Last week of summer vacation :(

Am I the only one who doesn't enjoy Sunday as much as Saturday because I know I have to go back to work the next day? And as a kid I clearly remember the last week of vacation being full of anxiety and thinking it didn't even count as a vacation week. Well I have that feeling now, this will be my last week of maternity leave before I have to return to work, and though I mostly enjoy my job, I DON'T WANT TO GO! I know, I know, I am far from the only mom to ever feel this way, but it doesn't make it any easier. Maybe sweet husband will win the lottery this week and I can just stay home (wish me luck here!)

So the top pic is my new start of the week. No, I haven't finished Calvin's birth sampler, but am pretty close. I just couldn't resist starting this once the chart arrived in the mail! I am a big fan of Bent Creek (gee all my new projects this year have been Bent Creek) so I was surprised I had never seen this series before. See the top little leaf above the top pumpkin? That was the green I originally stitched all the vines in, but once I started filling in the hill you could barely see it. Luckily it was quick to rip out and redo in a darker green.

This is my progress on Mirabilia's Santa....trudging along, but hoping to have it done before the end of the school year. 

And this is my Pinterest project of the week, an Easter wreath. I wrapped the wire part in the fuzzy green yarn that looks just like the grass you stuff in Easter baskets, and then added the carrots bunnies and flowers. I should have chosen a thicker foam wreath though, because man it took a lot of wrapping to cover it all with the yarn!

 I'll leave you with a snap from my garden, of one of our Peace roses. I love this variety because it blooms yellow on the inside to a darker pink on the tips of the petals (plus they bloom just in time for my birthday!)

What I'm Reading this Week: Ms. Peregrine's School for Peculiar Children

What I'm Watching this Week: Gravity, Mr. Peabody, Forks Over Knives, Dexter, Hereafter

Miles Ran this Year: 102 miles...that's right i've ran over ONE HUNDRED MILES since little Calvin was born....yes i'm pretty proud of that! 

Progress Pics!

Here is this weeks progress, I picked Santa back up and started working on the second cuff. I had divided this chart into 4 sections when I made my working copies so I am happy now to be in the third quarter of stitching this. I was saving the white of his beard and mittens for last, but I did stitch a little bit of his beard also. I thought if I waited to stitch all that white until the end I might go snow-blind. It is hard to stitch on this during all the  spring weather we have been having here, I like to stitch in season and it's definitely no longer winter time in Arizona (though i'm sure most everyone reading this can still look out the window and see snow!)

And this is my progress on Calvin's baby sampler. I finished another of the big words, the star and some of the border. I wanted the border to be blue and green, but the threads you can't even tell their different colors! I used WDW "Bayview" which is a pretty turquoise and "Lucky" which was supposed to be more green. It's ok though I like the colors and its not worth changing it now.

And these are the beautiful flowers my sweet husband got me for my birthday this weekend. We left baby Calvin at home with grandma, and went on a date for my birthday. It's the first time we have been out without him since he was born. We got sushi, which was a no-no for me while pregnant, and went to a bookstore and a plant nursery. All in all my idea of a great date. We bought some a pink star Jasmine vine for our garden and now our backyard smells heavenly! I just hope it survives our summer. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Barb had asked when I was going to post a photo of new baby Calvin. I thought this one appropriate for the season with the clovers behind him (and he is half Irish after all). We have a huge clump of them growing by our front porch. Calvin looks a little concerned over being in that basket though!

This is where I ended up on BC Quaker star. I ran out of WDW Navy Blue. Thankfully there is a few months before this one goes on display, so I have time to order more and finish this one up. I ended up not taking out the border on the left tip to accommodate the red motif. I figure who will know but me that there is a mistake there in my stitching. *If you ever come to visit and see this one in person please be kind and just don't mention it :)

Here is my new start for the week, another Bent Creek, "Baby Row". I hate when you go to buy the colors on the chart and they completely don't look like the picture on the front! The large letters on this are supposed to be WDW "Galvanized" which is a light grey, but the chart photo looked like a soft brown so I changed mine to use WDW "Mocha". I am much happier with my decision. This will be a birth sampler for little Calvin. When it's done I want to do a post with each of the samplers I have made for my three little ones. Hope everyone has a great St. Patrick's day, and avoids any pinches (don't forget your green tomorrow!)

