Things done and undone....

In my ongoing effort to reduce the size of my WIP basket, I have started selecting a bunch of seasonal charts to try and finish each month. For November I did manage to finish Bent Creek's "Thankful Quaker", but put a pitiful number of stitches into "Uber Turkey". See the half finished feather on the right hand side? That was my progress, all of it. So Mr. Turkey will be put away for next November, and I am moving on to the "winter" section of my WIP basket. 

And this is the "done" part of my month, our foster dog Robin completed her convalescence in our home, and returned to the Humane Society to be adopted. Actually her recovery was pretty easy on our part, she had lost her hair due to malnutrition so we just had to feed her and give her lots of love. She did have a beautiful blonde coat, and a funny smile whenever she was happy or excited (you can see it in the photo above). I think she set the record for least amount of time actually spent back at the shelter, she was adopted within two hours of us dropping her off! Most of our foster dogs that we have returned have been adopted within a few days. It still makes me a bit sad when we have to give them back, but knowing we saved a life and that they can now find forever homes helps.

Time to be thankful

Trying to move some WIP's out of my stitching basket before the end of the year. This one is now done, well not in the photo above yet, but I worked on it all last night and now just need to iron it. It is Bent Creek's Thankful Quaker. I loved all the shades of brown/gold in it, very seasonal colors. 

I have also been doing a bit of Christmas stitching. I keep a small lap sized quilt on my couch, and am working on having one for each month of the year. So far I have six done, and it always bugged me that I hadn't made a quilt for Christmas yet. This is a Kate Spain fabric for Moda called Jingle. I'll post a close up next time, but I love the cardinals and the aqua/red colors. Fingers crossed this one will be done by December, I have about 5 more rows to sew together.

And these are my girls sewing with me at the kitchen table. My oldest is 12 now, and has her own sewing machine to work with. She was making a little doll for her baby brother. My younger daughter will be 9 next month, and I helped her make a small doll quilt. I hadn't planned on doing a sewing project with them, I was trying to work on my Christmas quilt, but it is always fun sharing my creativity with them, I can only hope they grow up crafty too (someone has to inherit my stash someday!)

A Sunday well spent....

One of my favorite quotes is:

"A Sunday well spent brings a week of content"

But I was thinking today that what it means to me is probably far different than how it was originally meant. Not that we don't take time for rest and relaxation and spirituality on our weekends (which is how I imagine the quote was originally meant). But for me I always like to use my weekends to get ready for my week. Meaning most of my time is spent cleaning/shopping/doing laundry. We have so little time during the week to run out to stores to get stuff or do extra loads of laundry, and it really bothers me to come home to a messy house. So I enjoy the feeling of having everything done before we return to work and the kids start the school week, it helps me start my week content.

On that note we did have a busy and fun weekend. Friday night we spent at the state fair. I had entered my Mirabilia mermaid. I didn't get a ribbon this year, but it was fun to see the pieces that did, and have my work shown. Here is me with my mermaid before dropping her off at the fair.

The girls and I also entered the decorative mailbox category, and Zoe took third place for hers. She painted a sunset with dolphins silhouetted in front of it. I was impressed with how much work and creativity she put into her project. I did a sunflower theme with mine and cut out little flowers to "plant" inside my mailbox.

 

Here is another cross stitch  at the fair (not stitched by me), a Rosewood Manor design I believe, that took third place. It's one of those pieces I didn't know I needed to do until I saw it in person. It was very cute. 

And my favorite quilt, this one took home a blue ribbon. I loved the Halloween theme, and their applique was beautifully done. 

And Calvin enjoyed all the animals at the fair. He especially liked the goats this year, I think because they let him pet them in their stalls. He was a little sad not to be able to ride any of the rides yet when big sisters got to go, but by next year he should be big enough to go on at least a few. He also loved the funnel cakes, though we couldn't get him to even try the cotton candy. 

Exchanging

I participated again in the HOE Halloween exchange. This is what I received from Amy of Cross Stitch and Cupcakes. It is a Blue Ribbons Designs peice out of the JCS Halloween issue, and I love it! She made it into a treat bag and it came filled with candy YUM! She also made the two pillowcases you see underneath it in the photo, which are super cute Halloween colors. I am in awe of her sewing/finishing skills!

And this is the piece I sent out to Rachel of The Wandering Bunny. She posted a photo of it amongst her Halloween display on the HOE blog, and she has the cutest Halloween tree with all of these knitted/crocheted? ornaments. I need to get my act together and start digging out all of our Halloween decorations before October passes me by. The ornament is a Prairie Schooler design, I stitched just the top of it actually cause I loved the trio of witches with that poor cat hanging off the broom. I also hand-dyed the linen, and still have a scrap of it which I will probably use to stitch this again for myself. 

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.