A Tired Update

I am posting early today since tomorrow will be even more busy than the past several days. Thank you to everyone who left a get well comment for Harold. It has been scary and I want him home instead of isolated from us in the hospital. He keeps thinking that *the next day* will be his day to come home but even though I haven't said anything to burst his balloon, I know he would be there awhile longer. They moved him to a different room yesterday for monitering purposes and he seemed a bit better when I left but he still has a good way to go *in my opinion* before coming home.

Saturday, I finally wised up and packed up my cross stitching to take with me to the hospital since I usually stayed the better part of the day. Now, if I could only have taken my coffee maker along too! I would have been set for the long haul. Going up and down the elevator for a major size cup of java every several hours gets old. Sometimes the nurses will supply to my caffine needs from their own snack station. Unfortunately, I didn't get much done at the hospital as DH wanted my undivided attention and I was too tired to worry with it when I would get home.

I mentioned that AAFG was ready to start stitching on again. I even made a trip to pick up some thread colors I needed. All was right with my stitching world until........ (well you know what happened over the weekend). For no reason other than the sheer *I want to* factor, I started a new piece! It was in my "2010 hopeful pile" but had not even been kitted up yet. While kitting it up I realized I was out of several colors the chart calls for. I substituted. Basically the same color family and only a shade difference. I want to do the design and I didn't want to mess with another DMC trip right now. I'm entitled to fudge a little here and there. I only have several stitches in it so far so I'm not sure if it qualifies completely for a new start yet. And yes, I still plan to work on AAFG this month. I really want to see this piece get finished up this year.

I will leave you with a picture of a mountain road showing her lonley winter side. Don't worry my dear mountains, the tourists will return in droves this Spring. Until next time, may you have simple days and an uncluttered heart.

Wet and Messy Friday

No new starts for me just yet and the reason will become apparent on into the post. I promised myself that I would not start another big stitch until I had finished at least one of the two big pieces currently in progress. I know what I want my next biggie to be. Now, can I really hold off?

I wish I could say that it looked like it would be another not so eventful weekend. Several family members have been sick, including Harold. It started out yesterday morning when he woke me up while getting ready for work and told me he was dizzy and had a fever so I told him to call in and stay home sick. He had bouts of fever and chills all day but around 3:30 in the afternoon, he began having breathing problems and they only got worse as the day progressed. By 9pm I was begging him to let me call an ambulance (as you remember we did this same thing several months ago and for the same reason). My pleas and watchful eye were only making him more aggitated thus making his problem worse so I went on to bed knowing he would come for me if needed. Sure enough, about midnight he came in and woke me from my very light sleep and I called the ambulance. We were in ER until the wee morning hours before they decided to keep him overnight and sent me on home. I got a needed (but hardly enough) several hours sleep. I will know sometime today whether they are letting him come home or keeping him another day. Depending on today, the doctor even said that Harold may need to take some time off from work. All I know is that it will take me the remainder of the weekend to catch up on my rest just from yeterday's broo-ha-ha.

I will leave you with a close up of AAFG in progress. I hope you have a wonderful weekend and thanks for stopping by. Until next time may you have simple days and an uncluttered heart.

February Finish

Several people mentioned they liked the fact I collect pin cushions. I enjoy collecting sewing paraphernalia. I collect thimbles, buttons, pin cushions and am just now starting my scissor collection. I would like to add rulers and tape measures. I started collecting a lot of these things when I was quilting. I don't buy them often but do enjoy keeping my eyes open for a good find.

I have joined the ranks of Margaret stitchers! I just love this piece and it is my first Adam and Eve stitch. I am hooked! I switched out the fabric several times because of color conflicts in DMC and fabric and what was actually in my stash. I really wanted to get her finished up so I stitched my poor little ol' fingers to the bone and now I may give my hands a needed rest for several days. I just need to put in my initials and date. I have AAFG all ready to work on again.

I was thrilled to see so many Goode Huswife OOP charts back on the list again! I have a new reason to be excited!

I made my list of *hope to do* stitches for 2010. So far I have 3 finishes. Other than the two year long pieces that everyone already knows about, I will keep the other hopeful finishes a secret for now but I am hoping for at least one finish a month this year!

