Kajsa's stitching and more

Still trying to get into the swing of things!

2012-01-23T13:17:00.005-06:00

I don't know what it is but I always have such a hard time to get back into the routines after the holidays and I end up being behind on everything. Maybe it's because I really look forward to some time off from school and I'm exhausted after Thanksgiving and Christmas parties but I just feel like a blob. Somehow I have gotten some stitching done, it was probably when I was blobbing in front of the TV and fire place. STO had a Jan 1st challenge and I pulled out the Travelling Stitcher and it stitched up quickly. I didn't change a thing on it since the threads came with and I had 32 ct lambswool at home.

And STO also had a WIP challenge. Just stitch on a WIP a bit in January instead of starting something new. This little Dimples Design bug has been in the UFO pile for probably 7-8 years since it was driving me bonckers. With an ott light I had a much easier time with it and finished it in 4 days. Clearly I have been overestimating my ability to see without that light.

Finally out of the woods on Christmas Village from Prairie Schooler. Seriously, that's a lot of trees and I almost put this project away. But I pulled it out again after my little finishes and it's whole lot more fun now.

I have 1 fun new start and another one that I'm kitting up so hopefully I'm back with more updates soon.

If there's anyone out there that still stops by, thank you for visiting and for every sweet comment!

Happy Haunting Finish!

2011-11-19T12:45:00.003-06:00

It's been busy here with my husband travelling again. October and November are usually like that for us. I did have a couple of more finishes. The big one is Happy Haunting from Shepherds Bush!! I started it a couple of years ago and has taken it out every fall and stitched a bit on it. This fall I just kept on going on and finished it early November.

I joined the Christmas Challenge that Becky is hosting and got this cute guy stitched up. I love Mill Hill's ornament kits and have quite a few of the santa's so I want to stitch more of them up. I started this one a while ago but figured out that I had stitched the polar bear with a light gray thread and had to frog the whole bear which I had started with and was almost finished. So out went all the stitching and I had to start it over from scratch. I wasn't sure that the cardboard paper would hold up but it did. He's the Nanavut Santa from the Arctic Circle Santas series from Mill Hill.

And I did some finishing work too. I think these are the Redwork Santas from Prairie Schooler. I stitched them up a couple of years ago and couldn't figure out how to finish them. A couple of months ago I got this idea and tried it out on one of the santa's and since it worked out ok I went ahead and finished the rest of them the same way. Can't wait to set up my tree with handmade ornaments this year, lots of new pretties.

Thank you for stopping by and for your sweet comments!

Sanctuary and Wicked finishes!!

2011-10-27T14:38:00.009-05:00

I finally finished Sanctuary, I think I started this in 2006 and without Sally's SAL it would still be lurking around in my stash somewhere. Thanks Sally, you can take some credit for this one! I think I used BOAF's Sandpiper linen, 32 count and the called for NPI's.

I love all the little details in this sampler!

The hollyhocks were one of my absolute favorites.

I kitted up a little Halloween design that I have been itching to do for a while. I think it's called Wicked from La D D. It was oop but was reprinted in Just Cross Stitch's Halloween book. I used 36 ct Havana from WDW and Carrie's Threads (can't remember the exact colors, and they are somewhere in the stash).

When I was done with Sanctuary and Wicked I felt a bit lost and didn't know what to work on so I pulled out another WIP that I have been working on for a couple of years, Shepherd's Bush Happy Haunting (kit). Filling in that hill on the top turned me of this piece but Mel came over and we stitched and all of a sudden I was done. The other bands have gone pretty quick so I'm hoping to finish this one.

Remember the snowmen I stitched for the Dodge House? Well, This is how many I got done! Not bad if I say so myself. They are very quick stitches though. And so much sparklier in real life, lots of beads!

Thank you for all the sweet comments on my Spring Sampler finishes! They mean the world to me. I haven't been doing the blog rounds yet but I'm planning to the next few days. Earlier this week I took another accounting exam and I have been busy studying for it. The result- bleckity bleck! Didn't feel great about it but I have been doing good in that class, some problems I had to do ahead of time so that could save me.

Two questions: Would anyone be interested in the Sanctuary chart? It's a bit worn so I'm not selling it. Mostly it's the folds in the middle of it that are a bit scruffed. If more than one person is interested I will hold another give away. Second question, is anyone interested in a Prairie Schooler Christmas Village SAL? I have had the chart since it was released but never got around to stitch it. I would love to SAL with someone and have it ready for next Christmas. Let me know!

Spring Samplers from Prairie Schooler finish!

2011-10-19T06:50:00.004-05:00

It feels like I can't remember when I didn't work on these! But I finally have all 3 finished. I used all the called for DMC on a fabric from Silkweavers, a 32 count evenweave that I think was called Winter Sky. Not certain about the name though, it might be Spring Sky too but not Summer since that's more true blue. The sampler above was my favorite of the 3, isn't the frog cute.

The last sampler I finished and it's so much cuter then the picture. I didn't have much left on it so I just pulled it out and got it finished this week.

This is the sampler I started first and I loved stitching it but those borders took a lot of time.

Sorry about the wrinkles, I put them in a plastic bag so I can take them with me frame shopping. I want them all ready to go on display next spring.

I'm almost done with Sanctuary, I'm thinking I'm having another finish this week!

Thank you as always for visiting! Sharing my stitching my stitching with you means so much to me.

Winner!

2011-10-08T14:49:00.002-05:00

I had 6 interested ladies so I just told me DD to pick a number between 1 and 6. She picked number 4 - which is Carol since she was the fourth one to post.

I'll mail this out as soon as I get your address info Carol. Congratulations

2011 PS Santa give away!

2011-10-03T16:45:00.004-05:00

I ended up with 2 of this chart. He's really cute and fresh from the printers.

If you are a follower just leave comment on this post and I will draw a name before this weekend.

Thanks for visiting and all the sweet comments on my last post!

Summer House from Blackbird Designs framed!

2011-09-18T17:48:00.002-05:00

I love how it turned out! If I would do the design again I would pick another fabric so it would stand out more. I have to find a wall to hang all my framed BBD designs, I have a bunch that lives in the closet in my guest room.

Thank you for visiting and for your sweet comments! They brightened my day when I was slaving over balance sheets!

Finshed finishes!

2011-09-15T16:15:00.004-05:00

Ouch what a month! Major virus on the computer that took a week to figure out. Why does people do that? And my classes started, didn't know that my brain could hurt this bad. I'm a bit rusty after the summer too. But I finished this pillow before I started school. I think it's my favorite pillow finish ever! The kit was from Mill Hill.

I tried out this finish for my red Prairie Schooler santa's. I wasn't sure about it at first but it's growing on me. The the green straw were crumbling all over but I went over it with some clear glue and it's more sturdy now. Have 7 more I have to finish this way.

And I got some small stitching finishes, a dinosaur from a Simply Heritage kit and another little snow charmer for the EGA's tree.

Thank you for visiting and lovely comments!

2011-08-22T14:50:00.008-05:00

Where did this summer go? Our July's are usually busy but they have never been this crazy. Both my girls have their birthdays in July,we wen't on vacation to Minnesota for one week and the county fair was in July too. I actually volunteered some time this year since my youngest are calming down a bit so I can trust her around breakables. My stitching has suffered, the only piece I worked on every week is The Sanctuary. Sorry Sally that I haven't posted any pictures, I did work on it though, promise. I half expected to find a irrate british lady on my front porch demanding to know what's up at one time.

My EGA group stitch ornaments for the Dodge house each year. They do a selection of trees that are decorated by various groups. Our theme this year are snowmen and victorian ornaments. I haven't done any ornaments for the last few years so I thought I would try to stitch some of the Mill Hill Snowmen ornaments, this is one of my first ones. I have other already stitched up that I have to dig out of the Christmas box. He's called the Holiday Tree Snow Charmer

Talking about the fair, my oldest daughter had to put her crafting into high gear before it. We had started and kitted up several projects this last year but put off actually doing anything. So I don't know how much crafting we ended up doing on July? She's not really doing anything unless I'm there helping out and just checking her efforts. Maybe she has hit that age when they are done with crafting for a while? I wanted her to at least finish up what we had gotten for her to do. And she did really good, quite a few purple ribbons and the owl ipod holder above was selected to go to State Fair.

These orange ink thumb paintings were one of my favorite's. Love the frames and the back ground paper worked out well.

This vodoo needle cushion was a lot of work. She's not going to be my embroiderer, that's for sure. I love it though, I might have to do one for me and the lady that are managing the 4 H club with me

I found this idea over at the Moda Bake Shop. They did Halloween ornaments of charm packs but we did patriotic ones instead. I think they turned out cute, styrofoam balls are hard to work with though. You end up with a lot of small styrofoam crumbs that attaches itself to everything.

We were dog sitting this cutie last weekend. She's an old lady and I think she was stressed out since she was sick for 3 days straight. So I have some rugs to clean this week.

When the dog showed up the cat was not impressed. Oh, well.

Sorry for all the pictures. Have to share some more of my handiwork next time. I did get some things finished before July hit and I actually have my computer back with kids going back to school late last week.

Wip's and a finish

2011-06-28T07:55:00.002-05:00

During my blogging break I did finish Summer from Drawn Thread, I loved how it turned out. The frame is waiting for it already, just have to sit down and start a finishing frenzy.

I'm working on this Mill Hill turtle for my daughter.I have been trying to actually finish up things that I have started and this is one of then. I'm doing ok with it, could be better though.

My Sanctuary SAL has been neglected the last 2 weeks. It was so busy with my dad here and last Tuesday I only had 40 minutes to sit down and stitch so I didn't even bother to switch projects that night. To make up for it I brought Sanctuary with me to a SAL this Saturday and worked on it the whole time there so I got quite a bit done.

My dad left a week ago and I have been busy cleaning house since. I'm pretty much caught up on that now and I have gotten most of my carpets cleaned so another one of the big projects for this summer are checked off. So now I'm prepping to paint the older kids rooms. It's easier to do that in the summer when I can move them down to the guest room for a couple of days. I'm not looking forward to sorting through my sons room, lots of things going to goodwill and ready to be packed away.

Thank you for all your sweet comments on my last post!!

Hardanger bookmarks, SAL and dance!

2011-06-11T07:25:00.005-05:00

A while back I promised to do a couple of Hardanger bookmarks for the boutique at the Scandinavian Midsummer Festival here in Omaha. Items are sold there to cover the cost of the festival. So after procastigating for quite a while I got these sewn up. I think I have done them in off white with the watercolors thread before but I could only find my green fabric. Hope they sell!

Progress on Sanctuary is slow, I have a hard time getting into how the pattern and instructions are done. I took me about 20 minutes the other day to find where the 4 sided stitch description was the othere day.I love the color of this new row of threes though.

Miss Alice has her dance show today and tomorrow so that's what I'm doing this weekend. Last night was dress rehearsal and she was pretty excited!

I think the tap number was pretty hard, the girls were doing good but you could all see that they had their eyes on Miss Nicole at all times just to make sure that they were getting it right.

My dad is here and making his best to raise the consumer condfidence numbers here in the US. Lots of good sales out there for gents just before Fathers Day and I think that he has a new spanking wardrobe. If anyone wonders what styles, colors and prices that Dillard's and Younkers men's departments carries this season I can give you a detailed description.

Thank you for the comments on the last post! I do appreciate them all!

DT SAL

2011-05-25T17:17:00.002-05:00

I joined the Sanctuary SAL with Sally and Chris, thanks for having me ladies. This is how far I have gotten on it. I think it's been an UFO for 6 years, hopefully I can get it stitched up. It's so pretty, don't know why I stopped working on it.

I have kind of given up on this blog. It's been a busy year here with very active freshman, a pretty active middle schooler and of course my little first grader. My DS did the musical, the play, mock trial and show choir as his extra curricular activities so we have been driving a lot. DD has been doing chorus and bands so we have enjoyed a lot of concerts over at the middle school too.

And then I decided to take more classes this year so I have been going to school 75% of the time and taking care of kids and home the rest of the time. So it's not been a lot of time for me. But I'm taking the summer off to reload and hopefully I will have some more time to post now and then. I have some finishes that I have to take pictures of and share if it only could stop raining!

Huge finish for me!!

2010-10-26T15:00:00.005-05:00

I'm so excited! I can't wait to get this lady framed and delivered to my friend. She will be really excited I'm sure, she has been talking about these angels a lot. I stitched the design with called for threads and beads on a 32 ct lugana, not sure which color name it was.

Love all the sparklies on her!

These beads almost looked too big for the skirt but were perfect for the necklace.

I'm thinking about doing a give away to celebrate this finish, watch this space. Thank you for visiting and for your sweet comments!

Busy days!

