Still no finishes but there is progress!

Snowmen: I have been working on my cards this week! Here are two of the Christmas ones! They are still in progress! The "Joy" one is closer to a finish than the snowmen one! All I have left of the Joy one is to do the shaded outline of the letter, finish the christmas tree that is in the middle of the "O", and backstitch. I was hoping to get a finish on it yesterday, but the tiny tot, cute as she is, would not let me stitch! She wouldn't nap!!! And boy is she whiney when she doesn't nap!

Well, that is about it here, I am also working on an anniversary card for my parents! I was gonna make a wedding one for my sis in law who is getting married today but I don't think she'd really appreciate it! So, eh, forget it, I'll buy her one at the store! Afterall I sent her an e-mail telling her congratulations and wish we could be there and we are sad that we can't be and told her I bet she'll be abeautiful bride and can't wait to see pics. Then I asked her a non- wedding question about someone I thought she might know. I got an e-mail back asking only about the person I asked about! No thank you for the congratulations or any sorrow for our not being able to be there- Nothing!!! I was like I am NOT wasting my time, energy, materials and talent on someone like that! Oh well, no biggie! Just more time to work on my other cards. I am thinking that once I finish one of these Christmas ones I'll get started on a Halloween one! I am soooooo excited! I know Summer is only half over but I can't wait for fall! We don't really have fall here...ok we DON'T have fall here at all, but I can still stitch in fall, and that is fine with me!

My very first Finish of the year! And Alyssa all ready for July 4th!

I did it! I did it!! I actaully finished a piece of stitching!!! Amazingly enough the year is half over and I stitched this up in 2 days flat. I have decided to start stitching cards: Christmas, friendship, birthday, Halloween, Thankgiving, etc, etc....as I enjoy having a quick finish now and then, plus, like last year I had monthly finish goals with my monthly smalls, and I really enjoyed having a monthly goal. And small finishes. This one isn't a monthly goal sort of project, but I have my list of recipients and their birthdates and anniversaries, and of course all the holidays as well. And I'm just gonna work on cards and see how many I can get done and sent out this year, andit will probably go into next year as well. So now that this "friendship piece" is finished I wil probably put it in a letter for a pen pal...since I have a few, and my next card endeavor are two "wedding type cards"...one is for an actual wedding, and one is for my parents anniversary, which is next month, then I have my FIL's birthday in September, and then of course October: Halloween, then Thanksgiving, and Christmas, and then start in on Birthday ones for the following year, and St. PAtty's Day, Easter, and so on and so on...it'll keep me busy, I'm sure!

And this is not a stitchy pic, but here is Little Alyssa in her Red White and Blue, and ready to celebrate the fourth. Which ended up as a flop for us, but that is alright. Those people my hubby invited never showed! (After we spent all morning running around going to the store getting enough food for an army,and trying to get the house cleaned up!) they call an hour AFTER the time we'd invited them for, and told us they weren't coming!! So, while I was ticked at that, I was also relieved and glad they didn't come! So...it all ended up fine, but now I have an over abundance of Macaroni salad!! Oh well.

Ok, well I am off to get started on my next coupla cards, which I hope to share here soon! Hope you are all having a wonderful week so far!

A bit more progress!!

I am so almost done with page 6 now!!! It is coming along! Just one more color to fill in on this page then it's down to page #9! (right below page 6) And the color I have to fill in here is white, so what you see here is basically as it will look after I have put in the last color! I am still lovin' this one!!

I wanted to say thank you to everyone who sent me sites on Christmas stuff!! Thank you all soooo much!! I actually looked in the one 4 drawer cabinet I DO have access to, which is mostly filled with WIP's and projects that are kitted up and ready to go, and finishes that need to be "finished-finished", and I found a few books in there with some holiday stuff I am thinking of doing...so between your suggestions, and the few books I found, I think I'm good!! Thank you sooo much!!

And! I wanted to share another cute photo of my girl, she's 4 months old now!! And weighs over 13 pounds!! More than double her birth weight!!

Here she is in her little Baby Gap jeans and her little monkey hoodie! SOOOOO cute!!!

Well, happy Fourth of July to all my American readers!!! I have to go clean up the house, as my wonderful husband invited people over for a BBQ without consulting me first, so now I have to go crazy trying to get the house in some sort of order, which will probably be torn apart anyway by the people's, who he invited, 5 year old animal...er...kid...who they don't discipline, so he runs wild like a savage! I hate it when parents don't do their job! Not like I'm a great mother or up for Mother of the Year Award or anything, but when you tell your kid no five times and then just decide to ignore them, when they ignore you, and not discipline them for not obeying you the FIRST time you said no, there is a problem! They don't enforce their word! Anyway, I am sincerely hoping they decline our offer to come over...keep your fingers crossed for me! Maybe I will get through the day with my house (and sanity) intact! ::rant over::

Christmas in July...help?

