I'm ready for spring!

After an extremely mild winter here in Wisconsin last year, this winter is decidedly more typical of what I've come to expect after living here for 11 years. Seems like we get a few to several inches of snow at least once a week; the snow at the end of our driveway is piled so high at the sides that we can hardly see cars coming down the street when we're backing out. I haven't seen any robins, yet, but hopefully will in the next couple of weeks.

Partly to cheer myself up, and partly because Debbie said I should (see, I do read all the comments!), I spent a little time with Blue Jeans and Daisies a couple of nights ago:

The floss and fabric colors are so pretty and spring-y, and it's a really enjoyable stitch. However, I have received the next model from Karen, so I won't be able to work on my own stitching very much in the next month, or so. I'll have to try to work on my own at least once a week, just so I have something I can share.

I'm looking forward to seeing all the new designs that come out at the TNNA trade show this coming weekend; hopefully, we can all find wonderful new treasures that we just have to stitch!

Bringing the bling!

I spent most of the day attaching the beads and treasures to Nora Corbett's Peace Doves; it might be a fairly small piece, but it's not lacking in sparklies!

Compare that to the picture below, which was taken pre-bling:

I think I must have been a crow in a previous life, because I am always drawn to colorful, sparkly things! Here are a couple more pictures:

I even managed to finish before the next model from Karen arrived! Now I'm debating whether I want to spend some time on Blue Jeans and Daisies or Santa's Village; decisions, decisions!

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Like a hole in the head

That's how much I needed another WIP, but I just couldn't help myself! There is a Nora Corbett design called Peace Doves Ornament in the Craftway's book "A Cross-Stitch Christmas: Treasured Memories", which I've never seen stitched up outside of the book picture:

When I was leafing through this book at the LNS, I saw this design and thought it looked like a Nora design; sure enough, it is! A few days ago, in the Mira group on Facebook, someone wanted to see a picture of this one, so I got the book out and took the picture shown above. I had actually kitted this one up a few years ago, so I dug through some boxes and bags until I found the supplies, and then started it. I had finished a model on Monday, so I have some me-stitching time until the next one arrives; here's what I have so far:

I'm hoping to have it pretty much finished by the end of the weekend, assuming I get plenty of stitching time.

Hope everyone else has a great stitchy weekend, as well!

In the home stretch...

...on the model I'm currently stitching; I'm hoping to have it finished towards the early part of next week. Karen already has another piece ready to go, but I'm hoping to be able to put in some time on Santa's Village and Blue Jeans and Daisies once I mail this one back.

I did take a day off from model stitching to work on Nora Corbett's Needle Fairy, which looks like it could be a pretty quick stitch:

Since I don't have much stitching that I can show, I thought I'd share a picture of my newest craft room companion, Sabrina:

She has deigned to come downstairs and take over the chair previously enjoyed by Mai Ling and Keishu, who are back home with my mom, and enjoying not being attacked by my Callie kitty! ;D

And here's a cute picture of Gracie, contemplating sushi for lunch:

Right before I snapped this picture, she had her head almost in the bowl; she looks like she's saying "What?! I didn't do anything!". It's even funnier when I see wet paw prints on the counter, after she's done a bit of fishing. :)

Hope everyone has a great stitchy weekend!