What I am Reading:

The Alchemyst; The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

Such a Pretty Fat by Jen Lancaster

What I am Watching: Dexter (just started it on Netflix and love it so far), The Soloist, Red, Role Models

Miles Ran this Year: 75.98 miles (I was proud of myself last night- I really really didn't want to go run, in fact I made it out the door walked 3 minutes and came right home, my dog was so not impressed! But I managed to get my laziness onto the treadmill and ran 20 minutes on that instead. A small victory but at least it was something!)

Stitching along

This is this weeks progress on Bent Creek's Quaker Star.  I only have a few little motifs to go before I can call this one complete. I managed to fix all my mistakes on the outer star border without having to frog anything yet. For the motif on the left point though I will have to rip out a few stitches since the red goes into the border a bit there. I even bought a cute square frame for this yesterday. It is an unfinished wood, so now I am debating what color to paint it. I was thinking either a red or a navy blue. Any opinions? 

I would show my progress on Mirabilia's Santa but it has all been beard stitching in lots of shades of light grey. BORING, plus it doesn't show up very well in the pictures.

And this is my next project waiting in the wings. Actually it is waiting for more than me to finish the Bent Creek Star, I am using it as weight loss bribery. I kitted it all up with the linen and threads (I even dyed the linen that you see under the chart myself) and gave it to DH with the instructions not to give it back to me until I have lost 10 more pounds of baby weight. While I have been good about getting back to exercising after baby I still am bigger than I would like to be. So I thought using a reward system for every 10 pounds lost would be added motivation (and a good excuse for more cross stitch projects). I love Cricket Collection, and all things fall/Autumn, and this one though it's hard to see from my photo has the cutest little pumpkin patch in front of the house. I promise better pictures of it once I actually start on it (hopefully sooner than later only 8 more pounds to go....)

Speaking of getting back to exercising last weekend our whole family did a 5K fun run. My oldest daughter asked to start running with me, and at first I thought "uggh she's going to slow me down and that's my only alone/me time away from the kids". Turns out ten year old's are pretty fast, and she has done really well running the whole 2 miles with me on my nightly runs. Plus its nice just to have one on one time with her before the dreaded teenage years hit. She has her eye on the cross country team at school next year, and I told her if she keeps up the running she will be the fastest one on the team come fall. As you can see I have my laptop back up and working, so was able to organize my pictures a little better this post.

What I'm Reading this Week: Such a Pretty Fat by Jen Lancaster

What I'm Watching this Week: Rizzoli and Isles, Warm Bodies, Six Days and Seven Nights

Miles Ran this Year: 73.99 miles

Feels like springtime

It's been such a long time for me away from the blog. But lately I've been lurking on everyone else's blogs, and decided it was time to post again on my own. I've had a busy busy year with the birth of our third child just this January. He is adorable but with seven years between him and his closest sibling you forget how much work newborns are. Well worth it though.

Here is my large project for the year Mirabilia's Santa. I am doing this for a friend in exchange for her tutoring my oldest child in math. This is about 2 months worth of work on it. I like it so far and I'm saving the beading (and all the white) for last.

And this is my small easy project that I work on just to relax. It is Bent Creek's "Quaker star". The outer star part of it is giving me fits though and I hate hate hate frogging, I'm trying to figure out a way to avoid having to rip out the top point of the star.

That's it for now. I am so enjoying getting back to reading everyone else blogs. Forgive me if I don't comment as much as I should. Most of the times I'm reading them on my phone while feeding new baby. And after posting this I realized my photos were all out of order and I can't get thrm to move so forgive me ths too...sigh my laptop was down and I was trying to use my phone but I'm not loving said phone right now. ...Grrrr!

What I'm Watching this Week: Don't be Afraid of the Dark-- I Love You Phillip Morris---Seven Psychopaths--The Lake House

What I'm Reading this Week: The Night Circus (LOVE it)-- Such a Pretty Fat (just meh)

Miles Ran this Year: 65.8 (Yay me)