Time flies. . .

when you are having fun! We had a great time at our little stitching slumber party last week. Of course the time slips by so fast - it seems like you just got there and it is time to leave. We stitched late Thursday night and most of the day on Friday - I didn't get home until 6:00 Friday evening! I haven't taken any pictures of my project yet. At this point, I may just wait until it is finished to photograph it. Of course that would mean that I would have to actually find time to stitch which has not happened the past couple of days.

I stitched up this little pillow for Sherry for Christmas. The chart is by Lizzie Kate and I put it in a pre-made pillow by Stitch-A-Gift. It has been finished for awhile but I didn't want to post it until I gave it to her since she occasionally visits here.
Saturday we were supposed to meet Buddy & Sherry for dinner and a movie, but they had to cancel at the last minute so instead of going to the movie, we made a couple of Christmas returns and then I went shopping with my gift cards. I had been saving two from last Christmas and I got a few more this year. I was saving them to get myself a new digital camera. Not that anything is wrong with the one I have, it is just too big and I find myself not taking it when I go anywhere because it is too much trouble so I was in the market for a small one I could drop in my purse and hopefully have with me to take pictures when I think 'gee, I wish I had my camera'! After spending over an hour looking at the options, I ended up with this one.


So far, I've charged the battery and loaded it and the memory chip. I'm still looking through the book trying to figure out exactly what it does. I'm afraid it might take awhile to figure it all out!
I got all the Christmas decor down yesterday - whew, what a job. By the time we took the tree down yesterday another whole section of lights had gone out and there were dozens of bulbs out. I decided that I couldn't be comfortable with those lights anymore so before we hauled it up to the attic we took all the lights off and I will have to either re-light it next year or get another tree. It took about 5 hours to get all those blasted lights off! Almost everything has been hauled back to the attic except for a dining room table full of misc. stuff that I need to find another box for. I still have to put all the everyday stuff back where it belongs. Before I get to that, I need to make a wally world trip. I should have done it yesterday, but I just couldn't make myself do it.
I hope everyone has a safe evening and a Happy New Year.

Stitching with friends

I am extremely lucky in that I have stitching buddies. 'Normal' people don't understand this passion/obsession for stitching and collecting stitching goodies but stitching buddies not only understand, but they help feed your addiction (either by gifting or just by making sure you don't pass up something you really 'need' when shopping in person or online) I'm heading out this morning to a 'stitching slumber party' with my three partners in crime. From past experience we will spend more time talking, laughing, going through each other's stash and eating than we will actually spend putting floss to fabric, but that really isn't the purpose - it is just a good excuse!

This week is really flying by. I usually take down all the holiday decor the day after Christmas (have been known to do it Christmas day!) but I didn't this year. I will get it down before I have to go back to work on the 2nd and that is good enough!

Have a great day!

Merry day after Christmas!

We had a nice day yesterday. It is nice that now, as adults, my children seem to enjoy each other's company. That is my niece, Kaitlyn, looking over their shoulder. Not sure where Shelby was at that moment.



I finally got them to all sit still long enough to take one picture - you can see Timothy isn't thrilled at the prospect. (Can't say as I blame him - he takes after his mother!) L-R, Timothy, Brian, Jason and his bride, Ashley. I never did get a family photo. Who knows when they will all be in the same room at the same time again. Everyone has such different schedules. Just one of the things I miss about the kids being 'kids'. Then I could not only tell them they were getting a picture made, but I could pick what they were going to wear and make sure their hair was combed!

Thanks for the Christmas greetings and for the compliments on my new banner pic. For some reason the old pic was showing up on my monitor with the right side cut off - I don't know if it was that way on other computers or not, but I just decided I would replace it with something new to give it a fresh look.

So, is everyone out shopping the after Christmas sales? Not me. First thing this morning we had about two and a half hours of intermittent power - between around 7-9:30am - right in the middle of my coffee and email! Threw my whole schedule off. (LOL - I have no schedule today!) I'll get out later to take hubby's uniforms to the cleaners, then if the parking lot isn't too bad, I might run in wally world and pick up the prints I sent off last night. Other than that, I have no reason to get out. It is cold and raining so that is just fine. Need to get some things done around here since I will be gone Thursday and Friday.

Merry Christmas!

