Tis the Season

Well the decorating and hustle and bustle of the season is definitely underway. I have added a few pics into a photo album.

We are very fortunate again this year to have all the kids home for Christmas, with Samuel coming in from Washington state and Sean coming up from Virginia.

The weather has gotten cold and we have had a couple of snow flurries but nothing stuck. I am guessing just to tease Bill about his snowblower. After last February with it's 4 feet at one time we bought one and are ready.

Back to cleaning and decorating for now. Will post more photos once they are taken.

Spring is blooming into summer!

This year I decided to put in a butterfly garden and so far am very pleased.  I still have a few things to get and plant.  I will be adding a few landscaping rocks for the butterflies to sun themselves and have a few more plants to get.

Included in this garden is Butterfly Bush, Elijah Blue Fescue, Russian Sage, lavender, Bee Balm, Stonecrop, flat leaf parsley, Red Fox, Lobelia, Purple Coneflower, Loosestrife, and Coreopsis.

This photo really doesn't show the beautiful blooms, but to look out the windows and see the butterflies fluttering through the plants is very calming during stressful moments for me.  

This is the first real garden I have even attempted and have to say I can see why people love to garden.

February finished!

I finished up the February ornament for the Bride's Tree. I wasn't sure about adding the beads but felt it needed more...

Now on to April's ornament to be all caught up. Still trying to decide between designs but hopefully by the end of the week I will be totally caught up on this SAL.

Stitching Progress

This is my January ornament for The Bride's Tree SAL. I put the last stitches into it today while enjoying a beautiful afternoon watching my granddaughter and two charming neighbor girls playing.

The house represents shelter and protection in the Bride's Tree. And what a charming house this depicts with the trees and shrubs framing it. I can almost picture the white picket fence around it.

I have had to stitch a new design for the February ornament as I cannot find the candlewicking heart I made many years ago (1984?). I had wanted to use it tying in the something old, but I know once I complete this new design (which I love by Kirsten Schmidt 2007) I will locate the candlewicking one. That is the way things go and I can save it for another set. The new one is about half way finished already this evening and will be finished tomorrow.

Two Birds.......

Last night and today I stitched this small motif from a wonderful pattern which is a competition piece through wiehenburg-samplers@yahoogroups.com and BushMountainStitchery. I was wanting to sample a couple flosses I was thinking about using on the design and have fallen in love with the combination.

They are Raspberry Parfait by The Gentle Art and Sage by Weeks Dye Works.

The thought caught hold of me as I was almost finished that this small motif will be wonderful as my March ornament for The Bride's Tree SAL....definitely fitting the bill of the "Two Birds" title.

This will also make me one step closer to getting my SAL completed and of course the biggest bonus is I love this design!

After Easter Projects

Since Easter I have been working to finish a few things; okay somethings I did manage to finish the stitching but others well I did get closer.

This little frog is one I finished on Monday, he is already finished with his Christmas shopping and is ready to hand out the gifts.  (He is doing so much better than I am or probably even will be when November rolls around).

4 more frog ornaments to go til the set is complete and I will finish them all into ornaments at that time.

This is my progress on the 2010 OHD Monthly SAL finished just tonight.  I'm so happy I'm able to keep caught up on these two SALs as I haven't been extremely lucky on most of them.  I do look forward to the next month being added and seeing it grow!  Such a clean, simple but elegant design; perfect in my mind for a bell pull or quilted wall hanging.

I have also been working on my January ornament for The Bride's Tree SAL and have it almost finished.  I know I'm behind; I did start late and hope to catch up this month.  The whole idea behind the SAL is from a German tradition of a set of 12 ornaments given to a Bride.  Each of these ornaments represent a specific thing to bring happiness into the newly establishment home.  January's ornament is a house to represent shelter and or protection; February is a heart to represent true love or love of family; March's ornament is flowers or a flower basket representing good wishes, beauty in the home.  April's is a rabbit representing hope and/or faith, peace with nature. May's is birds or bird in a nest representing happiness and/or joy, confidence in the shelter (if the bird is in the nest).  June's is Fruit or Fruit Basket - generosity, plenty. July's is Fish - Christ's blessing, fertility.  August's is Rose - beauty and/or affection, Virgin Mary. September Teapot or Coffeepot - hospitality, October Pinecone - motherhood and/or fruitfulness, eternity.  November Angels or Churches - God's guidance in the home, spiritual guidance; while December St. Nicholas (Santa Claus) - giving and sharing, unselfishness and/or goodwill. 

This tradition was something I first learned about while my daughter was a Senior in High School and was taking German (the 2nd of 3 of the kids to take German in School) and she and my youngest son was helping to decorate the classroom door for Christmas.  They of course told me a little about it and I had to research it online as I'm a sucker for traditions.  We soon cut out shapes and such to decorate the door with and label each as to the meaning behind the ornament.  It was a wonderful learning experience for us all; so I was extremely excited when I learned of the SAL for this tradition and had to join. 