2010-10-18T17:49:00.002-05:00

I don't know about you but if I'm in bad mood and have nothing fun to post about I don't care for blogging. Unfortunatly that's been my month. Doesn't happen to often but there it is. We have had some issues with adjusting to high school but it looks good now again and I have great hope for the future. I don't think that being superbusy with the musical, one act and mock trial has really helped my DS to concentrate on his school work enough but he has really, really fun. Oscar also got his black belt in Tae Kwon Do last week. That's him up there breaking a board. All the kids activities has a tendency to take over my life though. Doesn't help that my DH had to take off for a 16 day long business trip so I'm the only one carting kids around. But things are looking up!! Just to 2 days until hubbie comes home and the grades that are coming in at this point looks great!! Woohoo!

Needleroll from Lynne

Since I now have started to figure out how to use the new camera I can also start to share pictures from it! Here's the needleroll Lynne stitched for me in the exchange. Isn't it pretty?! It isn't easy being a techno phobe. This time I had to figure out how to upload pictures the way my DH likes to do it and he's a computer engineer. Sometimes I have problem just turning on the TV here because the set up is so complicated.

Angel of winter

And this is the lady that is sucking my stitching mojo away! She's my UFO challenge this year and I really, really, really want to finish her for a friend so I will persist. This picture was snapped a couple of weeks ago, I'm almost ready for beading now. So hopefully she will be out of my life next week.

The kids are off tomorrow and I can't wait to do some crafting and baking with the girls. My oldest have show choir rehearsels since they are starting to get ready to compete. That's what he loves to do anyways so what a great way to spend your day off with your buddies singing (and dancing or rather attempts to dance).

Thanks for visiting and for all your sweet comments!

Only one missing!

2010-09-22T10:16:00.003-05:00

Spring from The Drawn Thread

This is the last batch of things that I did frame before vacation! I stitched up all the seasons except Summer a couple of years ago. I really have to get off my behind and get summer stitched up because I have a frame for it already.

Winter from The Drawn Thread

I picked up the frames at Walmart of all places. They were only $ 3 each and perfect sampler size so I didn't have a specific project in mind when I first bought them but it really worked out well with these.

Autumn from The Drawn Thread

I'm working on L and L's Angel of Winter at the moment and it's starting to get to me. Really boring but I want to finish it for my friend in in time for the UFO challenge deadline. I'll have to take a picture and share in a couple of days time. The new camera and I are starting to get along better.

Thank you for visiting and all your sweet comments

2010-09-17T09:09:00.002-05:00

Nantucket basket from Lorri Birmingham Design

I made up this little basket as a gift for my MIL when we did go to Sweden. It has a little glass vase in it so can put flowers in it. She loves doing that and really liked the gift.

Acorn from Midnight Stitching

Mar designed a couple small acorns for our last retreat, I stitched up both of them but this is the only one finished. I forgot that there was 2 of them. I know, I'm a dingbat sometimes. The acorn shape came out kind of wonky, should I do something else with the other acorn?

It's another busy week here. My darn class is almost making me cry. I'm starting to see the end of the tunnel with it though. Some small things have to be tweaked but I have to ask DH about it. My son is in the high school musical and signed up for mock trial too so I'm going to drive a bit more from now on. There's lots of rehearsals and meetings. Good for him though! I love to see him getting active with different activities.

Weather is starting to turn to fall here. It's beautiful and I'm trying to do some last things in the garden before it gets really cold. I found a wasp nest in one of the bushes that I'm taking out and that has been a hassle. I did get stung bad when I first stumbled over it. Hopefully I have gotten on top of the problem so that bush can go this weekend.

Thank you for visiting and for all your sweet comments!

All boxed up!

2010-09-14T11:24:00.004-05:00

Just Nan

I was able to save some of these last pictures from my poor dead camera. The week before we left for Sweden my DH went to Dublin on a business trip. I spent the whole evening and some of the nights finishing things and those boxes are a few of the things that I did get done.

I painted the boxes myself, don't know if it was the greatest idea but I'm going to try spray painting them next time.

I have started another class so I'm trying to keep up with that. But I'm slowly starting to visit my favorite blogs again.

Country Cottage Needleworks designs.

Thank you for visiting and for your sweet comments!

I think I'm ready to blog again!

2010-09-08T14:58:00.007-05:00

I felt totally drained after our vacation and all the socializing. I really need some down time between dinner parties and such and it wasn't a lot of that. When I got back here I got really homesick and I realized that I didn't have time to do a lot of the more everyday things that I was so looking forward too. Next time I will try to stay a bit longer. I did suspect that something was going on with my camera during our stay and none of the pictures that I took came out. At least I had my husband take some pictures just as backups but they were not as many as the ones I thought I had taken. Sigh!

Anyways we were a bit more cultural this year, got to quite a few museums and such but this was my favorite! This is Läckö Castle, it's a well preserved barock castle with a lot of furniture and wall paintings from the 1600's. Isn't it pretty? There has been convents and forts on this little peninsula since the 1100's I think and I can understand why.

My son especially likes to pose with the canons, happens at every castle we do get too!

My DD loves checking out gardens and they had a wonderful vegetable and herb garden, authentic with plants they would have grown 400 years ago there.

Isn't this the prettiest view?

The kids had a great time with their cousins especially when my DH and BIL joined in the soccer games.

The weather was pretty good! I couldn't find any pictures from the beach house when we had a sunny day but the kids jumped into the water everyday anyways. It was kind of nice to have the beach to ourselves.

I did get some stitching done when I was there, this needleroll mostly, I really had to since this was for an exchange. I still have some pictures of finished pieces to share, I will get those up within a couple of days, promise!

Thank you for visiting and all your sweet comments!

Time out for summer!

2010-07-01T17:31:00.002-05:00

I won't be here for a while since the kids and I are taking off for a visit home tomorrow. I have so many pictures to share but at the moment I'm really stressed out trying to finish everything before I leave! I can't wait to show you my finishes when I get back!

Thank you for visiting and for your sweet comments!

Needle and thread from Little House Needlework finish!

2010-06-23T19:08:00.003-05:00

Here's my latest finish! It's Needle and thread from Little House Needleworks. I stitched it using the Crescent Colors that came with chart and the fabric is 32 ct Putty. The frustration level was high here last night, I ended up finishing this twice since I didn't like how it looked after the first time. So out came the scissors and I pulled the stitched part closer to the pillow and it looks so much better.

Thank you for visiting and for your sweet comments!

One finish and a new start!

2010-06-22T19:37:00.003-05:00

Remember my mil's anniversery sampler? Well, I did finish it a while back and here's a picture. It's Just Nan's Peacock Cypher and I changed the verse to my in-laws names, their wedding date and the church's name. I can't say that the graphing of the names were my best work but it will do. I used some 32 count mystery linen and DMC.

Close up! Those beads were pretty!

And here's my new start! It's Papillions myster sampler, we are doing it with the guild this year. The other ladies started it in January, I'm on part 2!! Oh, well I guess it's better late then never.

And I did finish Needle and thread from LHN too. But I did get the little bed/pillow that went with it and I'm half way through the finishing with it (sweet) so I'll upload a picture of that finish tomorrow. It's kind of funny looking now. I did find the chart and the pillow at the new LNS I found and started it the same day. That's a first for me, usually I let the designs mature for a while when I'm obssesing over color/fabric choices.

I'm trying to catch up on commenting, I'm doing a lot of stuff with the kids so I only have 15 minutes here and there to enjoy my blog reading.

Thank you so much for visiting and your sweet comments!

Help me Rhonda!

2010-06-20T13:31:00.005-05:00

Last week was one of those fun busy ones, the kids had a lot going on and I had to drive them everywhere. One my way to a piano lesson I spotted a great garage sale and this was what I ended up with. A lady had to move her FIL into a home and she sold some of the glassware and crystal that he had picked up at his travels in Europe.

This is my favorite bowl, my DD fell in love too!

The frames will be good for something eventually! I might repaint some of them. In all I spent $ 4.50 for everything! So I was happy!

In between golf camps, play dates, a visit to the water park and a garage sale where I sold some of my stuff (I didn't have it at my house though, just did a shift selling) I was lucky enough to find a new LNS in town. I'm so excited!! This lady is doing framing and shares the store space with a vaccum store so I have always had the impression that she didn't sell to much cross stitch supplies. I was pleased to see that she had quite a bit to sell and I will sure be back soon. One of the things I bought is almost finished since I hauled it along with me when I have been running kids around.

I have to take some pictures of my stitching, I have a couple more finishes, and I started a new wip so I'm updating again tomorrow!

Thank you for visiting and all your sweet comments!

Framing, finishing and more!

2010-06-11T07:51:00.009-05:00

I'm happy to say that the mirror idea worked out perfectly to frame my dragonfly! It was so easy to take the mirror apart and the only snag was that the fit was really snug and I didn't think I would get the piece into it after all the lacing and pinning was done. It was a tense moment!! A bit more padding then I'm used too. But I was able to get it in finally, the fabric is really stretched out and tight and flat so I think in the end it worked in my favor.

Remember my daughter's butterfly? Well, this is how i finished it! She loves it and it hangs from the quilt rack over her bed.

Last year I had this santa in the car as my car project (I spend a lot of time waiting for my kids so I always have a project available). It's one of Mill Hill's Medieval santa's, this might be the Canterbury one. I don't do beading in the car though so the final beading was done last week.

Here's the back, I usually like to put some green felt on the back of these ornaments.

I'm thinking about using this frame for my Marjolein Bastin finish. But there is a bit more space on the sides then on the top and bottom so I have a hard time deciding what to do. What do you think? I can easily finish it to a pinkeep or something too.

I took the kids to Fort Atkinson this weekend. They had their historical enactment weekend, they do that every month from April through October I think. They did a really good job and we all really enjoyed it. My DD loved the lace makind demonstration and got to try her hand on it. I thinks she's hooked!

Here's all the kiddo's in front of the original ammunition storage house, the only original building. The fort was active from 1819 to 1827 so much of the wood buildings were rotted away but they built everything up again on the original foundations. Lewis and Clark stopped by before the 6th regiment moved down to Kansas. A lovely day trip if you live in this area, I can recommend it!

Thank you for visiting and all your sweet comments!

Ahh, summer has arrived in my house!

2010-06-01T19:00:00.002-05:00

So it's funny that one of my finishes are a Christmas ornament from Earth Threads, I think it's called Jeffrey's ornament and it came as a kit with the tuck pillow. Easy finish and it was fun to stitch.

I also finished up this kit from Lanarte, a Marjolein Bastin one. A girlfriend in Germany sent it to me about 10 years ago. I worked on it as my car project this winter and just now got around to finish it. There wasn't enough threads so I had to just put the finishing touches on it, just took me an hour or 2.

It feels like this was our first normal day off. After I wrote my finals I had to get the house in order finish everything up for summer regarding camps and such. My kids graduated 5th and 8th grade so we had a little party for them each.

But today I just had to do my everyday stuff and no classes during the summer. I even pulled out my finishing supplies and will try my hand on some finishing. It has been really hard to find a round frame for my dragonfly but they had mirrors on sale at Hobby Lobby this week so I found a round mirror there that might work. Keep your fingers crossed that it will!!

Thank you for visiting and for all your sweet comments!

Stashing and a butterfly!

2010-05-12T13:11:00.003-05:00

Recently I finished this little butterfly for my daughter. She has a serious butterfly obsession at the moment so she was mighty pleased. Debbie Mumm designed it for Mill Hill that sells it as one of their Button and Beads kits (I think, it's a little kit at least). I have been carrying it around with me looking for a fabric that might work for finishing it.

I have been a bit stressed out lately and the result is starting to show up in my mail box! I have a tendency to do a bit more shopping when stressed. And I haven't had time to stitch so I did the next best thing, getting more stash. Some of it came from JJ's Collectibles Easter sale.

Some of it came from Ebay. Since Kathy of Carriage House Samplings are retiring I mostly got charts from her. Just so I have all the charts from her that I love. Which is quite a few.

Thank you for visiting and for the sweet comments! I hope everyone has a warmer and dryer week then we do, it's freezing here!

Brazilian embroidery class and finish!

2010-05-09T08:56:00.013-05:00

Last weekend I took a Brazilian embroidery class with the lovely Ms Jean Mann. I had a great time with our group and I realized that I like brazilian embroidery much better then stumpwork. I worked on the dragon fly class piece and I was able to finish it at the end of the class. It's so sparkly and pretty. I hope I can find a round frame for it.

Here it is as a work in progress!

Here's most of the ladies taking the class. Our EGA group in town organized it, Omaha Needle Artists. Jean is in the middle next to her husband.

Since we were a mix of beginners and more advanced brazilian embroiderer's 3 different class kits were offered. This is the advanced one, an autumn fan.

And these autumn leaves. This project was so pretty!

The retreat was held at the lodge at Mahoney State park. It's so pretty out there, close to the river and it has a lot of wild life.

Like these wild turkeys that munched away outside the window! We had lots of orioles and blue jays later in the day when I didn't have the camera ready!

