One Step Forward and Five Steps back

Sorry Wendy and Cat I didn't update on Wednesday, I spent most of the day at the hospital hooked up to monitors while Dr's tried to figure out if they were going to take the baby yesterday. They managed to get my blood pressure down and my blood sugars under control so they have decided to leave baby where he is at, for now. I have to go for an ultrasound on the 4Th of January so just taking things 1 day at a time.

So on the stitching front, I'm so mad at myself. I was merrily stitching away on the snowflakes and I couldn't figure out why things were not lining up right. Yep you guessed right the whole piece I've stitched in the middle is 1 stitch down to far. So I've spent who knows how many hours unpicking it all. As you can see from the picture I still have the verse and the alphabet to unpick before I can start stitching again.

Finally a spare moment to myself

I thought as soon as Christmas arrived the hectic pace would slow down, wrong. Seems I've been going a million miles an hour since. I managed to get caught up on the last several days of blog posts I have missed, going to go back this morning and try to comment on them all, no promises though. I was delighted to hear that everyone had a wonderful holidays and that Santa was good to them. My plans for before New Years to finish Thine Is The Trick And The Treat and to finish figuring out my crazy 15 before they truly drive me crazy. Have a wonderful and safe day filled with many stitches.

3 More Sleeps until Santa

Says my my little guy. I have so much I need to get done its not even funny, wish I could turn back the clock a few weeks. Not a lot of stitching happening this week, just worked on my Christmas piece for a couple of hours, so here is my Wednesday progress on it.



I need to figure out what I'm missing for the January challenge, so hopefully I'll be some what ready for it.

Friday Update on TTT

Its Friday and I'm actually posting on time, there might be hope for me yet. I'm disappointed in myself that I don't have more to show on this. I have no excuse just felt like stitching on christmasy stuff. So here is my little update.


Not sure why I'm jumping all over the place on this piece, that isn't usually my stitching style, I know I hate stitching the half stitches on 25 count fabric, I know there was a reason I should have picked a linen and stitched over 2.

Polar Bears

One of the Yahoo groups I belong to Friendly Stitchers had an ornament exchange, my partner Jillann listed in her preference that she liked polar bears. So I thought this was the perfect design for her. Sorry about the dark photos again, I've been hinting to Santa for a new camera. So here is Polar Bears it is a "Cross Stitch Wonders" chart designed by Marcia Manning stitched on 18 count 18.

and the back


I've never finished an oval ornament before, so I hope it isn't too lopsided for my first try.

Thank you for looking and have a wonderful night.

WOO HOO I'm Back Online

My Internet provider finally dropped me off a new modem and did a few things at the box on the house and on the pole out on the road. So the good news I'm back online at full speed again, the bad news not sure what the cost will be on the next bill. Sorry I missed last Fridays update on Thine Is The Trick And The Treat, thought about posting it today, but will wait until Friday. Not that there has been a lot on the stitching front, it seems every time I try to get comfy to stitch a certain soon to be 3 little boy wants to snuggle on my lap. I'll take the snuggles over the stitching any day of the week. So here is my Wednesday progress pic of On Christmas Day, not much to show since last week.



Not sure with the holidays approaching how much stitchy stuff I'll have to show next week. Hope everyone is staying warm and safe.

If your still reading, a quick question on my stitched piece. I messed up at the bottom border around JOY, if you look at the corners of PEACE and the bird you can see the corners should be notched. Now which way do you like them better, should I unpick the 2 corner stitches at joy or fill in the 2 corners at peace. Hope I haven't confused or lost you.

Thanks

A day late but I have a good reason

What a week so far, had to go to Victoria for a Dr's appointment and to get DD passport for her upcoming trip to France. So while I was away, the power went out, no idea what happened all I know is when I left I had the Internet and now I don't. So after spending 2 hours yesterday morning on the phone with my Internet provider, they have decided that it must be something on the power pole or at the main hub. I don't know but they say they might get it fixed on December 20, yep you read that right. So if my updates are random for awhile you will know why. I took my pic yesterday morning had to take it to my Mom's house and borrow her computer to post.



So keep your fingers crossed they fix the problem sooner then later.

A grey kind of day

Its cold here and trying to rain, it feels kind of blah. So I've been stitching on my Halloween piece going to switch back to my Christmas one this afternoon. Hopefully I'm going to go finish my Christmas shopping today, I say hope loosely. Anyways here is my weekly progress on TTT



Hope everyone has a great weekend.