For some reason lately I have been wanting to stitch small christmas designs fit for Christmas cards. I've never stitched my own cards before, because I was always so busy stitching other HUGE projects for myself or someone else.

Well, I am sorta getting tired of stitching on Howling at the Moon, actually, that's not true, I am still loving it like crazy, and am almost finished with page 6 but I want to work on something other than that allll the time! Just some small things to break up the monotony of that big ole' thing.

So, my question is, does anyone know of any sites that feature cute smallish free patterns that would be suitable for Christmas cards? I have plenty in my stash, but when we moved, my wonderful hubby didn't check with me first and put my huge box of sittching patterns at the bottom in the back of the storage closet!!! (I'm so mad!) So, if any of you could help, I'd appreciate it!! Thank you!!

Doing a bit better....

Thank you to those of you who took the time to send me some virtual hugs and well wishes! I truly appreciate it! I am starting to feel a bit better. I guess I was just having a bummer coupla days there.

Well, I have been thinking about it, and I think I'm gonna go back to the way my blog was before...just stitchy stuff, just whenever I feel like posting...I still am going to write bookish posts you can find them here:http://shandord.blogspot.com/ , and I will also continue with my "book" which I will be putting in a new blog...I will post the link there in a bit, once I get it down.

I have finally found some time to work on Howling at the Moon a bit this week, so I will share that in my next post.

Tomorrow my husbands work is supposed to be having a "beach day" but the forecast is calling for another tropical storm, though it doesn't look like it will come too close to us, we will probably still get some outlying residual rain and wind from it, so the beach day may be cancelled!

But my hubby did get us tickets to a comedy show, featuring "Sinbad"....remember him? lol...So, tomorrow I get to leave my daughter with a sitter for the first time...I'm a bit nervous! We are going over to meet the sitter today, before we actually leave her there. but this lady is certified and has many charges so I'm guessing she must be pretty good. It'll only be for a few hours.

Also, I want to send out hearty thanks to a few wonderful bloggers in blogland. I was noticing that alot of people have been hitting up my blog lately and looked at my stats, alot of them came via these blogs, who have me on their blogroll....so I thank you for the extra traffic!

~Edgar at:http://blacksheepsite.blogspot.com/
~ Trina athttp://stitchingoz.blogspot.com/
~Sharon at http://itsdaffycat.blogspot.com/
~Sandy at http://smalltownstitchin.blogspot.com/
~Meredith at http://merrystitching.blogspot.com/
~ Dawn at http://goldenangelsworks.blogspot.com/
~Blu at http://blustitcher.blogspot.com/
~Deborah at http://cranberrysamplings.blogspot.com/

If you don't or have not read these blogs, go give them some love!! They are encredible people and also amazingly creative!!

Well, I am off to get my day started, and watch the rain....hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and I hope to see you at "A Joyful Reader" (my book blog) and at my fictioanl blog (once I get it up and running!) I will let you know the addee soon!

'Til then, Happy stitching!

Down in the Dumps...life-ugh! Who needs it?!

I am sorry to report that I don't have an update this week, as me and Alyssa have both been sick and under the weather this past week, so I haven't had much of a chance to stitch at all, plus,being sick, I just haven't had the energy or the want to to stitch, when I do have free time I usually sack out on the couch with the TV on or with a book...I am not sure when I will feel up to posting again.

I am also going through a slight depression right now, I usually do about this time of the year, so I don't really feel like being among the living, I just really wanna hide my head and wish that I were never born! So, maybe after I emerge from this emeotional funk, I will feel more like posting, but for now, I'm takin' a break. I'm sorry, dear readers, I hope you understand!

Tree Branch Thursday!

So, last week while Lyssa was asleep, I was able to get some work in on this one! I am almost to the end of the outline of the green on top, if that makes sence, then once I'm done filling in the outline, which is the hardest part, trying to follow the pattern, then all I have to do is fill in and backstitch, on that part. My goal for this piece was to finish Tigger and that green up top there, I am not sure that will happen. I have not had a chance to stitch the past two days. And after dinner I always think "I'll stitch in the evening, but I'm so tired in the evenings I've been going to bed early (8-ish), by the time I'm done cleaning up after dinner, and getting the baby fed and down for the night, I am just too tired to do any serious stitching. I hate stitching when I'm so tired because I know I will probably mess up and then end up having to frog it all and so what's the point?

Anyway, I also wanted to share this photo of Lyssa and her daddy:

I thought it was so cute!! All you can see are her eyes and her feet!! LOL!!

Well, tune in again tomorrow for chapter two of "Breaking Away"....And just so you know! YES! There will be "Stitching" involved in my story...what do yah know? But that Dicia is a stitchaholic just like us!!! See yah all tomorrow!!