Karen's Amazing Generosity

Several months ago, my friend Karen, who owns Dragonfly Dreams in the Blue Mountains of Australia, asked me if she could borrow some of the many Just Nan samplers I have stitched over the years. I have stitched many, but framed only two (sound familiar??). She was about to attend a needlework show and wanted to display some, as well as later use them as models in her shop. They were just sitting in a drawer in the bureau in one of our spare bedrooms, so I sure did not mind sending them to her. Today I got them back - framed! What an unbelievable job her DH, Bren, did with the framing on these samplers!!!!!!!! What amazing generosity! I did not care when I ever saw these again, as I trust Karen. I am over the moon over the results, and I want to share them with you. Now mind you, it is winter here so the photos were taken inside the house and the flash bounced off some of them, and in at least one of them you can see my Christmas tree's lights in the reflection. Oh well, sorry!! I am posting them in Blogger's smallest size to save space, but you can click on them to see them bigger.

Ebony Rose

Flowers of Joy

Lady Scarlet's Journey

With My Needle

Now comes the fun of deciding where to hang all of these lovely samplers in my home!! Each and every mat and frame Karen and Bren selected for me is just perfect!!! Wow! I am quite sure that Mike and I have two very, very good friends in Karen and Bren!

And... one little bit of stash today... Issue 150 of Mary Hickmott's New Stitches. I don't buy this magazine, as I have never been attracted to it. But I love the marquoir featured in this one. Now it seems I have to collect Issue 151 as well, as the marquoir is divided into two issues... fortunately, I believe Issue 151 is at Barnes & Noble right now, so next time I am out and about running errands in Manchester, I will pick it up...
And, here is my little installment this week on the Garden Spot Sampler. Blogger pics wasn't working when I tried to post it, so I used Photobucket - sorry you cannot enlarge this pic...

It is New DVD Release Tuesday again - and it was a big one! We got The Brothers Grimm (Just watched it, excellent), Must Love Dogs and Serenity.

Well, it appears tht Johnny Damon could really care less about Red Sox Nation and he is off to the dreaded Yankees next year (well, for four years, they say...) - sooooo... I am so mad my stomach flipped over. If anyone knows anyone... with or without baseball experience... who would like a job.... please ask them to call The Boston Red Sox... we could use all the help we can get. No shortstop, no center fielder... really, no General Manager either. You won't see many blog updates on the Red Sox from me this year - I hate the management right now.

Stitched on today: Garden Spot Sampler

A lovely gift from Jenna!

I received the most adorable and exceptionally well stitched and constructed ornament from Jenna today! I wanted to brag on her and her work a little bit here! Isn't it just adorable?! I love Dragon Dreams designs, and was so thrilled to receive this lovely gift from her today! And the note in her card was so sweet. Jenna, I am glad that I inspire you with my stitching. That always amazes me, as I really just blog as my own little on-line diary, something I do for myself. It always stuns me to realize how many other people actually care about and read this blog!
OK, here is more Angel of Love for tonight... not a whole lot done, had a busy night - I decided to start her wings now... what do you think Anne??

OK... I have selected my fabric for Mirabilia's Forest Goddess! I will be doing this in the Mirabilia SAL as well. This is Mindy Decker's WIP of her project (hope she doesn't mind my sharing this) on her custom dyed fabric, Shimmering Forest Sprite! So nice. I ordered some belfast and now am really anxious to start this one - what a great color. (Mindy is Sugar Maple Fabrics.) I ordered up my Kreinik, beads and MH Treasure from SB&B... will be ready to go soon! (***Don't get all excited - I didn't start her yet, this is Mindy's work, my needles are not that fast - heck, I am still waiting for the chart to arrive - I know I panicked at least one stitcher with this photo here LOL!)

And... the mailman was quite nice to me today - aside from the super cool ornament, I also received two Silkweaver Solos... and I got Home of a Needleworker by Little House Needleworks today too - this one is overdue for being in my stash LOL!

Wow, the Mirabilia SAL is coming along nicely. We had 19 members already a couple of hours ago! Want to join us?? Please click either the link in yesterday's entry or the one in my sidebar - the more the merrier! Please know the rules are super simple - you just need to be stitching any Mirabilia, at whatever pace you want, and even if it is one you have already started!!

