SAL Finishes, and a New House!

Hi all!  I hope everyone's week has been a good one, and all have managed to survive the wicked weather!  Our area didn't get the ammount the weatherman was calling for, but we still got enough!  My DD had a snow day last Wednesday, and a PA day on the Thursday, so she was quite happy!  She and I spent her snow day stitching and watching movies, which was lovely!  And since I got my housework done Thursday and Friday, now all I have to do this weekend is laundry and stitching!

On to the updates!  Finished Part 18 of Castles in the Air by Papillon Creations!  A little Tudor cottage!  I just can't seem to stop gushing about this one!  I love how everything is turning out!  But I think that if I had the whole complete chart in front of me, I would be overwhelmed!  But by stitching pieces of it every month, it isn't overwelming and I look forward to the challange!

Here is a close up!  I just love the arbor!  It is just so sweet!

I outlined the fence, otherwise you couldn't see it, and adding metallic blue to the white would just look silly on the fence!

I also started the February ornament for my ornament SAL.  I really wanted to do a Gingerbread one, and really liked the Country Cottage Needlework one from the August JCS ornament preview issue.  As I was stitching it, I noticed the title,"Season of Love" and thought it was pretty apprpriate for the month of February!  February being the month of love, hearts and other gushy stuff!  LOL!

Have a new start to share with you!  I couldn't help it!  I thought it was so cute!  I am working on Brooke's Books Winter House Challenge!  I used some fabric, metallic floss and beads that I had in my stash!  We are to make it our own by adding beads, buttons and whatever else takes our fancy!  It has two cardinals in it, so you see why I needed to stitch this one?!?!

This is what I have done so far!  I have set it down now though to work on my Flower of the Month afghan, Februrary's Violets!

I don't have any new pictures of birds, but I thought I would show you one that I took over the summer.

I am sorry that it is kind of hazy, but my camera went from air conditioned house to hot late afternoon summer air very quickly, and I had to get the shot!  There was a banded pigeon that had started to hang around my bird feeders (Sorry, I should have taked pictures of it!) for a few days.  But one day I noticed a bunch of white stuff on the back lawn, and went over to investigate, and discovered it was feathers!  Later that afternoon I saw this Cooper Hawk guarding its kill!  I felt bad for the pigeon, but it was sorta neat to see the hawk!  But other birds disappeared for a few hours!  They don't particularly like it when hawks come to visit!  LOL!  The hawk took off with the pigeon into a tree.

Well, that's all I have to share this time!  I hope everyone is staying warm and dry, and stitching!  Till next time!

Stitching, Cats and Big Red!

Hi all! I had intended to post an update on Monday, but it didn't get done! I have a real good excuse this time! Honest!

My internet provider was down for part of day. So, you see it really wasn't my fault! Then the power went out for a few minutes. I waited all day for the internet provider to get things worked out. I called them a couple of times to see when the problem would be resolved, and waited very patiently and politely. (With my old provider, I was snarly and miserable, because we always had so many problems, dial-up, phone lines, it was endless misery!) Then Hubby came home after picking up his load, and for supper before taking off for California. My internet was still down, so Hubby called for me to try and see what the issue was. He spoke to a really nice girl and they were trying all kinds of trouble-shooting, only to realize that I had forgotten to push the reset button on the huge surge protector!! (see above mention of power outage!) Now again, in my defense, I wasn't here when the wireless router was installed (Hubby did that!) and don't remember if he mentioned that fact. Well, now I know! The look on his face was a combination of resignation and exapiration. I am used to that. Technology and all its accompanying cords defeat me.

On to the updates, and better late than never, right? Here is the second side of The Victorian Sampler Gingerbread Stitching House. I am LOVING working with silks!! But I have to make sure that my hands aren't rough! The silks really catch on every little thing!

This is the very first biscornu that I ever stitched, but I never finished it! I couldn't figure out why it was so hard to sew together! I had a tutorial up and was following the instructions, but it still was very hard to do! I put it away to work on at a later date, and promptly forgot about it. I was between projects, and starting to go thru my stash and found it again. So I decided it was time to put it together. As I looked at it I realized that I had only used one strand of floss for the backstitched border around the design. No wonder I was having trouble whipstitching! Trying to get the needle under one strand was a exercise in frustration! After I removed the one strand and replaced it with 2 stands of floss, things went much better. As a matter of fact, I finished it that night! A UFO done!

Here is my first ornament for an ornament SAL, going for the whole year. We do one a month, and at the end of the year, we should have 12 ornaments finished! I have the stitching done, but not the actual finishing. I think I need to chat with the finisher, aka Mom! LOL!

I had a picture of my Spring Carousel Horse, but it was blurry when I looked at the photo on my computer, so that will have to wait! I only finished a few leaves, so there wasn't really that much to report anyways.

Here are some pictures of my kitties!

Chloe is very playful and likes to get into michief!! The only plant that I have and haven't managed to kill, she tries to eat!! It is my gardenia plant!

Here is Princess Periwinkle who is not at all happy with the new one! She is my baby!

Here is Hubby's buddy, Copper! This is the usual scene! All he does is sleep and eat! And snore!! Typical male!!

