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.