An exchange for Diane and a little help please...

Hi everybody!~ So are you all staying warm? We had a couple of nice days here and then it got cold again and the weatherman is calling for snow and ice. It is just now starting to snow a little . The accumulation is supposed to between 5-9 inches! Oh well, I can think Spring and stitch Spring right? Maybe that will trick my brain!

I have been participating in a couple of exchanges and one was with Diane as I mentioned when I showed that wonderful pincushion she sent me. I stitched for her as well and made my first bourse! I had a lot of fun with it. I stitched part of the BBD "Be Kind and True" and added a couple of things from the pattern in a couple of different places. I stitched it on 28 count evenweave that I dyed myself using DMC. I used a sage green moire fabric for the outside to lend more of an antique look. I used mother of pearl buttons at the corners. This is a finish that I really enjoyed doing and will do again. Diane has let me know that it arrived so it is now safe to show a picture.

I made the card with the Cricut Expression of course. Man I love that thing!!

As I mentioned I would do, I started back on the Stripes piece from Shepherd's Bush. I don't really like the way the threads kind of blend in with the linen from the kit. I remember Edgar mentioning that a while back. I see what he means. I think it will "pop" once it's all done though. I haven't gotten very far , but here's my progress so far.

Ok...now for the help. I would like to stitch "Where My Heart Blooms" by Blackbird Designs this year. Problem is , this pattern has been discontinued and the needlework shop I go to can't get it for me. I was wondering if one of you wonderful stitchers that had this pattern would be willing to loan it to me? I would stitch it as soon as possible and would take excellant care of the pattern . You would receive something stitched by me of my choosing as a "thank you" as well. I'd appreciate any help!

Thank you all friends for all of your wonderful, wonderful comments!

'til next time,

Happy Stitching!

Sharlotte

America finished!

Greetings all!~ Hope you all are having a wonderful day! I myself have a busy one in front of me , and then we are expecting ice and snow! I'm so glad that I went grocery shopping yesterday, I know the stores will be busy today for sure.

Well, I got busy and finished America from Little House Needleworks. I am going to finish Shepherd's Bush Stripes next. Don't know why all of a sudden that I have gotten a stitching itch for the Americana style but I'm liking it. I think I might even pull out an Americana quilt I started for my aunt a while back.

I can't remember for sure , but I think this is my third finish for the year.

I also got my son's socks finished early yesterday morning! He wore them to his bowling league yesterday. He likes them a lot. Isn't it nice when you make something for someone and the appreciate it?

I have a quite a few entries for the strawberry giveaway . If you haven't entered yet, there's no time like the present! Thanks for all of your wonderful comments! Keep 'em comin'!

'til next time,

Happy Stitching!

Sharlotte

A little giveaway!!

Hello everybody!~ Well , let's get right to it shall we? A few posts back I reached my 100 post mark so I decided to celebrate with a little giveaway. I have stitched this little strawberry emery using the pattern from "It's Berry Time" from the talented minds of the gals from Blackbird Designs. To enter , just simply comment on this post for one entry. For a second entry, post about the giveaway on your blog. Yes , you may use the picture. You have until midnight on January 31st ( Sunday) to sign up and I will draw a name on Monday.

Yesterday the mail brought this little cutie! A mattress pincushion, it's the first one I own.It was stitched for me by Diane in the Ties That Bind Exchange. I just love it! The little bug charm is super cute! I think this will find it's home in my quilting supplies . Oh , don't think that I won't be seeing it much if I do that. I plan on doing a lot of piecing in the near future!


The sides have our initials on it and reads "Ties That Bind Exchange, January 2010". So thoughtful of her to add all of that. She even stitched a cute little flower on the bottom which I forgot to take a picture of. The pattern is from Lizzie Kate and Diane stitched it on 26 count Shannon linen from Zweigart. Thanks again Diane! I will post a picture of what I stitched for her as soon as she receives it.

Thank you all for all of your comments. They make my day, truly they do!

'til next time,

Happy Stitching,

Sharlotte

Merry Monday!!

Hello everybody! Happy Monday! I'm so glad to be up and running after being gone for a few days. I have peeked in on a few blogs to comment but I didn't dare trust the internet to work long enough for a post. Looks like it's back to working full time again.