On Christmas Day

A brand new start, everyone loves those. I do any way, so I'm doing another mini SAL with Cat and Wendy this time the Mystery Sampler from The Cat’s Whiskers Design Studio that was in the Gift Of Stitching. We agreed to start today and we are going to try to do weekly updates on Wednesdays so those of you that know me can expect my updates to pop up Thursdays at some point. I'm really excited to watch every ones grow nobody really cared for the oranges that it showed in the magazine. I'm doing mine in an off white, red and green. Cat is doing hers in blues and white which is going to look so pretty and Wendy is doing hers with white, gold and a darker pink on gorgeous pink fabby. So it is Wednesday so here is my little update, I took it with me to the hospital today to get a little jump start on mine.



Once again a bad dark photo, but it shows what I got done today. I'm still playing with my list of 15 charts for the Crazy January Challenge hopefully I'll have it fine tuned in the next couple of days to share. Hope everyone is having a warm and wonderful Wednesday.

A day late but what else is new with me

It seems I've been running a day late on my SAL with Denise since we started, I don't even have a reason for forgetting yesterday but I can try to think of one. So here is my slow progress on Thine is The Trick and Treat, I'm not sure if its stitching Halloween so close to Christmas or what but it seems to be creeping along at a slow rate.



Hopefully next week I'll have some new stitchy stuff to share. Wishing everyone a safe and warm weekend.

On Christmas Day Mystery Sampler

So awhile ago, August to be precise I was looking through the Gift Of Stitching Magazine I flipped the e-pages. Nothing really jumped out and said stitch me at the time, same thing with September. It wasn't until I was looking through Diane's blog and found this https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLksWm44vn8rmGtelyV9_RNNShJtyU2sZYteN_Vi3Xe23mKeNLaS7cF1P1o1a8q8TQATukgPbSTNbjpfxZmnHefXjtuq8wivmG6DaawOG5dRajf3jINBN1KttRnwwNzKB8KUIE8x5aMeej/s1600/2010+283.jpg that I went WOW. I love it in the red, whites, and greens better then the called for colours. The oranges that were used in the magazine did nothing for me.

So after contemplating I decided on these colours

I'm still not certain of the red I picked might change my mind on that still. I have time I'm stitching this with Cat and Wendy and just between us I don't think either of them have picked out fabric or thread yet. LOL Hurry up ladies are I'll have to get out the wet noodle.

My apologies to two wonderful ladies.

Life seems to have gotten in the way of deal with some important blogging things.

My first apology is to Gillian, I was in a humbug exchange with Gillian and received the most gorgeous humbug from her but have been neglecting posting a pic. Here is some pics of the beautiful humbug she designed just for me.



My next apology I owe is to Jane I entered her draw for this wonderful owl kit

So to my amazement went I opened the envelope all of these goodies came tumbling out, it was like Christmas morning.

Included was a cross stitcher project bag, a bookmark to cross stitch, 2 packages of Dress It Up buttons,a cute bookmark, a package of 14 count fabby in buttermilk, a skein of Metallic DMC, and some super cute ribbon that says "No Peeking" and of course the Owl Kit. I love everything Thank you again Jane for hosting such a wonderful giveaway.

Oh just so you don't think I have no manners both ladies were Thanked promptly by email, but I should have posted pictures sooner my mother raised better then that.

Snow, snow and a SAL update

This is what I woke up to this morning, in a freezing house. After we got the generator going and the heaters plugged in it wasn't that bad. We have another snow warning and a wind warning posted again for today. So we might lose power again, the fun of living in the country in the winter.
The first picture is of our snow dog Jack, I'm sure he would move outside until it melts he is like a big kid.

This is a picture looking across one of our fields.

This is looking up our driveway towards the road.

I'm sad to say I didn't get a lot of time to work on the SAL I'm doing with Denise, just seemed something was always coming up. I did get a fair bit of stitching done on various ornaments known that I can show pictures of anyways. My plans for the day after building a snowman with the youngest child include stitching stitching and more stitching, so hopeful there will be more progress to show next Friday.

1,2,3,4,5,6 Counting is so easy

Until you combine it with stitching, I just realized that I made a major mistake on Thine Is The Trick And The Treat the SAL I'm doing with Denise , I'm not sure if I'm going to frog it or not. So here is my update which should have been posted yesterday, but I was in the hospital.



All I have left to do on the first page is the rest of the spiders, the bat. The letters I'm leaving for last not sure if I'm going stitch them in black or maybe introduce a new colour purple or orange maybe. Check out Denise's progress on her blog, her stitching is beautiful. Oh I see I forgot a stitch on the witch it will be filled in by next update.

