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!!!

The Abbey-Progress!

Page 8 is coming along! Slowly but surely! I am working on the front door now! I love it!  Even though it seems to be going slow, I still love this one alot! I haven't put much work into it this week, I got caught up working on my new ornament series "Christmas Critters". Plus I am reading The Stand and I'm really into it! (Yup, some nice Cheery reading for the holidays, huh?) Plus of course all the preparations for Christmas! I've just been taking it easy!

Pllus!!! I am super excited! Tomorrow is DAY 90 in a row for my 90 day Turbo Jam challenge! I did it!!! I made it through a 90 day work out! My Turbo fire showed up two days ago so I will jump right into it on Monday (Yes! Christmas Eve! I will not take the holidays off, if anything, I will work out harder to compensate for all the food I know I will consume!)  I thought Turbo Fire was a 90 day program, but it's a 150 day (5 months) program, so I will be doing JUST Turbo Fire for 90 days and the last 60 I will add P90X to it!! THAT will be a Challenge!!! I'm expecting to see some amazing results!

Well, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! And a great Holiday! Merry Christmas, if I don't get a chance to get back here before then!

And Joyful Stitching!

Finished with the Littlest stocking series!

Well, just 5 minutes ago, I finished The Littlest Stockings series! I started it in August and it's taken me 4 months to finish! Which is just ridiculous, considering when I just sit down and work on them it would only take 2-3 days at the most to finish each one (if that!) but oh well, they are done now, a week before Christmas, which is more than I can say for the Christmas Cards I decided to give up on!!! I got 3 done, and called it quits! Maybe next year!

So here is the series in it's entirety! I think the next series (tiny Christmas Critters) I will stitch all on one piece of fabric! 

And here are #'s 11 and 12, which I just finished up this morning!

Well, it's not raining (for once!) So, I am off to take the baby to the park to run off some energy so maybe she will actually go down for a nap today! Wish me luck!

The Abbey...page 9 done, and movin' onto page #8!

 First up, since this IS a stitching blog, here is my progress on The Abbey! 2 more pages to stitch, then back stitch the whole thing! It's comin' along!

 While unpacking Christmas ornaments I unpacked this one! My hubby got it for me a few years ago. His mug says "Grumpy Before Coffee"....Yup! That's me!


And now for the cutest thing ever........

My daughter in pigtails!!! LOL, and she is supposed to be modeling my other favorite Christmas Ornament, a tiny cup of coffee, and it really smells like coffee, but she was too busy lookin' cute for the camera and you can't really see the ornament. Oh well, that's alright, she is so much cuter than any ornament!!!

Hope you are all enjoying the holidays and stitching blissfully away!

Well, I really have not been stitching too much here! Just been too busy with the holidays! But I am hoping that now I've got most my Christmas Cards all sent off I will have that bit of time to put into stitching. Oh yeah, I've also been busy playing Sims3.  I had not been able to play for a long time, as my computers memory was very full, so the game wouldn't run correctly, so hubby went through and cleared out a bunch of stuff, and now it runs fine! Which is awesome! But it means i spend more time Simming and less time stitching....oops...

So instead of stitching we have been decorating.......

 and hanging stockings-three for me, my hubby and daughter, and an extra one for the soldiers who are not home this Christmas, and to remind us to pray for their safety that they will return safely and be home with their families next year for Christmas.

 Going to see Trace Adkins in Concert.  He came out here to perform for us, for free! He supports his troops.

And I did finish stockings #'s 9 and 10!

 and started #'s 11 and 12! So this set is just about done, so excited! Though I do believe it has taken me way too long to get these tiny little things done, but what can I say? There are trees to be decorated, and concerts to go to, and Sims to play! Whats a girl to do?

I hope all my readers are having a great holiday season, full of lots of stitching and family time!! I hope to share progress of The Abbey soon.  I actually finished page 9 and started 8!  

Joyful stitching!