Now for my GRAND FINALE!! My Dad and I love to watch the birds, and he has taken special delight in telling me that he has a woodpecker at his place that I don't! He has named him "Big Red"! Everytime I was over there, I'd ask where this woodpecker was, and Dad would inform me that he had already been there! I accused Dad that he was lying! LOL! Well, I now have my own "Big Red"!! I have been trying for two weeks to get a shot of this shy giant, and Monday managed to shoot him!! Here he is!! The red-bellied woodpecker! (I'm not sure where his red belly is, but m bird book informs me that this is his name!) He actually looks like he was spray-painted with flourescent paint!

I have come to the end of the update. I am working on Part 18 of Castles in the Air, and hope to be done today. Then I would like to start Brooke's Books Winter House Challange, until February 1, when I need to work on another ornament and EMS 2010 Flower SAL afghan. Hope all is well with everyone, and the weather is good where you are! Till next time!

New Year, New SAL

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! I know we did here, but we were very busy! Went up to Peterborough to spend Christmas with my sister and her hubby! We all got spoiled rotten! Chloe even came with us. She was just a little too young to be left home!

And, yes, I am one of those that likes to dress up the pets! Just a photo of my DD and Chloe in their Santa hats! Doesn't Chloe look thrilled?

This is the ornament I made for the new little one, Korbin, son of my Baby Sis! Again, thanks Mom, aka my finisher! LOL!

And the back!

I got some new stash just before Christmas! DD and I headed off to the big city to finish up some last minute gift card shopping, and stopped in the LNS! Had a gift certificate to use up, and it must be used in one visit, sooo, I chose this one! I have a real collection going of gingerbread themed projects! My family LOVES gingerbread cookies! And I would love to make a few for display in my kitchen!

I got a new pair of scissors for Christmas from Hubby and DD! I love these! The Sonia pattern from Ginger!!

Here is the progress on my Spring Carousel Horse. The bottom left portion of the trellis! I just started the other day, after a couple months of being put down trying to catch up on others!

Here is the latest installment of Papillon Creations' SAL Castles in the Air.

A close-up of the mermaid! Now just waiting for the next installment.

I have started a new SAL! I asked for and received for Christmas two afghans to cross stitch on! Thanks Mom! This is last years EMS Flower SAL. I had collected them all every month faithfully, and was going to save up my money to purchase the afghans, but my Mom told me to wait for Christmas! Here is January's Carnation. An alphabet was included, but I'm not too fussy about it, so I am looking for something cursive, a little more flowery, if you will! If I can't find anything, I will attempt to come up with my own.

In my stocking this year, I got a gift card for Chapter's book store! I went in to Chapter's up in Peterborough, but couldn't find any books that I wanted. But online, they have way more in stock, and at much cheaper prices! So I bought myself some reference books! I have wanted to branch out with my stitching, and these come highly recommended!

I have the first PageMap's book, so the second was a must have!

I don't have any new bird pictures this month! But I hope to soon! We have new binoculars and I got a bird reference book for Christmas from my sister and her hubby! I have no excuse for not knowing the names of birds! LOL!
I hope everyone has a good day, and I will try to be better about updating more often!

Of Mice, Cats, Birds, and Stitching, Too!

I'm not sure if I have mentioned this before, but we live in rural area. Now we are not too far out of town, but we are surrounded on all sides by fields and wooded areas. And we live in a old house. Field stone foundation, plaster walls. An old house. Which of course, means we get mice. Especially when the weather starts to turn cold. Now this year we seem to have alot of mice! I don't know if this means that we are going to have severe winter of not(I sure hope not!) We keep setting traps and we keep emptying them. We also have two cats! They apparently aren't doing their job! I have a story to tell you about that!

The orange cat we have, Copper, is very old, and I don't think he hears or smells that well any more. The princess, Periwinkle, I don't think she really knows what to do with a mouse! Until this fall. Actually, even then! Let me explain. I had gone into my kitchen to move my dishwasher back into its place. (I do not have a built-in) She was staring under the stove, but moved as I moved the dishwasher. A mouse runs out from under the stove and she chased it a little. Now by this time I am shrieking and screaming! My DD runs into the room wondering what is going on! I yell "There's a mouse!" So she is screaming, I am screaming, and Periwinkle is sitting under the table wondering what in the Blazes is going on! So all three of us end up chasing this mouse, which results in us chasing it out the door! Now, one of two things is likely to happen after this. The mouse runs out of this house never to be seen again, thanking his lucky stars that he got out of this nut house! Or he was back in again in under 15 minutes, having found a safer place to hide!

Now all this brings me to our new member of the family! I have been leaving a couple teasing hints on a couple of my groups, so without further fanfare, here is Chloe!!