Stitched on today: Angel of Love

Want to join a Mirabilia SAL for 2006?

I have now set up a Yahoo Group for those who are interested in doing a SAL for any Mirabilia chart starting January 1st. This idea first originated when Katrina, Lisa and I decided to stitch Mermaids of the Deep Blue as a SAL starting on that date. There has been a lot of interest in other Mirabilias and doing an SAL... so.... the more the merrier! Please feel free to join us! This is also being coordinated over on the Friends Gather BB. You can click on the link above, or use the sign up box in the sidebar of my blog. There is a database in the group where you can let us know which Mirabilia you plan to stitch too :-) Won't it be fun to stitch together?
Now, on to today's stitching business... I tossed aside An Open Heart for today as I just was not in the mood to have the scroll bars in my lap. I decided to work on Houses of Hawk Run Hollow instead. I have a mini goal of finishing House 8 before the year's end, and now after tonight's bout of stitching, I think I am nearing that goal. I have the blue house done now, and my Angus is even stitched on there too :-) Now I need a fence for the kitty to stand on, a flag pole, a little bit of lawn and the outer border of the block... that should not take too long and can be done during the holiday break.

Mike is back to stitching his house again tonight. Today's lesson: it's important to keep all of your x's going in the same direction LOL!!

Only four more days of work until the holiday break! Yay!

But sadly, today marks the 10th anniversary of my father's sudden death... I kept distracted by watching lots and lots of football...

Stitched on today: Houses of Hawk Run Hollow

Patriots clinch AFC East :-)

It is Saturday, and Mermaid Heaven is back. After running some errands, watching the football game and then going down to Lawrence, MA to have dinner with Mike's grandfather, there was not a whole lot of time left today to stitch. But I did stitch a good portion of the rock tonight...I think my SAL mate may have dropped out of this SAL, though. I should check with her - it has been forever since she has updated. And, Mike started his Victorian house kit tonight too - after teaching him that two strands in the needle did not mean two lengths of floss (as in, 12 strands), he is pretty much good to go! LOL

Some really nice stash came in today :-) Somehow it managed to get through despite the heavy holiday rush through the postal service. I got three fat quarters of Sugar Maple Fabrics through three different sources today - Moon Princess 28 ct Jazlyn from SMF's ebay store, Sugared Snickerdoodles Cashel from ebay seller in England, and Serendipity opalescent belfast as a gift from my friend Karen in Australia... they are all so pretty!! And, I also received a skien of Frangiapani Waterlilies from Karen for Chatelaine's Taj Mahal. Additionally, an order came in from Stitching Bits & Bobs with the Au Ver A Soie silks and two skeins of Waterlilies for Garden Spot. Lots of pretties to look at again today.

Here is our Ava all snuggled up and wrapped up in an afghan and a blanket designated for the cats on our sofa... where she was almost all day long. Strange, it is nice and warm in here today, but she acts like it was cold :-)

Happy 17th Birthday to our niece, Caitlin. Unfortunately, Caitlin is down in Falmouth, Massachusetts (Cape Cod) where her grandfather, Roger, remains in ICU with lung cancer and pneumonia :-(

And, like the title of today's entry says - the New England Patriots will go to the post season again this year by clinching the AFC East title with a 28-0 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They are really starting to look good again after a lousy start with so many key players being injured - most of them are healthy and are back, and it shows.

Stitched on today: Mermaid Heaven

Slushy, icy rain.... yuck!

I really enjoyed having some time today to work on Girl with Cat again. I love this project, and am glad it was resurrected from UFO status this year. It has such a nice watercolor effect, which makes me think of my mom, who happens to be a watercolor artist and instructor :-) A lot of what I did today may well not even show in the photo - quite a bit of off white (DMC 746) on the kitty's tummy just does not show well on the white fabric in the photo (really stands out IRL).

