Welcome Mary Margaret...

Or at least what little there is of her!  I had planned a full day of stitching from morning until night yesterday.  But alas, it was not to be.  Saturday we were out in the yard, raking and pulling out everything out of the flower beds, cleaning out the pots and containers.  Which is all well and good, and it all looks wonderful! (I love the fall clean up!) Unfortunately, regardless of the allergy pill that I had taken on Saturday.  I woke up on Sunday morning with a huge headache from sinus pressure, with my face and eyes all swollen. booo hooo!  So after a couple of hours of struggling to get rid of the headache.  I just ended up taking another allergy pill and laid back down and slept until 4 in the afternoon.  I NEVER do that!  But I did wake up feeling better.  So it helped.  Still a little swollen around the eyes today, but at least I don't look like I got attacked by a swarm of bees anymore.  So this is what I managed on Mary Margaret last night for a couple of hours.  She is going to be so much fun to stitch! YEAH!

I also had a little ornie finish from last week. I thought this turned out pretty.  I don't know what fabric this is, or what shade it is.  I know that's it's 28ct but I don't know anything else, it was in the scrap drawer, but it was perfect for this piece :)

Fresh Fallen Snow by Little House Needleworks - from 2011 JCS Ornie issue

I am going to be starting a new project this week as well.  First I am part way through another ornie and then I'm starting.  I have everything ready to go, so it's just a matter of starting it.  I'm excited about that piece too :)

Another smile from Lulu!

Loving my smalls

It's been so long since I've stitched little ones in a row that I forgot how much I love it!  I think I should just do ornies all year long and nothing in between (accept for my Sunday SAL)  but that's not practical, and I would get sick of the smalls at that point. Right now though I am enjoying...and have to look to see when I'll find time to get them all finished for the tree!  Sometime in November, I'll take a weekend during hunting season and just sit with the sew machine and the baubles and get them done.  It'll be fun!

Kati and I have decided that we are going to start Mary Margaret this coming Sunday so I got a chance to do a little extra Sunday stitching on my ornies, and this is my progress for last week. Three little happy dances! YEAH

Joy of the Snowflake - Little by Little Design Co. 2011 JCS ornie issue

Partridge 2011 - janie Hubble Designs - 2011 JCS ornie issue

Deer in the Forest - Niky's Creations - 2011 JCS ornie issue

So Sunday I got up a little earlier than usual...not sure why, was just up...and turned on the tv.  Nothing on so I settle on the Food Network.  Low and behold my old friend, whom I haven't watched in a long time was on...The Barefoot Contessa herself, Ina Garten.  Watched two episodes, back to back and was literally craving every single one of her pasta dishes!  As the day goes by I think to myself I need to go to the bookstore to pick up one of her cookbooks, just to take a peek.  She doesn't use too many weird spices and seasonings....most of her food I would probably eat, if given the chance.  So off I went...me and my little plum rewards card.  Well I came home with not one, not two, but three of her cookbooks.  And even that took me an hour to decide which ones I wanted...because I really did just want one...but everything looked so good!  Magazine section...picked up a couple of stitching magazines as well.  NICE!  And I can't remember whether it was US or People but it had Amanda Cox on the cover.  YEP  But ladies...be proud...when then offered my the furry blankie for $30 because I spent more than $50...I refused!  LOL  Now that's will-power!  Don't you agree?  So now I'm looking thru these books and yes, I can cook almost all of these recipes...and yes I will probably eat them...and yes perhaps my Hungarian husband will appreciate them as well...but WHEN WILL I HAVE TIME???  Moral of the story...never watch the food network followed up by the bookstore, when HUNGRY!  Geesh! 

Seriously though, I would love to do the Julie/Julia thing and cook and bake everything in them.  Plus her other books as well.  Aaawwwww if only life would allow suck indulgences.

oops  I almost forgot!  I also bought a brie baker!  I don't even know why!!

It's a two steppin' kind a day!

Yep, that's right.  I am dancing...not just for one finish..but two! 

Elizabeth is done in all of her mouthless glory!  I love her!  The picture doesn't do her any justice...as well all know...known of our stitched offerings look as fabulous as the do in person..try as we might.  But the colours are a gorgeous compliment to each other.  The dress took almost three whole days of stitching to do.  It was very misleading...but it's done and it's great and I love her hair and everything about her.  Next up will be the next girl in the CHS series.  We have decided on Mary Margaret, whom you can see in my side bar.  Not sure if we're starting her next Sunday or the Sunday after, but progress will be posted as we move along.