The stockings are hung. . .

all over the house - because we have no chimney!

We have had these stockings for a long time. I stitched the names then my grandmother made them into stockings for me. We have had them since before Jason was born. He was due on Dec. 8 (b'day is Nov 18) and I wanted to have his stocking for Christmas - I didn't know with any of mine what I was having until they got here, but he was either going to be Jason or Jamie so I had the 'Ja' already stitched. Even though my grandmother came and stayed with me I still don't know how I managed to finish stitching it but I did and he had a stocking for his first Christmas. You can see Ashley's stocking is different but there was no way to match 20+ year old stockings so I bought that one for her last year (it has an 'A' on it) and I'm in the market for new stockings for all of us. (not that I would ever get rid of these - we will just have another stocking to fill and these 'just for pretty') I had this big plan to make all of us the Shepherds Bush stockings - I have one stitched so far! I think I've had the fabric and charts for, ummm, at least 6 or 7 years. I even have charms for them.

I think you can click on the pic and get a larger one to read the tags, but these are the doggie's stockings.


These granny square stockings were made by my great-grandmother when my oldest was a baby. I think they were probably among the last things she crocheted. I only have the three since I only had one child at the time she was making them. (one for me, one for hubby and one for Brian) Someday, I'll split them up and give one to each of the boys. For now, I have two in our bedroom and one in the living room.
Not sure if I will have time to post tomorrow (probably will since I get up way before the kidlets start moving around - its quiet and I like it!) but in case I don't, have a safe and wonderful Christmas.

Christmas stitching and migraines

Not something that sounds like they go together, eh? Well, they don't. I'll get to the migraine part in a minute.

I stitched and finished this ornament a while back and couldn't decide if I was going to give it as a gift or keep it for myself. I ended up giving all but one of the redwork ornaments as gifts (I kept the one that I thought didn't look good enough to give away!) and I kept this one for myself too. It is by Homespun Elegance and is in this years Ornament issue from Just Cross Stitch. I still may stitch it again and change the date for next year - we will see.
Now comes the migraine part. I did see the dr on Thursday - same song, I don't know what verse we are on. Last med didn't work, try a new one. So anyway - after I've been off the last one for a week I can start the new one, but yesterday I had a migraine that for lack of a better description was a bitch. At least I know what set it off. I got one of those fragrance lamps (as a gift, not that that matters as I had been thinking of buying one anyway) but since I know fragrances are one of the things I have to be careful around I didn't light it until I had time to go to the store and check out the fragrances (if you've never smelled them, you can't smell the bottle of oil because it is too concentrated you have to smell the testers they have at the store) so I tested the two samples that came with the lamp. I can usually tell with one quick sniff if it is something that I can't tolerate - one was out of the question the other was okay, but a 'summer' smell so I shopped around and got Creme Brulee. I can burn a CB candle all day and all it does is make me hungry but hubby lit that lamp and the minute that scent hit my nose I was done for. He immediately put it out and took it outside. He opened windows and turned on fans, I took Zomig and Midrin but it didn't help so 45 minutes later I used a Zomig nasal spray - this tells you something here, those things are nasty. I ended up just having to give in and take a nap. It finally went away enough late in the day that I could stitch a bit but I lost several good hours there. I hate that! I don't know if it was just because it was so strong or if it has something to do with the oils, but I won't be trying it again. I'll be sending that fragrance lamp home with DIL (I'm not re-gifting, just giving!) I did manage to finish this little Ho Ho Ho scissor case last night - I didn't have much left to stitch.

Isn't it cute? It is a Lizzie Kate kit. I've stitched on banding that was already sewn on before but I guess it was the angle this was sewn on - that little sucker was hard to stitch! I'm glad to have it finished before Christmas. I pulled the flosses for the fall one way before Thanksgiving and that kit is still hasn't been started.

good mail!

I never post twice in one day, but I have to show you what I got in the mail today. This is from my friend Sue. I 'met' Sue through the AOL cross stitch boards 4 years ago when we both joined a secret stitcher group. We would chat online almost every morning and she guessed about half-way through the year that I was her secret pal. We would be chatting and would both hit send and have said almost exactly the same thing. It is just really weird. We have never met IRL. Sue doesn't get a lot of time to stitch and hasn't finished very many pieces. She told me when we first met that she had finished a mystery sampler and that it was one of the first pieces she ever finished. Look what she sent me for Christmas. She made that mystery sampler into a pillow for me. I am just touched beyond words. Thank you, Sue, from the bottom of my heart.