I started on America from LHN . It's the pattern that I bought when we went to Cecilia's last week. I've wanted to stitch it ever since she first published it , don't know what has taken me so long! I've already been thinking of a frame . I think I am going to put it in a navy blue one. I'd like to get it done this week so I can start back on the Stripes from Shepherd's Bush. I will of course be working on the redwork as well. Oh boy, speaking of that , I found yet another redwork pattern that I MUST do. I'll get those other blocks finished first before starting on it.

I also played around with my Cricut Expression this weekend. I have been wanting to have a 'catch all' box for the dresser in our bedroom. I worked on this box using the vinyl. First time I used it and I like it. Our bedroom is decorated in the lodge look so I think this box with fit in nicely don't you?


Here's one side....


and the other.

Well dear blogging buddies, time is short this a.m. so I will be on my way. Thanks for stopping by! Hope you all have a great week!

'til next time,

Happy stitching,

Sharlotte

Trouble with the internet

Hi all. I'm grabbing a moment while the internet is working to let you all know that our internet provider is experiancing trouble with their internet connection. It's been working on and off for only a couple of minutes. Since it takes a while to post and upload pictures, I will be taking a break from posting until it gets fixed. In the few minutes it may be working , I may be able to post comments to a few blogs like I was able to yesterday, I don't know.

I'll be back asap!
Take care all!
Sharlotte

My not so local needlework shop

Greetings all~ I thought I would show you a few pictures of our little trip we made yesterday. We don't have a needlework shop in town any more . When we get the urge to visit one, we have to travel about 45 mintues to the south of us to Branson. We always look forward to the trip. Well , not so much Alex, but he usually has something to occupy him. LOL! It may look small from the outside , but the inside holds all kinds of wonderful treasures.

When you walk inside , you will usually see Pam stitching away behind the counter, or busy cutting fabric or helping someone find something great. She is so helpful and really knows her stuff. The owners are definately lucky to have her on staff. This is Pam of course.


Here are a few shots of inside the store. My hubby and I were so busy oohing and aahing over stuff , I forgot to pull out the camera to get very many. This store has so much more to offer than what I captured. They have tons of beautiful fabrics in just about everything that is on the market. I was disappointed to find out that there are some fabrics that have been discontinued by the manufacturer , oh well. They have a yarn section as well. They also have a t.v. going on all the time playing some kind of instructional dvd. Yesterday it was on punchneedle. I didn't notice until after we got home , but do you see what appears to be Santa's feet sticking out from underneathe the table cloth? Makes me wonder what that is now.


Here's their Halloween corner.

...and some samplers above that table.

They had an awesome sale yesterday. They have this bin that has things marked for a dollar a lot of the time. Remember some time back when I got all of that DMC pearle cotton for a dollar a bag? It was here at this store. Yesterday they had all kinds of remnant bags of linen for a dollar a bag. They had about 6 pieces in each bag , ranging from bookmark size to sizes that you could use for pillows , box tops, ornaments, fobs, needlebooks, pincushions, you know , smaller projects. The colors are just beautiful. It's all mystery count but I have a hole scaler so I should be able to figure most of them out, just not the type. I wound up with 34 pieces in those bags!



Here's our haul.

When we got up to the counter we found out that everything in the store was 18% off for MLK Day! We really saved a lot yesterday. Those two darker pieces are Jack's for some projects that he will be working on. I already started on the LHN America pattern last night. I'll try to show progress tomorrow.

Well friends, thanks for stopping by and for the wonderful comments!

Stay warm!

Sharlotte

Doing a jig of glee...

Greetings all~ I am doing a jig of glee this morning. Today is my 100th post! I must admit when I started I didn't know how long I would stay with it. I even considered stopping the blog at the beginning of the year. You know, the moderation thing I talked about last week? Anyway, I started getting to know a few of you a little more and if I stopped now, you'd forget about me! LOL! Anyway I am quite excited that I made it to 100. I still have a way to go to get to my blogaversary , but time flies and it will be here before I know it!

Well , as I metioned on Friday , we had company this weekend. I spent my time on Friday catching up on flylady. Now I am already to go on Zone #4. Of those of you that's been following, how are you all doing with this? We threw away 2 bags of stuff this weekend and boy did it feel good! When you first start, it all feels like it weighs a ton of bricks, but then as you get rid of stuff and clutter and can actually find something that helps you keep up with it all, you feel lighter.