I selected one of my Christmas gifts from Mike today - I signed up for Chatelaine's Mystery IX, and just ordered my kit... with any luck, it will be here before Christmas so Mike can wrap it up LOL! Anyhow... with its start date of January 1, I will probably start my Mirabilia SAL piece on New Year's Eve instead. (I have been warned that I will end up with Chatelaine burn out, but I really don't think that is true at all. I know how I can pace myself - I am sure I will be fine - what is the rush, right??).

I spent my entire morning and early afternoon trying to get BlogRolling to work in my blog - FINALLY, it works! Unfortunately, I have to put it at the end of my sidebar, as it seems existing items tend to cover it up.

I got some horrible news via email from my mother today. Christmas is very much up in the air for our family this year. My brother's father in law, Roger, whom we all love dearly, is in ICU. He has been battling some form of cancer for the past couple of years. According to my mom's email, it does not look good at all. He lives on Cape Cod, and my brother and his family are heading down there today as the roads are clearing nicely from the storm. Christmas is usually at my brother's house, so we will have to alter our plans... but most importantly, it is time to pray for Roger's recovery. Very sad. And the strangest part of it is that on Sunday, the 18th of December, it will be the tenth anniversary of my own father's sudden death - tomorrow, the 17th, is my niece Caitlin's 17th birthday - I don't think she needs to have both of her grandfathers pass away around her birthday :-(


On a whole different note, I received some stash from Stitching Bits & Bobs today - the first part of which is some of the December releases. I got Elizabeth's Designs' Nature's Alphabet II, which I will be doing as a SAL with Katrina some time next year. And, I got in Jeannette Douglas' Winter Stitches with embellishment pack. This is the companion piece to her stunning Autumn Stitches that was in Just Cross Stitch just a few short months ago :-)

And... I also received two discontinued charts by White Willow Stitching, which I am thrilled to have been able to get! One is Atlantis, which has got to be one of the thickest charts I have ever owned (LOL!) and the other is Moon Witch. I have been tracking this one down for some time now, after having seen a stitched model of it on White Willow's website. I had shown it to Mike, and he was not at all impressed by it. But I am strangely drawn to Moon Witch.

Our basement is completed now. The carpet was installed today. I think Mike will be taking pictures of it very soon now, so I will post them when he does. I imagine he will do a better job of it than I could!

Speaking of Mike taking pictures... when I took the photos of my WIP and my stash off of my camera just now, there was a photo in there from earlier today that he must have taken - I thought it was cute! Here are three of my kitties all trying to squeeze in on their cat window shelf to watch the bird feeder today! (left to right: Ava, Lily, Gig)

Stitched on today: Girl with Cat

Turning the corner with Girl with Cat

It was definitely time to work on Girl with Cat tonight, as I had not been able to work on it since the 3rd of November. Tonight I had that moment that comes along when I stitch big projects that I consider to be "turning the corner." It is the point where I am pretty much cruising along and I realize that I am working on an area of the chart that I had once thought was so far away... do you know what I mean? It is that point where the project really starts coming together. That happened for me tonight with Girl with Cat. She now has all of her flesh stitched, except for the part of her leg that will come along soon enough now. I got a lot more of the cat's back done, and I stitched a good amount of the white in her dress, which likely does not show well in this photo. (indeed, I need more practice with my new camera!).

I received a little bit of stash in the mail today... Donna Kooler's Glorious Needlepoint, which has the pretty Colonial Sampler in it that Sharon in Australia helped me to identify recently :-) I don't do needlepoint, but most of the charts in this book are also coded for cross stitch. It's a truly beautiful book.

Don't forget to grab your Christmas Surprise 2005 from Dragon Dreams' newsletter ASAP!!! Jennifer will be taking this chart off her site on Saturday morning - it's a super cutie, grab it while you can! LOL!!

Wintry weather is heading our way... again. Another long weekend for me. Tomorrow was not scheduled to be a busy day for me, and my clients were all highly receptive to rescheduling to a different day. I get to relax and stitch - probably on Girl with Cat again!

Oh, I really want to thank many of you stitchers who have been sending Christmas cards to Mike and I. You are all so thoughtful - and to those who sent gifts, you just amaze me!! (I prefer to thank you personally than here)...