Humbug Exchange Recieved

My partner Gillie told me other other day that she received my humbug. The day I took my pictures it was raining up a storm and dark and gloomy, so needless to say I thought I would wait and see if Gillie's pictures turned out better which they did of course. This was stitched for Friendly Stitcher's Humbug Exchange. Just Nan Hootzi Humbug stitched on Mystery fabric from my stash. This first pic I took before I put it together see how gloomy the image is


The next two pictures I borrowed from Gillie's blog.




I'll post a picture of mine that I receive as soon as the snails arrive with it, the post is getting awful these days.

Hope everyone is having a fantastic Tuesday.

Monday Update

Jack is still in the dog house for his actions yesterday, but he will be forgiven in time. So my little guy is almost 3 and suffers from night terrors a couple of times a week, hence my blog name. So he woke up screaming this morning at 4:30 so by the time I got him calmed down, I knew neither of us were going back to bed. So there we were snuggled up on the couch with a blanket him watching Winnie the pooh and me stitching. Here is my morning work on Thine Is The Trick And The Treat



Not sure why the fabric is showing up this dark.

My wonderful Sunday

I'm so happy Denise got her fabric for Thine Is The Trick And The Treat by Prairie Moon. So we can start our mini SAL with it, I was excited to hear this. Yes I said so excited past tense, ready for a long story.

I got my pattern quite a while ago, made myself a working copy thank goodness. I hummed and hawed about fabric then decided to try dyeing my own which turned out fantastic. The only thin I was left with was deciding on thread, my not so well stocked, not so local LNS didn't have much of a selection. I didn't want to use DMC I wanted to try something different so I went with Blacksmith Blue - Perle Cotton Floss by Crescent Colours. I was happy, just had to wait for Denise and if you look at her blog you can read about her frustrations so far. So anyway I got my fabric out, my chart out, my thread out to take a before pic and got distracted with a 2 and half year old and a potty training mishap. When I came back to gather my stuff to take a pic it wasn't there. So you probably imagining that things like that don't just walk away on there own. So I looked around a found what was left of my beautiful stash. You see I have a dog, who at the moment is not in my good graces. When Jack needs to be sick, he eats things outside mostly grass, leafs typical doggy behaviour. But in the house anything and everything is fair game so I found what was left of my floss mixed with who knows what with my fabric and chart. Like I said before super glad I made a working copy. So now I have no fabric and no floss. I'm not about to make the long drive to my not so local LNS so I will be dying more fabric this afternoon and stitching with DMC black. So I'm sure you will understand why no pics today, I'm sure most of you wouldn't appreciate the pics anyway. So hopefully bright and early I'll be stitching up a storm and will post a pic tomorrow.

Hope everyone has had a better day then me.

P.S A quick Thank You to Cat for showing me how to do my links the right way. Thank you Cat.

Tis The Season

To get busy, do you know how fast Christmas is coming. I always say every year I'm going to be better prepared then I end up running around like a mad woman. I've been busy stitching and finishing ornaments this week, 2 I can show you and 2 are for gifts for people who read my blog so they will have to wait.

So on to the ones I can show you, first is a freebie I found on Heidi's blog http://allmyscatteringmoments.blogspot.com/ it was a lot of fun to stitch and super quick and easy. I didn't have the called for Carrie's threads so I substituted DMC. Sleigh rides stitched on 28 count mystery fabric from my stash.



The second one is from Victoria Sampler in the button up for Christmas collection, I should have stitched it on something other then 28 count fabric it was getting larger then I wanted so I decided not to stitch the greenery that was at the top. So here is Melt your heart.

A wonderful way to end a day.

I've been down in the dumps again and a wonderful blogging friend with a heart of gold noticed this, so guess what was sitting in my mailbox for me.



Inside was a necklace for my DD and cute Halloween colouring book for my DS. Candy goody bags for everyone in my family. Warm fuzzy socks for me if I can keep them away from a certain sock thief. And these 2 Halloween stitchy gifts.



I love both the pumpkin scissor fob and the wonderfully stitched little Halloween ornament. It brought tears to my eyes, and I just want to let everyone in blogland know what a special and caring person Cat is, she is also very talented check out her blog here http://kttycatcrossstitchblog.blogspot.com/ Sorry about the bad pictures but it is a grey and overcast day here.

I'm a bit computer challenged how do, I do a link like the above but instead of the web site it would just say the name Cat, did that make sense.

My Rant For The Day

If you use something put it back where you found it, is that so hard to remember. I guess it is because I spent 2 hours looking for my pinking shears to finish my ornament with. Do you think I could find them anywhere, no. You don't think they could have grown legs and walked away, do you. I doubt some how I have a feeling a certain 16 year old borrowed them for what ever purpose, guess I'll find out after school. So ignore the uneven large green edge, mentally picture a nice even pinked edge which if I could have found my scissors it would have been.