A quick update on my WIP! I'm working on this exclusively at the moment since I want to finish it fairly soon. It's just nice to know that it's done before we leave for Sweden since I'm doing it for my in-laws.

More and more of my irises are coming in! This one smells like a freshly peeled orange, yum!

Thank you so much for visting and your sweet comments! I'm planning to catch up on my blogreading today. DH is in Japan so the kids treated me to breakfast in bed, aren't that sweet. But I plan to treat myself to some time visiting my favorite blogs today too.

Happy Mothers to all the wonderful moms out there!

So excited!

2010-05-06T08:46:00.003-05:00

We got our tickets to go home to Sweden this summer! And we are going through Amsterdam's airport (Skiphol, I probably spelled that one wrong). Last time we went by there 6 years ago I bought a bag of tulips, a mixed variety one. As usual with tulips they looked great the first year and then most colors started to die off. Except for the yellow ones!! I think they are those self dividing ones and I'm just getting more and more of them. This is just one of the patches, I started out with ca 3-4 yellow ones here and look at them go.

So guess what I'm picking up on my way home? Yup, at least 2 more bags. We just have 1 hour or so at the airport so if I you see a small chubby swedish lady jog through the airport in July with a bag of tulips under each arm, that would be me!

I went to a retreat this weekend and took a brazilian embroidery class. I finished my piece so I have to take a picture of it and share it here. It's just been busy with field trips, fun and field day at school and lots of laundry since DH is leaving for Japan for a meeting tomorrow. It's easier for me if everything is clean since then he's doing his own packing. If it's not he tries to involve me in it, don't know why? And I really don't want that to happen..

Thank you so much for your sweet comments on my finishes!

Another BBD SAL finish!

2010-04-29T09:38:00.005-05:00

This is Rite of Spring, another Loose Feather design from Blackbird designs. I stitched it with Suzanne over at Squazi and the Chicken (www.squaziandthechicken.blogspot.com/). It was a fun stitch but those circles were hard to line up, I did quite a bit of frogging.

This is my next WIP, Peacock Cypher from Just Nan. My MIL picked it up at Cecilia's Sampler in Branson during her last visit. She asked if I could stitch it up for her and change it into a wedding sampler for her and FIL. This is how far I have gotten on it. I want to finish it before we go home this summer!

Here's another Lilliput iris. It's really small and cute.

School has slowed down somewhat. We did get a longer time period to finish up that last 3 chapters so that feels kind of good. I was so stressed out there for a while due to short time lines we got and the fact that we had major hand ins and a big test every other week since the class started.

Thank you for visiting and all your sweet commments!

A finish!

2010-04-28T12:39:00.004-05:00

I really hope this works! Blogspot has a problem downloading the pictures. Here's my BtSS finish that I did with Ranae http://crazyxstitcher.blogspot.com/ (my links are not working today, so this is as close as I will get to a link I guess).She finished hers a while back but now I'm finally done. The designs is one of Blackbird designs Loose Feathers.

My lilliput irises have started to bloom! This one is one of my favorites.

I don't even know if this will publish right so I'm doing another post tomorrow. Thank you all for visiting!

Thank you Sharon for the awards!!

2010-04-28T12:07:00.004-05:00

Sunshine Blogger awards

Beautiful Blogger award

Sharon of Sharon's Cross Stitch Obsession (here's the link)

http://crossstitchobsession.blogspot.com/ was sweet enough to give me these awards. Thank you Sharon!!

And I have to list 10 interesting things about myself. Ouch, I'm pretty boring but I'll give it a try.

1. I'm a really fast reader, give me a couple of hours and I can finish a whole book.

2. I love gory crime series like Criminal Minds, The mentalist CSI, NCIS etc. I watch them all!

3. I can't watch a really brutal episode that involves children. It wasn't a problem for me until I had my kids but now I just can't do it.

4. I only stitch Monday through Thursday after DH put the home theater in. He needs it to be pitch dark in there for some reason.

5. I have lived in Germany, Portugal, and Canada before we moved to the US. And Sweden of course, I was born there.

6. My son were born in Canada, the 2 girls here and DH and I are not citizen's yet. The customs person always look a bit surprised when we put a Canadian, 2 US and 2 Swedish passports in front of him/her.

7. I like gardening but I don't put a lot of time into it. If the plants aren't sturdy enough to survive my gardening it was just not meant to be.

8. I love cooking and baking and I wish I had more time to do more fancy cooking.
9. I have a little herb garden spot in my flower bed.

10. I will have one kid in high school, one in middle school and one in 1st grade next year. I see lot of volunteering in my future.

There's so many blogs out there that I do love and I have a real problem getting links to work for me today when I'm posting so I'm just passing this along to all the beautiful blogs that I visit. You are all great!

My exchange from Molly!

2010-04-21T14:20:00.002-05:00

Isn't this sweet? I love how she finished it! Sorry for the picture, it isn't that great. The class I'm taking is quite hard, I'm not quite sure that I'm smart enough to take it. More then 50 % off the class seems to have dropped out so at least I'm still hanging in there. Three more weeks and I'm done for the summer and I can get some fun time again. Thanks for visiting!!

My exchange arrived at Lavons!

2010-03-30T16:33:00.002-05:00

Well it was a while ago but I thought I would share it with you anyways. We did a spring exchange and Lavon really like bunnies so hence the theme. The needle roll is Heart in Hands spring one, I changed all the colors since Lavon don't care for pinks and purples. That peach fabric was yummy, loved it! Thank you all for stopping by and your sweet comments!

Lovely gift from Mel!

2010-03-29T08:17:00.002-05:00

Look what I got from my friend Mel! It was a belated birthday gift and it was so worth waiting for. I remember drooling over this kit when she bought it during one of our shopping excursions down in Kansas City. And now it's mine, all mine. Thank you Mel!

Blackbird SAL updates!

2010-03-25T11:48:00.003-05:00

Man, is this new class that I'm taking hard. I thought I would flunk it for a while there but after the test I wrote yesterday I'm hoping that got my grades up! For while there I had to stay off the computer and (SOB) stay away from my stitching for a while. The stitching I missed soo much , it really keeps me sane (at least somewhat). So here are my dismal progress on my SAL's Rites of Spring from BBD with Suzanne.

And here's Beneath the Sunlit Sky, also from BBD that I'm stitching with Ranae. Pathetic isn't it? I'm making progress on my car project and hopefully I can finish that up this week. Thank you for all your sweet comments and visiting!

Finished and finishes! Lots of pictures!

2010-02-23T08:24:00.006-06:00

This is a real picture heavy post, sorry about that! Here's my latest finish, Truly Thine from Blackbirds Designs. I think it might be Loose Feather number 6 maybe. I still want to stitch the heart from this design. I used called for threads and fabric. Wouldn't this look nice in a white frame?

Then I did finish the BOAF Valentine Holiday into a hanging pinkeep. It's quite small since it's done over one on 28 ct fabric. I think I did replace most threads in this designs so it would show up better on the fabric.

Here's where I'm at with the Loose Feather Wednesday SAL with Ranae. It's lucky that it's stitching up quick since I haven't stitched on it to much lately. But I'm trying to keep up with it.

This is Rites of Spring, also a Loose Feather that I'm stitching with Suzanne. I would have gotten further ahead if I would have gotten this counting thing down. That circle was a real pain and I had to frog I don't know how many times. I rather not recall actually, some things are better suppressed.

In January I finished this little ornament and I have tried to get a good picture of it since. The darn thing is cursed I tell you. I think I have a crisp picture and it's always blurry when I upload it. So this is how good it will get! It's from CCN and I think it was published in the 2007 ornament issue. Seriously, it doesn't really scream Christmas to me but I just love the colors, maybe I will just finish it for one of my girls and it can be out all year round.

Also, I couldn't resist sharing this picture. That is one relaxed kitty! She was just snoring away all afternoon (and believe me this one snores). So cute!

Things at home are starting to calm down a bit. It helps that I wrote my finals again this last week and don't have to stress about that and I can concentrate on the family. I'm off for almost 3 week so that is a blessing. Thank you for all your words of encouragement it means the world to me! And as always, thank you for visiting!

Hoping to get back into the swing soon!

2010-02-17T16:54:00.002-06:00

It's been a pretty darn awful end of January and February here. I have been dealing with some pretty heart breaking family issues. So at the moment it's really hard for me even to sit down and stitch. But, we will overcome this too! It's not like we have a choice in the matter.

I have tried to start to finish some things again, this is my latest project. I'm going to try to finish it as a hanging pinkeep. I have been looking everywhere for pretty pins in different colors and I found a package yesterday - in my own stash. Guess that I forgot about that one. I'll try to take a picture when it's all finished this weekend. I believe this is Valentine Holiday from Birds of a Feather, I have to go through the stash trying to find the chart.

As always, thank you for visiting. Don't give up on me, it feels like I'm dealing better with this new situation now then I did 2 weeks ago so it can just get better!

Trying to survive!

2010-02-03T15:49:00.002-06:00

A bad cold that is! I haven't stitched since last Friday when my sinuses started aching and I just had to lay down. I though that I would share this framed piece that I framed earlier last week. It's an older kit from Ewe and Eye and Friends and I used all the materials that came with the kit. It's called Autumn Urn I think. Thank you for all the sweet comments and for stopping by. Off to have another cup of hot tea!

All my new starts!

2010-01-25T16:21:00.005-06:00

It feels like I have started something new every day lately. It's kind of fun! Here's what Ranae and I picked for our on going Loose Feather Wednesday SAL, Beneathe the Sunlit Sky. I love it! Then Suzanne (Squazi and the Chicken) and I started Spring Rites that I'm working on Mondays. I think Ranae will join in on that SAL too.

This is the third BD Loose Feather I started last week # 6 Truly Thine and I'm almost finished with the sampler already. I'm probably doing the pincushion too so that will take another week or two.

Then my youngest daughter has been asking me to start this butterfly for her so here's my small start. The color of this aida is great. I'm not really an aida girl but this aida is ok to work with.

Thanks for stopping by and commenting. I'm hoping to be back with more updates later in the week.

Blackbird Designs Sunflower House framed!

2010-01-21T22:11:00.003-06:00

I love how this turned out. I lucked out and found this frame at Hobby Lobby before our last snowstorm. And it fit perfectly. It feels like I'm getting closer to my sampler wall.

I made this fleece blanket with my youngest daughter during the same snowstorm. I wish I could share my 3 new Loose Feather starts, Beneath the Sunlit Sky, Spring Rites and Truly Thine but all my pics are so fuzzy it's no point posting them. We have had fog and gloomy weather here for a week now. It's starting to get to me, feels like I'm living in a horror movie. I have 2 more framed pieces to take pictures off too so I'm hopefully posting more pictures this weekend. As always, thanks for visiting and your sweet comments!

Hope X 500 dress!

2010-01-15T12:49:00.002-06:00

Our 4 H troop outreach project this year is to sew these reversible dresses for an orphanage south of the border. I can't remember if it was located in Haiti or Honduras or the mission might have orphanages in both places. Really, it doesn't matter where they are, there's a need and the girls were happy to help (I should remember though, I'm the organizational leader). I think we have close to 30 dresses at this point. Pray for the people in Haiti and if you have a possibility to help out a bit please do!

Thanks for visiting!

Two Blackbird Designs finishes and lots of snow!

2010-01-11T12:33:00.004-06:00

I was finally able to get a decent picture of Blackbird Designs Loose Feather Evergreen. Every picture I took turned out blurry for the strangest reason. Ranae http://crazystitcher.blogspot.com and I are trying to decide on what Loose Feather to stitch next. There's so many pretty ones to pick from so this might be a long running SAL. I used the called for fabric for this design but I did change the thread colors to a greener palatte.

And I finally stitched up my youngest daughters birthsampler. Can't believe it took me 6 years to do it. The other kids had theirs within a year. It's Blackbird Designs Special Delivery and I didn't change a thing. Used all the called for threads and fabric.

This is my deck out back, we have so much snow at the moment I haven't seen anything like it since we moved from Canada down here.

Peeking out my front door. We got a bit more that day but it was only 2 inches which is like a drop in the ocean at this rate. Warmer temps are on their way though so I'm happy!!

Thank you for visiting and your sweet comments!

Finishing project # 2!

2010-01-06T10:02:00.005-06:00

As I said, finishing is not something that I do often so it took me forever to get to these little guys. I stitched them up 2- 3 years ago and then they have been hanging out in the pile. But I'm pretty happy with this finishing, especially the pearl pins that I found. I love everything pearly (ist that a word??).

All the santa's is from The Prairie Schoolers St Nichola's II leaflet (that's from the top of my head so excuse me if I'm wrong).

