The Weather Outside Is Frightful!

Winter does not officially start until tomorrow, but here on Long Island we have been buried under a blizzard! We were forecast to get 12 - 18 inches of snow, but boy, was the weatherman wrong! We got 27 inches! Have you ever seen what 27 inches of snow looks like? This was the view of the driveway from the front door. The front of MJ's car was almost completely buried by the white stuff! Shoveling all that snow was not fun, but were lucky that a neighbor with a snow blower took pity on us and came over to lend us a hand. One thing that we are blessed with is nice neighbors.

After MJ got the front walkway shoveled the kids got all bundled up in their snow gear and headed out to have some fun! As you can see, the snow that MJ had shoveled is almost as tall as Z! When he walks through the snow on the grass in the yard it comes up to his waist and he has such a hard time walking because the snow is so high.

They tried to be dad's helpers before they had fun by doing a little bit of shoveling, too.

M saw all that snow this morning and was just dumbfound. There has never been a storm like this that dumped so much snow on us in his short lifetime, so this was a totally new experience for both of them. Of course, they are both hoping and praying for a snow day tomorrow and an extended weekend.

I know I said that I was done with Christmas ornaments, but I have one more. This is called The Cross of Christmas and is by My Big Toe:

It was done with floss from Weekes in Dolphin and Gunmetal. You know what I like about this one? The design calls for the two colors of blue that I used, but it's one of those designs that you can make in any color. Those types of designs appeal to me.

We have a finish, too! Chocolate is done!

I attached the charms last week, and now it's just has to be framed and added to the chocolate wall.

As we head into the last few days before Christmas, I don't know if I will get another post before the holidays. I hope that everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Ornaments, More Ornaments and A Work In Progress

I don't know about any of you, but the two weeks leading up to Christmas are just crazy here. Between doctor appointments, running around to get those last minute gifts and stocking stuffers, and activities for the kids, half the time I'm not sure if I'm coming or going. All I can say is thank goodness for my favorite chair and my stitching. I need to do something to keep me from going holiday crazy! Hang on though, because I have lots to share and lots of pictures for you to look at.

Lat week at Sit and Stitch at the Lazy Daisy we had a little holiday party, and one of the new parts to this year's party was an ornament exchange. I think that we had 9 people participate and everyone got something nice. The ornament I received was made my Janet:

The little Christmas tree front:

And the back:

Isn't it cute?

This year, for the first time, I participated in ornament exchanges on two message boards that I belong to. I got this ornament from Sue (along with some yummy chocolates that the kids tried to abscond away with):

And I got these from Delores:

First of all, this is a woman who knows what I like! Check out the panda on the front:

And more of them on the back:

I love it so much and was very excited to put all of these beauties on my ornament tree.

Last week I finally finished stitching the last of this year's ornaments, and all that remained to do on them was the finishing. Well, after doing my running around this morning, finishing was today's task. All of the ones that I finished were repeats of ones that I had already done, except for this one, which is going to my sister when we go to visit her after Christmas:

It's a surprise for her. We have not been as close as we used to be, but she called one night and told me that she and her husband had ordered furniture for their guest room and did we want to come and visit? So, MJ and I decided that we would go, and to be honest I'm looking forward to going. It will be nice to see her and her family.

Now that the ornaments are done I decided that I would start one of the pieces that I kitted up a few weeks ago. Hooked on Chocolate by Handblessings was started last week and it's a very quick stitch. It's almost done!

I'm not sure of the name of the color of the fabric that I'm using. It was something that I won in a giveaway and when I saw it I thought that it would go perfectly with this design. The design call for Threadworx floss, but I could not get that at my LNS, so I chose colors that seemed close and I think they look great. I'm using Dark Chocolate by GAST, Sassy Brassy by Crescent Colors, and Sky by Weekes Dye Works (which is the next and last color that I have to stitch). When it is done I think that it will be a handsome additional to the chocolate wall in the dining room.

