2014 wrap up and 2015 goals

Here are all my finishes for the year! Sad... Well I think it is! I had set so many goals for this year, and didn't meet most of them. Let's look at how I did!

STITCHY GOALS 

Finish the Abbey  DONE 

Finish winter fun ornies (set of 12) DONE 

Finish Santa series (set of 10) NOPE

Finish Snowman series (set of 10) NOPE

Finish page 1 of Day Surrendering to Night NOPE (Very close though!)

Finish Web of Life NOPE (again-very close!)

Finish Dragon-nope

Finish page 1 of Sea of Roses- nope

Finish page 1 of Flower Bride- Nope

WRITING GOALS 

Write 120 letters (wrote 153) DONE

Write 5 chapters of my book NOPE

READING GOALS 

Read 75 books (read 85) DONE

PERSONAL GOALS 

Lose 50 pounds NOPE

So much of this year I feel was wasted. I sat and watched too much TV.  I was an emotional mess most of the year. But! I'm doing much better and have high hopes for next year!

So 2015 goals:

STITCHING 

1. Finish Santa series ornaments

2. Finish Snow man series ornaments

3. Start Noah's ark series ornaments 

4. Finish 3 pages in DS2N

5. Finish p 1 of Sea of Roses

6. Finish p 1 of Flower Bride

7. Finish Web of Life

8. Finish precious Moments

9. Finish p 1-2 of Dragon

10. Start cats piece for my daughter

11. "Finish finish" 1 ornie a month ( I have so many stitched up that need to be made into actual ornaments)

READING GOALS 

Read 50 books 

(Quite a bit lower goal for this year,as I plan on focusing more on stitching and writing this year)

WRITING GOALS 

- write 2-3 chapters a month

-write 100 letters

- post regularly to stitching and book blogs

-comment more on blogs

WORKOUT GOALS

-Finish TurboFire program at least once

-lose 50 pounds

I think that about does it.

I hope all my readers have a great New Year! I look forward to looking at all your gorgeous stitching projects and watching your progress! 

 Joyful Stitching!

HAED Flower Bride, and Precious moments progress

Well, here is my progress on HAED Flower Bride. I am really enjoying this piece. It seems to be working up pretty quickly. I'm avoiding the confetti intense areas for now.

 I'm totally bummed that I just noticed a flaw in my fabric way down at the bottom of the piece. So it's basically probably in the last 2 pages of the project which is mostly just a bunch of her flowy dress, so I may just not stitch that last row of pages. I don't think I can stitch over it. So, we will see.

 Here's a close up of the messed up area of the fabric. it's about in the center way down by the roll of fabric.Kinda hard to see.

 And next up my parents gift. I am off count and annoyed with this, but I'm fudging it and pushing through. I don't have time or patience to start over. I hate these patterns. I always get off count with them, their half stitches and back stitching makes no sense! But it still looks cute and like a Precious Moment, so I don't think anyone will notice!

I will be posting a "End of the year wrap up and goals for 2015" post for tomorrow. I hope everyone has a good and safe New Years eve celebration, whatever you choose to do.

And that's all for me in 2014, lets wrap this sucker up! And! Onto the next!!!

New Stash!!

So! I've been stalking the Heaven and Earth design Site for about a week now. And I finally did it! I bought 4....yes! FOUR! new Patterns! They are all mini's as I'm gonna work my way up from a 20 page pattern to 45+ pages!  So, here's what I got! (Photos are from the Heaven and Earth Design Website)

 Red Riding Hood

Mini Mermaids Tale



Winter Rose

Forget Me Not

 

 

I think that these should keep me pretty busy for a LOOONG time! I told myself I would wait until I finished "Sea of Roses" before starting any of these....but I don't know that I'm gonna be able to! I know the minute they show up in my mailbox I'm gonna want to kit them up and start right in! I still need to get some 25 count Fabric, and of course all the flosses! That will definitely put a big fat dent in my pocket book.  But when these beauty's are hanging on my wall, it will all be worth it! Now if I can just sustain from looking at their site and adding to my wish list....which already has 80 things on it!!! Enough to last me 10 or 20 lifetimes of stitching!!! 



Sea of Roses...Progress!

Here is one that hasn't seen the light of day in a while. It's Heaven and Earth Design freebie: Sea of Roses.

The last time I shared this, it looked like this:

 

So you can see there is quite a bit more stitching in it now! I really enjoy working on this, and have put it back into my rotation. So, I'm excited to see how much I can get done by the end of 2015. Wish me luck!!