Well for those of you that have been reading, you know I haven't had much to report on as far as stitching goes. I did finish up an exchange piece this weekend and even got it into finished form. Yeah! another jig of glee! I even got a piece framed that I have had done for a while. It is from Stoney Creek Magazine called " Love You A Latte". Good time of year to have it framed and up , no? On the actual pattern it says friends instead of family, but I thought that the friends would be more appropriate if I were giving it to a friend. So instead I stitched in family. Here it is all framed and hung.

Here's a little closer look.

Didn't really do much else this weekend other than cleaning, finishing the exchange , framing, and visiting with the company. Saturday night we did watch the first "Ghostbusters" movie. About half an hour into it I got really tired and scooted off to bed.

Well dear blogging buddies, that it for me today! Thank you all for you commenting, I really do appreciate it!

'til next time,

Happy Stitching!

Sharlotte

TGIF

Greetings all~ I am so glad that today is Friday, well , in a way. We have company coming tomorrow so that means no putting any of the flylady routine off til the weekend. So I will spend the majority of my day finishing those tasks up. At least it's company I like! So for those of you who have decided to follow along, and I remember that there were a few, do you have a control journal going yet? Just wondering. Remember those zones last all week, don't try and cram it all in to one day. The clutter doesn't happen in one day and can't be controlled in one day. My spell checker today is trying to tell me that flylady isn't a word , or at least spelled incorrectly. Better not tell HER that.

I met a new 'buddy'. She is on the Ties That Bind blog with me and a few others. Her name is Diane and she is so nice. I'm so excited about what I am stitching for her and I hope she likes it. I'll post a picture of it as soon as she lets me know that she has received it. Our partners are not a secret on this particular blog, just what we are stitching. I have been cross stitching as of late, just nothing I can show. :)

After I made my way through several redwork blocks, I thought it would have been really sute done on a tone on tone offwhite. I'm not going to switch in the middle of everything so I will leave it the way it is. Here is another block done. It is the Nasturtium. For fabric in the borders and sashing I was thinking of doing varied red and white fabrics. I am now thinking along those colors still but maybe using Aunt Grace reproduction fabrics instead of florals.

Thank you all for all of your comments yesterday. I will try better to become friends with that nasty word moderation and see how it goes. On another note...I've talked about my dad on the blog from time to time. About all the yard sale and flea market finds he brings me and more recently about him taking Daisy. Well , he had open heart surgery almost 5 years ago. They put him on coumadin to try to regulate his blood. It would either be too thick or too thin. They have a lot of luck using it on patients just not my dad. Anyway for those of you that don't know about it, coumadin has arsenic in it. His heart doctor has had my dad on this off and on all this time since surgery. He was at his primary care doctor for something esle ( dad is almost 78 and has lots of issues) and had specific complaints so the doctor did bloodwork. He found that my dad has liver damage from this medicine so he took him off of it and decided to try something else. He put him on some high power vitamins as well and now my dad will need to come in eery so often to have bloodwork done to see how his liver is doing. Well he went this week to do that and they found a tumor in his arm while tryint to draw blood. Dad's primary care doc is also a surgeon and does many in office preceedures and took the tumor out then and there and sent it off to be biopsied. We are waiting the results. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

Hope you all have a marvelous weekend.

'til next time,

Happy stitching!

Sharlotte

I'm learning about a dirty word....

Greetings dear blogging buddies~ You read the title right. I"m learning about the dirty word .... moderation. This word and I have not gotten along for some time now. We continually butt heads. Every time I turn around I'm being encouraged to make friends with this word, but I don't wanna!

For some time now my eye doctor has told me to intake caffine in moderation . Ok, I can do that one. So I have cut way but on my coffee. :(

I've been trying to drink soda in moderation, a little easier than I once thought. I've been trying to contribute to charities in moderation ,both in time and money. The time thing was getting way out of hand. Trying to stitch in moderation,( because of the eye strain, sniff, sniff.) Even my feet have been trying to get me to make friends with the word moderation so I quit wearing heels. I have to eat Twinkies is moderation, oh no, not Twinkies! I think I even have red marks still on my hands from that dirty word moderation trying to rip the Kit-Kat out of my hands! But now my husband says that I need to blog in moderation. You mean I can't blog Monday thru Friday! He just said write it then leave it for the next day. Well, checking the blog 10-20 times a day IS a bit much!