Well, now that I've had my day to myself, it's almost time to collect the kiddies from the bus stop. M had his orchestra concert in school and was very nervous about it this morning, so I'm looking forward to hearing from him how he did, and hearing from Z how he liked listening to the orchestra.

Until next time, friends!

O, Christmas Tree

This past weekend was Christmas tree day! As you can see, we have an artificial tree and the boys absolutely love to help their dad put it together:

Here it is with all of the lights and ornaments:

See that panda next to the tree? My mother-in-law bought that for me for my first Christmas that MJ and I were married (she knew the way to my heart) and it moves! The head and arms move when it's plugged in and turned on, and every year he sits right next to our tree. I love that little guy!

This is my ornament tree:

It's fiber optic, so it lights up and looks so nice. This belonged to my parents and I got it after they passed away. For the longest time I didn't use it because it's so small and I was not quite sure where to put it or what to do with it. Then, a few years ago, I decided to take all of my stitched ornaments off of the big Christmas tree and put them on that little tree. I had not really made alot of ornaments at that time, so that first year it looked pretty bare and pitiful, but since then I have made several ornaments each year so that my little tree does not look quite so empty. If I keep making ornaments I will need to get a bigger tree at some point, but for now this little one is just the right size.

Speaking of ornaments, I am VERY happy to say that I have put the last stitch in my last ornament of the season. All in all, I stitched 18 this year, which is alot for me, but I guess that is what happens when you start your Christmas stitching in September! Out of that 18, five of them will find a home on my little ornament tree, plus I am expecting three more from exchanges that I participated in. Now that all of the stitching is done, I have to do the finishing on the last six. I hope to get to that either by the end of this week or early next week. Christmas is coming and I am running out of time.

So I'm Not The Sharpest Needle In The Needlecase

I've been happily working along on Home of A Needleworker for the last week and I made some good progress:

I have noticed, however, that my fabric seems to be a bit small and I could not, for the life of me, figure out how I screwed it up. I checked my calculations for the size of the finished design. I had measured the material three times before I cut it. That's a little OCD, I know, but I've saved myself from mistakes by checking just one last time. Where did I go wrong?

Then, last night while I was watching a James Bond marathon, it came to me. I know that I need to have three inches on each side to allow for framing for a total of an additional six inches for the lenght and six inches for the width. I was thinking three inches, not six. So, instead of adding six inches to the size of the fabric, I only added three, half as much as I needed. And as I was thinking about it, I realized that I had done the same thing to the blue fabric that I'm planning on using for the Hooked on Chocolate design that I kitted up last week. At least for that project I have not started it yet, and I have more of that fabric, so I will go back to see if I have enough of it to cut a larger piece.

As for the LHN, I'm going to finish it and see how much fabric I have on each side. I may have to sew some muslin to the edges to give the framers some extra fabric to work with.

I really need to remember SIX inches!

New Starts And A WIP

Last time I posted I asked for your opinions on which is better: making clear progress on a WIP, or the thrill of starting something new. Well, I decided that I needed to have my cake and eat it too, so I did both! I guess I'm just one of those girls who wants it all.

The first panda from HAED is becoming along and he almost has a head, which is really exciting:

Lots of blues in the top of this design and the bottom has lots of greens, but it's nice to see progress being made on something so big.

Now, on to the new starts and things that I've kitted up. The new start is from Little House Needleworks and is called Home Of A Needleworker:

It's being stitched on 28 count off white evenweave with the Crescent Colors that are called for in the design. I love LHN designs because they are usually quick to stitch, and with two big projects on the the stitching bag it's nice to have something that is smaller to work on.

The next piece that I've kitted up is by Handblessings:

Mmmmm!! Chocolate! And this piece says it all, at least for me! The design calls for Threadworx floss, but my LNS does not carry that, so Diana (the owner of Lazy Daisy ) and I decided to go through and pick three colors that we thought were close to what the design called for that looked nice on the blue fabric. Oh! That fabric came from Doris (http://apauseinthejourney.blogspot.com). She did a giveaway on her blog a while ago and I got two large Ziplock bags filled with fabric, and this pretty blue was one of them. Doris, it's coming in handy!!!