DS2N Progress

 

Well, after focusing on my Precious Moments piece and Ornaments, I was ready to get into some of my larger projects. I am SO close to finishing page #5, and have put in a good start on #4 already!! I think it's looking pretty good, so far. It feels great to be seeing some good progress on this. It has taken me TOO long!! 2015 will see a lot more stitching with me! This year I spent a lot more of my time reading. I have read 83 books so far, and my stitching went by the wayside. But I have been perusing the HAED site....ok, ok! More than just perusing...I just purchased 4 new patterns!!! So, I gotta get crackin'!

 

Next up is one I haven't shown on here since April! But I dug it back out and it's getting some hard work done on it!!

 

Merry Christmas to all my readers! I hope you have a wonderful holiday!! May all your stockings be stuffed with stash!

Precious Moments Progress

This one is still stitching up quickly. I'm enjoying it. I work on it everyday. I try to put at least one or two strands of floss in a day, to keep it moving along. It also has 2 places in my rotation as well. I really want to have it done by early to mid February, so gotta keep chugging on this one.

Calling all HAED stitchers... Help?

So! I have decided I want to start a HAED piece. I have a few smaller charts I started the beginning of this year, but I want to do a full size one. So I have some questions. And any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated!

1. The piece I want to do requires a huge piece of cloth. I normally buy my stuff at 123 stitch, but they don't carry the size I need. Where do you get your 25 count cloth in such huge pieces to be able to stitch one of these projects?

2. What is your favorite type of fabric to use? (I'm looking to use 25 cnt)

3. I usually stitch in hand. Do you think I should start using a scroll frame? Or do you think id be able to work such a huge project in hand? And do you have a recommended scroll frame that you like best?

Thank you for any help or recommendations you can offer!!

Santa finish and small start

So I finally finished this one. It's cute, but! WHY is Santa holding a Teddy Bear? Does he sleep with it? Odd...

Anyway, so got that done up, so I made a small start on #5 in this series. 

Well, that's about it for me here today. I think I'm gonna pull out Day Surrendering to Night and try to finish page 1 this month. Wish me luck!!

Precious Moments progress

Despite being out of town for about a week, I was able to get quite a  bit done on this. It seems to be stitching up pretty quick. Which while there are a lot of fractional stitches, that are a pain, there are also huge sections of the same color. No confetti stitching, really. So I think that really helps keep the pace pretty fast on this one. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving here in the states!! 

Happy Thanksgiving!!

We are traveling for the holiday this week, but wanted to stop in and say Happy Thanksgiving!! 

I will have an update on my Precious Moments piece soon!! 

Santa ornie

Sorry for the craptastic photo. It's dark and rainy today. I didn't finish it yet... But almost!  I probably won't be posting again for awhile, cuz we are going out of town all next week for thanksgiving, but I may find something to post about, so I may surprise yah! If not, I hope all my American readers have a great Holiday!  Joyful Stitching to you all!!

New Start progress #1!

I finally got off my lazy behind and pulled the threads and got this project started. Which is good because it's a gift for my parents 50th wedding anniversary... Which was LAST August! So it is now more than a year overdue! They are coming out here for a visit mid-February for my daughters birthday, and I'm really going to try and have this done and framed and ready to give to them then! So I have about 3 months to get this stitched up and framed. So... Wish me luck. It's a fairly easy piece, shouldn't take too long! I finished all this in 3 days (about 4 hours worth of work) it's a pretty easy stitch. It's a picture of two Precious Moments kids holding an hour glass and it's called "Counting our Moments together". My mom collects PMs. So I showed her my patterns and this is the one she picked. And I will probably personalize it as well.  Wish me luck! I think I'm gonna need it! 

Happy Monday!! (Is there such a thing?)

Well, I have no photos to share, because I have done no stitching the past 5 days. My "new start" only has an empty labeled color card the fabric and copy of the pattern in a bag. That's as far as I got. I never pulled the threads or found a fresh needle... Sigh...

I was doing a read-a-long with a group on goodreads, and so have spent much of my time reading that book. (Which was "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe" by Fannie Flagg. Which is the book that the movie "Fried Green Tomatoes" was based off of.) it was an amazingly fun read. 

And!!! My hubby got my Sims3 installed on a good computer, so I've just been busy playing hours of Sims3. It is SO addicting!!!

But! I want to try to post on my blog all 6 times this month, as I usually don't bother blogging if I don't have any stitching to share. But I need more discipline in my life. So, I shall attempt to post all 6 days this month. Stitches or no stitches to share, I'm posting!!! I just hope I don't bore you with all my drivel. Well I better get going. Today is my birthday, and I know Hubby has lots of things planned for the day!! Happy stitching!! See yah in 5 days, come heck or high water!

DS2N more progress

I am just going right along with this one.

