Fun weekend and a thank you.

First I need to send a thank you to Sonda. She sent me this lovely fob and pretty pink floss. I didn't have time to get a picture and make a post before I left for the weekend. Anyway - I've attached a needle threader to the fob and I think it is perfect! Thank you so much Sonda.

We had a great weekend. I was 'restrained' and didn't over shop last night. I only came home with 2 pairs of scissors although there was a whole basket full of ones that I don't have (yet). I also picked up The New Cross Stitcher's Bible which I haven't had time to really have a good look at yet.

Not a very good picture I'm afraid. Raining and blah so not a good picture day, but don't you just love tin 'stash keep'? It is from Homespun Elegance Ltd. Can't wait to get it stitched and finished. Will be a while though - I have too many WIPs at the moment to start that one. I also picked up this chart from Country Cottage Needleworks ' Summer Garden'. I got the fabric for it, but will have to pick up the threads. It is charted for DMC and I'm not sure if I will use that or convert to an overdyed floss. Plenty of time to think about that.

This is all the other stuff I came home with. There is the project we were given to work on in class. (barely visible on the right side - told you, terrible photos) It consists of a set of a needlebook, scissor fob and there is another chart for the box top (very nice box by Olde Colonial Designs) The 'theme' this year was flowers - pansies in particular - and that is what the patterns are. The zipper bag with pansies is what all of our threads were in, then the big plastic bag in the back has the fabric and instructions for the box top. The designs are by Redbird and Company. Everything you see here was either from a gift bag, door prize drawing or gifts Pam put together. She really spends a lot of time putting this all together and even the ladies who work in her shop don't know what the project is until they get there, just like everyone else. This was the 10th year that she has sponsored this get-a-way and the second time my stitching buddies and I have attended. (because we didn't know about it before!) We left our deposit for next year before we headed out this morning.
I'll show a couple of 'action shots' in the next post. However, we were too busy stitching to stop and take pictures so there aren't many!
Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Mine was great. I'm beat, but it is a good thing!

Blooming!

Just a quick post. I took some pictures this morning because it is supposed to rain all weekend and that will probably be the end of these blooms.




While I was outside I spotted this guy on the window screen.

Too bad no one is working on an insect collection at the moment!
I'm heading out in a bit to a weekend stitching retreat. I'm sure I'll have something to report when I get back.
Have a great weekend!

Woulda, coulda, shoulda

What we should have done over the weekend was work on cleaning the house and yard. What we did instead is head to big D and bum around! We were planning to go on Friday and stay until Sunday but we had issues here that we had to tend to on Friday so we left Saturday morning with no real agenda. Sometimes it is nice to just go with the flow. The one good thing about having 2 kids (young men, but they are 'my' kids!) is that we don't have to figure out what to do with the dog if we want to go somewhere at the last minute! Our anniversary was Sunday so we said to heck with the house and yard.
The first stop was Aidaworks since they were closing early on Saturday. I tried to control myself and only came out with one small sack.

I picked up another SB stocking chart to add to the collection - I needed another girl one for my DIL. (by the time I get the 5 stitched I have ready to go who knows how many I will need!) I decided that a stocking would make a good road trip project but the roads between here and Dallas don't make for good stitching and what I did get in was one thread off so I had to take it out. Anyway I also picked up My Needles Work but LHN, Buzzzz by Bent Creek, a 'Do It Tooly' and another Mother of Pearl thread winder. I am going to have to get a bigger display box for those soon. The scissor box in the picture was just used to hold the charts up for the picture. I have a couple of other things I didn't put in the picture because they may (or may not) end up in an exchange package in the future.
After that we bummed around and just did whatever. The only other things I came home with were a couple of magazines and a new iron. Not exciting enough to take pictures of although the iron is pink! (my old one was leaking and every time I used it I had to keep wiping my hands off - not that I use it alot, but I do have the occasional xs project to press and I did have a 20% off coupon)
Yes, we have a B&N and a BB&B in Tyler but they are much smaller stores so we had to go in and look around.

I'm caught up on my Red Thread project. It is fun to stitch - I'm hoping I can keep up now and it will be finished at the end of the year.

Stitching retreat coming up this weekend - I am excited! Last year I packed several projects to take but I'll not pack so many this time - last year I never took out any of them and only worked on the class projects even during 'free' time.

Off to work with me - have a great day!

Happy Easter!

I stitched this cutie this week. It is a Lizzie Kate called Green Eggs but the eggs are blue. It just struck me as funny. A couple of years ago my stitching buddies and I went to Las Vegas for the CATS festival and I bought a little kit called Blue Egg (I don't remember the designer off hand and I'm too lazy to get up and look for it) anyway I started on this little kit while sitting in our room one night. When I got home I had to take it all out because I had started stitching the egg with green! Anyway - I made this little pillow yesterday. It is far from perfect (mr. machine and I had a difference of opinion more than once) but it doesn't look quite as crooked in person. If I had been doing it for anyone else I would have taken it apart and started over but it is just for me and will only be out a few weeks a year - I can live with it.


Our weather didn't get nearly as bad as they predicted on Tuesday. It kind of split and went north and south of us. My wisteria survived and has about 3 blooms on it today. I got really close to get the picture and it smells so good! I'm glad it doesn't have the same effect as lavender does for me. (migraine city - it ain't pretty) I'm thinking by this time next week it should be covered - I hope it makes it so I can get a picture before I leave for a stitch retreat on Friday.


While I was outside I took a couple of shots of the azalea blooms. These poor plants have survived so much. At one time they were in the beds in front of the house but when we had to do some yard work they were jerked out of the ground and left for dead. (and I mean literally jerked - with a chain attached to a tractor). Anyway - they sat piled up in the corner of the yard for three or four days before we decided to plant them out back and just see what happened. Most of them are still living (although they aren't as full as I would like) I think it has been almost 10 years since we did that.
There won't be any pictures of the whole flower bed anytime soon. It needs a LOT of work!
Mr. Wonderful and I have an anniversary on Sunday - #29! Not sure what we will be doing this weekend since he has the weekend off. I may not get back to make a post before then so have a great weekend and Happy Easter!

What to do?

What to do with this little egg. I finished stitching it a few days ago and haven't decided how I want to finish finish it. It is supposed to be a scissor fob but I'm thinking about making a pinkeep with it. Decisions, decisions.

Come on spring!

This is my wisteria bush that I can see out my kitchen window. Mr. Wonderful doesn't like it much and I have to constantly tell him that I will trim it up - I'm not letting him near it with the trimmer! I know it doesn't look like much now, but in about 10 days or so, it will be covered in purple blooms then the leaves will come in and it will be pretty all summer. This one usually has a few blooms here and there all summer. I will trim it up after the first blooms fall off. It does tend to reach for the low hanging tree branches if I don't trim it often.

Of course that depends the winds tonight - they could blow all the buds off. We are under tornado and flash flood warnings. I've already had to put the window down in this room because the wind was blowing my stuff everywhere!
At least I don't have to worry about it blowing me away - I'm pretty much weighted down!

A wonderful day

It is a wonderful day here today. Sun is shinning and I don't have to go anywhere! I have been out painting a picture frame (more on that when the project is finished)

I finished this punch needle project a few days ago. I think it turned out nice, but no I have no idea what I am going to do with it. I guess it will sit in a drawer with the other two PN projects I have finished!

Thanks for the good wishes for the kids anniversary (yes, I know they are adults, but once a mother, always a mother!

Have a great day!