My, my.

'nuff said.

Good friends

Isn't it wonderful to have good friends? I have two friends that I stitch with on Wednesday nights (most weeks - sometimes it is Tuesday, sometimes Thursday, but we rarely miss a week) Wednesday night we went out to dinner instead of stitching and had a little gift swap. We all know each other too well! We pick up things during the year and fill a bag for Christmas. (we always buy in threes - then we can't use it until after Christmas because the other two want to know why we didn't get them one! LOL) Here is part of what I brought home Wednesday night. (I went through the bags and had stuff scattered before I thought to take the pic so it's not all there!)

They both bought tote bags because we all know when one tote bag is full you never empty it, you just get a new tote bag! There is hot chocolate mix, tea towels note pads (that round one says 'I can't remember what I just forgot' - it's so me). That is one of the things Sandra managed to pick up when we were in Houston - it's always fun to see what the others managed to pick up when we were all together - and most of our shopping is done together! Not only do you have to purchase it without the others catching it, but you have to keep it hidden until you get home. Not always easy when you are traveling with busy bodies who want to see everything you buy!

Isn't this cute! It is supposed to be a photo holder. Every once in a great while one of us has a brain storm - she could have actually put a recipe on that card!

I forgot to post a picture of these cute file folders last week. Margo gave them to me. Aren't they pretty? I have these big plans to clean my office while I'm off for Christmas (ha, ha,ha - I can hear the laughter) and put these in the file rack on the bookshelf where I can see them.
Yes, it is good to have friends! Not because they give you things, but because they know who you really are - and these ladies really know me. (maybe too well!)
Happy Friday!

So far, so good.

I found these little glass ornaments in some boxes when I was putting decorations out - forgot I had them. They were each wrapped in tissue and stored in 3 different boxes. Too pretty to not use somewhere! I really didn't know what to do with them so I ended up putting them under this glass dome on the buffet. There has been a bet going around here on who would be the first person to pick it up and the ornaments go everywhere - funny how everyone's first guess was Jason. Well, Jason has been here since Monday and so far, he hasn't touched it. (yes, I do know I'm talking about a 21 year old and not a two year old, but sometimes his curiosity just gets the better of him - of course we could say the same thing about Timothy at times!) I think Jason and Ashley are going back to Nac today for a few days, then they will be back for Christmas. I have requested a picture of all 4 of the kids together at some point on Christmas day. We will see if that happens.

Thanks so much for the compliments on my ornaments. I do love getting them out every year. They all have memories attached. I will miss them when/if the boys ever decide to take them to their own homes, but that was the whole idea when I started their collections so I will deal with that when the time comes.

Today is my appt with the neuro. (wish me luck) I like her, but I always get really nervous about appts with her. I'm always afraid she is either going to throw up her hands in defeat or want to send me back to the tunnel of terror. I'm pretty sure she will at least change the current daily med as the last few weeks have been really bad headache wise. Hubby is off today and tomorrow so I hope to finish what little Christmas shopping I have left and get my grocery shopping done while we are out so I can have the weekend to give the house a once over then stitch and enjoy it.

Bren is having a give away over on her blog so be sure to stop by and get your name in the hat!

Hope you all have a wonderful day!

A short tour

Yesterday I told you I would show you some ornaments that weren't pretty hand stitched ones so here we go.

We have lots of fireman ornaments. I usually get at least one each year. One of these days I'll take all of these and do just a fireman tree. (hubby was a firefighter for 24 years. 21 years on the paid dept. 3 volunteer before that)

I've always bought the kids an ornament every year. They usually pick the one they want, but this year a I picked this one for baby boy and his bride. They don't have a tree at their apartment so I have it on my tree.

I also buy one for hubby and myself (in addition to the fireman ornament) every year.

Here is the reindeer made from a dog biscuit and pipe cleaners. We have managed to keep it by hanging it at the top of they tree every year to keep the dog from getting it! I think baby boy made in kindergarten or first grade. (he is 21) There is also a reindeer made out of a plastic spoon but it is on the back and I couldn't get to it to take a pic.

