Taking Life one stitch at a time!

Holy Break Batman!

2010-01-02T20:18:00.003-05:00

I knew I had been MIA for awhile but I have to say I was totally shocked by how long of a break I took...dang.

End result has been very little stitching and lots of time being Mommy/Wife and Daughter. My dad had some health setbacks and with two little ones it's been absolute chaos.

Now that my wonderful hubby is planning on actually taking his days off I think I might get in some good stitching time very soon!

Groovin'

2009-05-19T13:03:00.006-04:00

Of course as soon as I type these words my nice groove will disappear, lol. We've settled into a nice rhythm here with naptimes being consistent and bedtimes being early enough that I can get an hour or two to myself everyday to stitch or read. I've been able to put time in on almost every single WIP which is really nice. A couple of progress pics for you:

Celtic Autumn: Lousy picture I know. I managed to get the bottom left hand side of her dress started at least. My rotation is 1000 stitches and then move to the next project
Stitches, Stars and Stripes: I finished the entire outer border and started working on some of the blocks to make it a little more interesting.

Woodland Winter: Well, found out I had a bit of a counting error in the tree on the left so I had to pull out about 100 stitches and then was able to make some decent progress. I sincerely doubt this will be ready for Christmas for DH so I guess I'll have to come up with some other present for this year, lol.

I have more progress of course but since most of the stitching has been done on the background of the projects, there really isn't much to see.
Until next time, Melissa

Late to the Party!

2009-05-04T20:40:00.004-04:00

For some strange reason, I avoid books/movies that seem like they are being over hyped. I did it with Harry Potter, never seeing any of the movies or reading any of the books until right before Deathly Hallows was released. So of course, it should come as no surprise that I never bothered with the Twilight series. Well, after seeing parts of the movie, thanks to my neice, I decided to go ahead and at least read the first book "Twilight". Ok, I was hooked. I have now managed to read all 4 books plus see the entire movie in whole. It's not my usual type of book so I'm not sure what it is about it that has captured my interest but I'm actually looking forward to the release of the new movie.

Anyhow, on to stitching bits. Time is limited but I have managed to get some progress logged. Especially on CdC, I finished up the 3rd page and am starting on the 4th page. Other than that I've been trying to organize my stash and clean up the computer files.

The OCD side of my personality is screaming out for goals so I'm going to set a few reasonable ones given my time limitations and I'm going to even make them for two months so...

May/June Goals:

1. Put 1000 stitches into all active WIP's

a) Celtic Autumn

b) Sunken Treasure

c) Eagles

d) Stitches, Stars and Stripes

e) Cape Elizabeth

f) Christmas Countdown

g) Cirque des Cercles

h) Woodland Winter

i) Rooftop Santa Stocking

j) Naughty or Nice Stocking

k) Scenic Farm

l) Buttons and Bears

2. Stitch 2 Christmas ornaments.

3. Start HAED's Seaside Victorian (Yeah I know, just what I need another new start, lol)

See easy enough. Ok, off to do some stitching before the next feeding!

Hey, where'd the sun go?

2009-04-19T12:59:00.005-04:00

After two absolutely gorgeous days, the sun has left us again. My poor DS1 is so happy to be able to play outside now that the temperatures are rising, he's really bummed to be stuck inside the house today. Oh well, he busied himself with reliving his early days by hanging out with his baby brother under the rainforest dome.Meanwhile, mommy (that's me) has been using up whatever quiet time she can find to do some stitching. I started my third page on Sunken Treasure and got a good 700 stitches in before deciding to start something new...I've had a major urge to start a new project. I decided that an "easier" project for days that DH is at work and I want to work on something while hanging out with the kids was called for, so after a little stash dive I chose Stitches Stars and Stripes. I finished up the outer border and put a few stitches into the inner border. It's back in my WIP bin for later this week. Today I'm going to pull out Celtic Autumn and see about getting some progress on that.

Actual stitching progress

2009-04-14T11:58:00.002-04:00

HAED Sunken Treasure page 2 COMPLETE!!!

Seemed like it took me forever, but actually it was only 1 1/2 weeks to finish up the last of the one color on the page. DH has been home a lot lately so that's making it easier on me to find some time each day to stitch a little. Once he goes back to work, I'm sure the progress will slow but I'm hoping to start a project or two that would classify as easier stitches so that I can still get in some good stitching time.

Other than that, I'm still going strong on my abstinence challenge, the biggest challenge so far is floss. ACMoore's recently had a 25%o off your total order coupon and it was tempting. DH had given me a gift card for AC Moore's and after a lot of consideration decided to get the supplies to make my new son's baby book instead of stitching supplies. I think dh was shocked when I didn't even pick up one skein of floss, lol.

Well since both kids are down for a nap, I think I'm going to go stitch a bit and enjoy the silence!

Hey, look who's here!

2009-04-05T20:44:00.003-04:00

Matthew Cole was born at 9:26am on 4-3-09 weighing in at 8lbs 9oz and 21 1/2 inches. As you can tell, his big brother Jake is absolutely in love with him. Everytime Matthew cries, Jake will run over to his side and say "ohhhh nooooo". We were both doing so well that the baby and I were released from the hospital.

A really bad April Fool's joke!

2009-04-01T01:41:00.002-04:00

Well it looks like I'll be pregnant until Friday. The hospital called about 9pm to let me know that they had to bump me a few days due to emergencies. The really crappy part was I had just dropped off my 23 month old son who has never spent one night away from us and to say it was traumatic for mommy and baby is an understatement. We were already over 1/2 hour away from the sitter's house, so we made the decision to let him be for the night and do it all over again on Thursday night.

I swear it feels like I'm going to be pregnant forever, lol.

April Fool's Baby!!!

2009-03-30T13:19:00.002-04:00

This is the almost completed page 2 of Sunken Treasure. All I have left is the one color to fill in but I have to say I'm pretty proud of my progress. Even though this is pretty much the only project I've been working on as of late.

As far as the title of the post goes....that's right, the hospital rescheduled my c-section to April 1st...I didn't find it such a funny joke, but what are you going to do. I've been having lots of mobility issues due to what feels like hip displacement added in with the normal late pregnancy gripes and contractions that aren't strong enough to do much more than annoy me. But the end is in sight, lol. So you might not see me for a couple of days, but I will be back promise, lol. I've already packed up CdC to take to the hospital with me...not a small project I know but for me it's an easier stitch without any color changes.

Cussin' like a drunken sailor on shore leave!

2009-03-20T19:43:00.004-04:00

And no, it's not an exaggeration, lol. Want to know what's worse than having to frog out 200 stitches on a project you thought you were on a roll on.....pulling out 200 stitches done 1 over 1 on 28 ct Jazlyn. It was a good thing everyone else in the house had gone to bed by the time I realized that I messed up my floss numbers or the words coming out of my mouth would have shocked even my Navy veteran dad.

