4th quarter projections

Our couch

4th quarter projections sounds like I need a power point presentation to go with it, but instead i'll have to settle for a blog post. So the end of the year is just around the corner, and my thoughts have turned towards what I would like to finish before the year is out. My daily planner has a "goals" sheet every three months, and looking back I did okay on the goals I set for myself in July. Now coming up to the last 3 months of the year I feel a bit of extra pressure to end the year feeling accomplished.  I'll bore all of you with my goals here (but share some photos of cute cross stitch to at least keep it at least visually interesting).

Grateful by Lizzie Kate

First goal is to lose 35% of my body weight. So far I have lost 10% which is still a big deal health-wise. I have been better about doing my Weight Watchers, going to meetings and tracking what I am eating. I am down a size in jeans (14 down to a 12), and my ultimate long term goal is size 8 jeans again. I have lost 20 pounds already, and would like to lost about 50 more which seems like a crazy big number to lose. But I am taking it slow, five pounds at a time. So my 4th quarter goal is to lose 15% more, which would be 50 pounds total. So 30 pounds in 3 months, or 10 pounds a month which is 3 pounds a week. I know this is more that WW recommends, but I would really like to reach goal by my birthday in March. Plus fall and winter is when I do most of my running outside since the weather is so nice here (yes yes I know it snows in the rest of the world but here in AZ it's a lovely 60-70 degrees during the day so winter is my favorite time to be outside)

Autumn Arches by Bent Creek

Next goal actually has to do with running. I would like to run a 10 minute mile by the end of the year. Right now I do about a 12 minute mile, or a little under on most of my runs. It's funny how fast I go depends on the dog I take. One of our dogs is a border collie who is straining at the leash on all of our runs. She has actually nipped my heels a few times when I try to walk (typically border collie). So with her I can shave a good 30 seconds off my time. On the other hand our shepherd who just turned 10 this year likes to take a more leisurely pace, never pulling at the leash, and stopping to sniff every few yards. So with her I can add a full minute to my pace, but really I can't blame her she is 70 years old in human years! 

Harvest of Love by Lizzie Kate

Speaking of dogs here is our latest foster Rider. The second picture is in April when we had just gotten him from the pound. He was supposed to be euthanized that day due to the mange that made him lose half his fur and pretty much made him un-adoptable. He looks so sad in that picture. We have fostered several dogs with the same thing, and it is such an easy thing to cure that I couldn't stand to see him killed because of it. And above is Rider now. Looking much happier and with a glossy black coat again. He is such a good dog. I run with him also, and he is so much younger than the other dogs that he can shave a good minute off my time which unfortunately leaves me panting and a little light headed! So now we are patiently waiting for his forever home to find him. If you know anyone in Arizona looking for a super smart gorgeous dog he is up for adoption through underdog rescue.

Goal is to have our foster find his home by the end of 2016

What a difference!

So my next goals actually have to do with crafting. I would like to finish 25% of my quilting and cross stitching WIPs before the end of the year. Sadly due to the sheer number of WIPs I have (and forgotten I even had) this is a HUGE goal for me! So right now I am doing a 4th quarter accounting and just trying to document in a list and through pictures every project I have. I have three different stitching baskets in my house, and this is just the one by my couch which is all of my most recent projects. It held 18 WIPs total. So if each of my stitching stashes has the same that would be 54 projects total, and 25% would be 13 projects done by the end of the year. Fingers crossed the other 2 baskets have less projects. On the plus side most of my projects are over 75% done, and I still LOVE each and every one of them. My tastes haven't changed much over the years. 

So my goal is 13 WIPs completed by the end of 2016.

Halloween Mystery Sampler by Lizzie Kate

 As far as quilting WIPs go I am guessing I have about 25 quilts in various stages of completion. So 25% of that number would be 7 quilts finished. On the plus side of that is I rarely make bed-sized quilts, I much prefer crib or lap size. So most of my quilt WIPs are small. I can also think of at least a few where all I need to do are sew some rows together. Expect pictures of my quilting WIPs and my other two stitching baskets in my next two posts. 

Spring Hare by La-D-Da

 Lastly I am a member of the Hooked on Exchanging blog. But I know many stitchers have joined other exchanges through Facebook or other things, and sadly I have not participated in an exchange in a while. Would anyone out there be interested in doing a Christmas or Halloween exchange with me? I know Halloween is coming up soon, but we could do a mailing date of right before Halloween so it could be a Halloween "present". Or of course Christmas gives more time. I just enjoyed the surprise of doing exchanges, and miss doing them. So if you are interested leave a comment or email me!

