Typhoon update

Our Typhoon HAS infact calmed down...now at a cat 3 by the time it hits land...which is still pretty strong, but there are still a few days yet, it may be a cat 2 or 1 by the time it gets here...prayers up! I'll be logging in later to share a stitchy update on Howling...I got a little work in on it this weekend, and am doing well on page 9! Thank you all for your prayers and thoughts for our tiny island!

ANOTHER ONE?! Come oooon!!!

Super Typhoon Muifa : 5 Day Forecast Map : Weather Underground



This isn't a stitchy update, but just wanted to ask my readers if they could keep us in prayer/good thoughts? There is a HUGE typhoon to hit our island direct this week, (A category 4 which is 131-155 mph winds!) It isn't slotted to hit the island until Thursday, so by then it may calm down a bit, or it may change direction...but the last one we had was pretty bad, and I think it was only a cat.3 (111-130 mph winds) I'm a little freaked!

Anyway. Thank you all! And if you dont' hear from me, my electricity probably got knocked out or something!! I don't know...Oh well, the good thing about being a stitcher/reader is I can easily amuse myself for hours with no electricity! =)

And I'll See You in Your Comment Box!

Wow! This has been a very good bloggy week for me, not so much in the fact of MY posting so much as how much I am truly enjoying reading all your blogs! See here? Here is my google reader...to the right you see those words "No Unread items"....I'm so proud of myself! For the past three days (four? Hmm...don't remember...) I have read and commented on every entry that has been in my googlereader! I started thinking about life, and about the things I am passionate about, which are 1)family 2) Stitching 3)reading...so, I decided that life is too short not to do the things I love! How many times have you heard friends or loved ones say "I love to read, but I don't have time for it anymore?" Or "I used to love doing needlework/crafts, but I don't have time anymore." In my opinion they didn't "love it" they might have enjoyed it, and liked it, but if you love something I would think you'd invest some time in it! Even when I was working practically full time I would get up an hour and a half earlier just so I could do some reading and stitching before heading off to work! THAT is loving something. I don't know, maybe I'm crazy! Anyway, all this tangent to say that this whole blogging experience is so wonderful! I have met some lovely people, who are so creative and inspire me in that love of my life, and then all I do is sit on the computer and go on FB....which don't get me wrong, to a military spouse who is stationed on the other side of the world from friends and family, I am grateful for FB and the easy chance to stay in touch with friends and family back home. But many of them do not understand or share my love of reading and stitching, those people who are nuts about fabric and floss I have found here, in blogland. So, why would I spend hours a day looking at FB, and yet allow my googlereader to overflow with months of backlog? I miss so much! So, I have vowed to spend my computer time more wisely, investing in my passions, even whilst on the computer! So, thank you,dear fellow bloggers! For encouraging me in my passion for stitching and for just being such wonderful people! Stitchers are the friendliest people around!!

Ok, now that that tirade is off my chest, here is a progress photo of the card I am stitching up for my parents wedding anniversary!
I think this is their 48th(?) anniversary! So I thought I would stitch up a cute little card for them. I have been so busy with the new baby that my card sending has gone to pot this year! I don't think I've even sent one yet this year! ::hanging head in shame:: Not even a store bought one! So! I thought to make up for it, I would try to finish off the year with hand made ones instead! They can't balk at that, right? (I hope) Anyway, I love these little bears!! They come from a book called "101 Bears with Personality" I got it YEARS ago, infact I think I got it the same summer I started stitching which was 17 years ago! I've used this book to make other cards in the past as well. They are just sooooo cute! As you can see, I am just about finished with the little bride, all I have left is to finish backstitching her and her flowers. This photo doesn't show it, but the blue I used to backstitch her veil and garter is shiney sparkly blue! And then of course you can see I have quite a bit to finish up on the little groom! But it shouldn't take too long.

So, anyway, that's what has been up in my neighborhood! A little stitching and enjoying your blogs! See yah in your comment box!!

A "finish", and a "start"

I did it! I finished page 6 on Howling at the Moon, and am now working on page 9! Now I only have 3 more pages and some fill in to work on (you can probably see holes here and there where I skipped...Ooops...anyway....I am so excited! 1 more "project" crossed off my "Up for a Challenge" challenge!

Here's the whole thing:

And here is JUST the part I finished and the start on page 9...quite a bit done!! I haven't worked on this on in forever It feels like, I never pick it up, thinking "I don't have enough time to work on it, I won't get enough put in to matter", but when I do, I find that it actually stitches up pretty quickly! Well, that is all for today! I worked a tiny bit on my parents Anniversary card, but I would rather wait until I finish it to share here. Hope you have a great week! The last week in this month! Wow!! It always seems like the second half of the year goes faster than the first...I don't know why that is...is it just me? Or is it like that for everyone? Hmmm...Ok, off to read or stitch while the baby is taking her morning nap!

Thank u! Thank you! thank u!

I took all your advice and it worked!!! sometimes I can be such a dork! Love technology, but sometimes it just doesn't love me back!! LOL...Thank you all so much!!

So frustrated!! UGH!

Ok, so what is going on with this new blogger thing?! I'm not having problems with blogger per se, but I am having problems leaving comments! Is anyone else having these issues? It's frustrating me! I'm so sorry to my friends who I couldn't leave comments to...=( I tried, I really did! But it keeps telling me to sign into my google account, about a million times, so I give up! I think it's Wordpress users I'm having troubles with...SAD!!

Finish #2 for the year!! I'm on a roll!

This is a really dark photo of my second card finish for the year!! It stitched up pretty quickly. If I'd just concentrated on it and not been playing on the computer I'd have had it finished sooner!