But alas, I did manage to pull out all the stitches before calling it a night and Thursday morning started page 2 on Sunken Treasure. 1100 stitches later and I have managed to keep any more frogs at bay. Pardon the really bad picture, I figured since I planned on working on this the rest of the weekend, I'd just take a quick shot to update my progress on the SAL blog.

Since I'm in no shape to do much of anything right now, our plans for the weekend are rather boring. My wonderful hubby is going to help his mom move some furniture around her house and then we're going to have a quiet weekend at home. He's even offered to let me sit and stitch the entire weekend and he'll do everything else. Part of that is for his own sanity, he panics every single time I go up or down our steps right now, he's convinced my water is going to burst any second, lol.

13 days and counting!

2009-03-17T18:07:00.004-04:00

Sorry for the lack of creativity in titles...honestly short of saying "Get out now baby" it's the only nice thing to post. Thankfully though, my doc said that he thinks my scheduled c-section date might be too far away for the baby. As of this morning, the little guy has moved pretty far down and is making movement absolutely miserable for me. They ran an ultrasound to check on him and he's looking good, lungs are looking good so anytime he's ready, the doctors will be happy. Keep your fingers crossed he's nice to mommy and comes soon!

I did get a pic of Celtic Autumn, figured I'd get her off the q snaps now and put on a more transportable project for the hospital. I got in around 6 hours of stitching and about 1200 stitches so I'm pretty happy with the progress on Autumn. The fabric is wrinkly but ironing just isn't high on my to do list right now, lol.

Also I was blown away when I was checking on blogs and found that I had been nominated for an award by Annette B at http://seaqsiderstitcher.blogspot.com/

I can't just pick 10 cause everytime I check my google reader I'm in awe at the talent of you ladies and men out there and find so much motivation and inspiration! Reading your blogs are truly a highpoint of my morning routine!

Well off to stitch a bit before attempting to put DS down to bed. Although I think I may wait for DH to get home from his meeting, the thought of fighting with my little guy sounds too painful tonight.

14 days and counting!

2009-03-16T23:48:00.002-04:00

Yep, I'm down to 14 days until baby Matthew will be born. I'm still hoping he chooses to come early just to be nice to mommy since I'm really sore, tired, fat....etc, lol. I've been getting lots of stitching time though with DH being laid off one week a month. I wanted to post my progress earlier but our monitor died and I was waiting for our new one to show up.

My two big happy dances are getting page 1 of HAED Sunken Treasure done and page 2 of CdC done.

Right now I'm working on Celtic Autumn and will post a picture when I switch to the next project I want to work on. Probably tomorrow or Wednesday, depends on my mood actually. For now however, I'm heading to bed. I have an early dr's appointment and I'm hoping that before my DH heads off for his afternoon meeting tomorrow I can catch up on everyone's blogs.

Night!

Progress on Sunken Treasure

2009-03-06T14:38:00.003-05:00

This past few days have been exclusively HAED stitching. I have come to the conclusion that gridding will not work for me, for some reason it confuses me. I'm also not able to block stitch...I prefer to stitch all one color and then go back and fill in as I go. Beats me why, lol. So as of noon today here's where it stands:

I'll probably keep it out for the weekend to see if I can't get this first page finished. I have some empty spaces towards the top but those are confetti stitches I'll fill in when I get to the next page.

As far as the dare is concerned, I'm going through with it. I love stitching and I will have one heck of a wish list come the end of the dare, although DH seems to think this will work out in his favor since he will now have things to buy me on those special gift giving days...I'm apparently really hard to shop for (who knew). Besides, by the time I get through all these projects maybe the recession will be over and money won't be as snug as it is now.

Well, back to stitching a bit before it's time to get our dinner ready and have evening playtime with my son.

I just can't pass up a dare!

2009-03-01T14:58:00.002-05:00

I have a major weakness when it comes to being dared. No matter how silly or impossible something sounds, I just can't say no. So as I'm explaining to my dear husband the Abstinence challenge (again, since the first time I tried he was playing Wii and not really paying attention) he decided to take advantage of my weakness and dared me to take the abstinence challenge one step further. I knew organizing all the stash would bite me in the rear eventually.

So the dare....not just to abstain from stitching purchases for the next year but until ALL 64 of my currently kitted projects are finished. Probably doesn't sound very hard to do, but keep in mind, in that count of 64 is no fewer than a dozen Dimensions gold kits, all 4 L&L Celtic ladies and last but not least the subject of my previous post the HAED. At this point, a normal and rational stitcher would laugh and say...yay okay with a varying degree of sarcasm....not me...Nooooooooo...I looked at dh and said "sure I can do it". Oh brother.

Of course, now in hindsight I sit here thinking I should have put a few conditions of my own on the dare....like, no stash purchases until all 64 are done OR 5 years have gone...whichever comes first, lol.

Progress on Sunken Treasure

2009-02-27T08:46:00.004-05:00

So inspired by the wonderful progress of Cindy F http://lonestarstitcherandherramblings.blogspot.com/ on her HAED I pulled mine out this week to actually put more than just a handful of stitches into it. Strangely I find it to be an quicker stitch with the bigger blocks of solid colors. I put about 1500 stitches in it in the last few days and that's with having a head cold myself plus having a toddler with a head cold. I'm planning on keeping the HAED out for the rest of this week and then I'll give in to my temptation to start another new project...I just haven't figured out which one yet. Thursdays will be my HAED day though.

This is what Sunken Treasure will look like when done:

I started at the upper left hand corner and this is where I stand right now:

The Tale of the tooth!

2009-02-18T20:54:00.002-05:00

Well, at least 4 months after the original incident, my son’s tooth finally had to be pulled. Of course it couldn’t have come at a worse time, he’d been sick with a really nasty stomach bug for over a week so we’ve had ourselves one rip roaring good time dealing with all of it for the last 2 weeks. But all is well, he now has a goofy little smile with a missing front top tooth but it only adds to his charm, lol.
Otherwise, Matthew is still sending me into periods of false labor but overall it hasn’t been enough to worry any of the doctors. DH is laid off this week so I’ve been taking as much advantage of that as possible and resting whenever I can. I’m down to 40 days until I will officially NOT be pregnant anymore….YAY!!!
So now that I’m done whining about life, lol…instead of stitching over the last few weeks I’ve been in full organizational mode. I actually sat down and properly kitted up my projects, put together a floss list for those projects still without…although I have officially joined the Abstinence challenge on the Wagon so the floss list will be for next year at the earliest.
I’ve also come to the conclusion that life with two little boys might be a little hectic for awhile so I am hereby deleting my yearly goal list. I have decided to stitch on whatever catches my fancy for the rest of the year. As many new starts as I want, finish what I can and enjoy all the different projects.
Since I have no stitching for you…meet my toothless daredevil, lol. Please pardon the dirty face, he’d just finished with a little snack and my hubby hadn’t caught him yet to clean him up:

Stitch hiatus!