This backing fabric is awesome! Love the design and the fabric itself is thick and easy to work with! My next finishing project is already started. We are getting another 6 inches of snow and near to blizzard conditions here today. So yesterdat I did whatever any sane stitched would do when facing the prospect of getting snowed in with their kids, I got milk and then 3 frames at Hobby Lobby so I could frame some of my stuff, hehe. Thanks for visiting and thanks for the sweet comments!

Finishing project # 1 and stashing!

2010-01-05T09:41:00.005-06:00

I didn't stitch much this Christmas but I did get to finish a couple of things. I really need to start some finishing work again, I have a whole pile of things that I have to get to. This is Just Nan's Snow from her tin series. It comes with the little mitten needle book. I used DMC and Weeks linen.

The linen color looks really washed out in these pictures, in real life it's darker.

Before Christmas I made it to a stitching group down at Judi's shop, For the love of Stitching down in Plattsmouth, Nebraska. I found some lovely things I couldn't live without.

And she had gotten this series in too, I asked her to order them for me. It's the seasonal floral sampler's from Knotted Tree Designs. After I saw them stitched up in a shop down in Liberty I have been obsessing with them.

As always, thanks for visiting!

Happy New Year and thank you!

2010-01-05T08:27:00.002-06:00

I took a little unplanned break from blogging during the holidays it seems. We had a great time and the kids kept me busy after I was done with all the Christmas preparations. But now it's back to reality. Both the kids school and mine have started again A big thank you to Suzanne over at http://squaziandthechicken.blogspot.com for the give away that I won! Isn't this chart great? I have already decided to pass it on when I have stitched it up, what a neat idea. Thank you all for your comments on Villages, you are all so sweet!

Finished Villages of Hawk Run Hollow!

2009-12-03T14:25:00.005-06:00

Villages of Hawk Run Hollow
designed by Carriage House Samplings
DMC and 36 ct Vintage Lakeside linen

It was really hard to get a good picture of this huge piece in our gloomy weather but here it is! I loved working on this piece! Thank you for visiting and for all your sweet comments! I have been visiting blogs this week and I'm hoping to be caught up in the next few days.

Block # 12, my favorite.

BBD Evergreen update!

2009-11-23T08:12:00.003-06:00

" This is my progress after 3 Wednesday so I'm pretty happy. I just have to get some of that GAST Pomegranate in there this week to spice things up. It's very green at the moment. "

"I did write my finals and it went really good. After I was done I have been busy making merry! We had the dinner group here for a fotball party this weekend and last weekend my son had his birthday slumber party here. A lot of feeding is going on when you have teenage boys in the house. They are all such nice kids though and it seems like they had a blast. It sure was worth all the prep work!"

"Thank you for all your sweet comments on my snowman! I appreciate all of them. I just started browsing the blogs this morning, can't wait to see what you guys have been up too."

Green Snowman finish!

2009-11-11T10:09:00.002-06:00

I totally forgot to post a picture of this little fella when I finished him. He was a shop model for Judi down in Plattsmouth. I loved stitching him, what a fun design! Well, it's back to the books, I'm writing my finals the end of this week. Thank you so much for visiting and your sweet comments!

Started a new Loose Feather yesterday!

2009-11-05T12:25:00.002-06:00

It's Evergreen and I just love it! That border stitches up really quick, I thought it would be really tedious but it's really fun. I changed the WDW Havana to WDW Moss because my skein of Havana was really brownish and I wanted a greener color.

I'm off to play a bit more with my laundry. I don't have anything in the hamper (the second time that has happened in the last 10 years) so there's a lot of folding in my future. DH is off to China tomorrow so he will have his pick of clothes for once.

Thank you for all your nice comments on my Hardanger piece!

Hardanger class piece!

2009-11-03T13:20:00.002-06:00

This is just a scan, after I finished the ornament up I mailed it to the shop right away. Totally forgot about taking a picture. Anyways, I just designed this little piece for my next Hardanger class in the beginning of December. I just wanted something very small so we might finish it in one afternoon so hopefully this will work for that. Thank you for visiting!

Third time's the charm!

2009-11-02T13:45:00.008-06:00

I finally got some picture to come out decent, it's been so grey and gloomy here that all my pictures came out as weird color gloobs. This is my third batch and you can finally see what it was I stitched.

I finished up my SAL with Ranae over at Stitch by stitch. It's the Sunflower House from Blackbird Designs. I love how it turned out. We are trying to figure out which BBD we are stitching next, so much fun. I used all the called for threads and fabric.

Here's my new start Happy Haunting from Shepherd's Bush. Evidently I'm aiming for a Halloween 2010 finish, ahem.

I just felt the need to pick up Villages again so I can get the last block stitched up. I love this block, isn't the grave yard just great?

We did get to Vala's this year too, but we were pushing it. A friend of us were visiting from Indiana so a group of us got a firepit out there on October 31st. I thought it would be really crowded there so we went early and did all the things the girls wanted to do and then we wandered over for lunch by the firepit. The day was just beautiful and there wasn't that much people there at all (the Huskers played when we were there too so that did help).

Now I remember!

2009-10-08T22:02:00.007-05:00

How much work it was going to school. It's accounting I'm taking too so the homework takes a lot of time. But I have gotten some stitching done in the evenings. I finished the Red Snowman from Shepherd's Bush for Judi's shop. Yeah!

And I finished up two of the acorns Marianne of Midnight Stitching designed for STO's online retreat! Another yeah!

And I finished Block # 11 on Villages of Hawk Run Hollow from Carriage House Designs.

Which of course means that only have one block left before my finish. Unfortunatly it's the one all filled in with black. I'm trembling..

I'm moving at a snails paste on Ranae's (Stitch by Stitch) and mine SAL. I have done more actually, I have to take another picture. It's Sunflower House from Blackbird Designs.

But I really have to finish up this guy next. It's the Green Snowman from Shepherd's Bush and he's also for the shop so he's #1 off my list to stitch on.

Brr, it's starting to get cold here. It feels like it's too soon.

Thanks everyone for visiting! I love reading the comments!

Two wip's only!

2009-09-16T18:48:00.004-05:00

My in - laws have been visiting for 3 weeks so there hasn't been a lot of stitching going on. They are sweet but they sure keep me busy. Since they fly in from Sweden they really enjoy the shopping here (so much more to chose from and cheaper, A LOT cheaper). They sure have made their part to support the US economy lately! Here they are at Silver Dollar City in Branson, cute little couple aren't they?

We bought some soccer cleats in Branson for DS and thus we discovered that we have a secret box lover in the family. I still have no clue how she squeezes in there, but I haven't had to rescue her yet. One of these days I'll have to shake her out of that box.

Here's my VERY slow progress on Sunflower House from BBD. It's not such a quick stitch after all. Ranae's is so pretty, she started with the flower vase, clever girl!

And here's the Red Snowman that I'm stitching up for my LNS. I have such a bad consience about this one. Judy sent both the Green and Red Snowman to me before my in-laws arrived and this is how far I have gotten. These are my # 1 priority now. That and the accounting class that I started a couple of weeks ago. Thanks everyone for visiting and your sweet comments!

New stash and small finish!

2009-09-01T16:32:00.002-05:00

Here's my small finish, just had to add the buttons to this one. It's a JABC freebie that you got with the purchase of the buttons.

Look at my lovely new stash, sorry for the picture, my MIL is here visiting and she has quite a few opinions on the size of my stash. Words like huge and where to put it all comes up again and again. So I snuck my envelope up to my bathroom and snapped the picture there. Isn't it lovely? There's booth the 2008 and 2009 ltd edition kits from Prairie Schooler, the 3 new santas from Mill Hill and 2 little Debbie Mumm kits from Mill Hill too.

Thank you for visiting and all your lovely comments!!

Finished Autumn Bouquet!

2009-08-21T13:35:00.005-05:00

But first a picture of the girls before they headed back to school yesterday. DS declined a photo op! Aren't they cute?

I love the the details in this piece, all the little acorns and vines.

Here's the whole design finished. I did it on 40 count Iced Cappucino from R and R and I think all the called for GAST and Weeks threads. Not very much happning here except for the school start. I did make a small start on Blackbird Designs Sunflower House but it's just border for now.

SB's Purple Snowman finish!

2009-08-12T08:44:00.002-05:00

Purple Snowman from Shepherd's Bush

I stitched it all from the kit, no changes. I had offered to stitch something for Judi for her new shop and this is what she wanted me to do. It was a real fun stitch and the best part is that I get the model when Judi's done with it! Yeah!

I'm being stalked in the afternoons. Around dinner time when I'm busy in the kitchen to be exact. The kitties know that they get their wet food when we eat dinner so they show up in the kitchen as soon as they hear pots rumbling about!

Thank you for all your sweet comments on my last post! And for visiting the blog!

July is went by in a blur!

2009-07-30T10:24:00.006-05:00

But I was able to finish this cutie! It's Blackbird Designs Summer House, I think it might be Loose Feather # 14. I used the called for fabric, and most of the called for threads. There was one that I subbed since it didn't show up well on the fabric. I loved stitching up this one. Thank you Ranae for stitching along with me!

Then I'm working on another Blackbird Designs project, Autumn Silhouette. The ladies at the Blackbird Designs Yahoo group are doing a summer SAL and this was my pick for it. I'm stitching it on R & R 40 ct Iced Cappuccino and that is a yummy fabric. My eyes hurt but it's so worth it!

And this is another almost finish. Just have to add the buttons to it. The fabric is gorgeous in real life.

My other darling daughter had her birthday too this week! The girls are just 3 weeks in July so it's always a lot of partying going here. Which is fun, I have a whole gaggle of tween girls here yesterday for a slumber party and they are all a hoot!

In between parties we have been busy. My older kids both showed their cats for the Sarpy County Fair. This is DD with Jack who took home a purple ribbon. Not bad for a stray that we found living under our grill. No microchip, no one called about him from the humane society so we decided to keep him after trying to locate his family for 6 weeks. Jack was not amused by the show and did hardly peek out of the carrier.

Oscar showed Juni, she did get blue ribbon. Evidently we have to brush her teeth since she has plaque. That will be an interesting experience.

Then we have built rockets and launched the same rockets and now their entered too. I have a little craft queen on my hand it seems. After weeding out some project DD entered 15 items! I love the crafting party but it's a pain finding all the projects scattered around the house, fluffing and fixing all the projects and the dreaded mind game of figuring out which Department, Division and Class they belong too. We did the interviewing Tuesday and Wednesday I just took a mental healt day. Lucky that everything was prepared for DD party.

Occasionally the sun shows up here and then we run down to the pool. Which is great because I have read quite a bit. I just finished up Must Love Dogs and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Pie Society. Both very enjoyable!!

Thank you for all the nice comments on my last post. I'm behind again, story of my life. The kids are going back to school in the 20th and then I don't have to wrestle 3 young uns for the computer!

Happy birtday sweetheart!

2009-07-11T08:40:00.005-05:00

My sweet baby girl turned 6 this week, she's getting so big. We threw a party for her at Build a Bear Workshop and she really loved her day. Almost all the kids from her pre school class came and her friend from the neighborhood too so we had a big party crowd. It was so much fun seeing the kids party away.

I did finish up Block 10 on Village of Hawk Run Hollow from Carriage House. I have to say that this is one big design, I need to find a huge frame for it. It's worked on 36 ct linen.

And here's where I'm at on the Summer House after Wednesday. The letters and vines work up really quick. Wednesday was a good stitching night too with DH reading to youngest DD and I was able to catch up with 4 DVR'd shows while I stitched away.

Thanks for reading and commenting on the last post. I'm off to start catching up on some blogs now. We have 2 birthday parties today and I still haven't picked up gifts so I can only roam for an hour in blog land, but this next week I should be caught up.

The most magical place on earth was fantastic!

2009-07-08T19:31:00.020-05:00

But first and foremost, here's how far I gotten on the Summer House SAL before tonights stitching frenzy. Can't wait, I haven't stitched for quite a bit now since we went away for our vacation. We really had a great time.

We flew out to Los Angeles to meet up with my husband who was at a conference there. The kids and I toured Hollywood for a bit although it was really crowded since Michael Jackson had passed away the day before we did get there. Here's DS with Jimi Hendrix's star, he's a big fan.

The kids and I in front of the famous Hollywood sign. You can see the sign vaguely up on the hill.

The day after we headed over to Universal Studio's which was just awesome. I think we did almost everything you could do there except for a couple of the shows. The new Simpsons ride was a huge hit with my whole family. The Shrek 4 D show was amazing too.

The kids got to meet Bart and Lisa even! So cool!

And we had a close shark encounter! Youngest DD was not to sure about the shark, she thought that part was kind of scary when we did the Studio Tour.

Disneyland was so much fun of course. It was a bit different then The Magic Kingdom in Disney World and we did find some new favorites there like the Matterhorn and Indiana Jones. Alice and I did take a twirl in Dumbo of course and the Pirates of Carribean was even better then I remembered it.

It was a big moment when we did get to meet Sleeping Beauty! My youngest daughter was so excited she couldn't talk!

