Update on Snow Valley Express

I have been making myself work on this one  as much as I can, it's comin' along....slowly but surely, stitch by dreaded stitch, it is getting more work in on it.

Thank you all for the lovely comments on my last post! I am excited!

Michele commented and said I have a lot of packing to do in my future. Actually, not really. that's the great thing about being military, the military does all the work. A crew of men will show up at my house and box EVERYTHING up for us, and ship it to our new place, all I have to do is supervise and that's about it!  Thank the Lord, because I do NOT do well with stress! It will be stressful enough to deal with a 2 year old on a 17 hour plane ride, so I am glad I don't have to deal much with the actual move itself.

Joyful stitching!

Life Changes!

Well, no photo update right now, maybe later on in the day! I haven't been stitching much, been busy with my nose stuck in books! I've read 6 so far this month! I could make it 7, but I am reading The Stand, and it is FOREVER long! I'm almost to page 800. I read 100 pages of The Stand then a shorter book, then 100 of The Stand and a shorter book. So, that has been taking up the majority of my time lately. It is so hard to get stitching in when you are busy chasing a 2 year old!  It is so much easier to read, then to drag out (and put away after each session, (because you can't leave stitching lying around a two year old!) sometimes I just feel like stitching is a chore....sounds horrible, I know, but the only real time I have to stitch anymore is when she goes to bed at night and then I am usually so tired, I just zone out in front of the tube, until I go to bed.

But! We found out that we will be moving soon, to Louisiana. I was totally bummed at first, but the more I look up the area and the things there I am starting to get excited, and then I found out that there are two needlework shops in the area, and I got REALLY excited! I have never lived near a Needlework shop before, and now I'll be near TWO!!! What luck!

So, besides reading, alot of my days this past week have been spent online looking up stuff about what will be my new home.

That's about it here, sorry no photo. I just haven't blogged for a while, and wanted to. I hope to share a photo soon, I have still been really stuck on working on the tiny ornaments. They are the easiest to drag out and work on when I can find the time, so....I hope to be back here soon with photos! Wish me luck!

Joyful Stitching!!

A tiny finish and a tiny start...

First here are my Tiny Christmas Critters Ornaments! I love these little guys! They are so much fun to stitch! I've finished #'s 1-3, and have a small start on #4.

 Here is #3 all by herself. I just finished her this morning! Look at her little sunglasses! That was my doing....a little deviation from the original pattern, because as I was backstitching, when I backstitched the eyes they just looked wrong! Just huge black spots! Like a zombie cow! So I added a few more backstitches to make it look like she is sportin' shades. Not sure I really love it this way, but I like it ALOT better than zombie cow!  Now if I could just change the wreath to look more colorful she could be an Hawaiian cow sportin' a lei of flowers!

So this series is just stitching up pretty quickly!

I am about ready to go settle down with a hot cup of tea and work on #4 some more, I really need it! I need to just relax....today has been....ugh, just one of those days! The child decided to act 2 years old (if you know what I mean!) I was "scheduled" for a 3-day in a row- walk in blood pressure monitoring , today being day two, only to get there and find that the clinic was closed, so now I think I have to start over on day one again next Tuesday! (It won't be open Monday for MLKing day!) and I finally got my child to lay down and nap and the neighbors kids are outside screaming like the end of the world is coming! SOOOOO loud, and woke her up, and now she is finally settled down again.

So, off to pour another cup of decaf tea, and try to stitch in some more white of the polar bear that I am working on!
I hope you are having a lovely stitchy day! And that it has been a better day than mine has been so far!

Happy stitching!

Dang it! No Batteries, and a Change in Plans!

So, I thought this year "Yeah! I'm gonna get a good rotation going and post alot to my blog."  The thing is I have been having a total aversion to my computer since the first of the year! I just hate getting on this thing! I am just too busy!

