Christmas Decorating Time Again!

Well it is that time of year again when life gets extremely busy (as if it wasn't already)with the hustle and bustle of cleaning, decorating, baking and shopping for Christmas.
Whether for friends and family to visit in our own homes or preparing for holiday travel this can end up being a stressful time of year. In my own home we are preparing for the arrival of all our children to once again be gathered together which is quite a feat in itself. We haven't had them all home for the holidays since 1999; so this is definitely a very special "gift" for us. and of course the blessing of having our granddaughter here to share it all with us makes it truly wonderful.

Normally by now, a week after Thanksgiving I have the house almost totally decorated with anywhere from 8 to 15 trees and the outside lights up and working. This year however, I have just completed one room so far.
This is a shot of our main tree and holds a special place in my heart as the decorations are from early in our marriage and alot of ones made by our 5 kids during school and scouts. Although they may not be the glamorous ornaments in the stores but have that certain something in them that make them more precious to me.

Also in the Family room I have a Story Book Nook with a few trees decorated in a theme of children's Christmas story books and some stuffed animals for others. I started this two years ago and am trying to add to it each year.

Also this is a good room to display my Santa Collection in a corner opposite the tree. It has become a tradition for me to add one Santa each year, honestly I can't even remember exactly when I began this since I haven't been as diligent with this collection as some of my others which will be added soon to the blog. So watch out for those additions if you are in the least bit curious...lol.
Till next entry...hope you and all your loved ones are safe, warm, and healthy!

An early morning finish

This morning while organizing some cross stitch charts I decided to kit up another design from OakhavenDesigns and ended up going right ahead and stitching it. Just finished....
I wanted to actually sew tiny round buttons on the boot but didn't have any at the moment, but I do plan to change that out before I finish it into an ornament for next year.

This is our second day of rain, and Game one of the World Series is tonight...Phillies vs Yankees. We are hoping the rain doesn't cause a delay. Although I don't totally follow baseball, but living here in Southern New Jersey the teams out of Philadelphia is the favorite.....lol. Good Luck to both teams!

Two finishes today

Both of these were previously started but finally saw their last stitches today.

Both are designs by Tonia Pappan of Oakhaven Designs and were lots of fun to stitch. On Fall Scarecrow I stitched the word Fall in DMC 4130 for the touch of total fall coloring. I have fallen in love with this variated floss.
On Be Witchy I added the cauldron to the design which I ended up doing by free hand because all the patterns with a cauldron in it that I have were either way to small or too large.

Next I will be going back to my Christmas and Peace SALs to get them up to date before the next parts come out.

Craftymoo: MOO'S PUMPKIN GIVE AWAY

Craftymoo: MOO'S PUMPKIN GIVE AWAY

Head's up for Veteran's Day

All U.S. Veterans and military service members with proof of current or former military service will eat free at all Applebee's nationwide on Veterans Day, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009.

Proof of service includes:

* U.S. Uniform Services Identification Card,
* U.S. Uniform Services Retired Identification Card,
* Current Leave and Earnings Statement,
* Veterans Organization Card,
* photograph in uniform
* Or wearing uniform.

For additional details, visit: www.applebees.com/vetsday or contact your local Applebees.
this is from an official email I received this morning and wanted to pass along to as many people as possible. Please pass this along to all military and veterans you know and even show up to support and thank the military and veterans for their service.

A finish for the week!

I finished this cute pumpkin design (Harvest pumpkin) from OakhavenDesigns@yahoogroups.com this morning. I think it is so cute and will go great with the other small Halloween/Fall stitching I am doing. Next year I plan to put up a tree and decorate it for Halloween and Fall and they will all be on it to adorn our house...lol.

Of course hubby and kids will think I've totally lost it, but the other bit of good news is that it will be one less tree to set up come Christmas decorating...lol.

I hope to finish a few more in the next few days, but have to work on several SALs first.

SpringWidgets: Countdown

Link

I did it!

I did it, I completed both part 4 and 5 of the Christmas SAL and am ready for part 6 tomorrow. I came close to giving up for the night but just couldn't. Soo now it is off to bed with me so I can rest up for tomorrow's activities of chasing Jaiden, trying to get some house work done and stitching part 6 so I can then move on to stitching on the Peace SAL.

More stitches!

This should have been done a week ago but I fell behind a little. This is part 4 of the Christmas SAL and tomorrow part 6 comes out...I'm hoping to get part 5 done this evening as Bill is working nights right now.