Here's the thing. When I find something new to do , I do it all the time, all the time, all the time. At that point, moderatoin has to steer clear of me or else!! I've tried to get better, really I have! I really don't WANT to befriend this word, but , alas, I know I must. Wouldn't it be nice if there were some words we could just scribble out of the dictionary altogether? I can think of lots I'd scribble out, if possible. Where's my Calgon?

Anyone else having this struggle? Ahh... I see a few hands. It's nice to know I'm not alone.I'm in good company!

'til next time,

Sharlotte

Back in it's place

Hello all!~ I hope everyone is doing well today. Can you believe that today is the 13th of January? Where has this month gone?! I want to start off this morning with a question. I have gotten responses in my inbox from when I leave comments on some other people's blogs. How is that done? I feel rude for not doing the same thing and I'd like to, just don't know how. If someone could be so kind to let me know, that would be great!

Remember a few posts back when I was balking about having to move a piece a needlework ? Well it is back in it's place. Not because I insisted either. Jack just wanted his stuff out that people had given him , just long enough to enjoy them for a bit , and then HE put them away. He says he wants to make the gargae into a "mancave" one day and he'll put those things out there then. I told him to go for it. That's one thing that I think he's struggled with ever since we've been married ( and maybe even a little before) is having to share space. This isn't a complaint. It's a totally understandable thing and I know a lot of guys go through it. I remeber when we searched for an apartment shortlly before we got married and he had all kinds of guy stuff pulled out that he was going to put up. I asked him what he was doing and he said that he wanted people to see that it was a guy's place when they came over. He had moved in two weeks before the wedding and when he said this I said that it wasn't going to be just a guy's place. I've often thought of that over the years and wondered what to do about it. I think the garage is a nice solution. Anyway... when he took down his "toys" , I seen it as an opportunity to put the needlework back. I did wait a couple of days before I did so. Here it is back in it's "home".

One sock down and three to go! No , Alex doesn't have 4 legs! LOL! But he does want two pairs of socks. Bet he'd like his quilt done too. I'll work on that tonight.

Thank you all for your comments yesterday about Daisy! She really is a sweet dog, and pretty too. I felt that lump in my throat yesterday when my dad was here to get her. I told myself that they just live 5 minutes away and I can see her anytime. I think in the longrun she'll be happier.

'til next time,

Happy stitching,

Sharlotte

Going to Grandpa's

Greetings all~ We have been thinking long and hard on what to do about our Daisy. Yes I know I was mad at her for tearing up my basket and breaking a mug... and more recently for chewing up a heat lamp we had in her doghouse. Alas , this is not the reason for a decision we recently made. She has been bullying our other dog for sometime now . My husband Jack talked to someone he works with who has worked with animals a long time and used to work for a vet. He described her actions against our other dog and she made some suggestions. They haven't worked. He talked to her again and she said that she is just one of those dogs that needs to be an only dog. With a heavy heart we have been pondering what to do, how to find a home for her, would they be good to her. you know . My dad, who, if some of you recall, lost both of his dogs last year within a week of each other, suggested that he take her. That seems to be the best solution. He has been wanting another dog and we will get to see her when we want without having to worry if she is being cared for. Our other dog Brittney will no longer be bullied and hopefully she'll be back to normal before too long. Daisy loves all of the attention and she will get plenty with my dad. He just has a way with animals. If you ever see and elderly man out in the woods with all kinds of animals just flocking to him, that's probably my dad! LOL!

We love you Daisy!!

Yesterday the snow was finally packable and we could build a snowman. Alex and I got on all of our outside gear and went to town on it. Ok... so we're not Michaelangelo! But here is our best we could pull off.

I guess it's not too bad for as quickly as it was thrown together. With my asthma I can't be out in the cold too long before I start having problems. I thought about a snowball fight and then we said 'nah'. Before we went inside, I did launch a good one at Alex when he had turned away. It was funny because he quickly spun around and started packing. I knew I was in trouble! Sure enough, he nailed me good! We had a lot of fun! We finished up by coming inside for some hot cocoa.