Another Handblessings design has made it's way into the stitching bag as well:

Welcome To the Home Of A Stitcher! I love this one and I think I know exactly where I want it to go, too. Again, I'm using the thread called for in the design by Weekes Dye Works, but I'm not sure of the name of the color of the linen that I bought. I picked it up at Lazy Daisy on Thursday night and there was no name on it. I know it's 30 count, though, which is smaller that I usually work on, but when I asked for opinions at the shop everyone thought that the floss colors really popped on this fabric.

Is everyone getting ready for Thanksgiving? I am cooking this year, but it is going to be a much smaller crowd that usual, which actually I think is kind of nice. Both of the kids have decided that they want to help me do the cooking, which I think is nice, until they get bored and decided that something else is more fun, like their video games. Since I do almost all of the side dishes the day or two before Thanksgiving, I think I have decided that they can help me make a couple of simple desserts that they picked out from one of my cook books. This way they feel like they have helped me with the dinner and made a contribution, and I know that desserts will keep their interest long enough for them to see through from start to finish.

I hope that all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and that you have friends and family to spend the holiday with.

Which Is Better?

In my last post I said that I was getting tired of the ornaments, but had no desire to stitch on the two projects in my stitching bag, which left me with the option of rooting through my stash looking for something new to work on. Something that shouts to me that it needs to be taken out of the closet and worked on. I got alot of comments from people telling me that starting something new is great fun, which I agree with, and how much fun it is to look through stash to see what could be the next project of the day.

But then, while I was cleaning up the den I took out the HAED piece and looked at where I was on that and somehow, that piece was the one that started calling the loudest. I spent Friday afternoon while the kids were at school and all day Saturday stitching on those pandas. I haven't had a day like that in a long time. With young kids it is hard to be able to do that, but somehow on Saturday all of the stars were in alignment and I got in a good stitching day. Or maybe it's just that my kids are getting bigger and more self sufficient.

This change in my decision got me to thinking which do you think is better: starting something new, or making some great progress in a WIP that has been sitting in your stitching bag? All opinions are welcome, so please leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Pink Floss Comes In Handy

Each week Z's class focuses on a color of the week. They learn to spell that word, sound it out, and do class work that includes that particular color. On Friday each child is to bring in a secret object in a bag, stand in front of the class and describe what they brought and the other kids have to try to guess what the secret object is. So far, it's been easy finding something that Z has that is the color of the week. Blue week was a blue Power Ranger. Red week was a Lightning McQueen car. Brown week was a brown Matchbox car. Easy, right? The color of the week this week? PINK!! Now, if I was the mother of girls pink would be no problem. I'm sure we would have a My Little Pony, or something belonging to some type of doll that was pink, but the good Lord chose to blessed me with boys and, to the perfectly honest, this house is sorely lacking in pink. There really was not anything that he had that could be considered pink. This morning we were still trying to find something when I decided to check my craft closet, where there is a big bag to extra floss. I asked Z if he wanted to take pink floss and he could tell the kids that his mom used it for her sewing. So, Z went to school with his homework completed and my pink floss saved the day. See why having extra stash comes in handy? You never know when you might need something.

On the stitching front, I am starting to get ornamented out, I think. I finished stitching three more, and am almost done with another one. There are two more that I want to make and then I think that I will be finished with ornaments for this year. That would bring my grand total of ornaments made to 14, which for me is pretty impressive. I'm amazed that I've stuck with stitching them for so long.

Which leads to me a problem. I have two other projects in my bag, the HAED panda and the Mickey and Minnie, but I really don't feel like working in them right now. What is a stitcher to do? Start something else!! I'm not sure what I want to work on, so I think I will be taking a look through my stash to see what's there and what jumps out at me, or screams the loudest at me, begging to be worked on.

I also want to welcome the new followers that I have here. Welcome! I hope you enjoy your time here, and please feel free to leave comments. I love reading them.