This is Halloween Greetings from the OakhavenDesigns yahoo group. Meant to be part of Halloween weekend chat SAL, but I finished it last night. I did change a few things in the way of floss and colors though. The leaves for the tree I wanted in fall colorings so I used DMC variations 4031 instead of the light brown in the chart. For the Cat's eyes I used green metallic to give them a glowing effect. I really like how it turned out.
Now to get a few things caught up and plan my next items for stitching...lol

contest oops!

I forgot to state the information on the design....lol. It is called Santa's Flight (pictured on page 77/chart on page 83) by Shepherd's Bush. When completed this ornament will hang on my 'Twas the Night Before Christmas Tree in my story book nook.

Contest is over!

Mary won the contest. Congratulations to her on knowing her JCS Ornament issue!

A contest is a brewing!

I have started an ornament from the JCS Ornament issue (2009) and am making a bit a progress. But thought hey why not make a contest out of it, since the stitching seems a bit obscure at present...lol. From this picture, if you can correctly identify the design, designer, and page number I have a few duplicates of cross stitch magazines I would love to send to you.

The catch is you must be the first to post the correct information (design, designer, and page number) to my blog and in the post leave your name, email addy, and which group you know me from.

And now for the photo:




Have fun and look forward to your answers

Contest is a brewing is over!

Mary has won this contest! I hope to post more contests soon. thanks to everyone for taking a peek

Christmas SAL part 3

I finally managed to get the floss color needed for this (DMC 351) this morning and put the last stitches in this afternoon. I'm ready and waiting for part 4 on Thursday....lol.

Okay the wait won't be long or sitting idly as I have gone through my JCS Ornaments issue for the 6th or 7th time in the last week. The last two browsings have been to plan out which ones are a must for as quickly as possible. And today they were marked and two of which are of the otmost priority so they can hang on one of my Story Book Nook trees this year. I will which ones for a surprise at the moment though.....lol

Seasonal Cups part 3

Another part of the seasonal cups has been completed. Only one more to go and then on to finishing my first bell pull. Today I hope to finish part 3 of the Christmas SAL and maybe start the frogging process on the Peace SAL, so a restart can begin on it. Of course there are some housework issues to attend to first, but that shouldn't take too long...lol.

Another finish

Last night I completed part 2 of the Christmas SAL. This makes me almost caught up with it.

Hopefully tonight I can complete part 3, and be able to work on another SAL.

I also spent time yesterday pulling out the fall/Halloween/Thanksgiving decorations, so now as I go through and fall clean each room I can get it decorated for the autumn season. Also Rick and I can see what we still need for the Halloween decorating and really get to the nitty gritty of our plans for that.

Wow the year is just passing by quickly. Soon it will be Christmas, and then 2010! Where does time go?

Christmas SAL

Last week I signed up to do a Christmas SAL and of course I'm already behind...lol. But I got part 1 and part 2 charts the same day and managed to stitch part 1 yesterday.

This is such a pretty design and I am anxious to get it stitched, which is good as part 3 comes out today. So today will find me stitching part 2 and hopefully tomorrow part 3 so I am ready for part 4 when it is released on October 3rd.
I will also be frogging stitching I did on another SAL (Peace SAL) so I can start that over and have part 1 completed in time for part 2 to be released October 21.
I have so many projects to finish up, so I guess I need to get my fingers flying.

Oops! the photo didn't post in the previous post....lol

A small finish

I finished the summer teacup from the OakhavenDesigns group Chat from this past weekend. Once the Autumn and Winter cups are added I plan to make this into a bell pull and have a spot all picked out to hang in my kitchen. Thank you Tonia for these wonderful designs.

What a wonderful time of year!

The air is cooler, and yes the leaves are already starting to turn. It seems early to me but then again I haven't really experienced many fall seasons in the past 10 years....lol.

Perfect weather for Football and with that means many Saturdays spent in front of the tv watching our favorite team...OU Sooners! So far with two games behind them this year they are 1-1, two injured players from the first string one of which is Sam Bradford our fantastic QB and last year's Heismann trophy winner.

Of course here is a picture of our favorite Sooner. Yes we had to order Jaiden a Sooner Cheerleader's dress. LOL

Last night Bill and I went to see the Phillies win a sweep against the Washington DC Nationals. It brought back a quick flash to a baseball game I went to as a kid with my family. Oklahoma 89ers...unfortunately the team is no more and definitely the ball park was totally different. And the seating....well what can I say last night we were in a corporate box with catered food. So yes that was a huge difference...lol.

Here's hoping fall is a wonderful season for all!

Another Finish!

