I did it! I did it! I did it! Snow Valley Express-FINISHED!!! Wooo hooo!!!!

I was sooooo happy to finish this train this morning!!! I wanted to have it done before we moved next month in time to give to my dad, and it is DONE!!! I started this in Dec. 2004!!! And finished May 2013!!! I was not stitching it for most of that time, for most of it, it sat in the WIP drawer, and I ignored it! But, I was SOOO relieved to have it finished!! 

 Next up, I have to share! We had our family portraits done on Mother's Day, and I think the one of Alyssa is absolutely ADORABLE!!! I love her little bare baby toes!! We got the old time-y antique type ones! I love how everything is all in Sepia print except for the basket of flowers! They are the original color!

Today I had to go the dentist...ugh...but I did alright! ALOT better than the last time I had to go, last month. glad that is over now! Now all I have to focus on is the move! The house gets packed up next week! GASP! I am super excited though for this next chapter of our lives! 

Now go dust off those dancing shoes and do the cha cha with me! I'm happy dancin'!!!

The Abbey...page 9 done, and movin' onto page #8!

 First up, since this IS a stitching blog, here is my progress on The Abbey! 2 more pages to stitch, then back stitch the whole thing! It's comin' along!

 While unpacking Christmas ornaments I unpacked this one! My hubby got it for me a few years ago. His mug says "Grumpy Before Coffee"....Yup! That's me!


And now for the cutest thing ever........

My daughter in pigtails!!! LOL, and she is supposed to be modeling my other favorite Christmas Ornament, a tiny cup of coffee, and it really smells like coffee, but she was too busy lookin' cute for the camera and you can't really see the ornament. Oh well, that's alright, she is so much cuter than any ornament!!!

Hope you are all enjoying the holidays and stitching blissfully away!

The Abbey....still chuggin' along...

Well, this past weekend, we had another typhoon come through, this one was the strongest for the season yet! But, we are safe! During the storm I pulled out the Abbey. I have been putting most my attention to my Christmas pieces, and not so much on this one! Of course with my stitching slump as of late, I really wasn't in the mood for a BAP! But I think my stitching mojo DID show back up on the winds of our last typhoon, so, here is the progress:

I feel like I've been stitching page #9 FOREVER!!! There is so much confetti stitching with the flowers/bushes, that it just seems to take along time to get it all in!

Next up here is a picture of Alyssa, just relaxing with her juice and her lil' buddy-Lambchop! She was very engrossed in her movie-Finding Nemo! LOL
I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! Thank you all for the lovely comments! See yah again soon!

Two projects in one post!! I am definitely behind!

Well, I have been having lazy days lately! I am still stitching but just not posting! BAD ME! I shall sit in the corner later!

But for right now I am going to share Coming Home for the Holidays, my SAL piece. I am still working mainly on the left hand side of the house.

I got so much stitching in now I have decided it's time to start some of the backstitch:
Can you see it?

Next up is Birdhouse #1. The last time I posted about this one, I was griping about it, and it's still not my favorite project, but we are at least on speaking terms again! See? I was trying to pin point the problem as to why I hated it so much....I got all the threads I need now, and I realized that it is because I didn't make a working copy of the pattern before I started, so sometimes I just feel lost!! And I end up spending so much time counting and recounting just to try to find my place! And it is hard, because so many of the colors (Especially in the roof) are almost identical! UGH! I WILL be making a working copy to highlight of the next house in the series!!
And last but not least...some cuteness to brighten up this post!
LOVE that smile!! Anyway, our weather has been horrid lately, we have a Typhoon on the way to hit late Monday. we'll see, the last one that was to hit last week veered off to the east and we didn't even get any of the affects at all.

Well that's about it in my corner of the world! Happy stitching!

Oh yeah, and I haven't even picked up The Abbey since I last posted about it! So This weekend I am hoping to get some work in on it! Well, providing I don't get blown away by the typhoon, I will post progress on it in my next post! I am almost finished with page 6 of it! I really wanted to finish p. 6 and start the next page by months end...we shall see!

Wow! It's been a while!

Wow! Life has just been crazy busy! Not much time for going on the computer and blogging. As my daughter gets older, she is more demanding of my time, so I spend alot more time with her and less time on the computer! So, apologies for my absence! It's like I posted those last two finishes and said "Ok, I'm done!" and never came back!

But as you know me and the hubs have been working out regularly, to a program called P90. And boy is it crazy intense! But I wanted to share a cute photo of my hubby and daughter! It is so cute! When we work out, she tries to do the exercises with us!!! So, here is Hubby and his new personal trainer!

And now onto Stitchy business! So, I made the decision to 1) fill in Howling at the Moon's spot with The Abby, and here is my progress on it! The work I've done in the past few weeks has mostly been all those clouds on the right hand side, which I am almost finished with! So that is pages 1,2,4 and 5 complete, and 3 almost complete. So I still have 6,7,8, and 9 to finish. The last time I posted this was in June of 2010! Almost two years!! Which would explain the rust stain...yup, stupid me, I left my needle in my fabric and it rusted, so if you have any good ideas on how to get those two tiny rust marks out of my fabric I'd appreciate any tips! Thanks!
And 2) I decided to fill in "Patchwork Bear's spot with a new start! I know! I'm so bad! But oh well! I decided to start The birdhouse series (three in the series) I think it's called "Sweet Re-tweet" or something. And I will be sharing photos of that progress in my next project!

