Christmas Card Craziness!! And a bit of Cuteness

Well, first up is a photo of Alyssa, just cause she adds a sense of cuteness to my blog that stitching just doesn't cover! She was hiding behind the curtains! And here are some of my Christmas Cards completed! I thought I had taken photos of the stitching for the last two that I finished just on their own, but apparently not, so here are 5 of the ten that will be going out to select close family and friends. I originally wanted to get more stitched up, but I couldn't do it! Oh well, better luck next time!

and this is what the inside looks like:

Is it corny? I mean I know it's not professional quality by any means, but my mom used to help us kids make all our Valentines for our class Valentine parties, while other people were handing out store bought ones, my mother instilled in us the special-ness of something hand made! So, even though it may not be perfect, I enjoyed making them, and so I hope those who recieve them enjoy them too.

Well, this past weekend, I worked on Coming Home for The Holidays, as it was SAL weekend with Juls, so I will be sharing a photo of that here soon!

Thank you all for reading! I hope you're all having a wonderful holiday season so far, and I will post again soon!

I need some suggestions/help/advice!

today as I sat on my couch happily stitching away on my Christmas Cards, which I have started assembling and I think they are looking really nice, I realized that my parents 50th wedding anniversary is coming up in the summer of 2013! I would LOVE to do a beautiful large piece of stitching to commemorate the occasion, and to gift them with. Do any of my readers have any ideas of something that would be a good idea for a piece for this? I sorta wanna do a sampler, but larger than that...something that says "Wow! She put some TIME into that!!" Something along the lines of my wolves, but that may have to do with love, or a 50th wedding anniversary...? I need some suggestions!

And I promise I will be sharing stitchy photos soon!!!

Howling at the Moon update and Marine Ball photo

I am well into page 8 on this. I really wanted to be finished with this page by Nov. 15th but that didn't happen, so I guess my goal to finish this entire piece by Years End is not gonna happen! Oh well. And especially now with all the holiday hooplah going on...it's not gonna get done! So, I guess I will make a new goal: to have it finished by Valentines day 2012! That gives me plenty of time!


And now I will share a photo of me and my handsome hubby at the Marine Corps ball!

This isn't the greatest photo, as one of my eyes wouldn't adjust when I tried to fix red eye, so I have one red eye and one whatever-color-they-use-to-fix-red-eye-with eye. You can't see it, but the bottom of my dress has that dark blue sashing along the bottom as well. This is actually my wedding dress! I got it especially for the fact that it was sorta plain but would match his uniform, that way I could wear it on more than one occasion. I have now worn it three times, once to formal night on a cruise we went on, and once to The Air Force Ball, and now to this ball. I think for our next ball, I'm gonna buy a new dress. I am getting sick of this one! We'll see!

Well, incase I don't post before then, I hope that all my American readers have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday!! I pray it is filled with lots of good food, and friends and family!

Some finishes and Birthday celebration! (heavy photo post!)

First up I would like to share my recent finishes:
This one I JUST finished half an hour ago!
Here is "Christmas Blessings" Finished:

And now I want to share some photos from my birthday celebration. Note there will be no photos of me here, as my hair was a mess and the hubs wouldn't let me go brush it, so there! LOL

Here's the birthday loot...some of it anyway...I got more books with that gift card. My Father In Law got me all those beautiful shells, and the little green Shi shi dogs (The little statues right in front of the gift card) don't know if I spelled it right. I got also the boxed set of the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" series. Ever since I saw the first one back when I worked in the book section of Sams club, over 3 years ago, I have thought these looked cute, and they were! I finished all 5 within two days I think! They were something that I woulda loved as a child...it sorta took me back to my childhood reading days. There in the lower right hand corner are two "More adult" books: "Joy comes in the morning" by Betty Smith (Author of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn") and "The Plot Against America" which is on a list I am currently trying to read through "Dr. Boxall's 1001 Books you must read before you die" Which I am sure I will never get through all 1001 titles, especially since he releases a new edition every year, so it's more like 1020 books you must read..." And I was looking for some fun TV shows to watch, so hubby got me the first two seasons of Cougar Town, which I'm about half way through the second season, it is FUNNY!

Here is my hubby and Alyssa right before I blew out the candles...

Here's the cake!

WHAT?!

Aaaahhh, now THAT's better!

After presents we went out to dinner then came home to eat cake and watch a few episodes of my new show.

So, it was small, but a nice day. I also got 5 more books with the gift card, plus a book, a coffee mug and a ton of Victoria's Secret body stuff from a dear friend!

All in all a very nice 34th celebration!!

And now you probably can see by the inscription on the cake why the name of my blog is what it is! But you can call me Lana! =)

Yay for 34!

I had an amazing birthday!! My hubby spoiled me like crazy! As most of you know who read this blog and know me my other passion besides stitching is reading, I made out BIG in that area! I got 12 new books!!! SCORE!!!

I didn't get any stitchy things, but I am still waiting for my parents gift (they usually send money) so maybe I can use the money for some stitchy stuff....maybe a new pattern by Ink Circles?...hmmm...

Along with my stitching and reading, I have decided to revert back to an old love of mine, when I was a kid, I used to LOVE to write and recieve letters...and I have found some great pen paling groups on FB (yeah sometimes that page isn't totally evil!) and so I have decided to try my hand at letter writing again!

If any of you want to pen pal with me, I would love it! You can put your e-mail address in the comments section, my comments are on moderator approval so if you put it in the comments and ask me not to I won't post it, or/and you can just put your addee down and I won't post it in comments. Up to you! =) I used to have some stitchy pen pals, it's fun, because then you can talk all about your love of Cross stitch...

So, that is what has been up with me here...just enjoying my birthday and a long Veterans day weekend! Been so busy with pen paling and reading my new books no stitching in for a few days now. But right after i post this I am gonna go remedy that!!

Thank you to you all who left such wonderful comments wishing me a happy birthday! and my headache DID infact flee the scene before my day! Ok, off to work some more on the Christmas Card I am working on. I think I might be able to finish it today! Wish me luck!

Coming Home for the Holidays SAL progress...

Worked on this a few hours this weekend, wasn't sure I was gonna get to it. It was a busy weekend. Had to get up early Saturday to take guest to the Airport, then came home went back to bed for a bit, then got up, went to the store, then came home worked out, took my shower, made dinner, then our friend came over for dinner, and I had a headache so went to bed early. Sunday was church, then out to lunch with church people, and had a headache again, so rested. I wasn't sure I wanted to stitch with my head hurting like that, but took some meds and felt better so got some work in on this in the evening! It's coming along. All the blue on the lower right hand side? My hubby did that sometime earlier in October....lol...Hope you're having a great week! I'm doing ok, I still have my headache, it's rainy and tomorrow I turn 34 years old...Happy Birthday to me and the US Marine Corps! Joyful stitching!

Wow! busy busy busy!

The past week we have had a house guest, so we have been busy! I got a little stitching in which I will share soon! I finished the "Christmas Blessings" card and am now working on "Three Candy canes" I am a little under half way finished with page 8 of Howling at the Moon. And this weekend I am working on "Coming Home for the Holidays" my SAL with Julie. So I've been busy, just not much time for posting here. But I wanted to share this picture of Alyssa. She was a little lion for Halloween...I thought she was adorable! She didn't like the head piece very much, and the costume was very warm, which was horrible, since it is still in the 80's here, with high humidity! I wish Fall would get here sometime soon! Or winter....I am sick of the heat! Well that's it for me here I will post progress on my other projects soon!