Elizabeth by Carriage House Samplings - stitched on 32 ct Goldspinner lugana by Silkweavers

On Saturday I stitched up Jaxon's first ornie!  YEAH!!!  I think it turned out so cute.  My SIL - Judy - aka Gramma is stitching Jaxon's stocking, and I plucked this out of the design, so that he would have a matching ornament for his first Christmas. :)  I love how he turned out.  I shall post the stocking when Judy is finished with it. :)

Dancing penguin by Linda Gillum stitched on 28 ct white lugana

We had a houseful of people yesterday.  Family gathered for our Canadian Thanksgiving.  The food was wonderful, everyone was in good spirits, and Jaxon learned how to slap the table to order himself a drink at the bar, should he ever be in need of a refreshment.  VERY CUTE!  Lulu was also on her best behaviour and in all her glory as there were many hands to pet and cuddle her. 

Did I mention that Lulu actually smiles??  LOL



Sept. Ort report/Lizzie update

It's SAL update post time.  Both for the TUSAL and for Elizabeth, that I have been sadly neglecting!  Sorry KATI!!!  But CONGRATS to Kati for finished Elizabeth!  She looks fantastic.  I've still got about 2 weekends of go on her I think, so she'll have a couple of free Sundays until with start our 3rd girl...and I think we mutually voted for Mary Margaret :)  YEAH!  So she'll be the next one.  Can't wait to start her and with Kati finishing and with the next one all picked out..it just motivates me to get Elizabeth finished!

I have all my holiday JCS magazines now...the Halloween edition and the Christmas Ornie edition, and I also splurged and for the Halloween collection from JCS so I have been oggling and putting stickies all over the pages picking out the one sthat I want to stitch.  So much to stitch, so much I want to do and get done, and so little time.  but as I was telling Kati, life should be slowing down for me a little now.  Hubby will be off working out of town now and then.  then there's hunting season, where he'll be gone on weekends, and at least one week in November.  And then there's hockey season....that's a lot of time in front of the tv not having to pay too much attention.  LOL  Just don't tell him that.  so I'm thinking that I should be able to catch up on some of the stitching that I've been lax on during the summer.

I found tinkerbell on sale for an unbelievable price and I couldn't let her just sit in the sales bin and wait for someone else to take her.  And as she is my favorite disney character, I brought her home!  she's just so pretty!

Look at my Lu-lu.  She turned 1 at the end of August she's my living doll!!! I just had to share :)

Spirit of the Sockeye ...and other stuff

Here she is!  Isn't she lovely!  Oh my gosh, this picture and no picture that I could ever take will do this piece justice!  It is shockingly beautiful in person...and I'm so proud to say that sockeye is finally finished.  I got some stitching time in this past weekend and finished it up.  I love it!

Spirit of the Sockeye - Stitching Studio - 28 count Black Lugana

I also had a good day of stitching on Sunday and worked on my SAL piece with Kati!  Elizabeth is coming along.  I think I'll actually be starting the stitches on Liz soon, but I want to do the bird's nest first.  Hubby and I are going camping this long weekend, so hopefully while he's fishing out on the boat I'll be able to stitch on Sunday out in the sun :)  Sounds like a nice plan.

My Tusal is not as pathetic as it was last month.  Thank you very much!  LOL

We have had the most amazing summer, with trips and camping.  I'll fill you all in soon with loads of pics.  We took full advantage of the freedoms we have in our lives and just did summer!  LOL

Ort and Run

Goodness gracious!  It's been a month since I've posted!  I haven't done much stitching at all since the last TUSAL  in fact if I put it in my big ort jar you wouldn't even be able to tell....so this is the little container that I have at my stitching chair that I pop them into as I stitch and then transfer it to the big jar at picture time.

EEEKKKK!!!  That's a little embarrassing!  But hey, I was away on vacation for 10 days, then two full weekends we were away camping and boating on the lake! AAHHHH  it's wonderful!  I figure we have months and months and months of cold weather here in Alberta....I can stitch then.  Not to say that I won't be stitching, because I plan on sitting down and stitching tonight.  I have to get Sockeye finished...because I have a FABULOUS chart that I have been dying to stitch and is OOP...but Dani was wonderful enough to lend it to me.  So I want to get started on that as soon as sockeye is done!  WOO HOOO  Poor Elizabeth! I haven't had a Sunday available to stitch on her.  We aren't planning on going away this weekend, so maybe this Sunday coming up  :)

July Tusal, SAL update

Well we went camping this past weekend again and it was wonderful!!  Oh my gosh, I just love it out by the water and when it's warm and sunny it's even better!  Hubby got a bad burn on his legs though, which isn't good...he's being a big baby about it actually, but that's ok...it's no different than when he has a cold, or stubbed his toe.  LOL  but a combination of the sun, and him cooking at the campfire, his shins got the worst of it.  Never mind that I told him several times to put on sunscreen...gee...I don't sound to sympathatic do I?  And I am...really!

