My Life In Stitches

The summer has gotten away from me...

2011-07-28T18:53:00.005-05:00

Where has the summer gone? Yesterday, I registered the kids for school, and that starts on Aug. 16th. YEAH!!!! Don't get me wrong, I love my kids. But I'm a believer in year round school, and think they do much better at school. I'm able to get more things accomplished at home when they're at school too.
The summer has been somewhat busy, yet we haven't done anything. I started school for myself to get my Bachelor's Degree in Nursing. Then I've also restarted Weight Watchers at the beginning of summer. I've lost about 20 pounds so far. I'm thrilled. Another 20 or so, and I'll be done, I think.

I've been doing some stitching this summer. One piece, I was about half done when I found out that I counted wrong. It was on LHN Liberty. So I've put it up for a time, until I'm ready to rip it all out. I was soooo upset.

LK Peep

PS Winter

LK Christmas Rules

LK exchange received from Lisa V

So here's my progress pictures and finishes from this summer. I'm sure there's something that I've forgotten. The last picture is of a beautiful exchange I received from Lisa V. She did a gorgeous job.

The only other thing that has been going on this summer, is I've become a consultant for Thirty-One Gifts. They have some of the prettiest bags I've ever seen, and I LOVE bags. If anyone is interested in any, please let me know or you can look me up as a consultant on the website. Look under my name, Melissa Cahill. I'd be happy to answer any questions or help you with them. They're having a special until the end of August...15% off of everything in the new catalog.

I will try to keep up on my blog. I know that I'm terrible with it, but I'll try.

Thanks for visiting!

A little help needed...

2011-06-16T20:58:00.000-05:00

I'm trying to find a couple of Bent Creek Zipper kits that i've recently fallen in love with, and I wonder if anyone can help me.

I'm looking for
Bent Creek's Made in the USA and
Bent Creek's Snow is in the Air.

I'm really only looking for the chart of each. I don't usually like the fabric that is included in their kits. If anyone has these and would like to share or part with them, please let me know.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'll be back with an updated post next week. Do I have a lot to share.

Have a great weekend!!!

Vacation time and cards...

2011-05-13T14:53:00.000-05:00

Hi!
I was pretty busy when I was on vacation making some pretty cards. I find coloring so relaxing. It's also something that my middle DD can do with me too. She really enjoys coloring and making cards with me.

This 1st one was from a contest on the 365 Cards blog from Sunday #69 I have a great time with this. The next two cards I made for mother's day. I thought the designs were so cute!

This one was for a two challenges...the first was on the Bugaboo Wacky Wednesday Challenge, and the 2nd was for the May Anything Goes challenge on the Bugaboo Catch the Bug Challenge Blog. I made this for my niece who is getting ready to end her time in grade school and won a couple of awards at her school awards banquet.

This last one is for my nephew's birthday. He's going to be 4.

Wow!!! Enjoy the weekend!

Wow...it's been quite a while

2011-05-13T14:42:00.001-05:00

My initial post of this has completely disappeared after blogger's problems the other day. So I'll repost it.

Since my last post. I'm very sorry about that. I went through a little slump for awhile, but think I'm working my way out of it.
I've been doing some card making and some cross stitching, and having a great time doing it. I've been on vacation for the last 9 days or so. The beginning of it was kind of rough, but the last several days have been quite relaxing...even with having to catch up on laundry and housework. I'm looking forward to the kids getting out of school in another 12 days for summer vacation. I'm so tired of school this year. My middle daughter's teacher is just a piece of work. She's getting ready to retire, so I guess she doesn't think she needs to do much. Needless to say, my DD has struggled ALL year. For the last several years, my DD has loved school...until this year anyway. This year she has dreaded going.

I think I'll make a separate post for my cardmaking pictures that I've been working on lately.
Thanks for visiting!
Melissa

Look at this great giveaway...

2011-04-22T11:52:00.001-05:00

Look at this great blog candy giveaway...I would love to win this. So many great things.

I will be back later this weekend for a new blog post.

Mother Nature is confused...

2011-03-26T17:52:00.000-05:00

or having a massive bipolar moment. We've been having weather in the 70's all week. It's been just gorgeous. I was able to completely clean up the yard and flowerbeds. I walked my daughter to school and walked the dog a couple of times. He was loving soaking up the rays under my forsythia bush.

Now here is today...(the same forsythia bush)

We're expecting up to 5 inches of snow. This really stinks!

Here's what I've been up too lately...

I've made 3 new cards using some new paper that I just love called Echo Park Paper Springtime Kit. LOVE IT!!!!

Then here's my new stitching progress. This is PS Winter. I've down almost the whole bottom. I think all I had done prior to stitching was the branches and red birds.

The I started LK Peep. This is adorable!!! (Sorry for the sideways photos).

This is my next start. I'm waiting to finish the PS piece first, then I'll start this one. I'm still trying to determine the fabric on it though. I'm not using the Valdani thread on it though. I got some great thread from www.hand-dyedfibers.com. It's a great conversion.

Sorry for the picture intensive post. I have to go get ready for work. Have a great weekend!

New card challenge blog

2011-03-25T09:58:00.000-05:00

Hi!

Check out this new card challenge blog. Looks like a lot of fun! The first challenge is on April 6th. Go take a peek!

Scrapbox giveaway

2011-03-16T23:31:00.000-05:00

Look at this awesome giveaway on Facebook. These storage/desks are awesome!!!!

I would love to win one. Someday I would like to have one.

Check out this link.

Such a sad day...

2011-03-14T18:55:00.002-05:00

My last grandparent died this afternoon. My sweet, gruff (on the surface, marshmallow on the inside) 92 year old grandpa died. It is a blessing because he is with my grandma again, but it's such a hard realization that he is gone. He had been miserable since Grandma died 4 years ago. He had been a pretty healthy man until probably the last year or so. My grandparents had 7 kids, 12 grandkids (I think), and over 10 great grand kids.

We love him so much, and he will be greatly missed!

So sleepy tonight...

2011-03-10T22:11:00.000-06:00

but it's way too early to go to sleep. Kids finally went to bed. I don't know where this week has gone. I go back to work tomorrow night after having the last 4 days off.
We had a nice evening. Does anyone have a Papa Murphy's pizza near them? LOVE THEM!!!! For those of you that don't, Papa Murphy's is a place where you go and order pizza, they make it, and then you take it home and bake it. It's perfect for us since we live about 20 minutes or so from the nearest pizza place, and then no one will deliver out here either. We usually get pizza from them every 1-2 weeks. Well, tonight when DS and I went they had a dessert pizza. We don't usually get that, but OMG, it was soooo good!!!! It was a S'More pizza. MMMMMMMM! My middle daughter's birthday is next week, and she actually wants that as her birthday cake for her sleepover. LOL!!!
I forgot to tell you about our newest acquisition 2 weeks ago. We traded our minivan in for a Kia Sorrento. WE LOVE IT!!!! My husband actually drove it for the first time the other day, and now says he's got to get himself one of these. His car is completely paid off in July, so he might just do it.

I've made some pretty good progress with my crafting over the last week. I finished CCN's Christmas Carols. I think it really turned out nicely. Now to just get it framed. I also worked some more on LHN's Cardinal Winter and started a new ornament from The Gift of Stitching magazine.

This is my latest card as well. We have had an interim director at work lately. She's just an awesome lady, and we wish that she was staying, but it was a temporary thing, and so she's going back to her regular position tomorrow. So I made her this card and gave her a little present to thank her for everything she has done.
Quick story...
We are going to Disney World on vacation this year. Not until the fall though. The kids think this is a year that we aren't going on vacation at all. So last weekend, there was a commercial on about Disney asking,"What is your favorite part about a Disney Vacation?" My middle daughter with enough attitude of a teenager answers back, "NOTHING!!!" Then the next question the commercial asks is,"When are you planning your vacation to Disney?" Again with the attitude, "NEVER!!!!" We aren't planning on telling them we're going until the day we leave. It was just hilarious to hear her response, knowing that ultimately we definitely are going this year.
Well, have a great weekend!

I've been busy...(picture heavy)

2011-03-04T12:33:00.001-06:00

Hi there!

Well I have been a busy girl lately. It seems that once all of the snow and ice went away, my energy started to come back. So needless to say, so did my motivation. I've been stitching a lot, but I've also been making cards as well. The first is a picture of some pretty Gerbera daisies and yellow roses that I bought for myself. They were sooo pretty!!!

Moulin Rouge and Earth Gatherer have been UFO's/WIP's for the last several years. I actually accomplished quite a bit on both of them. Everything on MR in the lower corner is new progress. It actually was a complete page (or really close to it). The progress on SB was on the arch on the border and the sun. It really went pretty fast once I started working on it.

I had to restart my CCN Christmas Carols. I didn't like the color of the fabric at all. You couldn't see anything with white on the fabric. So I restarted it at the end of last week, and as you can see it's almost finished. Just the top left. I hope to finish it towards the beginning of the week. If I didn't work all weekend, I would probably have it done in the next day or two. And the last but not least is the new LHN Christmas Ornie from last month. I love all of these! I'm stitching it over 1 on a piece of fabric that I coffee/tea dyed.

Of course, then I've been working on cards as well. These are just a couple of them. I'm really simple when it comes to my card making. I love how these turned out though.

I've also been cooking a lot lately. We've been consciously trying to eat dinner at the table as a family as much as we can. I'd bought some Taste of Home cookbooks called the Comfort Food Diet. There were 2 different ones, plus a magazine version. We haven't had anything in them that we haven't liked. So I highly recommend them if you're looking for some new cookbooks.
I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! I'll be working all of it.

365 Cards - Day 1

2011-03-01T23:52:00.000-06:00

I've been into cardmaking for a little while, and recently found this card challenge blog called 365 cards. Today was the new start for the new year, so I decided to attempt the challenge. Today the challenge was called White Space, and this is what I came up with.

Sorry about the picture, I know it's not the best, but I'll do better next time.

I'll post some cross stitch pictures tomorrow.

Such a sad day...

2011-03-01T12:24:00.000-06:00

Friends in blogland and stitchers on Facebook that I'm friends with passed this sad information on...

Lisa Roswell of the Primitive Needle passed away in an accident yesterday. My heart, thoughts, and prayers go out to her family and friends who will desperately miss her.

She'll be their guardian angel now.

Illness and ice storms...

2011-02-16T08:01:00.000-06:00

What a month February has been so far...this week is the first full week that the kids have had school since before Christmas due to all of the snow and ice that we have gotten. I guess to look on the bright side of it all though, the kids were sick during those snow and ice days so not as much makeup homework to do. LOL On top of all that ice that we received, a couple days after these pictures, we received almost a foot of snow also. As of this morning, there is a little bit still on the ground, but the temperatures have been spring like this week, so it's almost all melted. It's still all a mess, just a different kind of mess.

But of course, now that the weather is nice, I've gotten the flu or something of that sort. I am feeling much better though. I think with me being sick and my youngest is sick as well then everyone has been sick for this season except for DH. Needless to say, I'm definitely ready for spring to be here and everyone healthy.