Thanks for stopping by. Until next time, may you have simple days and an uncluttered heart.

Slushy Monday

I don't know that I have a lot of news or anything exciting to share. It's been cold. Then it turned warm. I stitched. Then it got cold again - real cold. Before the snow and ice arrived on Friday, we went grocery shopping. I picked up some more DMC - a major haul this time. I stayed warm and cozy indoors all weekend and I stitched except for the several times I ventured out to refill the feeders for the birds.

The weather people are already predicting several more winter storms for us in the upcoming week. Sleet on Tuesday and another winter mix next weekend. Of course, weather forecasts change day to day or even hour to hour so we really won't know until something (if anything arrives).

While I was out doing errands before the winter storm, I picked up several more tomato pin cushions. Now I can accommodate all my pins and even sort them. I love these. But my favorite one is my oldest one and is a well worn soft velvety red tomato (at the far right). I also picked up some more pins to fill them up with and some foam board.

I went through my stash again. I have all my designs boxed up into the following categories 1. Definitely to do 2. Finished and/or no longer interested 3. I can't decide whether to keep it or not. I finally went through that last category and really made myself decide what to keep and what to say good bye to. I have added some more designs to my trade blog. I know there are some other AIDA stitchers out there besides myself and I have some 14ct. up for trade on the blog as well. I mainly use 18ct. and Hardanger now.

I worked on "A Mind..." last week. I am still on the zig zaggy divider. It is coming along but not as quickly as I had hoped. As I said before, I really want to wait until the divider is complete before posting another progress picture. After the divider is finished, it should be smooth sailing. Believe it or not, I have really wondered about leaving the top alphabet and divider off completely and just going on from there. Hmmm. I guess I would always know but it's not like I haven't done stuff like that before to make it a little easier on me. *tapping finger on my chin*
It seems that so many people have theme walls for their stitching. Adam and Eve wall, sampler wall, mermaid wall and the list goes on. I like this idea but I wonder how long it would take me to fill up all the walls I would like to do. Better yet do I have enough empty wall space to accommodate all the themes I have in mind so for now everything goes up as it is ready then later as my wall(s) begin to get full, I will begin to think about seperating it all into themes. LOL. Best not put the cart ahead of the horse!

Thanks for stopping by! Until next time, may you have simple days and an uncluttered heart.

Snow!

Yes, we got snow last night! Not as much as the weather channel had called for but it was so pretty coming down and as always I got excited when I saw that it was beginning to stick to the ground! But, alas, all good things must come to an end and the pretty snow stopped and the ice began! Yuck! Snow - good. Ice - bad. It is definitely a stay at home weekend since the temps are not getting above freezing and everything on the ground will just stay frozen. I have my blanket to snuggle up with, my coffee and my stitching so I am happy.

I am grateful we had no power outages - yet! *fingers crossed it stays that way*

How About a Trade?

*Edited on January 28th. I have already had several successful trades.*

I am finished with the following charts
1. A Haunting We Will Go by Stacy Nash Primitives
2. The Perfect Pumpkin Pinkeep by Stacy Nash Primitives
3. Early Candle Pocket (my most recent finish) by With Thy Needle & Thread Designs

and would like to trade them for any of the following designs
1. A&E by Primitive Needle,
2. God Bless Us Every by Primitve Needle
3. Dainty Housewren by CHS.

Once I finish with a design, I really see no need to keep it when there are so many other designs I want and other people who may be wanting a chart I have.

There are more charts to trade on my wishlist & trade blog. If you are interested, you can leave a comment or email me at birdwatcher17(at)aol(dot)com.

Solutions

I have made plans to get a 15 drawer organizer like the one Vonna showed on her blog. I just love it and I know it will help organize and unclutter my craft supply area a lot! I also informed Harold that I want a floor stand , also like Vonna's. I told him I could wait if need be and let that be a Mother's Day or Christmas gift. I think that will help my hands a lot when stitching. Sometimes I will notice that I have a death grip on the frame in my hand as I stitch without meaning to. Not good and probably why my hands give me such problems from time to time.