We got home on Sunday afternoon and after unpacking and taking a nice long cooling shower, I sat and managed to get some stitching done while hubby napped. :)  I chose to continue on with the border because it's relatively simple stitching without having to follow the chart at the time.  So I'll finish that up next Sunday, if I get a chance to stitch.  The Stampede starts on Friday, and we are hoping to go down to the grounds on Sunday to pick out an ornament and have some bbq beef on a bun...yummmmm...and little donuts!!  wooo hooo

The threads I added to the tusal jar this month are basically from Elizabeth...a think a few threads from the beginning are from Sockeye, but I haven't worked on Sockeye in a few weeks now.  Maybe tonight.

Up a tree with a little more splash.

Oh my!  I do amuse myself sometimes!  ROFL!

Had a great week last week.  Hubby and I celebrated our 8th anniversary on Wednesday, well we actuallly ended up going out with friends who also had their anniversary last week. So we went for dinner, and then to the casino for a bit.  Hubby won $300 and I won just under $600!  WOOO HOOO!!!!!  The couple we were with weren't so lucky, but they still enjoyed themselves, so it was good!  But with our winnings, we have decided that we are going away for the weekend, hopefully find some sun somewhere and drive in that direction.  I can hardly wait :)

So here are my stitching updates.  I started stitching the tree on Lizzie.  I am dying to start working on her, but the fabric was just pulling me towards the tree this time around.  So I'll do that and leave Lizzie for last.  But she's going to look great!  Kati (my SAL partner) has started stitching her and is making GREAT progress on her, and is looking fantastic!  So I am looking forward to stitching mine soon.

I put a few more stitches into the splash of Sockeye.  I'm going to do some totally focused stitching on it this week, see how close I can get to a finish. I have a feeling that I'm close and only a couple of weeks left to go on this one before a happy dance I think :)

SAL update on Lizzie!

I didn't post last week, cause I didn't have anything to share.  We went camping, which was FANTASTIC, last weekend, so I had intentions of stitching and I even packed it up and brought it with me, but it didn't leave the bag.  So alas, there was no update on Sockeye nor Lizzie last week.  Then this week, I didn't get any stitching done accept for Liz yesterday so here she is.  It's coming along, I love working on it.  And on Sunday's it's hard to put her away...but I do...and I have Sockeye in the qsnaps again, and will be stitching during the hockey game.

Had a good day yesterday.  Hubby has actually been away since Thursday and got back home today YEAH!  I miss him when he's gone.  But it gave Mom and I a chance to sit around and we pulled a pajama day yesterday with girl movies and junk food.  Started with Dear John, then Letters to Juliet, then When In Rome, then Eat Pray Love.  My kind of Sunday!

I'm feeling like I need to start something new!  I'm trying to hold off and stay focused to finish Sockeye, but I feel like I need an ornie start and finish soon.  So we'll see how the week goes and maybe Friday I'll find an ornament to stitch up :)

A little Sockeye with your TUSAL?

I got no stitching done on Sunday for my SAL with Kati on Elizabeth.  We had a family day, so with the baby, and the gardening we managed to do, and bbq, that by the time evening came around it was good just to put our feet up.

But I did pull sockeye off the qsnaps to take a pic.  I figured I had to show something. I love how it's turning out.  It's hard to appreciate the work you are doing on the splash when it's in the qsnaps, cause all you see are blobs of white and grey, but I took a look at it today and I am pleased.

So that's what you see in this month's tusal layer.  Lot's of white and shades of light grey.  And my sexy bunny was in my Easter flowers this year.  CUTE! 

We're off camping tomorrow for the weekend!  I hope the rain holds off!  I don't like soggy camping. :(

Liz update

Wow I had to do a round about way of making a post today.  Blogger is having a bit of a fart these last couple of weeks!  But that's ok, I got here! wooo hoooo   HELLOOOOOO Blogger friends!  Nice to see you!  LOL   Well I hope that everyone had a good week.  I am 7 pounds lighter thanks to 3 days of an incessant stomach bug that found me sitting on the toilet and patting instead of wiping by the 2nd day...ouch!  Mind you as lovely as that 7 pounds is, I know that in a matter of a couple of days it will be right back on.  ARGH!  and then I've decided that I have to do something about it for real, and get me fat butt in gear and start walking and treadmilling and biking and swimming and all that other fun stuff I like to avoid.  ICK!  Oh well.