The family as a whole enjoyed the California Wilderness park too. It had some really neat rides and was well organized. The food was so good too! We saw their parade just before we left Anaheim and it was great. Here's DS with his new Nightmare before Christmas hat!

And this is when me camera batteries died. DH had his camera though so I have plenty of pictures from the rest of our vacation. We did drive down to San Diego and visited SeaWorld and saw all their great shows. There was some frolicking at the beach involved too. The mexican food down there is yummy, and the sushi likewise. I'm on the bread and water diet now so I can zip my pants again.

Thanks for all your sweet comments on my last post. Since I have been preparing for our trip, going on it and doing laundry after our trip I haven't read or commented on any blogs lately. Can't wait to see what people have been up to lately so I have to take some time for that.

Summer days!

2009-06-15T12:00:00.005-05:00

Despite the rain and the gloomy weather I'm enjoying having the kids home. We settle into a totally different routine, and I just get to hang out with them more in between TKD lessons and various camps. I don't stitch much and my computer time is non existent since they all are into Poptropica at the moment. Look what Ranae sent me for naming her cute little bunny Winston! Isn't it great? Thank you Ranae!

Judi opened up a LNS down in Plattsmouth this weekend, For the Love of Cross Stitch and it's so cute and it's in Plattsmouths historical district with all the antique shops and a wonderful quilt shop opposite it. So Mel and I drove down there and I got SB's 2009 scissor fob and 2 more of LK's Halloween series. All customers got a kitted up freebie too! The fabric is from the quilt store.

Sorry about this bad picture, I didn't realize how bad it was before I uploaded it. With it raining all the time here for the moment it is hard to get good pictures. Anyways, it's my last car project, LHN's Faith worked on a R and R mystery fabric out of a fabric scrap bag.

And this is how far I have gotten on Summer House, I really have to get some hours in on it next Wednesday.

Thank you all for your sweet comments on my last post.

Finished block 9 of Village of Hawk Run Hollow

2009-06-02T08:01:00.006-05:00

But first, here's how far I have gotten on Summer House. Not to much but with me hanging out with my dad who was here visiting I haven't stitched in the evenings. I could have sworn that I snapped a picture of it but couldn't find it on the camera so excuse the quick scan.

And here's my block 9, I'm pretty chuffed that I'm done with it. It took me such a long time to finish up, don't know why really? I love the result at least.

So now I'm finally starting to get somewhere on this beast. Since this picture I have gotten a bit more done on Block 10. It would be great if I could finish this one this year

Dad's visit went great! We did get to do lots of things that he had on his list. He loves the Zoo, the SAC museum and we did go through the Wildlife Safari too. It's been a long time since we last did that so it was fun to see what they had changed. He also got a copious amount of shopping in, just like all other Europeans that you let loose in American stores.

This is a picture of Dad and my 2 oldest trying to spot the wolves at the safari!

Thank you for all your nice comments and just for visiting. Hopefully I will get caught up with blogs and my groups later this week. But for now I'm off for my desperately needed hair appointment. It will be a pure bliss I tell ya!

New Loose Feather's start!

2009-05-21T09:31:00.003-05:00

Ranae and I started a SAL, we are stitching Summer House from Blackbird Designs. This is my little progress. Sorry about the blurry picture, it was dark when I took it yesterday.

My dad is here for a visit. It's been crazy here in between trying to get things done before he came, lots of graduation parties and my own kids finishing up with school.

Thank you for all your sweet comments on Spring Fling!

BBD LF Spring Fling finished!

2009-05-06T16:20:00.003-05:00

Spring Fling from Blackbird Designs, Loose Feather # 13

30 ct Glen Ellyn Blend from R & R reproductions

GAST and WDW threads

I just loved stitching this one! So much fun and now I just have to find the perfect frame for next spring. Soccer season and school are almost over and I'm really looking forward to more slow going summer days. The kids are too but probably not as much as I do;).

Running around like crazy again!

2009-04-25T21:58:00.005-05:00

My husband has been gone this week so it's been kind of crazy here this week. The poor thing had to leave for a meeting at the French Rivera and I had take the kids to soccer and Tae Kwon Do on my own. The good thing is that SPRING arrived for a couple of days!! My pear tree is blooming in front of my house and the tulips too, very pretty. Then we had 45 degrees and I had to sit through 2 soccer games in light rain today. It took a bucket of tea to warm me up. I'm so behind on emails and blogs, hopefully I will get some time tomorrow, we have a light schedule tomorrow, bliss.

Easter Chicky from Lizzie Kate

On to the stitching part of my week.This should have been an easy peasy thing to stitch up but since I can't count evidently it took me quite a while.

Autumn from Drawn Thread

A very strange choice I know, but I made myself finish this one since I had it started so it didn't take long to finish it actually. I found the most perfect frames for all this series and I only have Summer left to stitch. My reward for finishing this is a new start, Spring Fling from Blackbird Designs. I think it's number 13 in their Loose Feather series.

Thank you all for visiting my blog and your sweet comments!

Driweby posting!

2009-04-14T15:46:00.004-05:00

Egghunt from Lizzie Kate

Snow form Heart in Hand

Or something like that! I just had 2 little quickie finishes to share. They were so much fun to stitch up, instant gratification is great.

It's warming up here again, the trees are ready to bud out which is wonderful. I have a Cleveland Pear by my drive way and it looks like it's going to be beautiful this year. And my allergies will calm down too.

I hope everyone out there had a blessed Easter! Thank you all for your nice comments, I appreciate all of them.

I think I might survive!!

2009-04-08T13:27:00.007-05:00

It hasn't been fun here lately! I thought that I had managed to get through the winter without getting a bad cold for once. Seems like I always get really sick with one bad cold. So I was thrilled to have gone through the whole of winter penecillin free. Yeah, so I I though until I walked into a room with sneezing, coughing, and pretty sick kids at pre school. I knew I was doomed at that moment. Even the kitty had packed her bags when I started to feel better. The level of service in the house sank quite a bit.

I did get somethings done though. I put together this needlebook for an exchange. The lady that is getting is not reading this blog so I feel that it's safe to post pictures. I'm not totally sure about this finish now when I'm back to normal but the thought was that the middle would be like a big sunflower shape. Hmmm.

Here's the front of it. I'm happier with that. It's HIH Sunflower Sampler btw.

And here's another car finish. This didn't take long at all. It's Flowers Zipper kit from Bent Creek.

I got another square done for my Carriage House Samplers Village of Hawk Run Hollow.

And here's a picture of the whole thing. Just 4 more squares to go. Yup, that will only take another year or so.

Karin over at http://crossstitchgiant.blogspot.com/ was kind enough to give me a lovely award. I have such a hard time to pick only 8 blogs that deserve this award though so I'm skipping that part. Check out Karin's blog, it's awesome.

I had 2 takers on the little snowman chart so I just flipped a coin! And Karin won! I will need your address if you could email me at kajsa@cox.net

Thank you for all your sweet comments! I will have to do some serious catching up, I feel better now so maybe it's a possibility to do that this week.

More framing and finishing!+ chart give away!

2009-03-19T11:40:00.004-05:00

I got my Nora Corbett Fairy framed! I just loved the way she looks in that frame, a bit gothic feel too it. She's not hung yet since I haven't had time to get the hardware from Michael's, the littel hooks I had at home were not sturdy enough.

This is another finish, Just Nan's September Song that I finished stitching 3-4 years ago so it was time to get it finished. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, it took me a whole afternoon to put it together so it was pretty time consuming.

Then I finished I love Snow from Bent Creek! I used everything that came with the kit since this has been my car project for several months now. It's so easy to just throw a kit in the car and then I just work on it when I'm waiting for kids.

This is the chart give away! Nothing fancy but if you want the used chart let me know in the comments and I will get it out to you. If there's more then 1 taker I will just draw a name before I post again.

Emma was playing around with the camera and she took this picture of our kitty relaxing. They like hanging out together.

Thank you so much for your sweet comments on my last post. I really appreciate all of them!!

DH has been travelling so much lately that it feels like I'm slowly losing it here. I never go to bed before 10 pm but some evenings I've been up there at 9 pm. It's been totally exhausting and it seriously have been affecting my stitching too. Hopefully he will be home for a while now so I can recuperate for a while!

Ta da! Sweetheart Sampler finished!

2009-03-04T09:57:00.008-06:00

Sweetheart Sampler LF # 12 Blackbird Designs
R & R 30 ct Kansas City Blend
GAST Threads

Here's finally the promised picture of my Sweetheart Sampler. I have had some things that I had to take care of that took up my time a bit more then expected. This was a pure joy to stitch up though. It's so pretty in real life.

I'm so happy that I have projects like this to work on at the end of the day. It gives me so much peace when I'm dealing with hard things.

Their song from Blackbird designs framed!

I love this frame that I found for this piece. It looks a bit crooked in the picture but when I'm measuring it it seems like I was able to center it smack on. One of those optical illusions I guess.

Fa -La -La from Shepherd's Bush finished!

I finished this cutie into an ornament. It's so small and dainty.

Bird from Birds of a Feather, JCS Ornament issue.

I can't remember which year they did this bird for the ornament issue. Maybe it was 2002?

Winter Angel from Lavender and Lace WIP picture.

This is how far I got on that Angel before I picked up the Sweetheart Sampler. I messed up when stitching with the whisper thread so alas, she and I needed a bit of a break.

Pillows for DD's bed!
I did do some sewing too. DD wanted some big colorful, flowery pillows for her bed so I pulled out my old Husqvarna sewing machine. In my opinion the one on the right turned out so much better then the one on the left. I'm no seamstress as you can see!

At the moment I'm working on doing some finishing along side my stitching. I have so many things that I love that I have stitched up and I just have to take the time to do the actual finishing. It's usually much more fun then I think it will be when I start.

Thank you so much for your lovely comments!

Dani - I think it's ITF that we do. All the kids love it so it's great. I'm hoping it will help my oldest daughter with her self confidence too.

Linzi - I never stitch anything more then once so I'm open to selling or trading.

About fabrics and counts, I have to confess, I love linen and lugana. Don't know why but they really feels right when I stitch on them. If you are a beginner and want to switch over from aida I would recommend trying out a couple of evenweaves first. Lugana is an evenweave and to me it's not as slinky and soft as some other evenweaves.

But as with everything else it's a matter of what you personally like so try a couple of different brands out and you will find your favorite!

Sorry for the long post! I will be back with more pictures of finishes soon and hopefully the finished Block # 8 of Village of Hawk Run Hollow.

Time really flies!

2009-02-12T07:50:00.005-06:00

Fa-La-La from Shepherd's Bush

Bird House Snow Charmer from Mill Hill

WIP Winter Angel from Lavender and Lace

And not only when you are having fun! We'll I have had some fun but it's been busy mostly. January and February are always like that in this house because my sweetie is travelling so much those months. There's a 2 week long standard meeting this month so at the moment it feels like I'm a single mom. Seriously, I don't know how those ladies do it and I'm in awe of you girls! Give yourself a pat on the back.

Most single moms probably didn't sign up all her 3 kids for Tae Kwon Do (because you ladies are probably smarter than that), kind of realizing that they would all have to go to different classes (2 classes min. per week) and thought that the driving back and forth wouldn't be so bad. The kids love it but this driving thing is getting old.

Thank you so much for your lovely comments on my last finishes. I do appreciate them so much!

I have been good and are already in the process of framing Their song from BBD. I should be done with it this weekend I hope and will snap a picture to share. Lately I have been in a finishing state of mind so next post will probably be picture heavy. Makes me feel good though, I'm usually not a finisher since I like the stitching part better.

But for this time I just have an update picture of Winter Angel, Fa- La - La and a small ornament from Mill Hill.

I started stitching on Loose Feather # 12 Sweetheart Sampler and Faith from LHN and they are both so much fun. Update pictures will come this weekend too!!

Thanks for visiting!

January is upon us!

2009-01-21T10:13:00.003-06:00

Their song LF Blackbird Designs
WDW, Sampler Threads
R & R linen

And it never fails, there's always lots of sick people in this house in January. I think the bacteria is just festering at the schools when it's so cold that the kids can't even get out and get aired out at recess. So far we have a bad cold and my youngest got a bad stomach flu.

So I can't wait until the warm weather comes back! I will get one of my latest finishes framed so I can pull it out this summer. At least working on this one gave me some hope, I know that I will be sitting under the ceiling fan thinking fondly of winter soon again;>.

Let us be Thankful from Bent Creek
WDW and Sampler threads
32 ct Mocha linen

I finally gave up on getting a better picture of this finish too. The turkeys are really cute close up but I with the sun giving up on us and it being gloomy and snowy all the time a close up will just not happen.

Thank you so much for all the nice comments! I really appreciate all of them. Marika, I got your address and will get the patterns out to you. Don't worry about sending anything.