Our cold weather came back! We have had some very cold and very windy days. The kind of wind that just cuts right through you! The forecast is calling for possible snow, freezing rain plus lots and lots of cold weather. I guess our poor ol' yard is never going to dry up. As long as I can stay inside where it's warm and stitch, I'm happy.
No progress pictures of "A Mind..." this time around. I would like to get the entire zig zaggy divider completed before posting another photo.

I have a plan for both "A Mind...." and AAFG that should allow me to work on them regularly, post update photos and finish by the end of the year with no burnout on either one. When I saw that I had two big pieces in progress, my heart sort of got stuck in my throat! Now I feel like I can breathe again. Oh and my plan will allow me to work on smaller pieces for those feel good finishes. No, it's not a true rotation schedule but I think it will work for me!

For those of you interested in AAFG, the picture shows where I was when I stopped working on it (I should have pressed it but was lazy). I really don't know why I stopped other than the fact that life got really hectic and emotional for me last year. There are 14 sections (pages) and I am almost finished with #6 so I was right in saying I was about half finished.

Thanks for stopping by again! I always enjoy your visits. Until next time, may you have simple days and an uncluttered heart.

Productive Weekend

Where have I been? Why, stitching of course! I was getting into "My Mind..." so hard and heavy that I felt a burnout in the making. How to avoid that? With a quick finish! So I pulled out the Early Candle Pocket by Country Stitches and worked on it over the weekend! Ta- Da! Another finish and my stitching spirit is renewed! It was quick and fun to stitch up. As I said in an earlier post though, I will probably frame it. Now I can work the other WIPs with peace of mind.

My hands began to feel a little tight and sore so I took some of the weekend to just play around in my stash. I found some fabrics I had forgotten about having (that's always a nice surprise) and did some stash re-organizing. I found a UFO that I had set aside (And A Forest Grew by Rosewood Manor). It is probably over half done. Wouldn't it be nice to finish it up in 2010? I think so!

I also updated my wishlist and trade blog (even though the post date still says Sept. 2, 2007 - I just edit that one post over and over). I will trade from the list of charts I have for trade for something off the wishlist. Please be sure to read the entire post. Several have already been claimed and say so beside the item.

I was able to pick up some DMC while we out over the weekend. Later in the weekend, I picked up "A Mind..." again and got a small start on the zig zaggy divider. That's the only way I know to describe it! LOL. I didn't get very far on it yet but when I get farther along, I will post another progress photo. The weather was dreary and overcast most of the weekend. The weekend was not eventful and that suited me just fine! As I have said before, I like dull.

Thanks for stopping by! Until next time, may you have simple days and an uncluttered heart!

Onward Ho.......

I promised an updated progress photo of "My Mind..." by CHS and I am good to my word. Here it is. I finished the larger top alphabet! Yea for me! Even though I found my rhythm on it, which made it easier, I have to be honest and just blurt it out. This top alphabet was tedious! Beautiful, yes. Worth all the stitching, yes. But tedious it still was. Probably because I want to get to the main part of the sampler so badly! I have even found the frame for this piece. I just have to go back and pick it up which I hope to do on my next errand weekend.

Still not much going on. Dull is fine with me though. Our weather has gone from the teens to very Spring like and back to cold again. Luckily we are staying above freezing for now. I have to run several quick errands today but I hope to be back home early and snuggled up with my stitching once again.

I just love going over to the PS Stitching Bee blog and drool over the wonderful work these ladies are doing. This has always been one of favorite stitching alphabets and I came very close to joining the band wagon but changed my mind because I have so many other pieces I want to do this year and some of them are big projects in themselves (at least they are for me). Reason #2 being that I don't need another UFO sitting around and I'm afraid that's how it would end up! So I continue to go over to this great blog and let my stitching dreams sore high in the clouds while ohhhhhhing and ahhhhhhing over the beautiful work.

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend! Until next time, may you have simple days and an uncluttered heart.