For those of you who like to scrapbook or make cards and use a Cricut, here's a little tip you may not know about. I seen this done on a youtube video a while back so it's not my original idea. I'm sorry but I can't direct you to the video as I do not remember the person's name that had it. Anyway... if you have a Cricut , you know that after a few afternoons of using it your mat isn't as tacky as it could or should be. It may even be close to needing to be replaced. Replacing ANYTHING for a Cricut often can get expensive. A good thing to get to make your mat tacky again and extend the life of your mat is a 2-way glue pen from Zig. They have different sizes but you want the big fat one so it doesn't take so long to do. Not just any glue pen will work , you need a 2-way because you want it to be repositionable. I got mine at Hobby Lobby for $5.99 but Michael's carries them too.

You'll need to pump it for a little bit to get the glue going. Just press it up and down on your mat until the tip is all blue. Start from one corner of the cutting area to the other and keep working until the entire mat is covered with an even coat. It will be a little blue for a bit. It will dry clear. Now you don't want to put anything on it until it is completely dry. If you don't wait until it is dry ( no loner blue for several mintues) anything you put on it will be there permanently! You really need it to dry to make it repositionable.

While you are using the pen on your mat, you'll notice a buildup happening on the tip of the pen. Remove that with a toothpick. Try not to get it on your hands, or you
ll have sticky hands. Not a good thing to have if you're going to the bank! LOL! Once the mat is covered you can take a toothpick and remove the buildup ( which is paper fibers ,lint, hair) on the mat with a toothpick . Don't forget to replace your cover on your mat when it dries. It will be pretty tacky when dry which is the whole point, but if you wait, say half an hour, you'll be safe .


Yesterday I wrote about working on a pair of socks for Alex. Here is that progress so far.



Thank you all so so much for your comments ! Yesterday Sadie asked if I made the table runner in the picture of the LHN box. Yes ,I did that one a few years ago. If I remember correctly , it was from an American Patchwork and Quilting magazine. It was titled Cross My Heart and I think the designer was Kim Diehl. At least I think that's correct. I like her patterns.

That's it for me! Hope you all stay warm and can use this time to stitch or be creative!
'til next time,
Happy Stitching,
Sharlotte

Just incase you wondered...

Greetings dear blogging buddies~ I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Mine went pretty well but we were COLD! Worked on my "what did I do today" lists and it was amazing what all I had written down that I got accomplished. I'm not feeling so depressed now that I see that I am accomplishing much more than I realized. Thanks Jennifer! I owe you one! Still haven't made that snowman yet though, the snow hasn't been packable.

I haven't had much cross stitching on the blog lately , so I thought you all might be wondering if I still stitch. Yep , sure do. I just usually switch gears in the fall and winter to quilting and knitting. I did get this little prim/country style box done over the weekend. I had the stitching done for quite some time and had just not got around to finishing it out. It is taken from Little House Needleworks Little House Neighborhood. I changed the colors just a tad. I didn't get it on the box completely straight , but I guess that just adds to the prim style charm. :) The tie around the lid has a raw edge to allow it to kind of fray over time .I thought that would make it look cute.

My mother-in-law painted a box for me a few Christmases ago . I keep a tablet of paper and a pencil inside. Makes it nice and handy for grabbing it to write down what all I've done or for whatever. The marble top coffee table itself came from my husband's grandmother when she moved in with his aunt after his grandfather passed away last January. I don't vacuum under it unless my husband is home. It's super heavy to move!


We went fabric hunting over the weekend to try to find something for that naked window that's been bugging me. I bought a few yards and brought it home and draped it across the window to get an idea of what it might look like. I still have to take it down and sew up the edges , but here's an idea of what it will look like. Better than nothing don't you think? :)

I did a little knitting on some socks for Alex. I will show the progress later. He's been begging me for some time now to knit him some and I thought now was a good time. I also worked some on his quilt. Other than shopping and housework , we didn't do much else. We did watch a few movies over the weekend. They were "Groundhog Day" , "Monty Python and the Holy Grail", and "The Fugitive". We also watched some History Channel stuff.