A couple weeks ago, during DD's last horse back riding lesson until March, I was sitting watching her ride. I usually bring in a blanket to help ward off the chill. And since it is barn, there are always cats and kittens. I was holding a little black one but this one kept biting my nose. The owner was joking around and saying that we needed one. I replied that we had two and that they weren't helping with the mouse situation. "These ones are great mousers!" She said, selling it for all it was worth. Hubby walked in during this and said that if I wanted another one, we could get one! But that it had to stay outside! He and I looked around and found this little cutie! Long story short, (Ha!) we brought her home!She is our Great Mouse Hope! She is a lovely little tabbie with gingery/orange spots on her back and one on her tummy! We spent a couple days trying to find a name for her. We liked the idea of Radar, as she has big ears, but it wasn't quite right, but her full name is Chloe Radar Joyes! My DD came up with Chloe! As soon as we heard the name, it just clicked!
She loves to sleep on the satellite receiver, I think because it is warm! She is very playful and affectionate. She does come in and plays and sleeps, but we put her out for night in a back room that has a bed, food, water and a litter box. Eventually, she will be outside. We are planning to get her fixed when she is old enough, as we don't want more babies and it seems the responsible thing to do.
Now on to the stitching! Here is my latest installment of Castles in the Air, Part 16! Now as I am stitching this for my Mom, she has the choice of the floral or the fantasy version. So far she has picked the fantasy version. I am working on the next section right now, Part 17, the mermaid!
Here is the close-up of it!
During my DD's rowing workouts, I have been working on The Victoria Sampler's Gingerbread Stitching House. But I realized that I have never posted pictures. Here is the one side, stitching completed, except for beads and cutting (which scares the daylights out of me!)
And here is the next side. I like to have something to work on while I am there. And this is small enough to be portable. I love working with the silks! They feel so nice and I find that they do not knot much at all!
This is a sweet little finish from Brooke's Books from The Gift of Stitching magazine from the 2007 December issue. Now I just need to make the border on another piece of fabric with the year and the baby's name! I used some 28 ct evenweave that I had in my stash and tea dyed it myself. And as this was a last minute idea, I did not have the beads, so I improvised with some metallic floss that I had in my stash!
Just a couple minutes ago, I found out the the recipient of this little ornament has been born!! He was born about 10:30 am, Sunday November 28, 2010 and weighed in at about 8 pounds! I do not have all the particulars yet, but DD and I will be going to visit them tomorrow in the hospital! We cannot wait! The new mom is like a little sister me and we could not be more excited!

This next finish is from my DD!! She finished this one for her teacher! I have a little bamboo wood frame for it! Her teacher is a self-described choc-o-holic!! DD did this all herself, except for the french knots! Now she has been nosing around my stash looking for something else to work on!

Here are my bird shots! I took this one last week, and I think it is a blue bird! But I can't tell for sure. Maybe someone could let me know if they know what it is.

And I finally got some pictures of the bluejays I had seen around! There are two different ones here.

And for my parting shot, I saw all these cuties lined up on my hook and thought they were pretty neat!!

I hope that I haven't bored you with my ramblings, but we have been pretty busy around here, running around. I hope that the weather is good where everyone is and I hope to update again soon! Off to do some laundry and hopefully stitch in between loads! Be happy and safe!

Warning: Long Update! Lots to share!

Happy Fall! How did that happen? I have been so busy lately! DD is rowing 4 nights a week, plus Saturday mornings. Then horse-back riding Friday nights. The only time we are home is Sundays. I have to admit that I have been feeling adrift with all the running around, and I have yet to find my feet. I seem to be missing two hours everyday because of all the running around. But I am still finding some time to stitch everyday.

I would like to send a big Thank You and a HUGE squeezy HUG out to Sherri K. from one of my groups! She asked to borrow a magazine to stitch a small chart, and then returned it to me when she finished it. And with it she sent a project bag that she made for me! And it's even pink! It was very unnessesary, but much appreciated! Thanks again, and I'm sorry it took me so long to update my blog and mention this! (I did email her to thank her, lest you think I'm rude.)

Now on to the project updates!

Here is my Part 15 of Castles In The Air. I LOVE this project! I think I love Blackwork! It just turned out so well! But the fluer de lyes on the top of gate were supposed to be metallic thread, but as the colour I chose is gilt, I felt it wouldn't show up as well. The black seems more dramatic to me.

Here is a close up of the gate.Next is my progress on Stoney Creek's Moonbeams and Stardust Witch. The first was taken about two weeks ago and the second one was taken this morning.

My DD has a finish to share from the 2010 JCS ornament issue. I'm a little embarassed to admit that I haven't even started one from this issue yet. She beat me to the punch! LOL! She has done a great job! I am very proud of her stitching! She is now working on one for her teacher for Christmas! Even with all the rowing and homework she still finds time to work on her stitching!

I have been on a pattern buying spree lately! I love ebay!!And yes, your eyes do not decieve you! That is the elusive Best of Fantasy Vol 1! I finally found someone who would ship to Canada! I am so excited!! The Diamonds in Squares pattern and the Christmas one I bought from a Canadian seller. The Diamonds in Squares pattern is for the little chair I bought for my dressing table in my bedroom. I want to re-do the seat, which is very plain. I think it will be lovely!

Lastly, here are some wildlife pictures. The first was taken at my house and the second was taken at the small lake where my DD rows.

If I don't get a chance to update before Halloween, I hope everyone has a safe and happy one! Chat with you soon!