Two wip's only!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!!

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.