Well, I guess that my constant companion, the laundry is waiting for me.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-10T15:32:00.004-06:00

Ho Ho Ho from Pine Mountain Design

I know that it's already the 10th but we had so much going on during our break that it took me this long to post again.

Thank you so much for all your sweet comments on my little fairy. I really do appreciate them!!

The kids are back in school and I'm back to dealing with my laundry mountain (it never seems to go away, it's my worst enemy). I would have so much more time over for stitching and doing fun things with the kids if I didn't have to do laundry.

Since I started going through my stash I do realize that I HAVE to get some more stitching time too. Just some advice, don't start going through the stash! The end result of me going through mine was that I didn't get anything on the end of the year sales and now I kind of regret it. Maybe I need to go through that stash again to remind myself why;>?

I did finish up some small Christmas kits from Pine Mountain Designs, Ho Ho Ho and Keep Christmas. It was nice to work on something small and I got some more Christmas stuff to put out next year.

Keep Christmas from Pine Mountain Designs

If anyone out there would be interested in the charts for these little pillows let me know in the comments! I would be happy to pass them on.

Winter Angel from Lavender and Lace start.

And here's a picture of my New Years start with the STO group. I have to work on her some more this afternoon. Can't wait to get some purple into the mix.

Christmas time!

2008-12-18T19:42:00.003-06:00

Halloween Fairy from CSN Sept 2008 issue

Designer Nora Corbett/Mirabilia

DMC, Kreinik Braids, Mill Hill beads

32 ct Sandpiper BOAF linen

I finished this design a couple of weeks ago but I just have been to busy to post on the blog. In between cookie baking, present wrapping and the dreaded shopping I have been so worn out in the evenings that I have just stitched. Pretty nice actually and I have quite a few finishes!

I will try to snap some pictures tomorrow, it should be good lighting inside after our snowstorm that is going to move through during the night. The kids might even get a snowday the last day of school this year. Bummer with all the winter parties that are planned!!

At our STO group we are all going to start something new on New Years Day. I have been digging through the stash and I think I will start Lavender and Lace's Winter Angel. I think that I stitched one of her designs about 8 years ago and then I got distracted by other designers. This angel has always been one of my favorites and I can't wait to start another big project.

2008-11-25T19:58:00.002-06:00

I was able to finish block 7 of Villages of Hawk Run Hollow last Friday. I'm really excited since this one took me a long time. It was worth it though.

I hope everyone out there will have a great Thanksgiving! We are just having the dinner here with the family, I'm really looking forward to it.

Thanks for the nice comments on my stitching and Juni!

I love Halloween!

2008-11-19T13:04:00.008-06:00

And we try to get to Vala's each year, it's the biggest pumpkin patch in Omaha. We had fun and the kids discovered the pig races this year. The kids are always hanging out in the pirate's nest for a bit, hence the picture!

I got this lovely exchange from Cheryl! I just love everything! Thank you Cheryl! There was a stitched scissor fob and scissor, some Threadgatherer silks and cute, cute note cards.

We got a new family member a couple of weeks ago. I don't really know what breed she is but Carol thought she might have some Maine Coon and persian in her. She's a real fluff ball at least, but the shedding isn't too bad. We adopted her from a small rescue here in Omaha, Lifeline (will change name to Heartlands Feline rescue) and it was a real good experience. Tammy seems to know her cats really well and found us a couple that would fit in with our family. And it has gone really well, she's a very good cat!

And each year I try to stitch something for Halloween, this year it was Funk and Webers Dead in the night. I really like it, haven't decided how to finish it yet. Sometimes projects have to mature a bit;). I also have to put the last bead on my fairy so I'm hoping to update with pictures of that soon.

I'm going to rush the holidays in today and start putting out some Christmas decorations outside. Just some garlands and wreaths, I might do the lights later. It's really cold here and I think it will be as nice as it will get until Thanksgiving so I'm taking the oppertunity to do it in some nice weather. Last year I almost froze my hiney off!

We got another family member a few weeks ago.

Finishes!

2008-10-23T12:40:00.005-05:00

BOAF Christmas bird ornament from JCS 1999 ornie issue
WDW and Mill Hill beads
32 ct putty linen

Thanksgiving NR from Shepherd's Bush

Prairie Seasons winter from Prairie Schooler

WDW and DMC

32 ct Country French Mocha

I just wanted to share some pictures of my latest finishes. The bird looks a bit funny but you are supposed to fold it over and finish it to a bird shape. DS thought it was a fish and really, it looks like someone ran over that poor thing. I see a date with my sewing machine in my future.

Everything is well here, just a lot of things that are going on. Mostly fun so I'm happy.

Thank you for visiting and all your lovely comments!

Wonderful retreat!

2008-10-08T11:47:00.003-05:00

It was so great to go to the STO retreat this weekend and meet up with my online stitching friends!

Some of these ladies I have known for 6-7 years and never met in real life so it was so neat to finally meet them. Lavon was just as I imagined her!

We worked on 3 great projects, I started Mar's from Midnight Stitchings Friendship Sampler and I got just a corner of Stephanie's from Nouveau Encore's purse done but with those colors and fabric I will certainly get to it.

I did get another start, Nora Corbett's Trick or Treat Fairy. I'm adding a scan of her!

We did quite a bit of stitching and I got really inspired by some of the shop models I saw. Some of those designs I would have never gotten until I saw the models.

Retreat and awards!!

2008-08-28T08:29:00.002-05:00

Snowflake Hardanger Bellpull - my own design

I added a link on my side bar to the retreat that I'm helping out planning down in Kansas City in October. It starts on October 2nd and runs through the weekend. I'm teaching the Snowflake Hardanger Bellpull, it's a beginners hardanger class. Stephanie from Noveau Encore has designed a piece for us and are teaching a class and Mar from Midnight Stitching also has designed an exclusive piece for us that she will teach. I got a picture the other day and it's darling.

It's a really affordable retreat (can't rememer if it was $ 125 or $ 150 plus cost of hotelroom and that includes kits, classes, food etc) so check out the link in my sidebar. We still have a couple of spots open so let me know if you would be interested in coming. It would be so much fun to get together!

Kathy over at http://purplewildcat.blogspot.com was kind enough to give me 2 awards. Thank you Kathy, you are so sweet!

I have been wrecking my brain over whom to pass this on too and I just couldn't decide. So I did a real clean up of my sidebar. All the blogs that I read and love are there now and they are all worthy of these awards. Check them out, you will have a fun time reading them!

Otherwise it feels like life is going ahead 120 miles per hour here. The kids have started school so my hand is hurting from writing all the checks for food, pictures, booster clubs, book clubs etc. At least it calms down after mid September after the fundraisers are done. Our school is doing a walk a thon too and I'm helping out with getting food donated from businesses.

Then I'm trying to get items donated to the STO Retreat in October. I have sent out letters to stores that I have bought from in the past and I got my first envelope yesterday! Carolyn from Village Mountain Stitchery had donated a bunch of stitching magazines, charts and kits. She's always been a sweetheart when I have dealt with her in the past too. These things will be perfect for door prizes.

I also got a new car!! That's a big deal in my house! I drove my old one for 10 1/2 year so it was just time to get a new one before we ended up with a BIG repair bill. Neither my DH nor I are big car people and with a new house and 3 kids and me being at home we try to drive our vehicles a long time to get the most out of them financially.

The one that we ended up getting was 2008 Honda Odyssey and it's really nice. I even have heated seats in it so that will be great this winter when I drive the kids to school. Those cold winter mornings are the worst, at least my butt will be warm and cozy now!

Stitching wise I'm plugging away on Villages of Hawk run Hollow most of the time. I'm really having fun with it now and I have almost hit the halfway mark. Edgar from Blacksheeps Bit of the Web really inspired me to get it out again, his is so pretty .

Thank you for all the nice comments on my last post! Sally, I do have all the Loose Feathers actually and Rites of Spring is one of them. I'm thinking about pulling out one of the older fall designs though before I start Rites.

I finished some projects!

2008-08-04T09:38:00.004-05:00

The Violet Sampler - The Drawn Thread

Close up!

A Loose Feather Design from Black Bird Designs

I finished a couple of things before we left on vacation. This week has been busy with 4 H things. The kids did good on the fair though, DS won the shooting contest in his class and snagged a couple of purple ribbons for his canned tomatoes, and pj pants. DD is going to state with her healty recipe book. So they were both happy! Can't say that we put a lot of time and effort in this summer since we were gone but maybe we can do more next summer.

It's super hot here, yesterday I sat inside and stitched away on CHS Village of Hawk Run Hollow. I started square five! With 100 degrees outside stitching under the fan is pretty great!

We are back in the country!

2008-07-29T12:38:00.006-05:00

DD with her win!

Marstrand and Carlsten's fort

Midsummer

On the burial hill

After 5 1/2 week in Sweden visting family and friends. As always it's hard to get over the jet lag and trying to catch up with the dust rats and the jungle, ahem, garden I mean.

We had a great time!! It rained a lot of course but we ended up doing lots of other fun things so I guess the weather didn't matter to much. And in Sweden you kind of have to expect bad weather in the summers some years.

Here's some pictures!

2008-07-29T10:43:00.002-05:00

Thank you Milly for nominating me for this award! That was so sweet of you especially since I have been gone for such a long time. Check out Milly's blog at

http://stitchingobsessionii.blogspot.com/

She's a super quick stitcher who does beautiful work.

I would like to pass this award along to 5 very talented ladies whose blogs I do really enjoy reading, Kath at http://sheepiegirl.blogspot.com Marika at http://loviisa95.vuodatus.net/ Kathy at http://dragonxser.wordpress.com/ Deb at http://lavenroseramblings.blogspot.com/ and Barbara at http://mainelystitching.wordpress.com/ You ladies all inspire me!

I can't understand why the link section is acting up for me now and then, at least it's working this time but something is wonky.

Summer is here!

2008-06-16T06:22:00.006-05:00

Primrose Path/Just Nan

Live Simply/Shepherd's Bush

Be Thankful/Shepherd's Bush

Scatter Eggs/Shepherd's Bush

Spring has come/Prairie Schooler

Finally after that cold spring. For us it means a lot of storms too though, the whole family has spent a lot of time in the basement the last few weeks. I'm grateful that the tornado siren somehow is aimed straight at our bedroom window so it's easy to hear despite hard storms.

My heart goes out to the families of the scouts that got killed last Wednesday in Little Sioux. The same storm system passed by us and that was an awful storm.

A lot of things has been going on here with the kids and I have been working on the house quite a bit. Nothing that is really fun to write about though. I felt that I had to get things in order for my trip home this summer.

The kids and I are leaving later today, my DH is pouting around, I think he feels a bit deserted! We are not coming back until July so hopefully he will make do. When he was younge he always looked forward to some bachelor time but it seems like he's missing us more and more and not even unlimited golf time can make up for it.

Here's some of my smaller finishes. I did finish up some big projects too but it's not easy to take a half way decen picture when it's raining a lot.

Have a great summer everyone!

I'm still alive!

2008-05-12T10:05:00.003-05:00

Valentine Holiday from BOAF

Checkered Pumpkins kit from Mill Hill

"Sorry about not posting lately, it's been a dismal winter here and I just haven't been in the mood for blogging and I haven't been good with my groups either."

"But I'm finally starting to feel a bit more energetic, the sun is shining and we are finally getting warmer temperatures. When I drove out to the gym the other day the big black cows in the pasture I pass by was literally skipping. After a winter with frosty backs I would have too!"

"My garden is just beautiful, the irises and tulips are surpassing themselves and I just lost about 4 plants to the cold which is great. My DH is out mowing now and it's like a jungle out there despite me mowing the lawn last week. The only bad thing with this weather is my allergies, I can feel them when the leaves are opening up but I think the worst is over."

"DH has been travelling quite a bit this year, he's been in Israel, Mexico, South Korea and South Africa since January. It really bums me when he's gone 2 weekends on these trips due to the long travelling time. This is the first time he's actually taken a day off after a trip and I think he needs to do that more often. It takes time to get back into swing after a long trip and jet lag."

'We did get the last room (dining room) on the main floor painted though and it's just touch ups left for me to do there. I even hung the curtains last Friday so now we are ready for the new dining room set to arrive. We are really excited since we have never had dining room before and we love our dinners and sit and talk for hours afterwards sometimes."

"I have gotten some stitching done, the pictures above is of Valentine Holiday from BOAF that I stitched over one on a red piece of fabric sweet Becky sent me! I ended up changing lots of colors so the designs would show up better on the fabric. And then there's a small kit from Mill Hill, it was supposed to go on perforated paper but I used some 28 ct cashel instead."

" There's some other projects laying around that I have to take pictures of too, like my Violet Sampler from DT and a PS Sampler but I haven't been organized enough to do that. When I have time over (which has been sparse) I have just collapsed on the couch to stitch."