Flylady update~ on target and ready for Zone 3! That's it for me today. Thank you all so much for all of your wonderful comments . They make my day!
'til next time,
Happy stitching,
Sharlotte

Moose and dogwood

Greetings~ As we move in to the weekend I am pondering what I will be doing .Staying inside mostly with as cold as it is. Well, with the exception of building a snowman with my son like I promised. :) Most likely will do some more redwork, work on flylady zone for this week, do general housework, and work on Alex's quilt. Yesterday a post on another blog , Jennifer of feathersinthenest.blogspot.com to be exact, got me to thinking about what all I get done in one day. Jennifer had mentioned what all she had done in one day, and I realized that I have never wrote that down for myself. So yesterday I tried it.

This is what I did:

cleaned and dusted the living room

read for a bit

posted on blog

worked on an exchange piece while watching Dr . Quinn

assisted with Alex's schoolwork

did a load of laundry

cooked breakfast and lunch

traced another redwork pattern

stitched on that pattern

baked a batch of snickerdoodles

baked cornbread for dinner, hubby cooked the rest

worked on Alex's quilt

checked comments on blog and posted comments on a few others

worked on flylady zone for the week

fell asleep while watching Home Improvement.

It wasn't until I wrote down everything that I realized what all I was getting done. I'm sure some of your task lists would be longer and some shorter. It would be interesting to see what you all do.

Here is some more progress on Alex's "Winter at the Lodge" quilt. I don't think you can really see much of the handquilting in the picture. It was pretty bright by the window. It's been months I think since I showed any work on it.I really need to get it done soon!

Here is another redwork block done. It is the Dogwood and is block #4. I am going to be doing them in order from here on out I think. Again , for any of you interested, you can still download the 12 Days of Redwork for free by visiting http://alexandersonquilts.com/

Flylady update: still working on zone for the week. Should finish up this weekend.

Thank you all for all of your comments on the redwork blocks and the fabric bobbins. Yesterday Peg asked if I was going to be making holes in the bobbins so they could be placed on a ring. Nope, haven't gotten that brave! LOL!

Hope you all have a great weekend , and STAY WARM!!

'til next time,

Sharlotte

Redwork and bobbins

Greetings all~ I hope you all are staying warm and cozy! It is still in the low low temps here and we got more snow last night. Our furnace has been running a lot. I hate to see the heating bill when it comes!!

I have finished another 12 Days of Redwork block. This one is actually the first one in the series so I'm obviously not doing them in order. : ) It is the sweet pea. Just 9 more to go! I am seriously thinking now of adding some other redwork hearts to this as I'm not really wanting to do this as a wall hanging and the blocks are working up pretty small. I was wanting to increase the size a bit but I couldn't get the printer to do it. However size it ends up, I know it will look really cute.

I have also been working on some fabric covered bobbins. I have seen them on various sites so there really isn't one particular one that I followed. I liked making them and plan on making more. They're actually kind of fun once you get the hang of it. It's a great way to use up little fabric scraps that you aren't sure what else to do with them. I haven't made any with different fabrics on both sides but I suppose that would be cute too.

Not much going on in my creative world right now. Been trying to play catch up with a few other things. I will probably pull a few things out to work on since I won't be out and about much with this snow! Take care all and hope you all have a super day!

'til next time,

Sharlotte

Just a pictureless post!

Greetings everyone~ Here I am writing a 'naked' post! Boy I sure do miss it when there are no pictures! We're swaping out computers with our son and a lot of our programs are not on the computer right now. What's missing this morning that's usually there ? You guessed it, the program for the camera. So... I'm just updating on a couple of things.

I just about have the next redwork block done. That will only leave 9 more to go! I am considering combining those blocks with some other Alex Anderson heart blocks that are a little bigger. If I use those I figure I can use the smaller ones to border those. Not sure yet.

I am going to be adding a 'stash for sale' link soon. I am culling out my charts and I had some that I know I won't be stitching again or saving to stitch for someone else. Right now, most of the ones I have that I will be putting up for sale are Just Nan patterns. I'll have others later I'm sure.

As I was looking through my WIPs this morning , I have decided that I am going to work on some of those and get the number down a bit. I only have a couple of them that I am really interested in getting done right now, but I really should finish them all and decide what I will keep and what I will 'gift' to others. One in particular I wanted to work on from Little House Needleworks, I can't find. :( I just seen it not too long ago too! Isn't that the way it goes?

I spent the evening working on an exchange while watching Home Improvement. I miss that show! I have signed on for two exchanges this year so far and am considering a third. I'll need to see how my eyesight goes as I will probably need a break after getting the first two done.

