a bit weird to stitch. I should finish it this coming Friday.

Saturday and Sunday, I focused most of my time on Celtic Winter. I finished all the cross stitching on the word "Winter" and on the bands across the top. Yay me!! I hope to finish up the right hand border on Thursday night.

When I needed a quick break from CW, but didn't want to give up on stitching, I pulled out the September Garden Kit that Cathy sent me. I really like it and can't wait to get to more of the specialty stitches.

Tonight, I get to spend a little time on Woodland FAiry and I also want to start basting the fabric for my Brightneedle online class as the first segment comes out on Wednesday and I want to stitch a bit on it at some point this week.

2006-06-16T18:20:00.000-04:00

Here is my most recent progress on Woodland Fairy. she is really looking lovely. I can't wait to get up to her face soon. I think I am going to work on her for July's Stitch-a-thon on FGBB. That would help me make some great progress on it. I also have a week off the first week of July during which I plan on doing TONS of stitching.

This week, I also worked on White Wedding, but you still can't really tell that I have made progress on page 3.

Now I am off to work on Mystery 9 for the evening and then it is Celtic Winter for the rest of the weekend. YEAH!!

2006-06-15T21:43:00.000-04:00

Just a quick post.... I have been really busy trying to get everything settled at work now that most of our staff is heading out on vacation for the summer. I have just barely had time to stitch this week. I did finish off my Friendship Exchange, packed up my RR for mailing to Germany and stitched a little on White Wedding and Woodland Fairy. I will definitly post pics tomorrow after i get home from the post office. Now I am off to relax, watch So you think you can dance and work on a new project (Bad Leslie). I just started a bit on September Garden by Elizabeth Designs that Cathy sent me with the Beginner Exchange that we participated in in May. See you all tomorrow.

2006-06-11T20:44:00.000-04:00

It has been a good stitching week, but unfortunately I can't show much of my progress. Earlier in the week, I was able to finish page two of White Wedding. Next week, I hope to make a large amount of progress on page three. It is the exact reverse of page one which stitched up pretty quickly. I am not sure why page two was such a pain. I am going to try and show up a pic, but blogger is being a pain tonight so I am off to photobucket for a minute. Hopefully that will work.

Who knows why the pic is that color, but it at least gives a sense of how much I have completed. Look further down the page for the true colors if you like.

After finishing that section of White Wedding, I picked up my Friendship Exchange piece for Melanie. I was able to the stitching today and have everything I need to finish it...except Allen. Allen is my master "centerer". Whenever I do any major finishing, I rely on him to center it for me and unfortunately he is at work all day today. He should be home at a reasonable hour tomorrow and it should be ready to go out in the mail by mid week along with my RR. YEAH for me on getting things done on time.

Also tomorrow is our second anniversary. If you ask Allen, we have actually been married almost four years. He apparently calculates from when we moved into the condo together. On Saturday, he and I went to the Melting Pot to celebrate. We had a wonderful dinner. On Friday, I also got a really sweet surprise. I got a flower delivery at work and I was quite surprised by what I found inside. Allen was very thoughtful and creative this time around. He sent me a beautiful Hawaiian lei from Maui. That is where we went on our honeymoon. Here is a pic.