It took a while but I finally finished this SAL. While stitching the last few stitches I could feel the excitement just bubbling up...but at the same time it was a slight sad feeling...lol.

Now on to work on another WIP...I'm thinking my Book of InkCircles (4 squares to go) and also "pumpkin Magic" for the month of September; and of course a few more ornaments...lol

This week's finishes

My first attempt at specialty stitches....I don't think it turned out too bad...lol.
this one is a freebie from The Prairie Schooler that I changed the colors on and added some it.
I'm so happy to have had a productive week for stitching. Although previously posted I had to add the Around the world irish girl as it was stitched this week....lol. The others are for an ornament exchange that I filled in for and will be finished off this weekend so they can be posted early next week.
I wonder if I can now finish the last part to my "language of a cross stitcher" by Tuesday.

These are the birthday cards and floss I received from the bbinteractive@yahoogroup Birthday Floss Exchange. I am still getting a few stragglers in the mail from time to time but opened these on my birthday, making for a wonderfully colorful day. The idea behind this is that people signed up last January and starting in Feb those who signed up started sending birthday cards with 2 skeins of floss to all the birthday stitchers each month. During your birthday month you recieve cards and floss from everyone else.
There were two groups to sign up for North American (including Canada) and International. I signed up for both groups and have enjoyed receiving cards and floss from all over the world.

Last week I managed to complete this ornament for my Around The World Christmas tree theme that I hope to complete for next year. All in all there will be about 60 cross stitched ornaments on the tree with a few other ornaments. Some of which will be small passports from scrapbooking supplies and also planning to have small suitcases hanging as well.


A finish already this week...this was such a quick stitch up and I still needed a small stitch since my stitching has been somewhat limited. this is number 5 of the Around the World Christmas themed tree for next year.

A beginning to a finish!

This week I will be starting on the final installment to Language of a Cross Stitcher SAL from OakhavenDesigns yahoogroup. I am so excited to complete this beautiful design. 15 parts in it and my first attempt using linen. The colors blend together so wonderfully.

Christmas in July Swap

I realized today I had already received this when I checked the mail and had received a second "card" from a member of bbinteractive. So upon opening the first one I saw it was my ornament from the Christmas in July Swap. Or in this case 3 wonderful gifts.
This adorable Noel ornament will look wonderful on my dining room tree with poinsettias and lots of red and green and ivory ornaments; or even marking a spot in a winter's evening read
This charming Angel will look so lovely on my Angel Tree, joining her heavenly sisters watching over all who enter our house during the joyful season
Of course a snowman is always a welcomed visitor....well for our family anyways and as long as it isn't to severe....lol. I will definitely find a spot for this friendly little guy whether it be on my Winter Wonderland tree (if I find a spot to put it) or on one of my Story book Nook trees.

Oh I can't wait to start the decorating and incorporate these wonderful goodies for many years to come. Thank you Barbara for such a wonderful treat and sorry for the delay....

Back from Vacation

We arrived home Sunday morning/Saturday night about 12:30! What a long drive....lol. We went to visit with our son Samuel and watch his graduation from US Navy Basic Training. It was a wonderful ceremony and it was great to see him, although the time we could spend together was brief.
He has now left Great Lakes RTC and should be starting Submarine School today in Groton. We hope to see him soon.
Just before his graduation he got the all clear from Medical which was indeed Happy News...No cancer!

Now to catch up on things around here and get everything put in order here at home...laundry has been started and today will be replenishing the refrigerator, picking up the dogs and returning the rental car.

A Good start to the week!

Here it is Sunday afternoon and I am happy to say I have a finish for the week already.


I actually started this little design by NeedleMagic, Inc. a while ago and had to put it away for some reason or another....well forgot about it and then found it the other day. Today I put the final stitches in it and love the way it looks. My plan to finish this off into an ornament for my Victorian tree, but that will need to wait until after the Chicago trip.

Now to get busy getting ready for the trip...so much to do an not much more time to get it done in.

A Few Finishes Finally!

Last night I completed a couple things so I finally have things to post...lol.


This is "A Very Merry Christmas" by JBW designs and I still have to attach the red heart for the tree topper, but am debating on putting a small gold star instead; so it will sit for a short time while I decide which I would rather use. Part of the "dilemma" for me is that I always use either a star or Angel to top my trees with....lol.

These next two photos are of an ornament for an exchange. The front design is by Gazette94 (a freebie design which I just love) I used a silver metallic for the scroll backstitching and accented with red glass seed beads.