Since the kids get to pick their own ornaments, we have an assortment. A sledding wiener dog, Spiderman, there are Star Wars, Pirates, Dr. Seuss, quite a variety.

Timothy usually either picks a Taz or a truck.
One day the kids will have their own homes and trees and they can take their ornaments with them if they want to - then I will have to do some heavy duty shopping to fill my tree!
Off to work with me. This is my last day to work this year - then I'm off until Jan. 2, 2008!

ornaments

Just a few ornaments from the tree. The first one is the snowman ornament I told you about yesterday Timothy stitched it when he was around 8 or 10 (he is 23 now) Just decided he wanted to see if he could do it so he picked a pattern, gathered up the supplies and went to work. He always was that kind of kid - did things like that just to prove to himself he could - he still is that way. I didn't help him with it other than to tell him to make sure all your stitches cross the same direction. I'm not sure I even showed him how to thread a needle. He finished the stitching pretty quick - I can't remember if I made it into an ornament or if I just told him how to do it. Anyway - he did the one. All the proof he needed.

The other two ornaments are some more that were made by my grandmother. I just love getting them out every year and I always hang them where I can see them from my chair.

Not all of the ornaments on my tree are lovely handmade ones - there are store bought and of course there are the ones the kids made in school. Maybe tomorrow I'll show some of those. How about a reindeer made out of a dog biscuit and pipe cleaners?

last two trees

This is the snowman tree. It has all snowman ornaments on it and is in Timothy's room. Somewhere on there is an ornament he stitched when he was about 8 or 10 (wish I had dated it). He just decided he wanted to do a cross stitch ornament so he picked one and did it. It is on 22 count fabric! I'll have to remember to get in there and take a picture when he isn't asleep in there.


Last week I met Margo for lunch and a little shopping. I picked up some prisms for the tree in our bedroom. I've never put a tree in there before, but I usually put one in the window of the upstairs bedroom (which was baby boy's room, then hubby's office). Kidlet #1 is living in that room at the moment and well, lets just say there isn't room for a tree in that little cubby hole! I figured what the heck, so I put it in our room. (no, it did not have pink ornaments or prisms when it was in baby boy's or hubby's room) I've enjoyed having it in there - I might just have to get another tree if the time comes that I can have that window back!
So, if you count my little Charlie Brown tree in the office I have a total of 5 trees. And we wonder why I'm stressed.
Oh - I forgot to tell you the best part about my Saturday. Have you ever tried to take off a single strand of lights from a fully decorated tree? Not ones you put on, but from a pre-lit tree? Oh yes, one of the strands on mine went out - well part of it did. It went out once and we replaced a few bulbs then within a week it blew 11 more bulbs so it made me nervous just having them on. I tried to find lights like the ones on there and the only ones I could find had been discontinued by the manufacturer - not making me feel any better. So, I just got some more clear ones (different bulbs) I have no idea how they put those stupid things on there! They split and went in two different directions, made circles, backtracked, you-name-it. After I finally got them (and about a third of the decorations) off the tree it took two strands of 100 lights each to replace them. Yes, that was fun. I'm quite done tree trimming for this year!
Guess I should go paint my face so I can go to work - my last Monday for the year!

Just a short post

Mostly pictures - I never stopped long enough yesterday to even post. I cut. I glued. I glittered. I boxed. I bagged. I wrapped. I tired.

I found a couple of years worth of old Christmas cards when I was digging out gift wrap so I used those to make Christmas bags. Some of them had matching images on the back, so I used those for matching tags. The other tags are made from scraps of my gift wrap paper. The fabric the ornaments are pictured on is what I used for the backs. I'm too tired or lazy to turn them over and take another picture! I'm only keeping the one on the left with the felt backing for myself - I'm unhappy with how the felt backing turned out. I couldn't see my line and didn't cut it out worth a crap so I'm keeping it for myself.

Now, I'm gonna go make a pie. Took two pecan pies to the Christmas party Thursday night and came home with not even a slice. Timothy wasn't happy (although he was invited to go with us!) anyway - I promised him I would make him a pie today. As soon as I get that in the oven I'm going to dig out the old broom and vac and see if I can get all this glitter, paper, thread and assorted other 'stuff' up off the floors.