And... congratulations to Randal, Donald Trump's newest 'Apprentice' - he got my vote :-)

Stitched on today: Girl with Cat

Celtic Winter Night

Good choice for tonight, since it is only 10F and snow and ice are forecasted for Friday... Becky worked on her Celtic Autumn along with me today :-) I decided to do the gold braid along the outer border of her skirt tonight, as I figure it will be easier now to track where I am with all those pretty swirls at the bottom of her skirt!! This project now fully fills up my 17" Q-Snap from top to bottom...

Q. Take a minute to reflect on your blog reading habits and preferences. What do you prefer to read in stitching blogs? (Progress, tips, family life, experiences, etc.) How much do you think you are influenced by other stitching bloggers?

A. I like upbeat, cheerful blogs that show lots of stitching progress pics. The more pics, the better :-) I am totally influenced by what I see in blogs. I have become much more involved in SALs as a result of blogs, and have been able to observe some really neat finishing techniques and ideas too. I also like family life and pets chatter.... and oh, it is really fun to read blogs from other parts of the world too. Hey, I just really like stitching blogs!!



Stitched on today: Celtic Winter

Getting lots of framing done :-)

Here is this week's installment of my work on the Garden Spot Sampler SAL that I am doing on Tuesday nights along with Jo - it is still such a pleasure to work on each week, and Jo is such a fun SAL mate too :-) I am looking forward to seeing her progress in her blog - she is so faithful about that.

Oh my goodness! Today, Mike and I ran into a deal at the framer's! 70% off three or more custom framing jobs. I brought them four - Fairy Flora, Miracle Butterfly, Earth Angel and Petal Fairy. Grand total... about $250.00! I sometimes pay that for only one! So.... we are bringing them more, which will definitely include The Marriage of Minds and Celtic Band Sampler. Will likely bring them more than that too! Right now, stitching is practically affordable! It is their busy season, though... so it could be a while now before I get these back :-( We all know how lousy that can be - I want to see them now! None are getting mats, all are getting lovely frames, though. I have decided lately that I really don't care much for mats, with the exception of some pieces that seem to call out for them... we are both pretty happy right now :-)

Mike has decided to be adventurous again. He has stitched in the past - a good fourteen or fifteen years ago, before we were married. Tonight we were at Michael's, one of those big craft stores, and we had a 50% off one regular ticket item coupon... and he picked out a kit to stitch. It is Dimensions "Lovely Victorian Home." I am sure it will take a long time to get done, but he seems to really want to do it...

And, while at Michael's, I picked up all the DMC I need for Mermaids of the Deep Blue - this SAL starts on January 1st, and anyone interested is welcome to join!!

Got my crowns too - one more to go, but have not scheduled that yet - will probably wait until closer to spring for it.

This is an event that just needs to be documented somewhere for prosperity - so why not here? This is Angus, my 4 year old black persian cat. Now, I love Angus to death, and I absolutely had to have him when we sought out a breeder to replace our PC when he died... I just had to have a black persian. But, Angus has always been an aloof cat. Of late, though, he is getting to be chummier with Mike and I... he sits near us more and even hops up on the bed. If I put my face near him, he will gently rub it just once with his own, which is a known sign of marking (aka kitty cat affection). Well... tonight while stitching I sensed something was different - I looked over and there was Angus, sitting with me and watching me. I doubt this has ever happened in the four and a half years I have owned him - so this is now duly noted and documented!

Ooops! How could I forget? It is New DVD Release Tuesday - got The Island on my way home from the dentist and the Jeep Dealer (all I can say about that one is... arrrrgggghhhh - I dislike mechanics so much!) - we watched the movie tonight and both really enjoyed it!

Stitched on today: Garden Spot Sampler

Back to my rotation - yay

Look who's back.... Angel of Love!! I was really glad to be able to get back to work on her tonight. I spent much of my focus tonight on some more beading on her skirt, and then on to begin the outer outline of her cape on the right side.... she is moving along quite well now.