In spite of illness, I have been stitching quite a bit more than I had been. I need to take some additional pictures but I figured I had enough on this post so I'll take some later and post them. I will show you a couple of things that I stitched for an exchange. They are from the LK Go Green charts. I made this cute floss ring tag and needleminder.

This was my first needleminder, and I think it turned out just fine. I had bought this scrapbooking tool that makes magnets, so I thought I'd try it. I just love it. Other that that, I've been kind of focusing on my stitching Moulin Rouge from Long Dog Samplers. I've finished almost a page of that. Then I started on the new LHN Ornament Tweet. LOVE IT!!!

During all of the snow and ice, I stared feeding the birds that were hanging around. Too much ice and snow for them to find any food. We've had such a good time watching them.

Last but not least, this is a beautiful flatfold that I received from Lisa from the Lizzie Kate Exchange board. Isn't it adorable! DH even commented that it was adorable, so for him to notice something like that, is astonishing.

Thanks again, Lisa! Well, I hope everyone has a great week!

And the winner is....

2011-01-27T17:14:00.000-06:00

I put the numbers of responses into the Random Number Generator and it came up with #12.

That means the winner is:

Rebekka

Rebekka, if you will send me your address I will get this out in the mail for you. Congratulations!!!

rymero@madisontelco.com

Thanks!
Melissa

Snow, snow, and more snow...and a little giveaway.

2011-01-22T18:04:00.000-06:00

Wow, where has the time gone. Christmas has been here and gone almost a month ago. We had a nice Christmas, but I was very happy when it was all over.

We also had a nice winter storm this week which dumped the most snow that we've seen in the last 10 years. My kids hadn't ever seen that much snow...a whole foot. I know there are areas in the US that have gotten much more than that over this winter, but for us, it's a ton. School was cancelled on both Thursday and Friday. It's actually been cancelled quite a lot in the last month. There hasn't been a single week since the kids started back after Christmas that they've gone a full week. They need to go back though. I need that peace and quiet and opportunity to get things done. I took the kids sledding for an hour or so near the house today. They had a blast!

I have been stitching quite a bit lately. I signed up for that challenge where you work on your UFO's, and I have been doing that, but I also started and finished something little. I definitely needed some instant or semi instant gratification. Last week, I placed on order with Shepherd's Bush, and this was one of the kits that I bought. I bought the little white box for it as well. It turned out quite pretty. My girls are both wanting it, but I'm going to keep this one for myself.

SB Warm Heart

Well, now for the giveaway. I've been wanting to post this one for quite a while, but am just now doing this.

I am giving away a brand new copy of the Lizzie Kate chart Snowman '10 and Lizzie Kate Quick It Where's the Party with the fabric and threads for the chart Snowman "10. Just comment on this post, and I'll use the random chooser thingy to choose someone on Wednesday January 26th.

Have a great week!!!

Update coming this week...

2011-01-17T08:50:00.001-06:00

I have one more 12 hour shift to go, then I'm off for 4 days. I'll update either tomorrow or Weds., and there will be a giveaway too.
Have a great day!

Happy New Year and a challenge

2011-01-02T03:54:00.000-06:00

Happy New Year!!!
I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday season. Ours was fairly good. Definitely had a couple of bumps in the road, but we got through them. The kids had a wonderful time, and that's all that's important.
I didn't really get any new stash for Christmas, but I did get some $$$ that I think I might buy some SB kits with (maybe). I haven't really been stitching too much over the holidays...just way too much going on. I did join the new challenge out there called "Up for a challenge". It's not the one where you start 15 things in 15 days (I already have enough WIP/UFOs). It's the one where you choose 15 of your current projects or UFOs and try to finish them over the next year. So I chose that one. I'm at work right now and don't have my list, but I'll post it tomorrow. I am also going to post a couple of pictures and a new giveaway tomorrow or Monday. So stay tune!!!
Have a great day!

Iband Christmas Concert at North Point Church

2010-12-11T17:57:00.000-06:00

Awesome!!!

North Point's iBand from North Point Web on Vimeo.

Exchanges and ornie finishing...

2010-12-08T18:01:00.000-06:00

Hi there!

I've received 2 beautiful exchanges lately. This first one is a private exchange between me and Diane. I just love this and really love the way that she finished it. It turned out gorgeous!

This second exchange I received is from Sadie in the HOE Ornament Exchange. I just love this one too! It looks great on the tree.

The next pictures are some finishes that I've done lately. I was really embarrassed to go through the bag where I keep all of my finishes lately to find probably (at least) 30 ornaments that I've stitched over the years, but never finished. I don't get it though. Of course, I also have a ton of finishes that need framed or something too. I need to start utilizing Michael's framing specials.
Anyway, so here are several of my finishes. I still have a ton to go, but I figure if I finish a couple of things one each of my days off, I might have them all done by Christmas.

This final picture is of a private exchange that I just mailed out. A little late, but it's on the way with a couple of goodies. I hope the receiver will really like it.

Lula and Ina, I've sent each of you an email. Ina, I have some thread for you to finish ABC Lessons. Please email me your address so I can send it to you .

See you soon!

Melissa

PS - Keep an eye out, another giveaway will be posted in the next couple of days!

Drum roll please.....the winners are....

2010-12-01T10:48:00.000-06:00

LK By the Letter -- Sharlotte
LK ABC Lessons -- Sharon

I used the random number generator, and it drew both of the ladies name. If you will please email me with your addresses, I will get these out in the mail.

rymero@madisontelco.com

Congratulations!!!

Soldier's Silent Night

2010-11-29T09:15:00.003-06:00

I heard this today on the radio, and was touched so much. Just had to share.

Thank you so much for all of the soldier's and their families who sacrifice so much to give us all that we have!!!

Giveaway...

2010-11-23T12:23:00.001-06:00

Hi there!
I have a couple of charts that I would like to give to someone that would like to have them. Just comment to this post and I'll draw a name on December 1st if you would like either of these. One person will receive the LK Merry Christmas By the Letter charts, and the 2nd person will receive the LK ABC Lessons chart.

Thanks and good luck!

OOPS... sorry that the pictures wouldn't show up. It was showing up for me. Edited hopefully so you can see.

Being lazy, motivation, and stash

2010-11-23T12:03:00.001-06:00

I've been feeling a little lazy lately. I need to get motivated though. I have all of these ideas ...needlework, scrapbooking, quilting, Christmas, home improvement, just not motivated to do them. I don't know why though.
The only thing that I've been motivated to do was to lose weight. I rejoined Weight Watchers. I'm bound and determined to do this once and for all. So far I've lost 7 pounds. I'd like to lose about 50 more. Baby steps. Little steps at a time. I need to start getting motivated with exercising though. I went to the YMCA last week to work out on my favorite exerciser, The Treadclimber. I was so upset, they had gotten rid of the treadclimber. I was shocked. After that I didn't even want to exercise. I did, but it just wasn't as much fun. So now I need to find something that is as much fun as the Treadclimber.
Well here's a little stitching that I've worked on lately. The first is my progress on my Prairie Schooler piece. Not a lot of progress, but I guess a little progress is better than nothing.

The next piece was a new start that I've really been having a great time with. This is Country Cottage Needleworks Christmas Carols. I loved this as soon as I saw it. So I had to get it and start it as soon as I did. Sorry for the lousy picture.

Then I bought myself an early Christmas present. I'd had a wishlist on my computer for quite awhile, but hadn't splurged. So I had worked some extra shifts at work, and decided to fulfill a little off of my wishlist.

Publish Post

Well, I guess that's it. I'm going to post a giveaway probably later today. A couple of charts that I've stitched for myself, and thought that someone else might want to stitch them too.

So keep an eye out. Have a great day!

Beautiful giveaway

2010-11-11T15:12:00.000-06:00

Look at this beautiful giveaway that Belinda is offering. It's just gorgeous!

Go visit her blog and you can enter too.

Picture of exchange...

2010-11-05T17:58:00.001-05:00

Hi there!
Quick picture of the exchange that I made for Sharlotte. I really had a good time making this for her. It's JBW's Autumn Harvest using the called for threads and a scrap piece of fabric.
I went to Joann's Fabrics with one of my best friends today. WOW, what a sale they have. They have all of their autumn/halloween items at 70% off. I bought 2 really great autumn colored wreaths for $12 each. They were $40 on full price. I LOVE a good bargain. I also managed to find the Aleene's Craft Glue with the brush. Love this! I would use that all the time with my finishing.
I'm working days this weekend, so I probably won't be on until at least Monday.
Have a great weekend!

Homework, birthdays, and exchanges...

2010-11-04T21:28:00.001-05:00

Hi there! Well things here have been a little busy. The kids school homework is really kicking our bums. I don't know what the deal is, but my 4th grader has more homework than my 6th grader. I'm not sure if she just doesn't focus or what, but I'm exhausted after doing all of that. She gets very frustrated too. Which naturally distresses me.

Since the last time I wrote, we have had my youngest DD's 8th birthday. She had a great time. She had a sleepover the night of her birthday with 3 of her best buddies. Then on Saturday, she had a roller skating party with about 9 of her friends. She enjoyed herself sooo much!

I've been in a little bit of a stitching funk lately. I don't know what the deal has been. I have been stitching, just not like I used too. I'm hoping it's because I wanted to get some new stash. I rectified that today. I made a small purchase from the Silver Needle, and then a bigger purchase from Needlecraft Corner. Needlecraft Corner always has a 20% off sale. It really can add up. Drema always processes and ships the orders quickly too. I did go to a new to me quilt store last week. They moved to a new building which is so beautiful and nice. I bought some really cute finishing Christmas fabrics for the ornament exchanges I have going on in the next month. Plus they had the cutest scissors. I'll have to take a picture of it next time.

I did receive this beautiful exchange piece from Edgar on Tuesday. It was for the HOE Fall Exchange. It's a Mary Garry piece. Didn't he do a beautiful job!!! I sent my exchange out too, but I forgot to take a picture. I hope that my partner will post a picture so I can show you.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Have you seen this???

2010-10-24T16:55:00.000-05:00

I saw this on Sharon Crescent's, owner of Crescent Colours Blog. Isn't this adorable!!! This is one of next year's LK Snowman Snippets. I LOVE THIS!!!! It uses a beautiful Crescent Colour's frame.

Just thought I'd share.

Fall's arrival and a good pot of soup

2010-10-05T18:47:00.001-05:00

Amazing how time gets away from you. It's been a couple of days since the last time I blogged. I've been pretty busy. I went back to work for the first time since surgery. I just finished working four 12 hour night shifts in a row. Wow, those were tough. But, I got through them. Now I'm off for the next 3 nights. I'm so looking forward to them.

Since, the last time I posted, fall has arrived in my little corner of the world. The last couple of nights, the temperature got down to 40* F. So, because of this, I decided to make some homemade clam chowder. I'd never made clam chowder, and it was soooooo good. My kids even liked it. If you'd like the recipe, click here. Granted it's definitely not a low calorie dish, but it's so rich and hearty, one bowl filled us up.

Here is my progress on my latest project. It's Prairie Schooler Winter. Of course, I haven't stitched since last Thursday, so I'm really looking forward to sitting down tonight (maybe with a cocktail) and stitching.