Off to bake!

a little stitching

Yes, there has actually been a little bit of stitching going on here. I stitched these pillow cases for baby boy and his bride. They are both theatre students and their school colors are purple and white. Not the best picture but you get the idea.

These little tea towels are for a friend who has scotty doggies. I thought of her as soon as I saw this pattern. I had the first one stitched way back in the summer but just finished the second one this week. As far as I know she doesn't even know I have a blog, so I think I'm safe posting a picture. (same with the kids)

Last picture for today - these daisy pillow cases. I love these. I stitched them back in the summer but I don't think I ever posted a picture of them. As much as I don't like doing lazy daisies I love these pillow cases. I have decided to give them to my mother for Christmas. When my aunt was here a couple of months ago she repainted my mother's guest room a pretty yellow and mother put a blue and yellow quilt on the bed. I think these will look perfect in there. As far as I know, my mother has never done any kind of embroidery. Kind of odd as her mother and grandmother are the ones that taught me. She did sew when I was younger and made a lot of Barbie clothes for me and my sister (oh, how I wish I had kept those!) My mother has MS now and while she will on occasion hem a pair of pants or mend something she really doesn't do much of that kind of thing. I hope she likes these.

Well - off I go to another Christmas party!

Another Christmas tree

This tree is in the guest room. The room is done in red, white, tan and blue. I kept the tree simple with red, blue and gold glass balls then I put little rusty tin stars on it. I had to put holes in them (that was fun) so I could put the twine through. You have to look really close to see the stars in the picture. Somehow all the settings got changed on my camera and I have to either catch Timothy-fix-it or get out the book to figure it out. Argh.

Hiding on the wall behind the tree you can see hubby's Christmas gift last year. I took his badges, patches and service pins from his 21 years with the fire department and put them in a shadowbox for him. I thought he might take it and hang it in his office, but no, it hangs in the guest room!

Vickie - those 4 pieces of trim on the porch posts are all the 'gingerbread' I have on the house. A little can go a long way. :)

Linda - fireman Santas are everywhere, but if you don't live with a fireman you probably just don't notice them! I still collect them even though he retired from that 4 years ago (you can take the man out of the firehouse but you can't take the firehouse out of the man) I have a lot of fireman ornaments on my tree too. I'll have to take some pics of those to share.

Joanne (Needleboxes etc.) - How did you find my blog? I haven't been brave enough to make one of the needleboxes yet. I am going to pick some fabric after Christmas though and start thinking about it! LOL

I do have some stitching finishes, just no pictures yet. I think I can show all of them as I don't think any of the recipients know I have a blog. Hopefully I'll get pictures this weekend and get them wrapped!

Much to do - better get busy!

Gingerbread men

I have a little gingerbread man theme going in my kitchen this year (well - with the limited decorating I have done in the kitchen) The little gingerbread man plate I made years ago when I was doing ceramics. The ones hanging from the shelf on the bakers rack I bought in Canton. I planned to put them on some garland to hang on the kitchen window but I ended up not putting up any garland anywhere this year so I just hung them off the shelf. The towels are hanging on my cute little glass towel bar. I couldn't believe I found a yellow towel with a gingerbread man! I just had to have that one! I found some cute place mats and napkins at the new Kohl's in Tyler the other day, but they aren't on the table this morning - I was gluing and glittering over the weekend and I still haven't cleaned up all of my mess.

A few Santas

First - thanks for the compliments on my front porch - I waited a long time for it (20 years!) and I do love it. We bought this house in 1985 and from the very beginning planned on adding a porch. I could see it, but it took us 20 years to get to it - it turned out better than I had pictured it.

These pictures are some of my fireman Santas. I have them on display in the guest room where hubby's fireman memorabilia is also displayed. I have yet to come across a paramedic Santa. I did find an EMT one the other day but for one thing it was forty bucks (I'm cheap - show me an after Christmas half price sale and we will talk) and while I don't claim to know how it works in other states, in Texas at least, an EMT and paramedic are not the same thing. Call me nit picky.