For the back of this ornament I made my own design out of the idea of the scroll backstitching, a border I took from another design and charted the wording on graph paper. I do like the way it came out though very much.


I will be starting on Gingerbread Trio by Little House Needleworks this week as we travel to Chicago for our son's Pass and Review (graduation) from navy Basic Training. We are very proud of him as well as all our kids. Samuel is the third of sons to follow their dad's footsteps in the Navy. However that being said, I come from a long line of service members myself...including my own service (Air National Guard).

Today I can do a slight happy dance! I finished the next to the last section of a MSAL that I began last October time frame. This wonderful design is by Tonia Papillon of OakHavenDesigns and is titled "Language of a Cross Stitcher".
I have thoroughly enjoyed working on it and will be my first finished Sampler and is my first work on linen ever. The colors are very lovely and the colors of the design, so I can't really take credit for them...lol. But they will look very nice in my bedroom when I get it finished, pressed and framed...lol.



I am currently also working on more smalls through weekend chats with Tonia and the group at OakhavenDesigns. It has been wonderful getting to know alot of the wonderful girls from the group during these chats.
The current series is teacups for the seasons. These will be made into a small bell pull to hang on a narrow wall space in my kitchen. They will go great with my teapot collection....lol.

Forgot to insert this challenge button and link to the beginning of this challenge.
http://thewrittenword.wordpress.com/2009/06/22/introducing-the-everything-austen-challenge-with-prizes/ One of these days my head might get screwed on right.....but then again where would the fun be in that...lol.

Everything Austen Challenge!

this will be so much fun. Between today and January 1, 2010 I need to complete 6 things related to Jane Austen....so many to choose from. These could be simply watching six of the novels made into movies.....watching 6 different versions of the same one or reading Jane's novels or the many Austenish books that have followed. Others from the yahoogroup TheJaneAustenStitchingGroup are also incorporating stitching Jane Austen inspired designs into this.

My challenges will be: 1. Reading Pride and Prejudice (again),
2. Watching two of the different versions of Pride and Prejudice to make a report of the differences and similarities (basically a book report...lol)
3. Reading Jane and the Barque Fraility by Stephanie Barron
4. Stitching a Jane Austen inspired Sampler
5. completing another stitching small project already started
6. Preparing a Jane Austen inspired Tea

Finally some stitching!

Although it has been a little while since I've posted; computer and internet issues, not to mention life getting in the way, I have been busy with my stitching. Over the past few weeks I have worked on several projects and am happy to say that two small charts from online Chats SALs are just waiting to be made into something. Spring and Summer Itsy Bitsys....









I have also worked on 4 other projects which most are coming along nicely: The first is pages 9, 10 and 11 of the OakhavenDesigns Aug MSAL from last year. Only 4 more pages to go on this one....yippee!



I also worked on A Quaker Christmas and managed to get more of pages 2 and 5 done. I will have to post a photo of this later after I get it downloaded from my camera. My other project is a secret project that is almost completed and will be a present for someone in the next few weeks.....so hush please. As soon as this person recieves it I will be happy to share with everyone else....so stay tuned.

Oh yeah, I have also tried to work on another piece that has been in progress for a while now, but have just had to frog the same section for a second time......maybe one of these days my Book of Ink Circles will get finished....lol.

MIA!

I cannot believe it has been so long since I last posted. Things have been slightly crazy around here. We received our non-temporary storage shipment last week and I had so much fun going through things we haven't seen in 9 years.
Of course with that I have spent lots of time trying to inject some TLC into the wood furniture that was in the storage. Obviously it felt very neglected and has lost alot of luster...more treatments with lemon oil will help with that though.

I have recently also been doing lots of yard work along side of Bill and Rick; we had to sod the part of the front out by the curb, have planted two arbor type trees into planters by the front porch, impatients by the mailbox, and two gardenia trees into pots for the back patio.
Needless to say this month my muscles have gotten a bit of a workout...lol.

I have also revisited my WIPS and planned out a rotation to get a few things done. The rest of this month I plan to complete a victorian angel ornament barely started last year. Then starting the 1st of June I will be following a rotation. The first week of the month I will work on OHD Aug MSAL (I'm close to finishing page 9 of 15 pages); the second week I will work on A Quaker Christmas which I have about half finished; the third week will be for working on my Book Of InkCircles; and the fourth week will be for working on my quaker Carnation Sampler. This will go until I complete these with the 5th weeks of months and to finish off a week when another project is completed for working on small items such as the Family and Around the World Ornaments.
I also have several WIPs lined up to then move into the rotation and a couple of kitted up projects; believe me I won't run out of things to stitch...lol.
Here is a photo of The Christmas Angel 1988 that I'm working on currently.