So....I have decided (I think) that I will only be posting once or twice a month, and I will share all 3 or 4 pieces that I am working on then. I just don't have the free time I used to. My daughter is older and keeps me busy.  And this new "rotation" just seemed too rigid.  I spend 1-2 hours a day working out, plus the normal stuff like doing house chores, laundry and cooking, and spending time with my family. So, I think my time on the computer is just a waste, at least it sorta feels like it. I have so many other things I would rather do, like focus on stitching and reading and working out, and enjoying life.  Although this is subject to change, maybe I will post every 5 days, or maybe not put a time on it all, and just stitch and post as I feel moved to. =) We'll see!

I was going to post a photo here of my tiny Christmas Critters, as I finished #2 this weekend, and am close to a finish on #3, but alas when I went to take a picture, my camera's batteries are completely dead, and I thought I had more, but apparently I don't. So, I will have to wait a bit to get some.

Thank you for reading, and I will be back with photos soon, I hope!

Joyful Stitching!

Snow Valley Express! AKA: the Red-Headed step child of cross stitch projects!

Well, the last three days have been Snow Valley express days, but because I hate working on this piece, I only worked on it one day, and avoided stitching all together on the other 2 days I was supposed to work on it! Bad me!!  The only bit I did was the light blue right in the center of this photo, and a bit of fill in on the green half stitches to the right of it! That's it! In 3 days time!! This is NOT gonna get done in time if I keep looking the other way every time this piece comes up in my rotation! 

Here is how it looks right now...

What frustrates me is that I could probably work on this for about ten hours and have the whole thing done, there is really VERY little to do, but I look at the pattern and I look at my work and I just feel lost! Do you ever do that? The thing is, I started this project in 2004, before I found the lovely things we call blogs. So, I was a lone stitcher, and hadn't learned yet about those wonderful things called "working patterns/working charts"  (Or making a copy of your pattern and highlighting as you go, so you don't get lost!)  Oh how I wish I had! My dad probably woulda had this gracing his walls for years now! Instead it has been sitting in a drawer, unnoticed and unloved, and that is sad, because this is a beautiful piece!! So, I will press on! Even if all I can manage in a day is one thread on this! I WILL press on. I think of my dad and all the things he has done for me over the years, that I'm sure were hard for him but he did them! And even though I hate this piece, I Love him, and I try to remember that as I work on this!
Happy stitching!

The Abbey...a little update on page 8!

Here is how the whole thing looks:

 And here is just a little close up of the work on page 8:

 

It's coming along. I still love this one, even though there is alot of color changes and confetti stitches.



This past week I think I have figured out a new rotation for my stitching. I will be working on 3 different projects: 1)The Abbey 2) Christmas Ornies 3) Snow Valley Express. I am going to work on one for 3 days then switch and work on the next for 3 days then the next for three days, and so on.  I will be posting updates on my progress at the end of each three days with a project, which means I will be posting here about 10 times a month. That is my goal anyway, we shall see how it goes.  Last year I tried to post about twice a week, but as I only had 57 posts last year, obviously that didn't happen! So, next up will be Snow Valley Express progress! I am actually excited to be working on that piece again and hopefully have it finished in time to give to my dad this summer.

A new start, and a New Years Goal!

First up I want to share my "New Year's Goal"  This project ("Snow Valley Express") is one I started for my dad in Dec of 2004, as you can see, now over 8 years later, it's STILL not finished!  I will be returning to my parents house this summer and I would like to have it finished by the time we get there, so I can give it to him. It has sat in my UFO drawer for long enough, my dad loves trains, and it is time for this to be framed and grace the walls of his "computer room" at home, to go with his collection of other trains! 

And here is the New start on the next collection of Christmas Ornaments. As you can see I have finished one, and am working on 2 others. There are 12 in this series, just like the Tiny stockings, but this time I have decided to stitch them all on one piece of cream colored fabric!  So these are my "Tiny Christmas Critters" series!  We'll see how long it takes me to finish these guys! It took near to 4 months for me to finish the Tiny stockings, so I'm hoping to get a finish on these guys in alot less time! We shall see.

I hope you all had a lovely New Years and Christmas! Here's to lots of stitching, health and happiness in 2013!!!