My Stitchalong

Happy New Year. As usual, I am looking forward to the new year. We have alot of exciting things coming. The kids will all be another year older (so will I, but we don't have to talk about that, do we?) and Z will be old enough to start kindergarten in the fall. He wants to go on the school bus like his brother. There is a wedding in the family coming that we are all going to be involved in. As I was thinking about what I was looking forward to, I started thinking about the projects that I had finished in 2008. Here are my favorite finishes of the year: These two are special to me because I stitched them on hand dyed fabric that I dyed. I started a small business earlier this year, Summer Breeze Hand Dyed Fabrics earlier this year. Business has been slow, but my LNS is carrying my fabrics on consignment, so I was really excited about it. This first piece is called "Chocolate Shoppe" and is by Little House Needleworks. I LOVE chocolate so when I saw this pattern...

I finally got to take pictures of the two projects that I've been working on. This Santa is a Sue Hillis design called "Yo Ho Ho Ho". I love his candy cane hook and peppermint peg leg. I was hoping to have him finished by Christmas, and I was doing really well on him, but life, or rather Christmas, got in the way I suppose. There really is not alot left to do on him. Santa is supposed to be carrying a tree on his back, so I have to finish that, and do the back stitching and then he will be done. At least I will have a head start on my Christmas stitching for next year. I love this project and I've made a decision to work on it more in 2009 than I did in 2008. MJ bought me a personalized sampler from Nouveou Encore Designs for my birthday (which was in January) and I started it in the spring. To be fair, I didn't really do alot of work on it at first because I was working on "Noah's Sub" for my God-daughter, which took me 16 months to complet...

I sat down last night to work on my personalized sampler. The kids were up in their rooms and MJ was working on loading programs onto the new computer so I had some quite time all to myself . I was happy that I was almost done with the page I was on because it was the last page on the top row of the sampler. All of a sudden I notice that I off by one thread and that the border was not lining up. I spend almost an hour picking out what I had so carefully (or so I thought) stitched. Luckily, I was able to pinpoint where my mistake was and I was able to fix what I had done wrong. Now that I have the new computer I will be able to take pictures of my WIPs so that people can see that I really do get some stitching done. It was hard to sit down and stitch in the days right before and during Christmas, but now that the holiday is over I can get some done. It feels good to have a needle in my hand, except when I have to frog out hours of work because of one thread. Argh ! I hope tha...

It's two days before Christmas and my kids are just busting! They are so excited about the holiday and the family coming to visit tomorrow and, of course, the presents. I remember what it was like when I was their age. Waiting for Santa to come and peeking into the living room on Christmas morning to see if he had come to bring us presents. It was magical. I hope that everyone has a happy and Merry Christmas. I have company coming tomorrow and then we're heading to my uncle's for Christmas day and I'm looking forward to all of it! Merry Christmas!

Is everyone ready for Christmas? I have one more present to buy and then I'm done. Today both of the boys have parties at school. Z's party is having s cookie exchange so I had to bring a dozen cookies in to school when I dropped him off. For M's party, called a " Multi -Cultural Feast", the teachers were looking for volunteers to make make things that you make at the holidays so that the whole class can have a taste. What does M want? Home made ice cream! I'm a sucker for that face when he looks as me with those eyes and says, "Please, mom!! Please???" How could I say no? So, M's fourth grade class will have a dessert of chocolate chip ice cream during their feast. The people who I sent ornaments to got them and they were thrilled with them. That really made me happy to know that they went to homes that appreciate them. Last night I was at the monthly Sit and Stitch that is held that my LNS . It was a small group, but we had alot ...

We finally got our computer back from the tech who was fixing it and I was able to move pictures that were on my camera to the computer. I am so happy that we have everything back and working again. I feel like I've rejoined the 21st century! Last weekend we put up our Christmas tree. Z and M love to help their dad with this job. After all of the branches were put on, along with the light, garland, and ornaments this was our end result: M and Z were showing each other some brotherly love while putting up the tree and, of course, I just had to capture the moment: This year I really got into making ornaments. I subscribe to a British magazine called "Cross Stitch Gold" and in the last issue that I received there were these little ornament designs that I thought were great. The magazine had them all done in red, but I wanted to use other colors. These were the first set that I made: I made a second set of them in the same colors to send out at gifts for people and I ...

I'm working on some ornaments that I want to send to people. I've already made some to hang on my tree and now I'm working on a second set to give away. The other day Z asked me to help him snap his jeans, so being the good mom that I am, I go over to help him and then go back to my stitching. Suddenly, I noticed a chocolate smudge on the ornament that I'm working on. There was chocolate all over my thumb. Where had that come from? I hadn't been eating anything at the time. Then I remembered! Z had been eating chocolate chip cookies. He must have dropped a chip on his clothes and not realized it. Now it was all over my thumb and my fabric. I washed the fabric as best as I could, but I can still see the mark of chocolate. So, I think that I will be giving away the one that is already done and hanging on my tree, and keeping the one with the smudge for myself. This is not the first time that my little Z has has a run in with my stitching. A little more...

Ugh! Our computer died - AGAIN!! So MJ took it back to the computer tech again to have him look at it. We think that he got the diagnosis right this time, and he's only charging us for the parts, but it will be Wednesday or Thursday before we can get it back. Luckily, my in-laws gave us their computer (which used to be our before we got a new one and gave them our old one) so that at least we could get online to check e-mails and do our banking. When technology works, it's really great, but when it fails, oh, boy, what a pain! Our house is beginning to look alot like Christmas. M and Z helped their dad put up our tree on Saturday afternoon. When MJ and I were first married we would always get a real tree, but after a few years MJ convinced me that an artificial tree would be easier, and neater. I have to admit that he is right, but I really miss the smell of a real one. So clean and Christmassy . Our boys, however, really love to help their dad put the tree together. When...