A friend of mine at work and I were talking about her parents downsizing their house and a garage sale she was having. They we were just chatting, and I mentioned that I stitched, and she asked if I would like to have some cross stitch books that her mom was wanting to get rid of. So, I told her that I'd love to have them. She brought them in on Saturday night, so before I went to bed that morning, I got to go through the stash. There were so many magazines from the 1990's; Just Cross Stitch, Country Stitch, Cross Stitch and Country Crafts. There were also quite a few old charts including some sampler charts that I'd never heard of. I'll try to post a picture of some of it tomorrow.

Thought I'd share a picture of my furbaby. This is Bella, however, Bella is a boy. The man we got him from said that Bella was a girl, and I hadn't checked until we got him home. So even though he's a boy the name sort of stuck. It just amazes me the positions cats get in when they sleep.

I did receive all 3 of my people for my PIF's. If you haven't sent me your address yet, please do so. Also, if you haven't gotten an email from me about the Ornament exchange, let me know that too. I thought I'd emailed both of my partners, but I don't think I'd heard back from Diane.

Have a great day!

Pay It Forward

2010-09-25T09:29:00.001-05:00

I've been chosen to do a Pay It Forward on Patti's blog, so now I'm offering one on my blog.

Here's the plan...

The idea is that 3 of you join my Pay It Forward and then

I will send a hand made gift (made with love!!!) to each one of my THREE

within the next 365 days!

Then, those 3 people must also host a PIF on their blogs

and ask for 3 people to join their PIF - To pay it forward!

So this is me, asking for 3 people to join my PIF -

just leave a comment to this post !

That's it...no Catches!

NOW...

I only need THREE...

who wants to be my THREE????

So please come and join me and be one of my THREE because I would really love to make something special for you. It doesn't have to be cross stitch that you make, just so long as it is made by you with LOVE. So whatever you want to make for your PIF will be PERFECT!!

Finally would you please let me have your full name and snail mail address so that I know where to send your PIF.

Deborah giveaway

2010-09-24T17:22:00.003-05:00

on her blog for having 100 followers. Go visit Deborah's blog to join her giveaway.

Doctor's appt and a little shopping

2010-09-21T21:56:00.000-05:00

Well, I had to make a quick trip to my surgeon's office yesterday morning. He had to give me the A-OK to go back to work at the end of this week (which he did). I kind of liked being a stay at home mom again though.He's not too happy with my calcium level though. Super low. :( He's not too happy about it, but I'm doing everything he told me to do. So he added another prescription to help my calcium tablets absorb. Since I had to make the trip to his office (which is an hour away), I thought I'd make a visit to the local Joann's Fabrics. I really love Joann's. Their fabric is so pretty. The one I went to is one of the smaller Joann's so they didn't have the selection that the one closer to my house had, but I was still able to find some new pretties to spend some money on. What was even better was that I had a coupon for everything that I bought. LOVE IT!!!

Some beautiful Christmas fabbies

Then I was looking a little bit more and found this beauty that I had to have. Better yet, it was 40% off.

Gingher's Charlene scissors

Today, DH and I had a date day. Ran around and did some shopping and then had lunch. We made a quick stop at Old Navy and found my middle DD new blue jeans. They were on clearance for $1.97 a pair. So we walked out with 5 pairs of jeans for her for $10.00. I was so excited!!!!!

Then we ran to Border's. I love Border's, but I don't go as much as I used to because I have an iPad, so I buy most of my books online. But I do love to look at their magazine section.

Why is it that it seems the best cross stitch/scrapbooking/cardmaking magazines are all published in the UK? Granted there are some nice ones here in the US, but the UK ones are awesome. My DH bought me a Christmas Card magazine today from the UK. I absolutely love it!!!! Can't wait to start making some cards from it.

Well, I guess I'll get off and stitch, I think I'm going to start a new project tonight. I have to get as much stitching in the next 2 days as I can since I go back to work Thursday night. I'll try to post a picture of my new start tomorrow.

Night!

Anyone up for an ornament exchange???

2010-09-20T14:46:00.002-05:00

Looking for a couple of people to exchange some Christmas ornies with? Anyone up for it?
Just leave a response to this post.
Thanks!
Melissa

Update and a little ornament crazy...

2010-09-19T22:12:00.000-05:00

Well, I've been a little ornament crazy lately. I thought I was having a dry spell, but maybe not. I think it was more of a dry spell from bigger projects. I have worked on some bigger projects but just not as much. My focus has just not been what it usually has been. Here are some of my recent finishes.

LK from the 12 Blessings of Christmas

LK "Feeling Festive"

LK "Got Snow"

LHN "He's A Flake"

LHN "Peppermint Twist"

I'm hoping to finish Peppermint Twist when I'm done updating this blog. Maybe I'll try to actually make them into ornaments this week before I go back to work. I'm going to go to Joann's tomorrow to look for some Christmas fabric.
Other than my ornament stitching, the kids have started back to school. Two out of three of my kids are really enjoying school. Especially my oldest. He LOVES middle school. My youngest enjoys school too. However, my middle one is really struggling. I'm not really sure yet about her teacher though. I'm not used to teacher's not getting back to me after I've emailed/called them. I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt though. If I don't hear from her by tomorrow, I'll be contacting the principal. So we'll see.

Then I had thyroid surgery on the 7th. It went pretty well, however, there was a complication. My overnight stay in the hospital ended up being a 5 day stay and a very unpleasant NO FAT diet. Do you know how hard it is to eat a no fat diet. It was the way to get my extremely rare complication called a chyle leak to go away without having to go back in for more surgery. The diet is officially over though. I go back to the surgeon tomorrow morning to get cleared to go back to work this weekend and to be able to start exercising again.
I'll leave you with a couple of pictures from our vacation back in July.

Thanks for visiting!

Ina...

2010-07-24T18:37:00.000-05:00

I think it would work with 3 strands. I know that I did have floss left over when I was finished. I can't remember how much though. I'm on vacation right now, but when I get home next week, I'll look and see how much I had left to see if it would work.

a note for Ina

2010-07-22T10:56:00.000-05:00

Hi Ina!

Could you please repost your question? For some reason, I approved your comment, but then it disappeared.

Thanks!
Melissa

2010-07-21T01:51:00.003-05:00

Wow, it's been a year since I've posted last. I thought I'd start blogging again. I know that I never blogged a lot to begin with, but I've decided it's a good way to journal what is going on in my life.

Well, I'm still working as an RN, however, I'm not working at a hospital much closer to home. Instead of an hour and fifteen minute commute each way, it's now only 20 minutes each way. I'm working in an ICU on the night shift. I'm really enjoying it.
We've been having a really nice summer with the kids so far. We've been to the zoo a couple of times, swimming, roller skating, and then down to visit DH's mom. When we were there we stayed at a hotel and visited a waterpark. That was a lot of fun. This weekend, we leave on a mini vacation to Holiday World and that area in Indiana. We're really looking forward to that. It's just amazing how fast they are growing though. My oldest is 12 now, and the youngest will be 8 in October. I love the ages they're at right now.
I've been stitching quite a bit this year. I haven't started too many new projects. I've actually been working on finishing a lot of UFO's. I realized that I had many things that I'd started over the years (large to even larger projects) that it was time to finish them.
So far this year, I have finished LK Christmas, LK ABC Lessons, Mirabilia Touching the Autumn Sky, and LK A Bit of Flip its. Plus, I've been working on a lot of my other UFO's. I haven't taken pictures of those yet, but I will and then I'll post some of the finishes.

Here are a couple of pictures that I took of the beautiful flowers at the zoo. The STL Zoo does such a beautiful job.

I'll take some pictures of my finishes this year and post them soon.
If anyone is still reading, take care, and I'll write more soon.

No excuses...

2009-07-31T21:02:00.003-05:00

Life sure has been busy for me and my family over the last several months. Summer has been so busy between kids classes, vacation in Indianapolis, and working every weekend.

In addition, I've been accepted to the University of Missouri in St. Louis to get my bachelor's degree in nursing. I start classes on Aug. 24. The program is completely online. I'm really excited about that.

The next couple of pictures were taken at our mini vacation to Indianapolis. We stayed at the Holiday Inn at the Pyramids which have an indoor waterpark, then we spent a day at the Indy Zoo, and a day at the Indy Children's Museum. We could have definitely spent another day at the museum. We got to see a wonderful King Tut exhibit.

I have been stitching quite a bit (starting new projects which I shouldn't do) and quilting. I'll try to post a picture of some of my projects next week. I start work for the weekend tomorrow, plus work a couple of days next week.

Thanks for taking a peek if anyone is still reading my blog. I'll try to do better.

What a busy couple of weeks

2009-05-13T20:11:00.002-05:00

I can’t believe it’s been almost 2 weeks since I’ve posted. I definitely didn’t mean for it to take so long. I guess with starting a new job and everything, I lost track of time. Boy, did the 2 weeks off go by quickly though.

I can’t really say how the new job is because all we did the first 6 days was go through orientation. I’m so glad that it orientation is over though.

Well, here are some progress pictures from the last 2 weeks. Not a ton of progress, but some.

This is SB Stripes. I’ve been wanting to do a piece of there’s for a while now. This took me 2 weekends to finish. I think I’m going to buy the mats from Jill Rensel for the finishes.

This is my progress on my Prairie Schooler piece. I’m really loving this. Unfortunately, I haven’t worked on my Plum Street Still Waters SAL w/ Jean for over a week. I am working on it today though, so I’ll hopefully show a picture in a couple of days.

Our dryer died today. Of course, I was working on the weekly laundry, so I have our loft stair railing covered with laundry. ARGH!!! Hopefully, we’ll have a new one soon.

Well, I hope everyone has a great week.

How fast a week can go...

2009-04-28T13:53:00.005-05:00

Wow, why is it that when we were little, the days just dragged on, summers would never end, and we were wishing that we were 16 and wanting to drive or date or something. Now, we wish that time would just slow down a little. It seems like yesterday that our children are born, and now we wish they would quit growing up.

Same goes with the weeks. It turned out I was off all of last week and this week too. I start my new job on Monday 5/4. I have thoroughly enjoyed all of my time off. Last year I really didn't get a vacation because I had surgery, was home for about a week, and then went back to work. Unfortunately, the time has gone awfully fast.

Here are my progress pictures over the last week. I've really enjoyed having the kids at school and stitching to my hearts desire. Of course, with a little cleaning and laundry thrown in too. The progress made was on my LK ABC piece, By Gone Stitches Quaker Virtues, and Plum Street Sampler Still Waters. The Plum Street piece is my SAL with Jean whose blog is the Slow Stitcher.

Then this week, I decided to also work on a couple of little projects as well. They are both from LK. The first one is from LK Little Cups of Friendship. It's for my MIL for Mother's Day. The other is the first ornament that I've stitched in a long time. It felt so good to stitch it too. It's called LK Happy Holidays. I finished the ornament right before the power went out (at 11:30 pm) for about 4 hours. There wasn't a storm or anything. I really hate Ameren. It never fails, I don't know how often we lose power just because.

Thanks for looking at my pictures. I hope everyone has a wonderful week.