I plan to outline the wings with gold to help them stand out from the off white background. I'm really anxious to complete this and plan to make into an ornament for my small victorian tree this year.

Spring is in the Air

What a cutie she is and such a delight

The weather has gone back and forth lately and even reached summer time heat for 4 days. Our family has been busy with returning to mowing the yard and trying to get more boxes unpacked and sorted.
We have been enjoying the yard and all the room for the dogs to run, but mostly watching Jaiden enjoy her playhouse, swimming pool and the neighbor girls...

Even though the water was freezing, she just couldn't get enough of the splashing. This was taken on the 25th of April, and was a the first of our 4 days of 90 + degree weather. A perfect way to end the day. Bill, Rick, Jaiden and I participated in the local March for Babies 5 mile walk. What a rewarding, but grueling experience. I wasn't sure I was going to make it several times...lol.

this was early on in the walk...don't we look optimistic here? I kept trying to get Jaiden to scoot over and share the stroller with Oma, but she was having none of it....lol. She even had a bottle and a short nap during the walk.


I also have started another SAL, Yes I am addicted...lol. This is another one from the OakhavenDesigns@yahoogroups.com ; a 2 parter and I'm happy to say I have completed the first part. I look forward to completing this design and then will have to decide what room to put it in as will color wise go into 4 rooms. Decisions, decisions...

Isn't it pretty!

I was awarded this Blogger Buddy Award from Teresa at http://8thingsaboutme.blogspot.com/ Isn't it pretty.

I have been so bad about not posting lately...in part due to no new crafting...lol.

Hopefully that will change soon.

I now need to send this to 3 people. I will send this soon....so watch out it might be you!

Finally a finish

I completed this last night and love the way it turned out. Of course I still need to wash and iron it to remove wrinkles from the holding and hoop...lol

I hope to finish it into a pillow this weekend.

What I do when I play..........: BLOG GIVE AWAY!!!!!!!!!!

What I do when I play..........: BLOG GIVE AWAY!!!!!!!!!!

You should check this out! Stunning

A new is dawning!

The sun is beginning to rise this morning, which is especially beautiful after two days of cloudy and drizzle. The rosy glow fading into a slight lavender then blue has such a warm and inviting feel to it.

Well today I should be finishing my OHD SAL, I do have to run to the store and get one skein of floss to do so. I can't locate DMC 505 (I'm sure I have it somewhere...but I want to complete this piece today). So I will off to locate JoAnn's for the floss and material for the pillow. Then I'll be working on a biscornu and then finishing another WIP (just not sure which one...lol).

A small finish....sort of

Last night I completed November for the Oakhaven SAL.

I am looking forward to receiving December and completing the entire project. Then I plan to make a biscornu (my first) and then work on another WIP to try and reduce my starts and move them into a finish pile...

Yesterday didn't get the sunshine we had been enjoying but was cloudy all day. Today is at least starting out the same way.

The quiet is still nice early morning though and I love being able to sit in the family room so early and look out the big window at the woodlands. Several times now we have seen and had deer come up in the back yard. Even though in the town we get the feel of country...I love it.

Today is starting off nice, calm and quiet. Bill has left for work and everyone else is sleeping...the morning is mine. For the last several days Aryne and Jaiden have already been up and downstairs, which it is always wonderful to get Jaiden lovin' in the early am. But I love my morning time.

I will have my morning tea and watch the sun sneak into the sky (well hopefully it isn't very cloudy out there), with the hint of color waking up the sleepy world. Morning time is definitely my favorite part of the day. Seeing the world come alive and out of the darkness, sipping on tea, and enjoying a quiet time just seems to start the day out lovely and at least gives the illusion all will be well.

On to stitching: My current project is an SAL from Oakhaven Designs. I am almost finished with this SAL and am anxious to see it completed. When the stitching is done I decided to make this into a pillow and later on make ornaments out of the different months to display on my seasonal shelf. I hope to complete November today and start December either today or tomorrow. My goal is to making this into a pillow by the weekend.

Of course we all know about plans...they quite often need to be changed. We are currently in the process of converting the front room (probably really a formal living room or office-at least that was our plans for the room) into a bedroom at least temporarily. construction of walls to fill the openings and a door is in progress and about 2/3 of the way done. I will post photos soon of the completed room. However I don't have any of good ones to show the openings before the beginning.

Time to go for now. My Jaiden is up and requires Oma lovin'....lol.