MYSTERY CLASS PROGRESS

I haven't had much time to work on this - in fact I haven't had much time to do much of anything lately. For the last 2 months, when I'm not at work, I've been helping my Mom get ready for a move to a retirement community. She moves in a couple of weeks. Dad will be transferred from his current location to the health care unit in the same community once she gets settled in. It has been quite the adventure sorting through their house. They've lived in this house for 50 years and it holds lots of memories. Mom has done amazingly well with all this change. First she had to deal with Dad being sick, then deciding that she needed to move, finding a place she liked and then getting ready for the move. Dad is improving in his current location but is VERY frustrated that he can't help Mom with the move. Hopefully by the end of February they both will be in the same facility. She will be able to walk down the hall to visit with him instead of getting in the car and driving to see him 2-3 times a day. That will truly be a blessing.

ANYWAY - this is supposed to be a stitching blog. So, let's talk stitching!

The first picture is the top left corner of the canvas. I've done the green curly que thingy but have not finished the white section yet.

The picture above gives you a close up look at the border that Ruth had us do on the entire canvas. It took forever for me to get it all done due to the lack of time to stitch but I love the results.

This shows the whole canvas with all the borders finished. I hope to work on it some more tonight.

We are in the middle of blizzard - 11 inches of snow on the ground and it is still snowing so hard I can't see the house across the street. We are supposed to get 10 -15 more hours of this. As soon as I post this - I am going to start testing recipes for next week's baby shower. I am trying a baked french toast that you make the night before and bake off in the morning. I also am looking at an eggs florentine casserole. The shower is set for 10 AM so I am doing brunch food. I will let you know what recipes make the cut. At least the house will smell yummy.

Happy snowy stitchy Saturday.

TOOOOO CUTE!! TOOTH FAIRY #2 FINISHED

The back of the pillow is a wonderfully textured fabric with the cutest cutest cutest frog buttons!!This is the side of the pillow - mattress ticking and black pom poms!!

This shows the details in the wonderful fabric the finisher chose for the pillow

And here it is in all it's cuteness. I can't wait to give it to them next weekend at the shower.

Thank you a thousand times to Ruth Schmuff from Bedecked and Beadazzled. She and her fabulous finisher worked their magic on this one AND did it in RECORD time. The pictures don't do it justice. The fabric colors are spot on.

It's back!

I've been meaning to tell you that the second tooth fairy pillow is back from the finisher. It arrived late last week! WOOHOO! It is absolutely adorable. I haven't had a chance to take pictures of it yet. I will try to do that soon and post them for you to see.

Seasonally confused - seasonally challenged??

As I stated in my first (and only) post of 2010, I am going to focus on the BGTM -2010 Plan this year. That means that I am going to be good to myself (BGTM) and stitch on what makes me happy. That means that I will confuse the heck out of you and myself by doing seasonal canvases at the "wrong" time of year. With that in mind, the first canvas that I tacked to the stretcher bars for this year is the Merry Christmas mystery canvas from Bedecked and Beadazzled. It is a Raymond Crawford Canvas and it is beautiful. Ruth of Bedecked and Beadazzled fame has done an AMAZING job of writing a stitch guide for this canvas. It is fun, glitzy, whimsical, and just down right pretty. Just what this gal needed to start the year with. I've done the outside border and am starting on the inside borders today. I will take pictures of my progress soon. In the meantime, if you can't wait, you can go to Ruth's blog and see what she has done. I would love to be inside her brain sometimes - just to see how she comes up with such amazing ideas for canvases.

Welcome 2010!

I am not usually someone who wishes their life away. I am normally able to deal with whatever life throws at me. I might not like it and I might really kick & scream about it, but I can usually deal with it and accept the changes. 2009 was different for me. It was a hard year - really hard - for my family. Because it was such a tough year, I wasn't sad to see it go. I'm ready for a fresh start - hopefully a year filled with good health for all, happiness and the love of family & friends. I wish the same for all of you.

For the last several years, I've made resolutions or set goals or whatever you want to call it. Some of them were met but more were left to gather dust and be tossed in the trash. This year I am going to try something different. I am going to try and be good to myself. Selfish? A little -but I think if I can be good to myself then I will be a better wife, daughter, friend, aunt, godmother, etc.

Here's what I am thinking about:

1. Be healthier - find time to take more walks, eat fresher/healthier foods, stop and smell the flowers, play in the dirt/garden, learn yoga/pilates, cook more, bake more bread, remember to breathe.

2. Be happier - stop sweating the small stuff and do the best I can with whatever is thrown at me, laugh outloud every day.

3. Be more social - spend more time with old friends and meet new ones. Tell my friends and family that I love them more often.

4. Be quieter - take time to read more, listen to more music, recharge my internal batteries.

5. Be more stitchy - find time to sit and stitch on something that makes me happy. Use more threads from my stash than I buy. Finish up some of my WIPS. Stitch as many of the canvases from my stash as I can. I might set up a plan to give myself points for using threads/canvases from my stash similar to Janet Perry or Jane of Chilly Hollow. That idea is still rolling around in my head.

That's my BE GOOD TO MYSELF (BGTM-2010) plan and I am going to try and stick to it. Wish me luck.