An Oldie but Goodie

I pulled out one of my WIPs that I began during the Fall. It is With My Needle by The Goode Huswife. Vonna and I had planned to do a SAL using this design but we both got sidetracked by life. For now this will be the WIP that I work on when I have time on the weekends. I was able to work on it a little during some breaks over the past weekend and here is where I am now on it. Still a lot to do but farther along than it was!

Not much going on around here lately. The sun has come out making for several very nice days but we must have had some rain too because our yard is squishy wet. Even with the nicer temperatures I have been hold up inside just stitching away! I put it all down long enough to go outside and put some birdfood in the feeders for my little darlings before they think I have totally abandoned them then I sat on the deck while enjoying my coffee in the nice warm sun.

I am coming right along with "A Mind..." by CHS and will have another updated progress photo to share next post. Finding that rhythm made all the difference in stitching the top alphabet but I must confess that I will glad to finish that part off and get on to fun part of the sampler!

Thanks so much for stopping by! I always enjoy your visits. Until next time, may you have simple days and an uncluttered heart.

New Day. New Start.

Thank you for all the wonderful comments left about my finish of MHIBIG. They were all appreciated so deeply. Our weather has finally gotten up out of the teens and into some more comfortable temperatures.

The winner of the giveaway is Jeni. Congratulations! Contact me with your mailing address and I will pop it in the mail to you this week.

My new glasses arrived over the weekend and I went to pick them up. I was a bit nervous to try them on since this would be the first time I would see clearly what the new frames looked like on me. I was pleasantly surprised! The new frames are a big change from my old ones but change is good. Especially when you are happy with it.

I had some extra stitching time the past several days. Not as much as I would have liked but anything is better than nothing. Right? I am not making a rotation schedule for any of the new/WIP pieces I am working on. I'll just do what I feel like when I feel like it. Makes everything seem much less demanding.

Not much to show just yet but I did get started on AMIAF. Even a little start is still better than nothing! At first I chose a nice piece of 22ct Hardanger but my eyes were really tired from working on this count after MHIBIG so I switched it out for a piece of 28ct evenweave. One of my *uh, duh* moments. After several small stitches, I knew that wasn't going to work either so I am back working on my standard 18ct Aida in Natural. It agrees the best with my eyes thus making it a much easier and more pleasurable stitch (and that's what it's all about).

After I got several letters of the large up top alphabet completed, I realized there was a rhythm to it. Sounds a little funny but it worked for me once I got into it. Now I'm not dreading the rest of the alphabet as much as I was afraid I would. I did see that the large up top alphabet is missing the letter J. I don't know if this is done purposely or not but I'm fine with it. So far, so good! Just one tip about this piece - be sure to have plenty of black floss on hand. This top alphabet really eats it up!

I am doing this piece in memory of my aunt. It just reminds me of something she said to me many times over and I will think of her each time I stitch on it.

I haven't started on the Early Candle Pocket yet but I hope to get that up and going very soon. Something simple and fairly quick should be nice to have in the "pile".

Announcing....

After my latest finish, I am taking the rest of the week off from stitching. Time to let my wrist and hands rest, time to get my new starts ready and time to regroup my thoughts.

I have four WIPs sitting around that were just abandoned for one reason or another. While working on other new starts, I hope to pick these up during the year and finish them off (or at least get a lot closer).

I have so many all ready to start on and they have all waited so patiently. I always feel a bit guilty choosing to start on one design over another. But I have chosen for now and my starts will be A Mind Independent and Free by CHS and Early Candle Pocket by With Thy Needle & Thread (although I may end up framing it) along with one of my WIPs mentioned above on the weekends when I have time to stitch.

Remember to leave a comment on the January 11th post, if you are interested in the giveaway. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Done! Done! Done!

Sort of a quite and very cold weekend. I was happy to just stay inside since we had no important errands to run. On Saturday, Harold talked me into venturing out to see a movie. I am happy to just wait for the DVD to come out but this was a Science Fiction movie and 3D! A combo he just couldn't pass up. The movie? You guessed it, Avatar. I think he liked it a lot better than I did and some of those 3D effects can really make you feel woozy.