2009-02-04T20:32:00.002-05:00

Well since my last post I have even barely picked up a needle. Between false labor and complete exhaustion, I just don't seem to have the energy, lol.

I updated my pics on webshots to show my progress through January. I'm hoping to find my stitching mojo again soon cause I have tons of projects I can't wait to get to.

Is the month over yet?

2009-01-26T22:54:00.003-05:00

Between DH being off and the weather being miserable causing us to hibernate indoors, this has been an insanely long month. I guess I should be thankful that my house is immaculate, organized and all ready for baby #2 at the end of March. With all my free time I've really gotten in some serious stitching time...it keeps my hands busy and my mind off all of the unknowns coming up.

My January Goals (originally) were:

1. Finish Eeyore on Winnie Sampler Happy Dance for me!!! It's finished. All I need to stitch are the birth specifics when the little guy finally shows up! Hopefully I'll get a picture posted later this week.

2. Finish Star on Rooftop Santa Stocking Star completed and I finished up the red band plus the lettering at the top also. I started working on the chimney this week but put it away...I was tired of the dark blue aida.

3. Work on Woodland Winter All total I probably spent around 8 hours on this one. I did work on this one again this past weekend so the trees are filled in a bit more on the left hand side.

4. Work on Celtic Autumn Another 8 hours was spent on her. I filled in some of the border again and worked on her face and hands. No picture yet sorry.

5. Work on Scenic Farm. Probably only 5 hours on this one. I filled in the sky and started stitching in some of the trees. For some reason this one wasn't keeping my attention so I put it away.

6. Stitch an ornament or two I did two. I wanted to get another one done before the end of the month but I can't see that happening.

Now since I finished up most of that early in the month I also got some more things accomplished.

CdC received the most attention...The entire first page is now stitched.

I started Stoney Creek's Cape Elizabeth and put about 4 hours or so into that one.

I started a stocking for baby #2 and put a couple of hours into that.

My HAED even was pulled out for several hours.

I started stitching the border for my Christmas Countdown calendar.

And the biggest shocker....Button's and Bears which is my most neglected WIP/UFO even got some stitching time.

The next few days are absolutely crazy so I doubt I'll be stitching much the rest of the week. I do hope to get some pictures taken and my picture journal updated by the 1st though.

February Goals:

1. Finish chimney on Rooftop Santa stocking

2. Finish 1/2 stitch wording on Naughty or Nice stocking

3. Work on Woodland Winter

4. Work on Scenic Farm

5. Work on Christmas Countdown.

6. Stitch 2 ornaments

7. Fnish border stitches on celtic autumn

8. Work on buttons-n-bears

9. Work on HAED

10. Work on Cape Elizabeth.

Ok, it's late so I'm off to bed....think the temperature will ever rise again, lol?

A very long month!

2009-01-13T18:56:00.004-05:00

Here it is only halfway through and without a doubt this is going to be a long and painful month. Between having the cold weather blahs, pregnancy fatigue and just the everyday stress of running the household I've been feeling rather beige, lol. Of course because I didn't have enough going on, my DH's company decided to do a weeklong shutdown. Thankfully unemployment will pay his salary for that week, that's not actually the problem.

The problem is...what to do with DH. My husband is not the type of guy who's happy sitting around and relaxing, he's always on the go, looking for some other project to do. This is a problem, lol. With all the time he's been off lately due to their being no overtime....there really isn't much to do around the house. I've got 3 days to come up with a very creative "honey do" list.

One really nice thing about all this time off....I get to stitch and relax. All the original goals I set for myself for this month I accomplished so I've decided to put in time on all my active WIP's this month and I'm really hoping to finish my Winnie birth sampler before the end of the month. So...on to some progress pics.

First off CdC. I worked on it for around 4 hours on and off. Finished up the one motif and started on the next. Second is Scenic Farm. I finished up the 1/2 stitching blue portion of the sky. Third is my two ornaments for the month. I've decided on doing 24 total for the tree this coming Christmas. So far I've gotten 5 done.

Last up is a new start. Don't ask me why I started it, I just figured why not. It's from Stoney Creek's Landmarks of the Waterways and it's Cape Elizabeth. On the cover of the book it's the top right one.

I've got more but for one post this is enough pictures. I also went through my stash to get an idea of what I would need to kit up some of my Wagon projects. Out of the 25 projects I only need fabric for 6. I need about 300 skeins of floss though so I'm hoping for a great sale here before too long.

Another goal accomplished!

2009-01-03T19:43:00.005-05:00

Woohoo! I'm really enjoying all the available stitching time with dh being home. And I confess....shhhhh, now this is our little secret....to fully enjoying being pampered by DH due to being pregnant, lol. Last night was the Let's Stitch SAL and I pulled out the Santa Rooftop stocking. I was determined to get that star finished...I can't believe a bunch of half stitches can be that annoying. It took all 6 hours last night and 15 extra minutes this morning but here it is....

I'll probably work on the stocking more later this month but I need a break from the dark material for a bit. I probably will work on Woodland Winter for a day or two maybe actually have some picture worthy progress on that.

Jo: Thanks so much for the Christmas card, it was lovely! I'm keeping an eye out for the next floss sale since I have some Christmas stash money here I want to finish out my dmc collection with.

One goal down already!

2009-01-01T18:00:00.003-05:00

Well not to shabby for only the first day of the month. Eeyore is finished and I threw in Piglet just for giggles. Actually I needed to run to get floss to do Eeyore so I stitched Piglet instead of switching out projects on the Q snaps.

I did take pictures of all active WIP's...I have a feeling by the time the month is out I'll be adding to that list though. My webshot album link is on the sidebar ------>.

Hope everyone had a wonderful and safe and warm New Years. We did absolutely nothing and it was divine. I've been fighting a really lousy cold for the last two days and it was way too cold and windy last night to try to go out anywhere. Tonight I'm going to try not to get a headache from the all day football marathon and work on the Santa Rooftop stocking.

Ahhhh relaxation!

2008-12-27T12:03:00.003-05:00

Christmas is over and we all survived. DH is "laid off" this week so I have plenty of help/free time to do what I want which is good for that last big clean before the New Year.

Speaking of the New Year, yes I said I wasn't going to do yearly goals but after thinking about it I realized there were some things I would like to have done by 2010 so I did end up setting some. I also set up some January goals since it does seem to help me keep focused (which is a good thing with the really bad pregnancy brain I have going on right now).