Autumn in the Village by Stony Creek

Playing with Jacks by Cricket Collection

Spooked by Lizzie Kate 

Autumn by Cricket Collection

Ode to Snow by The Trilogy

Harvest Light by Imaginating

Witches Hat by Sharon Pope

September flip it by Lizzie Kate

Halloween Rules by Lizzie Kate

Harvest Wreath from x-stitch magazine

Blackbird Trellis by Plum Street Samplers

Schoolhouse Sampler by Birds of a Feather

Blessings Sampler by Imaginating

Halloween Quilt Sampler by Rosewood Manor

Rest & Be Thankful by Cricket Collection

Gobble by Bent Creek

It's Christmas at my house today!

Oh Mr. Postman bring me my stitching.......

I have been anxiously awaiting my LK mystery sampler in the mail each day. A stitcher posted her start of it on a Facebook group today and I almost couldn't stand it! I have been reluctantly stitching on other stuff while waiting for it to arrive. I've worked mostly on BOF Schoolhouse Sampler above, filling in the flower petals. Still loving the colors against the dark fabric. This week is also finals week for me in two online college courses I am taking. I mistakenly thought a course in Children's Literature would be easy, there is FIVE essays due for the final! So my weekend will be spent mostly with my nose in a textbook with hourly trips to check the mailbox. 

And here is an Ebay purchase (that ahem still got here faster than my mystery sampler). I already have this pattern in the form of a Prairie School booklet, but was surprised to find it in kit form. This is a Janlynn kit from 1989! I was also surprised to find it came with a nice evenweave fabric, I thought most kits of that era had only Aida cloth with them. I admit I have an odd habit of searching for half finished cross stitch on Ebay because I don't have enough of my own at home apparently. Maybe I just hate to see someone else's craft go unfinished and unloved.  

 Here is my summertime quilt project. I forget the name of the fabric now, but isn't it sooooo cute!?!? I love mermaids and couldn't resist this. I actually got the inspiration for this project from another blogger Seaside Stitches. She did hers in bright Keith Fassett florals, and when I originally went searching for fabric I intended to do something similiar (hers are gorgeous!). I had never tried this block but she linked to an easy enough you-tube tutorial for it and well it just called to me. So I have my blocks all done for it (about 25 blocks or a lap-size quilt) just need to get them squared and sewn together.

And lastly the latest harvest from our summer garden Pumpkins! No, we didn't actually plant these, we compost year round and so the seeds must have been in the compost soil we used and just sprouted on their own. So this year we will be the weird family on our block with 4th of July Jack o'Lanterns.

Summertime Stitching

 This is my summertime stitch this month. At least until the new LK mystery sampler comes out in 2 days...so excited for that! Anyway back to my current stitch, it's a Birds of A Feather chart "Schoolhouse Sampler" I love the striped petals against the black fabric. And I have a funny story to go along with the fabric. I dye a lot of my stitching fabric myself in a large stainless steel soup pot I reserve just for that chore. The pot is heavy though when it is filled with dye, fabric, and water. So when I went to dump it in the kitchen sink I accidentally tipped it towards me, and spilled it all over myself and the kitchen counters. Well it was hot black water, and so I immediately took off my pants and am in the kitchen scrubbing trying to scrub the black off of our white cabinets when my husband came in on the other side of our counter. I started to tell him I had had an accident, and then he came around the counter and saw the dye all over the floor and started laughing. He apparently thought I had had some other kind of unfortunate accident (i'm really not that old yet!) Luckily the cabinets should be easy enough to paint over, and it didn't soak into the tile. My pants were pretty much done for though.

 Here is my summertime visitor. I get home in the wee hours of the morning from work, and I pulled into our garage and saw/heard something dart under my husband's workbench in the garage. Well Phoenix is notorious for large roof rats that love our citrus trees and swimming pools. I have never seen one but picture them as huge rats with sharp teeth. So there was much screaming in our garage when I though I was locked in there with one of them. Instead I found this cute little baby bunny huddled inside. He must have darted in as I pulled the car into the garage, he was barely bigger than my hand...sooo cute!

And here is my summer garden. We have our vegetable garden in full swing already, you have to plant early in the spring here as temps get to 120 degrees in the summer and scorch everything. But this year my husband added a side bed to our raised garden bed for these beauties. I love sunflowers and they seem to do well here in our summer heat. I picked a bunch of different colors and heights so hopefully the bed will fill in nicely.

Opinions please....