Well, I do hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! I am planning to, my hubby is going snorkeling tomorrow if the weather is good, so I have all day to stitch!!! Yippeee! Which is good, because it's my SAL weekend with Jules!!! So Probably on Monday I will share that and my progress on Sweet Re-tweet!

Til next time, happy stitching!

Alyssa says "Hello Santa!"

Soooo cute! I love it! She was so curious about his beard that she didn't even cry!! Infact she almost took it with her when her daddy lifted her off his lap! Ooops...we almost had a "great reveal" issue! That woulda been bad! Well, I am just about finished with page 8 of Howling at the Moon! I am trying like mad to get it totally done up before posting a photo of it here! Then just one more page to go and some fill in here and there and wa-la! My huge piece will be done! I have also been working on another piece for Alyssa which I will share here soon, I had to get something else out since I'm done with my Cards, something a bit easy on the eyes for when it's late and I wanna stitch but don't wanna put the concentration in that is required for Howling!

Oh yeah, has everyone else's posting options gone to HTML? Just curious! I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas if I don't make it back here before then! But I'm gonna try to!

Christmas Card Craziness!! And a bit of Cuteness

Well, first up is a photo of Alyssa, just cause she adds a sense of cuteness to my blog that stitching just doesn't cover! She was hiding behind the curtains! And here are some of my Christmas Cards completed! I thought I had taken photos of the stitching for the last two that I finished just on their own, but apparently not, so here are 5 of the ten that will be going out to select close family and friends. I originally wanted to get more stitched up, but I couldn't do it! Oh well, better luck next time!

and this is what the inside looks like:

Is it corny? I mean I know it's not professional quality by any means, but my mom used to help us kids make all our Valentines for our class Valentine parties, while other people were handing out store bought ones, my mother instilled in us the special-ness of something hand made! So, even though it may not be perfect, I enjoyed making them, and so I hope those who recieve them enjoy them too.

Well, this past weekend, I worked on Coming Home for The Holidays, as it was SAL weekend with Juls, so I will be sharing a photo of that here soon!

Thank you all for reading! I hope you're all having a wonderful holiday season so far, and I will post again soon!

Wow! busy busy busy!

The past week we have had a house guest, so we have been busy! I got a little stitching in which I will share soon! I finished the "Christmas Blessings" card and am now working on "Three Candy canes" I am a little under half way finished with page 8 of Howling at the Moon. And this weekend I am working on "Coming Home for the Holidays" my SAL with Julie. So I've been busy, just not much time for posting here. But I wanted to share this picture of Alyssa. She was a little lion for Halloween...I thought she was adorable! She didn't like the head piece very much, and the costume was very warm, which was horrible, since it is still in the 80's here, with high humidity! I wish Fall would get here sometime soon! Or winter....I am sick of the heat! Well that's it for me here I will post progress on my other projects soon!

SAL post #1...

I know you LOVE my title!! Very original, and creative! Haha! So, today is the day I think we are supposed to share our progress that I am doing with Jules of "A Stitch in time with Jules" (Who recently changed her blog name, and used to be "Julies Creations".) Anyway, no matter the name of the blog, it is still the same great person writing about their lovely stitchiness!

We are both working on a project called Coming Home for the Holidays. I think the last time I worked on this one was in November and you can see what it looked like then here.

So, our SAL will take place the first weekend of every month and then we will share our progress the following week. This being a long weekend, it gave us a little extra time! So, here is my progress. for the most part I work on the big long line of brown and a little more blue and white in the roof of the house. (If you can tell that is a house)

I am sooo excited to be working on this project with Julie, and when you see how far she is don't laugh at me ok? She is WAY further along than I but I still wanted some motivation to get some work in on this!

Well, I wanted to let you know, that my weekend didn't get a whole lot better, the best day was Monday and nothing happened that day, on friday I was treated like garbage by someone I thought was a friend, then Saturday I fought with the hubs (but no worries we made up!) Sunday my daughter was a grumpy pants, because she is teething now! Poor little girl. And yesterday (Monday) was ok.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!! and here before I close out, I want to share a video of Alyssa! Who doesn't like baby laughter?! I personally think it is the greatest thing in the world. It is so carefree and contagious! I can't help but to laugh right along with her when she giggles! So, enjoy!!!

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::

Alyssa

My little angel made her arrival on Thursday Morning, Feb. 24th at 6:01. She weighed 6 lbs. 12 oz, and was 19 inches long!!

I was in the hospital for 5 days for complications, including high blood pressure causing pre eclampsia, and then I hemorraged when I gave birth and had to have a blood transfusion. It was a rough couple of days, but we are doing fine!!!

Welcome to the world, my Angel girl!!!