On October 30th it looked like this:

As of this morning it looks like this:

Little by little it's getting a bit more filled in. Plus I put a handful of stitches in on pages 4 and 6, because after doing the last few fill in stitches in these colors I still had a lot of the length left over, so carried them over to the new pages. And I am so tempted to start working on these new pages, but I will finish page 5 first. I'm getting closer! I sure hope I can get the other pages finished in under 9 months like this one has taken me so far!!! I think by the time I'm done with this page I will be closer to 10 months in working on it!! Wow!! Well I will be back in 5 days to show you a new start! Joyful stitching all!!

 

A bad month... But maybe not as bad as I thought...

First of all I want to thank everyone who left me such sweet kind and encouraging comments on my last post. I think I was just having one of those days. My daughter was sick, then I caught it. And of course cold meds always knock me for a loop. Of course I wasn't getting anything done! I was under the sleeping curse of cold meds. Things happen, but they are usually just temporary. My mother always says "This, too shall pass" but it's hard to remember that when you're going through it.

I think I was just feeling so discouraged because last month was a great, productive one, and the beginning of this one was not as great as I was hoping. 

But! Now I'm better and my daughter is better so I actually was able to get a bit of stitching done, the last ten days of the month... I even got a finish! Granted, it's just a small one, but it's a finish!! So let me share with you what I accomplished!

Here's my finish. Santa ornament #3. And here's how far I got to with the 4th one:

And I think I would have gotten a finish if I hadn't had a desperate urge to work on this:

Which I am still in love with. My goal for this one was originally to try to finish this page. Once I realized THAT wasn't going to happen, I decided to try and finish the white angels hand which I did. Plus tons of other confetti fill in here and there. 

So I was happy to see this month wasn't a total bust!

Along with my stitching I also read 8 books this month as well. And watched 3 seasons of House MD on Netflix and season 2 of Ghost Hunters. And this week I've also been doing some little crafty/baking projects with the daughter. We've been having a lot of fun and she is super excited for Halloween! 

I guess that's it for now! I hope everyone has a wonderful, fun and safe Halloween!!!

May be a little while....

I just wanted to stop in and say hi! Life has just been so busy as of late. Boy, being a stay home mom to an active three year old is hard! I can hardly get anything done. I feel like just giving up. I've given up on trying to even keep my house clean, cuz the minute I pick it all up, the toddler makes a ginormous mess again! Then it seems as if I could sit for two hours doing absolutely NOTHING but stare at the wall, and she won't utter a peep, she's perfectly happy and content. The second I think "she's fine I can get up and do something" all of a sudden she needs me! So I've just given up. We are gonna get her in a mom's day out program after the first of the year, so I may be able to get back to doing some of the things I love then. But for now I'm just taking a break from stitching, and since I won't be stitching much I won't have much to blog about. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season! And I will see you again...not sure when... But I will be back... It just may be awhile! Thank you for understanding!!! Joyful stitching to you all! I will still be looking at all my favorite blogs. I thoroughly enjoy looking at all your beautiful projects and reading about your lives.

A finish, some progress, and a photobomb...

So!  I am very excited and happy that I have another finish for this month!!! Two finishes this month?! For me that's amazing! I finished the 2nd piece in my Santa ornament series:

Then I put in about 15 hours of work on this:

And here's my cute little photobomber:

I was very productive this month!! Along with all my stitching I also managed to read 9 books as well! So I did pretty good this month! Now looking forward to the fall and Halloween next month. It's still in the 80s here so I'm still waiting for fall to hit. Hope everyone had a great stitchy month. See yah soon!

DS2N progress!

I reallllly worked like crazy on this during the past 5 days!! Still so in love with this project! 

Which is a good thing because I was looking back and realized I started this page on February 1st!!! Over SEVEN months ago!!!!! That's more than half a year to get this far. I'm not even done with the first page!! At this rate it will take me 5 years to finish!!! 

So then I looked in my WIP drawer. I have three HAED pieces, 7 Kustom Kraft pieces and a Mystic stitch!!! If it takes me 5+ years to complete one, I will finish the last one when I'm 96 years old! Ha!!! Which means I really want to focus more on my stitching now. Man! Why couldn't I just be a pretty sparkley vampire?! Then I'd have many many many years to get it all done! 

A finish!! And some progress...

First up is my finish on my first ornie in this Santas series of ten ornaments. It's cute! 

And next is a blob.... But with some work will end up being Santa sitting in a gold sleigh holding a little Christmas tree, with a blue and black checkered blanket over his lap. 