OK, I have my new camera now (got my Christmas present early), so now I can post a stash report :-) This is today's stash... the February 2006 issue of Just Cross Stitch (nothing to write home about, except the monogram chart by Rouge du Rhin and the designer profile are interesting....). I also received my little bits from Silkweaver's most recent Odds & Ends Sale. As usual, I could not get in on time to get some of the luscious Lakeside Linens, but I was able to select two of their Signature Series linens. Both are 18" x 18" - one is 32 ct Peaceful Waters, and the other is 36 ct Evergreen. I am very happy with them :-) Oh, and my Silkweaver FOTM arrived today - almost forgot because I already tucked it away in my Woodland Fairy (Mirabilia) project supplies - I am so happy, they sent me a fat quarter of Everglade belfast!!! Yay! I had purchased Everglade 32 ct jobelan for it, but have now pulled it and put it up on ebay... along with a fat half of Silkweaver Antique Gold cashel and two Mirabilia charts I had duplicates of - (if you are interested, my ebay ID is carolann03038).

Tomorrow I am off to the dentist for my crowns - sneaking that in before the next storm that is forecasted now for... Friday :-( Oh joy.

Stitched on today: Angel of Love

It's my anniversary

I noticed a few days ago that I have been blogging daily for one full year now, as of today. Time sure does fly! Before I know it, it will be two years!
Back to Houses of Hawk Run Hollow again today. I miss stitching the other pieces in my rotation, and I hope I will get a chance to do so soon. As much as I love this sampler, I am a rotation stitcher at heart and am itching to switch again. I spent a good portion of today's stitching time trying to untie quite a knot in my skein of Platinum VC silk. I lifted it out of its Floss A Way bag when I went to start stitching this afternoon, and somehow it was knotted up. I don't know how. It looked just fine when I put it in the Floss A Way bag last night... Anyhow.... I sure didn't want to waste any of this silk, because the VC silks skeins are really very small. They are only six strands of silk, and are "approximately" five yards in length. I am already concerned that I may not have enough of some colors to finish this project... same with Garden Spot Sampler, as Jo has also noticed... Houses of Hawk Run Hollow sure is not a quick stitch! I put quite a bit of time into it tonight and only finished the platinum that finishes the front of the house, and a little more of the lace agate on the side of the house.... And, believe it or not, I saw someone on one of the BBs actually has stitched this big honker of a sampler twice already! LOL

The Patriots showed signs of their old championship form today - it helps to have injured players start to come back healthy - as they beat the Buffalo Bills, 35-7....

Stitched on today: Houses of Hawk Run Hollow

No camera today...

But, fortunately, I do still have my scanner... so I kept going on Houses of Hawk Run Hollow tonight... I should have been working on Mermaid Heaven... will continue to do work on HoHRH tomorrow since An Open Heart does not scan well. I am glad that I somehow worked it out that I have rather simple filling in on both sides of the house and the door to do while I am watching the Patriots game tomorrow. It will require a little less attention than An Open Heart does.

I got in some stash yesterday and today, but will have to wait until I get a camera... really hope the camera comes in by Tuesday as I don't want to (and won't) skip the Garden Spot Sampler SAL night...

Stitched on today: Houses of Hawk Run Hollow

And now, the snow day that was!

Snow is coming down, and coming down, and coming down some more out there today. All the schools in a huge area of New England are closed today. Just south of here (Manchester, NH area) turned over to rain/slush hours ago, but we seem to be in what forecasters call "the jackpot," where it is just snow, snow, snow. Looks like we may get close to that foot of snow we were warned about last night. No dental appointment today! (***The snow ended around 3 PM and we got somewhere between 10" - 12" of fluffy, blowing snow).
I managed to finish Part 3 of Medieval Town Mandala this morning. There are a whole lot of beads that need to go into this first three parts, so we shall see if I end up doing that before this month/year ends... I would really like to, as I am dying to see how it will look.
I wanted to stitch again tonight, but with no camera for today I chose to select a project that fits in my scanner so that I could post an update here... so, can you just imagine how disappointed I was that it would have to be Houses of Hawk Run Hollow?? LOL!

Well... believe it or not, Mike sold my digital camera this morning to a contractor working on our basement... my new camera is supposedly due to arrive today or tomorrow. I hate being without a camera! But, I did take a few photos this morning before I knew the camera was being sold. Here is my favorite Christmas cactus, back in bloom again! I love this one because the flowers are large and look like prawns :-) As you can see, it is snowing out the window!!