I will share photos as I finish the ornaments.

What a Fairy Tale!

For Jaiden's second Birthday, Daya and I decorated this Castle cake. We did most of it after dinner on Saturday night and finally finished at midnight!

We had a lot of fun and her girls loved running into the kitchen checking on our progress. Emma has now decided she wants a Castle Cake also, so I left the kit with Daya for the happy event and process of making another....lol.

Jaiden just loved getting all the attention while being sung to and getting gifts. It was precious to see her face just light up and hear her squealing with delight. I don't think I will ever forget her excitement.

Woo hoo a finish already this week!

I am amazed myself, but here it is Monday and I have a finish already for the week! This is the last of Tiny tidings II by Lizzie Kate. These were a lot of fun to stitch and I look forward to displaying them all at Christmas time. This one I think will go in my kitchen along with my gingerbread/sweets theme.

Other than this bit of stitching, yesterday we planted two strawberry pots with the hope of getting lots of fresh strawberries. We also will be planting blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and concord grapes (2 vines each), along with tomatoes and a butterfly garden to be able to look out on and see the beautiful colors.

This week will be a fairly busy one with St Patrick's Day on Wednesday (which means Irish Soda Bread, and corned beef and cabbage for dinner - yum!) and then decorating for Easter and the delivery of an armoire ( long overdue). There is also planning and invites to get made for Jaiden's birthday party which I think will turn out wonderfully from what we are picturing in our minds.

Spring Fever has begun

Although it isn't here yet, I have started making plans.  Yesterday hubby and I planted two strawberry pots and have blueberry, blackberry, raspberry, and concord grape vines to plant.  Of course the latter plants will wait until this rain from the Nor'Easter stops.
I also have my plans and layout for adding a floral garden to attract butterflies and humming birds.  I'm really getting excited about all the work and outdoor time ahead.  Now just to get the weather to cooperate with my plans.

This week we are also planning for Jaiden's second birthday which rick and I are thinking of a Princess party.  Getting tiaras for her and her cousins Kailee, and Emma and a crown for Prince Tyler.  Now just make invitations and mail out.  Of course there aren't many to make as this is just a family party but should be fun. 

A frog of a finish!

Yesterday I completed this little guy.  He is the 3rd in the set and I really enjoy stitching him.  I am so happy to be stitching again, after taking a hiatus from it due to just being too busy and tired.  Oh well that is how things go from time to time, and no use fussing over it.

I have also started seeing signs of spring, unfortunately didn't get photos of seeing some buds on trees during our trip to Maine and Connecticutt, but it was indeed a wonderful sight to see.

The last two days have been wonderful weather wise and it has been wonderful.  Although that being said the rain is moving in for the weekend; I guess it will help with the rebirth of plants and the world waking up from it's frozen slumber.

Now to start planning my garden and landscaping....lol.

Easter Swap Received!

Upon our return from several trips to Maine this past week I was greeted with a wonderful package from Debbie Jo in snowaddictedstitchers yahoo group!  This was a Non-stitchy swap and I must say it was a nice treat.
Everything was just perfect for me and I look forward to using it all....now just to keep everyone out of the jellybeans.  LOL
Other than the jelly beans there are 3 Ribband bookmarks for me to stitch on, beads, and buttons, krenik blending filament in rainbow colors, a fat quarter of quilt print fabric, and a note pad.

I love it all.  Thank you Debbie Jo.

Bitersweet

This has been such a month. On March 1st we lost our daughter in law, Tiffany to Cystic Fibrosis. She battled this disease for 28 years, and enjoyed life. Although it wasn't easy our son Jasper was able to say good bye to his wife after flying for two days to get back to the US. We are grateful to the Navy and the American Red Cross for getting him home and helping him to do all the necessary things he now needs to do.

My time will be limited in the next few weeks as I stay available to make runs to Groton and back home helping him to go through things and prepare to move out of housing and separate from the Navy this summer.

The last few weeks I have gotten a little bit of stitching in and actually have a few finishes. On our first trip to Maine I began and finished "Angels bring Peace" by Lizzie Kate (Tiny Tidings II collection) and started the last of this series "Christmas is 4 kids" (which I still have some stitching to do on).

Then we returned home with Jay for a few days and returned to Maine for Tiffany's service which had previously been set up. During this trip I managed to stitch "March" on the Month SAL from OakhavenDesigns and also stitched half of my third of the Frog ornaments

I hope this week to finish up the Frog ornament and the Lizzie Kate design started.

My first attempt

I made this needlebook and scissor fob for my partner in the snowaddictedstitchers yahoo group. This was my first attempt at both of these projects and I was very happy with how they turned out.

I sort of designed my own cover for the needlebook after looking at many different ones online and many different charts.

Carolyn received this already so I can now post the finish.