Mel

I have no control!!!

2009-04-19T22:59:00.008-05:00

Well, a couple of posts ago, I went on a little rant about all these projects that I wanted to start. Well, I did just that. I just lost all control and started 4 new projects. I am having such a great time. I've even gone and gotten organized with all of my WIP's and UFO's, even a couple of my future WIP's are somewhat organized. I went and put them all in individual project bags, and spent an evening, making little metal tags and stamped the designer initials on the tags. I think I saw the tag thing on Nicole's blog. It works though. I keep all of the projects that I'm currently working on in a little tote bag by the couch. The rest of them are kept in a basket not too far away as well. I even started a little rotation. I've never really been too good on rotations, but so far it's going well. Not too strict though. I'm working on each project for 2 days in a row. So far, anyway.

Here's my progress pictures from the last week in a half or so. This first one is Plum Street Samplers Still Waters that I'm in doing as a SAL with Jean http://theslowstitcher.wordpress.com/ on Friday nights. This was Friday and couple of hours on Saturday. I'm really enjoying it. Here is my LK ABC Lessons progress. I'll probably start working on this one again tomorrow.
Here is my BGS Quaker Virtues piece. I just started working on this last weekend. So only about 2 days worth. I really like it though.And last, but not least, my PS Spring Breeze piece. I'm working on all 4 of these season pieces for the wall in my dining room. I'm really excited about all of these. This is about 4 days progress.

Now when I say days, it's usually only a couple of hours each day. That's OK though.

This is my last full week of my my current employment. I will be sooo glad when it's all over. I was ready to walk out last Friday, but decided to hold out this last week. Then I have several days off before the new job starts.

Well, I hope everyone has a wonderfully stitchy week.

Take care!

Mel

Plum Street Samplers Still Waters SAL

2009-04-09T19:26:00.003-05:00

Hi!

Anyone up for a Plum Street Samplers Still Waters SAL? I've finished my JCS model stitching piece, and I would like to start this. The picture of it is in my last blog entry. Please leave me a comment if you would like too.

Thanks!
Mel

Exciting news and updates

2009-04-04T08:19:00.004-05:00

Hi there! Well, it has been a great week. You know how a couple of months ago, I was incredibly frustrated with my job. I decided then to start looking for a new job. Over the past couple of months, I have gone on interviews sporadically. Several of the interviews were for case manager nursing positions. Most of them, you have to have your bachelor's degree or, which I don't have yet. Yet, I still did well enough at the first interviews to get called back for 2nd ones. Finally this week, I was offered a good job at the hospital my mom works at. I will be working on the cardiac floor on the weekends. 12 hour shifts, every Sat., Sun, and Mon. Then, I'm off Tues - Friday. Awesome $$$, too. I know it's every weekend, but to have 4 days off during the week is so worth it. I start on May 4th. Can't wait!!!! This is a picture of my youngest DD. She had her kindergarten music program on Monday. It was so cute! Our music teacher at the kids school does an amazing job.

There hasn't been a ton of actual stitching this week. I've been working a lot on the JCS piece. It's due back to them around the 15th. More stitching on that later today. This is what I have been working on. This is my progress on the Moda baby quilt. I think it's really turning out well. (Excuse the sleepy looking daughter, she really had been up for over an hour). This is going to be the backing for the quilt, and also the 72 prairie points that will go around the sides.

Well, after my last post, I decided, why am I torturing myself by not starting anything. So, I've decided to start a project or two. I started LK ABC lessons last Sunday. Not a lot of progress, but I don't feel so deprived anymore. I also received the threads to start either Beatrix Potter or Quaker Virtues. I think it will probably be Quaker Virtues. I received the threads from Vikki Clayton. The colors will be Old Maid of the Heart and Victorian Mint. I love those 2 colors.

Last, but now least, have you seen this new Plum Street Samplers design. It's called Still Waters. I saw it on the Shepherd's Bush blog, and just fell in love with it. It's not necessarily my type of pattern, but I do just love it. I called my new LNS yesterday, and it turned out they have it in stock, so I'm running over there today to buy it.
Well, I hope you all have a great week. The kids are off on Spring Break next week. It will tough on DH and his sleep (DH works midnight shift), but he'll do OK. He knows I'll be home with them more of summer break so he's OK with it.

Take care!

Cravings...

2009-03-29T10:43:00.006-05:00

I've been reading so many wonderful blogs lately with so many wonderful projects finished or in progress. I have so many cravings of pieces that I want to start on, yet I have so many pieces that I am working on in various forms of progression. It just sucks! I want to start something like 6 or 7 possibly more new pieces, but I keep holding off because I feel I need to finish another of my BAP. Now, imagine me using a 2 year old whiny voice, I want to start new projects!!!!! Patience is a virtue, right??? Such crap when it comes to cross stitch. The list of what I want to start, now remember this is just a couple that are screeching at me, BRD Peppermint Twist, ByGone Stitches Quaker Virtues, LHN Sea to Shininig Sea, LHN Traveling Stitcher, LK ABC Lessons, anything SB, and BC Red Thread. OOPS, I forgot there's a couple of Prairie Schoolers that are screaming at me too, but they have to wait since I don't have the charts yet.

Well, on a little bit better note, here is a finish for this week. I love this little piece. I stitched this over one on 25 ct. fabric with DMC threads. I'm also still working on the JCS model piece.

These are the pinwheels for the baby quilt from the last post. I had to make 12 of them, and I finished the 12 yesterday morning. They were a PIA. I've never done pinwheels before. Heck, I've never done triangles of any kind before. Getting the points to match were terrible. I don't know how many times I ripped these apart. I'm satisfied with what I've done though. I went to the new LNS that opened on Friday. It was pretty good. The fact that they are just opening, they didn't have a lot of charts, but they are slowly building up their stock. Here's the stash that I got. It was so nice to fondle threads and fabrics again. Then, I received an order from Shepherd's Bush as well.

Well, I hope everyone has a great week.
Take care!

PS: Hopefully big news later this week. Keep your fingers crossed, and a couple of prayers would be great too.

2009-03-24T16:44:00.002-05:00

The last 2 days have been pretty decent. DH & I bought an elliptical and it came yesterday. (More about that in a couple of minutes), then I received stash in the mail yesterday. Can you say, Oh so excited!!!!! I had held off for a little while from ordering anything from market, then last week, I broke. I just had to. Oh, and I just found out today, a LNS opened less than 20 minutes from my house. I guess it opened in February. As of right now, they're only opened on Fri, Sat, Sun, and Mon. I have every intention of being there this Saturday. I don't know when the last time was that I have actually been to a LNS. I hope they're doing well so they can stick around.

This is my progress piece from the LK Housework piece. I hope to finish it this weekend. I have done some other stitching, but I can't share. It's a model piece for JCS magazine. I'm enjoying it so far. I'm stitching it to make some $$$ to buy a Kindle 2. I really want one of those. I have just fallen in love with it.

Have you all heard about the Silver Needle/LK/JBW retreat weekend in July? It's the weekend after my birthday, so I persuaded DH to let me go. I've already sent in my deposit. So ecstatic about it. I know this picture is bad, but I found this on Moda fabrics blog. It's a baby quilt. It's just adorable, and I'm going to attempt it for a friend who is having a baby in May. Keep your fingers crossed for me.
These are my sweet babies. My DD #1 (middle) had her 9th birthday on St Pats Day. I can't believe that they are getting so big.

OK, so here's the rest of the elliptical story. Bought it online from NordicTrack. Received yesterday and put it together today. I couldn't get the stride on the left side of it to adjust. So I called NordicTrack, and the girl is like, "well, I don't really know why it won't adjust unless the pin is jammed". Mind you the piece that isn't working came preassembled. Anyway, another 5 minutes later and she was like, well, we can send service out to you, but it will be a $45 service call. I went off. I was like, why should I pay for something like that, when I just received it yesterday. I asked to talk to a supervisor, and she was like well, they would have to call you back tomorrow. I told her that she couldn't tell me that there was no one above her there.

Anyway, to say the least, she finally waived the $45 fee, and DH ended up fixing it anyway. Granted, I did lose it a little, but seriously, if I pay that much $$$ for that, I expect it to work when it arrives.

Alright, enough rant, I will write again soon.

Take care!

Long time, no see...

2009-03-15T10:44:00.004-05:00

I can't believe that it's been a month since the last time I posted. Where has the time gone? I've debated posting several times, but haven't really had the time to do it. I need to figure out one day each week to post. That way, I won't have these big gaps in my blog like this.

Not too much has been happening around here. Work is the same. Kids are all good, except for a case of strep throat a couple of weeks ago. The weather is crazy, just like many place I hear. One day it's 60-75 deg, and the next it's 20 deg with snow flurries. I'm looking forward to weather that isn't changing so drastically. Maybe then my allergies wouldn't be so severe.

My stitching has been sporadic lately. There are days when I have no desire to stitch, and then there are days when all I want to do is stitch. Here are my projects from the last month.

This is an exchange that I made for AmySC for the MAWBB. She had requested a Valerie Pfeiffer bird finished anyway I wanted . So this is what I chose. I stitched this over one on a scrap piece of fabric that I had. I really loved stitching this. I'll have to make another one for myself one day.

These are Q-Snap covers. I've been wanting them for a long time, but really just wanted to learn how to make them. The yellow one I bought, so I could see how to make one. I received it in the mail yesterday. The pink one is one that I made last night. I had 3 attempts, trying to figure out how big to cut the fabric and elastic. The 3rd time was the charm.

This is a piece that I started about a week ago. It's LK Housework. I've loved this chart ever since I bought it. So, I decided to go ahead and stitch it. I'm stitching it on a piece of 25 ct linen over 1 thread. I haven't decided how to finish it yet. I was thinking about possibly finding a frame for it.

This is what I worked on last weekend. My DH & kids were gone at his mom's for her birthday. I was on call all weekend, so I stayed home. It was such a peaceful weekend. I turned the TV off when they left on Saturday, and it didn't get turned back on until they returned home late Sunday afternoon. My weekend consisted of stitching, cleaning, and listening to Harry Potter 6 on book on tape. So I decided to break LHN Neighborhood out to work on it for awhile. Before I started all I had done was stitching the brown on the tree. All of the green and the birds was done last Saturday and Sunday.
This fabric is strips from a jelly roll that I've started to work on a quilt. I sewed 26 sets of these strips together. The next step is putting them together to 13 sets. I just haven't done that step yet.

Well, I hope that everyone is doing well. Sorry this is such a long post. Thanks for hanging on if you finished it to the end.

Take care!

Definitely some craziness over the last week.

2009-02-15T20:42:00.003-06:00

Hi to all!
Well, things have been a little crazy over the last week or so. Last Sunday, I was hit with the absolutely worse stomach flu/possibly food poisoning I have ever had. I thought I was going to die. I really hate throwing up, and it had been a really long time since I had. I was soooo glad it only lasted about 24 hours or so. If I could have missed work on Tuesday, I would have, but my boss called on Monday and asked if I was going to be Tuesday. I told her as long as I wasn't throwing up, I would. So I did.