So I worked a little on sockey but it's so perfectly tensioned in the qsnaps that I don't want to take it out at the moment, so I will update it next week instead of this week. 

I did work on Liz on Sunday for our SAL with Kati. It's funny how a chart tends to take you in a certain direction, and for some reason this on is having me finish the bottom first.  I just kept right on going with it.  So I let it take me where it wanted, then I'll work up the side.  I think I'm actually going to save her for last and stitch Elizabeth in once everything else is done.  Keeps it interesting right to the very end.  But then again we'll see.

So we're very excited on the home front, we have booked our campsite for the 1st weekend of June!  YEAH!  First camping trip of the year.  Hopefully we'll have good weather for it.  I hate to book so far in advance and then find out that it's going to by rainy and crappy all weekend, but I am crossing my fingers that it will be good.  My brother bought a trailer this past month so they'll be joining us too, it's his birhtday weekend that weekend, so it should be a good time.  I LOVE CAMPFIRES!  And just sitting by the water and watching the world go by!  With stitching and a good book close by. 

This weekend we're going to see Cavalia!  Another exciting event that we have been waiting for and it's finally here.  So I'm excited about that.  It looks like an amazing show! 

2 finishes and a SAL

Finally got a chance to stitch on Liz our SAL with Kati this weekend.  I haven't had a lot of time on Sunday's...they are turning into family days, this weekend though My SIL brought her stitching as well, so I was able to get some time in  :)  Slow going, but it's getting there. Plus it didn't help that I had to frog the S and re-stitch it, because I was off by 1/2 a thread! GRRRR  but at least it wasn't the whole of the letter.

I also had a couple of small finishes.  Some instant gratification pieces, I like to call them. So these will go on my stitching tree this year.  I have to get back to my Sockeye, which I have placed back in the Q-snaps today, don't think I'll get to it until Wednesday though, cause tonight I don't feel much like stitching, and tomorrow it's a night out with the girls.  So Wednesday it is.  I am hoping for a happy dance on Sockeye in the next couple of weeks, if all goes as planned, but then we all know what the best laid plans are...

Joy to the world - LHN

Joyful Night - Shepard's bush - 1998 JCS Ornie issue

I took some time this weekend to organized and re-sort my floss!  EEKKK  that took 3 1/2 hours!  All my little projects and big projects the same, all the floss just went into this bit melting pot of floss in an X-large Ziploc bag...so much so that when I needed to pull floss, I knew I had it, but it was easier to buy a skein than to go ahead and dig thru the bag!  Shameful!  So I sorted those and put them all back into the proper floss-bags and everything is nice and easy to find....until the next time. LOL

Ort report & Sweet Jaxon

Well you know that I couldn't let the vision of the tissue box go without adding one of my own.  So this isn't necessarily the most favorite box I've ever had, but it's the one that I am presently using and is on my desk.  So there you have it.

Then I have to share a picture of the sweetest, newest member of our family.  Jaxon Alexander   I could watch him sleep for hours :))))

Mojo's back!

All it took was a little something fresh.  So I picked up and stitched CHS's Wash Day.  I fell in love with this chart when I saw it from the Nashville releases and order it right away.  So now I can happily put it in my pile of samplers that I am fixing to find a wall for some day.

Wash day by CHS - Stitched on 28 ct Fairy Dust lugana

Poor Elizabeth didn't get any stitches put in her yesterday.  We had the new baby over, and family and a bbq.  It was full of activity, and it's hard to concentrate on anything else when there's a newborn in the house for the first time.  It's amazing how a whole group of people can sit around and marvel at a sleeping child for hours, but that's exactly what we did.  And I wouldn't have traded it for anything.  We were a little worried about how Lulu would handle it, but she was as much of a lady as she always was, and after a few minutes of nervous jealousy, she settled down and knew that little Jaxon was a member of family and all was well.  She cried when he cried!  LOL  So cute!

So Elizabeth will have to wait until next weekend, but with it being Mother's day, I don't know how much will be done on her next Sunday either.  But we'll see how the day progresses.

This is my favorite picture of the official wedding pictures....

Election day today here in Canada....hope you all voted!