I am still working on the snowmen, but not much progress on them, so decided to wait until it's finished to share them! I really think that I need to set the Christmas ones aside and work on the anniversary one for my parents that is due next month! So, probably in my next post I will share that...hopefully it will be a finish.

Still no finishes but there is progress!

Snowmen: I have been working on my cards this week! Here are two of the Christmas ones! They are still in progress! The "Joy" one is closer to a finish than the snowmen one! All I have left of the Joy one is to do the shaded outline of the letter, finish the christmas tree that is in the middle of the "O", and backstitch. I was hoping to get a finish on it yesterday, but the tiny tot, cute as she is, would not let me stitch! She wouldn't nap!!! And boy is she whiney when she doesn't nap!

Well, that is about it here, I am also working on an anniversary card for my parents! I was gonna make a wedding one for my sis in law who is getting married today but I don't think she'd really appreciate it! So, eh, forget it, I'll buy her one at the store! Afterall I sent her an e-mail telling her congratulations and wish we could be there and we are sad that we can't be and told her I bet she'll be abeautiful bride and can't wait to see pics. Then I asked her a non- wedding question about someone I thought she might know. I got an e-mail back asking only about the person I asked about! No thank you for the congratulations or any sorrow for our not being able to be there- Nothing!!! I was like I am NOT wasting my time, energy, materials and talent on someone like that! Oh well, no biggie! Just more time to work on my other cards. I am thinking that once I finish one of these Christmas ones I'll get started on a Halloween one! I am soooooo excited! I know Summer is only half over but I can't wait for fall! We don't really have fall here...ok we DON'T have fall here at all, but I can still stitch in fall, and that is fine with me!

My very first Finish of the year! And Alyssa all ready for July 4th!

I did it! I did it!! I actaully finished a piece of stitching!!! Amazingly enough the year is half over and I stitched this up in 2 days flat. I have decided to start stitching cards: Christmas, friendship, birthday, Halloween, Thankgiving, etc, etc....as I enjoy having a quick finish now and then, plus, like last year I had monthly finish goals with my monthly smalls, and I really enjoyed having a monthly goal. And small finishes. This one isn't a monthly goal sort of project, but I have my list of recipients and their birthdates and anniversaries, and of course all the holidays as well. And I'm just gonna work on cards and see how many I can get done and sent out this year, andit will probably go into next year as well. So now that this "friendship piece" is finished I wil probably put it in a letter for a pen pal...since I have a few, and my next card endeavor are two "wedding type cards"...one is for an actual wedding, and one is for my parents anniversary, which is next month, then I have my FIL's birthday in September, and then of course October: Halloween, then Thanksgiving, and Christmas, and then start in on Birthday ones for the following year, and St. PAtty's Day, Easter, and so on and so on...it'll keep me busy, I'm sure!

And this is not a stitchy pic, but here is Little Alyssa in her Red White and Blue, and ready to celebrate the fourth. Which ended up as a flop for us, but that is alright. Those people my hubby invited never showed! (After we spent all morning running around going to the store getting enough food for an army,and trying to get the house cleaned up!) they call an hour AFTER the time we'd invited them for, and told us they weren't coming!! So, while I was ticked at that, I was also relieved and glad they didn't come! So...it all ended up fine, but now I have an over abundance of Macaroni salad!! Oh well.

Ok, well I am off to get started on my next coupla cards, which I hope to share here soon! Hope you are all having a wonderful week so far!

A bit more progress!!

I am so almost done with page 6 now!!! It is coming along! Just one more color to fill in on this page then it's down to page #9! (right below page 6) And the color I have to fill in here is white, so what you see here is basically as it will look after I have put in the last color! I am still lovin' this one!!

I wanted to say thank you to everyone who sent me sites on Christmas stuff!! Thank you all soooo much!! I actually looked in the one 4 drawer cabinet I DO have access to, which is mostly filled with WIP's and projects that are kitted up and ready to go, and finishes that need to be "finished-finished", and I found a few books in there with some holiday stuff I am thinking of doing...so between your suggestions, and the few books I found, I think I'm good!! Thank you sooo much!!

And! I wanted to share another cute photo of my girl, she's 4 months old now!! And weighs over 13 pounds!! More than double her birth weight!!

Here she is in her little Baby Gap jeans and her little monkey hoodie! SOOOOO cute!!!

Well, happy Fourth of July to all my American readers!!! I have to go clean up the house, as my wonderful husband invited people over for a BBQ without consulting me first, so now I have to go crazy trying to get the house in some sort of order, which will probably be torn apart anyway by the people's, who he invited, 5 year old animal...er...kid...who they don't discipline, so he runs wild like a savage! I hate it when parents don't do their job! Not like I'm a great mother or up for Mother of the Year Award or anything, but when you tell your kid no five times and then just decide to ignore them, when they ignore you, and not discipline them for not obeying you the FIRST time you said no, there is a problem! They don't enforce their word! Anyway, I am sincerely hoping they decline our offer to come over...keep your fingers crossed for me! Maybe I will get through the day with my house (and sanity) intact! ::rant over::

Christmas in July...help?

For some reason lately I have been wanting to stitch small christmas designs fit for Christmas cards. I've never stitched my own cards before, because I was always so busy stitching other HUGE projects for myself or someone else.

Well, I am sorta getting tired of stitching on Howling at the Moon, actually, that's not true, I am still loving it like crazy, and am almost finished with page 6 but I want to work on something other than that allll the time! Just some small things to break up the monotony of that big ole' thing.

So, my question is, does anyone know of any sites that feature cute smallish free patterns that would be suitable for Christmas cards? I have plenty in my stash, but when we moved, my wonderful hubby didn't check with me first and put my huge box of sittching patterns at the bottom in the back of the storage closet!!! (I'm so mad!) So, if any of you could help, I'd appreciate it!! Thank you!!