Oh well. Enough gross stuff. Well, here is my finish for the week. This is for Joanne's LHN RR. I was the last to stitch on it. I think it turned out pretty good. The next picture is the completed RR. I just finished it tonight. I will be mailing it out to her later this week.

This picture is Debbie's (pharlap) RR. I'm still working on it though. Hopefully I'll have it done within a couple of days. I'm also working on a piece for Amy on the MAW board. I can't show it though. When I'm done with that, I think I'll be done with all of my obligation stitching for awhile.

This is a picture of my girls. We had a really fun night that picture was taken. We decorated their Valentine boxes for school. They all turned out really well.

This is my son working on his Valentine box. Even he got into working on it. We've had some big accomplishments with the kids lately. All on the same day in fact. My youngest came home with a special certificate called "Caught Being Good". It's a program where the kids can be caught doing something nice for someone. Then my son got a high A on his Social Studies test, and he won a contest at school. Then my almost 9 yr. old daughter, was chosen as one of 6 kids who won an essay contest on Abraham Lincoln at school. She got to go to his special 200th Birthday party in a town near us. What thrilled us even more is that than her picture was on the front page of the newspaper in our area. It was the neatest thing.

Does anyone know of anywhere to buy the Q Snap covers or know of a pattern to make it? I would really like to make or buy some of them?

My thoughts and prayers go out to so many online blogging friends. I've seen a lot of posts about illnesses and deaths lately.

Take care and Happy Stitching!

Teaching and Exchanges...

2009-02-03T20:52:00.004-06:00

I have spent some time both on Saturday and again today teaching my daughters' how to cross stitch. Can I tell you how much fun that was? My almost 9 year old really picked it up well. My 6 year old is doing well too. I bought her a stamped cross stitch kit. They both really enjoy it. Hopefully, they'll want to continue it, and I'll have a new generation of stitchers. Heaven help my husband and their father. LOL

These next pictures are from the SBEBB Frosty Friend exchange that I received from Lucy at http://folk-n-fancy.blogspot.com/ I just love the piece that I received. It's a Samsarah Freebie I think. She also sent me all of these great extras. I loved everything she sent. Thanks so much, Lucy!

I also wanted to show you how I finished the snowman piece from the Frosty Friend exchange that I made from my partner.

Thanks for visiting! Take care!

Unbelievable...the end of January already...

2009-01-31T22:39:00.004-06:00

I cannot believe the end of January is already here. Why is it when you're young, it seems like time never passes, and now that I'm older, it just flies by.
We've had an interesting week. We were part of that ice/snowstorm that went from Texas and Oklahoma, into Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, and more points east. We ended up with a little ice and about 8-10 inches of snow from this past Monday until Wednesday morning about 4:30 am. Needless to say the kids were ecstatic. I don't think we had ever had quite that much to where they could go outside and play on their own. This is what I went outside to see. They all decided to make mini-snowmen and preceded to dress them up with their own winter items. I thought it was just adorable. They were off of school for 2 days due to the snow.

Work has gotten somewhat better, but I do have a good lead on a job in St. Louis. According to a friend that works there, she said her boss talked to human resources and told them to pull my application and set up an interview. So keep your fingers crossed.

Here is one of my latest finishes. I actually finished it just this evening. It's LHN's Strawberry House. I didn't put the lines on the windows because when I did, they all looked crooked. I also haven't decided if I wanted to put the buttons and beads on it yet. I really kind of like it the way it is. What do you think?

LHN Strawberry House

This is a picture of the LK exchange that I received from Caroline on the HOE blog. Isn't it just beautiful? She said it was her first tuck pillow. She definitely did a beautiful job. Here is a link to the picture of the LK exchange that I sent out. Hopefully, the link will work.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1YYU26Ih60I/SYErbQmlhQI/AAAAAAAAARk/bNWMa6qd8pM/s1600-h/DSCF0018%5B1%5D

My piece went out to Susan P from Baltimore. This next finish is a makeup piece for the Fair and Square board. Someone didn't receive their piece so I volunteered to make a replacement. This is from a freebie from Papillon Creations. I thought it turned out pretty. I used DMC 117(I think) for it.

Then last, but not least, this is another exchange piece. I don't think the receiver reads my blog, so I wanted to post it here. This is another freebie from Val's Stitching. I saw a stitching friend online yesterday that I hadn't talked to in quite a while. So I emailed her, and she emailed back and vice versa. Needless to say, I'm thrilled. I sure have missed her. Well, I hope everyone is having a great weekend. If you are one of the many affected by the ice/snowstorms, stay safe.

Happy Stitching!

A Lizzie Kate state of mind...

2009-01-18T20:19:00.002-06:00

Well, this has been an interesting week to say the least. It was absolutely frigidly (is that a word??) cold outside. So cold in fact that they cancelled the kids school on Thursday and Friday because the windchill was going to be between -15 and -20 below zero. On Friday, we woke up to -5 regular temp. That is just absolutely wrong for the temp to be sooo cold.

Work this week was still really rough. So rough that I'm thinking about looking for another job. I'm just really tired of all of the crap. The manipulation, backstabbing, etc... is tooooo much. I'm not that type of person. I like to go to work, do my job and do it well, and then come home to spend time with my family and stitch. It was so bad that I took a mental health day on Friday. Then of course I'm off tomorrow, so I will have a nice 4 day weekend to recharge my batteries.

This weekend, we shipped the kids off to my mom's, and DH and I spent time with just the 2 of us. Our oldest is 10, and we've never done this since he was born. It turned out only to be on Saturday night, but it was wonderful. We went out to lunch and dinner, did a little shopping, and watched Eagle Eye and What Happened in Vegas. I was even able to sleep in until about 10 am when I woke up and told him it was time to get the kids. It was toooo quiet. He agreed. LOL

During the week, I pulled out another project from my WIP basket. I started this LK Flip It series probably over a year ago. All I had ever stitched was January and February. So on Thursday, I pulled it out again. I finished March on Friday morning and April on Saturday. I also have all of the thread pulled for May as well. I need to work on some exchanges first though.

This next piece is LK Life's A Stitch without the satin stitch border. I'm going to make it into a floss ring tag. That's why there's no stitching in the upper right hand border. I found some really cute square eyelets at Michael's for that corner.

Tonight now I'm going to start stitching another LK piece for an exchange.

Thanks for checking in!

Life in Review

2009-01-16T12:59:00.003-06:00

I'm seen this on many blogs and thought it would be interesting to see what I've done and what I still want to do.

Things you’ve already done: bold
Things you want to do: italicize
Things you haven’t done and don’t want to - leave in plain font

1. started your own blog
2. slept under the stars
3. played in a band
4. visited Hawaii
5. watched a meteor shower
6. given more than you can afford to charity
7. been to Disneyworld (attempted twice)
8. climbed a mountain
9. held a praying mantis
10. sang a solo
11. bungee jumped
12. visited Paris
13. watched a lightning storm at sea
14. taught yourself an art from scratch
15. adopted a child
16. had food poisoning
17. walked to the top of the statue of liberty
18. grown your own vegetables
19. seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. slept on an overnight train
21. had a pillow fight
22. hitch hiked
23. taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. built a snow fort
25. held a lamb
26. gone skinny dipping
27. run a marathon
28. ridden a gondola in Venice
29. seen a total eclipse
30. watched a sunrise or sunset
31. hit a home run
32. been on a cruise
33. seen Niagara Falls in person
34. visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. seen an Amish community
36. taught yourself a new language
37. had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. seen the leaning tower of Pisa in person
39. gone rock climbing
40. seen Michelangelo’s David in person
41. sung karaoke
42. seen old faithful geyser erupt
43. bought a stranger a meal in a restaurant
44. visited Africa
45. walked on a beach by moonlight
46. been transported in an ambulance
47. had your portrait painted
48. gone deep sea fishing
49. seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. been to the top of the Eiffel tower in Paris (base of tower, not top)
51. gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. kissed in the rain
53. played in the mud
54. gone to a drive-in theater
55. been in a movie
56. visited the Great Wall of China
57. started a business
58. taken a martial arts class
59. visited Russia
60. served at a soup kitchen
61. sold girl scout cookies
62. gone whale watching
63. gotten flowers for no reason
64. donated blood
65. gone sky diving
66. visited a Nazi concentration camp
67. bounced a check
68. flown in a helicopter
69. saved a favorite childhood toy
70. visited the Lincoln memorial
71. eaten caviar
72. pieced a quilt
73. stood in times square
74. toured the Everglades
75. been fired from a job
76. seen the changing of the guard in London
77. broken a bone
78. been on a speeding motorcycle
79. seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. published a book
81. visited the Vatican
82. bought a brand new car
83. walked in Jerusalem
84. had your picture in the newspaper
85. read the entire bible
86. visited the White House
87. killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. had chickenpox
89. saved someone’s life
90. sat on a jury
91. met someone famous
92. joined a book club
93. lost a loved one
94. had a baby
95. seen the Alamo in person
96. taken a road trip
97. been involved in a law suit
98. owned a cell phone
99. been stung by a bee
100. met the love of your life

WOW, not bad. I've done almost half of those things. The majority of the things that I still would like to do involves travelling. Well some day. LOL

Life and my recent finishes..

2009-01-13T22:08:00.002-06:00

Wow... this has been a tough week or two between work and my son. I have been having a really incredibly busy week at work where it's so busy that instead of working 8 hours, it turns into 9-12 hours and without lunch. It just wears us out.
Then my DS has been struggling with school since the beginning of the new year. He just is not focused and has came home with 3 late homework papers just this week plus a call from one of his teachers. DS is a high functioning autistic in a regular classroom. His socialization therapist called me to let me know what was going on. I don't understand though why his main teacher isn't the one calling me. At least I had a good discussion with the therapist. Unfortunately for Ryan, he has been grounded for a week from all of his video games. He was devastated I don't like to be a bad guy, but I'm not really sure what else to do about the situation.
Even though it's been a rough week, I have been stitching a little to help with my de-stressing. It's my main way of chilling out.

This first picture is of one of my UFO's/WIP's that I wanted to finish this year. I know, it's a really small piece, but for some reason I just never finished it. It was originally started for an exchange, and then I realized I wasn't thrilled with it, so I stitched something else for the exchange instead. I did end up leaving the stars off of the bottom of the piece though. Bent Creek Blessings Abound

This next piece is another one of my WIP's/UFO's. I couldn't tell you when the last time I stitched on this before this past weekend. It's been a really long time though. Maybe over a year which is sad because I really like this piece. The first picture is my before piece. This is the way it looked when I took it out of my basket.

And this last picture is when I quit working on it on Sunday. It really felt good to work on it again.

Mirabilia's Touching the Autumn Sky

The rest of this week, I'm going to be working on a exchange piece and maybe my LK Monthly Flipits from my UFO/WIP basket.

I hope everyone has a great week. For those of you who had some questions about Lo, How A Rose, look at the previous post. Thanks!

Lo How A Rose...

2009-01-12T23:42:00.003-06:00

Hi all!

I've had several requests for the name and where I found the book for Lo, How A Rose. I actually bought the book used from Amazon.