"Is anyone else out there watching The Tudors on Showtime? It's just getting better and better, can't wait until fall."

More finishes!

2008-02-06T08:33:00.000-06:00

Lizzie Kate ornament from 2007 JCS ornament issue

Brew from Shepherd's Bush

Village of Hawk Run Hollow Block 2 CHS

Zipper kit from Bent Creek

Just a quick little stitching picture update. It's been really busy with the kids here lately, some good things and some bad things has happened and I'm busy with both the older kids. At least I'm still gettting some stitching done.

Sorry about the awful update picture of VOHRH! I just wanted to put it in so I can remember how many blocks I was at this month. I have to get the camera back from DH after all his traveling.

Dang, it's cold here to and last night we got another snowstorm. I'm so tired of sliding around on ice patches and slush in my van. The kids were hoping for a snow day but that didn't happen, I think that they are saving them for even worse storms, we are getting six more weeks of winter I hear.

Stitching a plenty

2008-01-20T10:27:00.000-06:00

Violet from Country Cottage Needleworks

Quaker Christmas from Midnight Stitching

Blue Ridge Santa ? from Mill Hill

Here's another update with stitching pictures. I really enjoy my stitching at the moment, it's perfect stitching weather here. Cold and snowy, so it's nice to just stay in and stitch with a cup of tea. Yesterday it was 0 degrees Fahrenheit when we took Emma to her basket ball game, brrr.

Today it's snowing again, big fluffy snowflakes are falling and it's so pretty! I'm stitching on Bent Creeks Winter Row so it's perfect for this time of year.

I've been so bad lately, I ordered a bunch of Sugar Maple fabrics from a lady that was selling them on the Mirabilia board. Can't wait to get them, I have never used their fabrics before. Then San Man Originals had some really cute charts in their latest news letter. They were all Valentine ones so I ordered 4 of them.

Then my latest order from Stitching Bits and Bobs came. I ordered before Christmas as a Christmas gift to myself, I never get stitching stuff for Christmas otherwise. It took a real long time for it to get here this time though so it's almost a birthday gift now. But I know that they take their time so I never get anything I need quick from them. Their sales are really good so it's worth the wait.

I got Mirabilia's Thanksgiving Fairy kit, Rose from CCN, Acorn's a Plenty and Harvest Birds from Praiseworthy Stitches and Pumpkin Patch, Cranberry Christmas, Button up from PS. Very nice haul in my opinion. The Mirabilia Fairy has fantastic colors in it, yummy!

It was nice to get some new pretty stash, don't know when I will get around to stitching it, I'm just fondling at the moment.

Country Cottage Needleworks just released 2 more charts I have to have, Cherry Hill and Cottage Garden, can't wait until I can get my hands on them.

Thank you for your kind comments! I thought I would be forgotten after being absent for such a long time. I have tried to read blogs more often this week but DH has been home all week with shingles, so that has taken some of my time (ok, a whole lot of it). Seems like he's doing a bit better today but it seems to be one of those things that do drag on a while. He's hoping that he will be well enough to get to his meeting in Mexico later this week. I don't blame him with this weather, 77 to 79 degrees sounds lovely to me too!

Hopefully I'm back!

2008-01-13T11:03:00.000-06:00

Village of Hawk Run Hollow Block 1 Carriage House Sampling

Two penny Scissor Fob from Indigo Rose

We have been so sick here lately. With Christmas too I haven't had the time and energy to update my blog even. For a while I didn't even stitch which is unusual for me.

I have picked it up again though and I have lots of pictures that I need to upload this week.

First I finished the first block of the Village and by now the second block is finished too. The other picture is of the scissor fob I stitched for the Stitching Bloggers Birthday/Christmas exchange. My photo did not turn out that well but it looked just like the one on the kit so I uploaded that one. I got a cute little Gingher scissor and some aida for Barbara too. According to the delivery confirmation she did get the package before Christmas, I hope she liked it!

My exchange partner did not send out anything, she hasn't blogged since March so she probably forgot about this.

I will keep this short since DS is off to an archery camp this afternoon and I'm still putting things together for him before we take off.

Another finish!

2007-12-04T07:53:00.000-06:00

Awake the Dawning Day - Black Bird Designs

Thank you all for your sweet comments on Sampler Gameboard and my SIL! I really appreciate all of them.

I have been reading a lot lately so I haven't gotten that much stitching in but I was able to finish the Loose Feather from BBD above. It was really fun to stitch it. Sorry about the picture, we had some ice rain and really cold weather here and I just didn't want to go outside to take the picture.

The other finish I had was for an exchange, I have to stitch it for myself too since i just love it. Usually I don't have a hard time sending things off but it will be hard this time. I'll share a picture after Christmas since I know that the recipient reads my blog!

We are starting to get into the Christmas mood here. The tree is up and I have decorated, it's so pretty when I come up in the morning. Or festive rather, we only have one tree and it's full of the kids ornaments.

Some finishes!

2007-11-24T12:00:00.001-06:00

Sampler Gameboard from The Drawn Thread

Give Thanks from Shepherd's Bush

I hope all my American friends out there has had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend and that it will continue to be so!

We had some friends over and my husband smoked a fresh turkey on the grill. It turned out really well and we are still munching on it. I didn't brave the crowds out shopping on Black Friday and to my disappointment I didn't find any good sales on any ONS either. Usually I splurge a bit but not this year.

The kids are getting bigger so they want very specific things and I don't buy as many toys anymore. American Girl and Nintendo is usually getting most of my business, and since I don't have to haul home as much I'm really liking it.

We did go out for dinner yesterday to our favorite french restaurant here in town. It was 18 years since our engagement this week so that was our excuse. Wonderful dinner and it was nice to get out.

My SIL is doing really well since her surgery and all the test results came back with great news. They don't have to do another surgery and she don't even have to do chemo since they got all of it out and it was a fast growing tumor but not very malignent. That was a huge relief!! She says that her skull feels a bit like a cracked egg but it's healing good. I don't know how long time it takes for bone to fuse together on an adult, for a child it's usually 6 weeks so I think she's hoping to start work again after Christmas.

I have gotten some stitching done lately, I have to take some more pictures and scan some progresses. My biggest accomplishment is finishing up The Sampler Gameboard from Drawn Thread and I also finished a small Thanksgiving piece from Shepherd's Bush, Give Thanks. I really need some more turkeys to have out after the Halloween decorations go down.

And I have also finished the first square on Villages of Hawk Run Hollow, I really need to scan that. When I started the second square I discovered that I was missing a thread so I have to get that one before I can pick it up again.

Thank you for all the nice comments on Eek and the well wishes for my SIL's surgery. It's just been very hard for me to find time to comment and post this fall. With my son starting middle school and getting him adjusted (he's doing great with straight A's now) it's been a struggle especially since my husband has been in both Japan and France this November and October. I fall so behind when he's gone since I have to keep up with everything.

Time for a tiny update!

2007-10-22T20:44:00.000-05:00

Eek from Shepherd's Bush

Thank you all for your lovely comments on St Basil's. I appreciate them so much! I don't get to share my stitching with many people around here so it's so much fun to get feedback from fellow stitchers.

My camera is somewhere in the house, don't really know where though so I just scanned this little bag from Shepherd's Bush. My husband is putting the finishing touches on our home theatre (yeah) and is taking a lot of pictures to share on his groups at the moment. So I do find the camera in surprising places at the moment. The tool bag, under some Cd's and tonight not at all. Sorry for the awful scan but at least there's some proof that I have been stitching.

I have also desperately been stitching on my Gameboard Sampler from Drawn Thread. I really want to finish it up soon so I can give some more attention to the Village of Hawk Run Hollow SAL that I just joined. It is going to be so much fun but I usually work better when I have one huge project on the go. Just 14 more squares to do on the Gameboard so I should be done in a weeks time (I hope).

Squazi nominated me for the You make me smile award! Thank you so much, that really cheered me up. I really have to say that I can't pick only 10 people that make me smile, I really feel that every stitching blogger have made me smile in some way over the years. So I guess that I'm passing this on to all of you!

Sorry that I have been so quite lately. I have been in a really weird mood lately and sometimes when you don't have anything nice to say it's better to sit in corner and wait it out!

My SIL is going to undergo some major surgery tomorrow. She has a tumor in her forehead and they have to go in and remove it. It's pretty awful, she's just 40 years old and have 2 small kids.

The good thing is that she went in for a full check up due to family health history and that's when they found the tumor. Usually when the symptoms for this shows up it's to late so she (and us who love her) are really blessed that they found it early.

St Basil's is finished and framed!

2007-10-05T15:52:00.000-05:00

St Basil's Cathedral from Dimples Designs

And it has already left my house! I gave it to Melanie a couple of weeks ago. She had been travelling for her 5oth birthday so she got it a bit late. I think she really loved it, she had been commenting on this design a couple of times but has always said that she thought it was to hard for her to stitch herself.

It was really a fun design to stitch and the colors are so beautiful. I think Terrence did a great job picking them out.

Otherwise I'm trying to recuperate after my MIL and FIL's visit. They were here for 15 days and especially my MIL kept me busy. She loves the shopping here so we so spend a lot of times in stores. I don't know what it is but I just don't get any time for myself or the house when they are here. So yesterday when they left I sat down and stitched for 2 hours and it felt so good. My messy house I can deal with this weekend.

Thank you for all your nice comments, I do appreciate all of them. I'm hoping to catch up on my groups and blog reading now when I have the house back to myself!

Conquered the scanner!

2007-09-18T07:02:00.000-05:00

Halloween ornaments from Helga Mandl

I must have not used the scanner for quite a while! Evidently I have to scan in a totally new way with Vista. At least I know how to now and it was not to bad but not quite logical in my book.

Here's my Halloween ornaments, they are really cute and I'm thinking about finishing them into biscornu's.

What a bummer!

2007-09-16T16:42:00.000-05:00

I had actually finished a couple of Halloween ornaments that I was scanning but I have lost the connection with my scanner. It's probably something really silly, I just have to figure out what's going on. Lucky that I married a computer engineer but he's busy aeriating the lawn at the moment.

This last week I really have fallen behind on reading blogs, I just tried to start catching up now. We have had some issues with my middle schooler. It's just amazing what stupid things kids can do. He's not in big trouble but we have to work on some bad habits he has.

My in laws are coming this week to so hopefully I will get those pictures posted before they arrive. I don't get any time for myself when they are here. It's fun but super busy. My MIL is like that pink bunny in the commercials, she goes and goes.

Thank you for all your wonderful comments on my finishes. I really do appreciate them!!

Busy, busy!

2007-08-30T08:39:00.000-05:00

My needlebook for Barbara

With the ribbons tied

My second try to make a stand up - chart from Workbasket

Just Nan Bellpull!

It feels like forever since I posted here and I guess it really is. It's been so busy here and I have felt a bit overwhelmed at times.

The kids did go back to school last week and we have gone to open houses and met teachers and picked up things that we didn't know we needed for middle school. It's always a learning progress on what you need and don't need it seems like.

My DS is playing baritone (bass cleft) for band so I rented one of those. That thing is huge, almost bigger then he is and he has to drag it in to school 2 - 3 times per week. Lucky that he's playing around with my weights all the time so he at least have some muscle. We'll see how it goes, hopefully he will like it but I wouldn't cry if they switched him over to another instrument.

We did a lot of swimming at the end of summer, spent all day out in the sun and then every evening it seemed like the storms rolled in. When I walk around in the yard it feels like I'm going to sink through the lawn, that's how wet it is. It has meant a lot less computer time for me since this new computer seems to be a bit more sensitive to power surges and power failures. So now I just turn it off when I can hear thunder so DH don't have to work on it again after every storm.

I did get my St Basil's finished. It's washed and drying now so I don't have a picture. I did pick up a frame for it at Hobby Lobby last weeks so it would be great if I had time to frame it this weekend.

But I have som pictures to share. I did send off my Birthday Exchange to Barbara http://www.mystitchingtreasures.blogspot.com/ . I did send a needlebook, I took part of one of Prairie Schoolers Garden Samplers and stitched it over one on some linen banding. Barbara said that she liked it and the other goodies so I'm thrilled. Don't know but I'm always so worried that the receiver won't like what I send so it's a relief when they do!

I also have some finish finishes to share. A Just Nan bellpull and the Quacker rabbit from the Workbasket. My standup's are not perfect but this one was better then my first one.

Thank you all for your nice comments on the needlerolls, I treasure all of them!

Needleroll exchange!

2007-08-08T12:57:00.000-05:00

Andrea's needleroll for me!

My needleroll for Judith!

I joined in the needleroll exchange for the Friends Gather board and was lucky enough to get Judith's name. Since Judith is an avid quilter it wasn't hard to pick out a theme, that's usually that part that I have a problem with. I did stitch one of Marilyn Leavitt- Imblum's amish quilters for Judith and added some fabric. It arrived safely in Holland so I'm happy.