I also caught Ava and Gig on the window shelf this morning watching the very, very active birdfeeder. Again, you can see it is snowing at a good clip here! Of course, as soon as they even sense I am behind them, they turn around and refuse to pose for a good picture!! Anyhow... this what my cats have been doing all day - different combinations of cats sitting in the window watching the birds gobble up food. Mike even refilled the feeder just a little while ago.

And, here is a peek at how the basement is coming along. I haven't said anything about this in ages, because there was a lengthy lag in the project. But, despite the heavy snow, two of the contractors showed up today to work on getting the suspended ceiling installed... one bought the camera... Mike took this picture as an example for him. Figured I would share it - Mike is excited that the basement is almost done now.

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Stole this from Vash's blog :-)

Stitched on today: Medieval Town Mandala and Houses of Hawk Run Hollow

The calm before the storm

Nope, Part 3 is not done yet.... but here is a hint of where it is going. Now those gold designs in each corner will need a bit of color added to them, and then Part 3 will be done. Looks like tomorrow will turn out to be a good day for stitching and DVDs, so hopefully I can get it done then. I might even find some time this month to do all of the beading up through Part 3 as well... it will sure look a lot different then.

Winter is about to leave its mark here. We are having much colder and stormier weather than we typically do this early in December. Europe is getting snow... it was snowing in Dallas, TX during the Baseball Winter Meetings earlier this week... heavy snow (from the storm we will get tomorrow) caused a plane to slide off the runway and into a busy street in Chicago tonight, killing an 8 year old boy in a car and critically wounding the rest of his family... what a start to this winter! We are expecting up to a foot of snow between 5 AM and 7 PM tomorrow... good thing this was a scheduled day off for me...

On a brighter note, we have a new stitcher joining the Celtic Ladies SAL! Please join me in welcoming Renee to the group. Renee will be stitching Celtic Spring :-)

Well, I have been avoiding talking about the Red Sox for a while now... but there are some official good byes to say now... so.... good bye now to Edgar Renteria, Bill Mueller (I will miss him), Mike Myers (OK, have fun with the Yankees....), Kevin Millar, John Olerud... I don't like losing players :-( I hear we are getting some good ones, but still... I will miss these guys. There are still important players in limbo (Johnny Damon, Manny Ramirez, and even Tony Graffanino), and I am eager to learn what is up with them now too. ***Nationals fans, congrats on getting Soriano! He is outstanding!

Stitched on today: Medieval Town Mandala and 17th Century Irish Garden for a little while at work (finally.... it is getting to be so hard lately to find stitching time at the office.... paperwork, paperwork, paperwork!)

PS - Thank you, Amanda, for the lovely Christmas card! I hope to use my extra free time tomorrow to get mine done too!

New plans for Celtic Winter

Becky and I decided today that we would both stitch our Celtic Ladies SAL on the same night. She wanted motivation to keep with it, and I also gain since I will now be less likely to put this one aside when other things "come up." Very good! This reworking of getting them done is definitely going to work! I must admit, I had great fun working on the gold swirls on her skirt tonight. I hated putting it down, and ended up stitching a bit later than I usually do!

I received my Mystery Bits for December from Stitching Bits & Bobs today - she went very pastel again this month... I hope she goes back to earthy tones soon, or blues... I much prefer those. This month is: a skein of Caron Wildflowers in Pale Lilac (I have three or four of these now - this color finds its way into my stash pretty easily LOL - fortunately, it is a good color), a skein of Dinky Dyes silk in Blue Mountains, a skein of Crescent Colours floss in Bambino, a card of Stranded By The Sea floss in Sea Honey, and a card of Glissen Gloss Colorwash Silk in 562....

Q. Have you done any charity stitching, been in one, or would like to organize one?

A. I don't like this question... here is why... I have to admit to you all that no, I have never done charity stitching :-( I am not proud of that, but on the other hand, I am otherwise very generous to charities. Even the Christmas tree I bought today was for charity purposes.... OK, I feel a little better telling you that...