This reindeer was stitched on 18 count white Aida and it is from the simply red ornament collection from Imaginating.

Sorry its not exactly finished. Will share another pic when I find my scissors.

A soon to be new start

I've drooled over Thine Is The Trick And The Treat by Prairie Moon long enough so I caved and bought it. I'm going to be starting this in the next couple of weeks. I'm going to be stitching along with Denise over at http://riversidestitching.blogspot.com/ if anybody wants to join us the more the merrier.

I was planning on posting an updated pic of my afghan project but it will have to wait seems my camera walked away with a teenage daughter. So when she returns Sunday I'll be posting a few new pictures.

Hope everyone has a wonderful and safe weekend.

An Afghan Update

I've been working on my exchange piece so your going have to wait to see pics of that. I've also managed to get Winnie The Pooh finished, now to decide on if Tigger will bounce forward next or shy little Piglet will make an appearance first.



Oh a Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian neighbours

My lastest craft project

LOL, I'm so crafty I make people.


I wasn't going to share this with everyone, I've lost too many babies to get my hopes up. So far things look good, keeping fingers and toes crossed this little one make an appearance at the beginning of March. Going to go sneak in a few stitches on my exchange piece. Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

An Afghan Update and A Fresh New Start

I wasn't sure if I should back stitch Eeyore or let him remain the blue lump. Winnie demand to be stitched so I might go back to Eeyore or maybe wait until I've completed the whole afghan. So my question of the day is to you guys back stitch as you go or wait until the end and do it all at once.

I started a new start this morning but I can't share because it's for an exchange, all I can say its its fun so far and I will be stitching another one for myself.

Maybe I am back.

Hmmmmm scary thought I know, LOL. So I have been stitching a little in between making jam and pickles, trying to use up the last of the garden bounty. My 2 and half year old boy has become fascinated by my stitching but not the good kind. No sir not my little guy, do you think think he would sit quietly and watch Mommy work. Well if you haven't guessed the answer is no, he tries to grab the thread, tries to poke his own imaginary needle into my fabric, basically anything possible to bug Mommy. So here is my progress on my afghan.



I just need to go along and put the top coat of blue over all those half stitches, not sure I like this 2 different colours in 1 stitch idea.

A New Day And A New Start

So before we get into the stitchy stuff, I just had to share with you the new blog I found. But be warned you will gain weight, and don't blame me. So here it is http://buttercreambarbie.blogspot.com/ so far I've made the Abigail's Hotel Copycat Tomato Cheddar Loaf which was to die for, I left out the bacon because my teenage daughter is a vegetarian but it was still yummy. I also made the Lemon Tart yesterday, I really can't comment on that cause my family didn't leave me any the three of them finished it off while I was out shopping. Guess I will have to try that one again. I'm also trying the olive oil crackers that are on today's post just waiting for the dough to finish chilling. So if you like baking go and check out this site everything looks so yummy.

So at the beginning of the post I mentioned stitchy so the good news is I'm stitching again, I started something new. My friend is expecting her first baby so I thought I would give an afghan a try, not too sure I like stitching on the fabric but it might grow me on.



As you can see its not much of a start but it is a start, this chart calls for a weird way to stitch. I've tried to explain it to 3 people so far and I'm not doing a great job so I thought that I would post a pic to show you what I mean



I've never had a chart call for 2 colours before in one stitch like that. Have a wonderful fun filled day everyone.

Lost and Alone

I just want to apologize to my followers and to all the blogs out there in blog land that I follow. I don't know what is up with me, I'm in such a funk. I feel like in a hole that I have no way of getting out of ever. The things in life that use to give me such pleasure like stitching and working in my garden hold no interest what so ever with me. I feel like I'm just go through the motions of life, it just seems to tire me out. I forced myself to stitch a couple of days ago but I'm not enjoying it so what is the use. I sit down to type and update my blog and no words come to me, I feel empty and alone inside. I read the blogs that I follow daily but when I go to type a comment words escape me, I'm truly sorry for that. So once again to all my friends in blog land I've not forgotten you. I'll try to get my act together and shake myself out of this funk because what I'm doing right now is not good for me or my family. If anyone has been through this before maybe you can point me in the right direction because I feel so lost and alone right now. I promised myself when I started this blog that it would be stitching related only but I felt that I owed some people an explanation to where I have been. Hope I haven't depressed anyone.