It's called A Cross Stitch Christmas: Celebrations in Stitches by Better Homes and Gardens
Here is the link of where it is on Amazon's website.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/069621363X

They have approximately 17 used and/or new copies as of the posting of this message.

Good luck and happy stitching. I will be posting an update of my latest projects probably tomorrow. Until then...

PS: If anyone knows how to make the titles larger and the date smaller, I would appreciate any help. Thanks!

My New Years finishes and a couple of goals

2009-01-07T21:18:00.005-06:00

I hope everyone had a Happy and Safe New Years. I was on call, but thankfully was never called into work. I was very grateful. On New Years Day, I decided to start something small to work on. So, I chose this freebie ornament called Rejoice by 4 My Boys. I really like her designs, but unfortunately, she retired because of her health. So, I started and finished this on the same day. I started this and finished this on the same day. I thought it was a good way to start the New Year. It's actually a replacement for an ornament that never arrived to my partner on the SBEBB ornament exchange. I was really bummed that she didn't receive the first ornament because I thought it turned out cute. But, I think this will end up being nice as well.

Rejoice freebie

by 4 My Boys

This is my next finish of the New Year. It's a LK piece called Think Winter. I used an Odd and End piece of fabric and DMC floss. It's hard to see the white and snowflakes in the picture.

Think Winter by Lizzie Kate

Now for some goals for the New Year:

I really want to finish stitching some of my WIP/UFO's that have been in my to do basket for ages. You can see the list in the sidebar.

I'd also like to work on some more quilting projects.

Frame/finish items in my finished stitching bag. (If you only knew....)

Thanks for coming to visit. Since I finished the LK piece tonight, I'm going to work on something from my To Do basket for awhile.

Have a great night.

Can't believe it's been almost a month...

2008-12-29T21:42:00.003-06:00

since I've blogged. The last month has just flown by. Another Christmas is over, and New Years is just around the corner. Why is it that time seems to go by soooo much faster the older you get. Well, I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas.

Here are some of my finishes over the last month. The first is Nikki's LHN RR. I think it turned out really cute.

My proudest finished, granted it was many years in the making, but I finished stitching my kids stockings a couple of years ago, but I had never made them into stockings. I finished them into the stockings about 1 am Christmas morning. The kids didn't even know that I was doing them. They found them filled by Santa on Christmas morning.

Then my last finishes were over the last week. I don't know why I always do this to myself, but on the first day of Christmas week, I decided I wanted to make ornaments for my kids. So, I had each of them pick out an ornament from LK's Tiny Tidings for me to stitch. I had 2 out of 3 of them done on Christmas Eve, I just didn't have the 3rd, and I also didn't have them in the finished form. I promised though, so tonight I finished them into the finished form. The kids are thrilled, and are going to put them on the tree in a little while.

I'm going to try to post in another day or two, my goals for 2009. At least a couple of them anyway.

I hope everyone have a wonderfully blessed New Year. Thanks for checking in.

Lo, How a Rose finish and Christmas Parade

2008-11-30T15:27:00.005-06:00

Lo, How A Rose

Brightneedle

Yep, I finally finished it. I started stitching on Lo, How A Rose back in February. I'm so excited that I finished it. I worked on it quite a bit in the last couple of days. I should have been working on a RR which I'm going to work on this afternoon, and for the next couple of days.

We went to the Christmas parade in the town that I work in the day after Thanksgiving. We met my friend, Jenn, and her kids. I think the kids had a good time. And of course, what's a Christmas parade without Santa.

Thanks for visiting! Have a wonderful week.

My latest Christmas project

2008-11-24T21:37:00.003-06:00

Here is my latest project, even though it's not stitching. A friend from work brought in a Southern Living special Christmas issue and in it was this advent calendar tree. I just thought it was a great idea, so I gave it a try. Heaven knows, I have enough scrapbooking stuff to do most of it. So here is my result.

Each individual cone will have a little surprise in it. Either a miniature ornament or a couple of little pieces of chocolate for the kids. There are 25 cones on the tree - 1 for each day leading up to Christmas in December. The kids can't wait for me to fill the cones so they can start counting down the days.

Peek a boo!

I mailed out a floss ring tag today for an exchange on the Make A Wish board. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of it. Hopefully, the recipient will for me. Well, I need to go work on my LHN RR. Have a great week!

Warning: Stitching and Picture Intensive Post

2008-11-22T07:15:00.004-06:00

A couple of weeks ago I was on vacation for a week. DH wasn't on vacation because he didn't have anymore vacation time, so we just all stayed home. The weekend that preceded my vacation I was on call for work and didn't want to do too much because I was afraid I was going to be called into work, so I stitched. And stitched. And stitched. These are some of the results. It was a very ornament stitching weekend.

The first were my F&S Christmas Squares that I stitched for Marie P. This was from the 2008 JCS Ornament Edition from Country Cottage Needleworks. I just loved it. Marie received it the other day, and she said she really liked them.

This next ornament that I stitched that weekend was this freebie from the Cricket Collections Website. You can find it http://www.cecricket.com/gift_design.html I thought it was a really cute freebie, and I couldn't wait to stitch it. That was also an exchange for the SBEBB Ornament Exchange. Can you tell I love ornaments??? Both making and receiving. So much fun!

The next ornament that I stitched that weekend was this one for Edgar for the HOE Ornament Exchange. I had a great time stitching this one too. It's from either the 97 or 98 JCS Ornie Exchange by Prairie Schooler. I had never stitched anything by Prairie Schooler before but really enjoyed it. The same with The Cricket Collection.

This next one is for me!!! Yeah! This is from the LK Tiny Tiding for this year. I just loved this one. Then I found the trim at Wal-Mart which worked perfectly.

This I didn't stitch that weekend, but I did construct it during the week I was off. Carol S signed up for my PIF a couple of months before. I had stitched this a month or so prior, but needed to put it together. So I did it that week. I also made some floss tags on my Cricut to kind of match the floss ring tag too.

Now for receiving things. This is from Marie P for my F&S exchange. I just love them. JBW designs is one of my favorites so it was the perfect choice from her. I can't wait to put it together for the tree. Thanks so much, Marie!

This next one is from Melissa (socalstitcher) for the HOE Ornament exchange. I really liked this one too. He's so adorable, and I LOVE snowmen. And to add to the wonderful exchange was this JBW chart that I didn't have. It's wonderful!!! Thanks Melissa!

This last picture is my latest progress on Lo, How A Rose. I worked on it on the Fri. night SAT on the Let's Stitch board. Not too much to go on it now. I'm hoping to have it done in the next couple of weeks. Veronica asked in my last post who designed this so I looked when I pulled it out this week and was shocked. It was designed by BrightNeedle. I had no clue. However, it was in the BH&G A Cross Stitch Christmas book. I knew there was a reason I liked it other than that it was just so beautiful. Well, enough for my picture intensive post. If you stayed with me all this way, thanks! I will try to do better with the blogging. I'm going to attempt once a week.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and holiday season!

WOW, it's been a long time

2008-10-18T09:08:00.007-05:00

I'm sorry that it's been such a long time. Where does the time go. I can't believe that it's the middle of October. My youngest DD's birthday party is today. She'll be 6 on Wednesday. I just don't know where all of the time has gone.

Here is the progress on some of the pieces that I've been working on. I did finish the JCS piece a couple of weeks ago. I can't show a picture of it though. It is supposed to be in the March/April issue of the magazine. It really turned out great though.

Here is a picture of a UFO. I started this I think about 5 years ago. I haven't worked on it in at least 3 years, and then Becky started the Let's Stitch board, and I worked on it for a couple of hours on 2 different days. I worked on the last 3 bands. I'm going to try to work on it at least once a month. This is VS Christmas Heirloom Sampler.

Here's the newest picture of Lo How A Rose. I've definitely made some progress on this one. Again, it was a challenge on Let's Stitch to stitch on a sampler during the week. So I pulled this one out. It went surprisingly fast. One of my major projects in September was a beginning quilting class. I've always wanted to learn to quilt, but was scared to death when it came to rotary cutting, backing, binding, basically everything. So I had used some money that I had gotten for my birthday to pay for the class. It was one night a week for 4 weeks. At the end of the time, this is what I had finished. Excuse the feet at the bottom.

Here is Suzanne's LHN RR that I finished last week. She wanted something of a nature type piece with at least one tree in it. So I chose portions of LHN 's Acorn Hill for the piece. I really had a great time stitching on it, and I hope that Suzanne liked what I chose. Only 2 more pictures. Sorry for the picture intensive post. Here's a picture of LHN's Strawberry House. This is just so cute in the finished picture that I couldn't resist working on it.

Lastly, I joined a Quilt block of the month club that started this month. It's a Moda University piece called Simply Sophisticated. I received the package on Thursday and couldn't wait to get started. Each package includes enough fabric to finish 2 complete blocks. So here's the first installment. I started and finished these last night. It's made with Blackbird Designs fabric. I can't wait to see what next months blocks look like.

Well, I hope everyone has a great week. I will really try had to post again this week. I'm sorry for the picture intensive and very long post. If you've stuck with me through the whole post Thanks! Take care and happy stitching, quilting, or whatever strikes your fancy!

May We Never Forget

2008-09-10T22:03:00.003-05:00

Reminds me how fragile our lives are. I lost a friend that I had worked with in the Trade Center. My prayers are going out to Sal Lopes and his family. Also to all who lost friends, family, and loved ones.

Christian the Lion video- really touching

2008-08-23T11:11:00.000-05:00

Much better in my world... long post

2008-08-21T19:26:00.005-05:00

First of all, I want to thank all of you for the thoughts and prayers during my recent health freak-out. Here is the update...I have received excellent news. The surgical oncologist ran a blood test and the results were that they got all of the cancer in the first surgery. As of right now, no additional surgery, no chemo, no radiation is needed. We have to continue with the blood work every 3-6 months, and as long as that is OK for over a year, then apparently I'm cured. So, everyone's prayers really helped out during this time.

Things have been really busy right. The first day of school was Tuesday. WOOHOO!!! This picture is of my youngest DD on her first day of Kindergarten. She really was excited, but leave it to my kid to have a cold on the first day. All of the kids on their first day of school at the neighbor's sunflowers. They were just so beautiful and huge.
The other big news...my oldest DD taught herself to ride her 2 wheeler all by herself. I am sooo proud of her. She just decided last weekend to get on and give it a try. We had been working on it off and all this summer with no success. She was that way when we potty trained her too. Just told us one day that she had to go and was potty trained ever since.

Cross stitch wise, things have been really good. I have been working on another project for JCS that will be in the magazine in the March/April issue of 2009. It's a mandala, and I just love it. I finally decided to develop somewhat of a rotation when it comes to my JCS stitching vs. the rest of my stitching. I make a goal every weekend starting on Saturday morning. I have to accomplish whatever the goal is before I can stitch on my own stuff. I try not to make it too overwhelming of a goal. Something that I can try to finish in a weekend or by Monday/Tuesday at the least. The rest of the week, I can stitch whatever I want.

Last week, after I had met my goal, I finally finished one of my UFO's. I really loved this piece, but it became a UFO because I stitched it over 1. I think it turned out well, but I didn't like the fabric that I chose for the over 1. It was a very uneven weave. I'm happy it's done though.