Well that's about it here. We are expecting some heavy storms to hit tonight, so I'm off to watch some DVDs of "Father Dowling Mysteries." Anyone remember that show? I used to watch it with my mom when I lived at home, we enjoyed it. That Father Frank and Sister Stephanie were always gettin' in some scrapes! Fun times! Hope you all have a great weekend, and it's filled with lots of stitchy goodness!

Web of Life update

I forced myself to work on this the past few days. I used to really like this piece but now I find myself kinda dreading its 5 days in my rotation whenever they come around. I'm running out of the colors I need for this one, so I'm thinking either I need to go get them or try to substitute colors that might work, just so I can get this done. Or! I can set it aside all together for a bit and work on something else. I can't decide... Anyway. I was able to finish the two feathers sticking up on the right hand side of the pipe, as well as filled in more of the pipe itself, and also did a bit more fill in on the two large feathers hanging down from the medallion. So, slowly there is progress. I hope all my American readers are having a wonderful Labor Day weekend! I'm doing a read-a-thon with a group at goodreads this weekend, so not stitching too much. But I will be working on Day Surrendering to Night again on Tuesday. 

DS2N more Progress!

This is so enjoyable to work on!! I am loving every stitch!! I think my stitchy mojo has returned! I was also able to kit up the new ornament series and got some more work in on the first Santa piece!  I was gonna to keep working on Day Surrendering to Night until noon,on and off, then post a photo then, but I got a little sick cookie here who needs lots of mama cuddles! So a day in the easy chair with lots of juice and toddler shows on Netflix it is! Hope you all had a great weekend!!! Joyful stitching to you all!!

I Love Santas! Ornie # 1!!

So, I seem to be in a partial stitching slump lately! Meaning I want to stitch, but just been too lazy to get into my stash and pull the threads I need for this next series: "I Love Santas".  For what you see here I just used some of the same threads that were used in the Winter Fun series. I think once I pull my threads and get everything correctly kitted up, this series will be a lot of fun to work on!  Well that's about it here. I also worked some on DS2N but I will share that in my next post... Hopefully much sooner than it took me to post this one!  I hope your weekends are wonderful and filled with stitchy goodness!!

Just a little goodbye and show and tell...

I could not believe it when I heard that Robin Williams had passed away. I audibly gasped I was so surprised. Well some of you on my Facebook page have probably already seen this. But as many people know , Robin Williams would often go overseas and do free shows for the troops stationed overseas. My Husband had the honor of getting to meet him in Iraq during one of his tours. And he was able to get his Booney hat signed by Robin. So. While my heart grieves I am happy to be able to have this article portraying the kindness that Robin Williams showed to many. Rest in Peace Robin! Thanks for the many smiles and laughs! 

I will be back tomorrow with a stitchy update!

DS2N progress

Got quite a bit more done on this one! I really love working on this! The next 5 days are supposed to be "ornament days" according to my rotation schedule, but I'm tempted to just keep working in this! Although I AM excited to start the next series in my ornament book...Santas! We will see what happens! 

Web of Life progress

I don't even think you can see the progress... But I did finish one feather and filled in more of another. I am running out of colors I need for this one, and haven't had the chance to get more yet. Hopefully before I pull this one out I will have a chance to get them!! We will see! I am super excited because these next 5 days are "Day Surrendering to Night" turn to be worked on!! I am so in love with this piece!!! I have already pulled it out and put an hour and a half's worth of work into it just this morning! I just really love it!!

I hope everyone's week goes well and you all get lots of stitching in!! Joyful stitching!!

Winter Fun- The WHOLE Enchilada!!

I thought I would share the entire collection of twelve pieces with you all!! I think they all came out SO cute!! Now the question is what to do with them? Cards? Ornaments? Make into a quilt? I am not sure... Ideas anyone? Please share!! I'd love to know what you think!! 

Well it's another dreary rainy day, and I totally put off my housework this week so gotta cach up on that. Now I wished I hadn't procrastinated so! A rainy day is perfect for a good book and a cup of coffee, or some stitching! Hmmm... Maybe if I get a move on I can get my chores done up and still have some stitchy time this afternoon!  Joyful stitching to you all! 

Another finish!!

Well, this one is finally finished! It took me over a month!! I blame my lack of stitching mojo for that! But! With this finish comes the completion of this entire 12 ornament series called "Winter Fun". Which I started in APRIL of last year! Yup! It's taken me over a year to finish 12 small little ornaments. Of course since I am a rotation stitcher there were other larger finishes in there too, like The Abbey and Snow Valley Express, and yet I just can't believe it's taken me SO long to finish these little guys up. I guess that's what happens when you have an international move, family trips, loved ones deploy, depression sets in and Netflix decides to move in and be your best friend! Not to mention the 50 books I've read this year, and just life... I think that my stitchy mojo is back though, so we will see what I grab to work on next. Probably Web of life, as it is so close to a finish, and I really would like to see it finished by years end! We shall see... Joyful stitching to you all!