Where has the time gone

Time seems to be like a run away train these days. Between chasing after my 2 1/2 year old, a large garden and trying to finish our house that we are building, lets just say life has completely taken over. That and I've had no desire to stitch. Last week it had been almost 2 months since I picked up a needle, scary I know. But the good news I seem to have found some of my stitching mojo again. I've picked up my Santa again, I'm so far behind on him its not funny. This was a piece I was stitching with a bunch of great Ladies for the Christmas Design Sal. Hopefully I can caught up to where I am suppose to be, keeping fingers crossed anyways. Here is to hopping for a complete return to my stitching power and a return to blog land.

What can go wrong has gone wrong

Just been one of those months. I was away for personal reasons for over 2 weeks. I borrowed a friends laptop while I was gone, guess what it crashed my first few days away. Then when I get home I find the fan in my computer stopped working so my processor and my hard drive got burnt to a crisp. So my computer was away getting rebuilt for 4 to 5 days. They say things come in 3's so finally got my computer back and a few things reinstalled when I started feeling horrible went to the Dr's and I ended up with an infection from my surgery. So needless to say, I'm back home and slowing getting my act together. I still need to install programs for the computer so no pictures till I find my camera software, lol. Not that there is a lot of pics to share. I'm going to go play catch up on some of my blogs that I need to read. Just thought I would explain my disappearing act. Hope everyone is enjoying their first day of June.

Great Shopping Day

I forgot to tell you that I went shopping today, nothing exciting but I had to stop at the local thrift store to drop off some of my son's clothes that he has out grown. While I was there I thought I would check to see if they had any stitching magazines or books and guess what I found?

This is all 264 skiens of DMC thread heaped up on my counter, not bad for 5 dollars.

What a nice start to the week, now to wind it all on floss holders.

Train of Dreams Update

Just thought I would post a pic of what I've been stitching on.

Seeing that it is the first Monday of the month, I had to pack this away for a week. So I'm back to working on Polar Santa for the Christmas design SAL. I'll post a pic of him later in the week.

A New Start

So my new start of the week is "Train of Dreams" a Randal Spangler design by Heaven And Earth Designs. My very first HAED so wish me luck, I might need it 1200 stitches done, 101,300 more to go.


This is what it will look like eventually.

Tweet, Tweet

Said the little birdie, I found this and many other wonderful designs on Gazette94 blog http://gazette94.blogspot.com/ take a look I'm sure you will find some you like. I had fun stitching and finishing this.

Better Late Then Never

As My Grandma use to say. I have been so busy in the garden and getting next years firewood stacked, so not much new in the TUSAL jar this month.

Another Santa Update

I know, I know you guys must be getting sick of seeing pics of this guy, and no I'm not an obsessed stitcher well OK maybe I am. Still waiting for my fabric to arrive so I can start my Heaven and Earth design, snail mail is right. I've been searching through my magazines trying to decide which ornament to stitch for April so until then Santa it will be.

Sewing Sampler

Seeing as how I haven't found a button for my "Wishing Ewe Joy" Ornament and I promised myself one totally completed ornament each month. I just had to stitch up another ornament, this one is from Marika Belfiori and I knew I had to have it for my tree as soon as I saw it. Stitched on 32 count antique white Lugana over 2 with DMC thread. Hard to believe another month is gone already, it will not be long before we are hanging these on our Christmas tree. Hope everyone is having a great start to the week.

Another Polar Santa Update

I'm having a hard time putting this down and working on anything else. So here is another 30 rows of Polar Santa done. 20 more rows to make the half way part on the chart, looking forward to seeing the rest of the polar bear come to life. I was feeling bad at Santa's blank looking face so I started some of the back stitching on the Santa.

TUSAL And Almost Spring Flowers

Hard to believe another month has flown by but here we are at the new moon already. My large daffodil's are almost done and my mini ones haven't quite opened up yet as you can see from the pic. I've done tons of stitching on my Polar Santa so lots of whites and blues, and a tiny bit of red from my 15 side biscornu SAL on top.

A Polar Santa Update

I wasn't planning on stitching on this again until the beginning of April but I didn't feel like pulling thread for a new start and my fabric for my HAED hasn't arrived yet. So I was in a ho hum kind of mood so stitch I did on my Santa, actual managed to get in close to 2000 stitches on the far right mountain range. Hope everyone had a great weekend filled with stitches.

Wishing Ewe Joy

My March Christmas ornament, minus a button and all sewed up. Not sure when I'll get into the city to find a button so I thought I would share with you what he looks like now. He is a Homespun Elegance Sheep found in the 2001 Christmas Ornament issue.

Have a wonderful day filled with stitches.