January 2009 Goals:
1. Finish Eeyore on Winnie Sampler
2. Finish Star on Rooftop Santa Stocking
3. Work on Woodland Winter
4. Work on Celtic Autumn
5. Work on Scenic Farmy
6. Stitch an ornament or two

2009 Goals:
1. Stay on Wagon!!
2. Finish Santa on the Rooftop Stocking
3. Finish Winnie the Pooh Birth Project
4. Start/Finish Naughty or Nice stocking
5. Finish Woodland Winter
6. Stitch a set or ornaments for tree next year
7. Finish Celtic Autumn
8. Finish at least 2 pages of Cirque des Cercles
9. Finish at least 1 page of HAED Sunken Treasure
10. Finish either Scenic Farm OR 1/2 of Christmas Countdown Calendar

I put in my last non essential item order from 123 Stitch before Christmas. I ordered Cirque des Carreaux and Winter Silhouette. It should be here either today or Monday. On the night of the 31st I will take pictures of all my active WIP's and start keeping a more accurate progress log on each of them.

Well, DS is up and wanting to play with his race cars so I'm going to go play with him for a bit before making up some ham and bean soup for dinner!

4.

2008-12-23T18:57:00.002-05:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!

Well, as usual, holiday are full of surprises. What was supposed to be a quiet, uneventful holiday at home has been turned upside down. My MIL is refusing to cooperate so the entire family has to get together again Christmas Eve so that presents can be exchanged with her present. I did get DH to promise though that this is the last time Christmas was going to turn into a traveling event. To add insult to injury, my MIL also invited herself to dinner with us Friday night since it's my DH's birthday. Yay (said with sarcasm.)

I have been stitching and amazingly enough have completed ALL of my goals for December already.

DECEMBER GOALS:
1. Clean and Iron "The Old West" and put in frame. Mail out by 12/10. DONE!!
2. Do finishing work on Tweetys for MIL DONE!!!
3. Stitch and finish bookmark. Mail Cranberry Christmas ornaments and bookmark by 12/10DONE!!!
4. Finish up Tigger on Winnie Sampler DONE!!!
5. Finish up 2 ornaments for us. DONE!!!

I do have pics of Tigger and the ornaments but will post them next time I post. I'm hoping to get progress pics of all my WIP's for the 1st of the year anyway. I'm not setting year goals per say but will continue to attempt the monthly ones so I get some of the projects done I REALLY want done first.

Well, I'm off to start a new project, lol. For a reward for accomplishing all my goals early I'm going to allow myself a new start on Cirque des cercles!

It's Santa Time Again!

2008-12-16T18:55:00.002-05:00

Yep there he is, the Santa stocking that obviously won't be ready for Christmas. That toy bag was a nightmare to get through...yowsers. But at least I got a solid 6 hours in on it with the Let's Stitch SAT.

Right now I'm in a blah state. There are so many projects I want to be doing but somehow don't end up working on. I've decided to only order one of my wishlist patterns and that's the new Ink Circles one. Between the actual chart and fabric, that's my Christmas present from my Dad.

My husband found out he was going to be "laid off" for a week. And while it's a pain in the rear end to go without a week's salary, which technically we're only losing 1/2 of cause he's picking up extra shifts before and after the hiatus, it will be nice to have a week of free child care....err I mean, help...(shhh don't tell my hubby I said that).

Ahhh, speaking of child...mine is calling for me. Oh, my project of choice for the next couple of days will be another Dimensions kit "Woodland Winter" that I'm doing for Christmas 09 for DH. He already knows about it so I don't mind if he sees it. I've only put one or two strands of floss in, so I won't bother with a before picture.

All Wrapped Up!

2008-12-08T19:49:00.002-05:00

Well things are almost all wrapped up. My son's presents are wrapped, labeled and in our back bedroom. My poor husband lost the coin toss so I supervised him while he got them ready to go. I'm actually really proud of our shopping this year, we stuck to our budget with our son and managed to get him a lot of really nice things.

I have been busy on the December goals too. Once Wednesday rolls around I'll have 1,2 and 3 finished. Which just leaves my own projects for the rest of the month. I did post my stash list and realized a couple of things...1. I own way too many Dimensions kits, lol. 2. I didn't have as much as I thought I did. I'm still sticking to my stash only plan for next year.

Has everyone seen the new Ink Circles? http://www.inkcircles.com/IC/Carreaux.html Cirque des Carreaux. I am thinking that when I get my Christmas money from my dad I might make one last dash order, lol. In my head right now I have Cirque des Carreaux, LHN's Brave Hearts, LHN's Lakeside Lounge and Winter Silhouette by Imaginating. But we'll have to see.

I'll wrap things up with a pic of the bookmark I did for my good friend. After stitching her a set of the PS Cranberry Christmas ornaments, I wanted to show her I could stitch in other colors beside red.

A little bit of everything!

2008-12-01T11:02:00.002-05:00

First on the stitching front, I did get some work on The new baby's birth sampler...I'll post the pics when I finally remember to get my camera out of our truck. Other than that I haven't done much this weekend other than watch movies with DS, he loves the old cheesy Christmas classics...it's so much fun! I also started playing Sims 2 again so that takes up lots of stitching time, lol. I'm setting some "goals" for December, more so that I have a reminder of what all needs done.

DECEMBER GOALS:
1. Clean and Iron "The Old West" and put in frame. Mail out by 12/10.
2. Do finishing work on Tweetys for MIL
3. Stitch and finish bookmark. Mail Cranberry Christmas ornaments and bookmark by 12/10
4. Finish up Tigger on Winnie Sampler
5. Finish up 2 ornaments for us.

Pretty simple stuff overall, it's just a matter of getting it done.

I'm doing a personal stash challenge next year. I plan on stitching only from my stash of projects. The only exceptions of course will be fabric, threads and if needed beads. The goal of course is to keep my spending down not to mention make some room. I doubt I'll ever get to the point where I buy projects as I stitch them...that just sounds boring, lol. One of these days when DH is off work I'll post a listing of all my stash on the sidebar so I don't try to cheat on myself, lol.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-26T21:25:00.003-05:00

This week I did some finishing on some of the ornaments I stitched, no pictures until after Christmas on those though, lol. I also worked on the new birth sampler for the baby. I'm also stitching it for the Let's Stitch Stitch a thon so I hope it goes quick and I can mark it off my deadline list.

We're hoping to have a nice quiet Thanksgiving tomorrow. DH is doing the turkey for me because in my current state of pregnancy, raw meat makes me rather queasy.

I hope everyone has a beautiful and peaceful Thanksgiving!

I'll try not to read anything into it.

2008-11-20T18:48:00.002-05:00

Today while my son was playing hapily with his Mega Blocks, I got a good chunk of time to work on Fairy Tale Baby, my son to be's birth announcement project. Well, needless to say I had to go answer the door and in that 2 minute distraction my son managed to spill my not so hot chocolate all over the project. Alas, the project is destroyed and now taking up residence inside our trash bin.