Exchange Received

In the yahoo group, snowaddictedstitchers I joined a Smalls exchange and received this wonderful package from Carla today.

I love it all, and won't mind these frogs being here at all. They are marshmallow ones and I'm sure will be very yummy. I can't wait to use the coaster, floss and fabric.

Thank you so much Carla for such a wonderful package. I even have a design in mind for the fabric already.

A second finish in a day.

Last night I completed the second part of the OakhavenDesigns 2010 Month SAL.

This made the second start and finish for the day; with the frog ornament being the first from my previous post. It felt really good to stitch since I hadn't stitched in a couple days.

Now to try and finish up the third family ornament of the year and a few other projects. Hopefully I'll be able to post them really soon.

A small finish, but a finish nonetheless

Here is the second of the frog ornaments I'm stitching. With this little guy's arms and even eyes going every which way he kinda looks like me when ice skating...:)

Although I have not posted much in the way of finishes lately I have been working on stitching; but for a smalls exchange on one of my yahoogroups (snowaddictedstitchers@yahoogroups.com). I have to say I'm very excited about my gift as it is filled with things I've not made before and Love how it is turning out. I hope to be able to post photos of it in a week or so after Carolyn receives it.

We have also been in the process of redecorating the master bedroom, which some can tell you seems to have consumed my thoughts.....lol It took me a while to find the comforter/quilt I wanted, but this week I did manage it and love how it looks. Of course with finding that and having a clear picture of the finished product (room totally decorated) I have added several projects to my to do list. "Emma Rose" by Brooke Nolan of Brooke's books is a must to hang on the wall now (just out in the Feb issue of "The Gift of Stitching" magazine and I plan to make a neckroll stitching and because the bed is so high (about 3 feet off the floor) Bill is going to have to build me a step which I plan to stitch the cushion cover for.

So much to do and so little time.

34 and counting down!

Last night I completed my second of the family ornaments for this year!  Each finish of these is a happy dance in their own.  Only 34 more to go and I will be finally caught up on these and can decorate a tree with all 70 of them.

I also worked a little (only a few stitches at a time) on my stitcher's book project.  I really need to set aside one day a week for this so I can see progress.  So far I do not even have the outline for the first page (front and back cover) stitched, but I will get it done in due time; I'm quite determined.

Today I will be working on stitching for a Small's Exchange on SnowaddictedStitchers yahoogroup.  Then I'll be starting another of the green stockings on the family ornaments before stitching 5 more of these Jack in the boxes in a row.

So much stitching to do and so little time to sit and stitch!  What is a girl to do....lol.

3rd finish for 2010

Well I am behind on my progress of the family ornaments but have just completed my third project for the year.  This is a Lizzie * Kate design, a set of three in the Tiny Tidings II.  I added an outline back stitching to the border to help make the DMC 712 show up better. 
I have type up my project list for this year, which I would love to complete but realistically I will be quite happy to complete 2/3 of it. :)

I'm hoping by posting my list here it will help me to be more accountable and working through it all. 


UFOs:
Family Ornaments (35 to go out of 70 - Leisure Arts 1980s)
A Quaker Christmas (Bygone Stitches)
Pumpkin Magic (DMC website)
Noel SAL (2/3rd way completed)
Book of Ink Circles SAL(3/4 + completed)
GingerBread Trio (1/2 completed)

SALs:
EMS Flower of the Month
Frog Ornaments
OHD 2010 Monthly SAL
Bride’s Tree SAL

New Projects:
Stocking for Jaiden (Sugar and Spice Angel Cuff – Cross Stitch and Country Crafts magazine July/Aug 92)
Jane Austen Sampler Stocking (Sampler Girl)
Various Ornaments for different Holidays (Random ones)
Stitcher’s Book (http://www.violarium.com/index.php?main_page=extras&sivu=50&language=en )

3rd finish for 2010

The New Year

This is a year for finishing things and decluttering for me. I have been working on a family ornament project for many years off and on. Well this year I plan to complete it; well get it caught up. For as long as our family grows so will the project.

In this project, started by one of my sisters before her death in 1986; there will be a cross stitch ornament for each member of the family. Starting with my parents represented by Santa Claus and Mrs Claus; then each of their daughters and daughters in law being Angels and their sons and sons in law being soldiers. For their grandsons, green stockings and granddaughters, red stockings. Then a several years later was the addition of great grandkids which my mom chose a Jack in the Box design. Only the grandkids and greats will have names on them. Total current figures are at 69 ornaments all said and done. Stitched the count is at 34; and my goal is one a week this year til caught up. Which should be sometime in September. Here is a photo of the 34th stitched completed last week.

Brad is my oldest niece's husband. This week I'll be finishing up Ann's family with the stitching of her youngest's Jack in the Box.

Hopefully I will be able to keep up with my goal of one ornament a week, but each ornament will take many hours of work to get stitched. But I am anxious to complete them and see them all on a Christmas tree this year.