LHN Night and DayThis next piece is the RR from the LHN RR that I'm in. This is Julianne's RR. She chose a theme of City Stitcher/Country Stitcher. She wanted houses that had some sort of City/Country theme to it. I chose this from the new LHN Neighborhood chart. I thought it fit pretty well into the theme. The 2nd picture is what has been completed so far on her RR. This last picture is my start on my SBEBB SB exchange. This is Scatter Sunshine. I don't think my partner reads my blog, so I wanted to show my progress so far. This is 1 night worth of progress.

If you have stuck with me this whole post, thank you very much. I hope everyone is doing well, and thanks again for all of the prayers and positive thoughts.

Updates and PIF

2008-08-01T17:48:00.002-05:00

Hi all!

Thank you to all of the well wishers for the prayers and positive thoughts. I'm doing much better mentally. I've been very positive about it all. I go to meet the surgical oncologist on Weds, Aug 6th. Not too much longer. Of course, I wish the time would go much faster. I'll know more after that appointment. Right now, I'm feeling under the weather though. I have bronchitis or some kind of viral respiratory flu. I'm hoping I start feeling better soon.

I still have 3 openings for my PIF. Please post here if you would like to participate.

Now for some progress pics. This picture is from the Little House Neighborhood. I decided to take from that chart for Julianne's RR. I think it will look nice when it's all finished. This is my new floss ring tag from a Reader's Digest compilation book. I think it turned out cute. Also you can see the floss drops I made from my Cricut machine that I use for scrapbooking.
I did not stitch this next piece, but I did finish it into a flatfold last night for my sister. I went through my fabric stash and found this piece of fabric. It was perfect for this piece.

And lastly, this is a picture of me and my 3 kids at the St. Louis Zoo. We went there this past Saturday. We had a pretty good time, even though it was 95 with a heat index of 105.
Well, I hope everyone has a great week, and I'll post an update after I see the oncologist on Wednesday.
Don't forget to sign up for my PIF.

Bad news in my little edge of the world...

2008-07-24T20:43:00.003-05:00

Well, this is not a very happy post, but it's something so I can get it off my chest and not to feel so scared.

Monday I went to the surgeon for my post op visit and to get the OK to go back to work. I was sitting in the office, and could hear them talking about getting an appt for a patient ASAP. Next thing I hear is the receptionist giving all of my information to someone on the other end of the phone. Needless to say, I knew that that was BAD NEWS!

The dr came in then and explained the pathology from my thyroid surgery came back, and they found a 1 cm tumor on the right side of my thyroid that they didn't expect to find. The part they were worried about in the surgery was the left. Needless to say, I was told I have a rare form of thyroid cancer called medullary thyroid carcinoma.

It's amazing how one day everything is just fine, and the next day your world is turned upside down. All I could think about was my kids and husband and what will happen. Needless to say, we cancelled our vacation because I need all of my vacation time for another surgery to remove the rest of my thyroid (all 10% of the right that's left) and the lymph nodes. Not to mention, numerous dr's appts to surgical oncologists, etc... I don't even get to see the surg. oncologist until Aug. 6th anyway.

Well, for those of you that read my blog, any prayers that you can say on my and my behalf would be greatly appreciated. Right now, I'm just taking each day as it comes. Today was a good day, hopefully tomorrow will be too.

PIF

2008-07-19T13:05:00.001-05:00

Here's the PIF post that I promised. I've signed up for a PIF with Deb. I don't usually get to many comments, but we'll see how this works.

The first 5 people that sign up will get a little finished something from me sometime within the next year, hopefully sooner.

So, here it goes!!!

Back from surgery and update

2008-07-19T12:35:00.005-05:00

Well, I was discharged from the hospital a week ago today. Everything went pretty well. I had to stay in an extra day because I was pretty sick from the anesthesia. I think I slept about 20 hrs out of 24 hours post op. I just was having a hard time staing awake, then when I did wake up, I was very nauseous.
Of course, the day I was discharged was my birthday. Look at these gorgeous flowers DH gave me. There were a lot of lily buds in the arrangement, and every day for about 3 or 4 days a new lily would open up. It was just gorgeous.
This is one of my birthday presents from DH also. The main present is a begininng quilting class that starts the beginning of Sept for 4 weeks on Tuesdays. I've always wanted to learn how to quilt. This isn't the pattern I'll be making in the class, but I think it will be the second one. I got this table runner kit from the Fat Quarter Shop online. They have sooo many wonderful fabrics and quilt kits. Last but not least are my stitching updates. The big news........I finished the JCS magazine piece last night at 3 a.m. It was becoming a vendetta. I NEEDED to finish that piece. I think it turned out pretty well. It's not the kind of piece I would ever stitch for myself, but it turned out nice. The $$$ will be nice from it too. Now I can start stitching on what I want to stitch on.
This first picture is from LHN Neighborhood piece. I'm in the SAL on http://lhneighborhood.blogspot.com/ that Nicole started. It's not much of a start, but at least it's a start.

Here is my little update on Lo, How a Rose. I took this to the hospital with me, but think I only stitched a couple of letters.
This is CHS A Quaker Study. I stitched on this a little one day last week when I needed a break from the JCS piece.
Well, I guess that's it. I've signed up for a PIF with Deb, so I'm going to do another post about that though.

Have a great weekend.

PS: I forgot to post a little sidenote: Today is my grandpa's 90th birthday. He doesn't get on the computer or anything, but I just think it's impressive that he turned 90. He's still pretty healthy as a horse. Happy Birthday, Grandpa!!!!

It's been awhile, but lots of progress to show...

2008-06-29T21:16:00.002-05:00

Hi to all! It's been awhile since my last post. Lots has happened since then, both stitching wise and personally.
The pictures in this post are from my finishes in the last month or so. The only thing not here is pictures of the project for JCS magazine. This first picture is from the Make A Wish exchange for Cathy B. She said that she wanted something from LHN, so this is what I chose. They are both pieces from Heart of America. I really had a great time making these.
This next piece is from the LHN RR that I'm in for the Worldwide RR board. This is Joan's piece. I took my square from Curly Q Ewe. I finished this today. Unfortunately, it's a couple of days late in mailing, but I think it was worth it.
These are my squares from F&S Round 7 for Annemiek. I hope she likes them. It is from the online magazine The Gift of Stitching.
This last one is from the Hooked on Exchanging Board. It's from the LHN exchange. This is from the LHN freebie of Summer House. I finished it as a floss tag. I hope my partner, Lily, likes it.
Now, the other reasons I have ben busy is work, kids, and lots of dr's appts. lately. I went to a new dr. about a month ago just to establish myself as a new patient. Well, ended up getting a nuclear med scan, ultrasound of my thyroid, this week I am having a fine needle aspiration biopsy of my goiter, and next week, I'm having surgery to remove my goiter and most of my thyroid. I'm really nervous about all of this since I've only ever been in the hospital to have kids.
Well, if you lasted this long, thanks so much. I'll be back soon with another post.

A UFO finish and update...

2008-05-14T10:42:00.005-05:00

Can you believe it?!? I actually finished one of my UFO's. This is BBD's Simple Harvest. I took it with me down to Missouri when we went down for the funeral, and I think I finished the "M". So when I got back home, I just wanted to work on something simple.

Then last night, I started this little piece. It's BC's Liberty Zipper. I always hate the fabric that comes in those kits, so I just went and used a piece of 32 ct. fabric. Here's my progress as of 1 am last night. I had to do a little frogging on the blue part in the flag, but got it frogged and restitched.The only other update is of my brand new camera. I'm so excited!!!! The money I made stitching the last piece for Just Cross Stitch went for the new camera. It's a Nikon D40. I just love it. Now to learn how to use all of the bells and whistles. I had a lot of recommendations for this camera including from reading Nicole's blog. She has the same camera.

These are pictures of my peony bushes. They haven't bloomed yet, but there's a ton of blooms on them. They are the biggest that they have EVER!!!! been. They are at least 4 feet wide and almost 3 foot high. Some of the blooms are almost to my hip.

I'll take a picture of them once all the flowers have opened. I'll update again soon. Have a great week.

Sad news...

2008-05-14T10:29:00.003-05:00

Sorry that it's been a couple of weeks since I've updated. We've had a rough 2 weeks. DH's dad was put into hospice on the 5th of May. DH went down to S. Missouri to be with him, his mom, and brother while they took care of him. We all really missed DH when he was gone at his folks. I never realized how much he did to help out. Anyway, his dad passed away on May 9th from leukemia. He had only been diagnosed with it a couple of months before. It was sad that he passed so quickly, but at least he isn't in anymore pain, and he was active up until a week before he died.
I wish I had a picture to post of him. My SIL is supposed to be getting me one.

April Update and May Goals

2008-05-04T13:19:00.003-05:00

April Goal Results

1. Finish the JCS model stitching piece. Yes :)
2. Paint dining room. Yes :)
3. Work on Fair and Square Round 6 piece. Yes :)
4. Work on the LHN RR. Yes :)
5. Paint my personal family room. No :(
6. Decorate and possibly paint playroom. :(
7 Plant flowers No :(
8. Finish at least 3 scrapbook pages or cards. Yes :)
9. Work on Lo, How A Rose Yes :)
10. Work on BS Quaker Christmas. No :(

May Goals
1. Work on the new JCS model stitching piece.
2. Finish border and decorating dining room.
3. Work on a couple of exchange pieces.
4. Work on LHN RR.
5. Paint my personal family room.
6. Finish 5 scrapbook pages.
7. Work on Lo, How a Rose.
8. Plant flowers.

I didn't do too bad with last months goals. Let's see how well I do on May's goals.
Write more later.

Shepherd's Bush Stockings

2008-04-27T11:51:00.005-05:00

Kim B., http://stitchfulthinking.blogspot.com/ who I met through blogging is getting ready to stitch a SB stocking for her son for Christmas. She asked if I would post pictures of the SB stockings that I have stitched for my family. I have 4 done, and 1 left to go (mine). I'm working on mine slowly though.
So here's the pictures for her (excuse the wrinkles)

Thanks for looking!

Another week has gone by...

2008-04-27T11:24:00.009-05:00

I can't believe another week has passed already. Just your typical week though, Monday - Friday. Yesterday, however, was great! The girls and I went to the STL Zoo together. It was awesome. Ryan and DH didn't really want to go so they stayed home. So it was a "Mama Girl day". That's what my girl's call it anyway. Here's a couple of pictures from the day. I'm making the pictures smaller than normal because this is another picture intensive post.

I've also accomplished a couple of finishes this week. One is from the LHN RR that I'm in, and the other is from the Fair and Square #6 exchange.

from LHN's Once Upon a Prairie Moon

LK Life's A Stitch

This other picture is the Fair and Square exchange that I received from Stephanie. Isn't it cute. I really love all of the goodies. Thanks Stephanie.

LHN's Dear Diary Honesty

I'll post again soon!

OOPS! Forgot one of the most important things! Congrats to my friends, Jen and Mike, on the birth of their new son yesterday. Baby was 9 lbs 4 oz. Yeah, their daughter, Jenna is a big sister!!!