After much deliberation I have decided that I'm not going to attempt Fairy Tale Baby again at this point. Now that I know I'm definitely having a boy I'm leaning more towards a gender specific announcement...stay tuned for a future decision, lol.

It's a BOY!!!

2008-11-19T19:31:00.003-05:00

Well this has been a fun week so far. We found out Monday that we are expecting another boy!!! I could have sworn it was a girl but, alas, I was wrong. DH and I also scheduled my c-section so we're all set to go in March.

I did manage to get some stitching done too. I stitched two more Tweety birds before having to retire the yellow floss until my eyes heal up. Instead I worked on a simple little Christmas ornament for our tree next year. The rest of the time this week I've been randomly moving back and forth between Fairy Tale Baby and Santa on the Rooftop Stocking.

And thanks to the encouragement of Jo (lol) I did start two new projects. The first is Dimensions kit "Woodland Winter"...picture to follow next post since I only put a strand or two of floss in it before putting it away. The second of my new starts is a Heaven and Earth Design Schimmel's "Sunken Treasure". Picture not taken since I really don't have much to show on that one either. The Woodland Winter is a present for my husband for next Christmas, the Sunken Treasure will eventually be for the kids' room.

Well since I actually have some downtime before bed, I'm going to go put some stitches in Fairy Tale Baby. I'd really like to have it done by the end of the year...might be pushing it, but I'm going to try.

Another busy one!

2008-11-08T19:32:00.002-05:00

Doesn't it seem time flies too fast these days?

I did participate in the "Let's Stitch" SAT last night and made a little progress on Fairy Tale Baby birth sampler. Not as much as I would have liked.

I also managed to get two of the Tweety birds stitched. DH asked me if I would mind stitching them for his mother who collects them for Christmas instead of us giving her the customary money gift. I have the ornament for the tree stitched and the Tweety for the keychain stitched. Now I just need to get through the mug, tote bag and bib. Not big projects, but the yellow is bright and annoying after stitching so much of it.

DH and I also were talking about the status of the tree decorations. With two kids running around, we have decided that throughout the year I'm going to stitch a couple of sets of ornaments so that next year I won't have to worry about broken glass.

Other than that, right now I'm fighting the major urge to start a bunch of new projects, just cause I have them. I'm trying to come up with a definitive list of projects I want to do for next year. Of course I'm trying to keep in mind, my time will be even more limited with a new baby!

Happy Dance for the week!

2008-10-20T19:19:00.005-04:00

Well I did finish up the last of my Christmas stitching early this morning when I put the last stitch into PS Cranberry Christmas ornaments. Now all I have to do is finish them and get them packed up and ready to ship. I used the recommended DMC and 32ct fabric. Sorry I don't have the details on it, it was just part of my stash.

This week I'm hoping to get some stitches into L&L's Celtic Autumn, she's been sadly neglected.

Thanks ladies for the kind words last post. Thankfully, the dentist was very nice and decided to wait and see before just pulling the tooth. So I'll know next week for sure what the plan is with the tooth.

Jo: DH and I are in major budget mode due to the state of the economy so I decided very early this year to come up with as many stitchy projects for gifts as I could. I actually finished the first set of ornaments back in May of this year. And to answer your question from awhile ago...the fabric I used for LHN "The Old West" was 28 ct Terracotta Wren. Not sure what brand it was but I ordered it from 123 Stitch. I really liked how it had a vintage western look to it.

Bad Mommy but good stitcher!

2008-10-14T21:15:00.002-04:00

Ok, now to explain the title. I've been making really good progress on my stitching. I have 1/2 of the outside border of Bobbie G. Designs "Fairy Tale Baby" completed. I'll finish the other 1/2 (hopefully) during this week. I've managed to get another 2 Cranberry Christmas ornaments completed. So, yay for me, I'm being a good stitcher.

Now on to the bad mommy moment. I was just standing up to grab my son's towel to grab him out of the bathtub when he decided to stand up and start to dance. Well he slipped, and hit his front teeth down on the side of the tub. OUCH!!! Well as you can imagine, there was blood and a lot of crying (mostly mine, lol). I checked his one tooth and sure enough it's loose. So tomorrow I have the wonderful task of taking my 17 month old, non compliant son to the dentist to get his tooth pulled. All I can possibly hope for is that when they give my dear baby boy some laughing gas that they give mommy some too.

So my plan for the rest of this week is just survival. I'm hoping that I finish up the Cranberry ornaments this week cause then that's the last of my Christmas present stitching for this year. I'd really like to finish the ornaments up before starting anything new so another reason I'm just itching to finish.

Oh, in a rather funny note, the project Butterfly Brilliance is no longer on my WIP list. It was the unfortunate victim of my son's sippy cup of fruit punch. I guess he sensed my frustration with the project. I'm just grateful that my Celtic Autumn was no longer in the same tub.

September's End!

2008-10-01T12:29:00.002-04:00

Another month has come and gone. I'm not even worrying about reviewing my goals for September cause I know the only one I accomplished was getting LHN "The Old West" finished. I'm going to take it easier on myself for October and not set any goals. I would like to finish up some of the PS Cranberry Christmas ornaments for my friend but I have 2 months to do 5 ornaments so I have plenty of time. I'm going to stitch for fun this month I think.

I've gotten my actual WIP's down to 5. This month I'll also be doing Debbie G's Fairy Tale Baby for the Let's Stitch Friday night stitch a thon's so I'll be up to 6 then. I'm really hoping to also start my Ink Circles CDC and maybe even start to put a couple of stitches into my HAED. But we'll have to see.

Right now I'm working on my long lost WIP Dimensions "Scenic Farm" and have to say I'm actually enjoying stitching on it again. It was one of those projects that got pushed to the end of the line so I could work on other things. I picked it up on Tuesday looking like this so we'll see how much progress I can get on it this week.

A HAPPY DANCE

2008-09-27T18:43:00.003-04:00

Finally A FINISH!!! I've been feeling slighly unambitious lately when it comes to my stitching. I have all these wonderful projects and it seems like I'll never get them done. And then I read Becky's blog (http://beckysc.blogspot.com/) and realized she was speaking to me. So my Happy Dance today is thanks to her motivation!

My happy dance is for LHN's The Old West which is a christmas present for my dearest sister. And amazingly enough it's done and EARLY!!! Now my dh can make a nice frame for it and it will be waiting here instead of me spending lots of late nights to get it done on time.

I'm feeling really good about getting things done now. I'll be taking a look at my projects and figuring out which ones are going to get my full attention for the time being!

Teething is a real pain!