I have taken a quick break from my stitching rotation to pull this one out of my UFO basket. Why was such a small and pretty chart a UFO you ask? Well silly me did not buy enough thread, or even write down the name of the thread I had used for the pink of the letters. So I kept taking this with me in hopes of finding a match at the needlework shop and never did. Finally last week (after ahem EIGHT YEARS of this sitting in my basket) I just gave up! I went in my box of DMC and found the closest color I could, and you know what? Even I can't tell the difference now that it's done. By the way it was only the outer pink of the V that I didn't have enough of the original pink to finish. How silly of me to wait this long! So here is the opinion question.... See how the O is half filled in with ecru? Should I do the other letters  the same way or just leave them unfilled? The ecru kind of gives it a softer look, but it also makes the letters stand out less. I can't decide. 

And here is my other short project for this week. Prairie Schooler "Bump in the night" I have an idea to do all of these and another chart on a big piece of linen, and I am kind of liking the purple background. This one will just be a small ornament for my Halloween decor. 

And here is our newest foster "Ryder", he is a shepherd mix that was from the county pound. He was on the euthanasia list for the four days before we rescued him (for a dog that's sick it is amazing they let him live that long). He has what many of our fosters have had, a mange that is not contagious to dogs or people but causes them to lose their hair. I understand it would be hard for a shelter to adopt out a half bald dog, but I hate to see sweet dogs killed for something that is easily treatable. It takes about two months for them to grow back their hair. He is such a sweet dog too!

Pink roses, pink tulips, and not so pink lemonade.

Update on Blackbird Trellis. All of the leaves are now done, and all of the roses too. I had to order another skein of thread for the third blackbird, and am filling in the rest of the trellis while I wait for it to arrive. I have not started anything new, and my goal now is to finish this and Autumn Village + one quilt project by the end of April. 

Last weekend was our third anniversary, and sweet husband brought home beautiful pink tulips and a handmade card. He makes cards for all of our special occasions, and writes the sweetest love notes inside. I am terrible at writing anything in cards, I am always a little tongue tied. I am a lucky wife though. 

And here is my sweet toddler helping me juice lemons. He was so upset we were throwing away the peels once we had juiced them, He kept trying to dig them out of the trash bag to re-squeeze them, funny boy. So I now have gallons of lemon juice in my freezer. We actually don't have any lemon trees in our yard, but our neighbors have two huge trees that overhang our wall, and drop about a dozen fresh lemons each day. The smell of the blooms is heavenly, but I don't know what I am going to do with all this juice. I feel bad just throwing them away though. Lots of lemonade this summer I guess. 

Road trips and Roses

Progress on blackbird trellis, 4 out of 5 roses mostly filled in. I am waiting on two skeins of thread to come in to start on the smaller buds (GA Pomegranite) and the leaves (GA Baby Spinach). I have enough to work on this week though, finishing the roses and the blackbirds. 

I think I have come up with a stitching rotation for this year. I am going to start one new project a month, and not stress so much about getting through my WIP box. So my project for March I have decided is going to be Spring Hare by La-D-Da. I still have Autumn in the Village (January's start) and Blackbird Trellis (February start) and will just divide my time amongst them.

Here is last weekends roadtrip. We drove up through Wickenberg, to the west of Phoenix, and found a nature/hiking preserve along the Hasayampa River. It was so nice to get out of the desert, and hike along green meadows and a pretty creek. 

Here is some of our desert wildlife, a lizard camouflaged against the tree. 

And a desert tortoise, he was right along the side of the trail, and if he hadn't been hiking himself I think we would have mistook him for just another rock!

Not really "wildlife" per se, but some cows resting in one of the pretty green meadows.

A desert ocotillo on top of the hill. It is a form of cactus, in the spring all of the spines bloom and are quite a display. 

My husband hiking up the hill.

And me posing on a little bridge over the creek. 

When we were all done hiking we went a little farther up the highway and stopped at a tiny cafe attached to a gas station in Congress, AZ. It was such a small town it only had one stop light, so imagine our surprise when we walked in and they asked if we had reservations! Well of course we didn't so we had to sit out on the patio, the restaurant itself maybe had 15 tables in a tiny little two rooms. The patio was pretty enough, and our weather has been so nice it was not a big deal. We weren't expecting much, but the food was amazing! Above is a photo of our salads/appetizer (zucchini chips). I had shrimp & lobster tacos for dinner, and my husband had shrimp linguine. If you ever find yourself out West in Arizona, the name of the place was Nichols West. From the outside it doesn't look like much, but the food was better than most you would get in the city.

 So a fun roadtrip weekend, and now I am back to the usual school week/work week, day to day. Hope your week has started off well!