Needed a Change

2008-04-19T11:54:00.003-05:00

I decided to change the template on my blog today. I've wanted to for awhile, but wasn't sure how to do it. I think it turned out cute.

I'm going to work on stitching an ornament today and finishing up my Fair and Square Round 6 for Stephanie. The front piece is done, but I still need to work on the back square. On Thursday, I went and made a list of my WIP's/UFO's (the one's that are near my stitching area, not put up somewhere). I was a little overwhelmed. I had 13 WIP's/UFO's. Unfortunately, the majority of them are UFO's. I really need to work on establishing a rotation and start working on them at least once a week. 11 of them are ones I haven't worked on in at least 2 months, and the majority of them, I haven't worked on in at least 6 months. And here I was thinking about starting something new. Of course, I'm sure I will start something new soon, but I definitely need to work on those UFO's.

Today is rainy here. I think I'm going to stay curled up and stitch until I have to take Jenna to her BFF's Brooke's birthday party. Oh the life of a 5 year old. LOL!

Earthquakes and Friday Nights at home...

2008-04-18T20:32:00.006-05:00

WARNING: PICTURE INTENSIVE POST!

I was woken up this morning at 4:36 a.m. with Ryan coming down the stairs telling me..."MMMOOOOMMMM, the house is shaking". I can understand that if we lived in California, but we don't. Nope! ILLINOIS!! Near St. Louis, MO. I was woken up by it as well. I was absolutely shocked. The bed was shaking, windows shaking, a nice rumbling sound, and dogs barking. DH came home from work about 20 minutes later. He's like what are you awake for...my response...you didn't feel the earthquake?...his response...It must have just been a train. So I get up out of bed, turn on the morning news, and there is the report. He couldn't believe it. Then about 10 or 10:30 this morning, I was at work, with a patient on the table after her cardiac cath...and all of a sudden there is another one. The x-ray equipment was shaking, the floor was shaking really well too. AMAZING! That one was 4.5 or something like that. Needless to say, this evening DH and I called some family down in Cape Girardeau, and they felt it all the way there too.

I don't have much stitching to show right now. I did finish the piece for JCS, but of course, I can't share that. I don't have a lot of progress pictures. One thing I've been stitching on, but it's for an exchange. I do have some exchanges that I received that I can show you though.

This was stitched for me by Irene for the Hooked on Exchanging Pinkeep exchange. She really did a great job. The second picture is an Elizabeth's Designs design for the Here's to Ewe exchange on the SBEBB. Aren't they both beautiful!!!

Friday night in my house...this is typically what is going on... various groups of my children playing video games.

A couple of cards that I scrapped for a challenge on the YUKU Scrap N Chat board. It was a challenge where we were supposed to use ribbon slides.

Last, but not least...pictures of my funny cat. This is Patches. She is about a year old. She sat next to my laptop tonight and decided to go fishing for the ice cubes in my soda. It was hiliarious!

I'll write again soon with stitching and family updates.

Update ...

2008-04-01T20:30:00.009-05:00

Well, again, it's been awhile since I've posted last. Things here have been pretty busy. The new job is going really well. I really love it and have learned a lot. We have had some bad news since I posted last. My DH's dad has been diagnosed with a very aggressive leukemia. He actually has been in the hospital since Friday and was discharged today. The Dr's have only given him 3 months - 1 year to live. There has been a lot of stress and weird family dynamics that has surrounded his diagnosis.

Stitching wise, I've been working on a model stitching project for JCS. It's pretty big. I'm probably more than 1/2 of the way finished. I'm wanting to buy a new digital camera with the $$$ from it. I'm supposed to have it mailed back by 5/1. I wish I could share a picture of it. I do however have some pictures to share. This first picture is the ornament that I stitched in March. It's from the 2007 JCS Ornament Issue.

Designs by Cathy Jean "Fill with Love"

The next picture is a pinkeep that I made from one of the new LK designs called "Dream"

This is currently the WIP that I can share. It's called "Lo, how a rose" and it's from a BH&G Cross Stitch Christmas hardcover book that someone recommended. Hopefully, I accomplish quite a bit on it this month.

I hope that I can accomplish quite a bit more of this in the month of April. Lastly, one of my big accomplishments is one of the designs that I stitched for JCS is in the magazine this month.

This is the April 2008 JCS magazine.

This is the piece in the magazine.

A little touch of spring has finally touched my little corner of the world. My forsythia bush is finally blooming. After all of the 8" of rain which we received in March, I started to think that spring would never come.

My forsythia bush.

I'm going to attempt to make some goals for the month of April. They may not all be stitching goals, but they will definitely be mingled in with other goals.

1. Finish the JCS model stitching piece.

2. Paint dining room.

3. Work on Fair and Square Round 6 piece.

4. Work on the LHN RR.

5. Paint my personal family room.

6. Decorate and possibly paint playroom.

7 Plant flowers

8. Finish at least 3 scrapbook pages or cards.

9. Work on Lo, How A Rose

10. Work on BS Quaker Christmas.

Well, I'll try to write more next week. Sorry this post was so long.

Forgot to post...

2008-02-03T13:16:00.000-06:00

about the wonderful scissor fob I received from Deanne for the exchange on Hooked on Exchanging blog. Isn't it beautiful? She really did a great job with it. She also sent me 2 skeins of thread - 1 GAST, and 1 DMC metallic, a magnet for the refrigerator (which I'm trying to keep from my youngest DD), and a beautiful postcard of the Cape Spear lighthouse.

Thanks again, Deanne!

I know, I know... it's been awhile...

2008-02-03T12:59:00.000-06:00

I know I said I would try to post every week, but hasn't worked out that way, huh?

Well, I've started the new job and been there about a month. I really like it. It's a lot to learn though. Some of the girls aren't happy who work there, but I tell them that this is heaven after where I came from. I also really like that I don't have to work every weekend. That's really nice too. We actually were able to drive down to DH's brother's and spend a weekend with them. We all had a lot of fun.

I have been stitching a lot lately too. I've finished 5 projects in January. One of them I can't show because it's for an exchange, and of course, forgot to take a picture of it too. I always do that.

This first piece is from Stacy Nash Primitives, Homespun Christmas Pinkeep Ornaments. I just loved that chart.

The next one is JBW's Christmas Ornament Motif. I really enjoyed stitching that too. It's on a scrap of fabric that I had with some GAST thread.

My big finish for January is BC's Summer Snapperland. I really liked how this turned out. I had never stitched one of the Snapperland's before. I stitched it on Summer Khaki with GAST and CC threads.

This last one is a LHN freebie called My Two Sheep. I just love this one. I think I'm going to finish this off and send it to a friend that I haven't heard from in a long time.

Today is Super Bowl Sunday, but we're not really a football family. Now if it was the World Series, I'd be all over it. I am on call though at work. If the beeper goes off, I have to go in. It's been quiet all weekend though. I kind of would like it to go off. I need to learn how to work on an acute heart attack case. Not that I wish anyone to have a heart attack. I just can't learn how to work an acute, without an acute.

Well, I guess I'll write more later. I will try to keep it up though.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

2007-12-25T20:27:00.000-06:00

I can't believe that Christmas has come and almost gone already. On Christmas Eve, DH and I were up until almost 2:30 helping Santa put all of the toys together. Naturally the kids woke up (the first one) at 4:00 a.m., (she was sent back to bed) then they all woke back up about 5:30. Talk about us being tired. The kids had such a wonderful time. I don't think I've ever seen them soooo happy. Needless to say, I was napping on the couch by 7:00 am. DH handled breakfast for the kids, and then he went for a nap. About noon, we all got ready to go to my mom's. We had a nice time there too. Had dinner and spent time with my mom, sister and her husband and kids.

I hope everyone had a blessed Christmas full of all their hearts desire.

Big update: New job, trip to see Wicked...

2007-12-13T19:48:00.000-06:00

I know it's been awhile, even though I was going to try to blog more frequently. Things have been so crazy with Christmas around the corner, looking for a new job, being frustrated with the old job.

Well, I finally heard about the job in the cardiac cath lab after a month of waiting. I GOT THE JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so excited. This was my dream job: working Monday - Friday, 8 hour shifts, and with weekends off. I do have to take call like 12 times a month, but that's all. I have not been off a weekend, other than vacation in about 15 months. I can't wait to be able to spend the weekends with my husband and kids. I start on January 2.

Today, DH and I went to see Wicked. It was phenomenal!!!! The actress playing Elphaba was Carmen Cusack. Her voice is amazing!!! It was so powerful. It passed up Les Miserables in my mind as my favorite Broadway show. I can't wait until I get to see it again. Maybe if I go to NYC this spring to see my friend Jen, I'll go to see it again.

In my stitching world, I've been really busy too. I just recently finished a model for Sharon Crescent of Crescent Colours. I haven't uploaded the picture of it, but I will do it soon, and then post the finish. I am also stitching a model for JCS March/April issue by Amy Brueckner. I can't post a picture of that though.

I do need to try to get the kids Christmas stockings put together before Christmas. Hopefully next week. Keep your fingers crossed!

Well, I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. One of the few weekends that I have to work left.

Couple pictures my sister took for our Christmas cards.

Another, more determined try at blogging...

2007-11-15T22:45:00.000-06:00

I'm bound and determined to start blogging and keep up blogging too. It may not be on a daily basis, but at least a couple of times a week.

I have been married for a little over 10 years to a wonderful man from Brooklyn, NY. We moved out here to Illinois when my son was only 6 weeks old. Ryan is now 9 years old and in 3rd grade. We've also had 2 other kids. Hanna, who is 7 and in 1st grade, and our youngest Jenna who is 5 and in pre-K. I graduated from nursing school about 1 1/2 years ago, and have been an ICU nurse since then. Right now though, I'm looking for a new job. I accepted a job at Barnes Jewish Hospital in their Surgery, Trauma, and Burns ICU, however, I'm also waiting to hear about another position at Belleville Memorial Hospital in the Cardiac Cath Lab. I interviewed for that position on Monday, and am just waiting to hear. The nurse manager said I would hear at the beginning of next week. Keep your fingers crossed and say a little prayer. I REALLY want the job in the cardiac cath lab. It would be 40 hours a week, Monday - Friday, and on call 12 days a month. It would be sooooo much better than my current job. Right now, I work Friday, Saturday, and Sunday every week. I'm soooo tired of that. I want to be able to spend more time with my family.

My major hobby/obsession is cross stitch. I've been stitching for about 28 years. I love to stitch almost anything except fantasy things. Some of my favorites include Little House Needleworks, Country Cottage Needleworks, Bent Creek, Lizzie Kate, quaker type samplers, Long Dog Samplers, Paula Vaughan and especially Shepherd's Bush. Honestly, I like to stitch almost anything. If something strikes my fancy, that's what I like to stitch. Here's a couple of pictures of my stitching.

Also, here's a couple of pictures from exchanges on the SBEBB that I've received. They are both so beautiful. The needlecase is stitched by Tuula, and the autumn scissor for is stitched by Judi.

Well, I think that's all for tonight. I want to do a little stitching before I go to bed for the night. Good night!