2008-09-10T19:31:00.002-04:00

My poor dear son is quite the unlucky boy. Whenever he gets teeth in, he tends to get 4 at a time. Right now, he's working on his canines. The bottom two broke through but the top two are really causing problems. So the poor baby went to bed tonight with a 103.2 fever, some tylenol and a sippy cup of water beside the bed. Unfortunately he didn't get any dinner cause his stomach picked that precise moment to empty itself out and he refused anymore food after that. Add in my already weak pregnant tummy and it was quite an interesting evening, lol.

I have been doing stitching, and I will update with pics soon. I've been working endlessly on "The Old West". My dh is planning on making a frame for it since it goes to my sister for Christmas, so I need to get it done as soon as possible. I'm putting aside my rotation and goals for the month until I get it done.

I really like the "simplicity" of the LHN projects, so much different than the BAP's I'm used to working on. It's quite relaxing not to have to blend floss together for confetti stitches, lol.

Ok, I'm off to lay down for a bit until my husband gets home. Then I'll try and get something to eat myself as my stomach wouldn't allow me earlier. Happy Stitching everyone!

August in review!

2008-09-03T18:07:00.003-04:00

August Goals
1.Figure out Workable rotation for WIP's....COMPLETED
2. Stitch 9 Ornaments 2 done
3. Finish border on Celtic Autumn Nope, lol
4. Stitch Toys on Santa on the Rooftop 3/4 of the toys stitched
5. Kit up birth sampler after choosing one....COMPLETED
6.Finish 1/2 stitching on Butterfly Worked on it for 2 hours
7.Finish double border on "The Old West"....COMPLETED

September Goals
1. Start Tweety for MIL.
2. Finish at least 2 more ornaments
3. Finish middle scenes on "The Old West"
4. Toys and Santa backstitching done on Stocking.

It seemed like I would get my stitchy groove going for August until I ran into the dreaded....morning sickness. Which is inaccurately named by the way, since mine lasts well into the early evening. Not much actual upchucking, but lots of nausea.

I am stitching when I can though and making some progress. I'm shifting my rotation and goals around this month to attempt to get the Christmas presents stitched and ready to go early this year. I do not want to still be stitching them come Christmas eve.

I'm officially on the stash wagon. I signed up for the 10 project challenge to start. I'm also doing my own personal little No New Starts challenge until I get some of these WIP's finished. I'm not doing too bad but I'd still like to keep the number of projects active low.

Well, I'm off to do some stitching. I'm in a groove with working on "The Old West" so I don't want to lose the mojo. Hope everyone had a wonderful Labor Day weekend!!

A very big Thanks!

2008-08-29T09:37:00.004-04:00

Wow Jo! ( http://astitchintime-jo.blogspot.com/ ) you really know how to brighten up a girl's day. I was very touched you picked me, I was in very good company too!

So without further delay:

I now need to nominate 7 blogs, here are the rules:

1. The winner can put the logo on their Blog.

2. Link the person you received your award from.

3. Nominate at least 7 other Blogs.

4. Put the links to those Blogs on yours.

5. Leave a message on the Blogs of those you've nominated.

I love reading all the blogs and seeing all the stitching so this was a hard decision but I've decided on:

1. Coni at Spinster Stitcher http://spinsterstitcher.blogspot.com/

2. Nicole at Carolina Dreams http://nevillen.blogspot.com/

3. Carol at Garden of Stitches http://carolsxsblog.blogspot.com/

4. Rachael at Brokenfairy's Stitchabilities http://brokenfairy.wordpress.com/

5. Paula at Celtic Stitcher http://celticstitcher.blogspot.com/

6. Karen at Little Cat Blogs http://littlecatblogs.blogspot.com/

7. Sally at Stitchyangel's Treasures http://stitchingplace.blogspot.com/

A drive by post!

2008-08-22T18:01:00.003-04:00

Somehow or another, my poor little computer has started to limp it's way to the trash bin. We have a new tower on it's way for next week so I'm crossing fingers and toes this one doesn't die before then.

I FINALLY got the shipment from the bad ONS and have gotten started on my set of Cranberry Christmas oranaments for my friend's present. I was also able to kit up the new birth sampler so it's ready to start stitching next month. I don't think I'm going to accomplish all my goals for this month, but at least I'll get some done. I'm hoping between tonight and tomorrow to make some progress on Santa's stocking. Hopefully I'll be able to accomplish at least that.

For the anonymous person who commented on my last post about not liking 123 Stitch because of their message board: I must confess I have never visited their board. My opinion is based solely on the amazing customer service, variety and speed of their shop. After all, that's what's most important about a ONS.

A Vent

2008-08-09T15:05:00.002-04:00

Amazingly enough in my local area LNS are hard to come by. We have the big chains that are wonderful for DMC threads but lousy at carrying the current charts and linen. So no big surprised that I've used ONS for my main supplier.

Well there is this certain ONS that seems to be really poor at not only customer service but putting together the orders in a timely manner. I place an order last Sunday and other than the original automated reply have received nothing. A full work week has gone by and yet I have no notification of my paypal being charged or any email from the ONS stating that the order will take some time to fill. (Which it shouldn't, all items were listed as available and shipping soon).

Now on Wednesday I place an order with 123 Stitch. Within a day, I received an email stating that my order had been shipped. So needless to say that the staff at 123 Stitch has earned my loyalty and I will use them exclusively for my ONS.

If I don't hear from the other ONS by Monday, I plan on calling to cancel the order and switch it to 123 Stitch instead. Good customer service always wins out!

New Rotation and Progress Pics

2008-07-31T20:42:00.007-04:00

I finally decided on a workable rotation for me. I posted it on the sidebar. I will do a new rotation every month to keep myself from getting tired of the same old same old. I do need to bend my no stash rule just a bit. As I was looking at the leaflet for the birth announcement I have, I realized I didn't really like it. No big deal, really, I didn't buy it, it was a gift. So I'll do a little searching and see if I can find one I really like.

Progress photos in order....

Celtic Autumn Santa Stocking

LHN "The Old West"

Well I'm off for tonight. Still need to fold a bunch of laundry before my day ends. Maybe I'll even indulge myself in some cherry vanilla Haagen Daaz...yummy. Night!

Are we there yet?

2008-07-30T18:35:00.002-04:00

Well the end of July has rolled around and I haven't accomplished one of my goals for the month. No big surprise there. I have been stitching, sorry no pics to update. I did manage to get Santa's bag stitched before I finally had enough with that and rotated into Celtic Autumn. I managed to get about 15 hours in on her before I lost my stitching mojo.

I do have some new stash. Probably more than I should. A couple of weeks ago I ordered LHN Old West. That's going to be a Christmas present for my sister. She lives in Arizona and decorates her home with Old West decorations. I just need to find the perfect frame for it though. Any ideas?