Then I got my needleroll from Andrea in today's mail. It really is gorgeous! I wish that you all could see how it sparkles! Andrea had added some yummy finishing fabric and some CC's threads.

Thank you Andrea, I will really treasure the needleroll!

We were in Kansas City last week because DH and DS went to a concert down there. We did go to a lot of nice restaurants down there including Fiorella's Jack Stack, that was yummy. The kids wanted to go to Ocean's of Fun which turned out to be a real nice day and I was even able to go to CC's and do some shopping.

I didn't pick up a lot but I found some goodies from BOAF and Valerie Pfeiffer's Three little maids.

Then when we came back we did do the Sarpy County Fair since my kid's had their projects entered there. Both of them got 2 purple ribbons and Oscar's rocket is going to State Fair.

So they were really excited.

I'm posting off another exchange today so I'm hoping I can share that with you soon!

Thank you all for visiting my blog and all the nice comments on my finishes. I really appreciate all of them. The kids only have 2 more weeks of summer vacation left, I will have more time for blogging and blog reading then, I'm really looking forward to that!

Just another finish finish!

2007-07-28T23:26:00.001-05:00

Poor Jack from BOAF

DD stitching!

I have snuck out here since I couldn't take more of Mel Gibson's Apocalypto. There's just so much misery and gore that I can take and after 45 minutes I had had enough.

Just wanted to post another finished finish this week, Poor Jack from Birds of a Feather. I think I have to put some new batteries in the camera, it's hard to get it to focus. I also added a picture of my DD getting ready for her 4 H stitching class. All went well, the kids were well behaved and seemed to enjoy it!

Otherwise we have mostly prepped for fair this week and the kids have had a few play dates and I even had time to have lunch with Mel. The basement is getting close to being finished. The carpets are going in on Monday.

Finally a finish!

2007-07-22T09:23:00.001-05:00

Sit a spell from Pine Mountain Designs

At least a finish that I can share that is! It has taken me this long to get everything working on the new computer but now I can upload pictures again and the scanner should be working too!

I did finish 2 more things this week for 2 different exchanges so I'm not posting those pictures now. The finishing is done on one of them and I have to finish the other one into a needle book. Shouldn't be to bad, I'm doing the finishing on a couple of other things at the same time.

It's so busy here with the kids being home from school and we are still working on the basement. There's always so much to pick out or buy for the basement but I'm starting to see the end of it. I'll just grab some towel bars and such things for the bathroom tomorrow and then I should be done. If I do that they are nice enough to put it up for us so that saves Anders some time.

No, I'm not getting a craft room but I'm going to store quite a bit of my crafts in the guestroom! I will probably get a room of my own when the kids start to move out but I don't complain, we have lots of space that I'm using for my projects.

The kids are just home for 4 1/2 more weeks, in our school district they are getting 13 weeks of in the summer and I think that they won't be sad to go back to school this year. We have had the cousins here and they have been busy with their camps and other fun stuff but they miss buddies from school too. I don't mind having them home (we are doing lots of fun stuff together) but I can really notice that my yahoo groups are suffering, I don't have time to read and comment on blogs much and I'm not posting as much as I would like.

Thank you for all your nice comments, I'm just thrilled that someone still stops by here since I'm not updating as often.

The rest of my day is pretty busy too but with fun stuff! I'm doing finishing, I promised Emma that I was going to make a bracelet and necklace with her so she can enter it in the fair and I'm prepping the cross stitch class that I'm doing with our 4 H troop. I have 12 kids signed up and a couple of ladies from the EGA is coming to help out so that will be so much fun!

I'm hoping to post some of my finishing finishes later this week.

Hopefully we have fixed the computer!

2007-07-12T14:46:00.000-05:00

Future guest room

Wetbar plus bathroom

Drywalling and mudding in process (my least favorite)

Before the walls went up

What we started with!

Or rather, hopefully Anders has fixed it! I can't say that I contributed to much!

I don't have much to show in the way of stitching. I tried to take a decent picture of my Pine Mountain pillow but I think I have to wait until it's not overcast outside. The other 2 pieces I have worked on are for exchanges, I haven't decided if I should post them or not here. There's not that much chance that my exchange partners are reading my blog but you never know.

Our company left early this week, we all had a great time together and everyone did get along great the whole time, even the kids. We did some touristy things here in Omaha and they did shop quite a bit. Everything is so much cheaper here compared to Sweden.

The basement is starting to look like it's actually going to be finished, maybe even this month! It's been taking so much longer time then we all thought but hopefully it's just 3 more weeks left and then I will get my house back. It will be awesome to not have people in the house at all hours and work around their schedule so they can get in.

So since I don't have any stitching to share I will post some basement pictures!

Oops, that went in in the wrong order! We are doing a guest room, bathroom, home theatre for DH and the rest is a rec room with a wet bar. And we have some storage to of course.

My computer died!

2007-06-29T08:03:00.000-05:00

And it's still not fixed! It's not the first priority here with my in laws visiting, the boys in the basement are still at it full time, and we have a new entertainment center to put up and get up running. It's not easy when you are married to a computer engineer who has to put a computer in there with the dvd and cable box just because he ha can record on HD with it.

I have a feeling this will take the whole weekend.

But my SIL is in Kansas visiting relatives a couple of days, my BIL is up in Minnesota for a free lance job on swedish sister cities in the US at the same time. They are all coming back Monday which gives me some time for myself.

I have one finish that I would love to share but I don't want to down load my pictures into Anders computer so that have to wait. It's Pine Mountain Designs Sit a spell that I stitched on during swimming lessons.

And I have started the exchange piece for the Birthday Blogger club. It's turning out ok but it's going slow since I'm stitching over one.

Well, DH is standing behind me waiting for his computer. I hope to be back soon!

I'm still here!

2007-06-18T07:51:00.000-05:00

St Basil's Cathedral - Dimples Designs

Not that I have been very active on my yahoo groups or in the blogging world lately! I still try to check out blogs and admire finishes or progress rapports now and then but it's so darn busy here.

The basement is progressing slowly. They are mudding the walls this week and then I think the cabinets are going in next week since they should be ready by next Tuesday. This has taken much longer then I thought it would. At least Alice is getting better with the noises now. We try to carry her down in the basement to show her that it's ok and it's just the guys working down there.

Bernie the painter is coming in next Monday to paint our entrance and the kids bathroom. I've been waiting for him a couple of months now so it will be nice to have it done.

My BIL and SIL and their two kids are coming tomorrow. We did decide on finishing the basement because they were going to come and stay with us for 3 weeks. Evidently the basement is not done so we have to work our way around that.

It will be fine, we are all pretty laid back. The toughest day will be when Bernie is painting but he's coming early and won't leave until it's done so it's just one day. My BIL is leaving for Minnesota that day too to write a travelling article on Swedish towns up there. I think my SIL is going down to Kansas to see relatives too during that time so it won't be for 3 full weeks that they are staying here.

At least the kids daily swimming lessons are over now so I will try to pick up and get everything ready. It's been hard to get anything done the last few weeks since we have been so busy with play dates, swimming and we have done a lot of 4 H activities.

I got some really sad news yesterday. One of my girlfriends husband died yesterday morning of a heart attack. He was just 48 years old, they have 3 kids 5, 7 and 9 years old. Their oldest son is autistic so he's special needs. We got the news yesterday, I haven't event talked to her yet since I didn't want her phone line to be busy so she could talk to relatives. If this happened to me I would like to have my family around me as soon as possible.

It's really hard to realize that I won't see Rolf again. They moved away a couple of years ago but we still have some contact. When they lived in Omaha Judy and I were quite close and I know that she is devastated since they were very devoted to each other. I think it will take a couple of days for this to really sink in, at the moment I think we are still in shock.

I'm slowly making progress on St Basils. I'm going to finish the left side of it and then I have to start on Villages of Hawk Run Hollow. Then I want to pull out my Valentine Holiday again and restart it on the red fabric Becky sent me.

I finally figured out what I'm going to stitch for my Birthday/Christmas Club lady. There's so many things that I have considered stitching for her but I finally decided on what to do. I have the rest of her package almost done so I just have to get cracking on the stitching gift.

St Basil's Cathedral again!

2007-06-03T09:54:00.000-05:00

St Basil's Cathedral from Dimples Designs!

Thank you everyone for the nice comments on my Spring Sampler! I appreciate them so much!

If you want to see something cool, go over to Becky's blog. She used one part of another one of the Spring Samplers and made a ruler pocket. Very creative!

This week has been another busy one. With the kids home I have been trying to do some fun things with them. So we have been to the wading pool, the Children's museum and the girls like to go to the gym and play. I started them up with the summer reading program too.

I don't know if I have mentioned it here but we are finishing our basement too. We have a company that's doing it for us but but it's still a lot of work. Friday I picked up tile, carpet, cabinets etc. I still have to pick out door knobs, faucets, light fixtures and pick up paint samples to have at home. If I have enough energy I will bite the bullet and do that tomorrow.

The whole basement should be finished in another 5 weeks or so, at least that's what I'm hoping.

My youngest DD is scared to death of the noise in the basement so it's not fun dealing with that. She's convinced that there's bears down there. Hopefully it will go over soon when we are done.

I haven't stitched for 3 days now, it just haven't worked out. Thursday I went out with the girls, Friday we had the parent - boys soccer game that wasn't over until 7.30 pm so we were all starving afterwards so we stopped at Applebee's. When we got home I was just to tired to stitch. Yesterday I was planning to stitch after our graduation party but DH had done some extra wiring in the basement that day and somehow the outlet for my Ott light didn't work so I just watched/slept through Lucky Number Slevin instead.

Hopefully I will get some stitching in today! I miss it! I did get quite a bit done on St Basil's earlier in the week so here's an update picture.

Julie - yes, PS released a winter, autumn and summer samplers leaflet too. I picked them up when they were released so I have all of them in my stash. I just love all of them, they are my favorite PS designs.

Marika- I'm from Sweden originally. My DH and I moved to north America in the early 1990's so we have been here for a while. I grew up in Stromstad just of the Oslo fjord and in Goteborg on the west coast of Sweden. We still go back for the summer every other year so we can visit with family. Isn't the yarn stores in Norway impressive, I used to knit gjenser, my best bud in Montreal was Norwegian. They are almost to hot here though so I haven't done one in almost 10 years.

I'm keeping an eye on those trees. DH put down a lot of mulch around them and they are surrounded by some flowers. How awful that you neighbor took down your trees. Unfortunatly I have heard others say that their neighbors took down things that they didn't like in their yards.

Thank you all for visiting!

Back to reality!

2007-05-29T08:31:00.000-05:00

Spring Sampler from Prairie Schooler # 60
32 ct Summer Storm from Silkweaver, DMC threads

So now when the weekend is over it's back to reality with the kids at home. Wonder what we will do this summer? I'm heading to the gym and the park today and I'm hoping to do the zoo and the childrens museum this week too. Someone told me that the pool has opened but it's a bit to cold to go yet.

Yesterday I dragged DH to 4 different nurseries to look at trees and we still ended up getting two at Wal Mart. We only wanted to find something cheap since they are still going to fix up the lot behind us and although they are only going to even it out, seed it and hopefully plant trees on it I know that there's a risk that they will end up in our yard and kill plants and trees.

Last time they did something major they killed quite a bit for the neighbor and I don't think they reimbursed him ever.

So I'm not spending a lot of money on that part of the yard yet. But we found 2 little maples (sticks really) and got them in the ground. DH says that next tree has to be something different, we now have 5 maples.

My foot is starting to get better, my body is adjusting to the celebrex. Hopefully it will heal so I don't have to get The Shot. It sounded pretty bad when the Dr talked about The Shot, so I'm kind of hoping to avoid it.

Seems like both my blogging and stitching mojo came back when I started stitching on something else. I finished my Spring Sampler late Saturday (yay) and picked up St Basil's Cathedral from Dimples Designs that I'm stitching for Mel's birthday. It's going real well, I have to share a progress pic soon. My scanner is throwing a hissy fit at the moment, sorry for the cut off pic but it was my 4th try. And all of the sampler is there.

Memorial Day weekend!

2007-05-27T22:56:00.000-05:00

Angel Procession from Mirabilia.

Memorial Day weekend has been real nice this far. The kids did get out of school Thursday, so they have had a bunch of friends over the whole weekend starting Friday. We have had friends over two evenings in a row so I haven't stitched much. But it has been nice to just sit out in the yard chatting in the evenings.

I have had it with Angel Procession, just a lot of potpourri stitches and I'm not making any progress. So I'm handing it back to the lady that are handling the whole thing. Our EGA is stitching it for the church we meet in and I think she had about 8 more ladies on the list. So I think that I have done my fair share, I can always stitch on it a bit more later on if they run out volunteers.

So this means that I'm almost done with my PS Spring Sampler! I will post a picture when I'm done.