This weeks line up

"Witches Hat"

Here is my stitching rotation for this week. I am off two days from work this week, which actually means less stitching time for me instead of more. I am lucky enough to have a job where I can stitch when we aren't busy. Above is one of my favorites that I hope to have done and framed for this Halloween. Maybe not this rotation, but I really don't have to much left to do on it. A lot of back-stitching though. It is "Witches Hat" by Sharon Pope out of the JCS Halloween 2012 issue. 

This is "Moonlit Watch" by BBD. I love the blue linen with it, but it is tedious to stitch on. I use a hoop, and whenever I move the hoop it leaves open spots in the linen that I have to coax back into line. I need to find the thread I used to do the moon, I think that and the house will be my goal for this week.

And this is "Country Poppies" by Cedar Hill designs. I was either brave or reckless with this kit. I bought it 1/4 started off of ebay. Luckily no major mistakes discovered as I have been stitching on it, and I do love the design. I am hoping to add this to my finished pile this week, Just need to finish some stems and 2 or 3 more letters/numbers.

On the healthy side of things, I made it to the gym yesterday (I know I act like that's a big deal there are some people who apparently make it there every day!). I also walked the dog yesterday morning and today. At 5 am here it was 90 degrees outside and 28% humidity which is crazy high for us. You get used to the heat, but I hate hate hate feeling sticky and sweaty while I work out. I walked our border collie and by they time we had got home she had doubled in size just from her coat frizzing out.

A little bit of progress

"Mermaid Azure"

As promised here is my newest stitching project, "Mermaid Azure" by Nora Corbett. I hand-dyed the fabric she is stitched on, the darker parts are a little more green and the lighter parts a little more turquoise than what shows in the photo. I need to finish her hair and tail then on to the beading. She has been super quick to stitch for me if I would just stick with her.

"Stained Glass Holly"

My stitching rotation this week has worked out well. I pulled four projects from my WIP basket, and rotated my stitching time among them. Above is "Stained Glass Holly" by Ink Circles out of JCS magazine. I finished it, yay! Now I just need to make it into an ornament to add to my Christmas stitchy tree. Maybe you can tell I have been playing with collage software, if you know of a free site for creating them let me know, I like to see my progress photos side by side.

"Playing with Jacks"

Playing with Jacks got a little love too. I worked on the pumpkin on the left, and all that white/grey of the Jack in the middle. I think I got a good bit done.

And my Prairie Moon piece, I don't know how people finish this one so quickly. Just one color gets dull for me, so its hard for me to work on this one for long. I worked on the pumpkin in the circle on the upper right. Not much progress but every little bit counts. (Capecod girl if your reading this--email me reference the pattern-- I tried to reply to you in the last posts comments but it looks like your a no reply blogger)

"Thine is the Trick and the Treat"

So next week I plan to pick four new projects from my WIP basket to work on. I'll try and post "before" photos on Monday. I am thinking Blackbird Designs "Midnight Watch" ~ Lizzie Kate "Halloween Rules" ~ of course Nora Corbett "Mermaid Azure" (eager to get to her beading) and maybe either Bent Creek "Autumn Hilltops" or Prairie Schooler "Autumn Leaves"

On the health front I have done well this week. I lost two pounds, which was a relief cause all last week the scale wouldn't budge an ounce and I was soooo frustrated. I use Weight Watchers, and managed to track my points all 7 days. I also got in 4.5 hours of activity, and went to the gym 5 days this week. I am really liking our new gym, its a smaller one attached to a church, but they have great facilities and its never crowded plus they have childcare for our youngest when I need it. Here's hoping I can keep it up. I even have a little sticker chart by the door that I put a gold star on each time I go. My goal is 100 stars. Is that weird I need a reward chart to get myself to the gym? It's hard when your a busy mom!

Been a long time but still here still stitching.

I would say at anytime I have about 20 WIP's in my box. A pretty even mix of smaller and larger pieces. I had been working faithfully on a new start these last 2 weeks of a Mirabilia mermaid (I will show her off next post I promise), but decided to set her down to pick up some older WIP's out of my stitching basket. It's funny I was probably within one or two days of having the mermaid ready for beading. But her siren song was no longer calling to me. 

The top WIP is Prairie Moon's "Thine is the Trick and the Treat". I have finally made it to the 6th and final page of the pattern. Six pages is a BIG pattern for me. Next in rotation is an ornament out of the JCS Aug 14 issue, "Stained Glass Holly" of Ink Circles Designs. I think i am about 50% done with it, though looking at my photo of it I might have to call that an optimistic estimate.

Next on the stitching pile my favorite season Autumn which is just around the corner. Cricket Collection "Playing with Jax" and Bent Creek "Thankful Quaker". Love the reds/tans/browns in each of these. 

And this is my view today from my treadmill. I recently joined a gym, and have been faithfully going with the hopes of losing (gosh this seems like a big number) 60 pounds before Christmas. We do Christmas family pictures each year, which I have a love/hate relationship with. Two years ago I was 9 months pregnant in our holiday pictures, and last year I was holding a baby and a lot of baby weight to go with him. This year will be different. So I have been doing Weight Watchers and reacquainting myself with exercise. 

Anyways today I couldn't get to the gym so I dusted off my treadmill at home. I had ordered some running videos online of basically trail runs set to nature sounds. They are pretty cool to watch, and you can pick which pace you want them to go at. Oddly enough they did not have "speed of snails" which is pretty much my pace right now. So this is how I watched videos. My treadmill faces a blank wall of boring, and we have talked of getting a small tv to put in front of it, but haven't yet. So instead I tied my laptop to the top of my treadmill using a belt so I could watch my running DVD's. Luckily the laptop stayed put and didn't come crashing down in the middle of my run. This is the extent of our technology around my house.