Let's see, I also got HAED Sunken Treasure. I've been wanting to attempt one but it had to be one that I could eventually put in my kids room so I chose one with dolphins and lots and lots and LOTS of blue. I'm in the process of kitting it up now. I was having a hard time on deciding which ornament patterns to use for my friends so I decided to do the cutesy little cartoon ones for my friend with 4 kids. I purchased The Prairie Schooler Cranberry Christmas ornaments for my friend who doesn't have kids.

Next on my shopping extravaganza was Ink Circles Cirque des Cercles. I still have no idea what fabric or threads I'm going to use with that one. Last but not least are The Cricket Collection Autumn Alphabet and Homespun Samplar Celtic Band Sampler. Also I have not even come close to thinking about specifics on those either.

So I have plenty to do, so I have no excuse for not being able to work on a project I like. I have put myself on the stash wagon though. Since I'm fond of BAP's, I'm only going to hold myself to 3 completed projects before buying more stash. I have a full set of DMC so that shouldn't be too big of a problem.

On the baby front, well...I didn't end up pregnant in June. But this month, well today actually I got the faintest line on a pregnancy test. 3 times!!! So fingers crossed, it wasn't just a fluke test, I am having a baby!!! So maybe I did get one of my July goals accomplished.

Goals For August:

1. Figure out a workable rotation for WIP's.
2. Stitch 9 ornaments
3. Finish border for Celtic Autumn
4. Stitch toys in Santa on the Rooftop.
5. Kit up birth sampler. Stitch part of the border.
6. Finish 1/2 stitching on Butterfly
7. Finish double border on Old West

That should keep me busy! Joke intended.

Not much progress

2008-07-05T12:13:00.002-04:00

Just like the title says, I had very little progress on the stocking so I didn't even bother posting a picture of it. The past few weeks have been crazy. My dear son is teething again and was down with a stomach bug for a couple of days. Then of course, as the laws of nature demand, everyone else in the house soon followed with the illness.

Things have finally cleared up and I did pull out the stitching again. Hopefully my son will continue going to bed early so I can get more done. I really want to get this stocking done.

So on that front, I've decided to start monthly goals.

July Goals:
Kit up materials for Christmas ornaments. 10 for our friends and I'd like to do a set for us.

Finish main stitching on stocking.

I'm starting slow this month on the goals mostly because the stocking will be a big job.

Spa Day is coming!

2008-06-25T19:48:00.004-04:00

Ok, so maybe I'm getting ahead of myself a bit but I am pretty pleased with the progress I've made so far on the stocking. As busy as my last couple of weeks have been and the overwhelming urge to start a new project, I stuck with it and have at least got the majority of Santa done. This is the progress I've made after a total of 52 stitching hours.

I had to scan the stocking since my camera is in the diaper bag which my husband forgot to take out of the truck before leaving for work.

In other big news, my DH and I are currently in yet another 2 week waiting period to see if I might be expecting again. The fertility treatments have taken more of a toll on my body this time so I'm really hoping that it happens this month. Of course, the only concern is that according to my doctor, due to my double ovulation this cycle....I could be looking at a TWIN pregnancy....WOWSERS!!!

And just to prove how addicted I am, my first thought when the doctor said that was Do I stitch two birth samplers or just one? ROFL

So I am off now to work on the stocking while my son is at least pretending to sleep for me right now. That and obsess a little more about being pregnant again!

A fun way to start the day!

2008-06-12T21:11:00.003-04:00

This morning we woke to the "strange house noise". You all know what I'm talking about, that noise that sounds like it could be coming from the pipes, but it isn't...or maybe it's coming from outside, but it isn't. The noise that makes you ill thinking that at any moment the house is going to explode, lol. So after a minor panic attack and being angry that my husband went to work while there was still this strange noise, I figured out what it was. We have a ceiling fan in our dining room on the first floor and it was causing a vibration to go up through the ceiling into the floor of our bedroom. I'm very proud of myself for figuring it out!!

Anyhoo, I have been keeping pretty busy cleaning for our last and most welcome houseguest of the summer, my oldest sister. This is the first time she's been able to see my son since he was born and I can't wait. She's planning on being here Sunday morning to celebrate Father's Day with my dad, he doesn't know she's coming so soon so it's a nice surpise.

I have been stitching. I rotated into my son's Santa Stocking. I have a bet going with my darling hubby that I can finish it in 2 months. If I win, I get a spa day. If he wins he gets to go to a Pro baseball game. I WANT THE SPA DAY!!! LOL.

I've made some progress. Given where I picked up from on this rotation and only having 10 hours on it so far I'm feeling pretty accomplished. On the left where I stopped and on the right is where I am now. I'll probably stick with this until I absolutely can't stand it anymore. Like I said, I really really want that spa day, lol.

Time for a deep breath!

2008-06-01T19:55:00.004-04:00

Wow it's been a heck of a week. This is the first time I've felt like I've been able to sit and relax for more than 10 minutes, lol. So I did get some stitching in. Not on Butterflies though, the browns on that were boring me so I decided to work on Celtic Autumn.

So far I'm loving stitching on it. I much prefer working on Rainbow Gallery metallics than the other kind. I'll probably hold off until the end to do the beading even though I've heard it's easier to bead as you go.

So I put in my 20 hours on Autumn so I'll be moving on to the Santa Stocking for 20 hours. As I figured, the 20 hours put me around a week. I also went through all my stash and finally got it all organized and catalogued. Boy, do I have more projects to do than I could ever possibly do, lol.

I also did order two patterns Ink Circles "Kaleidascope" and Blue Ribbon Designs "Stars and Stripes" I'm a sucker for stash, lol.

New Rotation

2008-05-20T23:00:00.003-04:00

My poor husband thinks I've lost my mind. I sat down with my 3 tubs of cross stitch pamphlets, books, material, floss and kits and sorted them out. Many things I have been given by friends that didn't know my taste in projects and some I bought when I was younger and thought...oh wow, it's only 2 bucks, I have to have it, lol.

My rotation will need to change. I'm going to have to do mine by hours. I love seeing actual progress on projects so I'm thinking 20 hours per project before rotating. On a good day I can get in a solid 3 hours a day. In between getting my son to bed and going to bed myself. So it should still average out to a week, but then again, life is rarely perfect! :)

My house guest is more stressful of a situation than I was expecting. Long story short, he's my biological father. When I was 3 weeks old, my biological mother left me alone in their apartment and never came back. My biological father was in the Navy at the time and didn't really want a kid, so I went to live with my paternal grandparents, who adopted me. I have no relationship with my bio father, he's just one of those things in life that I have to grin and bear. With my adopted Dad's worsening health, I could not in good consciousness turn bio dad away from seeing his own father.