My first finish of the year and what a great feeling to be able to say I stuck with it through everything that happened and completed it! Not as soon as I had hoped but done just the same. After checking my frame again, I think it may be too big so I will either look for another frame or get a mat cut for it.

It's giveaway time again! I want to get some of these used and even unused designs cleared out so I won't feel so guilty when I decide to break down and buy more! This time I am giving away Bread Cloths by Leisure Arts. A really nice booklet. It has never been used but definitely thumbed through to admire all the pretty designs. If you are interested, please leave a comment on this post only until midnight on Saturday then I will announce the winner on my Monday post after the weekend. Please be sure to leave your email address or a link to your blog so I can contact the winner. Also be sure to let me know whether you want your name entered in the drawing or not.

Thanks so much for stopping by and until next time, may you have simple days and an uncluttered heart.

Weekend Wishes

I know I have said this before but I really need to put aside a day or two every so often just for finishing off completed stitches. I have a basket with about 6 just waiting for my attention!

Here is MHIBIG in all her current up to date glory! Actually, I have done more than this since I took the picture. I am really excited to be getting so close to finishing. I bought a frame at a yard sale over the summer just for this piece. I wasn't sure if it would be big enough but I think it will work. It was only a dollar and is lightweight plastic but it looks like a dark wood with lots of wonderful carvings.

I have my new starts all picked out upon completion of MHIBIG but for now I am keeping them a secret. I really want to get a start on my HRH designs sometime during this year. I had started on HoHRH a while back but I didn't like the fabric so it is back in the bin kitted up and ready to go again at some point. Right now I am struggling with what size fabric I want to use when I do begin on them. I don't want the designs to be enormous when finished. A lot of you have already finished off one of two of these and/or are working are one. What size fabric did you use?

I know. I know. I said I wasn't going to buy any new designs for awhile but the Nashville Market is coming up soon (said in my best whiney voice)! Autumn at HRH will be out. A definite gotta have. I am just in love with this village and I want to live there! I haven't even seen Autumn yet and I am already anxious to know what's in store next for HRH! All the sneak peeks will be starting up soon and I know there will be at least a handful (if not more) that will catch my interest! So much for my will power but my intentions are pure gold! I can't wait for all the sneak peeks to begin! *insert wicked laugh*

Be sure to check back on Monday for another giveaway! Thanks so much for stopping by! Until next time, may you have simple days and an uncluttered heart!

Brrrrrrr! It's Cold Outside!

The temps are in the teens! I'll just stay indoors, thank you very much!

After having Harold home for 2 weeks over the holidays, the house feels empty. I miss him. I really do enjoy having him around. Sometimes we work on our "to do" list which we managed to knock a few items off of, we go out or we just sit around watching old movies and other shows on TV. New Years Eve he wanted to watch a Three Stooges marathon. I never liked the Stooges but this time I couldn't help but laugh some with him.

On Monday, I went to pick out my new glasses! Finally. I have known I needed a stronger prescription and the doctor even agreed by writing one up. I was holding back because of the frames. I like my current frames but have used and reused them to the point that they are on their last go round. The type of frame I wear hasn't been in style for a while. I ended up picking out 4 frames then letting the assistant help me choose by telling me which ones she liked best on me (since I can't see worth a hoot without my glasses). I should have my new glasses in about a week. They will definitely be a big change compared to what I am wearing now and since my eyes are so bad on their own, I really won't know for sure how I like them on me until I pick them up! *fingers crossed*

On a fun note, one of my many challenge layouts from December was a winner over at Category Stories! How neat is that! Also, I thought I would share another corn husk doll with you. This one is a baker. I picked her out of my aunt's collection since I enjoy baking (when I have all the ingredients and no one bothers me).

How many of you are still using stitching rotations? I love the idea but I can never hold myself to them. *big sigh* I love to know how other people stitch, their routines, their favorite fabrics, colors, designers and more. I took some time out to go through my fabric stash and see what might be needed. I hate to run low and running out is just the worst!

Next time, I will post a progress update on MHIBIG. It's coming right along. Five colors in the border and I am almost finished with 1 of them. Till then, may you have simple days and an uncluttered heart! Thanks for stopping by!