Well that's it today! Thank you all for all of your wonderful comments. They brighten my day!

'til next time,

happy stitching,

Sharlotte

Brrr.. It's cold!!

Greetings~ I hope you all had a wonderful weekend full of great things! It is so cold here. This morning it is 6 degrees without the wind chill. It had actually dipped down to 1 degree last night. It is going to be low temps like that the rest of the week. I should pull out Alex's quilt and work on it some more!

I am hanging my head in shame this morning as I don't have any FlyLady update, other than I didn't get it completed. I have two really good excuses though. First, we got snow that we hadn't planned on and needed to get to the store and get stocked up on the things we were out of because that naughty weatherman predicted more snow through out the day. Here's hubby cleaning off the car.

We also had to go to the auto parts store to check on getting the heat fixed in the car .Not a good thing to be without right now! LOL! Then later before I got much of a chance to breathe ,my sister whisked me off for a surprise birthday party! I took a few pictures of it with my phone as since it was a surprise, I didn't have my digital camera with me. I don't know how to transfer those to the computer yet , I'll have to learn soon. We had a lot of fun . My sister had her special china all layed out and pretty candles on the table. She had her best linens on the table and everything. It was a really nice treat. My BIL took a few pictures and when I get them I'll put a couple on. It was just my two sisters that live here and my mom and I. My BIL hid out in their computer room and came out only to take pictures. She served wonderful coffee, and made my favorite cake with chocolate icing ,and served Welch's Sparkling Grape juice. She gave me a rice cooker and my other sister gave me a sweet little snowman lantern. It is so cute. I love snowmen and I like to keep them out past Christmas . Usually 'til about the time I set things out for Valetines' Day. My mother gave me cash, which I'm not quite sure how I'll spend it but I'm thinkin' stash!

Hubby gave me the Dennis The Menace dvd , which is one of my favorites that I didn't yet have.

He also took me to get some supplies to start working on the Alex Anderson's 12 Days of Redwork quilt that I wanted to start on. Here is the two blocks that I have done so far.

I like to use DMC's 498 for redwork but the store was out and I just had to get started on it. You know how that goes. So I chose a shade that was comparable and that I could live with, 304.

We did some movie watching this weekend while I worked on some stitching for exchanges. With it being so cold out, we didn't want to go anywhere other than was necessary. We watched Tim Burton's "9". I wasn't too awfully crazy about it but it was do-able. The other movies were "Steel Magnolias" , a mega favorite of mine, and "Mrs. Doubtfire". I caught a tiny bit of Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds". I meant to watch it but with the excitement of the day I forgot it was on. I watched my normal Sunday night routine of back to back episodes of Newhart on WGN and that was pretty much our weekend.

Well dear ones, try to stay warm and get lots of stitching done!

'til next time,

happy stitching,

Sharlotte

A Fish Tale

Hello everyone and Happy 2010!! Did you set off any fireworks last night? We had some left over from the 4th and thought they were only quiet ground ones that just have colors. Apparently there was one in the bunch that was a noise maker. Scared my husband as he was not expecting it. At least it didn't wake anyone up thank goodness! What a way to start the morning . I got up around 6:00 am and it was 9 degrees here! It has warmed up to 12 degrees. Believe it or not , that measly little 3 degrees has made a difference in the feel of the air.

I have been working on a needlepoint from Bucilla called 'Catch of the Day'. I actually started this about this time last year but I got busy with other projects. I picked it up again this week and put a couple or so hours worth of stitches into it and this is how it's coming along.

I've been working on it without a frame and I know it's a mistake as I can tell that I am going to have to do some serious blocking. It is my first needle point attempt and didn't see how important the frame was . I know now! Hopefully it will 'pull' straight when all of the stitches are in place. I have my doubts. May have to get it professionally framed and see if that helps.

Here's a little closer look.

Alex took a picture of his Grinch pajama bottoms he got for Christmas. I think the idea is to take a picture before you put them on son. That way you get a better shot. (you're so funny!) I think they are a hoot!

Flylady update... today is the day I need to work on the dining area of my house as the entrance is done. The dining area is actually at one end of the kitchen. I should finish that from floor to ceiling over the next couple of days. That table has a pile on it! What is it about flat surfaces collecting clutter?

Thanks for you comments . They're always welcome.

'til next time,

Sharlotte