Well... On Friday I am supposed to have an early morning dental hygeine appointment, immediately followed by a dental appointment downstairs to have my two permenant crowns put in... BUT... the forecast now is for a moderate to heavy snowstorm starting in the pre-dawn hours. I called the dentist yesterday - they promise not to charge me for a cancellation if it snows. Now, when can I fit this in to reschedule it? Argh. I would really like to get this over with soon. And, I heard on the news we are having much colder temps now than we should this time of year... and more storminess = not good news for the upcoming winter :-(

Stitched on today: Celtic Winter

The snow day that wasn't...

All week long, the forecasters were calling for a whole lot of snow. Sure, they covered themselves by saying "it looks like" a lot of snow... But, we didn't get any. Mind you, I am not complaining! But off to work I went, when I thought I would be able to work on Medieval Town Mandala at home instead! Tonight I stuck to the plan, and put more time in on the Garden Spot Sampler SAL. What I think are strawberries are now finished. I only took a photo of the area I worked on tonight. You have already seen the rest

Some good stash came in today. I received a fat quarter of Silkweaver Lilac Ice 28 ct Reflections lugana as a trade with Barbara - I think this may be just right for Celtic Spring. And Barbara sent me a surprise of two skeins of overdyed floss as well. Thanks Barbara!!!!! I also received the most recent issue (Issue 35) of Cross Stitch Gold, which did not fit into my photo well at all - so you can't see the Leslie Teare angel pictured in the upper right corner of the magazine... I really want to stitch her, so here she is...
You might recognize her - she adorns the cover of a popular book of fairy cross stitch charts. And... my kit for Egypt Garden came in as well... I opted to get the sand belfast instead of the antique white. Anne says she will SAL with me on this one - that will be great! SALs are the only way I get things done efficiently :-)

While watching to see if the 2005 holiday freebie was up yet on MLI's website, I noticed today that she has a new chart release, Evangeline. She writes that this is in response to Hurricane Katrina. I think that is such a lovely thought, but sadly, I am not fond of the design.... thought I would share this for other lovers of MLI's work, though.

And, it is New DVD Release Tuesday, right? Got Fantastic 4 this time, already watched it tonight. Tiny piece of insignificant trivia for you - I went to high school with Michael Chiklis, who plays Ben Grimm, aka The Thing, in the film... Andover High School Class of 1981, Andover, MA. Exciting, right? LOL!

Stitched on today: Garden Spot Sampler

Another crooked scan!

I had originally planned to work on Medieval Town Mandala tonight, but I took my Houses of Hawk Run Hollow chart out tonight to send the VC conversion to Karen V. and got that yearning to work on it again. Another very crooked scan for you... but here it is, House 8 is beginning to take shape!

Here is a small green belfast solo that came in from Silkweaver today. I received another with it, but that one is already packed up and ready to be sent off to Barbara in The Netherlands as part of a trade we are doing - I hope she likes it :-)

Stitched on today: Houses of Hawk Run Hollow

I didn't stitch much at all today, but I remained persistent and put some time in on An Open Heart. Now the blackwork band is finished.

In other good news, the Patriots won over the Jets today, inching their heavily injured team a bit closer to the playoffs now...

More signs of winter today - although it is not winter for almost three more weeks... snow this morning. Probably a lot more coming on Tuesday.

Stitched on today: An Open Heart

The mermaids are back again

After taking a couple of Saturday evenings off to catch up on some other projects, Mermaid Heaven is back again. I really love working on this one (too). It's a fun large project, because it is all full cross stitches and there is minimal backstitching (most of that will be done at the end with gold fiber to detail the scales on the tails). Very fun project!

A few of you have asked me about the Chatelaine designs that I am stitching. More specifically, I have been asked where one goes about finding these designs. If you are in the US, the best bet is to go to European Cross Stitch, Martina's US Distributor. (Chatelaine's designer is Martina Weber in Duisburg, Germany). She has everything you can need there - some of the older kits are being discontinued now, and are being marked down. Seems like now is actually a good time to go and peek - LOL! If you are outside of the US, another wonderful shop for Martina's designs is Dragonfly Dreams in Australia. I imagine there are a couple of other sources, but these are the two shops I use to get my full kits. Both can also help you get the Yahoo group links to join the Mystery Samplers and On-Line Classes too. Of course, both shops gladly accept both US and international orders. Enjoy!