I've found that retreating to my own bedroom is the safest idea, and I keep trying to remember that he's only here for 1 more day.

I have made some progress on Butterflies, mostly backstitching on the center area. I needed to do something different than the endless brown half stitches. Ever really hate a project by the time you got to the end of it, lol?

Stitching Roadblock

2008-05-17T06:32:00.002-04:00

I am temporarily at a full stop with my stitching. My brother decided last minute to come visit my dad (who lives with us) so I only have 2 days to get my house "guest worthy". Not sure about anyone else, but whenever we have people coming to stay I turn into a cleaning maniac. My normal clean just isn't good enough.

So add in a 1 year old and a cranky 81 year old and it's going to be a long weekend!

Before chaos descended upon my house, I actually put the first few stitches into L&L Celtic Autumn. I just couldn't wait any longer and Butterflies was getting repetitive with all the 1/2 stitching.

So that's where I stand for now, hopefully I will get some stitching done while the guest is here but who knows.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Progress and Hello!

2008-05-12T10:30:00.004-04:00

I want to thank everyone for taking time to comment on my blog. I really appreciate it and I'm enjoying reading your blogs with your progress stitching and stories from your day to day lives.

I didn't get to stich the entire Mother's day, lol. It's very hard to NOT do things for my family but I did get in some time with Butterflies. The picture was taken on Saturday and since then I've been able to fill in 3 more of the outside half stitch boxes. I'm really hoping to have this project completely finished sometime this month.

I also kitted up my L&L Celtic season projects so that I can start them up as soon as Butterflies is completed. I also sorted the floss for one of my Dimension kits, the Woodland Winter kit. That's for DH for Christmas so I really needed to get it jumpstarted. Basically my goals have been set for the year, let's just hope I can accomplish them.

Hope you all had wonderful weekends and an easy week at work!

Wow, time flies!

2008-05-09T18:40:00.002-04:00

It really does fly by. I would post pics of my progress but unfortunately my darling hubby has the camera in the truck, lol. So I'll get it tonight and hopefully post some progress pics this weekend.
I've mainly been working on the Butterfly project. It seems a shame to rotate it now when it's relatively close to being finished. I've decided to keep working on it another week and see how I'm feeling about it then.
I got my shipment of floss and linen to start the Celtic Season Ladies. I can't wait, I already have a place in mind on where to hang them in the house. It's my first time working with beading so any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Since it's Mother's Day on Sunday, my wonderful husband is giving me a day to stitch. He's making dinner that night for me too. I really don't want to go out to a restaurant, they're bound to be busy, besides, that would interrupt my stitching. LOL.

Anyone else have any big plans for Mother's Day?

A Little Progress.

2008-05-01T20:28:00.005-04:00

Today is the rotate day of my WIP's. I'm actually proud of myself, I've managed to get a modest couple of stitches into the Christmas Stocking given the week I've had. Next up will be butterflies and I'm truly hoping I can get that almost finished.

Butterflies is actually almost complete with the exception of half stitches and some backstitching. So fingers crossed that my son goes to bed on time everynight and that there are no major upsets to the schedule, lol.

So here's my progress picture on the stocking:

Goals for May:

Finish up the butterfly project

Kit up Celtic Autumn

I also wanted to post a pic of my little man enjoying his birthday cake:

Ok I am off to do some stitching!
Hope you all had wonderful MayDay!

Until later, take care and be safe.
Melissa

The reason I can't stitch all day!

2008-04-27T21:58:00.002-04:00

The reason is my beautiful baby boy, who today turned 1 year old. After fighting for 10 years to have my own baby, everyday it's still amazing and wonderful to walk into his room and see his big blue eyes and crazy little smile and know he's mine.

I'll gladly sacrifice a couple of extra hours of stitching just to watch his expression when he learns how to make his car move and the look on his face when he took his first steps. These are the things that give my life meaning and purpose everyday.

Stitching is slow this weekend unfortunately. My father, who lives with us, had a bad health weekend so I'm playing catch up with regular chores today, not to mention all the birthday party stuff that needed taken care of.

Since today is also my birthday DH gave me money this year to go ahead and buy whatever I wanted. I can't decide if I want to go to the bookstore or craftstore, lol.

Something long forgotten.

2008-04-24T19:17:00.005-04:00

As I went through all my cross stitch tubs I only found 2 WIP. Amazing! DH is always accusing me of having too many projects going at once but I can prove him wrong, lol.

The two WIP's are Brilliant Butterfly Celebration and Buttons and Bears. Both are Dimension kits.

I had started the butterflies back in 06 and then my MIL gave me the Buttons and Bears to stitch for her. Both of those got shuffled into the back when I found out I was pregnant so that I could do some stitching for the baby. I had forgotten all about the butterflies unfortunately.

My stitching time is usually after my son goes down for the night so I can only really spend 2 or 3 hours on a good night. I'm hoping to convince DH to give me a day to myself on Mother's Day so I can do some more stitching!

One of my favorite projects that I've done, not just cause it went quickly, but because I am a huge animal person and it fit perfectly with the theme of my son's room was this one (sorry can't remember the name of it).

DH is going laugh his head off at me when he gets home from work tonight because I have all of my stash laying out on our bed and bedroom floor so I could make up a list of what I had. My darling boy had so much fun today looking at all the pictures in the books and pamphlets.

For now, I think I'm going to do weekly rotations of WIP's. I'm also going to put together a small project to keep in the diaper bag. With an elderly father, I tend to spend quite a lot of time at hospitals or doctor's offices so that will help too.

My rotation:

Week A: Christmas Stocking

Week B: Butterfly

Week C: Buttons and Bears.

As I get one finished, I'll figure out which of my kits to start next.

Stocking Pics and Progress.

2008-04-23T19:40:00.004-04:00

Keep in mind I just started this in earnest in the last couple of days, lol. I'm still hunting down all my current WIP's to compile a complete list of them also.

So here's what the project is supposed to look like:

And here is where I am:

First Ever Blog

2008-04-22T19:37:00.006-04:00

To introduce myself, I'm Melissa. A slightly sarcastic SAHM and caretaker to my elderly father. Cross stitching and reading are my two big addictions but I'm also a prize holding procrastinator. I have tons of patterns and kits but never seem to sit myself down and do them.

I have about 5 or 6 works in progress, I need to dig them out to add them to my list though. The big one on my desk right now is a Christmas stocking for my son. I opened the kit in March and other than seperating the floss have done almost nothing on it. I don't have pictures of it yet but I will next time I post.

I've seen a lot of mention of rotation of projects, what a brilliant idea. That's probably my biggest problem, I get bored with a certain design and stop stitching for awhile. So that's the plan for now. Hopefully this blog will help me keep up better with a favorite hobby!

Until later, be safe and have fun!