DS2N... More progress

I really do enjoy working on this piece! It just sucks me in! This is what I've been working on the past 5 days. And the next 5 days I will be pulling my ornaments back out! I hope you are all joyfully stitching away at all your beautiful projects! Have a great week!

Web of Life-Progress!

Well, about 5 days ago I worked on this. I ended up having to frog a bunch cause I found a counting mistake. Then I found another one... So I got disgusted and took a break from stitching altogether. I've been in a huge slump lately. I don't know how to explain it! I am just not motivated to do anything but sit and binge watch shows on Netflix. I have NEVER been a TV watcher my whole life, so this new addiction is baffling to me. But I've decided to just go with it. One day I will get tired of watching episode after episode and return to life. I really have so little motivation to do much of anything even if I turn off the TV, so I might as well. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! Filled with lots of stitches!

A tiny bit more of my ornament!

I have been busy doing family stuff so not stitching too much, but I did manage to get a little bit more done on this. I was hoping for a finish, but It just wasn't in the cards for this round. Maybe next time!! 

Day Surrendering to Night

I know in my last post I said I was going to work on Web of life, but this one jumped out at me and demanded that I stitch on it!!

It is really stitching up so quickly!! And I love working on it!! I don't know if I ever shared what this one will look like when complete, so here it is!

I just Love it so much!! You can already see "Day"s face sort of in my stitching to the left side at the top. It's not completely filled in, but the shape of it is obvious. Can you see it? 

Well I am not sure what I'm in the mood to work on now, I guess we'll find out when I post again in 5 days! Til then, Joyful Stitching!!!

Finally! A finish!!

One more to go and I'm done with these cuties! 

Still sloooow goin'...

This is all I have been able to accomplish lately on my ornies.  These are the last two to finish up for this series. My parents are out here visiting, so been a bit too busy going here and there with them and entertaining to get much done on my projects. Hope this changes once they leave to go home day after tomorrow. I can't wait to get busy with my stitching again once my house guests have gone.

Progress on another ornament!

I really haven't been stitching much lately, too busy with other things but I was able to get a little bit done on this ornament. He's the second to last one in this series. (Called "winter fun"), then I will be moving into the next set of ten in the book which is called "I love Santas". My goal for the year is to finish the Santa series of 10, and the next series of 10 (snowmen). So we will see just how far I get!! Hope everyone's week is going well, and you are able to get lots of stitching done. 

So now what?

Well, you know that feeling after you have a huge finish? You know the one. The empty one? Or am I the only one who has that? Sure, I'm proud and excited and glad that I finished, but there's an underlying sense of sadness and emptiness that this huge project that I've  spent tons of time with is done. So, now I have to ask "what now?" So! The answer to that is " Finish Web of Life". That us my next big goal, and I was able to get some work in on it over the long holiday weekend. I really need to finish up page one. All I have left is back stitching left on that page. But, I did work on page 2 a bit as well. I haven't shared this project since January!!! I was sure I had shared it since then, but I guess not. Well. I am off to work a bit on my next ornament. I think I will just go back and forth between my ornies and this piece until it's done. Hope you all have a great week!

Oh My Goodness!!! The Abbey is FINISHED!!!!

I can hardly believe it!!!!! After all these years!!! Of course! I wasn't stitching on it exclusively and consistently since I started it, but it has had a spot in my rotation consistently since 2011. I just want to sit and stare at it!!! And let me assure you! That IF I ever do another Marty Bell piece again, I will NOT be saving all the back stitching until the end!! Torture!!!! But the end result? Worth it!! Thank you to all my readers who encouraged me on my journey to this amazing finish! Your comments mean so much to me!!! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! 

The Abbey....

Lots and lots of back stitching going on here! I finished up the windows on the bottom floor by the patio, did the outlining of the top of the patio. The trellis in the railing in front of the patio. The gate, and the branches in the trees to the left of the patio. I still have some to do to the right of the door, and the sidewalk, and that's it!!! So I'm betting the next update on this one will be a BIG fat FINISH!!! I'm getting so excited now!!!!

Another small finish!

I finally finished this little guy!! I feel like it took way too long! But probably because I've been busy with other things. This is before back stitch. Here's with:

I love seeing the difference!! The back stitching really bring the piece together!! Well. I hope all my readers are enjoying some great stitching of their own! Next I REALLY am going to try to finish the Abbey! Wish me luck!