One smart cookie

This is what it looks like after hubby and Timothy got through last weekend. It is really hard to get a good picture of night time lighting! Well, it is for me anyway. I think I need more practice with the camera. I don't have a lot of patience - I'm a point and shoot kinda girl. The really bright 'thing' on the left is a lamp post. Timothy has been doing the outside lighting since he was about 10. (he is 23) One of the first years he did it he was outside working when the garden club ws out judging the lighting contest and they stopped and asked why we didn't enter and could they enter us? I said sure as long as they entered Timothy's name, not ours - he got a prize! (well, only an certificate and his name in the paper but not bad for a kid!) Back then he would get out and decide exactly what he wanted, then send me to the store (and he would be specific - so many strands of C-9, multi color etc.) When we were working on the house he made sure we had a breaker just for the outside lighting, then when we built the porch in 2005 (we won't talk about the underpinning that is still not finished) he planned out exactly where the outlets should go (there is actually one w/o anything plugged into it - he tried to get me to buy something so he could use that one!) Yep - that middle child of ours is one smart cookie!

How many?

beads and sequins do you think are on this ornament? My grandmother made this for me years ago. She made us an ornament every year for several years, the others are the felted ones with beads and sequins (I will show some of those later) but this is the only one I have like this (wonder why?) I am amazed every year when I unwrap this one to put on the tree.

Much to do today - better get busy!

Happy Friday!

Chubby little Santa

Since this is supposed to be a stitching blog and there hasn't been any stitching to show up here lately, I thought I would show you this chubby little needlepoint Santa I stitched a few years ago. He was a class project at Eye of the Needle (closed, sad to say) I didn't do the finishing but sent him off to be made up into this cute little stand up.
What little bit of stitching that has been going on here lately has been for gifts so I have nothing new to show. I'll post some more ornaments and things but I've already posted the only new one I'm keeping for myself this year - unless I really get on the ball - it is possible I 'might' get one more xs one for myself and maybe a couple of redwork ones, but I've got to move faster than I have been lately!
Hope you have a great Wednesday!

Adding a little sparkle

I put this Norfolk Pine in my little garden house and added some sparkly ornaments around the front and sides for a little holiday spruce up.

Off the sauce!

My tree is standing all nice and straight now - you remember it looked like it was a little on the drunk side. Well, Mr. Fix-it who never misses anything came through and says ' the tree is leaning'. I'm already in 'Scarlett mode' for the night, I'll worry about that tomorrow, so I'm all wrapped up in my chair and mind you curling myself up in the chair is no easy feat - we have already discussed my rather large size so we won't go there - but I'm all curled up and it's a little chilly so I have an afghan over me and I'm reading a magazine or whatever so I just say 'I know' and don't really look up. Well, Mr. Fix-it will do one of two things when he sees something that needs to be fixed - either walk right past or think it needs to be done right then. So, I hear him say the thing isn't all the way down in the base (operator error, remember) but I put it down as far as it would go - then there must be something stuck in there blocking it from going all the way down because he can see where the screws were tightened before. All this time I haven't looked up to see that he is laying on the floor but I catch a glimpse of my tree SWAYING back and forth! As you can see it has more than a few ornaments on it and it was just like this when he was trying to take it out of the base to see what was in there! I'm trying to climb out from under the blanket, uncurl my legs and get across the room before the whole thing goes tumbling down! I finally got him to stop and got hubby and son # 1 to come downstairs and they lifted the tree out of the base while Mr. Fix-it dumped out the cap from the bottom of the tree that had gotten lodged in sideways. So - now my tree doesn't look drunk anymore!

It started raining before I could get out and get pictures yesterday - maybe sometime this week. I'll get some more pictures inside too - now that I've got that explosion cleaned up. All the boxes have finally gone back to the attic! As for stitching - well, there hasn't been a lot of that going on here lately and what little bit I've done has been for gifts. I'll show some soon - even if it is older stuff!

Will try to get some pics of Canton stuff too - nothing really exciting - Christmas decor and a crock for the kitchen.

Terry in Arlington - thanks for letting me know you are still around and reading my blog!

Lunch time is over - back to work for me!

Have a great day!

Men at work

Yesterday the guys worked on the outside decorations. Autumn wanted to come out and help, but she had to settle for watching from the door, poor girl, but the street is just too busy. I still need a couple of bows but I'll try to get some pics today if it doesn't rain before I get to it. The inside still looks like a Christmas store exploded in here. You would think I had way more than I really do! I better get busy.