My fabrics from Silkweaver's Customer Appreciation Sale arrived today, and I am super pleased with all three of them :-) I received the 36 ct Morning Dew linen for when I re-start Little Wings, the 32 ct Poltergeist Opalescent lugana for Pacifica, and the Midas Touch Opalescent belfast for Royal Holiday.

And, a bit of a magazine extravaganza today! Mike and I went to Barnes & Noble this afternoon, and I got four magazines - not the latest issues, but the ones that are currently out on the US newstands, of Cross Stitch Crazy, Jill Oxton's Cross Stitch & Beading (Buxom Bessie is in this one too - yay!), The Cross Stitcher, and Quick & Easy - I will have plenty to read later on tonight. My first glance through these show there are already a few appealing charts - I want to make the one of Santa and his reindeer flying over Egypt as an ornament for my niece, Nicole. She loves all things related to Egypt. Too late this year, but a definite for next year! (I'll probably have to send it off to Becky to finish it for me, since I am so inept in that area!!).

I am really excited to see that there is now a companion piece to one of my all-time favorite designs! Nature's Alphabet II by Elizabeth's Designs has just been released! I ordered my copy today from Stitching Bits & Bobs, along with Jeannette Douglas' new Winter Stitches, which is a companion to her very pretty Autumn Stitches piece recently published in Just Cross Stitch :-)

Stitched on today: Mermaid Heaven

And, this is for my dear friend, Karen K.: Karen, I caught Gig sleeping on the gorgeous quilt you made me, yet again today!! Poor Gig, even has sleep in his eyes! (He always has that black stuff in his eyes and needs daily cleaning, typical Persian cat, I guess).

You Are A Lily

You are a nurturer and all around natural therapist. People see you as their rock. And they are able to depend on you. You are a soothing influence. You can make people feel better with a few words. Your caring has more of an impact than even you realize.

What Flower Are You?

That worked out right - it's my personal favorite flower (my regular blog readers already know my garden is overfilled with lilies), I named of my cats Lily, and well.. I am a therapist by profession - this time, they got one right!

Seeing Butterflies

OK, this is what I did all afternoon... all evening... and late into the night... stitching the butterflies! Got them done, though! But, this is only about half of Part 3. I am not sure what day I will be picking this up again, but there is still a bit left to do. As I had suspected, I was pretty tired of the butterflies by the time I got to the eighth one! The NASCAR Awards Banquet on TV kept me company, though, as I finished these up (typical long banquet... every driver has to get on stage and thank all of his sponsors...LOL!).

Some fun stash came in today :-) I ordered a lovely mermaid chart, La Sirene, from a French seller on ebay (whom I have gotten to know), and she sent me La Fee Des Chats II for free. I think these are gorgeous, and the charts look to be really well done! I also got in L&L's The Wedding chart. Mike recently saw this when he was with me at Colonial Needleworks, and he really liked it. If I can ever fit it in, I will stitch it someday with our wedding info on it for him! And... Heaven Lee Creations' FOTM has finally started back up again!! Yay! It has been months. Yes, they can be a little difficult to work with - very slow to return emails, slow to get your fabric... but I stick with them because their fabric is just too high of a quality to ignore! Oh, how I loved the Dragon Myst lugana from them that I used for Legends of the Dragons! This month's installment is called Mummy's Delight. I am not typically one to ever know what to do with a dark purple fabric, but this one has grey in it - similar to how Dragon Myst blended into darker/greyish areas. I can think of many charts that will be gorgeous on this fabric :-) Perhaps one of my charts from White Willow Stitching.... hmmm...

Well, now it is late... but I must remember to say - Happy Birthday Mom!!!!!!

Stitched on today: Medieval Town Mandala

***Has anyone seen The Engagement Ring, a TV movie on TNT, starring Patricia Heaton? I recorded it on DVR a few days ago, and Mike and I watched it today. Wow, I think it was really well done - very impressed - great story :-)